Gyudmed Monastery monks in puja.

Beginning on Losar (February 21) and during the Fifteen Days of Miracles (through March 7), when the merit is multiplied 100 million times each day, The FPMT Puja Fund has arranged for an array of pujas and activities, as well as offerings to ten thousand Sangha who are so kindly undertaking these practices.

The main puja that will be offered during this incredibly auspicious time is the recitation of the three different Prajnaparamita Sutras (100,000 verses, 25,000 verses and 8,000 verses). This is an all day puja that will be undertaken by the monks of Gyudmed Monastery and dedicated to all the FPMT centers, projects, and services; all students, volunteers, and all beings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that in the beginning of the Madhyamakavatara text says that The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras (Prajnaparamita) is called “mother” because all the numberless past, present, and future buddhas have been born from this perfection of wisdom. Also, the numberless bodhisattvas and numberless arhats are born from this wisdom. This wisdom is what liberates numberless sentient beings from all the oceans of samsaric suffering. It is the real Dharma, the real refuge that liberates us from the oceans of samsaric suffering, whose continuation has no beginning.

This Prajnaparamita teaching is so unbelievably precious. The Buddha said, “Wherever this Prajnaparamita teaching is, I am there.” The Buddha said to Kunga (Ananda) that even if other teachings are destroyed that is okay, but one should not degenerate or allow even a little bit of the teaching of the Prajnaparamita to be destroyed. The Buddha asked Kunga to look after and protect the teachings of the Prajnaparamita.

Rinpoche also reminds us that by hearing this sutra, writing it down, reading it aloud, or memorizing it, you create unfathomable merit and from life to life and you crush the oceans of samsaric suffering and all the delusions. That is how profound this sutra is, it enables you to reach enlightenment. 

There will be many other pujas sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund during this time as well, such as:

• One Thousand Sets of Offerings to Buddha Namgyalma, Namgyalma long life ritual, Medicine Buddha Puja and Sixty-four Offerings to Kalarupa.
• Offerings to over ten thousand Sangha (including those residing in IMI Sangha communities), and to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.
• A new set of robes are offered to the precious Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya.
• New parasols are offered to the top of the Boudha and Swayambhu stupas, as well as offering new paint to the both stupas.
• There will be the printing of holy texts such as The Golden Light Sutra , Arya Sanghata Sutra, Vajra Cutter Sutra, Amitayus Long Life Sutra  and Sutra of Great Liberation.
  
• Up to 1,500 animals will be liberated and the making of many tsa tsas, including Kadampa stupas which will also be filled and consecrated.

Please take a moment to rejoice in all these incredible practices and offerings that have been arranged. You can also participate in any of these pujas and offerings by contributing any amount.

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for continuous pujas dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund, or FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Kopan monks and nuns offering puja at Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On the merit-multiplying day of Lhabab Duchen (which falls on November 15 this year), ten thousand ordained Sangha will be engaging in powerful practices for the benefit of all beings, such as reciting the Prajnaparamita, Medicine Buddha puja, One Thousand Offerings to Namgyalma, and many more. During the pujas, with great respect, a monetary offering will be made to the ten thousand Sangha engaged in the practices.

You are most welcome to be part of this vast offering to the Sangha, and to be held within their extensive dedications, by contributing  any amount: https://fpmt.org/support/pujafund/

Any donation made will be for the offerings to the Sangha undertaking these precious practices on Lhabab Duchen, when the merit is multiplied 100 million times, and for future pujas and offerings arranged by the Puja Fund.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The merit generated from these practices is for everyone and Lama Zopa Rinpoche often reminds us that this is an incredible opportunity for all of us to rejoice in, dedicate, and remember all the pujas and offerings that are being undertaken throughout the day on November 15.

