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Charitable Activities
September 2012: We are happy to report that the US$120,000 needed for a new laser surgery machine for the Amdo Eye Hospital has been raised! Many thanks to all who contributed to this incredibly beneficial project.
Please rejoice in the pujas and practices sponsored by the Puja Fund. You can also remember to rejoice and dedicate on the actual day that the pujas are happening. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says: “This is the best business, the best way to create most extensive merit.”
You may view an extensive list of the pujas and practices sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund here.
- US$17,427 was offered for the monthly stipends of the current abbots, past abbots and main teachers of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition, including the Ganden Tripa.
- US$8,036 was offered for the annual Gelug examination that was attended by over 602 of the foremost scholars from Sera, Ganden, Drepung, Gyume, Gyuto, Tashi Lhunpo and Rato monasteries. In 2011, the exam was held at Drepung Monastery. This money covered the cost of travel for the monks traveling from Sera Je and Sera Me, as well the cost of offering food and tea to all the 602 monks attending the exam.
You can read a recent article in Mandala magazine (October-December 2012) about Nalanda’s 15-Year Master Plan.
*These funds are disbursed in an ongoing manner, according to the needs of the project.
March 2012: Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered 26 Maitreya Buddha statues to FPMT centers, projects and services that wished to have one. Read more and view a photo gallery created by Mandala magazine!
Practicing Bodhichitta (Audio and Unedited Transcripts)- Bodhichitta Motivation in Daily Life
- Bodhisattva Attitude: How to Dedicate Your Life to Others
- How to Live with Bodhichitta
- Training the Mind in Bodhichitta
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching on bodhichitta at Bodhgaya stupa (video)
- Living in the Path: Refuge and Bodhichitta
- Discovering Buddhism: How to Develop Bodhichitta
- The Everflowing Nectar of Bodhichitta
- Cooking with Bodhichitta: Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Momo Recipes
Practicing Bodhichitta (Audio and Unedited Transcripts)
August 2012: The most immediate need of the Amdo Eye Hospital is to purchase a laser surgery machine (Phacoemulsification machine). The cost for one of these machines is US$120,000. FPMT is currently fundraising in order to be able to sponsor one, which will greatly help the hospital’s efficiency and will directly benefit those needing the surgeries.
The phacoemulsification machine breaks the cataract into tiny pieces and then suctions those pieces from the eye through a very small incision. Prior to the development of the phaco machine, the cataract was normally removed in one piece, requiring a larger incision, sutures, and more trauma to the eye. By having the phacoemulsification machine the whole procedure is much faster, less than 15 minutes per eye, and it allows the patient to walk out of the surgical suite and resume normal activities within a few days.
How Can I Make a Donation?
To make a tax-deductible donation:
Or simply send your check in US dollars payable to FPMT Inc. and write “Amdo Eye Hospital” on the memo line.
FPMT Inc.
1632 SE 11th Avenue
Portland, OR 97214-4702
USA
The Amdo Eye Hospital is a project of FPMT Inc. and is administered by FPMT International Office located in Portland, Oregon, United States. All donations made to this fund are tax-deductible within the United States in accordance with IRS Code article 501(c)(3) to the extent allowed by law.
For more information please contact: Holly Ansett, Charitable Projects Coordinator.
August 2011: Ven. Pemba Sherpa (FPMT board member, resident teacher and co-director of Cham Tse Ling, in Hong Kong) visited the Amdo Eye Hospital to report on its progress and operations.
Currently there are 24 people working in the hospital, including four doctors and four nurses who visit from the local government hospital a few times a week to perform the actual surgeries. The hospital is three and half stories high and has 36 beds to accommodate patients.
The full price for cataract surgery is about US$750 (4800 CNY), however for patients who cannot afford this, the surgery is offered for free or whatever amount they can manage. At this stage it is not possible to run the hospital totally free of charge, but the plan is to be able to offer more free or low cost surgeries, as the hospital expands.
August 2011: The inauguration of the building was in July 2010, it took a year to equip the hospital and get the necessary documents to be able to perform the surgeries and in August 2011 the hospital was officially opened to the public. In the last four weeks the hospital has performed eight surgeries and four of these were offered free. As the hospital becomes better known and receives more funding and equipment it will be able to perform many more surgeries. Currently the hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Xining dedicated solely to performing eye surgery.
Please watch a video of the inauguration of the Amdo Eye Hospital.
US$60,000 donated to build large Padmasambhava statue for a monastery in Asia.
