FPMT Community News

Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim partakes in a souvenir photo session with two Tibetan mastiffs beside Yamdrok Lake, en route to Shigatse, Tibet, June 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim.

Ven. Tenzin Tsulrim, a long-time member and student at FPMT Center Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, shares a video she made in 2017 about her practice of circumambulation around holy objects:

Since receiving ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in March 2009, I have served ABC in various ways, including as media editor and video producer. Currently, I lead the on-going Medicine Buddha, Tara, and Guru pujas at ABC, and am a student in the FPMT Basic Program.

Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim outside of Lama Tsongkhapa’s retreat hermitage above Reting Monastery where he composed Lamrim Chenmo, Tibet, June 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim.

By watching this video, made using a pocket-sized video camera over an eight-month period, you can follow me as I traverse several sacred Buddhist sites across Asia in footsteps that pay homage to the Buddhist practice of circumambulation and its significance for enabling all sentient beings to accumulate merit. From one degree north of the equator in Singapore, to the high altitudes of Tibet, my path traces a circle inspired by unity and hope.

Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim at the inner courtyard of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, June 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim.

Creating the video was as much an exploratory journey for me as the actual pilgrimages I made to the holy places and doing the circumambulations. I hope by watching this video many people will be inspired to visit these precious places, and create their own circles of merit!

Watch Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim’s video on circumambulation here:
https://youtu.be/5JUjEhcBsqg

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice on Circumambulation, compiled by Ven. Sarah Thresher, is available for download through the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Circumambulation–Lama-Zopa-Rinpoches-Advice-PDF_p_2149.html

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ganden Tri Rinpoche, India, November 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

We hope you enjoy the April edition of the FPMT International Office e-News!

This month we bring you:

• Updates to Rinpoche’s schedule, including an initiation particularly beneficial to those serving in the organization;
  
• New materials from Education Services;
  
• More to rejoice about, including news about a recent Foundation Service Seminar, and dates of upcoming FPMT Service Seminars!

… and more!

The FPMT International Office News comes from your FPMT International Office. Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email box.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, April 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is currently leading the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia. The six-week retreat began on March 30 and is scheduled to conclude on May 12, 2018.

Lama Zopa Rinoche is teaching on Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life and will give the optional tantric empowerments of Chakrasamvara and Rinjung Gyatsa. This is Rinpoche’s third teaching retreat on this topic in Australia, having commenced in 2011.

Ian Green, director of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, shares details about preparations made in advance of the retreat:

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion at sunset, Bendigo, Australia, March 2018. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

Preparations for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s retreat inside of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia was a complicated logistical exercise.

Eighteen months before the retreat, we set up massive scaffolding inside of The Great Stupa, which stood fourteen meters tall by twenty meters wide (forty-six feet tall by sixty-six feet wide). Once the scaffolding was in place we began our work finishing the walls, light wells, and main arch of the north side of the gompa. That construction work took more than twelve months.

Lucy and Ven. Lobsang Konchok holding an image of a dakini inside of The Great Stupa, Bendigo, Australia, January 2018. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

The next phase was the creation of the artwork following Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice, by highly skilled Tibetan artist Ven. Lobsang Konchok.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Lobsang Konchok discussing artwork for The Great Stupa, Bendigo, Australia, April 2018. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

It took Ven. Lobsang Konchok and his assistant Lucy six months to paint the eight by six meter (twenty-six by twenty foot) arch. The result is a spectacular presentation of the Dharmachakra surrounded by eight offering dakinis.

The Dharmachakra surrounded by eight offering dakinis in The Great Stupa, Bendigo, Australia, March 2018. Photo courtesy of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion’s Facebook page.

One of the eight offering dakinis adorning the arch inside of The Great Stupa, Bendigo, Australia, March 2018. Photo courtesy of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion’s Facebook page.

While the Tibetan artwork was being completed twelve meters (thirty-nine feet) above the floor, plasterers and painters were at work on the lower levels. The last paint strokes were made two weeks prior to the commencement of the retreat.

The next phase was the dismantling of the scaffolding. This took one week.

