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Karuna Hospice Services nurses Mel and Hollie testing new podcasting equipment with Ven. Tsultrim at Karuna Hospice Services in preparation for an interview with Alana Cresswell from Donate Life Queensland and Phillipa Lazenby from the Queensland Tissue Bank, April 2021. Photo by Verena Coombs.
Karuna Hospice Services in Windsor, Queensland, Australia, has a new initiative to help people prepare for their own death and the deaths of loved ones. Verena Coombs, who does community relations for the hospice, shares the story of their podcast, “What About Death!?”:
Karuna Hospice Service in Brisbane, Australia, launched a podcast in April called “What About Death!? Everything you wanted to know about death but were afraid to ask.” The purpose of the podcast is to bring the topic of death out of the dark and into the open by exploring the many aspects, perspectives, and nuances of dying and death with the hope of reducing some of the stigma, taboo, fear, difficulty, and discomfort that often accompanies this inevitable part of life.
Ven. Lozang Tsultrim, who is a counselor at Karuna and previously presented a community radio program for several years, interviews people from Australia and around the world, who share their various experiences, insights, and research into dying and death.
What About Death!? podcast. Image by Karuna Hospice Services.
We are hopeful that by listening to these many and varied perspectives and experiences that we can stimulate curiosity in a very non-threatening way, thereby opening up the conversation and sparking interest. We hope that will result in more people talking openly about dying and death with their friends and family, leading to a greater understanding, less stress and a more peaceful and spacious way of responding whether death is arriving for us or for others.
We have a new episode every two weeks and the podcast can be found on Apple, Spotify, Google, and on the Karuna website. Special thanks to our podcasting team Joshua Byrd, Shannon Callander, Ven. Tsultrim, and Verena Coombs.
In addition, Karuna is continuing to provide regular community education online, with mindfulness courses, and the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom courses Unlocking Your Potential and Building Balanced Empathy. We hope to continue with the 16 Guidelines in the not too distant future. Do take a look at our website for upcoming course information.
Host Ven. Tsultrim recording an introduction with volunteer podcast editor Kiara Fauzi at Karuna Hospice Services, April 2021. Photo by Verena Coombs.
As a free community hospice service that has been offering palliative care in Brisbane, Australia for twenty-nine years, we are so very grateful for the privilege and the gift of caring for the dying and those with life limiting illness. We are very aware that so few others are afforded such a worthwhile, satisfying, and profound opportunity. Karuna is hopeful that in supporting individuals and families as they navigate their way along this path that we can continue to relish this opportunity to offer people comfort, care, and clinical expertise free of charge. We are very happy to announce that 2022 is our thirtieth anniversary, an amazing achievement!
To learn more about Karuna Hospice Services, including ways to offer support, visit their website:
https://karuna.org.au/
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.
Karuna Trust healthcare worker and patient, India
Three FPMT centers in the United Kingdom joined together to helped those affected by the COVID-19 crisis in India and Nepal. Offering community and social service is one of FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service. Ven. Fabienne Pradelle, director of Jamyang London Buddhist Centre, shares the story:
Big problems require us to come together and work jointly to help others. It is in this spirit that the three main FPMT centers in the UK—Land of Joy, Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds, and Jamyang Buddhist Centre London—came together to launch a joint appeal to help our brothers and sisters in India and Nepal.
The pressure was intense due to COVID-19 with medicines, oxygen, and medical care in short supply. Being the birthplace of Buddhism, our respective communities had a strong feeling of connection with India and the Himalayan communities, and therefore, an equally strong wish to help.
We launched our campaign in early May 2021 with a timeline of a month to send funds where they were urgently needed. We carefully selected three projects that we felt were directly helping communities in India and Nepal with the COVID-19 crisis. By the time the campaign closed, we had raised £14,151.34 (US$19,694). So we were able to send £4,717 (US$6,564) per project each.
Lelung Dharma Trust, India
Each of the three projects shared their thank yous, including photos of work supported by the donations, to our communities.
Lelung Rinpoche of the Lelung Dharma Trust, a UK charity that supports Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism, wrote:
“I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those who have supported the COVID-19 second wave appeal for Tibetan communities in India. I would also like to extend thanks to all the FPMT centers in the UK for their support in helping raise funds for this crisis situation.”
