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Grounds are prepared for the foundation of the new temple at Ngari Khangtsen.
Ngari Khangtsen, the khangtsen of Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Thegchok in south India, has been making progress on their Temple Project, a project to build a much-needed new prayer hall that can seat 150 monks comfortably.
Earlier this year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, US$100,000 to this project which has an estimated budget of over US$500,000.
Tashi Delek to all the friends of Ngari Khangtsen at Sera Je Monastery, South India.
Today, we have some new and exciting news for everyone.
The Ngari Khangtsen “Temple Project” is underway!
We finally received building approval from the local government and have broken ground. We are preparing the grounds and getting ready to start pouring the foundation at our new temple at Sera Je, South India.
We would like to say a special thank you to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and all the members of the FPMT organization. Because of the amazing kindness and generosity in donating US$100,000, we have been able to start the building of our new temple.
Prayers,
The Monks of Ngari Khangtsen
Please rejoice in this progress!
You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.
The Kadampa Center community with the finished stupa which took two years to complete. Photo by David Strevel.
Building a large holy object, like the 18-foot tall Kadampa Stupa now finished at Kadampa Center in North Carolina, requires a tremendous amount of work and dedication from many.
Lead volunteer David Strevel carefully documented every stage of the process of building this stupa. Please enjoy a photo gallery of some of the major milestones along the way to completion.
Learn more about FPMT Charitable Projects and all of the beneficial activities which they support. You can find further information about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his beneficial activities by visiting Rinpoche’s webpage, where you will find links to Rinpoche’s schedule, new advice, recent video, photos and more.
Members of the Nepal Buddhist Federation including many senior monks from Kopan Monastery.
In 2006, for the first time in the history of the Nalanda Tradition, Nyingma, Kagyü, Sakya and Gelug traditions have formed an umbrella organization called Nepal Buddhist Federation (NBF).
Among many other projects, NBF is organizing a regular broadcast of Dharma teachings on television and radio in Nepal.
Each of the four traditions offered toward this project, the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund was delighted to make an offering to these efforts. Kopan Monastery has been very involved with the various projects of the NBF with many senior monks serving as members.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is committed to supporting the projects of the Nepal Buddhist Federation. Earlier this year, US$6,187 was also offered to the Rime Chirim Tendo Chenmo Monlam, a prayer festival for Saka Dawa dedicated to the healthy and long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the heads of the four Tibetan Buddhist schools, all other great masters, as well as for world peace.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Light of the Path, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
The Puja Fund is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s heart projects. An incredible amount of pujas are continually offered by as many as 15,650 Sangha and dedicated to the success of the whole FPMT organization (every single FPMT center, project, service, student, benefactor, for every student, person who is sick or who has requested Rinpoche for prayers, etc.). These dedications are personally written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for all the benefit of all.
Monks of Sere Je Monastery offering puja.
An example of the incredible array of pujas and offerings sponsored by the Puja Fund:
- Recitation of the entire Prajnaparamita during the 15 days of Losar
- 100,000 recitations of Praises to 21 Taras during the month of Saka Dawa
- Recitation of entire Kangyur during
Chokhor Duchen -
1,000 Offerings to Namgyalma and Medicine Buddha Puja during Lha Bab Duchen
Thousands of Sangha engage in the prayers and practices offered through the Puja Fund.
- Monthly extensive Medicine Buddha Puja
- Monthly Extensive Hayagriva Puja
- Monthly offerings to the Bouddhanath and Swayambhunath stupas
- Monthly offering of robes and gold to the Buddha statues in Tibet and Bodhgaya
In addition to the above, offerings are also made to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and the FPMT Sangha communities.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently offered US$11,573.32 toward the scheduled 2014 pujas to ensure the continuity and because it is so important for the organization.
You can learn more about the incredible amount of prayers and pujas and offerings that are occurring, and you can rejoice in and also participate in the offerings.
Every day, the 2,500 monks of Sera Je Monastery are offered three vegetarian meals
through the Sera Je Food Fund.
You can see details of what they are offered for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
This project is only possible due to a massive and collective effort of many volunteers at the monastery (who shop for, prepare, and clean up after each meal) as well as many kind donors who contribute to this fund.
Young monks enjoying their breakfast offered by the Sera Je Food Fund.
Please enjoy this short video of the monks sharing one of these meals together.
The Great Yogi Milarepa said: “The practitioner and benefactor offering food create the cause to achieve enlightenment together.”
Thanks to all who help make this offering possible.
9 ft Padmasambhava statue at De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, Kangaroo Island, Australia
A beautiful new 9 ft tall statue of Padmasambhava has manifested at De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre on Kangaroo Island, Australia.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for FPMT is to build many large Padmasambhava statues around the world. Please rejoice that 16 statues have now been built with Rinpoche’s wishes in mind!
