Study & Practice News

Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet, the founder of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and the Monlam Chenmo festival.

Days one through fifteen of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, during which Monlam takes place, 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). 

Losar took place this year on March 2, and Monlam continues through the Day of Miracles on Sunday March 16.

 Losar is the most important yearly celebration in Tibetan Buddhist culture. The annual Tibetan prayer festival, Monlam Chenmo, or the Great Prayer Festival, was established by Lama Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, in 1409. The first two weeks of the new year, Monlam, commemorate the time when the Buddha displayed his power by performing a number of miracles. Lama Tsongkhapa chose the Monlam Chenmo to coincide with the anniversary of incredible events in Shakyamuni Buddha’s life traditionally celebrated during the first two weeks of the lunar new year.

The new year commemorates a time of increase in virtuous activity. Any actions done during that period of time, both auspicious and harmful, are multiplied in their power. 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 and increase one’s commitment to both practice and study.

Please keep in mind: According to Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates Buddha Days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recommended practices for these special days.  You can find Rinpoche’s advice on Monlam collected here (on Rinpoche’s Advice page, under Buddha Multiplying Days), specific advice for practices to do on the Buddha Multiplying days here, and a calendar of all the dates here.

Special thanks to the Liberation Prison Project for preparing the Tibetan Calendar.

If you decide to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on this special day, you might like to report your recitations using the facility on the FPMT website – which you can find that on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.

Manjushri is the buddha of wisdom and wields a flaming sword that cuts through our confusion, doubts and internal obstacles.

FPMT Education Services is happy to release this revised and reformatted version of “A Meditation on Orange Manjushri.” This practice includes the short sadhana written by the 5th Dalai Lama as well as, “Practice to Receive the Seven Types of Wisdom.” Excellent for developing wisdom and clarity, improving one’s memory, and for understanding and explaining Dharma to others.

Available through the FPMT Foundation Store in eBook, a4, and booklet letter formats.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche does prostrations at Vulture’s Peak, the site of Buddha’s first teaching, India, February 2, 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

The most important thing for this life’s happiness, especially for the sentient beings you meet, is to have the thought:

I am the servant and they are the masters. I am the servant and they are the kings. They are the masters and I am like the dog. Sentient beings are the ones from whom I have received all my happiness. They are the dearest and most kind.

They are the ones from who all opportunities come, in relation to whom I have the opportunity to purify all my negative karma, create all the merit, and attain enlightenment. So they are the kindest of all. I should use my body, speech and mind to serve others, especially the people of the [Dharma] center, as well as all the animals and insects.

This is also the attitude one should have with one’s family, or if you are a teacher or the leader of a company, etc.

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from Service as a Path to Enlightenment, from FPMT Education Services

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 offering money to the beggars on the way up to Vulture’s Peak. Rinpoche asks them to recite OM MANI PADME HUM, India, February 2, 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kusang.

“Normally, worldly business people think that the best way to invest is by doing business. But that is only certain when you make a profit. Until then, it’s uncertain. My own feeling is the most reliable investment is to offer money to monasteries and offer charity to sentient beings. This way, even though the result of the investment, the income, doesn’t appear right now, it is 100% certain that it will be received in the near future.

“The result of karma is that not only do you receive the income back, but the result manifests in various forms, various instances of happiness. The karmic result is so much more than the profit you would get from business. The result of karma is expandable, not just in one lifetime, but hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, and can also expand up to enlightenment.

“This way, there is no loss at all. In the case of business, there is uncertainty until you actually make a profit. I feel this way, investing by making charity or offerings, is more satisfying. Then, not only do you get the result of whatever you achieve, but others get the benefit also. This is something to think about.”

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from “Investing for Real Profit,” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

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.

Painting of Buddha Tara by Peter Iseli

Tara, The Liberator, is a completely enlightened buddha who had previously promised to appear, after enlightenment, in the form of a female bodhisattva for the benefit of all beings. Her primary activity is to protect from the eight fears. Tara or simply Drol-ma in Tibetan, is one of the most widely venerated deities in Tibet. Tara represents the miraculous activities of all buddhas. In myth she is born from Chenrezig’s tears of compassion. There are innumerable manifestations of Tara arising according to the needs of others, such as the dynamic Green Tara who quickly overcomes obstacles and saves beings in dangerous situations.

FPMT Education Services is pleased to announce a revised Short Practice of Green Tara.  This practice includes the short sadhana, commentary from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and three versions of Praises to the Twenty-One Taras. A Kriya Tantra empowerment of Green Tara is needed to practice this sadhana in full. However, one can do this practice without such an empowerment as long as one does not generate oneself as the deity. If one does not have the empowerment, one can do the self-generation practice at the crown of one’s head.

Tenzin Ösel Hita with Ven. Pemba Sherpa in the, Land of Medicine Buddha, California, September 21, 2013. Photo by Chris Majors.

“Each person has to find their own way of understanding and what works for them because nobody can really come and say, ‘Okay, I found the truth. Take it.’ It may be his truth, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s your truth. You have to find your own truth.”  

– Tenzin Ösel Hita, from “Teachings from the 45th Kopan Course,” given in 2012 at Kopan Monastery, on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

More information, photos and updates about Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe, can be found on Ösel’s hompage. If you’d like to support Ösel’s educational endeavors, visit the Big Love Fund.

