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Lama Zopa Rinpoche thanking His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the conclusion of his online teaching from his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India, February 8, 2021. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Jamphel, courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama offered a teaching on Monday, February 8, 2021, at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization on Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin). The text, by the eighteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist master Changkya Rölpai Dorjé, is on dependent arising and emptiness.
“First of all, the view referred to here is dependent arising. I often mention that while our view is dependent arising, our conduct is not to harm others. Both these ideas have a bearing on peace in the world,” His Holiness said, as reported in a detailed summary of His Holiness’s teaching and question and answer session on DalaiLama.com.
Students can watch a recording of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching “Recognizing My Mother – An Experiential Song on the View” on DalaiLama.com:
https://www.dalailama.com/videos/recognizing-my-mother-an-experiential-song-on-the-view
His Holiness went through the complete text of Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View, offering commentary. Then, His Holiness took the opportunity to conduct a ceremony for generating the awakening mind of bodhichitta, since, as His Holiness explained, it is almost the Tibetan new year (Losar).
As the teaching was given on behalf of the FPMT organization, fifty fortunate individuals were able to participate as a virtual audience on Zoom. This meant that His Holiness was able to see these FPMT representatives on the screens in front of him. The audience included Lama Zopa Rinpoche, as well as a few senior students and long-time helpers of the organization, plus winners of a draw that was organized among resident geshes and teachers, registered teachers, regional and national coordinators, affiliate directors, and International Office staff members. A few of the big study communities within FPMT were also able to delegate a person to ask His Holiness a question.
Jackie Yip, a member of the virtual audience, asking His Holiness the Dalai Lama a question during his online teaching from his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India, February 8, 2021. Photo by Ven Tenzin Jamphel, courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
During the question and answer session, His Holiness replied to inquiries about how to help people who are dying, what children should do to counter the social isolation they may be experiencing due to the pandemic, and how to reconcile teachings on sudden enlightenment with a more gradual approach, as well as other topics.
“In answering questions from members of the audience around the world, His Holiness clarified that one of his commitments is to bring peace to the world and within that to encourage inter-religious harmony. Some people believe that everyone is the creation of a God, who they regard as full of love. However, the main message of all religions, he said, is to help others. Even within Buddhist tradition there are proponents of different philosophical points of view, but the main message is not to do harm, but help others wherever you can,” reports DalaiLama.com.
Screenshot of some of the virtual audience of the teaching with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on February 8, 2021
At the conclusion of the teaching Lama Zopa Rinpoche expressed his gratitude to His Holiness on behalf of the FPMT organization for this teaching and others over many years. He made a formal dedication and offered a mandala.
In response, 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.”
Alexis Benelhadj coordinating the video conferencing for the Zoom participants of the live webcast from Institut Vajra Yogini in France, February 8, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Facebook page of Institut Vajra Yogini.
After the teaching, FPMT students around the world posted images from the teaching on social media and rejoiced in the opportunity to receive a teaching on emptiness from His Holiness.
FPMT International Office, on behalf of the entire FPMT organization, offers deep and heartfelt gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for giving the teaching and to the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the live webcast. We also offer thanks to Geshe Thupten Jinpa, who kindly prepared the updated English translation of the text for this teaching event; Wisdom Publications’ David Kittlestrom, who provided editorial support; International Office staff who helped coordinate the teaching and text; FPMT media team members Alexis Benelhadj, Alfredo Pineiro, and Harald Weichhart; and all the translators who allowed this precious teaching to reach more students around the world.
Download the PDF of the English translation of Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin):
https://fpmt.box.com/s/o651pwy54z15mwwqpy0n4sx1qbigs2vw
Find translations of the text in German, Italian, and Vietnamese, plus explanatory notes of the text by Geshe Kelsang Wongmo on the FPMT “Prayers and Practices Free Downloads” page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/#ar
Find translations of the text in Tibetan, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, German and French on DalaiLama.com.
For more live teachings and video recordings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, visit:
https://www.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 Dalai Lama delivering his opening remarks for the online Conversation on the Crisis of Climate Feedback Loops from his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India, January 10, 2021. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Jamphel, courtesy of DalaiLama.com.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will offer a teaching at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT on Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin) followed by a question and answer session.
