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Cover from the new Mandala October-December 2013
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recently been commenting on the need for FPMT students to actualize the lam-rim teachings and achieve realizations. You can read Rinpoche’s recent advice in the just-published Mandala October-December 2013:
Special group of retreatants
First of all, I want to say that the FPMT has been developing now for many years and over that time people have been studying and practicing the Dharma according to their ability. Generally, when I look at the FPMT organization, what I see is that the students have developed more compassion and good-heartedness. This is extremely worthwhile because compassion for all sentient beings is the very heart of Buddhism; it is the most important Dharma practice for the happiness of the individual students, for their families, for society, for the country, for the world and for the six realms’ sentient beings.
There has been a lot of study and the study is going well; there is Discovering Buddhism, the Basic Program and the Masters Program. Particularly in the Gelugpa tradition there is a lot of teaching and learning philosophy, and in the FPMT organization we have been doing that. Buddhist philosophy is now being studied in almost every center, especially where there is a resident geshe. We even have Western students who have completed the Masters Program and can teach philosophy where there is no geshe, or even where there is a geshe. There are more centers teaching the Masters Program and some centers have already taught the Basic Program several times. People have been learning about Buddhism, and especially the lam-rim, for quite some time now in the FPMT and there are some who are also trying to meditate and practice the lam-rim.
Now what is needed are people who will sacrifice their lives, as they did in India, Tibet and Nepal, not just to study the Dharma like at a college or university, but to actualize the teachings in a monastery or isolated place. In Tibet, the mountains were full of caves like ants’ nests, where people would go to practice without distraction. When I came from Solu Khumbu [in Nepal] to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in Tsang [Tibet] and then on to Pagri [in Tibet] there were many caves along the road where meditators would practice with hardship and the realizations of guru devotion, renunciation, bodhichitta, right view and the two stages of tantra would all come. Wow, wow, wow. It’s unbelievable! That’s why the country of Tibet is so blessed and so precious because there are many, many caves where meditators, like Milarepa, for example, achieved different realizations, such as the rainbow body.
This is how Buddhism really comes alive – when it is not just words, not just scholars, but really living Buddhism. When study and realization come together, Buddhism will really last. Wow, then like an ocean in the heart and the mind, it will spread and be preserved. …
From Mandala October-December 2013
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Masters Program students (left to right): Ven. Tiziana Losa, Jacob Fisher, Yaniv Sagi, Marina Brucet, Hans Burghardt, Yumi Terada and Joan Dombón, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia, Italy, July 2013. Photo courtesy of ILTK.
The second cycle of the FPMT Masters Program at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK), Pomaia, Italy, is coming to a close. Based on Lama Yeshe’s unique vision for comprehensive education and inspired by the traditional geshe studies at the Tibetan Gelug monastic universities, the Masters Program is the FPMT’s most advanced study program. Consisting of six years of intensive study followed by a one-year retreat, it provides serious students with the opportunity to explore deeply the major treatises of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism and to gain a strong grasp of the profound tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa. From among those individuals who successfully complete this program of study, it is hoped that some will show suitable interest and abilities and become qualified teachers of Buddhist theory and practice in FPMT centers. Integrating components of behavior, study, meditation and service, the program provides students with the conditions necessary to engage in in-depth study of three major Buddhist Mahayana treatises (Abhisamayalamkara, Madhyamakavatara and Abhidharmakosha) as well as tantric grounds and paths and the tantra of Guhyasamaja, providing students with a thorough grounding in both sutra and tantra. More….
Image courtesy of Dreamstime.
As Gelong Tenzin Namdak explains in his introduction to Chenrezig Gyalwa Gyatso Self-Initiation by Jampal Gyatso, “Self-initiation is a powerful practice in which you take the four empowerments on your own, thereby renewing your bodhisattva and tantric vows.”
This self-initiation ritual can be practiced by anyone who has already received the four empowerments of Chenrezig Gyalwa Gyatso from a qualified teacher, is keeping the commitments and has completed the approximation retreat of at least 100,000 mantras plus 10,000 wisdom shower mantras and has sealed the retreat with a fire puja.
Includes Self-Initiation and Concise Self-Initiation, along with
important altar set-up information.
Available in reader eBook format (non-reflowable PDF).
The monks of Sera Je Monastery enjoy a meal together offered by The Sera Je Food Fund, which offers three nutritious meals a day to all 2,500 monks studying at the monastery.
