Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and meditator who for 30 years has overseen the spiritual activities of the worldwide network of 160-plus centers, projects and social services that form the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) which he founded with Lama Thubten Yeshe.
Born in the Mount Everest region of Thami in 1946, Rinpoche was recognized soon afterwards by His Holiness Tulshig Rinpoche and five other lamas as the reincarnation of the great yogi Kunsang Yeshe. Rinpoche was taken under the care of FPMT’s founder Lama Thubten Yeshe, soon after leaving Tibet, in Buxa Duar, India, in the early 1960′s. Rinpoche was with Lama Yeshe until 1984 when Lama Yeshe passed away and Lama Zopa Rinpoche took over as spiritual guide of FPMT.
This series presents previously unpublished teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings given during the 24th Kopan lam-rim course in 1991. These are lightly edited teachings that we hope will convey the feeling of receiving the teachings while attending Kopan's one-month course in Nepal.
This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings available in so many ways, including in our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books.
FPMT Lineage is a series of books of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on the graduated path to enlightenment (lam-rim) drawn from his four decades of discourses on the topic based on his own textbook, The Wish-fulfilling Golden Sun, and several traditional lam-rim texts and in general arranged according to the outline of Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. This series will be the most extensive contemporary lam-rim commentary available and comprises the essence of the FPMT’s education program.
The FPMT Lineage Series is dedicated to the long life and perfect health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, to his continuous teaching activity and to the fulfilment of all his holy wishes.
Heart Advice is a series of core teachings—the “heart advice”— taken from the experiential instructions of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The main resource is Rinpoche’s major retreats, commentaries and transmissions since 2008, although other Archive materials supplement these. The goal is to preserve and make available Rinpoche’s unique style and lineage of teachings and practices.
The Heart Advice Series is dedicated to the long life and perfect health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, to his continuous teaching activity and to the fulfillment of all his holy wishes.
This book presents Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings on bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment, based on verses from two inspiring bodhicitta texts, The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta, by Khunu Lama Rinpoche, and A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, by Shantideva. It has been compiled and edited by Gordon McDougall.
Lamrim Year is an essential guide for meditators who want to develop their mind in the graduated path to enlightenment (lamrim). This unique study program provides a 365-day outline of the graduated path in a clear, practical format that is suitable for both individual and group practice. The daily quotes and text have been drawn from four decades of teachings by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
This book is a compilation of advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in response to letters from more than one hundred prisoners. Rinpoche’s advice is that their outer prison is nothing in comparison with their inner prison and empowers them to never give up on the development of their potential and their ability to help others.
This book is not just for prisoners. It is for all of us.
The Path to Ultimate Happiness presents teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course in 2009. In these teachings Rinpoche discusses our potential to bring benefit and happiness, including full enlightenment, to all sentient beings.
In this book, editor Ven. Ailsa Cameron has skillfully combined teachings on nyung nä practice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from 1984 through to 2009. The book contains the benefits of nyung nä retreat and of various practices within the retreat, stories of Chenrezig, Bhikshuni Lakshmi and the lineage lamas, and actual instructions on how to do a nyung nä.
Sun of Devotion, Stream of Blessings is the record of a remarkable series of powerful and clear Dharma teachings given by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 2014 to students at Leeds and London in the United Kingdom. Rinpoche explains how to take care of our minds so that our happiness is in our own hands, gives profound teachings on the Buddhist philosophy of emptiness and other powerful teachings.
This book contains advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, not only providing the Dharma context for how our children should be brought up but also containing many helpful suggestions of how we can introduce simple Dharma practices for our children.
In this last volume of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings given during the 24th Kopan lam-rim course in 1991, Rinpoche emphasizes renouncing the self-cherishing mind and the benefits of cherishing other sentient beings, teaches on the benefits of taking vows and concludes the Kopan course with advice on how we can practice Dharma in the west.
The third volume of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings given during the 24th Kopan lam-rim course in 1991 includes a clear discussion on sexual misconduct, an explanation of how karmic appearance and emptiness are intertwined and a multifaceted commentary on the eight Mahayana precepts motivation.
The second volume of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings given during the 24th Kopan lam-rim course in 1991 explores topics such as the nature of the mind, karma, death, reincarnation and emptiness.
