receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Social Services
Blankets were offered to 30 children in a local Kushinagar orphanage by Maitreya Project Kushinagar. In December 500 blankets were offered to poor villagers.
An ambulance was offered to help very poor villagers in Kushinagar with basic medical help.
In early 2014 Lama Zopa Rinpoche, via the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, offered a donation to Maitreya Project Kushinagar to be used toward the incredible humanitarian work they are now undertaking.
Some of the money was used for a much needed ambulance that helps villagers in very poor areas of Kushinagar with basic medical help. Other funds were used to distribute mosquito nets in the Summer to villagers to protect them from malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, and was a big problem in the area during Summer months.
Mosquito nets were distributed to villagers to help with the spread of malaria.
Currently Maitreya Project Kushinagar is fundraising for a blanket drive so they can offer blankets to very poor villagers who suffer in the Winter. In December, the first 500 blankets were distributed. This past week, 30 blankets were distributed to a local orphanage which is home to children who were mostly picked up from the streets and very desperate. These children had no decent blankets to protect them from the Winter cold.
Please rejoice in this amazing humanitarian work being offered by Maitreya Project Kushinagar. You can offer directly to this beneficial work.
You can learn more about the work of Maitreya Project Kushinagar as well as other beneficial activities being supported by the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.
Sangha and students rented a truck and transported a large Namgyalma mantra board to bless beings in the ocean. Photo by Troy Stafford.
Sangha at Kachoe Dechen Ling offer a weekly blessing of all sentient beings in the ocean by submerging large Namgyälma mantra boards into the water. The Namgyälma mantra is embossed and by entering the ocean, it blesses all beings who come in contact with the water.
While the mantra board is in the water extensive prayers are made, including visualizing Chenrezig over the ocean with nectar coming from Chenrezig which blesses all beings in the ocean.
Sangha and students braved the cold Winter beach weather to bless beings in the ocean. Photo by Troy Stafford.
Other practices are offered, such as reciting the long Namgyälma mantra and generating strong compassion. As the the mantra is recited, nectar beams being emitted are visualized which purify the negative karma of every sentient being since beginningless rebirth. They all receive the blessings of Namgyälma.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has requested this practice be done each week by the Sangha in addition to the other animal liberation practices they do.
In November Sangha and local students (including Rinpoche’s dog Uma Jangsem) took the giant Namgyälma mantra board (5 x 7 ft) out for this practice. This particular board is a little more difficult to bring regularly due to the size of the board. To use it, they had to rent a truck and accompany it into the ocean. Since it is winter in California, the freezing water was quite intense! But still, some took the board out into the ocean, swimming beside it to stabilize it, while other students and Sangha did prayers on the sand.
Ven. Namgyal and others spent many months repairing the mantra board and making it strong enough to withstand the rough Pacific Ocean. Tremendous thanks to all who make this happen and please rejoice in this incredible practice that is benefitting so many beings in the ocean.
You can learn more about the Animal Liberation Fund, or about other Namgyälma mantra blessings and ideas for how you can use this powerful mantra to bless beings in water.
The death of these fish was certain but they were offered animal liberation practice by Cham Tse Ling in Hong Kong.
The Animal Liberation Fund was incredibly pleased to offer $2,000 toward a very large animal liberation which was organized by Hong Kong’s Cham Tse Ling Center. This center recently purchased $20,000 worth of fish and other animals that were intended to be killed, and liberated them. The number of animals in this liberation totaled 14,500!
This animal liberation was dedicated to all beings and specifically to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and all the holy kind gurus; all the donors of the Animal Liberation Fund; all those who have sent in their names requesting prayers; as
well as all the students, benefactors, and volunteers
of all FPMT centers, projects and services.
After the animal liberation, the dear animals were released back to their homes.
Complete animal liberation practice was offered to the animals who were taken around many holy objects and blessed with blessed water before being released. This is according to the specific advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on how to offer charity the animals in the best way, ensuring their long term benefit.
Thank you so much to Ven. Pemba, Esther and all the students of Cham Tse Ling and please rejoice in this incredible practice. Saving 14,500 sentient beings, how incredible!
If you would like to offer any amount the Animal Liberation Fund, your donation will be used for large animal liberations such as this, as well as weekly animal liberations offered.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Sangha offering animal liberation practice at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, CA, USA. November 2013, Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
When Lama Zopa Rinpoche is at his residence in Calfornia, Kachoe Dechen Ling, he often joins in the weekly animal liberations that the Sangha do on behalf of all who are sick. These liberations include extensive prayers and practice, according to Rinpoche’s advice, with emphasizes taking the animals around holy objects (At Kachoe Dechen Ling they are taken around the stupa which, itself, has many smaller stupas and tsa-tsas lining every edge), and blessing them with mantras and water blessed by mantra before they are released.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Sangha offering animal liberation practice. November 2013, Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
In these photos, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is carrying worms that have been liberated (these worms would have been used as bait for catching fish). Rinpoche is carrying them with this right arm, which is still healing following Rinpoche’s stroke, so this practice also serves a form of exercise. The Sangha circumambulate, chant mantras and prayers and offer incense. The animal liberation practice is typically offered in the afternoon, but often when Rinpoche is in the house it can happen very late at night.
