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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Lama Zopa Rinpoche Webcast March 23 – 24

Take teachings live from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Hongkong on March 23rd and 24th!

The following live webcasts are planned:
March 23rd: Teaching on How to Face Death without Fear (3pm-7pm Hong Kong time, 2:00 am Eastern Standard Time)

March 24th: Motivation teaching before Vajrasattva initiation (starts at 3pm Hong Kong time).

Watch at http://new.livestream.com/FPMT/ChamTseLing

This will be the last live webcast for a while.  We are trying our best to bring you the best quality, but with recent live webcasts have experienced some technical difficulties which unfortunately resulted in lower quality than we would ideally like.

(source: FPMT email)

 

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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 Zopa Rinpoche September 30 Vajrasattva Motivation Broadcast

Here’s an opportunity to connect with Lama Zopa Rinpoche Sunday night.

LIVE-BROADCAST
We’re delighted to announce the Live Broadcast of Rinpoche’s teachings on Sunday, September 30th, at 7:00pm Pacific Time.  Please note the Vajrasattva Initiation is restricted to attendees only. The Motivation part of the evening is what will be broadcasted live.

Click here for livestream.

The event will begin around 7:00pm Pacific Time.  Please note that the stream time displays in Eastern Time which is three hours later than Pacific Time.

(source: fpmt Vajrapani Institute)

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Saka Dawa Golden Light Sutra Recitation, May 21 – June 4

2012 World-Wide Saka Dawa Sutra of Golden Light Recitation, May 21 – June 4

On the full moon day, June 4 for this year, of the 4^th month of the Tibetan calendar, Buddha Shakyamuni took birth, attained full and complete Enlightenment and passed into Parinirvana. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, citing the Treasure of Quotations and Logicnotes that virtuous actions done on this day are multiplied one hundred million times and recommends activities for this time such as reciting the sublime Sutra of Golden Light.

 We recite the Sutra of Golden Light to end war, oppression and suffering, to create peace and to eliminate obstacles to fulfillment of our teachers’ wishes. If you can, see yourself in a group because, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche notes, “Karma is more powerful when gathered by many …The more people there are supporting, the more powerful it becomes. When karma is more powerful the result comes more quickly, whether it is a project or realization.”

 This recitation is continuous May 21 until June 4. Please join whenever you can from anywhere. You need no special permissions. Simply put the Golden Light on your voice and in your heart.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche tells us, “The holy Golden Light Sutra is …  extremely powerful and fulfills all one’s wishes, as well as bringing peace and happiness for all sentient beings up to enlightenment. It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection, and for the protection of the country and the world. Also, it has great healing power for people in the country … Anyone can read this text, Buddhists and non-Buddhists who desire world peace.”

 Before you begin, bathe your hands, face and feet. Take refuge and generate a good motivation. To multiply merits, say this mantra seven times: Om Dhare Dhare Bendhare Svaha.

 Make heartfelt, extensive dedications for the long stable lives of the precious teachers, for fulfillment of their holy wishes, and for the end of violence, disaster and disease for all. For more www.fpmt.org/golden_light_sutra/dedication.asp

Report your recitation, and include any experiences, dedications and questions. Please say where you are in the world:www.fpmt.org/golden_light_sutra/contact.asp?Contact=Reporting

The Sutra “frees every being from countless oceans of suffering… Removes the fear of the terrified and poor, and causes supreme virtue.” The Sutra of Golden Light is available in a variety of languages here http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/goldenlight.asp

(source: email from Lobsang Tendon / Beth Simon to fpmt)

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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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FPMT: Advice for Rinpoche’s Quick Recovery

Just in case you missed this in the March 2012 FPMT eNewsletter:

“Ven. Roger recently checked with Denma Locho Rinpoche whether there was anything FPMT centers, projects, services and students can do to help with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s quick recovery. Denma Locho Rinpoche kindly advised a few pujas, which we are arranging now, and then gave the following advice:
“The students and centers really need to work according to Rinpoche’s wishes. Whatever Rinpoche has advised for them to do, it’s important to follow Rinpoche’s advice. 

The main thing is that everyone in the organization should really strive to fulfill Rinpoche’s advice.

In order to be harmonious, generally, you should not look for any faults in others, but look for the positive, the inner qualities. Thinking negatively like, ‘He is bad, she is bad,’ will not lead to harmony. Try to see the qualities in others and try to work harmoniously.

Recite the prayer The Prayer for the Flourishing of Je Tsongkhapa’s Teachings (Losang Gyaltänma) well. Please recite it well. If students can do that, that’s really great.

But the most important thing is not looking at each others’ faults, but looking at the qualities of others.

Then, whatever responsibility you have in the center [project or service], do the work from your heart, put all your energy into that, take the difficulties/hardships upon yourself and do the work wholeheartedly. If the work is done well, this will benefit the teachings of the Buddha, and also it will bring about happiness and joy to all sentient beings.”

source: FPMT International Office eNewsletter, March 2012

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Mantra for purifying offerings for reuse

Spotted on the fridge door at Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s home in Aptos, CA — a mantra for purifying residual offerings from pujas so they can be offered again (for example, candles or incense).

TADYATHA IDAM PENI RATNA PEMANI PARATNA NI SVAHA   X7

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Lama Zopa Rinpoche Encourages Sur Practice

A recent FPMT newsletter contains advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in which he encourages his students and FPMT Centers to do the sur offering practice regularly.

On a personal note, you might have noticed based on this blog, that I’m deeply disturbed by the self-immolations in Tibet. For me, doing the sur practice has helped me reach out to those who have so bravely sacrificed themselves for religious freedom. The bardo beings are everywhere and can read our thoughts. Standing out in the cold, dark night on the edge of the solemn woods, drenched in the smoke and aroma of the charcoal and roasting offering substances, I find a way of connecting with their vulnerability. Above all, it’s my small way of repaying these martyrs’ incredible kindness.

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Light of the Path 2012: update

“We have received the news that the Light of the Path Retreat Year 3 will not happen this year. Venerable Roger has tentatively scheduled it for September 2013.”

(source: email from Kadampa Center, Jan 23, 2012)

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