Ten days prior to the start of the retreat, we were well into the massive clean-up phase. We devoted the final week to decorating The Great Stupa’s gompa with holy artwork.

Holy relics set up inside of The Great Stupa, Bendigo, Australia, March 2018. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

Since the retreat began, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has viewed relics displayed inside of The Great Stupa, teaching how to transform difficult situations into the path by seeing the benefits and training the mind.

The most spectacular artwork inside of the gompa is the fourteen-meter (forty-six foot) high thangka of the Twenty-One Taras.

The Twenty-One Taras thangka done by Peter Iseli on display inside of The Great Stupa, Bendigo, Australia, April 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The thangka was created by artist Peter Iseli, commissioned by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Tara Institute, the FPMT center in Melbourne, Australia.

Peter Iseli, Ven. Lobsang Konchok, Jangchub Iseli, and Ven. Thubten Gyatso at The Great Stupa, Bendigo, Australia, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

Heath Penbrook, marketing and events coordinator for The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion shares about the return of the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace to The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion:

The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace is the largest Buddha carved from gemstone quality jade in the world. The size and beauty of the statue makes it a wonder of the world. The Buddha was carved from a rare boulder of translucent jade (“Polar Pride”), which was discovered in Canada in 2000.

The Jade Buddha surrounded by floral offerings after the unveiling at Yen Phu Temple, Hanoi, Vietnam, June 2016. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

The Jade Buddha is 2.5 meters (eight feet) high and sits on an alabaster throne of close to 1.6 meters (five feet) high. The Jade Buddha itself weighs around four tonnes (8,800 pounds) and is considered to be priceless.

The Jade Buddha finished the final leg of its nine-year world tour in South Korea in early March.

A Buddhist nun and young girl with the Jade Buddha, Busan, South Korea, March 2018. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

Ian Green flew over to South Korea to ensure the safe packaging and shipping of the Jade Buddha to its home at The Great Stupa in Bendigo, Australia.

Ian Green and friends with the Jade Buddha, packed and ready for shipment, Busan, South Korea, March 2018. Photo courtesy of Ian Green’s Twitter page.

We expect the Jade Buddha to arrive in mid-April during the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. We are hoping to be able to place the Jade Buddha upon its throne and consecrate it during the retreat, thereby welcoming the Jade Buddha to its new home.

To learn more about The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion and the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace visit the website:
https://www.stupa.org.au

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach during the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia, March 30-May 12, 2018.

• Find links to watch teachings LIVE:
  https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/
• Watch, read, and listen to all of Rinpoche’s teachings from Bendigo at anytime: 
  https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.

Foundation Service Seminar in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Gilda Urbina.

FPMT service seminars provide support and training to those offering service, and those wishing to offer service, within FPMT centers, services, and projects. The seminars help develop a shared understanding of the FPMT mission set out by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and a firm basis to serve effectively and joyfully within the organization.

Gilda Urbina, Foundation Service Seminar registered facilitator and FPMT Mexico National Coordinator, shares her story about the recent Foundation Service Seminar that took place in Mexico in February 2018:

We had the great opportunity to participate in the Foundation Service Seminar (FSS) in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was attended by twenty-six volunteers from four centers and five FPMT study groups in Mexico.

It was facilitated by François Lecointre, a senior FSS registered facilitator and director of Institut Vajra Yogini. His kind and lovely presence helped to create a relaxed and yet attentive environment. With his help, Mar Portillo and I, as facilitators-in-training felt confident and motivated to keep on learning the “know how” of this noble activity.

Foundation Service Seminar facilitators François Lecointre, Gilda Urbina, and Mar Portillo in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Gilda Urbina.

In an environment of great harmony and joy, we analyzed and deepened our understanding of the valuable information offered to us through the FSS. Through observing the groups, I could see there was a spirit of teamwork and collaboration.

While working in the groups, participants were able to review the functioning of their FPMT center or study group, recognize areas of opportunity, and generate new ideas to further professionalize their work.

Foundation Service Seminar in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Gilda Urbina.

I could see that the people attending the FSS have a deep devotion to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, as well as a desire to contribute to his Vast Visions. Together, we reached specific conclusions regarding actions we can take that are consistent with the four skillful means to draw beings to the Dharma.