The live online event will be on Monday, February 8 from 9 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. India Standard Time (UTC +5:30). (Please note: For students in the Americas, the teaching will be during the night of Sunday, February 7. To find the time in your local area, see Time Zone Converter.)
Watch LIVE His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaching on “Recognizing My Mother, An Experiential Song of the View” with English translation on the FPMT YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/rOA9JCY7pYI
Download the PDF of the English translation of Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin):
https://fpmt.box.com/s/o651pwy54z15mwwqpy0n4sx1qbigs2vw
Find translations of the text in German, Italian, and Vietnamese, plus explanatory notes of the text by Geshe Kelsang Wongmo on the FPMT “Prayers and Practices Free Downloads” page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/#ar
For translation of the text into additional languages and links to live translation of the teaching, please go to DalaiLama.com/live:
https://www.dalailama.com/live
The live webcast of the teaching will be in Tibetan with translation in English, Chinese, Hindi, French, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Mongolian, Korean, German, Portuguese, and Italian. You will be able to find links to these translations on the official websites and Facebook pages of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. People are requested to please follow their local social distancing rules while viewing the live webcast.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama answering a question from a student from the British School in New Delhi during their conversation on Well-being and Resilience at his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India on January 22, 2021. Photo by Ven Tenzin Jamphel, courtesy of 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.
Pasang Dolkar screen sharing materials with her student as she teaches, December 2020. Photo courtesy of LRZTP.
Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program (LRZTP), an FPMT project in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India, has been adapting to the COVID pandemic after having to postpone the commencement of their next two-year Tibetan language and interpreters training course, LRZTP 9. Julia Wilson, coordinator, shares the story.
LRZTP senior teacher Thupten la conducting class online from home, December 2020. Photo courtesy of LRZTP.
The LRZTP is well-known for its rigorous two-year Tibetan language and interpreters training course, which has produced many gifted Dharma interpreters-translators for FPMT Dharma centers since its conception over twenty years ago. In addition to the two-year intensive training program, LRZTP also runs short Tibetan language courses and offers private online Tibetan language lessons. Now, in March 2021, LRZTP is launching a fully online Tibetan language study program: Foundations in Tibetan Language.
LRZTP is helping the FPMT by continuing to offer intensive language and interpretation/translator training for future FPMT center interpreters. The other Tibetan language learning opportunities at LRZTP help the FPMT and the Dharma in that studying in one of the other programs is often a bridge to making a greater commitment to learning the language and the Dharma. Students without the goal of becoming Dharma interpreters often study the language with goals that range from being able to recite their prayers in Tibetan, being able to communicate directly with their center’s resident geshe and so forth, to being able to study Dharma texts and receive teachings directly in Tibetan.
Our last two-year course, LRZTP 8, luckily was finished just as India went into lockdown in March 2020, and all students luckily were able to graduate without issue. The next course, LRZTP 9, was originally scheduled to commence in October 2020, but had to be postponed due to the continuing pandemic situation. If the world becomes safe again for international travel, etc., then it may be feasible that the next long course could commence as early as autumn 2021—fingers crossed!
Ven. Samdup Lungtok is also teaching Tibetan online from home, December 2020. Photo courtesy of LRZTP.
On the bright side of things, the pandemic situation has given us an opportunity to focus on further developing our online Tibetan language individual tutoring service as well as launch a fully online Tibetan language study program.
LRZTP Tibetan language tutor Dhamchoe Kyi with online students, December 2020. Photo courtesy of LRZTP.
To help facilitate the transition to teaching online for LRZTP language tutors who had been part of the onsite program, from September through December the program’s main teacher, Geshe Tenzin Wangdak, conducted several online training workshops for them with a focus on methods to teach Tibetan as a foreign language online. He also included some training for those tutors who have Dharma backgrounds in methods for teaching the Dharma in Tibetan to non-native speakers. Presently, we have about thirteen native speaker Tibetan language tutors available online for one-on-one tutoring.
Foundations in Tibetan Language, LRZTP’s new online study program, commences following the Tibetan new year in March 2021. The comprehensive program—introductory level through to advanced levels, including Dharma terminology—will be taught over the course of four years. Each level of the program is progressively taught within five eight-week modules. Class will be held over Zoom twice weekly (1 ½ hour sessions) on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Geshe Wangdak will be the main teacher for the program.
