Rinpoche’s Animal Friends

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Forthcoming from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in early 2025

Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked longtime student and Kopan nun, Tenzin Namdrol, to make a book of the large collection of soft toys inscribed with Dharma messages and mantras and later gifted to students around the world. Now LYWA is publishing this book, which features more than one hundred images, along with a selection of short teaching excerpts. Rinpoche’s Animal Friends is a reminder of Rinpoche’s great love for us and his unique means to inspire and open our hearts.\

Watch Beyond Enlightenment, a short mp3 video created by Magda Torres, featuring the travel adventures of Tong Nyi, the teddy bear, and Bodhicitta, the monkey. You can also watch Facebook videos of Rinpoche reading the "little bear" message and blessing the large teddy. You can also read excerpts from Rinpoche's Animal Friends online, or go to the Related Links to view or download PDFs of sample pages from this book.

With Bodhicitta, You Have the Best and Happiest Life

“There is no one sentient being whom I cannot love.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Generating bodhicitta is great. Every single human being is included; every single animal, even the tiniest insect, everyone. Nobody is left out. Not one mosquito, not one insect is left out. It is so important to generate the thought to achieve enlightenment for them, to benefit them. Wow, wow, wow, wow. That is the best, when every single action of our body, speech, and mind is for them. Wow, that is the best. There is nothing in life that is better.

Excerpted from “Teachings on Thought Transformation During the Time of COVID-19, Video 62: Why and How to Take Blessings from a Holy Being,” Kopan Monastery, 18 August 2020.

You can also view or download PDFs of this image and teaching excerpt (p. 9 and p. 11, Rinpoche's Animal Friends).

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Those Who Harm Us Give Us the Opportunity to Practice Patience »