From the Karuna Trust, a UK charity dedicated to ending caste-based discrimination, inequality, and poverty in India and Nepal:
“Karuna is grateful beyond measure to the community of friends and well-wishers around Jamyang Centre Leeds and London, and Land of Joy for their generosity and kindness in supporting our work in India at this crucial time.”
Karuna Trust ambulance project
From the Himalayan Trust UK, a UK charity that supports healthcare and education in the northeastern Himalayan regions of Nepal:
“Thank you for supporting the Himalayan Trust UK. With the re-emerging problems for the very poor remote mountain villagers, we will undertake to make the most of ‘every penny.’”
Packing PPE (personal protection equipment) for distribution in rural Himalayan Nepal, supported by Himalayan Trust UK
Hand washing practice, Nepal, from the Himalayan Trust UK
It was heart-warming to see so many people wanting to help and how this sense of deep connection and gratitude towards the Tibetan, Indian, and Nepali Himalayan communities translated into spontaneous action and generosity. The joining of efforts across FPMT UK centers was also deeply meaningful—working together to benefit others helps us have greater impact, but it also supports harmony in our communities and strengthens our sense of confidence and agency so that we create the causes for coming together again to help others. And how wonderful is that!
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.
You can learn more about these UK centers—Land of Joy, Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds, and Jamyang Buddhist Centre London—by visiting their respective websites.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal, June 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We hope you enjoy our August edition of the monthly FPMT International Office e-News!
We bring you news about:
- New Photo Album for Lama Zopa Rinpoche
- Our New Education Program
- New Practice Materials
- Recent Charitable Giving
…and more!
Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.
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Live with Compassion poster at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s “Live with Compassion” quote has inspired four new posters that are being displayed at FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world. These beautiful posters combine Rinpoche’s quote with portraits of Rinpoche and are available for download as high resolution PDFs suitable for printing.
“I really want every FPMT center, project, and service to have a poster of the ‘Live with Compassion’ quote displayed prominently—as this is the very essence of the FPMT organization, regarding our practice, and who we are,” Rinpoche said in June 2021.
As Rinpoche explained that this quote encapsulates our practice and our FPMT culture, Ven. Lobsang Sherab made four posters for FPMT affiliates to display. Several centers have shared photos of the posters at their centers in response to Rinpoche’s request.
At the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia, director Ian Green said that they have two A1 size “Live with Compassion” posters up, one inside the gift shop and one inside the stupa itself.
Live with Compassion poster at Gendun Drubpa Center, Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Gendun Drubpa Center in western Canada has posted one poster by their tea station and another in their “tiny library so that it can be seen when our students turn on the lights,” center director Colleen Oneill wrote.
Live with Compassion poster at Naropa Meditation Center, Tahiti
Naropa Meditation Center in Tahiti shared a photo of the poster framed in red.
Live with Compassion poster at Nalanda Monastery, Labastide St. Georges, France
At Nalanda Monastery in France, Ven. Zoksang created a French translation of the poster. A framed version of it hangs in the entrance.
Live with Compassion poster at Gendun Drupa Center, Martigny, Switzerland
At Gendun Drupa Center in Switzerland, the poster is on the door to their center. Center director Jean-Paul Gloor explained that with the poster on the door, students are reminded to think that it is with compassion they open the door to liberation from samsara for every living beings until enlightenment.
Nagarjuna Alicante in Spain writes, “As you well know, we still don’t have a location for the center of Alicante, so Jessi, the director, has put the compassion poster on our website for the moment.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s ‘Live with Compassion’
Live with compassion
Work with compassion
Meditate with compassion
When problems come, experience them with compassion
Die with compassion
Enjoy with compassion
Practicing this gives you the best happy life
It fulfills all your wishes and all living beings’ wishes for happiness.
Find the Live with Compassion poster PDF in the Foundation Store.
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.
The FPMT community celebrated the one-year anniversary of “Healing the World with Thangtong Gyalpo’s Prayer” on July 31–August 1, 2021, with Sangha and students worldwide joining the online prayerathon.
