Chokyi Gyaltsen Centre

Why We Need Dharma Centers! [AUDIO]

After returning to the United States from South America in early October, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Land of Medicine Buddha where he gave this dynamic, seven-minute talk on the significance of Dharma centers.

You can listen to the audio recording of this advice by clicking on the player or clicking on this link:
http://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/22/why-we-need-dharma-centers-audio/151006-011-LZR_LC-talk-part-3c_Dharma-Centres.mp3

Download audio file (151006-011-LZR_LC-talk-part-3c_Dharma-Centres.mp3)

This audio was recorded during Lama Chopa tsog at Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, US, on October 6, 2015.

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

http://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/why-we-need-dharma-centers-audio/

It Would Be Heaven [VIDEO]

“So, all the samsaric pleasures are like that,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in a new video on FPMT’s YouTube channel. “After some time you get bored! You get bored. First you like that car so much you think, ‘I wish I had that.’ Then you buy that, if you have money. Then you drive one day, two days, three days, and then you have less and less interest. Then afterwards you get bored. Then you see another car that’s even better. Then for the first car you think, ‘This is horrible’ after seeing the better car.

“It’s the same for a friend. You see someone who has a better shape, who is better shaped, from birth or from make-up shops. In the beginning you meet and you talk and think, ‘If I could be with that person, wow, what a great bliss. That would be heaven! …”

Watch “It Would Be Heaven” on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoM5P2_Irlk

You can watch more video clips of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FPMT.org: http://fpmt.org/media/streaming/videos-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

For longer videos of Rinpoche teaching, visit: http://bit.ly/rinpoche-available-now

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

http://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news/it-would-be-heaven-video-2/

The Root of Guru Devotion

“The root of guru devotion is remembering the kindness of the guru, by thinking that the guru is precious,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructed. “Then we respect the guru, who is the root of the path all the way up to enlightenment. It’s from the guru that we will achieve all the realizations, from liberation from samsaric sufferings all the way up to enlightenment. This is the reason why the understanding and practice of guru devotion is so important. We need to look at it carefully. We have to be really careful and put a lot of effort into trying to understand it. …”

Read the entire advice “Training the Mind in Guru Devotion” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at: http://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/training-mind-guru-devotion/.

For more advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the lam-rim topic Guru Devotion see Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

http://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news/the-root-of-guru-devotion/

7. In short, both directly and indirectly, I offer every happiness and benefit to all my mothers. I shall secretly take upon myself all their harmful actions and suffering.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama: We ourselves want happiness and do not want suffering and can see that all other beings feel the same. We can see, too, that other beings are overwhelmed by suffering but do not know how to get rid of it. Thus, we should generate the intention of taking on all their suffering and negative karma and pray for it to ripen upon ourselves immediately.

Likewise it is obvious that other beings are devoid of the happiness they seek and do not know how to find it. Thus, without a trace of miserliness, we should offer them all our happiness—our body, wealth and merits—and pray for it to ripen on them immediately.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the Importance of Dharma Centers

“I’m going to mention briefly how the Dharma center is so important. We can see more and more how much of an emergency it is to have such a center, because this is where we can learn the whole path to liberation, the unmistaken path to happiness, the unmistaken cause of happiness. Not only that, the unmistaken cause for the path to liberation; and not only that, the unmistaken cause for the path to great liberation, full enlightenment, how to be free from suffering; to understand the cause of suffering and how to get rid of that. This is never explained or taught in schools, colleges and universities,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote in a letter to Maitreya Instituut on the occasion of celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2008.

“These things are missing in the education facilities in the world. The most important teaching is missing, the most practical thing – the education of a good heart, compassion.

“Why is there so much killing and war even among religious people? It is because of the lack of this practice, this education. So practicing the good heart develops from this education, this practice.

“If we guard our mind then we don’t need guns. We don’t harm others and in this way we don’t receive harm back from others – shooting, atomic bombs, whatever. We don’t receive all this harm. This education is not brought up in schools and colleges, even though it is the most important thing for world peace.

“So what can bring peace and happiness to the world generally, to all different religions? It is compassion, loving kindness. This is the only answer for world peace. For young and for old, to bring peace and unity among religions, there is one thing – compassion, the good heart. …”

Read the entire letter from Rinpoche “Tenth Anniversary Message” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive: http://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/benefits-dharma-centers/.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

http://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news/lama-zopa-rinpoche-on-the-importance-of-dharma-centers/

We would be conducting weekly Dharmma classes
Date: Sunday (11th Ocotber).
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Topic: Bodhisattva’s Way of Life

The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life – Bodhicharyavatara We will continue with the study of the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicharyavatara) by Master Shantideva. The Bodhicharyavatara teaches the complete Mahayana path to enlightenment, including all necessary preliminary, main, and concluding practices. It contains all the necessary key points a practitioner needs to know. We are now in Chapter 2 and Geshe-la has completed Confession of Downfalls to the Thirty-Five Buddhas. Geshe-la will continue to present the purification of negativities in order to be successful in generating bodhichitta.

We would be conducting weekly Dharmma classes
Date:Friday (9th Ocotber).
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Topic: Form & Material Objects

Geshe Deyang will present a series of teachings that deal with external objects, subjects and different types of minds that comprehend these objects – elements of existence.

We would be holding a Guru Puja (Prayers)
Date:Wednesday (7th October).
Time: 8pm - 10pm

The practice of Guru Puja is very profound. It consists of the whole Lam Rim prayer; the prayer of the steps of the path to enlightenment. When you recite this prayer, it leaves an imprint on your mind of the entire path to enlightenment. The practice of Guru Puja has many benefits and you can collect extensive merit and receive blessings by this practice.

Opening the Door

“Cherishing others is the door opening, opening the door for all the qualities, infinite qualities. Cherishing oneself is opening the door for all the problems, obstacles, for all these qualities, obstacle for all these qualities that we are talking about, all these desirable objects, obstacles, opening the door for problems, opening the door for all the obstacles.”

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from “The Benefits of Purification Practice” on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (lamayeshe.com), Jinsiu Farlin Center, Taipei, Taiwan, 1994

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

http://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news/opening-the-door/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Blessing Sentient Beings in the Ocean

As Lama Zopa Rinpoche travels around the globe, he regularly finds time in this busy schedule to go to beaches, piers and even ferry boats to bless the ocean and all the sentient beings living in it. One time in California, Rinpoche and a large group of students were asked to leave a wharf where they were blessing the beings using a special Namgyalma mantra boards because they didn’t have the required permission. The next day, Rinpoche wrote a letter:

“Just as the fisher people get permission, we also request the state parks for this permission. Within this great democratic country, which gives so much happiness to others, please grant permission to bless the ocean and liberate all the animals and fish in the ocean, to free them from the suffering of rebirth, old age, sickness and death, and to help them achieve total liberation from suffering and attain the state of omniscient mind, the peerless happiness.”

For more see “Permission to Bless Sentient Beings in the Ocean” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and FPMT.org stories on the Namgyalma mantra and blessing animals.

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

http://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news/lama-zopa-rinpoche-on-blessing-sentient-beings-in-the-ocean/