Creating large holy objects like this 9 ft Padmasambhava statue require the help of many. Congratulations to the team at De-Tong Ling who made this happen.
Congratulations to De-Tong Ling and all who helped bring this project to fruition.
Listen, beautiful one having the form of a goddess,
For those sentient beings who have not met me,
Statues of me in the future
Will become the light eliminating the darkness of ignorance.
Whoever builds such statues of me,
Which become objects of offering and so forth,
All their future lives will become meaningful
And they will establish the banner of the teachings
—Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama arriving at Sera Monastery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India on December 24, 2013. Photo/Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL
In November 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 began offering teachings and transmissions on eighteen classic Lam-rim commentaries at the request of His Eminence Ling Rinpoche. His Holiness continued the incredibly rare teachings and transmissions this past year as well. The teaching event took place December 25, 2013 – January 3, 2014 at Sera Je Monastery.
Over 40,000 Sangha attended the Jangchup Lam-rim teaching event including many high lamas. Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be seen with Choden Rinpoche in the fourth row of this photo.
During the teachings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested prayers from all of the Sangha attending (over 40,000), dedicated to the Maitreya Project and to the entire FPMT organization.
On behalf of all FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and volunteers Lama Zopa Rinpoche was able to make offerings totaling USD$27,805.49 to the Sangha.
In Tibetan Buddhism, disciples are considered the extensions of their teachers, the “pores of the guru.” Generosity in relation to the disciple is considered incredibly meritorious. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained:
Making offerings to the Sangha is a way of collecting unbelievable merit because all the sangha are the pores of the Guru. They are all disciples of the same Guru – His Holiness the Dalai Lama. By offering to pores of the Guru one collects more merit than offering to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, as well as numberless statues, stupas. If you offer with the recognition that they are the Guru’s pores then that is an unbelievable way to collect merit. When you offer to many Sanghas who have the same Guru then you are making offerings to that many pores of the Guru. So this is the easiest way to collect skies of merit by offering. By offering even just one candy, flowers or even one grain of rice to a statue of Buddha or even a visualized Buddha you collect skies of merit but here it is much more powerful than offering to the 3 jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) as well as all the statues, stupas and scriptures existing in all directions, so no question if offering to really the same Guru’s disciple. These benefits should be understood so that when you make offerings to the Guru’s pores you think correctly. This is the best business.
—
4,000 monks of Sera Lachi offer Druk Chu Ma (64 offerings to Kalarupa to eliminate obstacles), Namgyäl Tong Chö (One thousand sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyälma) and Zangcho (King of Prayers), recitation of the entire Kangyur on Chokhor Duchen.
Each year on Chokhor Duchen (Day 4 of Month 6, commemorating Lord Buddha’s first teaching) the Puja Fund is sponsoring pujas and offerings all over the world by 14,850 monks and nuns. This is something amazing to rejoice in. Chokhor Duchen takes place this year on July 31, 2014.
On Buddha Multiplying Days, like Chokhor Duchen, karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Powerful pujas ( for example: recitation of the Prajnaparamita (three versions) and Kangyur) are offered by 14,850 Sangha at monastic institutions and dedicated to the entire FPMT organization, extensive offerings are made to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus as well as Sangha around the world, and offerings are made to holy objects in Nepal, India and Tibet.
You can see the details of this incredible array of offerings that will take place on July 31 and join in the merit generated.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the Abbot of Sera Je Monastery during His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s recent teachings in Italy.
Since 1991, the Sera Je Food Fund has offered meals to the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery in southern India. Today, the fund sponsors 8,300 meals every single day for all 2,500 Sera Je Monastery monks (3,300 monks are served breakfast). This offering allows the monks to concentrate on their studies without the constant worry of sourcing and preparing their next meal.
It is difficult to imagine the sheer volume of food it takes to offer 8,300 quality vegetarian meals daily.
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2,187 pounds of flour are required for one month of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Rice and vegetables is typically offered as part of the nutritious vegetarian lunch provided to 2,500 monks through the Sera Je Food Fund.
- 46 pounds of tea leaves are needed for a month’s worth of breakfast tea.
- For lunch alone, 5,300 bananas, 460 bundles of green vegetables, and 772 pounds of rice is offered during a typical month.
- Dinner for one month requires 23 bottles of soy sauce, 2,780 pounds and 50 bundles of vegetables and 34 gallons of cooking oil.
These examples are just small fraction of the ingredients needed to offer about 250,000 meals every single month.
The annual cost of the meals offered through Sera Je Food Fund is US$280,000. You are welcome to donate any amount toward this most incredible offering to the monks of Sera Je Monastery who are studying very hard to be able to be of most benefit to the world.
Sangha from all four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism participated in this year’s Rime Chirim Tendo Chenmo festival at Tharlam Sasang Namgyal Ling Monastery, Bouddhanath, Nepal.
