About the Kopan eBook Project
The Kopan eBook Project aims to publish a series of ebooks of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings from the Kopan meditation courses held annually at Kopan Monastery in Nepal since the early 1970s. All of Rinpoche’s teachings from the annual Kopan courses will be converted into ebooks, including those already published on our website and those not yet published. The series editor is Gordon McDougall.
The Kopan courses began in April 1971 with a ten-day program attended by about a dozen people. From these early beginnings, the Kopan courses evolved to become an annual event with over two hundred attendees from all over the world.
The Kopan meditation courses have been life-changing for countless students, and this is where many students first met the Lamas, received teachings and became Buddhist. Read more about how the Kopan courses began, and visit KopanMonastery.com for information about attending the annual lamrim course at Kopan Monastery.
Kopan EBook Series
Click on the links below to order the ebook from your favorite vendor. LYWA Members can download these ebooks for free.
Kopan Course No. 52 (2019) eBook. Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches on the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment, illustrating key points with colorful anecdotes and engaging personal stories. However, Rinpoche's main emphasis during the course is on emptiness, using the wonderful verse from the Vajra Cutter Sutra, “A star, a defective view, a butter lamp flame…” over several days Rinpoche explores how the cause of all our problems stems from misreading reality.
Kopan Course No. 42 (2009) eBook. In these teachings Rinpoche discusses our potential to bring benefit and happiness, including full enlightenment, to all sentient beings. Rinpoche explains the stages of the path to enlightenment, teaches extensively on emptiness and the good heart, and gives commentaries on sur practice, the Offering Cloud Mantra and other prayers and practices.
Kopan Course No. 24 (1991) eBook Series. This series consists of four volumes of teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 24th Kopan meditation course. Topics include compassion and universal responsibility, the nature of the mind, karma, reincarnation, emptiness and more. The four titles in this ebook series are:
Practicing the Unmistaken Path. The first of four volumes presenting teachings from the 24th Kopan meditation course in ebook format. This volume covers topics such as compassion and universal responsibility, the benefits of developing bodhicitta, the disadvantages of self-cherishing, and emptiness.
Creating the Causes of Happiness. The second of four volumes presenting teachings from the 24th Kopan meditation course. This volume covers topics such as the nature of the mind, karma, death, reincarnation and emptiness and is interwoven with an extensive and illuminating logical debate between Rinpoche and a student on whether past and future lives exist.
Cutting the Root of Samsara. The third of four volumes presenting teachings from the 24th Kopan meditation course. This volume presents a clear discussion on sexual misconduct, an explanation of how karmic appearance and emptiness are intertwined and a multifaceted commentary on the eight Mahayana precepts motivation.
Cherishing Others: The Heart of Dharma. The fourth and final volume presenting teachings from the 24th Kopan meditation course. In this ebook, Rinpoche emphasizes the benefits of renouncing the self-cherishing mind and cherishing other sentient beings. Rinpoche concludes with advice on how to practice Dharma in the West, and lastly, he offers refuge and a teaching on the benefits of taking vows.