The Mahabodhi Stupa with gold offering on the pinnacle, Bodhgaya, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Every time you look at holy objects – pictures of the Buddha, statues, scriptures, stupas – they plant the seed of liberation and enlightenment in your mental continuum. So every time you look at them they purify your mind. They plant the seed of enlightenment, which includes all the causes to achieve enlightenment. How? When you look at them they plant a seed or positive imprint on your mental continuum so that later when you meet Buddhadharma, either in this life or in future lives, you are able to understand the words and the meaning of the teachings. From that, you are able to practice the meaning of the Dharma you have understood, which causes you to cease the gross and subtle defilements by actualizing the path and then your mental continuum becomes omniscient mind. This is what is meant when we say that by seeing holy objects it plants the seed of enlightenment on the mind – it contains the whole path from guru devotion and the three principles up to the two stages of tantra and enlightenment. Seeing holy objects makes us actualize all of this as a result. This is the effect we get from seeing them and this is how they cause us to achieve enlightenment.”

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from “Why Holy Object Are Precious and Wish-fulfilling,” posted on fpmt.org

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

Lama Yeshe with a parrot, Java, 1979. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“If you’re not tested, you take teaching after teaching and think you’re OK, but when you’re confronted with a difficult situation, it’s possible that you’ll find you’re not OK at all. So that’s why true Dharma practitioners welcome trouble. It gives them a chance to see if what they’ve been studying works or not, a chance to transform suffering into happiness. Otherwise you just go blithely along, completely out of touch with reality, thinking you’re OK when you’re not, because you haven’t actually been practicing Dharma at all.”

– Lama Yeshe, from “True Dharma Practitioners Welcome Trouble” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

Learn more about FPMT founder Lama Yeshe on his homepage on fpmt.org. Many more teachings from Lama Yeshe are freely available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Mahabodhi Temple and grounds at night, Bodhgaya, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“I think you are very fortunate to be able to come to Bodhgaya, where a thousand buddhas will descend, place their holy feet, display holy deeds, and achieve enlightenment. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is the fourth of the thousand buddhas. The rest of the buddhas will descend here and will also display the twelve deeds, and the holy deed, achieving enlightenment.

“There is a place in Bodhgaya called the Vajra Seat. This ground is blessed. Before becoming enlightened, Buddha blessed this ground so it would not be destroyed or cracked, but would stay firm. It is said that there are no earthquakes in Bodhgaya because it is blessed by Buddha, and also that this will be the last place to exist when the world ends.

“On top of receiving the blessings from this holy place, where already four buddhas have descended, so many other enlightened beings, yogis, and great bodhisattvas have come here to do pilgrimage, to pray, and to bless this place.

“It is very good while you’re here to make as many circumambulations and prayers as you can under the bodhi tree and inside the temple in front of the Buddha. Even though it is said that the bodhi tree has been cut down three times, it has the same roots as at the time of the Buddha. …”

— Lama Zopa Rinpoche, advice given to a group of Russian students on the benefits of doing practice in Bodhgaya from the “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing korwa at the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching and giving oral transmissions to children from Ladakh at Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“Your inspiration to practice Dharma is the most important thing in your life. Without Dharma there is no happiness, and there is no question that you can’t achieve enlightenment. You can’t liberate sentient beings from all the sufferings and causes and bring them to enlightenment. You can’t even achieve for yourself total liberation from samsara. All the happiness of future lives has to come from Dharma because it comes from past good karma, that which is Dharma. So, without Dharma, one can’t have any success in this life: success in business, marriage, or any happiness you want.

“So, the best thing to help others is Dharma, and the best thing to help oneself is Dharma. Among the best, most important things in this life is to meditate on the lam-rim and to have realizations –to complete the path to enlightenment and to make yourself fully qualified to liberate numberless sentient beings who are obscured and suffering and to bring them to peerless happiness and full enlightenment.”

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from “Advice for New Students” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s homepage. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via email, sign up to Lama Zopa Rinpoche News.

Tenzin Ösel Hita greeting Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Pemba Sherpa in the background, Land of Medicine Buddha, California, September 21, 2013. Photo by Chris Majors.

“Ultimately, the real guru is inside ourselves. We are our own guru, we are by ourselves. So it’s up to us to walk the path, always. We are born by ourselves in this body, and we will die by ourselves. There will be nobody who will take care of us afterwards in the sense like holding our hands and carrying us. We have to walk the path by ourselves.” 

– Tenzin Ösel Hita, from “Teachings from the 45th Kopan Course,” given in 2012 at Kopan Monastery, on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

More information, photos and updates about Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe, can be found on Ösel’s hompage. If you’d like to support Ösel’s educational endeavors, visit the Big Love Fund.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching and giving oral transmissions to children from Ladakh at Sera Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

“The Destroyer Qualified Gone Beyond One (Bhagawan) said, ‘The bodhisattva does not follow many Dharmas. The bodhisattva holds one Dharma well and realizes it well. The whole Buddhadharma will be in the hand of that person.’ What is that Dharma? It is great COMPASSION. (From the Chenrezig Sutra Well-Condensed Dharma.)”

– Lama Zopa Rinpoche from “Compassion Is of the Utmost Need”

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.