Practices for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Health

Venerable Roger Kunsang recently published an article on the FPMT website with suggested practices to benefit Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Here is the Hayagriva prayer and mantra:

Your pure triple faces are adorned with skull ornaments of five Buddha
families.
Six limbs are holding weapons in the mudra of accomplishing siddhis.
In the aspect of great bliss with highly raised dignified horse head,
I pay supplication to you, the holy and powerful deity.
HRI VAJRA KRODHA HAYA GRIVA HULU HULU HUM PHAT

And here is Lama Zopa’s short long life prayer:

You who uphold the Subduer’s moral way, who serve as the bountiful bearer-of-all,
Sustaining, preserving, and spreading Manjunath’s victorious doctrine;
Who masterfully accomplish magnificent prayers honoring the Three Jewels:
Savior of myself and others, your disciples, please, please live long!

We owe so much to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and will be lost without his guidance and presence. Please exert yourself in these practices so he doesn’t leave us.

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Autobiography of Geshe Lhundub Sopa Published

For all of you who are students of Geshe Sopa (founder of Deer Park Buddhist Center, Wisconsin), his new autobiography was released in November 2012 . It is available from amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Like-Waking-Dream-Autobiography-Lhundub/dp/0861713133/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357693202&sr=1-1&keywords=geshe+lhundub+sopa

Tenzin gave it to me as a Christmas gift, and I can’t wait to read it!

 

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Annual Long Life Puja for Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche

According to the FPMT website, the annual long life puja for Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche will be held at Kopan Monastery in Nepal on December 29, 2012. You are welcome to donate by December 18.

Here is the donation website.

May Rinpoche continue to guide and inspire us for many, many more years!

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Lama Chopa Offered July 28 2012

Using skillful means drawn by the strong force of compassion,
May I clear the darkness from the minds of all beings
With the points of the path as I have discerned them.
May I uphold Buddhas’ teachings for a very long time.

From the Final Lam Rim prayer

Photo of the altar offered on behalf of the Guhyasamaja Center to honor our spiritual teachers and for all sentient beings.

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Book Review: Bodhisattva Attitude by Lama Zopa

Bodhisattvas want to be used by sentient beings. That is what the bodhisattvas’ attitude is. They actually accept it. The worldly mind things that being used by others is bad, it is the worst thing, but bodhisattvas are most happy to accept this. If you want to achieve enlightenment, you have to practice bodhicitta and this is EXACTLY what the bodhisattvas’ attitude is. Their happiest practice is to be used by sentient beings. It is what they are always looking for. ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Ven Sarah Thresher has carefully designed a collection of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on bodhicitta. She is one of Rinpoche’s most devoted, and most self-sacrificing students. Her respect and love for him is evident in the effort she put into transcribing his teachings, editing and organizing them. Designed for busy practitioners, the book presents the subject as a series of meditations of varying lengths.

Part one presents selected verses from Shantideva’s Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Part two contains five of Rinpoche’s teachings titled:

1. Everything Depends on Your Attitude: an introductory talk
2. Cutting the Concept of Permanence: bodhisattva motivation for life 1
3. Give Up Stretching the Legs: bodhisattva motivation for life 2
4. Bodhisattva Attitude: how to dedicate your life to others
5. Four Wrong Concepts: a motivation for taking the eight Mahayana precepts

The teachings sparkle with Rinpoche’s humor and reflect the radiance of his wisdom. Reading them brought back memories of being with Rinpoche during the Light of the Path retreat in North Carolina.Part three contains a long version of the motivation based on the teachings. Finally in part 4, based on her many years of teaching, Ven Sarah distilled each teaching to its essence. She presents it in an easy-to-read format to gently guide the meditator’s stream of thoughts.

The appendices contain the mantras that Rinpoche suggests we offer every morning to multiply the merit of our virtuous acts. Other short teachings and advice on practicing bodhicitta are also included. In short, everything you need to support your meditation on bodhicitta is brought together in this single volume.

You may wish to progress through the sections sequentially. For example, you could read one of the teachings several times until you developed a sense of ease with it and then use the long version of the motivation. Or, you may already be so comfortable that you could just meditate on a short motivation before your daily practice.

In some ways, Bodhisattva Attitude is more accessible to a general audience than The Heart of the Path, the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s publication of Rinpoche’s guru devotion teachings. Everyone feels the benefits of cultivating a mind of loving kindness towards oneself and others to some extent. Relatively few people, however, deeply understand the role a spiritual teacher teacher plays, and even fewer have a guru. The two books complement each other for by practicing bodhicitta with a pure motivation, we create the causes and conditions that will enable us to find and serve a guru.

Bodhisattva Attitude is an expression of Ven Sarah’s guru devotion. She shares the Dharma so we may recognize that every moment of consciousness is a fleeting opportunity for serving others. We can’t attain Enlightenment without serving others, and there’s no reason to seek Enlightenment other than to help others.