Through participating in the FSS, we gained clear ideas for how we can better welcome and engage new people who come to FPMT centers and study groups.

We also reviewed the Inner Job Description, which is an invaluable tool reminding us to go within ourselves and keep practicing, so we can benefit others through example.

Foundation Service Seminar in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Gilda Urbina.

When we heard about the amazing activities performed by FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world we were all inspired, and rejoiced.

Moreover, the information offered about FPMT programs and to teach according to the level of the student was an excellent aid for those of us organizing the teaching program at FPMT centers and study groups.

Foundation Service Seminar in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Gilda Urbina.

In summary, the FSS was an invaluable learning experience where the family feeling was always present. All agreed that these tools will definitely help us as we strive to professionalize our internal work; our work for the centers and study groups; and encourage us to work in a harmonious environment.

I am so grateful to be a part of the FPMT family.

For more information on the Foundation Service Seminar and to find out how to register for future events, visit the FPMT Service Seminar webpage:
https://fpmt.org/education/training/

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna has a new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo by Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna community.

FPMT center Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna (Nagarjuna’s Wisdom Center) in Bilbao, Spain, began as an FPMT study group in December 2012 with four members. They affiliated and became an FPMT center in April 2016, and now have twenty-five members.

In December 2017, Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna moved out of the space they had occupied for the previous three years in preparation for a move to a new home. Center director Koke Muro brings us the news:

We are delighted to share with you that on Saturday, February 24, 2018, we inaugurated our new center in Bilbao, Spain.

Geshe Lamsang, center director Koke Muro, and guests during the inauguration of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo by Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna community.

Over the past five years since our founding, thanks to our amazing members, volunteers, and benefactors, as well as the kind care and guidance of our dear lamas and teachers, the center has been developing and blossoming like a beautiful flower.

The old center was getting too small to host all of the beautiful people and holy objects, and it was on the third floor of a business building. Following the advice of our most kind Lama Zopa Rinpoche, we started looking for another place. We feel really fortunate that this amazing location appeared. Our new center exists due to the enthusiastic work of many, many people. Our wish is that it becomes a source of peace in the city for everyone.

Volunteers painting the ceiling of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s Facebook page.

After nine months of hard work—and thanks to the unbelievable kindness of our lamas, more than two hundred benefactors, and an amazing team of volunteers—we had a great weekend.

Centro La Sabiduria de Nagarjuna volunteers preparing for the inauguration, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo by Centro La Sabiduria de Nagarjuna community.

Geshe Lamsang, resident teacher at Centro Nagarjuna Valencia, consecrated our new center. We also began the lamrim module of the Basic Program, taught by Geshe Lamsang that same day.

Geshe Lamsang in front of the entrance to Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s Facebook page.

We enjoyed traditional welcome dances, food, a touching video about the volunteers who made our move possible, songs, gifts for everyone, and lots of tears of happiness and rejoicing. The joy was shared by the nearly fifty people who attended our inauguration, including members from other Dharma centers.

Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna has a new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2017. Photo by Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna community.

It was an unforgettable day. We want offer all this to our precious guru Lama Zopa Rinpoche so we can always please him and follow his advice for the sake of all beings. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Please come soon!

To learn more about Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna visit the center’s website. Watch the video about the volunteers who made their move possible:
https://youtu.be/Lm5gzyc8VvM

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Root Institute thirtieth anniversary celebration, Bodhgaya, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On January 14, 2018, FPMT center Root Institute for Wisdom Culture celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, which occurred on May 27, 2017.

Over 150 guests attended the event, including Ling Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Drönme), Dagri Rinpoche, Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche’s reincarnation, and Geshe Sengye’s reincarnation. Also in attendance were visiting dignitaries including Richard Gere, Root Institute’s resident geshe Geshe Ngawang Rabga, other visiting geshes and lamas, the FPMT Sangha and lay community, as well as a group of pilgrims who had recently completed Root Institute’s first meditative pilgrimage to the eight holy sites of the Buddha.

