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Nalanda’s resident BP teacher Geshe Jamphel Gyaltsen
The FPMT Basic Program is an in-depth Buddhist education program designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and developed by FPMT Education Services. In-depth Program Coordinator Olga Planken reports on the success of the Basic Program held at Nalanda Monastery in France:
The formal studies of the second full-time, five-year Basic Program (BP) at Nalanda Monastery were completed at the end of April with a joyous three months of review and a very successful final exam. The review was facilitated by two of the students: Ven. Dorje, who also interpreted the BP into French, helped with facilitating the first half of the review; and Yael Altaratz, who will be the teaching assistant for the next BP, took care of the participants for the entire three months. They and ten others will graduate upon completion of the three-month lamrim retreat that has just started at Nalanda.
Building on their expertise from implementing two successful BPs, Nalanda Monastery will be offering its third Basic Program starting in 2018. Resident teacher Geshe Jamphel Gyaltsen’s BP teachings have been received with praise and enthusiasm, and Geshe-la is looking forward and committed to offering the BP subjects again from 2018 to 2022.
The third Basic Program at Nalanda will be excellently staffed by a team that consists of outstanding interpreter, Katy Fradet; experienced BP coordinator Ven. Rigchog; and teaching assistant, Yael Altaratz, soon-to-be graduate of Nalanda’s current BP.
Both monastics and lay students are welcome to take part in the program. The monastic environment offers inspiration for a balanced approach including study, meditation, discussion, and retreat. Students also benefit from the supporting presence of a Masters Program, currently in its fourth year at Nalanda, regular visits by highly regarded lamas, summer retreats, and extra-curricular teachings by Nalanda’s abbot, Geshe Lobsang Jamphel.
A unique feature of Nalanda’s BP is that it is scheduled in its entirety, including the three-month review, final exam, and three-month lam-rim retreat. This supports students to aim at program completion and graduation, and after five years of study to become eligible for teacher registration and various functions within the greater FPMT organization.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Nalanda’s BP interpreter Katy Fradet
The following is feedback from Nalanda’s review participants:
“I would like to take this opportunity to let you know how much I appreciate to have done this three-month review. It was very good and interesting to take all these months to review everything and also to discover new comprehension. I enjoyed very much learning and making links among the subjects. I am very enthusiastic to see the understanding starting to emerge!”
“The group study was most beneficial. We could go into depth over points, learn about different points of view, and receive more information then I could find on my own. We had good atmosphere and supported each other in topics that were more complicated.”
“I have very much appreciated the review period. I noticed how I could relate different topics in a way that I could not do while studying the separate subjects. I really enjoyed that. Now when I read a Dharma book on any topic, which I found difficult to follow before, I can easily and enthusiastically follow it after the BP. This is veeeeery important. Now I can enjoy a much wider variety of the Dharma texts.
“The review has been absolutely wonderful. I feel at last that I can see the structure and the overview rather than a mass of isolated facts. Studying with a group was so beneficial; it caused me to study in a disciplined way, and I could confidently admit my ignorance, and listen to the patient explanations of others.”
For more information and the registration options for Nalanda’s forthcoming 2018-2022 BP, please check Nalanda’s Basic Program web pages.
Nalanda Monastery’s main altar
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
The nyung nä merit field. Original thangka painted by Peter Iseli
Saka Dawa is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing into parinirvana. During Saka Dawa, karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. It is a very powerful time to practice.
The nyung nä retreat is a two-day intensive practice associated with Chenrezig that includes taking the eight Mahayana precepts for twenty-hour hours, with the addition of complete fasting and silence on the second day. The purifying power of nyung nä makes it an excellent practice to engage in over Saka Dawa.
In Abiding in the Retreat: A Nyung Nä Commentary, a new book by Lama Zopa Rinpoche forthcoming from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive this year, Rinpoche explains:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Nyung nä is a practice that is very easy to do and yet has unbelievable power. There is extraordinary benefit in doing nyung näs. Everybody should definitely attempt to do nyung nä practice, this powerful method of purification. You shouldn’t regard nyung nä practice as unimportant and be careless about it. You must practice it, and from your heart you must recite OM MANI PADME HUM.