The prayers, pujas, and offerings happening on Lhabab Duchen:

• The monks of Gyudmed Tantric College will be reciting the Prajnaparamita (three versions).
• The monks of Sera Lachi, Ganden Lachi, Drepung Lachi and Gyuto Tantric College will be offering Medicine Buddha puja, One Thousand Offerings to Namgyalma and Namgyalma Long Life puja, Sixty-four Offerings to Kalarupa, and King of Prayers.
• The Sangha of Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery will be offering Medicine Buddha puja, Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa, and King of Prayers.
• Offerings will be made to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus, such as Jhado Rinpoche, H.E Ling Rinpoche and many others.
• An incredibly vast offering will be made to the ten thousand Sangha who are engaged in these pujas, as well as all Sangha residing in the IMI monastic communities around the world.
• New robes will be offered to the Buddha statue in Bodhgaya; and saffron paint, umbrellas, and banners will be offered to Boudhanath and Swayambhunath stupas, with strong prayers.  

Thank you to all who make these offerings possible and to the Sangha undertaking the pujas and practice.

May all these prayers being offered throughout the day be actualized for the benefit of all beings.

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and attendees during the long life puja offered to Rinpoche on September 11, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On September 11, 2022, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, offered a moving long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche who has been teaching at the center since August 1. The proceedings involved the traditional five dakini dance, a procession bearing an array of the traditional offerings, long life prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Rinpoche by ABC’s choir, Mudita, with musical accompaniment, and also a composition of praise written by long-time student Cecilia Tsong. 

Rinpoche offered a powerful teaching on emptiness at the end of the puja. “You have to know how to meditate on emptiness to deal with your problems,” Rinpoche said. We invite you to enjoy, and rejoice in, this beautiful praise by Cecilia Tsong which was offered to Rinpoche. 

Cecilia Tsong offering her beautifully composed praise to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the September 11 long life puja. Photo courtesy of ABC Facebook page.

Long Life Praise of Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Composed by Cecilia Tsong

This is a miracle.  Having the privilege once again of offering a long life puja to our most precious Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche even as the world is imploding with wars, famines, natural disasters and rampant violence. Still rocked to its very core by a virus invisible to the naked eye. So, this is a miracle.  

Your presence here now makes us realize how much we have taken for granted over the years: The annual visits, the sessions that often go into early hours of the morning. Rinpoche has no concept of time, we would mutter to ourselves! But of course Rinpoche has the keenest, clearest realization of the value of time. How every single millisecond not spent practicing the Dharma is time lost and wasted, time gone forever!

And now, Rinpoche uses his skillful means to show us the value of time in a different way. Rinpoche is now meticulous in his time keeping, constantly checking if time is up. Reminding us that there will be a time when time is up for all of us, a time when the Dharma – an unbearable thought – will no longer be heard. So every word, every syllable is ever more precious than before.

Rinpoche, in composing this praise, we recognize that no matter how effusive our words may be, there is so much of Rinpoche’s qualities we are still too obscured to see. So, we rely on scriptural authority.

In the Vajra Cutter Sutra, when Subhuti asked the Buddha if that Sutra can ever be taught in the future, the Buddha reassured him there will be teachers who are “bodhisattva mahasattvas, endowed with morality, endowed with qualities, endowed with wisdom,” who will have made homage and roots of virtue to not just a single buddha but to many hundred thousands of buddhas.”  The Buddha must have been referring to one such as you, Rinpoche.

From the Golden Light Sutra, hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas praised the Tathagata Suvarnaratnakarachhatrakuta with these words. But surely, they were talking about you too, Rinpoche?

O Conqueror, through revealing the nectar of the Dharma
You usher in the deathless city;
An abode of peace,
You are the source of everything serene.

O Conqueror, you free migrating beings from suffering
And liberate creatures from the ocean of misery
You place them well upon the path to peace
And give happiness to every being.

Nothing can be found that is comparable
To the sage’s ocean of virtue and wisdom
Possessing compassion for beings laden with life,
You have the powers of love, perseverance and skill.

There is none among beings, even among gods,
Who in many thousands of millions of eons
Can fully explain merely one drop of virtue
From the ocean of your supreme qualities.

So, what can we see?

