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23.01.2022 Getting ready for the Shamatha Retreat at Easter with Venerable Tsapel and hoping that everyone that wants to calm their mind can attend and that we have no further Covid Restrictions.

16.01.2022 The ‘Real I’ That Gets Angry Does Not Exist In the following half-hour Essential Extract video, from a teaching Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave in December 2019 at Kopa...n Monastery, Rinpoche explains the difference between the appearance of our body as a base to be labeled "I," the label itself, and the mistaken view that this I exists from its own side and that we are the aggregates. He compares this with mistaking a rope at dusk for a snake. Rinpoche emphasizes that everything is empty, but that this does not mean nothing exists. We have to bring the two truths together. For example, when we get angry, we can apply this meditation to realize that the "real I" that gets angry does not truly exist. Then the anger is gone immediately. The same goes for attachment and all delusions. And even birth and death do not exist from their own side. We think we have a "real" son or "real" daughter or "real" wealth. That is impossible, Rinpoche teaches, as there is not even a "real I." Watch the video "The 'Real I' That Gets Angry Does Not Exist": https://youtu.be/Bn7eHOeVU_s Transcript: Then using the example, the body and mind in your view, the way you think, the way you believe your body and mind is like a piece of rope on the road curled like a snake, different colors and curled. Nang sel ... means the way it appears to you, the body and mind are like a piece of rope, a piece of different colored rope curled. That is the appearance, then believing, then you label, because of the way it is curled and the different colors, you see, somebody who doesn’t have clear eyes, shimmering, evening time after sunset, thinks, Oh, there is a snake. By labeling snake and believing your label, snake, you get frightened. But there is no snake from the tip of the hairs, down to The piece of the rope, every hair you look at, there is no snake there, but you label [snake] because in the evening time, at dusk time, the different colors and the way it is curled, it appears as a snake and then you get fear, terror. So like that this body and mind are not I. They are not I at all. I told you yesterday or the day before yesterday. You remember I told you? But you label I on that and believe that is I, like you label snake and the fear comes, like that. It is not I, it is the base to be labeled but not the I. You remember I mentioned M? There is the base to be labeled "M" and "M" is what is to be labeled. Tag zhi is the base to labeled, and "M" is what is labeled. They are not separate but [they are] two different things. Remember I told you the I and aggregates are two different things but not separate? You must know that, otherwise, you get caught in a hallucination, a wrong concept. You believe the body and mind are I, then all the worry-fear, everything. From that hallucination, wrong concept, hallucination, the ignorance, then all the fear, all the wrong, means all the fear comes. Then, (Tibetan) then, you call, you believe that is I, then suffering of pain, suffering of change, pervasive compounding suffering of samsara, all the sufferings of samsara come in these three, you experience all that suffering. From beginningless rebirths up to now we have been suffering. [That] who made you suffer is the wrong concept, ignorance, believing your body and mind are I. You understand? You should know that. Due to that wrong concept you have suffered from beginningless rebirths. Then again if you don’t realize emptiness in this life, you will suffer again without end. Your wrong concept, ignorance, makes you suffer like by labeling snake on a piece of curled rope, then you get all the fear. But the snake you can’t find, it is not there. Like that, the hallucination. That is a very good meditation. So the different examples how to meditate, there are many. There are many but some I don’t know. I received so many teachings, but due to laziness I didn’t study. I just give you some to meditate on. You understand? The easy ones. Then, that is your wrong concept, ignorance, that makes the suffering of three typessuffering of pain, suffering of change, pervasive compounding sufferingfrom beginningless rebirth, then again if you don’t realize emptiness, study emptiness, realize emptiness, two truths, [there is that] danger. Therefore, you need to study. You need to meditate. ... ----- Watch more videos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche's teaching from the 2019 Kopan Course, the annual month-long lamrim course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal: https://fpmt.org//teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpo/kopan-2019/ Find more Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts videos: https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/essential-extracts/ During February 2021, Rinpoche is taking a break from offering his video series Teachings on Thought Transformation during the Time of COVID-19. You find links to the ninety published videos in this series as well as transcripts, MP3s, additional practice advice, and more: https://fpmt.org//advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coro/ 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. https://fpmt.org//the-real-i-that-gets-angry-does-not-exi/ Photo: Khadro-la and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi offering a dharmachakra to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, during a long life puja for Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