You can learn more about the Animal Liberation Fund and offer your support.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and one of the beautiful Namgyälma boards being used to bless sentient beings in the Pacific Ocean and all who come into contact with it.
In addition to the weekly animal liberations offered by the Sangha at Kachoe Dechen Ling – Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s California residence, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has requested the Sangha to also make weekly trips to the Pacific Ocean in order to bless all the beings living in the ocean, by using large Namgyälma mantra boards. This practice benefits all sentient beings in the ocean as well as all who touch the ocean, swim in the ocean, surf, etc. The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest ocean (69,375,000 square miles) so by blessing this ocean, the benefit spreads far and wide. As well as blessing the sentient beings in the ocean and those who interact with the ocean, extensive practice involving visualization and mantra recitation is also done in accordance with advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. An excerpt from this beautiful practice, the abbreviated Yeshe Kadra practice:
From the introduction:
Pretas suffer heavily of hunger and thirst – not finding even a drop of water or a spoonful of food for hundreds of thousands of eons; incredible exhaustion; disappointment; heat and cold, etc. In particular, the pretas experience three types of obscurations: outer, inner, and obscurations related to food and drink. This practice of “Yeshe Karda” is a practice whereby every single preta, of all the different types of pretas, receives drink.
From the actual practice:
For all pretas, whom the Omniscient Mind sees, this ocean of water appears as nectar. All pretas see it as an ocean of milk; they drink it and are fully satisfied. It liberates them from all sufferings, defilements, and the causes of sufferings – karma and delusions, including the specific sufferings of pretas. All these are purified and they actualize the whole path to enlightenment.
The practice is dedicated to all beings, especially for the long life of our precious gurus and and with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended dedication practices.
Here you can see Rinpoche doing this very practice with Sangha
About the Namgyälma mantra, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said:
“Namgyälma is one of the five powerful deities that manifested to purify negative karma. The benefits of reciting the five powerful mantras are mind blowing. If you recite the mantras for anyone who has been born in the lower realms, it has the power to liberate them into a pure land and so forth. That’s an incredible thing. The mantra when written can be put on the head of a person or animal who has passed away. Or you can chant this mantra and then blow on water or sand, which you throw over the body to purify. These mantras are very important and powerful in the jangwa prayers.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Sangha and students using the Namgyälma boards to bless all who come into contact with the Pacific Ocean.
“Before reciting the mantra one can do the seven-limb prayer. Then make a request to Namgyalma for oneself and all sentient beings to be completely purified of all negative karmas and all those who are already in the lower realms to be immediately born in the pure land, where they can attain enlightenment, or to receive perfect human rebirth, meet the pure Mahayana teachings and be guided by perfectly qualified Mahayana gurus. Also, all the different negative karmas of sentient beings causing war, earthquakes, famine, disease, etc. to be purified, to not happen again in the future.
“Generate strong compassion. Recite the long mantra several times and then the short mantra. As you recite the mantra, visualize nectar beams are emitted, purifying the negative karmas of every sentient being since beginningless rebirth. They all receive the blessings of Namgyälma.”
Extracted from advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche following the tsunami tragedy, Kachoe Dechen Ling, December 28th 200.
Long Namgyälma Mantra
Further Reading/Resources
- Mandala Publications, “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Blesses All Sentient Beings in the Ocean “
- Practices of Namgyälma hardcopy collection of practices
- Namgyälma Mantra Card
- Namgyälma Mantra Decal Stickers
- Namgyälma Protection Amulet
You are welcome to contribute any amount to this weekly practice:
The children of Central School for Tibetans are offered a good quality vegetarian meal every day for lunch, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, is sponsoring all the midday (lunch) meals for the children of the Central School for Tibetans in Bylakuppe in South India. The cost for this is US$8,086.61 for the year.
In April 2013 Rinpoche also offered US$30,000 for the complete renovation of this school’s kitchen.
The vegetarian meals are prepared in the new kitchen, also sponsored by the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited the school in January of this year for the inauguration of the kitchen. At that time Rinpoche wished to offer more support to the school and pledged to offer lunch for the children for all of 2014. The children are offered a good quality vegetarian lunch that is prepared daily in the new kitchen.
Please rejoice! This offering will allow the school to focus more of their limited resources on the educational curriculum.
