Lama Zopa Rinpoche

When I was in Tibet I visited Tsurphu, the Karmapa’s monastery. I had not planned to go
there because the Karmapa had fled to India some months earlier, but our Sherpa travel
guide included it in the itinerary because he usually took tourists there. Since I’m a Sherpa
the guides made Sherpa food for us, millet tsampa mixed with water.
We were actually on our way to Reting, Dromtönpa’s monastery where many of the
Kadampa geshes had their hermitages, and the road passed through Tölung Dechen, the
place west of Lhasa where Lama Yeshe was born and where his family still lives. The
Karmapa’s monastery was not far from there, so they arranged for us to go for a day to visit.
The monastery is situated in a narrow valley, with a hermitage on the hill. We camped where
there was running water.
We went into the monastery and made money offerings. I tried to offer the money to each
monk myself and I was wondering what to think when suddenly I decided to think of each
one as my guru. They were not my guru but I thought of each one as Kyabje Trijang
Rinpoche, my root guru, and then made the money offering to them as my guru. They were
not my guru’s pores, but by thinking like this, thinking of offering to the guru, can you
imagine the merit? As I mentioned, the guru is the most powerful object, the most holy
object, so offering in this way becomes the most powerful purification and the best way to
collect the most extensive merit, much more than by making offerings to the numberless
Buddhas, Dharma and Sangha. Offering to the guru creates unbelievably more merit than
that. I’m just telling you this so you know how to think to collect the most merit. This is just
a small good experience I had.
We also visited Tashi Lhunpo, His Holiness the Panchen Lama’s monastery. When we
circumambulated the monastery there were many dogs, each with its own place, like a
personal hermitage, and a pot to eat its food from. The old mothers from Shigatse carried
tsampa and water in buckets to give them. Sometimes they gave the dogs big pieces of the
tsampa from their home. By going around the monastery giving food and water to the dogs
they were also circumambulating all the unbelievable number of holy objects and holy beings
inside. I was really happy seeing those mothers being so kind and compassionate, giving
food like that. They were very, very kind.
Before visiting Tshurpu we had been to Tashi Lhunpo, His Holiness the Panchen Lama’s
monastery. I had taken a short teaching from the Panchen Lama in Dechen Ling, which is
just below Tashi Lhunpo, during the previous trip to Tibet with Geshe Lama Konchog. At
that time Gen Wangdu, a meditator from Sera Me, was there and he was the main person
who wanted to meet the Panchen Lama and ask for teachings. I had to lead the mandala
offering before the interview and, as I had never taken teachings from the Panchen Lama
before, I was wondering whether to make the guru-disciple connection or not as I began
chanting the prayer. It was in my hand whether to take him as guru or not. I did not want to
feel that His Holiness had one view and Panchen Rinpoche another, because then you get
into difficulty and can create heavy negative karma. Then I thought they are one in essence.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Panchen Rinpoche are one in essence, one buddha, so
there was no problem. Toward the end of the mandala I had decided to take the teaching
and take him as a guru. It was a short teaching based on the Buddha’s advice that we often
recite, the verse that starts, “Do not commit any unwholesome actions.” He gave a very
powerful teaching on it.
131