During the event, Ven. Kabir Saxena, Root Institute’s first director, recalled when Lama Zopa Rinpoche came to Root Institute in 1989 to give his first teaching there:

“When we first brought Rinpoche to the land, we were walking down the path and Rinpoche looked in the distance. It was all fields in those days and Rinpoche said, ‘Oh, it’s like the beach here, it’s like the beach. You know, it’s kind of very relaxed.’ But then immediately Rinpoche said, ‘But we don’t come with the attitude of going to the beach.’ And as soon as Rinpoche came to the gates (well, there weren’t gates there in those days), Rinpoche blew a conch shell very loudly. I think that that Dharma is still reverberating now.”

Ven. Kabir Saxena continued, “I remember once when His Holiness the Karmapa came, he said, ‘So many blessings on this land. This land has so many blessings, you don’t realize it.’ By then, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many of the great lamas had already been here.”

Current director Ven. Tenzin Paldron thanked Root Institute’s local Indian staff for their tireless years of service and reminded guests of the contributions of the Indian people to the center. “As Sahid our foreman, who has worked at Root for over twenty years, said to me, ‘Madam, directors come and go, but it is the Indian staff that have been the main branches of Root.’”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during Root Institute’s thirtieth anniversary celebration, Bodhgaya, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche spoke on Root Institute’s contributions to sentient beings. “By teaching lamrim and so forth, they liberate sentient beings from samsara.”

“Because we have been in samsara, the lower realms have been our resident home from beginningless rebirths. This time we have received a perfect human rebirth and an opportunity to no longer be in samsara and suffer. Dharma centers are so important; there are many teachers in the center teaching the philosophy, lamrim. Basically, all to subdue the mind.”

He added, “Not only that, but they teach the Mahayana teachings, bodhichitta, the Mayahana path to peerless happiness, liberation, cessation, and the completion of realizations, causing sentient beings to acheive enlightenment. That’s what the center does; that’s what Root Institute does.”

Filmmaker Marc Israel documented Root Institute’s rich history and ongoing activites—including service projects Shakyamuni Buddha Health Care Clinic, Maitreya School, Tara Children’s Project, and spiritual programs—and its vision for the future in a seventeen-minute film premiered at the celebration.

Watch “ROOT INSTITUTE: From The Ground Up” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/45z31h1avxI

To read more about the Root Institute’s history and spiritual programs offerings, visit the center’s website:
http://www.rootinstitute.ngo/

To watch the thirtieth anniversary celebration, including remarks by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, you can watch Bill Kane’s recording of the event:
https://youtu.be/QxIfNF2H9KQ

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Guru bumtsog at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

A new 15-minute video captures the sounds and scenes of a beautiful and auspicious 100,000 tsog offerings event for Guru Rinpoche done at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, also called Kopan Nunnery, in December 2017. The Guru bumtsog took place in conjunction with the display of an enormous Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) thangka. The new video shares detailed images of the thangka, extensive offerings, and puja.

This was the third year that the very large thangka was displayed at the nunnery with a Guru bumstog. The thangka, which is 75 feet (23 meters) high and 87 feet (27 meters) wide, hung from a large scaffolding and depicts in stitched appliqué the Padmasambhava merit field in the center.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the event with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, who is the current abbot of the nunnery, and the reincarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche. Losang Namgyal Rinpoche and Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, the reincarnation of the former abbot Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup Rigsel, were also in attendance along with more than a thousand Kopan Sangha, local Tibetans and Sherpas, and foreign students.

Watch “Guru Bumtsog at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/uoYmfrHOQ-k

Learn more about the Kopan Nunnery, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, online:
http://www.kopannunnery.org/

FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Kopan monks doing Guru Puja on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

As students of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, we may be familiar with the practice of Guru Puja, also known as Lama Chöpa. But how well do we understand its significance?

Now a new, multimedia online series from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA), called Guru Puja is the Heart Practice, offers detailed instruction on this key practice, which was composed by Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662).

The six-part series contains a wealth of teachings and instructions on Guru Puja, based on teachings given by FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the first Light of the Path retreat in the United States and augmented with similar teachings given by Rinpoche at retreats around the world.

Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen. Photo © 2018 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2004 Rubin Museum of Art.

