Sunday Lojong teachings with Geshe Zopa
Geshe Tenzin Zopa is an internationally renowned touring FPMT Geshe, currently based in Australia. Geshela has kindly been providing weekly Lojong teachings since May 2020 during the years of the pandemic. Geshela’s next Lojong teaching is on Sunday 2nd October. Go to FPMT Australia’s YouTube channel for all upcoming and past Lojong teachings.
At the beginning of the teaching students may wish to recite mentally the following prayer of offering and request to teach. These are the prayers recited traditionally before a formal teaching and help to prepare the students’ mind for the teaching, as well as strengthen the connection with the teacher.
Short Mandala Offering
This ground, anointed with perfume, strewn with flowers,
Adorned with Mount Meru, the four continents, the sun,
and the moon:
I imagine this as a buddha land and offer it.
May all transmigratory beings enjoy this pure land.
Request to Turn the Wheel of Dharma
Perfect, pure, holy gurus, from the billowing clouds of
Wisdom and compassion in the sky of the dharmakaya.
Prayers for the Beginning of Teachings
Please let fall a rain of profound and extensive Dharma
Upon the receptacle of those to be subdued, exactly
as they need.
IDAṂ GURU RATNA MAṆḌALAKAṂ NIRYĀTAYĀMI
(Please see a full biography of Geshe Tenzin Zopa at the very bottom of this page.)
Geshela is using the anthology of Lojong treatises called ‘Mind Training: the Great Collection’. A copy of this anthology can be obtained through Wisdom Publications.
All teachings are offered happily and freely, however at the request of students, FPMT in Australia have made arrangements if anyone wishes to make offerings of sponsorship of Geshe Tenzin Zopa (full details below). These offerings sustain Geshela’s activities and the offerings he makes in turn to the Three Jewels, which he does on all students’ behalf, often in holy places of pilgrimage.
Lojong teachings by Geshe Zopa now online
FPMT Australia, on behalf of students everywhere, is warmly appreciative of the Sunday Lojong teachings that have been delivered by Geshe Tenzin Zopa on the FPMT Australia YouTube channel since May 2020. These teachings reach students in countries around the world are simultaneously translated into Chinese, Russian, Thai, Spanish and accessed by students everywhere.
So far, Geshela has completed the following texts in this series of commentaries:
Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland, by Lama Atisha
Root Lines of Mahayana Mind Training, by Lama Atisha
Seven Point Mind Training, by Geshe Chekawa
A commentary on the Seven Point Mind Training, by Geshe Se Chilbu
Wheel of Sharp Weapons, by Dharmarakshita
The Peacock’s Neutralising of Poison, by Dharmarakshita
Melodies of an Adamantine Song: A Chanting Meditation on Mind Training, by Maitriyogi
Stages of the Heroic Mind, by Serlingpa
Levelling Out All Conceptions, by Serlingpa
A Teaching on Taking Afflictions onto the Path‘ compiled by Shonu Gyalchok and Konchok Gyaltsen
Guru Yoga Mind Training compiled by Shonu Gyalchok and Konchok Gyaltsen
An Instruction on Purifying Negative Karma compiled by Shonu Gyalchok and Konchok Gyaltsen
Mahayana Purification of Grudges compiled by Shonu Gyalchok and Konchok Gyaltsen
Two Yoginis’Admonition to Atisha to Train His Mind compiled by Shonu Gyalchok and Konchok Gyaltsen
Kusulu’s Accumulation Mind Training compiled by Shonu Gyalchok and Konchok Gyaltsen
Mind Training Taking Joys and Pains Onto the Path compiled by Shonu Gyalchok and Konchok Gyaltsen
Making an Offering to the Teacher
These teachings are happily and freely offered. However we have had many queries regarding how to make an offering to Geshela. For those students wishing to make an offering to Geshe Tenzin Zopa please see how to below. Please add GTZ when asked for a reference by your financial institution. Your name as a sponsor will be passed on to Geshe-la.
