Projects

Lama Zopa Rinpoche having lunch at Vajrapani Institute with staff, members, and others, California, US, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

Vajrapani Institute, an FPMT retreat center, is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Boulder Creek, CA at the end of a five-mile dirt road on the border of Castle Rock State Park. Being entirely off-grid has been an ongoing challenge for a busy operation like Vajrapani Institute’s. The logistics in terms of production and distribution of power, water, gas, and communications are complex. After forty years of managing with this difficult infrastructure, last year an overhaul of these systems commenced. Everything is being redone and the entire project is costing approximately US$800,000.

Construction at Vajrapani Institute. Photo courtesy of VPI.

Construction at Vajprapani Institute. Photo courtesy of VPI.

For example, last year five miles of conduit was installed underground. According to director Fabienne Pradelle, this is the biggest construction project the center has undertaken but essential for the future growth and safety. Fabienne explained, “Once the new infrastructures are in place, there’s a level of emergency and stress that won’t longer be there. Much more reliable. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved on a shoestring budget all these years. Our carbon footprint is impressively small.” 

The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund invested in the electricity wing of this considerable project. Please rejoice that this important retreat center is able to make these improvements to the infrastructure which will benefit students, teachers, and staff for years to come.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund enables Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others to flourish. All the offerings from the fund are used toward the creation of holy objects and extensive offerings around the world; sponsoring young tulkus, high lamas and Sangha in India, Nepal, Tibet and the West; supporting FPMT centers, projects and services; sponsoring Dharma retreats and events; funding animal liberations and blessings, and many other worthy projects. 

New tracksuits offered to the children of Maitreya School and Tara Children’s Project.

The charitable mission of Root Institute, located in Bodhgaya, India, is to provide support to impoverished children, adolescents and adults in neighboring areas through three focused projects. Maitreya School is a primary school providing free education for local children; Tara Children’s Project is a safe, nurturing environment for HIV-affected orphans; and Shakyamuni Buddha Clinic is a free hospital serving impoverished, local people via a variety of medical systems.

For the past six years, due to the kindness of one main benefactor, the FPMT Charitable Projects has been able to offer substantial grants toward this amazing work. Additionally, Lama Zopa Rinpoche personally offers support to these beneficial activities. Recently Rinpoche offered new tracksuits to all of the children of Maitreya School and Tara Children’s Project. 

Children receiving new tracksuits.

In January, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama was teaching in Bodhgaya, the children offered him three recitations of the Heart Sutra as well as “Praise to the Seventeen Nalanda Masters” in Sanskrit and His Holiness was visibly moved receiving this. (The video above shows the children reciting the Heart Sutra to His Holiness in 2017.)

Please rejoice in the ongoing support offered to the children of the Maitreya School and Tara Children’s Project. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund enables Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others to flourish. All the offerings from the fund are used toward the creation of holy objects and extensive offerings around the world; sponsoring young tulkus, high lamas and Sangha in India, Nepal, Tibet and the West; supporting FPMT centers, projects and services; sponsoring Dharma retreats and events; funding animal liberations and blessings, and much more.

New accommodation for the residents of Lugsam Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting and blessing the residents of the elderly home in 2015.

Lugsam Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled, an elderly home in Bylakuppe, India, cares for approximately forty elderly individuals. Without homes and accommodation like this, many elderly first-wave Tibetan refugees have very little prospect of accommodation or support as many are without families of their own.

Due to the kindness of generous benefactors, we are now able to invest in homes such as this in an ongoing way. 

The inside of one of the new rooms being built at the elderly home.

In 2017, a grant of US$127,051.29 was offered toward the building of ten rooms at the home. The original building hasn’t been updated since 1968 and was in dire need of a rebuild as the foundation was not suitable for a renovation. This project is being completed this month and the residents will be able to move into the new building. Each room will accommodate four elders with a bathroom attached. An extremely kind donor raised the funds for this. An incredible gesture of generosity. 

In 2017, a grant was provided for a recycling initiative which raises money for the elderly home. The grant funded a recycling truck, worker uniforms and salaries for two, fuel, and repairs for the vehicle. 

The vehicle purchased for the Lugsung Samduling Tibetan Settlement’s recycling program.

In 2018 US$57,079.77 was offered for the construction of large and smaller prayer wheels on the property enabling the elders to pray, circumambulate, and maintain good health. In this way, FPMT is helping to take ultimate care of the elders by providing the conditions for them create merit for this and future lives, not simply their immediate needs for survival.  

FPMT has been supporting this home for three years and in this period has offered US$225,558.