The International Mahayana Institute (IMI), FPMT’s community of monks and nuns, began coming together for a global online recitation of The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: The Blessed Prayer Known as “Liberating Sakya from Disease” with OM MANI PADME HUM on August 1, 2020. Since then, every Saturday for twenty-four hours, the prayer and Mani Mantra have been recited for the benefit of all sentient beings and to reduce the suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The twenty-four hour prayerathon was advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. About one hundred IMI Sangha have been involved in organizing and leading the recitations over the last year. The Chenrezig Institute Multimedia Team hosts the online event, providing the YouTube channel and technical support.
In a recent video teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered “a million, zillion, trillion” thanks to all who join together on Saturdays for the prayerathon. He also thanked the Chenrezig Institute Multimedia Team. During the teaching Rinpoche discussed the benefits of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and also offered an oral transmission of three Thangtong Gyalpo Prayers: “Liberating Sakya from Disease,” “Words of Truth Pacifying the Danger of Weapons,” and “A Request to Pacify the Fear of Famine.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, in his Advice to Protect Yourself and Others from the Coronavirus, instructs students on practices to counter the virus, including Thangtong Gyalpo’s prayer The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: The Blessed Prayer Known as “Liberating Sakya from Disease.” Thangtong Gyalpo (1385–1464) was a great Tibetan yogi. And this prayer is recited for protecting and healing from diseases and epidemics. Rinpoche advises that while doing this prayer, students should look at an image of Thangtong Gyalpo.
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.
Francesa Fantauzzi, Centro Muni Gyana, Palermo, Italy, 2021. Photo by Francesa Fantauzzi.
Centro Muni Gyana, the FPMT center in Palermo, Italy, is hoping to inspire more Dharma centers to offer programs in sign language. Center director Marco Farina shares the story:
Our center was founded in 1990, thanks to the determination of our founder Rodolfo Bajardi and his wife Elia Manto. We have recently begun numerous social and inclusivity initiatives with the motivation to take responsibility to free not only ourselves but all beings from suffering.
We are working on a new initiative: a Dharma course offered in Italian sign language (LIS), the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Dharma LIS is a new Dharma project in Palermo, realized with the support of the Italian Buddhist Union and 8×1000 contributions from Italian taxpayers. Our goal is to initiate communication with more people and make Buddhist teachings accessible to all.
We would like to thank our LIS interpreter, Francesca Fantauzzi, who became involved in this initiative thanks to one of our members. Francesca is helping us with our first course offered in LIS. The first video will be on the four noble truths. The entire course will be offered for free on YouTube.
We would also like to thank Fabrizio Pallotti, Italian translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for his support. Fabrizio offered Francesca a short Dharma course and taught Francesca about its translation into the Italian culture before Francesca began translating the Dharma into LIS. We hope our new initiative inspires other centers to offer the Dharma in LIS thereby making Dharma more accessible.
Watch the four-minute promotional video “Dharma LIS – Promozione Corso di Dharma in Lingua Italiana dei Segni” (“Dharma LIS – Dharma Course Promotion in Italian Sign Language”) on the Muni Gyana YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/sVzMGJuKlOc
To learn more about Centro Muni Gyana, visit their website:
https://centromunigyana.it/
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.
Geshema Ngawang Chokyi, India
Yeshin Norbu Center, the FPMT center in Stockholm, Sweden, recently hosted an online teaching with Geshema Ngawang Chokyi, who graduated with the first group of geshemas in 2016 and has a special connection to FPMT. In addition, many years ago, Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked Geshema Chokyi to teach in the West. Zarina Osmonalieva, spiritual program coordinator at Yeshin Norbu, shares how the center helped fulfill this wish of Rinpoche:
In the summer of 2019, the team of Yeshin Norbu had the honor of having an audience with Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Riga, Latvia. Rinpoche advised us to invite Geshema Ngawang Chokyi to teach the Dharma in Sweden. We learned that Geshema was one of a handful of Tibetan nuns who had received the prestigious geshe degree and spent a year studying tantra at Gyuto Monastery. We also learned that she was Lama Yeshe’s niece. The thought of hosting Geshema at our center felt very inspiring, and we followed Rinpoche’s advice by sending an invitation to Geshema, which she kindly accepted.
In the beginning of April 2020, Geshema, who was in India, collected all the necessary documents and was on her way to apply for a Swedish visa. At that time, the quickly escalating pandemic forced us to pause and reconsider our plans. We decided that it might be wisest to postpone her visit. Shortly thereafter, India introduced its first lockdown.