Bodhisattva Attitude is one of many books available for free on the LYWA website. Donations to support LYWA’s publication efforts can be made online: http://www.lamayeshe.com, or by sending a check to:

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
PO Box 636
Lincoln, MA 01773 · USA

Please share your comments about the book.

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: On Guru Yoga

When you sustain the conviction that the guru’s mind is in the nature of the union of great bliss and emptiness, then your mind can also be experienced as the union of great bliss and emptiness. This is the ultimate guru yoga. The ultimate guru is the union of great bliss and emptiness. The conventional guru is the guru’s physical appearance. Conventional guru devotion practices include not finding faults in the guru, etc. But the ultimate guru yoga practice is experiencing the guru’s mind as the union of great bliss and emptiness.

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa
Vajrayogini teaching, February 2012

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Ven. Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup Has Passed

(source: FPMT email, September 7, 2011)

Dear Friends,

 At 11.10pm on the 7 Sep 2011 (Nepal time) Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup passed away in Kopan Monastery. At the time all the monks and Lama Zopa Rinpoche were doing Heruka Lama Chopa puja for Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup.

 Lama Zopa Rinpoche is requesting all the FPMT centers and students to please do Medicine Buddha puja (extensive, middle length or brief – whatever can be managed).

At this time Lama Lhundrup meditating peacefully in his room.

Love

roger

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Guru Devotion: Lama Tsongkhapa Day

In preparing for our Lama Tsongkhapa Day celebration tomorrow night, I started re-reading Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s amazing book “The Heart of the Path: seeing the guru as Buddha”.  In it, Lama Zopa shares many personal stories about his gurus many of which are humorous and all inspire pure devotion.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche writes, “If we don’t concentrate on guru devotion, we have missed the most important preparation for all our future lives. Our practice of guru devotion is the source of all the progress and all the problems in this life and from life to life. From our practice in this life, we receive all the benefits from life to life, up to enlightenment”.

He goes on to explain in great detail how guru devotion arises from our own minds, what’s important is how we regard our teacher. Nothing comes from the side of the teacher. If our guru is an enlightened being but we perceive faults in our guru or treat him/her as an ordinary being, we will not receive any blessings. Likewise, even if our guru is actually an ordinary being, if in our minds we think of him/her as a buddha, then we will receive blessings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche writes, “If, from our own side, we don’t look at our guru as a buddha, we won’t see him as a buddha. If we look at only the faults, we will see only faults  in our guru”. He continues, “Even if our guru is a buddha, we don’t necessarily see him as a buddha because what we see accords with our own karma. If we have a pure mind and pure karma, we see a buddha; if our mind is obscured by impure karma, we see an ordinary being”.

So when you do Lama Chopa  or other prayers tomorrow to honor Lama Tsongkhapa, take the time to generate a strong sense of guru devotion since that’s the essence of guru yoga practice — rejoicing in our connection to our spiritual friends and our extended lineage that reaches back through time to our teachers’ teachers and so forth. And whether you are practicing by yourself or with Dharma friends, cultivate the firm conviction that your guru is actually there with you — showering you with friendly encouragement and infinite blessings.

Excellent Resources:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga (Ganden Lha Gyäma)
Tsem Tulku Rinpoche Teaching on Lama Tsonghkhapa Guru Yoga, YouTube

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Kurukulla Center: Resident Teacher Geshe Tsulga’s Passing

Dear Members and Friends of Guhyasamaja Center,

A long-time teacher and friend of Guhyasamaja Center–Geshe Tsulga has been the resident teacher at FPMT’s Kurukulla Center in Boston for many years–passed away earlier this evening after a long time being ill with cancer. Geshe-la died peacefully in Boston. Some of you who’ve been coming to the center for some time may recall years ago when Geshe Tsulga used to visit the center with some regularity. Geshe-la was always very kind and patient, traveling down to teach for long weekends and kindly guiding us through various Buddhist classics.

For those of you who knew Geshe-la and for whom he was your teacher, prayers that have been advised to recite for him include the Guru Puja, the King of Prayers, and the Manjushrinamasamgiti.

More details about Geshe Tsulga’s passing can be found on the Kurukulla Center website.

Thank you,

Lorne Ladner
Center Director, Guhyasamaja Center

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Impermanence: Kyabje Lati Rinpoche’s Passing

According to the Buddhist Channel, His Eminence Kyabje Lati Rinpoche of Gaden monastery has passed away.

Many of us only know Kyabje Lati Rinpoche through his early, ground-breaking writings for Western audiences on difficult topics such as the mind and the death process, texts that remain classics even today.

Here’s a moving tribute to his teacher, Kyabje Lati Rinpoche, by Ven Tsem Tulku Rinpoche.

Here’s a link with many photos of the cremation ceremony at Gaden Shartse. It includes a poem composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Rinpoche’s swift return.  This link was provided in an FPMT email.

May all of Rinpoche’s students diligently carry out his instructions and holy wishes, may his reincarnation be quickly found.

Please share your thoughts about Kyabje Lati Rinpoche. How have his teachings changed your life?

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