“Doing this practice is an unbelievably powerful way to collect the most extensive merit and to purify the negative karmas collected during beginningless rebirths. Doing that is a most powerful way to develop realizations, especially compassion for sentient beings. Doing Chenrezig meditation-recitation can really purify any negative karma and is the quickest way to achieve enlightenment. Don’t miss the opportunity to do this practice. And the harder you find it to do, the better it is, because you will purify more negative karma. As well as bringing powerful purification, however, it helps you to develop so much compassion for sentient beings. Nyung nä practice is also very effective in healing sicknesses, even those that are difficult to cure, where other methods have been tried and haven’t helped. By confessing to the guru, reciting the Chenrezig mantra and doing nyung näs, people have been cured of such sicknesses. Nyung nä is very powerful.”
This year, Saka Dawa is on June 9. FPMT Education Services would like to remind you about some nyung nä materials available to you:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has also recommended other practices for special multiplying days such as Saka Dawa, including reciting the Sutra Remembering the Three Jewels.
Mandala magazine will publish “The Benefits of Nyung Nä Practice,” an excerpt from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new 2017 book Abiding in the Retreat: A Nyung Nä Commentary, in its upcoming issue, out June 21. Get the next issue of Mandala as a Friend of FPMT.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) in Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Bill Kane.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja offered to Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, April 23, 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
During a long life puja at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on March 13, 2016, Ven. Holly Ansett offered a beautiful long life prayer composed by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la). We are pleased to make this prayer available in a variety of languages, including the newly revised English with Tibetan phonetics and Tibetan script.
As a reminder, Khadro-la recently advised that students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche are requested to offer recitations of the Vajra Cutter Sutra and the Dependent Arising: A Praise of the Buddha (Tendrel Topa) for Rinpoche’s long life. FPMT International Office has requested everyone to join in and keep track of their recitations of these prayers during the rest of this Tibetan year so that the total number of recitations can be offered to Rinpoche.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching during the retreat in Australia, where he gave the oral transmission of Golden Light Sutra, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Australia, October 2014.
“Anybody who wants peace in the world should read the Golden Light Sutra,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in 2007. “This is a very important practice to stop violence and wars in the world. The Golden Light Sutra is one of the most beneficial ways to bring peace. This is something that everyone can do, no matter how busy you are, even if you can read one page a day, or a few lines and in this way continually read the Golden Light Sutra.
“For anyone who desires peace for themselves and for others this is the spiritual, or Dharma, way to bring peace that doesn’t require you to harm others, doesn’t require you to criticize others or even to demonstrate against others, yet can accomplish peace. Anyone can read this text, Buddhists and even non-Buddhists who desire world peace.
“This also protects individuals and the country from what are labeled natural disasters of the wind element, fire element, earth element and water element, such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, fires, tornadoes, etc. They are not natural because they come from causes and conditions that make dangers happen. They come from past inner negative thoughts and actions of people, and from external conditions. …”
During a retreat in Australia September-October 2014, Lama Zopa Rinpoche agreed to allow those who listen to a recording of Rinpoche giving the oral transmission to receive the transmission in full. You may receive this oral transmission by watching the video provided here or listening to the audio (see below).
Watch “Oral Transmission of Golden Light Sutra by Lama Zopa Rinpoche: All 21 Chapters” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tFCRFtOKUg
If you would like to access the audio of this transmission only, you can download an MP3 for offline listening or enjoy the audio-only version on YouTube. You must listen to the entire sutra in order to receive the full transmission from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
You can read Rinpoche’s complete advice on reciting the Golden Light Sutra for world peace on FPMT.org, where we have created a Golden Light Sutra resource page. On this page you can find links to more advice and many more resources, including the text in various languages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche examines a “Just By Seeing” Mantra he has written out. Washington, USA, October 2016
Both mantras and sutras are considered holy objects and bring great blessings to one’s mind and life through engagement. Dozens of commonly used and recommended mantras and sutras are available for students to download freely.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given extensive advice about mantra recitation and the benefits of particular sutras.
Please feel free to spend time on the FPMT Education sections of fpmt.org. Many resources for study and practice are available and we encourage all to take full advantage of these opportunities.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
In “Abandon Stretching the Legs,” a module of the Living in the Path program, Lama Zopa Rinpoche tells us to give up being lazy in our pursuit of understanding the nature of samsara and samsaric pleasures and to generate bodhichitta and strive to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
In this short video Emily Hsu gives an introduction to the four-line verse: “Abandon stretching the legs. / Give up entering samsara. / Vajrasattva, the great king, / Urges again and again.” She explains that the first line reminds us to stop being lazy by remembering that death is definite and can happen any time; the second line reminds us to stop being fooled by samsaric pleasures; and the third and fourth lines exhort us to cherish others and strive to achieve enlightenment for their sake.
