|
Lama
Zopa Rinpoche, the
Spiritual Director of the FPMT
|
Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche was
born in 1945 in the village of Thami in the Solu Khumbu region
of Nepal near Mount Everest. From the house where he was born he
could look up the mountainside and see Lawudo, where the cave of
the late Lawudo Lama was situated. While his predecessor had
belonged to the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the Lawudo
Lama himself had been a great master of the complete tantric
teachings of the Nyingma tradition. |
For the last twenty years of
his life he had lived in his cave, attended by his wife and two
children, and had spent all his time either meditating or giving
teachings and spiritual advice to the people of the Solu Khumbu
and neighboring regions. His energy on behalf of all beings was
inexhaustible and it is said that in his later years he passed
completely beyond the need for sleep.
From the time he was able to
crawl, Zopa Rinpoche would spend most of his time trying to
climb the steep path leading to the cave of this deceased Lama.
Finally, when he was old enough to speak, he declared that the
cave was his and that he was the incarnation of the Lawudo Lama.
He further insisted that his only desire was to lead a life of
meditation. When he was four or five years old, his claim to be
an incarnate lama was subjected to public examination by Ngawang
Samden, a Nyingma master meditator who lived nearby. When the
young boy was repeatedly able to identify possessions belonging
to the Lawudo Lama he was formally declared to be the rightful
incarnation and received the full investiture of the Nyingma
tradition. Later he was to receive the tantric initiations of
this tradition from the head lama of the Thami Gompa, known
affectionately as Gaga (or “grandfather”) Lama. Young Zopa
Rinpoche began his education at Solu Khumbu in the traditional
Tibetan manner, with the alphabet. One of the first books he
read was the biography of Milarepa, the famous eleventh century
poet and meditator.
While still a young boy, Zopa
Rinpoche was taken on his uncle’s back for a pilgrimage to
Tibet. When he arrived north of Sikkim at the Dung-kar Monastery
of Domo Geshe Rinpoche, he startled his uncle by declaring that
he had no intention of returning home with him. Rather, he
wanted to stay at this monastery and devote his life to studying
and practicing the Dharma. And so he did.
His education would have
continued at Sera Je monastery in Lhasa where he would no doubt
have met Lama Yeshe, but his plans were also interrupted in 1959
with the Chinese invasion. Eventually he found his way to
Buxaduar where he first became the disciple of Geshe Rabten
Rinpoche and then of Lama Yeshe. In 1969 the Lamas began
teaching Buddhism to Westeners at their Kopan Monastery, Nepal,
and in 1974 began travelling the world to spread the Dharma.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is now the Spiritual Director of the
Foundation and oversees all of its activities.
|