You can donate any amount to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund:
Fred Cheong (now ordained as Ven. Drachom) is offering Rinpoche a medallion with 1,000 Namgyalma mantras on it. Photo: Ven. Roger Kunsang May 4, 2013.
Earlier this year, Ven. Drachom (Fred Cheong), vice president of Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s (ABC) executive committee, pledged to liberate 10 million beings for the long life of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and a team of ABC volunteers are involved in making all of this happen. Ven. Drachom first began doing animal liberation practice when Geshe Lama Konchog became ill with cancer in 2000. He pledged to Lama Zopa Rinpoche to liberate one million animals for Geshe Lama Konchog, which he did and then some. When Rinpoche manifested a stroke in 2011, Ven. Drachom and his team liberated 10 million animals in four months, dedicating the merit to Rinpoche’s complete recovery and long life.
About once a month at ABC, sea creatures are purchased at a seafood market to liberate. Then they circumambulate the animals around center, which has 100 sets of the Kangyur and Tengyur as well as more than 300 stupas and many holy objects, including prayer wheels and statues. They do the animal liberation practice in the FPMT Prayer Book. Then, using a boat, the animals are taken to a place where they can be released. “We have good conditions to do this,” Ven. Drachom explains. “We are close to the sea and have a good place to release them, where they are in the correct environment.”
Strong prayers and dedications are made for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life and to stay with us and guide us, and for all of His Holiness’ prayers and wishes to come true as well as for the long life and perfect health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and for all of Rinpoche’s wishes and prayers to succeed.
“At ABC, our intention is to continue doing animal liberation practice and benefiting beings forever – life after life,” Ven. Drachom said. For the future, he envisions that those who know about doing liberations and who have liberated many animals will teach and share that knowledge with others.
Please rejoice in all the lives saved and thank you to all the kind donors, Ven. Drachom and the students of Amitabha Buddhist Center who help to make all this possible.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the children from the Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In January, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave many oral transmissions and teachings to school children from the Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Ladakh, India. The school was set up by the monks of Ngari Khangtsen at Sera Je Monastery in South India. The children were brought to Sera Je for the recent Jangchup Lamrim teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, is offering food to all the children (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) this year. The cost is 10,000,000 rs ( US$15,873). This is the second year that Rinpoche has been able to make this offering.
The children at the Ngari Institute are orphans or have come from very poor families. They follow the standard government educational curriculum during the day and learn about Tibetan Buddhism and culture during after-school hours.
Rinpoche’s assistant Ven. Roger Kunsang reported that the children have memorized many prayers and Lama Chöpa and “they know all the tunes!” (See video below.)
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven.Khedup and behind Maitri Charitable Trust Director Adriana Ferranti and her staff circumambulating the stupas made so that animals can create merit while they receive care.
The Animal Liberation Fund was pleased to offer US$3,000 to MAITRI Charitable Trust, which, through its Animal Care Program, has taken on the responsibility for providing essential care to hundreds of animals in need in Bodhgaya, India, since 1994. This donation was specifically intended to cover the cost of food for 45 goats and 25 chickens that have been saved from death. The annual cost to feed these animals is US$7,117.
The Animal Liberation Fund is extremely happy to support MAITRI Charitable Trust in its incredible efforts caring for animals that would otherwise be killed.
You can learn more about what MAITRI Charitable Trust is doing and support their work directly.
Please rejoice in this work. You are welcome to support the Animal Liberation Fund, which supports weekly animal liberations and offers support to other projects dedicated to liberating animals such as MAITRI Charitable Trust.
The Bylakuppe School for Tibetans, Karnataka, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Sera Monastery is located in the Tibetan settlement Bylakuppe near Mysore, Karnataka in South India. Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsored the new kitchen at the Bylakuppe School for Tibetans, which was inaugurated on December 19, 2013.
Bylakuppe School for Tibetans students greeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Plaque commemorating the new kitchen, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, December 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has requested the Sangha at his residences to offer the practice of animal liberation every week dedicated to anyone who is sick or having life obstacles.
Extensive prayers are made for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche and all our kind teachers, the Sangha and anyone who is sick and requesting prayers.
This is something amazing to rejoice in, and something you can make offerings toward, especially if you are sick or would like to offer on behalf of someone else who is sick. Any extra money remaining in the fund is offered toward larger animal liberations held in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche turning the prayer wheel he advised be built. Photo by Thubten Jangchub.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered US$3,321 to a small Tibetan settlement in the hills of Kulli Manali, India, for repairs to their gompa’s roof. This Tibetan settlement is where Zong Rinpoche’s mother lived previously.
This is the second offering from the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund to this settlement, Rinpoche also offered US$5,000 towards statues for the gompa and advised for a prayer wheel to be built (both pictured).
Please rejoice in this offering!
If you would like to contribute to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, any amount is welcome.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering to the statues sponsored. Photo by Thubten Jangchub.