Watch “Abandon Stretching the Legs – An Exhortation to Give Up Laziness” on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PBDPaIR2E0
A more detailed explanation of this verse can be found in the Living in the Path module “Abandon Stretching the Legs.”
All of the modules of the Living in the Path program are available on the FPMT Online Center. This program is ideal for anyone who wishes to deepen their personal practice and develop the realizations of the path to enlightenment by relying on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s heart advice and teachings. As the teachings often assume familiarity with the lamrim, participants are recommended to have previously received teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Emily Hsu is a graduate of the first FPMT Masters Program 1998-2004 and in 2005 completed a ten-month solitary retreat in Spain. She began teaching at Gyalwa Gyatso in California in 2006 and became resident teacher there in 2012. Emily is an FPMT registered teacher.
Living in the Path is an FPMT Education program.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a Lama Chopa tsog in the garden of the Kopan House at Sera Je Monastery, India, December 20, 2015.
The Lama Chopa Merit Field
FPMT Education Services would like to remind students of three videos available in which Lama Zopa Rinpoche chants the Lama Chöpa tunes in three ways: fast-paced, medium-paced, and slow-paced. These videos are an incredibly precious resource for FPMT students. Learning these tunes will help ensure that the lineage of this practice is preserved.
These videos can be found on this webpage. Also, you may download the video files (available in low and high resolution) onto your computer or device in order to access them while offline or in retreat.
The FPMT Foundation Store has many resources to enrich your practice of Lama Chöpa, including the Lama Chöpa Tunes and Audio Guide.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Light of the Path Retreat, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
Registration is now open for the extended 2017 Light of the Path hosted by Kadampa Center in North Carolina, USA, and taking place August 20-September 17. We hope that many students will be able to attend in person or participate via livestream and archived video.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has emphasized since the first Light of the Path retreat in 2009 that participants should review what he has previously taught so he can move forward at each new retreat with his commentary on Lama Atisha’s text, Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment.
Participants can prepare for Light of the Path 2017 by accessing the modules of the online program Living in the Path, specifically created to make Rinpoche’s extensive teachings available in bite-sized chunks for easier study and meditation. Alternatively, participants can watch the videos of the entire Light of the Path 2016 retreat, listen to the MP3 recordings, or read the unedited transcript.
Participants of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2016 Light of the Path retreat, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
While it would be ideal to review all the modules of Living in the Path prior to Light of the Path 2017, participants can begin with some key modules such as “Guru Devotion: Guru is Buddha,” “Karma: Everything Comes from the Mind,” and “Emptiness: Bringing Emptiness to Life.” For a video introduction to these modules with a Western FPMT-registered teacher, see “Guru is Buddha: An Introduction to Guru Devotion” with Ven. Rene Feusi; “Karma: An Introduction” with Ven. Robina Courtin; and “Bringing Emptiness to Life: An Introduction” with Don Handrick.
In addition, participants are advised to already be familiar with two specific practices for generating bodhichitta that will be done during the retreat, both available to all. The first, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment), is a practice combining a short lamrim text, a blessing of the speech, and a few daily mantras, and was compiled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for developing a bodhichitta motivation at the beginning of the day. It will be done either individually or as a group during the retreat. This practice is available as a booklet from the Foundation Store and can be found together with Rinpoche’s commentary as a module of Living in the Path. The second, Cultivating Mindfulness of Bodhichitta in Daily Activities, is a set of bodhichitta mindfulness practices compiled by Rinpoche for transforming our ordinary daily activities, such as washing, dressing, and so forth, into Dharma practice. This practice booklet is also available from the Foundation Store and can be found together with Rinpoche’s commentary as a module of Living in the Path.
We hope that you enjoy engaging with these most precious teachings and advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading walking meditation at Light of the Path 2016, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, August 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Singapore, 2013. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
“What makes your life most meaningful is meditation on the lamrim, then to live your
life with bodhichitta motivation. This is the best.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche
FPMT Education Services would like to remind you of several resources available to help you integrate the lamrim into daily life. “The most unbelievably important thing in our life is lamrim,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module “Advice for Realizing Lamrim,” which is part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lamrim program. “The practice of the three principal aspects of the path is the most important thing. This is the most important, more important than a job, money, or anything else in our life. It is the most important thing.”
