Supporting our Lamas

The dance of the five dakinis is offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life pujas.

Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) advised that FPMT centers include the dakinis’ request to the lama in the long life pujas arranged for Rinpoche

In the January-March 2015 print edition, Mandala magazine published a piece about the two long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche following the 2014 CPMT meeting in Australia this past September.

A tremendous amount of work, supplies and service goes into the organization of a long life puja and Mandala has done a wonderful job capturing some of the behind-the-scenes effort involved. In particular, you can read about what is needed for the dakinis’ request to the lama, which is offered with five dancers in full costume. Following Lama Zopa Rinpoche manifesting a stroke in 2011, Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) advised that FPMT centers include the dakinis’ request to the lama in the long life pujas arranged for Rinpoche.

Please enjoy this piece, complete with photos, from Mandala magazine.

You can follow the news of other long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, or offer any amount to future pujas offered to His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

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.

21 Taras thangka is 14 meters (46 feet) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide. This thangkha is being painted by artist Peter Iseli at a workshop at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.

The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund sponsored the creation of a workshop where large thangkas can be created at Institut Vajra Yogini in France. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is to create many large thangkas around the world.

Artist Peter Iseli with the amazing 21 Tara thangka.

The workshop is 8.5 meters (28 feet) tall. Rinpoche’s first order was a 21 Taras thangka that is 14 meters (46 feet) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide which is being painted by artist Peter Iseli.

The first third of the giant 21 Taras thangka is now finished, the canvas has been rolled up, and Peter Iseli has already started to draw on the second third of the canvas. This giant 21 Tara thangka is going to go to Tara Institute in Australia when it is finished.

“My wish is for the big centers in FPMT to have these large thangkas.” Rinpoche explained. “This is a way to leave imprints for all these people [who see them], for enlightenment.”

Please rejoice in the amazing work of Peter Iseli manifesting incredible holy objects that can be used by all to make merit.

You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund or Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Names of the 35 Buddhas during the Long Life Puja at Kopan Monastery. Photo by Ven.Roger Kunsang.

From November 29 – December 7, 2014, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught at the  lam-rim retreat at Kopan Monastery, known as the November Course. The November Courses have been taking place at Kopan for more than 40 years. Many of FPMT’s senior students first met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche attending one of these retreats. For three years in the seventies, two courses were offered every year and this year’s course was number 47!

The Kopan gompa was packed with participants in the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Photo by Bill Kane.

At the conclusion of the course, Kopan Monastery offered Lama Zopa Rinpoche an elaborate long life puja, including the traditional five dakini offering, on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. You can enjoy many beautiful photos of this joyous occasion at Bill Kane’s Facebook gallery of this event.

Thank you to all the kind donors who made this offering possible.

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

The nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.

Due to the kindness of a very generous benefactor, a full set of robes are being made by tailors in Kathmandu and then will be offered to the 75 nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery and three monks (the abbot, a geshe and a teacher). The robes will be offered during Chinese New Year.

During Lhabab Duchen the nuns offered Guru Padmasambhava Bumstok (100,000 tsog offerings to Padmasambhava). These pujas were dedicated to the good health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, students of FPMT, the sponsors of the 100 million mani retreats, and all the kind donors of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.

If you were Sangha but you didn’t wear robes, then people would not know [that you were ordained], but with robes on there is no question. That is how the robes have such incredible benefit for the mind. It is planting the seed for enlightenment when people show respect to your wearing of the robes, or to the robes themselves: This is planting the seed of liberation, and is a way of benefiting sentient beings.

—Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The geshe of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery sent the following message to Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently:

“On Lama Tsongkhapa Day, the nuns started seven days of Amitabha Bumtsok  here at nunnery. These  pujas organized are dedicated to all sentient beings and particularly for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life and members of FPMT.”

Please rejoice in this offering to the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery and also in their amazing practice and dedication to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the students of FPMT.

You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, or about the 100 million mani retreats that the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery have offered in alignment with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for FPMT.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche being led into the long life puja offered by Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, November 23, 2014.

The dance of the five dakinis was offered in this elaborate long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s 25th anniversary celebrations culminated with a very extensive long life puja with the five dakini dance offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on November 23, 2014.

Follwing the puja, Rinpoche commented that he felt the students were sincerely praying for his long life and that there was a heart connection between him and the students.

Please rejoice in ABC’s 25 years of offering the Dharma and offering this beautiful and elaborate  long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja offered to him at ABC, November 23, 2014.

You can enjoy more photos of this celebration and the auspicious long life puja on ABC’s and student Stephen Ching’s respective Facebook pages.

You can read more about this year’s other long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the Long Life Puja Fund’s News archive, and you can learn more about the various Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Daily Sutra of Golden Light recitations at Institut Vajra Yogini.

The students of Institut Vajra Yogini, France, have committed to engage in yet another one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT. This is the third Vast Vision they are actively supporting. In addition to hosting yearly Nyung-Nä retreats and building a large studio so that large thangkas can be painted, they will now recite the Sutra of Golden Light every day as a group with each participants’ recitation counted toward the accumulation of recitations. They organize two sessions daily to complete the entire sutra: 12pm-1pm and also 6pm-7pm. Students are also encouraged to recite from a distance. In the first nine days of beginning this new commitment, 35 full recitations of the sutra were accumulated and about 80 different students have taken part.

Institut Vajra Yogini decided to take on this commitment once they heard Lama Zopa Rinpoche advise about the benefits of the Sutra of Golden Light.

