Wisdom #2 – 1984

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is now the sole spiritual head of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. “Even through he is young,” said Geshe Sopa, one of his teachers, during his talk at Lama Yeshe’s funeral in March, “he is one of the young lamas who is special. He is a great practitioner, he has studied seriously and practiced seriously, and can teach other people. I think everybody can see this.”

Rinpoche was born in 1946 in the village of Thami in the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal near Mount Everest. From the time he was able to crawl, he would try to climb the steep path leading to the cave of the deceased Lawudo Lama, a great Nyingma practitioner. Time and time again his family would have to retrieve him forcefully and return him reluctantly to his home.

When he was old enough to speak, Rinpoche declared that the cave was his and that he was the incarnation of the Lawudo Lama. This claim was tested and verified when he was about five years old.

First he was educated at Solu Khumbu and then at the Dung-Kar Monastery of Domo Geshe Rinpoche, north of Sikkim. In 1959, at the age of 13, he fled Tibet and came to the refugee camps of Buxa, north India where he first met Lama Yeshe.

In a talk to Western monks and nuns in Dharamsala, May 1982, Lama Zopa spoke about those days, and about his first meeting with Lama.

“Maybe I will tell you the story of how I met Lama Yeshe. It’s a very funny story. After my two alphabet teachers I was taught by the abbot who granted me getsul ordination. He passed away at the same time as the Chinese invaded Tibet. Following him I was taught by Geshe Rabten Rinpoche, whose kindness is responsible for whatever interest in meditation practice I now have.

“Whilst I was at Buxa, Geshe Rabten taught on shunyata and samatha meditation, and even though I was very small I was very interested. I tried to do samatha meditation on my bed after the mosquito net was put on it. I used to meditate on the silver cover of my Tibetan tea bowl, even though I didn’t know how. When they brought me from Tibet to India I tried to meditate one-pointedly. I fell down! I don’t know what happened; my whole body fell completely. It happened several times and eventually I gave up. Anyway, in that house there might have been a small impression from a past life. So that is how I have some interest in lam-rim, more than in meditation practice.

“Originally by the kindness of Geshe Rabten I recognized my root guru. Anyway, after this Geshe Rabten was very busy and sent me to another teacher from Kham whose name was also Yeshe. From this teacher I received the meditation and visualization on Ganden Lha Gyäma, the kindness of mother sentient beings from the part of the Prajñaparamita scriptures dealing with that subject. There was no text so my teacher Yeshe had to say it by heart. I hadn’t learned Tibetan writing in Tibet, just studied it myself so that I could read, and so I copied everything down. Then this teacher Yeshe wanted to lead a different life, so he left Buxa to wander around and stay in different places in India.

“Then Geshe Rabten had me taught by another geshe who is not here now, and later he had the idea for me to go and take teachings from a Tibetan monk, Geshe Thubten. I was happy to have teachings from the geshe, but somehow I was reluctant to go and receive teachings from Lama Yeshe.

“There was a monk in my class who most people know as Chomphel – he was Kopan’s cook for many years. Along with Lama Pasang and other Tibetan monks, he was taking teachings from Lama Yeshe. At that stage I was only receiving teachings from Geshe Rabten and then only when he wasn’t busy, as he had many disciples and had to teach many different texts to different classes.

“At that time Chomphel used to be the leader of my class and he kept pushing me to go and take teachings from Lama Yeshe. He used to go outside for a walk, for relaxation, and one day we started to walk outside the camp, but I didn’t take anything; I had no offering. When we came to the mango tree where there used to be seats, I said, ‘I want to go back,’ but he pushed, so I went a little bit further.

“I stopped again and again, saying, ‘No, I don’t want to go,’ but he kept pushing me. It was quite far to where Lama Yeshe lived on the mountain, about half an hour or an hour’s walk, depending on how fast you walked.

“Even when we reached the hut I wanted to retreat. I had brought no offerings, which was partly the reason for wanting to go back. When you first make contact with the guru it is very important to perform the offerings correctly. How many teachings you receive depends on that. So much depends on that, as you know from the stories of Milarepa. For this reason I didn’t receive many teachings at Buxa.

“Chomphel had brought a bowl with some rice and a few rupees, together with a very poor, old offering scarf. He went in first to ask if Lama Yeshe would receive me. I think Lama Yeshe asked, ‘Have you received permission from Geshe Rabten?’ And he replied, ‘Yes.’

“I had asked Geshe Rabten which teacher I should go to for teachings, but he didn’t say which one. He was a very skillful teacher, knowing exactly what was the best for the disciple. I could feel what he had in mind and he said it didn’t matter what one learned.

“On my first day I sat on the same bed at Lama Yeshe because of having the name ‘incarnate,’ something like that, and the others sat on the floor. The teaching was about cause and effect. I didn’t understand anything at all – I think because I went with a bad motivation. I thought, why couldn’t Lama Yeshe teach more slowly? Although the others could understand, I couldn’t.

“Then on the second day I could understand a little better. I think that’s because I had been guided by Lama Yeshe in many lifetimes, just as you have. So, even though I had no strong wish, there was a strong force, karma, between Lama Yeshe and myself. So you see, there was definitely contact in past lives. He hasn’t only helped and guided me in this life, but he planted seeds in my mind in many past lifetimes. I think you can see in this clearly why all the happiness of the past, present and future depends on the guru.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche remained with Lama Yeshe from that time on. A couple of years after their first meeting, the lamas met their first Western student in Darjeeling and eventually, in 1970, Rinpoche gave the first of the immensely popular annual Kopan Meditation Courses at the monastery where they finally settled, on Kopan Hill overlooking the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.

Kopan is the wellspring of the enormous Dharma activities throughout the world of both Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa. Now, it is Lama Zopa’s task to continue that work. “Lama Yeshe wanted him to be successful,” said Geshe Sopa in March, “to be beneficial continuously.”