Statue of Lama Atisha (982-1054) at Kopan Monastery. Lama Atisha was author of Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment, the first text which established the lamrim genre.
Education Services has created a webpage devoted to lamrim with links to free resources and texts to assist you in your study and practice.
You can find “Lamrim Is the Most Important Thing,” which includes a short video clip of Rinpoche teaching, on FPMT’s Online Learning Center.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice suggesting that students follow a lamrim outline and meditate on each subject for two weeks or one month until all subjects have been completed. “The amount of time for meditation is up to the individual, but the general advice is to finish the lamrim in one year,” Rinpoche said. “To meditate like this each year—wow, wow, wow! That would be great.”
To help students follow this advice, we have created a schedule to help you plan daily lamrim meditation sessions over the course of a calendar year. It was created on the basis of the book The Essential Nectar by Geshe Rabten, which is available through the Foundation Store. The schedule is available as an Excel spreadsheet and PDF.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
The “Verses for the Eight Auspicious Noble Ones,” or “Tashi Gyepa” in Tibetan, is one of Mipham Rinpoche’s most well-known compositions and is recited daily by practitioners from a variety of traditions.
In these verses one pays homage to the Three Rare Sublime Ones (the Three Jewels), eight sugatas, the eight great bodhisattvas, the eight offering goddesses, and the eight worldly guardians. The text also describes the hand implements or offerings held by each of the eight bodhisattvas, goddesses, and guardians.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recommended reciting this prayer every morning for “the success of the center and your own success, the success of FPMT, and the holy wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”
All are welcome to download these auspicious verses and incorporate them into your morning prayer regimen.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche reading from The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness, April, 2016. Photo by Bill Kane.
In this year’s annual review, Lama Zopa Rinpoche mentioned two practices that he’s asking students to focus on: The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) and How to Make Life Most Beneficial for Sentient Beings, Even with Your Speech. We wanted to remind students that these practices are available for free download.
Additionally, there are many prayers and practices, mantras, sutras, death and dying materials, and other resources available to support your Dharma study and practice.
The Foundation Store is the online store of FPMT International Office. The store helps students access prayers and practice materials; meditation supplies such as malas, incense, ritual items, thangkas, and statues; and FPMT homestudy and online education programs. There are more than 700 downloadable products available including PDFs, ebooks, MP3s, and online courses.
We hope that you will take full advantage of all that is available to you and we wish you every success in your Dharma studies!
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
We are currently amid a group of Buddha Multiplying Days and wanted to bring your attention to some resources available for students interested in purification practices during this time.
Days one through fifteen of the first month of the Tibetan calendar mark a period when Lord Buddha performed many miracles, beginning with Losar (the Tibetan New Year) on the first day and culminating on the fifteenth day, Chotrul Duchen (the Day of Miracles). On Buddha Multiplying Days, karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Vajrasattva. Artist unknown.
Losar took place this year on Monday, February 27 and the Fifteen Days of Miracles continues through Chotrul Duchen on Sunday, March 12.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught extensively on benefits of engaging in Vajrasattva practice for purification.
“Vajrasattva practice is so important generally, and especially nowadays in the world, when there is not only global warming, but many other problems,” Rinpoche explained in The Benefits of Vajrasattva Practice. “There are so many other dangers—of war and sicknesses, cancer, and so many people whom you know are dying. There are so many sicknesses and other conditions for dying.
“This Vajrasattva practice and other purification practices are the ultimate answer, so everything in the world—what you see, every situation—tells you to practice Vajrasattva. To purify and do Vajrasattva practice is the ultimate answer, to stop the cause to be reborn in the lower realms and the immediate [result] is to have a higher rebirth, to make preparation for death and then to meet the Dharma, to meet the virtuous friend who reveals the path to enlightenment. Then to achieve ultimate happiness, to be free from samsara and to achieve enlightenment for the numberless sentient beings and to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full enlightenment.”
The FPMT Foundation Store offers many resources to support students in their Vajrasattva practice. A short meditation with the four opponent powers is available as a downloadable PDF.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.