Registration is open for all modules of Level I. Modules may be taken as part of the comprehensive program of study or as individual short language courses. Level I module dates: 1) March 10-May 8, 2021, 2) May 12-July 10, 2021, 3) July 21-September 18, 2021, 4) September 29-November 27, 2021, and 5) January 5-March 5, 2022.
LRZTP is still accepting applications and continuing the registration process for LRZTP 9 with an understanding that the commencement dates are to be confirmed.
Decky Youdon with one of her students during an online session, December 2020. Photo courtesy of LRZTP.
For more information about the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India, visit their website:
http://www.lrztp.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.
Here is a further update on the steps we’re taking to help enable the FPMT organization to offer the safest environment possible, with robust protection from harm and abuse, and with clear and appropriate processes in place to report and resolve any complaint.
This is a very important area which we always seek to improve. The current steps are responding to and enriched by the learning provided and recommendations made as part of the investigation process into misconduct on the part of Dagri Rinpoche by the two safeguarding organizations commissioned by FPMT Inc., Thirtyone:eight and FaithTrust Institute.
- A new online Protection from Abuse training presentation is in the late development stage. This will be mandatory for all in leadership positions within the FPMT organization, including registered teachers, and is currently being reviewed by Thirtyone:eight. It includes guidance regarding sexual abuse, healthy boundaries, power imbalance, and crisis intervention. Once finalised, the training will be translated into key languages, including Tibetan.
- Alongside the new training presentation, we will be providing new Protecting from Abuse policy, which the training presentation is designed to unpack and support. This policy will include input and recommendation received during our safeguarding audits.
- We are also in the process of reviewing what should become new policy and guidelines related to FPMT registered teacher behaviour, including how complaints against teachers should be processed.
Our aim in providing these new resources, in addition to current ethical policy and guidelines, is to help provide learning, tools and strategies to better ensure protection from harm and abuse in FPMT-affiliated centers, projects, and services, and to make sure that any complaints can be appropriately reported, processed and resolved.
- FPMT Foundation Service Seminars will refer to and make use of the new Protecting from Harm and Abuse policy and training.
- We are working on how to more clearly communicate that any spiritual advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche is given purely from the perspective of personal spiritual practice and to ensure that clear pathways are separately outlined for processing any complaints or allegations independently from any spiritual advice.
- We have already shared the FaithTrust Institute’s Summary Report with the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and have invited their input and recommendations.
- We have reached out to each of the victims who shared their testimony with FaithTrust Institute during the Dagri Rinpoche investigation, to offer financial support for therapy and have fulfilled some requests received so far and are awaiting some additional responses.
- FaithTrust Institute’s investigation also provided an opportunity for concerns to be expressed about other members of the FPMT community. The FPMT Inc. board is sharing details of the complaints regarding two FPMT teachers and one director with the boards of the relevant affiliates for investigation. The FPMT Inc. board will review the result of their local investigations, and act on them as appropriate. Another complaint received by FaithTrust Institute is related to inappropriate habits of speech of an FPMT registered teacher. As the complaint didn’t specify a location, we reviewed the information provided and have issued a formal warning to that teacher and will continue to monitor reports from their teaching program.
We sincerely wish that all of us involved in the FPMT organization will continue to contribute to the necessary reflections and changes that will help us to better prevent harm and abuse, and to process complaints appropriately and fairly: particularly after taking the training and reviewing the new policy and guidelines in the coming months.
To find out more about current FPMT policies and guidelines instituted to uphold a safe, respectful environment in local FPMT centers, projects, or services, please visit Safeguarding in FPMT Entities. This is part of our information about Problem Solving in the FPMT Organization, and includes the FPMT Ethical Policy, which was implemented in 2000, and which restricts sexual relationships between teachers and students, and harassment of any kind. On that same page is a further important guideline, about guru devotion in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama giving a teaching, Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Neal Patrick.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will offer a teaching at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT on Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin) followed by a question and answer session.
The live online event will be on Monday, February 8 from 9 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. India Standard Time (UTC +5:30). (Please note: For students in the Americas, the teaching will be during the night of Sunday, February 7. To find the time in your local area, see Time Zone Converter.)
Students may download a PDF of Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View, which includes the Tibetan text with an updated English translation. Geshe Thupten Jinpa kindly prepared the updated English translation for this teaching event with editing support from Wisdom Publication’s David Kittlestrom.