We should be reminded Rinpoche was originally here for a medical procedure and recuperation. At the airport, with no consideration whatsoever for his own safety, Rinpoche greeted each of us, fully unmasked, so that we can all see that wonderful smile, hear that joyful laughter. Even as Ven. Roger tried vainly to mask up Rinpoche time and again!

Within two days of the procedure, Rinpoche attended our celebration of His Holiness’ 87^th birthday. The only concessions Rinpoche made to his condition were to do a standing prostration and sit in a chair. Rinpoche then graced Khen Rinpoche’s 60^th birthday celebrations and Guru Puja on Wheel Turning Day where Rinpoche, like an indulgent father, treated us to Magnum ice cream.

Within days, an intense series of lojong teachings started, Zoomed around the world and the extremely rare and precious Heruka Five-Deity and Body Mandala initiations were conferred. And for the very first time at ABC, Rinpoche officiated at the extensive Most Secret Hayagriva Puja that lasted for over 10 hours!

It must be abundantly clear by now that to rest, to look after his own health and recovery is a concept that is not only alien but completely repugnant to Rinpoche. It is totally unbearable to Rinpoche not to teach and not to benefit when there is the opportunity to do so. 

Astoundingly, Rinpoche genuinely sees himself only as a Mickey Mouse lama, the Lawudo comedian, who knows nothing about the Dharma, who describes his own extraordinary teachings as “garbage talk,” who constantly asks himself whether he is truly benefitting sentient beings, bemoaning that he is “so lazy” and “not doing enough!”

Let us have a look at what this “not doing enough” looks like.

Rinpoche has made supporting the sangha a key priority of the FPMT organization.

• The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund regularly offers grants for food for sangha in monasteries in India, Nepal, and Mongolia and has most recently offered US$900,000 to the newly created Food Fund of Gyumed Monastery, an extremely important monastery that provides the highest education to top Buddhist scholars and teachers, including our very own Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi.
• Over US$400,000 has been offered to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery to help build a new 27,000 sq. feet debate courtyard that will enable its monks to debate uninterrupted throughout the year.
• Monthly stipends are offered to all senior teachers of the Gelug lineage and travel and food expenses are sponsored for hundreds of monks attending the winter debates and the annual Gelugpa exam.

Part of Rinpoche’s Vast Vision is to populate the world with holy objects for world peace.   

• The Holy Objects Fund supports this vision with the aim of creating 100,000 stupas and prayer wheels, 1,000 Maitreya statues, and many, many huge Guru Rinpoche statues.
• The FPMT family are all encouraged to commission giant thangkas to be displayed on special occasions. Prior to the pandemic, ABC has been displaying its own magnificent 50 feet high Amitabha Buddha thangka at the Vesak Day celebrations.

No one teaches the vital importance of generating the good heart, compassion, and bodhicitta quite like Rinpoche. Rinpoche also frequently reminds us of the suffering of animals.

• Put into action, the FPMT Social Services Fund offers grants to projects in India, Nepal, and Mongolia targeted at disadvantaged children, the elderly, the sick, and very poor and supports schools, hospices, health clinics, soup kitchens, and elderly homes.
• The Animal Liberation Sanctuary at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, soon to be further expanded, houses animals such as goats and cows, many saved by Rinpoche himself from the butcher’s shop.

These are only the tip of the tip of the iceberg of Rinpoche’s projects. So when it says in Rinpoche’s long life prayer, “Sustaining, preserving, and spreading the Manjunath’s victorious doctrine;/ Who masterfully accomplish magnificent prayers honoring the Three Rare Sublime Ones,” these are not empty words of praise but actually describes Rinpoche’s enlightened activities.

There are many new students gathered here today but new or old, we are truly the most fortunate of the fortunate, for during these troubled times, when there are so many wayward but charismatic teachers leading their students astray, Rinpoche is the guru who truly possesses and surpasses all the ten qualities of the valid guru. Rinpoche is the real deal!