For a direct transfer use the following bank details:
Bank: CBA
A/c Name: FPMTA
BSB: 062194
A/c No: 10490133
For PayPal use the donate button below
Find the teachings on our YouTube channel
All of Geshe Tenzin Zopa’s Lojong teachings from May 10th 2020 until the present can be accessed on the FPMT Australia YouTube channel under Favourite Playlists.
We will be posting a transcript of Geshela’s commentary on ‘The Wheel of Sharp Weapons’ by Dharmarakshita soon! All links to the Lojong teachings are posted each week on the FPMT in Australia Facebook page
Biography of Geshe Tenzin Zopa
Geshe Tenzin Zopa was born in 1972 in the Tsum Valley in
Nepal and is a Tibetan Buddhist monk of the Mahayana tradition. He is known by
the title Geshe, which is Tibetan for professor of Buddhist philosophy. He
entered Sera Jey University in 1990 to undertake extensive studies in Tibetan
Buddhist philosophy and graduated as a Geshe in 2007.
The highly esteemed late Geshe Lama Konchok, became Geshe
Zopa’s spiritual and temporal guardian when Geshe-la was three. From that time
Geshe Lama Konchok gave Geshe Zopa commentaries on various important Buddhist
sutra and tantra texts. Geshe Tenzin Zopa became Geshe Lama Konchok’s closest
disciple and was his assistant and translator until his teacher’s death in
2001. The multi award-winning documentary ‘Unmistaken Child’ covers his search
over 5 years for the recognised reincarnation of his late master.
Geshe-la entered Kopan Monastery in 1984 and was ordained
as a monk. At Kopan he studied Tibetan language, English, Nepali, art, lama
dance, ritual, puja, and Buddhist philosophy. He became close to, and received
teachings from many high lamas across many different lineages. During his adult
life Geshe Tenzin Zopa has worked for his close teacher, Kyabje Lama Zopa
Rinpoche, as an international touring Geshe with FPMT. He has taught extensively across the world in Europe, the Indian sub-continent, Asia, and Australia and was the longest serving Resident Teacher of Losang Dragpa Centre, Malaysia. In Malayasia Geshe-la further served as the Dharma advisor to Kasih Hospice Care Society and retreat centre Rinchen Jangsem Ling Dharma Society; both FPMT centres.
Projects undertaken by Geshe-la include taking responsibility for the temporal and spiritual development of Rachen Nunnery and Mu Monastery, Tsum, Nepal and supervising the completion of the 1000 Buddha Relics Memorial Stupa at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.
Geshe-la is currently based in Australia, which he uses as a base from which he tours the world teaching at the request of Buddhist centres, and following the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. During the COVID lockdown, Geshe-la has continued to teach online across the world, including weekly Lojong (Mind Training) teachings on the FPMT Australia YouTube channel every Sunday.
A prolific teacher, Geshe-la is the author of 12 books,
“Buddha Nature and Preliminary Prayers and Their Explanations”, “Karma & the
12 Links”, “Ask the Geshe – Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times”, “Mirror to Your Life”,
“Whose Truth?”, “The Yamantaka Short Sadhana Practice”, “Meditation”, “A concise commentary to the Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment”; “Lam Rim – Graduated Path to Enlightenment” and “Buddhist Tenets – A commentary on Chokyi Gyaltsen’s A Presentation of Tenets” , “The Thousand Buddha Relic Stupa”, “The Holy Child of Kopan” and 3 more are in the pipeline “37 Practices to Enlightenment”, “Commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara” and “Buddhist Tantra – The Practice of Purity”. Click here to visit Geshe Zopa’s website.
Geshe Tenzin Zopa is undertaking the important responsibility of overseeing the physical, mental and spiritual development of Tulku Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, the unmistaken reincarnation of the late great mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog.
He continues to follow the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his work for the FPMT, helping students to understand and put into practice the teachings of the Buddha internationally.
‘When I first read the Lojong (Mind Training) teachings in The Great Path of Awakening by the nineteenth-century Tibetan teacher Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, I was struck by their unusual message that we can use our difficulties and problems to awaken our hearts. Rather than seeing the unwanted aspects of life as obstacles, Jamgon Kongtrul presented them as the raw material necessary for awakening genuine uncontrived compassion.’
Venerable Pema Chodron