16.01.2022 Prison Is Not the Real Prison Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison is a new book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who serves as the spiritual ...director of the Liberation Prison Project, asked Ven. Robina Courtin, who ran the project until 2009, to compile the more than one hundered letters he had written over the years in response to people in prison who’d contacted him. She edited Rinpoche's spiritual advice into a narrative that covers all points of the path to enlightenment. About the book: "Direct and uncompromising, Rinpoche makes it crystal clear that being in prison is a perfect opportunity for developing the radical approach, perfected by all great Tibetan practitioners, of transforming despair and hopelessness into happiness and liberation. "The extent of the heartfelt compassion and love that Rinpoche offers the people who write to him is incredible. He empowers them to never give up on the development of their potential and their ability to help others. "This advice is not just for prisoners. It is for all of us." Here's a short excerpt from Chapter 1: Prison Is Not the Real Prison Living one’s life under the control of ignorance is actually the heaviest prisonand everyone is living in it. The inner prison People who are not in prison think that only people like you are in prison, but they have no idea about all the prisons they themselves are in. Ordinary people, those who are not practicing Dharmaincluding people from the courts, the police, kings, and presidentsare actually living in prison. People who are free to travel around, going wherever they want, doing whatever they like, or billionaires who think they have everything, all the desire objects, are all living in prison. Your external prison, the building you live in, is nothing in comparison with their inner prisons! It is very important to look at other sentient beings in this world and see how much they are suffering. They are the real prisoners. There are so many examples of this, people who are suffering so much, their inner life is so miserable, they are crying and unhappy. Wealthy people, for example, having so many things but still not having found satisfaction, can be more unhappy than people who have very little. Even if they’re billionaires, trillionaires, zillionaires, living in a house made of diamonds, with billons of cars, swimming pools, millions of servantsthey are not happy. Some years ago, the most successful person of the year was on the cover of Time magazinesuccessful in making money, that is. After he became rich he couldn’t even go outside, because he was so scared that people would kidnap him. So he stayed inside his whole life, which means it was exactly like living in prison, mentally living in prison, and mentally suffering even more than a person in prison. So much suffering! The prison of wrong concepts In fact, we are all in these inner prisons. We are trapped in the prison of wrong concepts: believing that impermanent phenomena are permanent; believing that samsaric temporal pleasure is happiness; believing that the body, which is only a container of dirty things, is clean. There are so many wrong concepts and views, and these prisons are from time without beginning. The prison of attachment We are living in the most harmful prison, the prison of attachment, of desire. Normally we live just for this life’s happiness. We look at samsara as if it’s a beautiful park, but in reality it is suffering. When we live with attachmentdoing the things that attachment wants twenty-four hours a day, always working for attachment, always clinging to this lifeall our actions become negative karma, the cause of samsara. Attachment traps us like a fly trapped in the hot wax of a burning candle. It overtakes us like a giant tidal wave. The result is so many problems, one after the other. Our heart is filled with misery. There is no peace. There is only confusion and dissatisfaction. The prison of anger And when we don’t succeed in getting what our attachment wants, anger arises and we harm other sentient beings, thus destroying the causes of our happiness, our merit and good karma. Our mind is wild, not only now but since beginningless rebirths. We are wild, out of control, like a mad elephant. The prison of self-cherishing We live in the prison of self-cherishing, living our life with self-cherishing thought. We feel this self is the most important one, more precious than others, the most precious one among all sentient beings. Perhaps we think that we are the most important one even among all the holy beings, the buddhas and bodhisattvas! When we follow the self- cherishing thought, whatever we do, all the actions of our body, speech, and mind, become an obstacle to achieving happiness and, eventually, enlightenment, and an obstacle to liberating numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and leading them to enlightenment. ... ________________________________________ For more on Lama Zopa Rinpoche's new book Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison and to read the complete first chapter: https://enjoylifeliberatedfromtheinnerprison.com/ Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison has been published as a fundraiser for Liberation Prison Project by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and sponsored by The Bodhichitta Trust. For the past twenty-five years the Liberation Prison Project has been a lifeline for people in prison worldwide, who turned to it for Buddhist books and spiritual advice in an effort to find meaning in life when everything else was lost. 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. https://fpmt.org//lama-zopa/prison-is-not-the-real-prison/ The cover photo for Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison by Lama Zopa Rinpoche; Rinpoche is enjoying the flower offerings at the Jewel, Singapore, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