If you would like to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants such as this can continue, you can read more about the charitable projects this fund supports, or donate any amount to the fund itself. 

In 1976, Geshe Lhundub Sopa, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, began offering commentary to Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo. The lamrim, or “graduated path,” is a presentation of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings that detail the stages on the complete path to enlightenment.

Geshe Sopa’s teachings continued into the early 1990s. In 1994, discussions on turning the audio teachings into a book series commenced. And in 1995, Lama Zopa Rinpoche took on the responsibility of sourcing the project’s funding. Shortly after, a very kind benefactor came forward to sponsor it. In all, US$500,000 was raised for this incredible project.

Over the next twenty-three years, Wisdom Publications published a five-volume series called Steps on the Path to Enlightenment. Producing these volumes involved laborious effort on the part of translators, transcribers, and editors—not to mention that each editor read their drafts to Geshe Sopa many times, incorporating his feedback and refinements. The result is the longest and most detailed lamrim commentary available in English.

Geshe Lhundrub Sopa, Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, US, 2009. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.

Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 1: The Foundational Practices; Vol. 2: Karma; Vol. 3: The Way of the Bodhisattva; Vol. 4: Śamatha; and now Vol. 5: Insight are currently available through Wisdom’s website.

The final and longest volume in the series  focuses on the nature of reality. In addition to the teachings themselves, the book features an extensive glossary of technical terms.

Wisdom’s senior editor, David Kittlestrom, commented on the volume: “Dechen Rochard has brought enormous precision and devotion to the project, preserving the many levels of subtlety on the different points of the Madhyamaka view in Geshe-la’s exposition to create an unparalleled guide to the sixth perfection and Tsongkhapa’s text. And what makes it all the more remarkable is how readable and cogent the work is—it’s a pleasure to read. It is a wonderful tribute to Geshe-la’s great erudition and kindness.”

All are welcome to order Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 5: Insight directly from Wisdom Publications now. 

Please rejoice in the completion of this incredible project decades in the making!

“Lamrim is what you should focus on your whole life, even while you are doing your job. This is what you should keep your mind in, this is the most meaningful, most profound practice, doing each act with the mind in bodhichitta. This should be your practice, this is what you should try to accomplish in this life.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche

You can learn more about the Steps on the Path to Enlightenment series by Geshe Lhundub Sopa: www.wisdompubs.org/author/geshe-lhundub-sopa

100,000 Tsog Offering to the giant Padmasambhava thangka at Kopan Nunnery.

Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) is perhaps the most universally cherished realized being in all of Tibetan Buddhism. Padmasambhava came to Tibet from India in the 8th century and helped establish a pure lineage which is still practiced today by all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism around the world. “Due to Padmasambhava’s great compassion, Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism flourished in Tibet and now has spread throughout the entire world,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained. “Because of that, so many people have experienced the path to enlightenment and achieved enlightenment. Due to his great compassion, the lives of infinite number of sentient beings have become meaningful.”

Further, Rinpoche has advised that “Building Guru Rinpoche statues will bring immeasurable benefit, peace, happiness and freedom to the world. They will have immeasurable impact.” 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other Sangha offering 100,000 tsog offerings to the giant Padmasambhava thangka at Kopan Nunnery.

In addition to statues, the Padmasambhava Peace Project sponsors 100,000 tsog offerings to Padmasambhava. In 2017 sponsorship was provided for two 100,000 tsog offerings at Kopan Nunnery, Nepal. The incredible 75 feet high x 87 feet wide thangka of Padmasambhava which resides at the nunnery was raised for the occasion. Lama Zopa Rinpoche and over 1,000 Sangha came to each puja to offer these prayers and offerings were made to all who participated. 

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is for centers to have large thangkas and organize festival days around their display.

Offering to Padmasambhava in this way is a powerful way to create the causes for world peace. 

You can learn more about all the holy object projects for world peace supported by FPMT Charitable Projects and donate any amount so that offerings such as this can continue. 

Rolwaling Monastery, Nepal.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a young student. Rinpoche attended Rolwaling Monastery between the ages of 7-12.

Thanks to a kind and generous donor, in 2016, a substantial grant was offered from the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund to Rolwaling Monastery in Nepal, at the Tibet border, for the rebuilding of their gompa which was nearly destroyed in the 2015 earthquake. The buildings were already in poor condition (the gompa hadn’t been renovated since 1957), and the destruction of the earthquake proved too much for the structures to withstand. Rolwaling Sangag Choling is a community-centered monastery and its history spans about nine generations. It is the only monastery in the entire community of Sherpa Buddhists.This monastery is particularly precious to FPMT as Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended this monastery between the ages of 7-12. Geshe Jinpa, a Kopan monk, is overseeing this project and seeing it through to finalization. 