So, Rinpoche, this is our heartfelt commitment to you:

You are our guru, you are our yidam,
You are our dakini and Dharma protector.
From now until enlightenment,
We shall seek no other refuge than you.

For the sake of your students, old and new, Rinpoche, please, please live long. 

And for countless others, desperately seeking but yet to meet the fully qualified guru, you who are that perfect guru, let them quickly, quickly find you. For their sake, Rinpoche, please, please live long. 

Our collective prayers have tremendous power and even if you were unable to attend the long life puja in person or online, we invite you to generate your own prayers for Rinpoche’s health and long life.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

You can learn more about the various charitable activities of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the many funds which support Rinpoche’s vision. 

A practice session during one of the 108 Nyung Na retreats at Institut Vajra Yogini, France, June 2022.

The Nyung Na retreat is a two-day intensive practice that includes taking the 24-hour Mahayana precepts every day, with the addition of complete fasting and silence every second day. There are three sessions of about three hours each day, including meditation, prostrations, and mantra recitation. It is a powerfully effective, experiential practice that can be done by anyone with respect and faith for the practice. Nyung Na retreat is highly praised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a supreme method for transforming the mind.

Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) in France has hosted it’s eleventh series of 108 Nyung Na retreats from November 2021-June 2022. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to regularly sponsor 1,000 Nyung Na retreats, and Institut Vajra Yogini kindly began to host the retreats every year to help fulfill this vision.

Like last year, the pandemic created some new challenges and restrictions, including an outbreak in the group earlier in the year. To follow government safety protocols and help reduce the risk of outbreak, IVY had to remove the option for students to join for single sessions, which it had offered in years before the pandemic. To help accommodate more students, Ven. Charles, the retreat leader, offered the morning sessions online every morning as well as one complete two-day Nyung Na retreat online once a month, so more students could participate from home.

This year, three people have completed the full round of 108 Nyung Na retreats, please take a moment to rejoice in their practice: 

• Venerable Charles
• Valentino Giacomin, from Alice Project
• Jean Marie Tanpi de Campanema, from France

An incredible 1,188 Nyung Na retreats have been completed at Institut Vajra Yogini over this period by those practicing on site and at home online, although the exact count is difficult to know with the inclusion of the online retreatants. 

Participants during one of the 108 Nyung Na retreats being held at Institut Vajra Yogini, France, June 2022.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund. has been sponsoring the food and accommodation for up to ten people, each year, who undertake the 108 Nyung Na retreats. This year, the fund offered US$14,541 in support of the 108 retreats completed. 

Institut Vajra Yogini has already begun planning for the twelfth series of 108 Nyung Na retreats, which will be held from November 15, 2022 to mid-June 2023. The retreats are led in French but can be followed simultaneously in English and other languages. If you are interested in joining, or would like to help sponsor the retreats for others, please contact Institut Vajra Yogini’s Center Director. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is again offering sponsorship for up to ten people to commit to 108 Nyung Nas.

“Nyung Nas are a most powerful, most beneficial and quickest way for you to develop bodhicitta, to collect extensive merit to quickly achieve enlightenment, to become Chenrezig, to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bring to enlightenment… This is an extremely powerful practice, it is an incredible way to develop bodhicitta.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche

You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Find resources on the practice of Nyung Na in the Foundation Store.

Some of the monks of Sera Je Monastery. Photo courtesy of Sera Je Monastery Facebook page.

This year on August 1 we celebrate Chokhor Duchen, one of the four annual holy days of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha which commemorates Buddha’s first turning of the wheel of Dharma and on which merit generated is multiplied one hundred million times. An amazing array of prayers will be happening simultaneously around the world, dedicated to all beings, particularly the entire FPMT mandala—centers, projects, services, students, benefactors, volunteers and all connected to the organization—and all beings who are sick or who have passed away.

