Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Updated: Jan 7, 2021
Spiritual Teacher of Gelugpa School of Tibetan Buddhism
Lama Zopa is most noteworthy as the co-founder, with Lama Thubten Yeshe, of Kopan Monastery and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). In 1972 he along with Lama Yeshe founded Tushita Meditation Centre near McLeod Ganj at village Dharamkot in Himachal Pradesh. Since the 1984 death of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa has served as the FPMT's spiritual director.
His Root Guru is HH Trijang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso since he was a young boy studying in Buxa, India. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a devoted student of the 14th Dalai Lama and has outlined that offering service to the Dalai Lama as much as possible and to be able to fulfill his wishes is the highest priority for the FPMT organization.
Among many projects dear to Rinpoche’s heart are the two Maitreya Projects: to build two large statues of the future Buddha, Maitreya, in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar in India; The Sera Je Food Fund, which offered three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks studying at Sera Je Monastery in south India for twenty-six years; Animal Liberation events around the world, at which creatures, big and small, are freed from immediate harm or blessed every year.
“All the merit we receive comes from all sentient beings—every insect, every ant, mosquito, hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human being, sura being, asura being—every single sentient being. They are the most precious for you. The happiness that comes from money is nothing compared to the happiness that comes from sentient beings.”
“If you have compassion in your everyday life, you collect the most extensive merit and purify much negative karma in a very short time. Many lifetimes, many eons of negative karma get purified. That helps you realize emptiness.”
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