Eating is something we must do every day and offering our daily meals is an excellent way to practice generosity and create merit as we nourish our own bodies.
FPMT Education Services has create a Food Offering Practice book which includes an extensive food offering practice, general food offering prayers, and the yogas of eating food according to Hinayana (and for Sangha), Mahayana Sutra and Mahayana Tantra. 
This book is available in hard copy and eBook formats.
You can help offer three meals a day to the 2,500 monks of Sera Je Monastery by contributing any amount to the Sera Je Food Fund.
FPMT Education offers study programs to students at all stages of their Buddhist education. You can learn at home, online, or at an FPMT center near you.
If you have any questions about how to take the next step with your FPMT Education, we’re happy to help!
Articles from Mandala magazine about FPMT Education:
- Collaborators in Preservation: Key Education Services Contributors Reflect on the Future of FPMT Education
- Mandala’s eZine in August 2011 was dedicated to FPMT Education which is now archived and freely available.
- Other articles featuring FPMT Education can be found on the Mandala website.
In the 2011 FPMT Annual Review: Cherishing Life, Lama Zopa Rinpoche included advice about becoming vegetarian:
When I was in the hospital I saw a program about animals that were sold to be killed in Indonesia and other countries (live export). I don’t know how long this has been going on, must be already for a long time.
On the TV I saw the goats waiting in line, between wooden fences. It didn’t show how they were killed, but it showed one cow that was on the platform, with the head tied, being pulled down to be killed. The cow didn’t want to go and the man was pulling it. I thought, “I don’t have power to stop all this killing, but what I can do is to try to inspire people to become vegetarian,” and since then whatever teaching I am giving, even if it is tantra, I am trying to talk to people about becoming vegetarian, to avoid eating meat or to eat less meat so that there are less animals getting killed. I am trying like that.
Then just to mention that one person in Vietnam became vegetarian because he heard I was sick and one student from Amitabha Buddhist Center in Singapore took lifetime Mahayana precepts after she heard I was sick and one prisoner in USA also stopped eating meat. So they are really, really amazing!
FPMT Education Services frequently receives requests for information and materials regarding living a vegetarian lifestyle, and questions about where FPMT stands on the issue. As such, we have compiled some articles from Mandala Publications which address this issue from different perspectives:
- We Cannot Live Without Harming Others by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
- On Becoming Vegan: When Vegetarian Is Not Enough by Nick Ribush
- Vegetarianism: A Healthy Debate by Venerables Sangye Khadro and Robina Courtin
- Nine Questions About Vegetarianism by Geshe Thubten Soepa
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving advice to the cooks of Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
During Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s most recent visit to Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India, Rinpoche gave the following advice to the Tushita cooks:
I have been hearing from people that the food at Tushita is fantastic. Generally, they tell me they are very happy with the place and especially the food. I was amazed to hear this and particularly that you have been able to improve the flavor and quality of the food without using onions, garlic or other black foods. Of course, the initial reason why people come to Tushita is not the food, but for the teachings and meditations; they are a little bored with the lives they have and are looking for something new. However, the conditions at Tushita –and especially the food – are a very important support for the teachings and meditations. Sometimes in the past, for example, when I would teach on impermanence, the hells and the eight worldly dharmas, people would get scared and leave, but if the food was good, they would stay. That’s one way to keep them!
So I’ve been thinking for many days to come to the kitchen and explain a short meditation to the cooks. There is a short morning motivation I have put together with a direct meditation on the graduated path to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. (Most of the time in English we use the expression “fully enlightened” but in Tibetan it is sang gye; sang means that all the obscurations, gross and subtle have been purified, and gye that all the realizations have been fully developed and there is nothing more to achieve. “Fully enlightened” has a different meaning; it’s better to say “fully omniscient mind.”) [This meditation is] followed by some verses explaining how precious and kind sentient beings are.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with one of the Tushita cooks, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Every single sentient being is most precious, dear and wishfulfilling – fulfilling all your wishes for the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment. Every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, insect, ant, mosquito, bird, goat, human being, sura and asura does this. That is because all our beginningless past lives’ happiness, present happiness and future happiness comes from good karma and that good karma comes from your mind, from mental intention. Buddha’s enlightened activity is of two types: one comes from Buddha’s holy mind and one from your mind. Buddhas come from bodhisattvas, bodhisattvas come from bodhichitta and bodhichitta comes from great compassion. Great compassion comes from every single obscured suffering sentient being. There is no way to generate great compassion without depending on every single suffering sentient being. Therefore, there is no bodhichitta, no bodhisattva, no Buddha and no way to create good karma, the cause of happiness, without them. In other words, every single happiness and comfort comes from sentient beings, even a cool breeze or a drink of water when you are thirsty. Without sentient beings there is no way to experience happiness in this life, future lives, liberation or enlightenment. All our happiness comes from every single sentient being.