The holy Golden Light Sutra is the king of the sutras. It is extremely powerful and fulfills all one’s wishes, as well as bringing peace and happiness for all sentient beings, up to enlightenment. It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection and for the protection of the country and the world. Also, it has great healing power for people in the country.

—Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Please rejoice in these recitations. Anyone can join in this accumulation of merit and support of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions by reciting this incredible sutra which you can download freely in several languages.

After five weeks of recitations, Institut Vajra Yogini’s students have accumulated 160 full recitations of the Sutra. Almost 200 people have taken part in these recitations! Please rejoice!

FPMT Education Services has created a resource page to help you learn more about and start reciting the Sutra of Golden Light. You can download the sutra in 12 languages, report completed recitations, share your experiences, and ask questions about the text itself.

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, September 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.

From September 13-October 23, a successful CPMT meeting was held and followed by a retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche. These events were jointly hosted by three Australian FPMT entities: The Great Stupa, Atisha Centre and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery.

Following the moving long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which came after the CPMT meeting (there was also a second long life puja offered to Rinpoche following the retreat), Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered  over $24,000 to The Great Stupa, Atisha Centre and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery towards their incredible work.

Please rejoice in this kind offering towards these amazing beneficial activities happening in Australia.

You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund or the Long Life Puja Fund, which funds annual long life pujas for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The Tashi Chime Gatsal nuns planting vegetables at the nunnery.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, continues to support the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery (also known as Bigu Nunnery) by sponsoring the 100 million mani retreats which the nuns continue to offer at least two times a year.

The Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery nuns cleaning around the existing and new hostel.

This includes funding for a geshe to teach the nuns lam-rim and there are also funds offered to help the little nunnery grow and improve.

The sponsorship of 100 million mani retreats is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization, something so precious to rejoice in as well as the nuns’ ongoing effort toward the advancement of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision.

During the 100 million mani retreats extensive dedications are made for the FPMT organization, all the centers, services and projects, benefactors, students, volunteers and all beings.

The improvements to the nunnery also helps to create a conducive environment in which the nuns can continue to live in and offer their practices.

You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund or about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s collective Vast Visions for  the FPMT organization.

Ian Green thanking Rinpoche on behalf of the entire retreat and the three centers hosting, and requesting Rinpoche to continue the teachings.

At the conclusion of the recent retreat in Australia, inside the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, all of the participants and many others offered a beautiful and moving long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on October 23.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche being led into the long life puja.

At the beginning of the puja Rinpoche was led into the stupa by a local aboriginal elder playing the didgeridoo and two geshes, Geshe Doga from Tara Institute, Melbourne and Geshe Wangchen from Dorje Chang Institute, New Zealand.

The entire stupa was filled with people and it was a very joyous occasion and ending to an incredible retreat.

Amitabha Buddha Center will be offering a long life puja to Rinpoche in Singapore later this month and at the end of the annual November course at Kopan Monastery a long life puja will be offered to Rinpoche in December.

The five dakini dance was offered to Rinpoche.

Please rejoice in all of these recent long life pujas offered and planned for Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

To understand why a long life puja is essential, we must understand the value of the Guru. He is our guide in this life, the bardo, and future lives. He is immensely important. It is not a case where if we ask him to live he will, and vice-versa, but that to offer such a ceremony purifies our own broken samayas.

—Geshe Lama Konchog

You can learn more about the Long Life Puja Fund and offer your support to long life pujas for Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The foundation for a new prayer hall at Ngari Khangsten is complete.

Earlier this year we reported on a $US100,000 donation that was made by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, toward the building of a much-needed new prayer hall at Ngari Khangtsen, at Sera Je Monastery in south India.

We are pleased to report that the foundation is now finished. The project is employing a “small army” of local laborers who are working hard to build this wonderful new prayer hall.

There is not yet a projected date of completion as they have not yet acquired funds necessary to begin the next stage of construction. You are welcome to contribute directly to this next important phase of building.

This time of year, the monks of Ngari Khangtsen are pleased to have finished their annual exams. It was reported that the monks did very well this year.

Please rejoice in the completion of the foundation for this important project which will benefit so many monks studying Dharma so sincerely.

If you would like to learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund and how you can contribute to the many worthy projects which it supports, or if you’d like to know more about other charitable activity within the FPMT organization, you can see a list of the FPMT Charitable Projects and their descriptions.

Sangha at Kachoe Dechen Ling create tsa-tsas and stupas daily for those who are sick or have died. Photo by Chris Majors.

On Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s  request, the Sangha at Kachoe Dechen Ling make tsa-tsas and stupas every day. This activity is sponsored by the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund. The holy objects created are:

1. Long life tsa-tsas (Three long life deities and Medicine Buddha)

2. Mitrugpa tsa-tsas

3. Three stupas each day which are filled with the  Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras

Photo by Chris Majors.

The tsa tsas are made and dedicated for any person who is sick and the stupas are made and dedicated for any being who has died.

After the dedications the tsa tsas and stupas are used in various ways, one main way is around other stupas and holy objects at Kachoe Dechen ling that people can circumambulate when entering the house and create merit that way. They are also used around the bigger stupa that all the animals that are liberated are taken around each week.

In this way there is constantly practices happening at Rinpoche’s house dedicated for all beings

Rinpoche has said the only reason to have a house is for it to be a way to create merit for sentient beings and the organization, in this way Rinpoche takes care of all the sangha in the house and request they doing specific practices  all day (and into the night) with dedications for the whole organization and all beings.

Please rejoice in this daily creation of holy objects which create so much merit for individuals and all of FPMT.

You can learn more about the activities of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, which supports the creation of these tsa-tsas and stupas, or enjoy an overview of other Charitable Projects of FPMT.