The prayers and practices happening will be:

• Recitation of the Kangyur
• Recitation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra
• One Thousand Offerings to Namgyalma
• Namgyalma long life ritual
• Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa
• Recitation of the King of Prayers
• Medicine Buddha Puja

These prayers are being offered by thousands of ordained Sangha in Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Kopan Monastery, Gyudmed Tantric College, Gyuto Tantric College, Sera Lachi Monastery, Gaden Lachi Monastery, and Drepung Lachi Monastery.

Nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Nepal. Photo courtesy of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.

During the prayers, offerings will be made on behalf of FPMT to the nearly ten thousand Sangha, including the IMI Sangha residing in monasteries and nunneries around the world. Offerings will also be presented to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.

Sangha will also be making offerings of robes to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India; saffron color and umbrellas to the most precious Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal; printing sutras; creating stupas and Buddha tsa-tsas; and liberating animals.

Please rejoice in these incredible prayers and offerings that are being made on behalf of all within the FPMT organization. The Puja Fund is honored to sponsor these activities and if you would like to be part of these offerings at any time, you can donate any amount to the Puja Fund.

This is an incredible opportunity on August 1 to remember these activities and offerings, to rejoice that they are happening, and to dedicate the merits.

Thank you to all who make this possible and especially the Sangha who undertake these prayers and practices on behalf of us all. 

Please find collected practice advice for this merit multiplying buddha day, as well as other information about Chokhor Duchen. 

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Thubten Choying.

This year on Saka Dawa, June 14, when merit is multiplied 300 million times, the Puja Fund, on behalf of the entire organization, will be arranging the following pujas and practices for the benefit of all beings:

• • 100,000 Praises to Twenty-one Taras offered two times by Gaden Lachi Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.
  • Recitation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra by Gyudmed Tantric College.
  • 1,000 sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyalma by Sera Lachi Monastery and Gyuto Tantric College.
  • Medicine Buddha Puja by Gaden Lachi and Kopan monasteries.
  • Namgyalma long life ritual  by Drepung Lachi Monastery.
  • Offerings to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus, to an incredible 13,500 Sangha who are performing these pujas and practices, and in IMI communities.
  • Offerings of robes to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, and saffron and umbrellas to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal.
  • Printing sutras, making stupas, and Buddha tsa-tsas, and liberating animals.

You can be part of these incredible collective prayers, which support the Sangha, as well as the offerings to holy objects, by contributing to the Puja Fund. All donors are included in the dedication prayers.

You can also join by rejoicing in the practices, remembering they are happening on the actual day, and joining in with your own collective prayers.

Thanks to all who make these offerings possible. This is a truly meaningful way to offer support that benefits the entire FPMT organization and all who serve it in any way, to ensure the organization’s success in helping others far in the future, to help fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes for these activities to occur according to his instructions, and to create extensive merit for every living being through dedication. 

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Ven. Roger Kunsang offering a mandala to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the April 19, 2021 long life puja at Kopan Monastery

Every year Ven. Roger Kunsang, on behalf of the FPMT organization, checks with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and/or Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la), to determine what practices should be done to help create the conditions for Lama Zopa Rinpoche to have a long life and good health for the coming year. 

The first offering to Rinpoche arranged this year will be a White Tara long life puja on March 11, 2022, at Kopan Monastery. This special long life puja will involve seven days of preparation led by Khadro-la with the Kopan monks. At a later date there will be a Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong and a Guru Rinpoche bum tsog also offered according to the advice received. 

Khadro-la making an offering during a long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, April 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Our prayers have tremendous power and we invite you to join us by rejoicing in the puja being offered, generating your own prayers for Rinpoche’s health and long life, or making an offering toward the expenses associated with the pujas and practices for Rinpoche’s health and long life.

For additional recent advice from Khadro-la on mantra recitations to do for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the entire FPMT organization see: fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/mantra-recitations-for-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-lama-zopa-rinpoche-and-fpmt

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

The Long Life Puja Fund always contributes to long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You can also learn about the many Charitable Projects of FPMT and discover how the various funds and projects are benefiting others.

Monks of Sera Mey Monastery offering a puja sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund, prior to local restrictions.