In May this year, Lola Odessey, a graduate of the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program who has a special connection to Geshema, suggested that we organize an online teaching while waiting for the world to reopen. What a wonderful idea! Saka Dawa was approaching, and we thought that this was a wonderful opportunity to request Geshema to teach the twelve deeds of Buddha Shakyamuni.
Geshema Chokyi gave her teaching from Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Mundgod, South India, which she joined in 1992 upon her arrival from Tibet. Jangchub Choeling Nunnery is her permanent residence, where she teaches Dharma to other nuns.
Screen shot of Geshema Chokyi teaching with Lola Odessey translating, June 2021. Photo courtesy of Yeshin Norbu.
Geshema blessed us with a teaching that was clear and concise, easy to follow, and filled with warmth. She made the story of Buddha Shakyamuni into something relatable, and, at the same time, utterly inspirational for us to continue on the path. She kindly offered to answer questions at the end of the talk, which gave participants a precious chance to share some of their queries and hear her perspective.
Lola Odessey joined us from Institut Vajra Yogini in France and did a fantastic job of translating. We were delighted to see that the event was attended by not only members of Yeshin Norbu in Sweden but also by people from other places in Europe.
Needless to say, we hope that this was the first of many more teachings by Geshema Chokyi, and we are very happy and grateful to all who made this come true.
Learn more about Yeshin Norbu Center:
http://yeshenorbu.se/
Read the Mandala July-December 2019 interview with Geshema Ngawang Chokyi: “If I May Be Able to Benefit Others, I Should Try”
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.
Maitripa College commencement held in the Maitripa College Jokhang and broadcast on Zoom, Portland, Oregon, US, May 2021. Photo by Laura Miller.
Maitripa College is a Buddhist institution of higher education affiliated with the FPMT in Portland, Oregon, US. Yangsi Rinpoche, Maitripa College president and faculty member, began teaching a four-year advanced Buddhist studies program at Maitripa Institute in January 2006. Maitripa became a college in July 2008, after receiving legal authority to offer graduate degrees in Buddhist Studies in Oregon. Currently, the college offers a Master of Arts degree in Buddhist Studies and a Master of Divinity degree. Dean of Education Namdrol Miranda Adams shares how the college has adapted during the COVID pandemic.
We concluded our fifteenth year of operations with a joyful commencement ceremony in May 2021, our first in-person activity held at our physical location in over a year. For our four new graduates, as for everyone in our community and the world, it has been a year like no other.
In March 2020, we pivoted our entire operation into an online model for the foreseeable future. This was done in response to emergency orders from the State of Oregon due to the emerging COVID crisis. From the outset, our college was faced with two main challenges. First, how would we survive when two of our primary income streams—investment income and donations—became completely unavailable? How would we care for our teachers and staff members, who in turn care for our students and community? Where would the money come from? Second, would our students stay? Would they still feel it valuable to attend classes, practices, and community events now that those activities were being held in virtual reality?
Maitripa College commencement held in the Maitripa College jokhang and broadcast on Zoom, Portland, Oregon, US, May 2021. Photo by Laura Miller.
We happily discovered that our community’s generosity, resiliency, and dedication exceeded our expectations. Our teachers and staff members took twenty to forty percent pay cuts across the board, according to their capacities, so everyone could remain employed by the college during this time of great uncertainty. The reduced expenses that this brought—along with emergency benefits from state and local governments—allowed us to ensure our employees were cared for while also ending the year in a good financial position.
Our students did decide to continue their studies and even reported a “seamless” transition to online learning. This was a delightful surprise to our staff, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make it happen, and to the students, who continued to learn and grow together.
Our spring term enrollment was up by about twenty percent and our programs and classes continue to be well attended. New and continuing students enrolled in our two degree programs. Our continuing education students and our students who join classes as auditors are enthusiastically looking forward to beginning the 2021-2022 academic year. Classes begin in August and will be offered through online and in-person delivery methods.
Yangsi Rinpoche teaching a Maitripa College class on Zoom, Portland, Oregon, US, April 2020. Photo by Namdrol Miranda Adams.