Generations of great masters and yogi-practitioners have taken Guru Puja as the very heart of their practice. And Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasizes to his students that they do the same. 

LYWA recently published the first installment in this series, entitled “The Importance of Practicing Guru Puja,” which introduces the Guru Puja, explains why tantra is such a quick path to enlightenment, presents Rinpoche’s commentary to Pabongka Rinpoche’s heartfelt advice on the importance of practicing Guru Puja, and explains why all our meditation should be integrated into the lamrim.

Guru Puja is the Heart Practice multimedia series was edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher. The teachings are supplemented by images as well as audio and video recordings, along with links to related materials. Future installments will introduce chanting and the lineage of chanting used for Guru Puja within FPMT.

The series includes the following parts, which will be released in the coming months:

• Part One: The Importance of Practicing Guru Puja
• Part Two: An Introduction to the Chanting through to the Prostrations
  
• Part Three: The Offering Section
• Part Four: Renewing the Bodhisattva Vows to Mantra Recitation
• Part Five: The Tsog Offering
• Part Six: The Lamrim Prayer to the Verses of Auspiciousness

For more on Guru Puja is the Heart Practice series:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/lywa-multimedia-guru-puja-heart-practice

Learn more about Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on their website:
http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php

FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, December 2017. Photo courtesy of Tan Hup Cheng.

Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC) in Singapore is creating a gold crown for the 3.3-meter (10.8-feet) high Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue that occupies ABC’s main altar. The crown is the newest addition to a project that has been ongoing for more than eighteen years.

Here, ABC director Tan Hup Cheng shares a personal account of the creative endeavor:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche chose the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue for our main altar way back in 1995. He advised us that we must construct this statue. He further advised that we seek the services of Denise and Peter Griffin, both students of his, to build it. After a long and difficult journey, due to their many other commitments, we successfully secured Denise and Peter’s services.

Work on the statue’s parts began in 2013, with inputs from Rinpoche. After much hard work, the statue parts were completed and shipped to Singapore for assembly in August 2015. Finally, in March 2016 the statue was completed, in time for Rinpoche’s visit to ABC.

ABC’s Executive Committee had discussed the making of the crown for the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue, and with great devotion and lots of faith, we decided to build the crown in pure 24-carat gold. An estimate of the amount of gold required was about 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds).

In order to raise the amount of solid gold required, we sent an email to 4,000 members of ABC’s fan club. We described the unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and inconceivable merit, to offer a gold crown to Chenrezig.

We asked people to buy pure Swiss 999.99 finesse gold bars in denominations of 1 gram (0.4 ounces), 5 gram (1.8 ounces), 10 gram (0.4 ounces), 20 gram (0.7 ounces), 50 gram (1.8 ounces), 100 gram (3.5 ounces), or whatever amount of 24-carat gold they could afford. We told them that their gold bars would be melted down to form part of the large 4 kilograms (8.8 pound) gold crown. So for a small investment of 1 gram of gold, we explained that they would receive the same amount of merit as offering 4 kilograms of gold.

The email went viral, and people began flooding the ABC office with offerings of Swiss gold bars. After two months we had collected 4.2 kg (9.3 pounds) of pure gold.

Close-up of the gold crown placed on the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, December 2017. Photo courtesy of Tan Hup Cheng.

Peter Griffin made the crown using the age-old technique of lost-wax casting. He had to make wax master pieces. He used computer aided programs to design the crown parts, and had the wax master pieces printed in 3D using a special machine. Peter printed a total of 169 wax pieces.

A benefactor in Singapore who owned a jewelry foundry offered his gold casting workshop equipment to us so that we could melt and cast the gold. While at Nalanda Monastery in France, Peter invited Joan, who had previously worked as a goldsmith, to come to Singapore to cast the parts into gold. Joan reached Singapore in August 2017, and successfully cast all of the 169 gold parts.

Peter is working with our benefactor jeweler so that all of the gold parts can be soldered together to form a solid three-tier crown. In sum, nine small crowns will be soldered together to form the crown for the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue.

Thanks to another student of Rinpoche, Piero in Italy, we managed to purchase thousands of pieces of blood red coral and turquoise stones, in various sizes to adorn the gold crown base.

