Lama Chopa and Tsog Offering eBook

By FPMT

Lama Chopa is a practice of guru devotion special to the Gelugpa tradition. During this practice, the lamas of the graduated path lineage beginning with Shakyamuni Buddha himself, are invoked, extending to present direct teachers who have shown the path. Practitioners pay homage, make offerings, and request each of them to please bless their minds with the same realizations that they themselves have generated. By offering sincere, heartfelt requests, students make their minds ripe to receive the full blessings of this precious lineage and quickly actualize the realizations they need to attain enlightenment. If you wish to experience realizations quickly, the practice of Lama Chopa is indispensable.
"Practicing this Guru Puja, which is an integration of the three deities, makes it much easier to achieve enlightenment in a brief life of this degenerated time. Doing this practice every day, with purification and many infinite skies of merit, brings the mind closer to the path to enlightenment and closer to enlightenment itself, and so much closer to freeing all sentient beings from obscurations and suffering and leading them to enlightenment. Putting the meaning of this into practice in ones life makes each day extremely rich and worthwhile". - Lama Zopa Rinpoche

This PDF edition of the Lama Chopa without the Jorcho practices contains the essential additional prayers recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

2020 edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: FPMT
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005327392

FPMT

The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe and our spiritual director, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

Book preview

Technical Note

Comments by the compiler or editor are contained in instruction boxes. For example:

Recite these two verses three times.

Instructions or advice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are marked by the symbol ❖. For example:

❖ Then recite the following verses and meditate on the guru entering your heart.

Italics and a small font size indicate instructions and comments found in the Tibetan text that are not meant to be recited. Words in square brackets have been added by the translator for clarification. For example:

This is how to correctly follow the virtuous friend, [the root of the path to full enlightenment].

A Guide to Pronouncing Sanskrit

The following points will enable you to easily learn the pronunciation of most transliterated Sanskrit terms and mantras:

Ś and Ṣ sounds similar to the English sh in shoe. The difference between the two is where the tongue is positioned in the mouth.

C is pronounced similar to the ch in chap. CH is similar but is more heavily aspirated.

Ṭ, ṬH, Ḍ, ḌH, Ṇ are retroflex letters and have no exact equivalent in English. These sounds are made by curling the tongue towards the front section of the palate. They correspond roughly to the sounds tra (Ṭ), aspirated tra (ṬH), dra (Ḍ), aspirated dra (ḌH), and nra (Ṇ).

All consonants followed by an H are aspirated: KH, GH, CH, JH, TH, DH, PH, BH. Note that TH and ṬH are pronounced like the t in target and tr in trap respectively, not like the th in the. The PH is pronounced like the p in partial, not like the ph in pharaoh.

Long vowels with a dash above them (Ā, Ī, Ū, Ṝ, and Ḹ) take approximately double the amount of time to pronounce versus their short counterparts (A, I, U, Ṛ, and Ḷ).

Ṃ indicates a nasal sound. At the end of a word it is generally pronounced as an m. Ḥ indicates an h-sounding aspiration. Ṛ is pronounced similar to the ri in cringe. Ṅ is pronounced similar to the ng in king.

For more information, please consult the FPMT Translation Services' A Guide to Sanskrit Transliteration and Pronunciation, available online: https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/education/translation/guide_to_sanskrit_transliteration_and_pronunciation.pdf.

Lama Chopa

The Preliminary Practice

❖ When there is time, begin with Calling the Guru from Afar found in Appendix 1. For the Extensive Version , go here . For the Brief Version , go here .

Taking Refuge

❖ As you recite the lines of taking refuge below, during the first half of your recitation think that you are purifying mistakes, and during the second think that you are receiving blessings.

Generating Bodhichitta

Meditate here on generating special bodhichitta in order to enter into the practice of tantra and then recite the following verses.

Generating Special Bodhichitta

If you have received a highest yoga tantra initiation, dissolve and absorb the objects of refuge and meditate on the three kayas. Then arise in the form of Yamantaka or another highest yoga tantra deity.

[Optional Abbreviated Self-Generation

¹

RANG DANG KYAB YÜL GYI LHA DANG DE DAG LÄ ZHÄN PÄI CHHÖ THAM CHÄ TEN NÄ TAG PA YIN PÄI CHHIR / TAG CHÄ LA SOG PÄI THA ZHI DANG DRÄL WA / DAG ME PÄI RANG ZHIN TONG PA NYI DU GYUR

Because I myself, the deities who are the objects of refuge, and all other phenomena are dependently labeled, we are free from the four extremes of eternalism, nihilism, and so forth, in the nature of lacking a self and empty.

OṂ SVABHĀVA ŚHUDDHAḤ SARVA DHARMĀḤ SVABHĀVA ŚHUDDHO 'HAṂ

OṂ ŚHŪNYATĀ JÑĀNA VAJRA SVABHĀVA ĀTMAKO' HAṂ²

TEN DANG TEN PÄI KYIL KHOR YONG SU DZOG PAR GYUR

The supported and supporting mandalas are fully completed.

Generating Yourself as the Deity

Blessing the Offerings

Bless the offerings with LC 7–8. Alternatively, to bless the offerings according to Vajrabhairava, go to Appendix 2 here. Then continue with LC 7 below.

The Actual Practice

Generating the Merit Field

Visualization