Lama Zopa Rinpoche Print E-mail

Lama-Zopa-Rinpoche-Laughing“Happiness and suffering come from your own mind, not from outside. Your own mind is the cause of happiness; your own mind is the cause of suffering. To obtain happiness and pacify suffering, you have to work within your own mind.” –Lama Zopa

 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the current spiritual director of The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition and of Vajrapani Institute, is the reincarnation of the Sherpa Nyingma yogi Kunsang Yeshe, the Lawudo Lama.

Rinpoche was born in 1946 in Thami, not far from the Lawudo cave, in the Mount Everest region of Nepal, where his predecessor meditated for the last twenty years of his life. At the age of 3, Rinpoche was recognized as the Lawudo Lama, a great master of the complete tantric teachings of the Nyingma tradition.

Rinpoche left Thami when he was about 4 years old and was placed in a monastery that was very close to the border of Nepal and Tibet. Rinpoche stayed at this monastery for several years until he went to Tibet and took getsul ordination in 1958, and continued his studies in Domo Geshe's monastery in Phagri, Tibet.

In 1959 Rinpoche escaped from Tibet and continued his studies in Sera Jhe monastery in Buxa Duar, in the north of India. This is where the Indian Government housed the monks from Sera, Ganden and Drepung Monasteries who wanted to continue their studies, along with monks from other sects.


It was at Buxa Duar that Rinpoche became the disciple of Geshe Rabten Rinpoche and then of Lama Thubten Yeshe. Frida Bedi, a British nun, then invited him to join her school for incarnate lamas in Dalhousie where they were given the chance to learn English for 6 months. Upon completion, he returned to Buxa Duar and his studies.


Lama Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche's contact with Westerners began in 1965 in Darjeeling, when they met Princess Zina Rachevsky from Russia. She became the Lamas' first Western student. In 1969 they founded the Nepal Mahayana Gompa Center at Kopan, above Boudhnath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. At the insistence of Zina Rachevsky, the Lamas started to teach courses on Buddhism for Westerns at Kopan.

In 1971 Rinpoche took gelong ordination from His Holiness Ling Rinpoche in Bodh Gaya. By 1975, the two lamas had started twelve centers. In 1976, Lama Yeshe named the growing worldwide organization, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), devoted to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.  Read More about FPMT.

 

When Lama Yeshe passed away in 1984, Rinpoche took over as spiritual director of the FPMT, which has continued to flourish under his peerless leadership. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has numerous other projects around the world, one of the most important of which is the 500 ft Maitreya Statue being built in Bodh Gaya that will include schools, hospitals and other social projects such as leprosy clinics. (These social projects are already in existence and have been functioning for the last 15 years).  Read more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his projects at the FPMT Website.

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