When all has been completed, the gold crown will be securely locked away. We will then offer the gold crown to Rinpoche, to offer to the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue when Rinpoche visits in October 2019.

We believe that our guru’s pure mind can dedicate the merit created. We also believe that, as Rinpoche told me, the statue can become a cause for Dharma to flourish in this world for 10,000 years; as well as work for the FPMT; and the success of Rinpoche’s vision and wishes to be fulfilled.

To learn more about Amitabha Buddhist Centre visit their website: http://www.fpmtabc.org

FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his sister, Anila Ngawang Samten, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Welcome to the March edition of the monthly FPMT International Office e-News!

This month we bring you:

• Highlights of Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• An Invitation to Read Our 2017Annual Review: Serving the Teachings of the Buddha
• Rejoice in Our Investment in the Entire Organization
  
• New Materials from Education Services
  
• New FPMT Study Groups
  
• Tara Introduced to Australia!

..and more!

The FPMT International Office News comes from your FPMT International Office. Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email box.

FPMT International Office is happy to announce FPMT Annual Review 2017: Serving the Teachings of the Buddha is now available to read as an eZine and a downloadable PDF.

International Office, also called Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office, helps fulfill the vision of FPMT’s founders Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, assists with the actualization of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision for the FPMT organization, and supports 164 centers, projects, and services in 39 countries that comprise the international FPMT network. Each year, International Office shares our accomplishments and rejoices in what has been achieved. 

“From the bottom of my heart and bones, thank you numberless times for all your service; dedication; practice of holy Dharma with your body, speech, and mind; and for your devotion and good heart,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in his letter in this year’s annual review. 

“The ultimate aim is to benefit sentient beings, whose minds are obscured and suffering, and for them to achieve happiness in this life and happiness in future lives, then the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara and of buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations,” Rinpoche continues.

“Therefore, sentient beings receive all the peace and happiness up to enlightenment by serving the teachings of Buddha, so that the teachings exist continually and develop, and also by serving the Sangha, who preserve and spread Dharma in this world.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang in Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Andrea Husnik.

In addition to Rinpoche’s letter, FPMT Annual Review 2017 includes an update from FPMT CEO Ven. Roger Kunsang, an overview of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s tireless Dharma activities, and highlights from International Office’s departments. 

New this year, we’ve made a special online photo album for the annual review, sharing photos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2017 travels to India, Nepal, Mongolia, Russia, the United States, Austria, and Italy. Scroll or click through to see Rinpoche throughout the year bringing benefit to all sentient beings and giving us so much in which to rejoice!

We invite you to read FPMT Annual Review 2017: Serving the Teachings of the Buddha, now available online in eZine and PDF formats:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/annual-review/

See photo highlights from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2017:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/lama-zopa-rinpoches-2017/

FPMT International Office is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office and works daily to achieve its mission of “preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice, and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha, and based on that experience, spread the Dharma to sentient beings.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recorded a message to thank all who recited the practices requested for his health and long life.

Listen to Rinpoche’s message, and read the edited transcript:

“This is a message from Mickey Mouse, little one, little Mickey Mouse from Lawudo, expressing from the heart a billion, zillion, trillion thanks for alllllllllllllll your prayers: 15,249.5 recitations of the Diamond Cutter Sutra and 19,265 recitations of Dependent Arising: A Praise to Buddha, that is showing us dependent arising, the subtle one, that which shows exactly what emptiness is unified.

Even if you recited OM MANI PADME HUM, or even recited OM AH HUM, or even recited just OM day and night, or weeks, months and years.

So I thank a billion, zillion, trillion times.

This is also a big puja for yourself, for purification and to collect merits. Therefore, to free yourself from samsara and achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, so that means it is for all sentient beings that you have done this. Thank you very much.

If I stay longer, one year or a month or a week or day or an hour, I will try to benefit the fish, or pigs, or dogs—something simple. OK? Thank you very much.”

Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s message, recorded March 4, 2018, in Nepal:
https://fpmt.app.box.com/s/v6ekdwvz1ttedg44tw1ypo2wwlqimdzg

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.