Watch LIVE His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaching on “Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View” on the FPMT YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/rOA9JCY7pYI
Download the PDF of the English translation of Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin):
https://fpmt.box.com/s/o651pwy54z15mwwqpy0n4sx1qbigs2vw
Find translations of the text in German, Italian, and Vietnamese, plus explanatory notes of the text by Geshe Kelsang Wongmo on the FPMT “Prayers and Practices Free Downloads” page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/#ar
For translation of the text into additional languages and links to live translation of the teaching, please go to DalaiLama.com/live:
https://www.dalailama.com/live
The live webcast of the teaching will be in Tibetan with translation in English, Chinese, Hindi, French, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Mongolian, Korean, German, Portuguese, and Italian. You will be able to find links to these translations on the official websites and Facebook pages of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. People are requested to please follow their local social distancing rules while viewing the live webcast.
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.
Kasih Hospice Foundation Interfaith Dialogue. Graphic by Dr. Chew Cheng Hoon, Executive Committee board member.
Kasih Hospice Foundation, an FPMT project in Selangor, Malaysia, provides medical, psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual support to people with life threatening diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, and end-stage organ failure, and their families free of cost. Catherine Ooi, general manager, shares the story about the December 5, 2020, Kasih Hospice Foundation Interfaith Dialogue.
Kasih Hospice Foundation, a community hospice based in Klang Valley, Malaysia, held its second Interfaith Dialogue digitally on the platform Zoom. The hospice invited four interfaith speakers and subject matter experts from the Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu faiths to speak on “Discovering Faith Perspectives on End-of-Life Care.”
The two-and-a-half-hour session provided a succinct view of what comprises “a good death” from each religion’s perspective. It also helped clarify theological rationales for certain rules or established practices, and how certain framing or understandings of them might be more helpful than others. It ended with the experts’ personal views on end-of-life care and death.
The first part of our Interfaith Dialogue consisted of talks by our four invited speakers. The respective speakers were the Honorable Geshe Tenzin Zopa, touring teacher from the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), who joined us from Australia; Professor Dr. Kamal Abu-Shamsieh, director of Interreligious Chaplaincy at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California; Reverend Father Dr. Clarence Devadass of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, director of the Catholic Research Centre, Malaysia; and Mr. Thurai Chantheran, head of Interfaith at the Malaysian Organization for Hindu Knowledge, Science, History, and Art (MOKSHA.)
Interfaith Dialogue, Kasih Hospice Foundation, Selangor, Malaysia, December 2020. Photo courtesy of Kasih Hospice Foundation.
More than 2,000 participants from seven countries attended Kasih’s Interfaith Dialogue live over Zoom as well five social media platforms. A simultaneous live translation into Mandarin was enabled via a partnership with the Taitung Foundation Inc., which attracted some 500 viewers to the livestream on its Facebook channel.
In the second part of our Interfaith Dialogue, we invited Dr. Richard Lim, national advisor of Palliative Care to the Ministry of Health, Government of Malaysia, to give the public his perspective on psychosocial and spiritual care in end-of-life care as well as palliative care, and the place spirituality plays within it. We concluded with a one-hour question and answer session.
Watch “Interfaith Dialogue 2020” on the Kaish Hospice Care YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/QmGUSySeDXY
Kasih Hospice Foundation prioritizes psychosocial and spiritual education as well as medical caregiving as a core competency in making sure families have the skills, knowledge, and—equally important—confidence and reassurance to care for their loved ones at home. As a multicultural, multi-religious country, with diverse medical teams, patient families, staff, and volunteers hailing from every ethnic group and nationality, we believe in the importance and urgency of Interfaith Dialogues that serve to elevate and encourage the principles of universal compassion.
To learn more about Kasih Hospice Foundation, visit their website:
https://kasihhospice.org/index.html
Subscribe to the Kasih Hospice Foundation tri-annual newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/b92970f8e511/khf-newsletter-02-2020
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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We hope you enjoy our January FPMT International Office e-News! This month we bring you news about:
- His Holiness Teaching for the FPMT Organization
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s New Book
- Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom
- LPP’s 2021 Calendar
….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.
The FPMT International Office e-News comes from your FPMT International Office. Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email box.
REA Solar crew members completing installation of the solar power system panels on the gompa, Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, December 2020. Photo by Marc Talloen.