15.01.2022 The joyous effort is obvious and contagious. We finally finished the rooms of the new accommodation block in time for the upcoming shamatha retreat with Venerable Tsapel. We look forward to welcoming everyone at Easter!

10.01.2022 Prayers happening right now from Kopan Monastery for all beings. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Kopan monks and nun offering Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong.... may all the prayers be actualized.

09.01.2022 I think all the time that I'm not a dakini. I don't know who I am. Some lamas say that I am Khadro Yeshe Tsogyal, or that I am Vajrayogini, others say that I am... Tara. Perhaps this is the effect of their own pure appearances. On my side, I think I am nothing special. When I was young people said I was crazy. Others said I was a dakini. I do not know. I am sure that I have very strong karmic imprints from the past, because I have been very dear to His Holiness and many other Grand Llamas in and outside Tibet. Some Tibetan lamas, whom I have never met, sent me their love, respect, good wishes and often offerings and praise. Another reason is that sometimes the words to express the sight of emptiness come out of my mouth automatically, things that I have never heard or studied before, but later I cannot remember what I said. Khandro-La

08.01.2022 A few photos of the accommodation and ablution blocks at De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre that an awesome bunch of dedicated people have been working on throughout (nearly) the whole year. It has a been hard hard continuous effort. Looking forward to holding the first meditation retreat in the new facility at Easter with Venerable Tsapel.

06.01.2022 ADVICE FROM GESHE ZOPA ON WHITE TARA PRACTICES FOR HOLIDAYS At Geshe Zopa 's last Lojong teaching for the year he advised on White Tara practices to undertake ...for the long life of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche and our teachers and loved ones. Visit www.fpmta.org.au/geshe-zopa-lojong-2020/ for the practice text and full advice. See more

04.01.2022 Has your mind changed ~ Lama Yeshe https://justdharma.com/s/lasze Buddhism places prime importance on personal experimentation, putting Dharma methods into acti...on and assessing the effect they have on our minds: Do these methods help? Has your mind changed or is it just as uncontrolled as it ever was? Buddhism works by giving you ideas that you can check out in your own experience to see if they’re true. And this method of checking the mind is called meditation. The Buddha himself said, Belief is not important. Don’t believe what I say just because I said it. These were basically his dying words. I have taught many different methods because there are many different individuals. Before you embrace them, use your wisdom to check that they fit your psychological make-up, your own mind. If my methods seem to make sense and work for you, by all means adopt them. But if you don’t relate to them, even though they might sound wonderful, leave them be. They were taught for somebody else. Lama Yeshe from the book "When the Chocolate Runs Out" ISBN: 978-0861712694 - https://amzn.to/1vpCiJC Lama Yeshe on the web: http://www.lamayeshe.com/ Lama Yeshe biography: http://fpmt.org/teachers/yeshe/jointbio/

04.01.2022 May all quarters of the world be delightful with gardens of wishful filling trees, Filled with the buddhas and the children of the buddhas, And be enchanted with the sounds of dharma. (Shantideva) A Happy Merry Christmas to all our friends and supporters. May we all have a fabulous joyful and prosperous 2021.

04.01.2022 Geshe Zopa’s last teaching for 2020!

03.01.2022 This Sunday.... Don’t forget. https://youtu.be/kb-3_xJzOoM