In 2006, for the first time in the history of the Nalanda Tradition, Nyingma, Kagyü, Sakya and Gelug traditions have formed an umbrella organization called Nepal Buddhist Federation (NBF). Since then, NBF has been engaging in many activities, including organizing the Rime Chirim Tendo Chenmo Monlam, a prayer festival for Saka Dawa dedicated to the healthy and long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the heads of the four Tibetan Buddhist schools, all other great masters, as well as for world peace.
The Sangha enjoyed three meals together.
The festival, now in its sixth year and taking place at Tharlam Sasang Namgyal Ling Monastery, Bouddhanath, Nepal, is a great historic achievement and a sign of growing harmony within the four schools of the Tibetan Buddhism. Four hundred Sangha members were invited from each of the four schools. In addition to the pujas and prayers offered, breakfast, lunch and dinner was also offered to each Sangha member as well as a small offering.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers Fund, was happy to offer US$6,187 toward this year’s festival.
You are welcome to donate any amount to support this project which directly supports the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to build 1,000 statues of Maitreya, the future Buddha, around the world including the two substantial Maitreya Projects in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar, India.
Life-sized gold leafed Maitreya statue, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California.
About these statues, Lama Zopa Rinpoche commented:
“The minimum size of the 1,000 statues should be 6 feet. Within the 1,000 statues, this includes the statue being built in Kushinagar and the statue being built in Bodhgaya. My aim is that the large statue in Kushinagar will last a minimum of 1,000 years. That means that for every day for at least 1,000 years, infinite sentient beings will receive unbelievable benefit, the causes for enlightenment. Another special thing about contributing to Maitreya, whether it be money or time or energy, is that it makes a connection with Maitreya, and the result is that one becomes a direct disciple of Maitreya Buddha when Maitreya returns to manifest enlightenment as Shakyamuni Buddha did.”
Maitreya Statues Completed/In Progress
- Maitreya Buddha Kushinagar Project
- Maitreya Project Bodhgaya
- 100 life sized statues from Maitreya Project, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered 26 statues to FPMT centers
- Two 24-foot statues from Maitreya Project, one is now at Land of Medicine Buddha in California, the other is on Maitreya Project land in Bodhgaya
- 2 story statue built in a Monastery in Tibet
- 1 story statue built in a Nunnery in Tibet
Maitreya Buddha is the embodiment of each buddha’s loving kindness, and the symbol of all the bodhisattvas’ loving kindness for all sentient beings.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
You can donate directly to the Maitreya Buddha Kushinagar Project being built in India.
The Holy Objects Fund contributes to the building of other Maitreya statues around the world.
Holy Objects 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
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Vast Compassion
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor 100 million mani retreats (100,000 recitations of 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM) around the world.
About this vision, Rinpoche commented:
“[I would like] for the organization to establish 100,000 recitations of 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM mantras. This can be retreats of 100 million recitations, so 100,000 different retreats in different parts of the world and where it is happening, then for it to happen regularly, each year.
“There are two ways to count this, one way is once it is established for it to happen regularly each year. Or it can happen in different places, one time and you count like that, maybe they are unable to do regularly but able to do one time or a few times.
“So to establish this in different parts of the world such as Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Australia, China, etc.
“We should create a plan on how to lead the retreat of 100 million mani recitations: What practices to do, a plan on how to schedule the retreat, the whole structure. Once you have a structure then it is easy for people to lead the retreat.
“Also you can make mani pills in the retreats.”
100 Million Mani Retreat, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, June 2018. Photo by Ianzhina Bartanova.
Retreats Completed
(current as of February 2020)
100 Million Mani Retreats
These retreats accumulated at least 100 million mani recitations among the participants.
- 19 retreats offered by the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Kagyu Nunnery in Nepal, as well as supporting a geshe to teach lamrim to the nuns.
- 1 retreat offered by Institut Vajra Yogini, France.
- 7 retreats Offered by Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, FPMT center in Mongolia and this is now an annual event.
- 2 retreats at Potawa Nunnery, Tibet.
- 1 retreat, Tsum, Nepal at Rachen Nunnery.
- 1 retreat, Rabagayling Tibetan Settlement in Hunsur in the community hall that was sponsored by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Other Mani Retreats
Smaller mani retreats that accumulated millions of recitations among the participants.
- 500-600 people held a one week mani retreat in Tsum in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday and recited 30,587,000 mani mantras.
Help Us Offer Grants
The Practice and Retreat Fund offers grants toward the successful completion of 100 Million Mani Retreats. If you would like to contribute to Rinpoche’s Vast Vision, you may contribute any amount to this fund below.
For larger donations by bank wire, or to submit a check by mail, please contact FPMT Donor Services. For more information about the Practice and Retreat Fund or 100 million mani retreats, please contact the FPMT Charitable Projects Coordinator.
The Practice and Retreat 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.
Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.