Chenrezig Institute, an FPMT center in Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, has installed a 22 kilowatt (kW) solar power system on the center’s gompa roof to power some of the center’s electricity needs. Marc Talloen, project manager, Interim Executive Committee, shares the story.
In late November and early December 2020, the Chenrezig Institute gompa and its surroundings were buzzing with exciting activities! In a span of a few weeks we installed a solar power system on the gompa’s roof, started the second phase of the inspiring Nalanda Masters Garden, and made significant improvements to Chenrezig Institute’s roads.
Garrey Foulkes, Geshe Phuntsok Tsultrim, Colin Crosbie, the truck driver, Kym Bartlet, and Ricciardo Ferrari building a reinforced concrete slab in the Nalanda Masters Garden, Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, November 2020. Photo by Marc Talloen.
A few months earlier, on His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 85th birthday, Geshe Phuntsok Tsultrim, our FPMT resident geshe, officially inaugurated and consecrated the magnificent Nalanda Masters Garden. The event took place in the presence of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who joined us on Zoom, bestowing his blessings on the new statues in the garden and the community. The opening of the garden inspired a flurry of building activity!
The garden was initially dedicated to a group of eight Nalanda masters. However, as a result of the excitement at the opening ceremony, that plan has changed. We are now working towards completing a set of statues of all seventeen Nalanda masters, as well as a Kadampa stupa and more.
A team of dedicated volunteers are engaged in the preparations needed for phase two of the Nalanda Masters Garden and have included a fancy sitting area under the Bodhi tree overlooking the statues and gompa. A team of avid gardeners brought the Garden of Enlightenment to its full splendor.
Kym Bartlet, Gordon Noble, and Colin Crosbie finishing the installation of a new and bigger water drain before paving the road, Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, November 2020. Photo by Marc Talloen.
Partial road improvement projects—including installation of multiple underground cross-road drains and the concreting of an 152 meter (499 feet) erosion prone stretch of Chenrezig Institute’s main entrance road—have been completed. The road re-opened on December 3, just in time for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday celebrations. We were then ready to cope with abundant rainfall during the December and January rainy season.
The section of Chenrezig Institute’s newly-paved main entrance road, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, December 2020. Photo by Marc Halloen.
We had been looking into the potential benefits of installing a solar power system on the gompa roof for quite some time. We figured that if we installed a solar power system with a capacity of 22 kW then we should be able to generate enough solar energy during the daytime to cover electricity needs for most of the gompa, entire Sangha living area (about ten people), and the accommodation facilities for about twenty retreatants!
Adding a Tesla Powerwall 2 battery to our solar power system would allow us to store energy generated by the solar power system so that we could buffer the energy supply during times of passing clouds and use solar power during the first hours after sunset. The battery would also serve as a back-up power supply to the gompa during power outages. These outages are not uncommon in this area and can be attributed to random weather events.
Generous donations allowed us to move quickly and begin ample preparations. In November, we started clearing trees and trimming bushes to allow copious sunlight to sprawl over the gompa roof.
In late November, a team from REA Solar, a solar energy company in Queensland, came to partially install the solar power system, including roof racking, Enphase micro-inverters, all of the cabling, a new electrical switch board, and the battery. The Brisbane harbor has slowed down due to COVID, and so we had to wait patiently for customs to clear the new 465 watt solar modules and be delivered.
Magically, on December 2, the REA Solar team came back to install all modules, and then we were able to test and commission our new solar power system that afternoon.
And so very auspiciously, on December 3—Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday—we achieved our first full day of solar energy generation, producing 134 kilowatt hours (kWh) of solar energy and largely covering that day’s electricity consumption. Of the 114 kWh consumed in that first twenty-four hour period, only 12.70 kWh came from the grid while 101.30 kWh came from the solar power system! An extra 31.90 kWh was exported to the grid.
Tesla phone app used by Chenrezig Institute staff to monitor the center’s electricity consumption and production. Graphs from left to right: 1 – levels of electric power consumed in twenty-four hours from the gompa electric network, 2 – levels of solar energy produced that same day by the gompa solar system, 3 – excess electricity produced by the gompa solar system fed to the battery (below the line) and electricity consumed from the battery when there isn’t enough solar available (above the line), 4 – utility network electricity consumed when no solar or battery energy is available (above the line), or fed back to the utility electric grid when excess solar energy is produced and the battery is already full, 5 – a combined graph showing when solar is available during the day, how it is consumed, and how excess is fed to the grid or stored in the battery, December 2020. Photo by Marc Talloen.