This project not only included the new gompa. A two-storey kitchen was built with dining and lama rooms, a butter lamp house, and an office and storage building were completed. Additionally, a two-storey building has been built between the main gompa and kitchen containing a large prayer wheel beneath and a deity room upstairs; and a very strong stone gabion was built to protect the buildings from the river flowing past and to give a stable support for the structure and also provide an expansion of the courtyard so that more people can be accommodated during teachings and festivals. A passage and fence was built all around the gompa and premises.

Damage to the Rolwaling gompa was extensive following the earthquake.

We are happy to report that a final grant has recently been offered toward the completion of this gompa. This gompa is the sole place in the area where daily prayers, offerings, pujas, retreats, Buddhist teachings, death and dying services, and community events for lay students and ordained Sangha (which can serve up to 300 people at once) are offered.

Please rejoice in this offering made possible by this generous grant. The rebuilding of this gompa helps preserve the local culture and reestablish the monastery as a place for Buddhist practice and community.

If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world. 

Some students attending The Central School for Tibetans, Cauvery Valley Project (CVP).

School children washing up after their midday meal.

The Social Services Fund has been sponsoring the midday meals for the children attending The Central School for Tibetans, Cauvery Valley Project (CVP), located in Bylakuppe, South India. The school was was established in 1971 to serve the children of refugees living at Dickey Larsoe Tibetan Settlement. Twenty-four staff help educate 217 elementary, middle, and secondary students. The school has not only established an impressive academic program with an emphasis on preserving the student’s Tibetan cultural heritage, but also offers extracurricular activities such as sports, arts, and crafts.

In addition to the midday meals, FPMT has also recently been funding the salary of a kind lady who looks after some of the children after school hours. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche also sponsored the complete renovation of the school’s kitchen in 2013. 

Please rejoice in this ongoing investment in the education of Tibetan refugees’ children. 

Helping the children of Tibetan refugees receive quality education is a high priority for FPMT, and through this offering of food, the school can use precious and scarce resources for continuing to develop and implement quality academic programs for the students. If you are moved by this work, you are welcome to donate any amount to ensure its continuation. 

If you would like to support the Social Services Fund and help ensure grants such as this can continue, you can read more about the charitable projects this fund supports, or donate any amount to the fund itself. 

Some of the monks of Thame Monastery.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund was very pleased to offer a grant for over US$10,000 to Thame Monastery in the Solo Khumbu District of Nepal. The grant will cover the cost of food for all the monks during 2018. The monastery houses nine elderly and thirteen young monks. Thame Monastery is one of the oldest in the region, and is famous for the annual Mani Rimdu Festival.

Thame Monastery

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in Thame which is located very close to Lawudo. FPMT is very happy to support the Sangha of Thame through this offering of food, to contribute to holy object restoration in the area through a recent grant for a large stupa which is being rebuilt in the area, and through support following destruction due to the 2015 earthquake which devastated the area. 

If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world. 

An early morning puja during 2017 Losar at Kopan Monastery.

The Fifteen Days of Miracles began on the first day of the Tibetan new year (Losar, February 16) and continues until March 1. This period commemorates the special time when Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed many powers. All fifteen days are merit-multiplying days, when the merit of virtuous actions performed on these days is multiplied by 100 million. The Puja Fund makes offerings on Buddha Multiplying Days and sponsors Sangha to offer particular prayers and pujas. We invite you to rejoice in these activities which are dedicated to overcoming obstacles and creating merit for the entire FPMT organization. 

Monks of Sera Mey Monastery offering a puja sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that the karma of group practice is more powerful than individual practice. “The karma of one ordained Sangha reciting a sutra in a temple or room alone, compared to reciting a sutra with all the assembly of Sangha present, the latter one—reciting a sutra with all the Sangha—is much more powerful…. The more people there are supporting the practice, the more powerful it becomes…. When the karma is more powerful, the result comes more quickly.”

This year, Losar fell on February 16. The Fifteen Days of Miracles continue through March 1. During this time the following offerings, practices and pujas are being sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund on behalf of all the donors and the whole FPMT family. Please take a moment to rejoice in these incredible offerings!

• Offerings are made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.
• Offerings are made to over 15,650 ordained Sangha including IMI communities around the world. 
• Bouddhanath and Swayambunath stupas are offered white wash and four giant saffron flower petals and new umbrellas to the stupas’ pinnacles.
  