The Puja Fund was established in 1995 as an expansive way for the organization to clear obstacles and generate the merit needed to be of most benefit in the world.

Incredible Opportunity This Lhabab Duchen

On the auspicious day of Lhabab Duchen (October 27), when the merit is magnified one hundred million times, the Puja Fund will be making and extensive monetary offering to 10,000 ordained sangha in India and Nepal. The sangha will be engaged in the recitations of the Prajnaparamita, Golden Light, Arya Sanghata, Vajra Cutter, and Amitayus Long Life sutras and will dedicate the merit of reciting these incredible sutras to all beings and in particular for the FPMT family, for all of the Dharma activities to succeed, and for all the kind donors of the Puja Fund. 

In addition there will be robes offered  to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, and saffron and umbrellas offered to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas. These offerings happen monthly throughout the year and always on merit-multiplying days.

If you would like to join in this vast offering, please offer any amount to the

Puja Fund

The monks of Sera Je Monastery.

An Increase of Offerings Due to Pandemic Difficulties

Current pandemic regulations prohibiting large gatherings have impacted monks and nuns in monasteries and nunneries all over India and Nepal who rely on support from offering the service of pujas and other prayers for individuals who request this from around the world. Due to this, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has increased the offerings we make to each sangha member eight-fold this year. We are honored to directly support sangha in this way. With this increase the amount being offered this Lhabab Duchen is US$40,000. 

The Buddha described the vast benefits that arise from making offerings to ordained sangha, the Sangha Jewel, who are living in pure morality. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that the sangha are the “real heroes” among us because they are working to defeat the delusions and thus living the best lives as human beings. Also, offering to those who are disciples of the same guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, becomes offering to the most powerful object of devotion, one’s own guru.

Making Merit Wisely

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has encouraged students to create merit wisely in order to generate the greatest success and fulfill our wishes. The upcoming Buddha multiplying day offers us one of those wise opportunities because merit is multiplied by 100 million times. And if one generates a bodhichitta motivation—the thought to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings—while making an offering, this becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings and is the most powerful way to purify all the defilements you have accumulated since beginningless rebirths. This is very smart business and the best way to create the most extensive merit for yourself and others.

If you  would like to make an offering to the Puja Fund for this purpose, please remember on the actual day (October 27) to rejoice in the offering you have made, to rejoice in the activities of the sangha who are engaged in the recitations, and to dedicate all the merit generated. 

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing out the Prajnaparamita in pure gold, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August, 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Recently we shared a video from Lama Zopa Rinpoche explaining some of the profound benefits of writing out the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and some of the history of Rinpoche’s ongoing project to write out this sutra in pure gold which Rinpoche and others have been undertaking for sixteen years including Ven. Tsering, Jane Seidlitz, and recently a monk from Kopan Monastery and a nun from Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery have joined these meritorious efforts. 

We are pleased to share PART TWO of Rinpoche’s teachings on the benefits of Prajnaparamita and invite you to rejoice, again, that after a ten year break due to a stroke, Rinpoche is now writing out this sutra in pure gold again. 

By hearing this sutra, writing it down, reading it aloud, or memorizing it, you create more merit than is fathomable. Rinpoche explains that by doing so, from life to life you crush the oceans of samsaric suffering, you crush the delusions. That is how profound this sutra is, it enables you to reach enlightenment. 

The Prajnaparamita Project is an FPMT Charitable Project which covers the cost of gold, paper, and calligraphy pens for the ongoing writing out of this most precious and beneficial sutra by Rinpoche and others. 

You can learn more about the Prajnaparamita Project as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing out the Prajnaparamita, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August 21, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“Even writing one letter from Prajnaparamita, even writing one letter, one syllable, the benefits are unbelievable, unbelievable, more than making extensive offerings, skies of extensive offerings to all the buddhas, so many eons, the merits you collect are unbelievable.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The Prajnaparamita Sutra contains the highest teachings of the Buddha and is among the most precious texts available in the world today. Due to the power of this text, writing it out is a way to generate tremendous merit and receive blessings. In May we shared the incredible news that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has started writing out this sutra in pure gold after a ten year break due to Rinpoche’s 2011 stroke. 