Encouraging results show that in those first three weeks the new solar power system helped us reduce grid electricity consumption by 86.13%. We are confident that we will experience continuous substantial savings, lowering our center’s operational costs for many years to come. By reducing our consumption of fossil fuel-generated energy and minimizing our carbon footprint, Chenrezig Institute is making a great leap into a greener future!
We take this opportunity to thank our generous donors who have helped us realize these projects. Please have a look at the video we have put together, showing the solar power system installation and some of our other recent projects.
Watch the two-minute video “Chenrezig Institute is going solar” on the Chenrezig Institute YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/ebPVD3KCzJM
We have further renovation and upgrading projects planned, including renovating the Lotus House retreat accommodation, adding a new amenity block, an additional solar power energy system, and adding a new 3 phase electricity supply circuit to the Big Love Café so we can supply it with solar energy.
For more information about Chenrezig Institute, visit their website:
https://www.chenrezig.com.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.
Losang Dragpa Centre 25th Anniversary Celebration. Graphic by Gavyn Teh.
On December 10, 2020, Losang Dragpa Center (LDC), the FPMT center in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary. The center shares the story.
On the auspicious Lama Tsongkhapa Day, LDC broadcast the e-celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary via Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube, reaching out to teachers, Sangha, members, and friends from near and far. An in-person 25th Anniversary Celebration was initially planned for two years ago, but COVID made it necessary to rely on new technology to go virtual. That turned out to be a blessing as many more people were able to participate.
LDC began with a few members in 1995, in a rented link-house that was the home of co-founder Huei in Ampang. Soon after, a bank loan was obtained to purchase a semi-detached bungalow for center activities. These two Ampang houses served as LDC for its first eight years. LDC eventually moved across town to Jalan Birah and was finally able to acquire its own (current) premises with a beautiful garden located in a quiet residential area in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Looking back at LDC’s activities over the past twenty-five years, we are happy to have been able to abide by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice and the FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service:
- Dharma: LDC offers Dharma classes for adults at the introductory level and the FPMT Basic Program.
- Universal Education for Compassion and Wisdom: The principles of the 16 Guidelines for Life underscore LDC’s “Dharma for Kids” program (five to twelve year-olds) and inspired the teens program (thirteen to sixteen year-olds) called “10 For Good” which is specifically based on the ten virtues.
- Social/Community Service: LDC was the mother of the now separately registered but hugely successful Kasih Hospice. Today, LDC responds to community needs such as Aunty Mee Fah Animal Shelter and food donation to the poor (during the pandemic) through its adult, teen, or children’s projects.
- Interfaith Activities: A Buddhist relic exhibition was organized and the spiritual leaders of Christian and Hindu organizations, along with leaders of other Buddhist traditions, were invited to the event and were also invited to speak at the opening ceremony.
- Revenue generation activities: LDC’s Dharma programs are offered on a free of charge basis but generates revenue through its Dharma Shop and fundraising activities throughout the year, during Vesak/Saka Dawa, the four great holy days of the Buddhist calendar, and Lama Tsongkhapa Day activities, offering the public opportunities to sponsor altar offerings and participate in pujas.
For any Dharma center, achieving twenty-five years of activities requires commitment and heart. We are forever indebted to our precious Guru Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche and all our other gurus, seven past and present FPMT resident teachers, and their translators. The contributions and sacrifices made by members, benefactors, volunteers, and executive committee members also cannot be forgotten and are deeply appreciated.
25th Anniversary Celebration on Zoom, Losang Dragpa Centre, December 2020. Photo by Dr. Chew Cheng Hoon, LDC member.
The 25th Anniversary Celebration featured a trip down memory lane of LDC’s history via a five-minute video “LDC’s 25 years Journey.” The high points of the night were the greetings and advice from our Guru Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, as well as words of sharing and wisdom from past resident teacher Geshe Tenzin Zopa and Sangha translators Ven. Michael Losang Yeshe and Ven. Tenzin Sherab. The event also relayed personal greetings from co-founders Huei and Pek Chee Hen who are trustees of LDC, followed by fellow trustees Lee Oi Loon and Selina Foong (who also serves as FPMT Southeast Asia regional coordinator), and two past center directors, Datuk M. Jayabalan and Dr. Lee Hock Bee.