• Buddha inside the Bodhgaya Mahabodhi temple is offered a new set of robes of the most precious material.
  
• 650 monks recite the Prajnaparamita (three versions) at Gyurme Tantric College.
  
• 10,200 monks offer the practice of Druk Chu Ma, Namgyäl Tong Chö, and Zangcho at Sera Je, Sera Mey, Drepung Gomang Loseling and Deyang monasteries.
  
• Druk Chu Ma, Medicine Buddha Puja and Zangcho are offered at Gaden Jangtse and Shartse Monasteries.
  
• Namgyäl Tong Chö and Zangcho is offered at Gyuto Tantric Colleges.
  
• A full set of robes is offered to all FPMT geshes and resident teachers.
  
• Printing of the Sutra of Golden Light 6 times, Arya Sanghata Sutra 10 times, Vajra Cutter Sutra 200 times, and the Amitayus Long Life Sutra 20 times is offered by IMI Sangha.
• 100 Indian rupees and lunch was offered to 1,200 Sangha at the Monlam celebration at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. 

Even just remembering these offerings, pujas, and practices and rejoicing in them brings so much merit. Thanks to all for being part of this incredible list of offerings and activities which are dedicated to all beings. 

All are welcome to donate to the Puja Fund and directly support these most precious offerings. 

The whole community has come together to rebuild the large stupa in Thame.

Recently, a grant was offered toward a large stupa being built in Thame in the Solo Khumbu district of Nepal to replace one that was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake. The new stupa, which will stand nearly 44 feet tall with a base measuring 56 feet across, will be larger than the one which previously stood on the site and is utilizing all the materials from the original stupa. Many villagers helped over a two day period to move the stones of the destroyed stupa to the new one. A wonderful collaborative effort. 

All of the materials from the destroyed Thame stupa were utilized in the rebuilding of the new one.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in the Mount Everest region of Thame, located very close to Lawudo which was the home of his previous incarnation known as the Lawudo Lama. Many Kopan monks are from Thame including one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s attendants, Ven. Tendar.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated Padmasambhava’s Instructions on Offering to Stupas which explains numerous benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings to, and offering service to, stupas. 

“All those who rejoice in the stupa will generate every single quality of a buddha in their mental continuum.” — Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas

The Stupa Fund has thus far offered a total of US$249,071 toward the completion of this stupa and another disbursement of funds will occur as the project progresses. Progress on this stupa is due in large part to the kindness and effort of Ven. Tenpa Choden, Kopan Monastery’s manager, who is overseeing this entire project with such enthusiasm in order to actualize the stupa which is expected to be completed at the end of 2018. 

If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues. 

Lama Rinpoche visiting Lugsung Samdupling Home for the Aged and Disabled in Bylakkupe, India.

In recent years, thanks to the kindness of generous donors, FPMT has been able to invest more resources into taking care of the elderly Tibetans living in India. Recently Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited elderly homes in southern India, giving teachings and blessing the residents. 

Rinpoche visiting seniors at Hunsur Home for the Elderly.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving a lung of OM MANI PADME HUM and explaining the benefits of reciting this mantra at Lugsung Samdupling Home for the Aged and Disabled in Bylakuppe, India.

Over the past two and a half years, US$1,642,115 has been offered from the Social Services Fund and Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund to assist schools, elderly care and other social projects.

FMT Charitable Projects is honored to support the homes of the eldest and destitute Tibetan refugees. You can show your support by making a donation to the Social Services Fund. 

New vehicle for the Lugsung Samdupling Tibetan Settlement’s recycling program.

The Social Services Fund offered a grant to Lugsung Samdupling Tibetan Settlement in Bylakuppe, India for investment into a recycling initiative which will raise money for the elderly home located on the settlement. The grant paid for a recycling truck, worker uniforms and salaries for two, fuel, and repairs for the vehicle. 

The truck operates six days weekly picking up garbage from around the settlement and then sorts out materials suitable for recycling. This program brings in extra income to the elderly home which is home to approximately fifty elderly Tibetan refugees. The settlement itself is made up of seven villages or camps scattered at different locations with average of thirty families in each camp. The settlement was established in 1960 with the help of the Indian government with an initial population of 3,000 settlers. This settlement is one of the biggest Tibetan refugee settlements in India.

The Social Services Fund has previously invested in the elderly home located on this settlement and will continue to do so as funds are acquired and need is identified.

FPMT Charitable Projects is honored to support the settlements of Tibetan refugees. You can show your support by making a donation to the Social Services Fund.