For example, all my happiness comes from every one of you and from all the rest of the sentient beings; every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura and asura. All my past, present and future happiness comes from everyone because Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in whom I take refuge and with whom I purify every single negative karma and achieve the peerless happiness of full enlightenment come from everyone. That is why sentient beings are most kind, dear, precious and wishfulfilling.
Sentient beings are more precious than a wishfulfilling jewel because you can’t practice morality, purify negative karma and achieve a higher rebirth with a wishfulfilling jewel. Nor can you practice the three higher trainings and achieve the ultimate happiness of liberation or generate great compassion and achieve enlightenment with a wishgranting jewel, but you can with sentient beings. If you pray to a wishgranting jewel you can get a house, car, swimming pool and so on, but not higher rebirths, liberation and enlightenment. That’s why sentient beings are most unbelievably precious. Which one is more precious – skies of wishgranting jewels or sentient beings? Sentient beings are more precious!
Therefore, dedicating your life to others and helping them is the best, most exciting thing you can do. Serving them in any way you can and giving them whatever help you can give is what brings the most happiness. For example, helping an old man carrying a very heavy load or giving your seat to somebody in a bus, train or car. Doing whatever it is that sentient beings need, whether big or small, is the most satisfying, exciting thing you can do.
That’s why making delicious food and offering it to the people who come here is a really great opportunity. Wow, wow, wow, wow. It is a way of offering comfort and happiness to sentient beings who are most wishfulfilling. That’s what brings the most happiness and excitement. It’s the real Dharma. Dharma is something that protects your life, protects you from suffering and guides you to happiness….
There is a great deal to rejoice in that you have this very precious opportunity to offer food to sentient beings who are most precious, dear, kind and wishfulfilling.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la with Tushita Meditation Centre cooks, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Practicing bodhichitta mindfulness in the kitchen
Here are some ways to think while you are preparing and cooking the food:
When you are cutting anything, for example onions, think,
I am cutting the root of all sentient beings’ suffering which comes from ignorance and the self-cherishing thought, with the knife of the wisdom realizing emptiness (shunyata) and bodhichitta.
When you are washing pots and so on think,
I am washing away all the obscurations and negative karmas from all sentient beings’ minds.
You can think that you are washing away your own obscurations and negative karmas but most important is to think you are washing away those of all sentient beings. And you can think the water is nectar coming from Vajrasattva, the Guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. There is always a lot of washing up to do in the kitchen and you can use the opportunity to purify all sentient beings’ obscurations. It’s very good if you can sincerely think this way because all the washing up becomes Dharma practice purifying your negative karma and defilements and collecting merits. In India even the beggars keep their pots very clean!
When you are sweeping the floor think that the broom is the whole path to enlightenment, especially wisdom and bodhichitta, and that the dust is all sentient beings’ obscurations.
I am sweeping away the dust of all sentient beings’ obscurations with the broom of the path to enlightenment and especially wisdom and bodhichitta.
If you sincerely think this while you are cleaning it becomes real Dharma practice that benefits all sentient beings. In the lam-rim it says to think that you are abandoning the dust of the three poisonous minds – anger, attachment and ignorance – which are the gross obscurations and also the stains of the three poisonous minds, the subtle obscurations.
When you are kneading dough so that it can be made into any shape think,
I am taming all sentient beings’ minds by softening them with my two hands of the wisdom realizing emptiness and bodhichitta.
When you are making momos or shapale – rolling out pastry and filling it with cheese, potato and vegetables – think,
I am filling all sentient beings’ minds with the realizations of the path from guru devotion up to enlightenment so that they can actualize all the qualities of a buddha.
When you are cooking soup or other food you can think that the fire is the Six Yogas’ tummo fire that causes the kundalini to melt. Do the same meditation that is used to bless the inner offering in highest yoga tantra. Or you can think that the fire is the wisdom realizing emptiness and the uncooked food is the unsubdued mind. By cooking the food all the gross and even the subtle delusions are purified and all the realizations of Buddha are achieved.