We will continue to offer the majority of our classes and programs online this summer. Prospective students among our FPMT family worldwide are warmly invited to join the Discovering Buddhism modules we will be offering online this summer. We will offer at least one more academic semester partially online, including philosophy and meditation classes with Yangsi Rinpoche, starting in August. We will begin to slowly shift back to more in-person classes as conditions and comfort levels improve and restrictions loosen.
We are so grateful for our resilient minds and spirits that have carried us through the pandemic thus far. We appreciate the access we have had to the basic requirements of life—including food, shelter, and medicines—that have sustained us during this time. We thank our teachers and the teachings for showing us the way. The destruction COVID brought throughout the world has been unimaginable. We look at the great suffering that this crisis has laid bare before us with clear eyes and compassion. The pandemic has strengthened our intentions to develop and provide a Buddhist education that can help us alleviate suffering, in both conventional and ultimate terms, as our wonderful students aspire to do every day.
Maitripa College staff meeting on Zoom, April 2020. Photo by Alfredo Pineiro.
To learn more about Maitripa College, visit their website:
https://maitripa.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.
In September 1982, H.H. Dalai Lama visited a retreat center that Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinopche had just set up in Bubión, a small town near the Alpujarra mountains near Granada, Spain. At the end of His Holiness’s teaching he named the center O Sel Ling. Photo by Pablo Giralt de Arquer, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
In September 1982, His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Rome, Italy, to begin a month-long tour of Europe at the invitation of FPMT and other groups. His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with His Holiness Pope John Paul II, then traveled to Barcelona, Granada, and Bubión in Spain; Toulouse, Lavaur, Paris, and Strasbourg in France; Milan, Pisa, and Pomaia in Italy; and finally six cities in Germany. Four FPMT centers hosted His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the tour. They were Centro Nagarjuna in both Barcelona and Bubión, near Granada; Institut Vajra Yogini and Nalanda Monastery in France; and Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy.
The American nun Thubten Yeshe, who photographed the tour, shared her impressions of it with the first issue of Wisdom (the FPMT magazine that preceded Mandala). Here’s part of the story from the Wisdom article “A Man of Peace on Tour”:
This was a journey to the West that would inspire people on a spiritual level, and forge cultural ties with the people of Europe. This was the 1982 European tour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the message was clear, from one stop to the next: we are all human beings, seeking happiness and an end to pain; we have the capacity, and the responsibility, to realize these goals for ourselves and others.
That inspiration was manifest throughout the trip in people’s responses to His Holiness. The old and dying clinging to him at a hospice near Pisa. Smiling pictures and double page spreads in Spain’s major dailies. Thousands cramming into the already overcrowded city halls. A peace award from a group of Italian school children. The radiant smiles of reclusive Catholic monks after hours of shared insights with this Buddhist monk. “This has been the most important and moving day of my life,” said the mayor of a major European city to His Holiness after a private interview.
Cover of Wisdom Vol. 1, May 1983
Sightseeing tours and walkabouts did not seem to be the way the Dalai Lama thought best to spend his time, and they were frequently rushed and cut short. However, in small intimate meetings with Christian monks, educators, philosophers, and scientists he was most at ease, animated, and deeply interested. These were moments of listening and often a profound sharing of wisdom. At the monastery of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, meeting with a group of monks—Eastern and Western Europeans, Americans, Asians—discussing monastic life and the ways the Church in Eastern Europe had found to co-exist with Communist governments. An interview with the speakers from the Universal Education conference in Pomaia in which His Holiness did the interviewing—looking for Western educational wisdom that he could apply to the Tibetan situation.
It was almost restful to arrive at the four FPMT centers in southern Europe after the hurly-burly of the rest of the tour. His Holiness spent a day at Nagarjuna’s retreat center, which clings to the side of a mountain reminiscent of dry Himalayan peaks where the monasteries and retreats are indistinguishable from the rocky landscape. The Dalai Lama of Tibet seemed at home in this calm place … .
Read this article as a scanned PDF from Wisdom, May 1983:
“A Man of Peace on Tour from Wisdom”
You can read more about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 1982 tour of Europe in chapter 20, “1982: The Celebration of the Enlightened Experience,” of the Lama Yeshe biography Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe.
To keep up with all the activities of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, visit DalaiLama.com.
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.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Geneva, Switzerland, 2016. Photo by Olivier Adam.