Over US$1.6 million offered to build and house 21 statues including:
•A 70-foot (21-meter) statue of Padmasambhava with two consorts, each 25 feet (7.5 meters) high;
•Eighteen life-sized statues including the Eight Aspects of Padmasambhava over 6 feet (2 meters) high
A temple to house the statues utilizing art inspired by Padmasambhava’s experience of the pure land Zangdok Palri (Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain)
US$3,000 donated to build a Padmasambhava statue at Milarepa Center in Vermont, USA between 2 and 3 feet (about 1 meter)– Thanks to a 2009 International Merit Box grant!
US$100,000 offered to build a very large Wish-fulfilling Padmasambhava statue at a Sakya Monastery
Initial planning to build a 120-foot (36.5-meter) Padmasambhava statue in Khakhorin, Mongolia. This project is being undertaken by FPMT Mongolia.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with His Holiness the Dalai Lama November 2011.July 2012: On the very auspicious occasion of the 610th Anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s composition of his masterpiece Lam-rim Chen-mo (The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment) and the 600th Anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s teaching of this text at Gaden Monastery for the first time, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will bestow teachings and transmissions on eighteen classic Lam-rim commentaries at the request of His Eminence Ling Rinpoche.
Beginning November 30, 2012 and continuing for 10-15 days, these teachings and transmissions will take place at Gaden Monastery and Drepung Monastery in Doeguling Tibetan Settlement, Mundgod, South India. In the latter part of 2013 His Holiness will continue these teachings and transmissions at Sera Monastery in Lugsung Samdupling Tibetan Settlement, Bylakuppe, South India.
As part of FPMT’s mission to preserve the Mahayana tradition, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered for FPMT to support these rare and precious teachings in various ways, including:
- Funding a sound system for the event.
- Printing 50,000 copies of five different texts needed for the teaching event.
- Providing bags for all the texts being offered.
To provide these offerings we need to raise $425,000. Can you help?
July 30, 2012 UPDATE:
Tremendous and heartfelt thanks to all who participated in raising funds for this precious teaching event. We are delighted to report that due to the kindness of many, we have been so far able to raise $350,000!
It has now been confirmed that His Holiness will continue these teachings and transmissions in 2013 at Sera Monastery in Lugsung Samdupling Tibetan Settlement, Bylakuppe, south India (exact dates to be announced).
Also there will a live webcast of the teachings available, for those unable to attend. The website address for the webcast will be announced in the future.
Heartfelt and tremendous thanks to everyone who contributed to raising all the funds needed for the 2012 sponsorship of this event.
Please visit the official website of this event for more information.
How Can I Make a Donation?
To make a tax-deductible donation:
Or simply send your check in US dollars payable to FPMT Inc. and write “Eighteen Great Lam-rim Commentaries Sponsorship” on the memo line.
FPMT Inc.
1632 SE 11th Avenue
Portland, OR 97214-4702
USA
The Preserving the Lineage Fund is a project of FPMT Inc. and is administered by FPMT International Office located in Portland, Oregon, United States. All donations made to this fund are tax-deductible within the United States in accordance with IRS Code article 501(c)(3) to the extent allowed by law.
For more information please contact: Charitable Projects Coordinator.
So I practiced my Tibetan writing for about six months in black ink, at the end of which I sent a sample to Rinpoche for assessment. Evidently passing the test, I got the go ahead to start writing in gold.
Since then, I have worked more or less steadily – depending on my work schedule and other life distractions. To date I have written 320 pages of what will be about 1400 pages in total. Eventually the text will go in the heart of the Maitreya statue to be built in India. My hope is always to write a page a day, which doesn’t often happen. But even if I only write a few lines, or even one letter, it feels worthwhile, and of course every time I set pen to paper I remember what Rinpoche told me about the benefits.
I spent a long time in the beginning looking at many examples to try and make my writing as beautiful and accurate as possible. At that point, writing a page took about seven hours. Gradually, my writing style has coalesced and I can write a page in about half that time. In 2001, when I went to Mongolia with Rinpoche, my job for three weeks was to stir the gold for Rinpoche every night – sometimes all night – while Rinpoche wrote the Prajnaparamita. That was truly magical – I felt like I was living one of those stories from centuries past, the kind we hear about in the teachings. But it didn’t occur to me that I would end up some years later doing the writing myself!
I feel tremendously blessed and grateful that Rinpoche has given me this amazing project. My hope is to finish well before I die, to create the cause to realize emptiness – the subject of the text – as quickly as possible, and for whatever merit is created through the writing, to fulfill all of Rinpoche’s holy wishes.