These are some ways of thinking as you are working in the kitchen. You can think in a similar way with other kitchen activities.
Typed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 17, 2013.
Mandala brings you news of FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Nyung nä Merit Field. Painted by Peter Iseli.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor 1,000 nung nä retreats. About this retreat practice Rinpoche commented, “Nyung näs take such a short time, but bring strong purification. So many eons can be purified in this life; it makes it so easy to have attainments.”
Nyung nä practice is an intensive 2-day purification retreat that includes fasting, precepts, prostrations, prayers, mantra recitation, and offerings. Nyung nä is a practice based on the deity, 1,000 armed Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion, and is extremely powerful for healing illness, purifying negative karma, and opening the heart to compassion.
Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) in France recently hosted a series of 108 nyung näs, with Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsoring those doing the full 108. Three people completed 108 nyung näs each. Institut Vajra Yogini is hosting another round of 108 nyung näs: November 15, 2013 to June 19, 2014. For more information, please contact IVY.
From August 9-12th, 2013, Maitripa College is hosting a nyung nä retreat, led by Merry Colony, who has personally completed over 108 of these powerful retreats herself.
You can read commentary from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about this powerful practice courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
FPMT Education Services has published a Nyung Nä practice manual with everything you need to complete this retreat. It can be purchased on the FPMT Foundation Store.
FPMT is made up of an international community of students of all ages and levels. In this photo, Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Programme 6 students review with Tibetan conversation partners, Dharamsala, India, June 2013. Photo courtesy of Drolkar McCallum.
The Education Scholarship and Development Fund provides the funding needed to create FPMT Education Services’ comprehensive educational programs and helps financially support students in study programs around the world who are on track to become FPMT Dharma teachers, meditators, and practitioners.
Please consider donating any amount to support this critical work.
Yangsi Rinpoche and students, 2009. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.
During the April 2011 Rinjung Gyatsa initiations in Bendigo, Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche commented that he really likes the way Yangsi Rinpoche’s Maitripa College chants the Heart Sutra in English. Please enjoy a recording of Yangsi Rinpoche and students of Maitripa College reciting this important Sutra together.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
While staying at Kopan Monastery in Nepal earlier this year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave an oral transmission of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lekshe Nyingpo (Essence of True Eloquence). Here’s an edited extract from Rinpoche’s teaching before a transmission given in April 2013:
Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that all the suffering in the world comes from ignorance; therefore the root of suffering is not outside. No matter how much scientific knowledge and education worldly people have they still believe the cause of suffering to be outside; but that’s wrong. The cause of suffering is in the mind and that’s why it is the mind that has to change. Changing the mind is more important than trying to change what’s outside; changing outside never finishes. Change has to come from the mind. It has to come from your mind.
The hell, hungry ghost and animal realms come from your mind, from your negative, impure mind and wrong way of thinking every moment and every day. While enlightenment, the fully awakened omniscient mind, liberation from samsara, and day-to-day happiness come from your mind and from the correct way of thinking, from positive thoughts. This is how everything comes from the mind.
For example, when you have problems in daily life, if you practice patience, compassion, thought transformation, bodhichitta, emptiness and so on, then at that time there are no more problems. In that hour and that minute when you change your mind and think differently the problems are gone. But when you don’t change your mind and keep thinking the old way, as people in the world generally do, believing that the root of suffering is outside even though they have so much scientific knowledge, well then the suffering never finishes. There is no end to suffering.
Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that all the sufferings come from ignorance, but this is not just something stated by Lama Tsongkhapa; the more you learn Dharma and check scientifically, the more you discover and realize that this is true.
Excerpted from a teaching before a Lekshe Nyingpo lung at Kopan Monastery on April 13, 2013. Transcribed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Basic level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.
The Supreme Gift of Immortal Life; The Way to Perform the Thousand Offerings in relation to the Ritual of the Self and Front Generation of the Noble Ushnishavijaya was translated from the Tibetan by Ven. Tenzin Gyurme the Tibetan using the text published by Sherig Parkhang. It is appropriate for those who have received a jenang of Ushnivijaya/Namgyalma, based upon a great initiation into the action class of tantra.
This practice is available as a non-reflowable PDF which can be used with electronic devices such as Kindle or iPad. However, PDF formatting is fixed and is not open like e-publication files especially made for these devices. It is also available in booklet letter and A4 formats.