In a recent video, Rinpoche talks about the history of the project to write out the Prajnaparamita in gold, which Rinpoche and a few others have been working on for the past sixteen years. Rinpoche discusses the benefits of writing out this precious sutra, giving extensive commentary on the sutra’s incredible benefits. He also talks about the process for writing it out, including the need for precise calligraphy and high quality supplies.

Rinpoche released two videos on this topic and we are delighted to share the first video with you!
https://youtu.be/66vb6_cjnvM

Some of the advice Rinpoche translates in this teaching includes:

“By writing the Prajnaparamita we create more merit than making offerings to the three great thousand world systems completely filled with Mount Merus of stupas made of the seven types of jewels. We receive patience in the profound Dharma, emptiness, and we have no fear of meditating on emptiness, as quickly as the snap of a finger. All previous merits are small compared to this.

“After writing the Prajnaparamita, if we reveal it, we collect far greater merit than if we engaged in the five paramitas for ten eons, or listened to teachings on emptiness for ten eons. If we show the teachings of the Prajnaparamita to one sentient being, we collect even greater merit. If, after writing the Prajnaparamita, we meditate on emptiness for the duration of one snap of a finger, we create far greater merit than if we revealed the teachings to others for ten eons.”

The Prajnaparamita Project is an FPMT Charitable Project which covers the cost of gold, paper, and calligraphy pens for the ongoing writing out of this most precious and beneficial sutra by Rinpoche and others. 

In the coming days we will share the second part of Rinpoche’s video on this subject. 

You can learn more about the Prajnaparamita Project as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.

It takes Sangha many hours each day to offer water bowls as part of the extensive offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling.

Since 1999, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has arranged to have continual extensive offerings of water bowls and lights offered twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year to create merit for the FPMT organization. Since this began over two decades ago, these offerings have been increasing and are now happening in various parts of the world. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, “We are not aware of the limitless skies of benefits we achieve from the practice of offering, what we can achieve and enjoy from life to life. Even while you are in samsara, you enjoy good rebirths, wealth, and every happiness. Even just the samsaric perfections are amazing, without adding all those incredible realizations that allow us to offer deep benefit to sentient beings, liberating them from oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusion and karma.”

Rinpoche personally incorporates all of these actual physically made offerings in his daily practices and when doing food offerings he sometimes leads an extensive practice where all of the offerings are visualized and multiplied and then mentally offered to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and all the holy objects around the world.  

Rinpoche advises students, whenever making offerings in our practice, that we can also remember all the other arranged offerings in Kachoe Dechen Ling, CA, US; Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, WA, US; and also in all the FPMT centers around the world, by using these actual offerings as a basis and then visualizing and multiplying them. In this way, we can join in the merit from those having made these extensive offerings every day.

Extensive offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling, CA, US.

Please Rejoice in Some of the Extensive Offerings Around the World

• Thousands of light offerings, hundreds of water bowls, and a garden full of flower offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling, CA, US. 
• Thousands of light offerings, hundreds of water bowls, and a garden full of flower offerings at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, WA, US.  
• Thousands of light offerings, hundreds of water bowls, and gardens full of flowers offerings at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India.
• Thousands of lights, hundreds of water bowls and gardens full of flower offering at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. 
•  100,000 lights continually offered at Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC), Singapore.
•  100,001 lights continually offered at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center, Malaysia.
• Thousands of water bowl offerings, extensive light offerings at Ganden Do Ngag Shedrub Ling Center, Mongolia. These offerings are made daily by a group of very dedicated elderly volunteers.
• Continually burning butter lamp in front of precious stupa with Trulshik Rinpoche’s holy body in Chailsa, Nepal.
• Continually burning butter lamp in front of Guru Lhakang, Thubten Choeling, Chailsa, Nepal

Please rejoice and remember all these extensive offerings that happen every moment of every day!