In this first volume of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teachings given during the 24th Kopan lam-rim course in 1991, Rinpoche covers topics such as compassion and universal responsibility, the benefits of developing bodhicitta, the disadvantages of self-cherishing, and emptiness.
This FPMT Lineage Series book is drawn from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s graduated path to enlightenment teachings given over a four decade period, starting from the early 1970s, and deals with how rare and precious it is to receive not just a human rebirth but a perfect human rebirth, with eight freedoms and ten richnesses, the best possible conditions for practicing Dharma.
This book is drawn from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s graduated path to enlightenment teachings given over a four-decade period, starting from the early 1970s, and deals with the eight worldly dharmas, essentially how craving desire and attachment cause us to create problems and suffering and how to abandon these negative minds in order to find perfect peace and happiness.
In these talks, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche explain the great benefits of practicing Dharma as an ordained person, how to keep the ordination pure, the purpose of the monastic community, how to live together as monks and nuns, and much more.
The Bodhisattva Attitude is taken from the sutra teachings of the Buddha and is based on verses by the great bodhisattva Shantideva in his Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. The verses are meant to be recited each morning. This book is drawn from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s essential teachings given from 2008 onward. It is the first volume in LYWA’s Heart Advice Series.
This book is an edited transcript of teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from December 22 to 26, 2000, as part of the inaugural Mani Retreat at Chenrezig Institute in Queensland, Australia.
This title was published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, a non-profit organization established to make the Buddhist teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche freely accessible in many ways.
This book is an edited transcript of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at a three-month Vajrasattva retreat held at Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, from February 1 to April 30, 1999.
All the things we do -- eating, walking, washing, working, talking -- everything can become very powerful methods for quickly achieving enlightenment. Through the Mahayana practice of offering the food we eat which is based on the Hinayana and adorned with the Vajrayana our lives become most beneficial, not only for ourselves but for all sentient beings.
This book contains nearly complete record of the teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a Medicine Buddha retreat in the fall of 2001. The sections are short, on topics such as making offerings to the buddhas and the nature of mind. The retreat was held less than two months after the 9/11 attacks, and Lama Zopa's teachings are full of references to terrorism, war, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
This book is an extensive teaching on guru yoga by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a contemporary exemplar of the practice. Rinpoche explains the importance of guru devotion, the proper way to develop a student-teacher bond and offers commentary on each traditional guru devotion sub-topic found in Tsongkhapa’s lam-rim. The text also provides a textual outline to help guide your reading through the topics.
This book begins with a general talk by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on universal responsibility and compassion that is followed by four chapters detailing the Prasangika Madhyamaka view of emptiness, or ultimate reality, as taught in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and how to meditate on it, according to the author’s personal experience.
In this book, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives us the answer to the perennial question of how to integrate Dharma with our daily lives. It contains a public talk explaining the purpose of life in general and the practice of guru devotion, a wide array of techniques for transforming ordinary actions into causes for enlightenment and advice on establishing a daily practice.
In this book, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches on one of his favorite topics — compassion. He tells us that compassion for others is the best way to overcome any obstacles we encounter, in our Dharma practice, or occupation and life itself, and the best medicine for treating any illness we experience. Rinpoche also explains emptiness, karma and many other essential Buddhist subjects.
In 1975 during their first trip to Europe, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a weekend seminar in England, once again demonstrating the profound effect of Buddha’s wisdom on Western people. Freedom Through Understanding covers the purpose of meditation, bodhicitta, the importance of motivation, tong-len and the shortcomings of attachment, among other topics.
This book contains methods for transforming everyday actions into the cause of enlightenment, anger into patience, and the ordinary view of phenomena as inherently existent into the wisdom realizing emptiness.
It also includes several meditations led by Rinpoche, although everything in the book is a topic for meditation.
Commentary on the teachings of Atisha and the Kadampa Geshes. In this book Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to practice Dharma the way the famous Kadampa geshes did. These lamas were exemplary practitioners of Buddhism in Tibet, renowned for their extreme asceticism and uncompromising practice of thought transformation in order to develop bodhicitta.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has composed this short Vajrasattva practice and requested that it be published in a pocket-sized format that is easy for us to carry round and have available at all times. Thus, whenever we notice we have broken a vow or created any other kind of negative karma, we can whip out our little Vajrasattva book and purify that negativity with the four opponent powers without delay.