Tibetans around the world, along with an international community of students of Tibetan Buddhism, celebrate His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 86th birthday on July 6.
FPMT International Office enthusiastically joins the world in rejoicing in His Holiness’s beneficial life and we offer prayers for his continued long life among us.
Supporting the wishes of His Holiness is a primary aim of the FPMT organization as described in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for FPMT. Rinpoche has explained that “[I would like] for FPMT to offer service to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as much as possible and to be able to fulfill His Holiness’ wishes. This is the highest priority for the organization.” Rinpoche has further said, “This is the quickest and most vast way of benefiting sentient beings.”
Since its inception, the FPMT organization has turned to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for inspiration and guidance, as well as worked to actualize His Holiness’s vision and create the cause for his long life.
The finalization of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s offering of the Maitreya Project land in Bodhgaya to His Holiness the Dalai Lama was a highlight of last year. The donation of about thirty acres (twelve hectares) of prime land in Bodhgaya will help fulfill His Holiness’s wish to build an international institute that will share the wisdom of the Nalanda tradition in order to create happiness and peace in the world. (You can read more about this in Ven. Roger Kunsang’s message in the FPMT Annual Review 2020.)
In February 2021, His Holiness the Dalai Lama offered a teaching at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization on Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View. Rinpoche offered the introduction and dedication for the online event. After the dedication, His Holiness declared, “Zopa Rinpoche and I have known each other a long time. We are trusted friends. You and your teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe founded many centers around the world to help others. Rinpoche, you have done your best, thank you. Please be determined to keep up your efforts. What you have achieved cannot be overlooked. Thank you and Tashi Delek.”
The FPMT organization regularly participates in the offering of a long life puja to His Holiness. Rinpoche has also given extensive advice on prayers and practices to be done on His Holiness’s birthday and arranged 1,000 Buddhas to be offered to His Holiness on behalf of the FPMT organization.
At 86 years, His Holiness continues to be relevant and tuned into the needs of people around the world, engaging in discussions with young people and participating in dialogues on peace, the environment, science and the mind, and interfaith understanding. During the coronavirus pandemic, His Holiness is offering live webcasts of teachings to continue to connect with students and bring the teachings of the Buddha to the world.
On behalf of all sentient beings in desperate need of your compassionate guidance and presence in this world—please, please live a very long time, Your Holiness!
For more on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his beneficial activities, please visit DalaiLama.com.
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.
Jamyang staff doing recitations together: (from left) Paul Wells, operations manager; Geshe Namdak, resident teacher; Maria de Lurdes Mesquita, resident volunteer; and Ven. Fabienne Pradelle, director, London, 2021. Photo by Kamlo Chen-Duffy.
FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world engage in virtuous practices on the great Buddhist holy days, even during the pandemic lockdowns of the past year.
Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, UK, shared an update on the practices that they did during Saka Dawa and earlier this year during the Day of Miracles in February.
Kamlo Chen-Duffy, the spiritual program coordinator at Jamyang London, said that about eighteen students did recitations from their homes during fifteen days of Saka Dawa. Together they accumulated:
- 29 recitations of the Vajra Cutter Sutra
- 7 recitations of the complete Golden Light Sutra
- 89 recitations of the Confession chapter of the Golden Light Sutra
- 27 recitations of Chanting the Names of Manjushri
- 402 recitations of the Heart Sutra
- 1 recitation of the Sanghata Sutra
- 13 recitations of the King of Prayers
In addition, Geshe Namdak also recited from the Kangyur in Tibetan.
“We also used this time to fund raise for the second part of our Honouring the Lineage project to install new statues of the lineage gurus in our gompa,” Kamlo wrote. “Last year we installed statues of Lama Tsongkhapa and his heart sons, along with statues of Shakyamuni Buddha, Guru Rinpoche, Atisha, and a protector statue. The second part of the project is the installation of statues of Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani, Nagarjuna, and Asanga.”
During the Day of Miracles in February 2021, about thirteen students from Jamyang did recitation practice in their homes and dedicated the merit for the long life of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
They did the following practices:
- 27 recitations of Vajra Cutter Sutra
- 4 recitations of the Golden Light Sutra
- 13 recitations of the Confession chapter of the Golden Light Sutra
- 3 times chanting the Names of Manjushri
- 341 times chanting the Heart Sutra
Once completed, they sent a heartfelt letter to Rinpoche, composed as a seven-limb prayer, that listed their accomplishments and their dedication of the merit of their recitations.