Water bowls and extensive offerings at Ganden Do Ngag Shedrub Ling Center, Mongolia, offered by a dedicated group of elderly volunteers.

The Actual Offering Prayer

Through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund Rinpoche supports a number of Sangha to make many of these offerings daily, as well as covering the cost of electricity for the extensive light offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Kopan Monastery in 2021, and Root Institute, as well as the butter for the continual light offerings in Nepal and also occasionally the meals to the kind volunteers of  Ganden Do Ngag Shedrub Ling Center, Mongolia.

Extensive offerings at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.

You can learn more about the many beneficial activities of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund or other Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Beautiful Nyung-na altar at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.

By Nicolas Brun

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor 1,000 Nyung-Na Retreats. In response to Rinpoche’s vision, Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) has been hosting the TENTH 108 Nyung-Na Retreat and has now started to plan the eleventh set of 108 nyung-nas, from November 12, 2021 to mid-June 2022.

This year, following the COVID-19 crisis, the center had to face a really big challenge as the Nyung-Na Retreat was becoming more attractive for people. Before the pandemic, sessions could attract 20-25 people as one had the possibility to come and practice for a session. Unfortunately, the external conditions forced us to announce the end of this possibility because of the safety measures decided by the government.

Ven. Charles leading tenth 108 Nyung-na Retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini.

Because it was impossible to us the completely stop the retreat, all the team decided to keep some of the retreatants in a safe place and include them in the lockdown organization of IVY. Five long-term nyung-na retreatants have been able to stay and keep going three sessions a day, dedicating their practice for all of us and for all beings. We’ve also requested this year Ven. Charles allow us to broadcast some sessions online so that every morning people could join the first session, and do one complete nyung-na every month at a distance.

The Nyung-Na Retreat is an intensive practice that carries great blessings and is highly praised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a supreme method for transforming the mind. The practice includes taking the 24-hour Mahayana precepts every day, with the addition of complete fasting and silence every second day. One does four 2.5 hour sessions of well-structured practice that includes meditation, prostrations, and mantra recitation each day. It is a powerfully effective experiential practice that can be done by anyone with respect and faith for the practice.

These nyung-nas will be led in French but people can follow simultaneously in English or other languages.

2021 participants in the 108 Nyung-na retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini.

Everybody is welcome to join for one or more nyung-nas. You can contact Institute Vajra Yogini to enter any number of these retreats (1-100) when they begin the next set. Contributing to the sponsorship of these retreats or completing one or more yourself is directly contributing to Rinpoche’s wishes.

Nicolas Brun is the Director of Institut Vajra Yogini, France. 

A Practice to Open the Heart

As always, participants were moved by this challenging and sincere practice of nyung-na at Institut Vajra Yogini. One retreatant commented, “[Nyung-Na] requires a lot of commitment, discipline, and acceptance of suffering, but for this reason it also allows you to work on several levels.” Another reflected, “It is very special to go on this insightful and heart-opening journey to the many different corners of one’s mind, while being in a space full of kindness and care and with beloved Ven. Charles as a guide and example, who has the capacity to touch the hearts of every participant like a loving mother taking care of all her children equally.” One grateful participant gratefully shared, “Finally a retreat that has meaning for me! I really feel my heart opening for sentient beings.”

“Nyung-Nas are a most powerful, most beneficial and quickest way for you to develop bodhicitta, to collect extensive merit to quickly achieve enlightenment, to become Chenrezig, to liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsara suffering and bring to enlightenment….This is an extremely powerful practice, it in an incredible way to develop bodhichitta.” —Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund. has been sponsoring the food and accommodation for up to ten people, each year, who undertake this retreat, and for the tenth 108 Nyung-Na Retreat at IVY US$7,315.38 was offered for the first half of the retreat. The next set of 108 nyung-nas is scheduled to begin on November 12, 2021. Lama Zopa Rinpoche is again offering sponsorship for up to ten people to commit to 100 nyung-nas.

You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.