Please rejoice in and dedicate these practices as well as all the beneficial practice done worldwide during all the merit multiplying days as well as everyday!
Learn more about Jamyang Buddhist Centre and their Honouring the Lineage project.
Read Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice on practices to do during merit multiplying days, which include the Buddhist holy days and eclipses.
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.
Sand Mandala Festival at Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity, Colville, New Zealand, March 2021. Photo by Jennifer Coyne.
Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity, the FPMT center in Colville, New Zealand, welcomed school children and other community members to their center for a big ten-day celebration. Jennifer Coyne, spiritual program coordinator, shares the story.
We celebrated our forty-year anniversary in 2021 with a Chenrezig Sand Mandala Festival! We invited two Tibetan monks who live in New Zealand to come to our center to create the sand mandala. The making of a sand mandala is a practice that uses tiny grains of colored sand to represent the celestial abode of a particular Buddha. There are many different mandalas. The monks created the mandala of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. It was chosen to radiate the enlightened, healing, compassionate energy of Chenrezig into this world.
Dissolving the sand mandala at Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity, Colville, New Zealand, March 2021. Photo by Jennifer Coyne.
Our community came together for an opening ceremony to request permission from the local protectors and deities in the environment. The monks then began constructing the mandala by using a metal funnel, tapping it with a deer antler horn to allow a stream of sand to trickle out. Each detail has a profound meaning and very specific pattern, which the monks had studied and memorized at a tantric college in South India. The mandala took ten days to create, and the process was incredible to watch.
Merely seeing this mandala plants a seed of compassion in the mindstream, and so we were delighted to welcome many visitors. Many locals and tourists who had never visited us before dropped in for our Sand Mandala Festival. We estimate approximately one hundred people viewed the mandala or joined the prayers and guided meditations.
The two monks led the morning and evening prayers, and our resident nuns Ven. Nangsel and Ven. Khadro led the guided meditations. One of the monks brought some extra tools so that visitors could try to create their own mandala. We quickly realized how much skill is required to construct a sand mandala.
A highlight for us was the school tour. Elizabeth, a teacher at Colville School, brought her class of students to view the mandala and try their hand at making their own mandalas. The students were around six years old. Elizabeth has a long-time connection with our center. She often joins us for our community meditations and has volunteered her time here in the past.
Mahamudra Centre for Universal Unity community, Colville, New Zealand, March 2021. Photo by Jennifer Coyne.
We had a closing ceremony to dedicate the merit after the monks had finished the mandala. Geshe Jamyang, one of the monks who created the sand mandala, reminded us of the importance of dedication. It allows the merit or positive energy to continue to flow and expand even long after the mandala has been dissolved. The mandala was so beautiful; it seemed a shame to dissolve it. Geshe Jamyang reminded us that just as our bodies are born, slowly decay, and then die, and just as a seed slowly blooms into a flower, everything material is subject to impermanence.
We poured the blessed sand into the ocean so we could offer the blessings to all sentient beings. Since all of the planet’s water bodies are interconnected, offering blessed sand to a single water body means that the blessings will radiate through the whole planet. The blessed sand will nourish and protect the well-being of the environment and all the beings who dwell in it. Gathered together at the water’s edge, our community said our final prayers while visualizing the blessings going out into the world. We especially visualized those blessings going to those who need it most.
Watch the seven-minute video “Chenrezig Sand Mandala at Mahamudra Centre” to see the process from beginning to end:
https://youtu.be/lht2wcqI2LI
We were honored to welcome Geshe Jamyang and Ven. Karma to our center to create the mandala. Geshe Jamyang is the resident teacher at Tashi Choepel Ling in Tauranga, and Ven. Karma resides at Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling in Whangarei. They grew up together in Tibet, studied together at Sera Je Monastic University, and have both been living in New Zealand for more than ten years. They often come together to create sand mandalas at locations throughout New Zealand, usually in art galleries or public spaces. They were excited to create a sand mandala in a gompa, and we were excited to welcome them back to our center!
To learn more about Mahamudra Centre for Universal Responsibility, visit their website:
https://mahamudra.org.nz/
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.