The biggest big surprise of the night was sprung by LDC’s current FPMT resident geshe, Geshe Jampa Tsondu, who has been at the center since 2012. Geshe Jampa Tsondu read his three-minute twenty-fifth anniversary greetings out loud fully in English. This was met with appreciation and applause from members and students!
Watch “(#GoLive) FPMT LDC 25th Anniversary Celebration” on the FPMT LDC YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/9fjpb4r_WFw
LDC maximized the auspiciousness of Lama Tsongkhapa Day by launching the center’s new mobile-friendly website fpmt-ldc.org.
Geshe Jampa Tsondu said in his speech, “Twenty-five years is not long but not short either.” He said we should build on what we have already accomplished and continue to strive in the Dharma and its activities to benefit all.
Ven. Thubten Choying, Kenn Ng, Geshe Jampa Tsondu, and Lua Chiew Fei making offerings before the Yamantaka Pacifying Fire Puja, Losang Dragpa Centre, Selangor, Malaysia, December 2020. Photo by Gavyn Teh.
As a token of appreciation to all, LDC has released a recording of the Migtsema prayer composed into a song by a local artist. The recording features chanting by Geshe Jampa Tsondu and Kenn Ng, LDC’s translator.
Listen to “MIGTSEMA – LDC 25th Anniversary Celebration” on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/fpmt-ldc/migtsema-ldc-25th-anniversary-celebration
LDC center director Dato’ Dr. Goh Pik Pin, alongside her executive committee, took this opportunity to thank everyone who attended the 25th Anniversary Celebration for their support with hopes for many awesome years to come.
To learn more about Losang Dragpa Centre, visit their new website:
http://fpmt-ldc.org/
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.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama giving a teaching, Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo by Neal Patrick.
We are unbelievably honored and happy to announce that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has accepted the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT to give a teaching!
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will offer a teaching on Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin) followed by a question and answer session.
The live online event will be on Monday, February 8 from 9 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. India Standard Time (UTC +5:30).
(Please note: For students in the Americas, the teaching will be during the evening of Sunday, February 7. To find the time in your local area, see Time Zone Converter.)
Watch LIVE His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaching on “Recognizing My Mother, An Experiential Song of the View” on the FPMT YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/rOA9JCY7pYI
Download the PDF of Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View (tagur ama ngodzin):
https://fpmt.box.com/s/o651pwy54z15mwwqpy0n4sx1qbigs2vw
Find translations of the text in German, Italian, and Vietnamese, plus explanatory notes of the text by Geshe Kelsang Wongmo on the FPMT “Prayers and Practices Free Downloads” page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/#ar
For translation of the text into additional languages and links to live translation of the teaching, please go to DalaiLama.com/live:
https://www.dalailama.com/live
The live webcast of the teaching will be in Tibetan with translation in English, Chinese, Hindi, French, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Mongolian, Korean, German, Portuguese, and Italian. You will be able to find links to these translations on the official websites and Facebook pages of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. People are requested to please follow their local social distancing rules while viewing the live webcast.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche watching His Holiness the Dalai Lama give a teaching, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Find more live webcasts from His Holiness the Dalai Lama at DalaiLama.com/Live.
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.
LTC then-director Maureen McIntyre, Councillor Fiona Cunningham, Helene Holland, Ven. Trin-la, and MP Joe Kelly opened the Street Library in a small ceremony, Langri Tangpa Centre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, November 2020. Photo by Carolyn Mason.
Langri Tanga Centre (LTC), the FPMT center in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, used a US$300 International Merit Box Project grant they received in 2019 to create a “Street Library” on the center’s outside property. The International Merit Box Project was created in 2001 to cultivate generosity as part of a daily practice. The offerings made by students, centers, projects and services are annually disbursed as grants supporting a wide range of Dharma activity. Street Libraries, also known as Little Free Libraries, are part of a worldwide movement to create places for books to be read and shared in local communities.
LTC’s US$300 grant used to pay for the creation of the library box, including mounting and shipping it to the center, as well as materials for the design of the library box itself. Some money was put in by the center, and then an amount equivalent to approximately US$600 was provided in donations of time, money, and resources to create the space for the Street Library, with seating and landscaping around it. Carolyn Mason, a member of the LTC management committee, shares the story.
Street Library, Langri Tangpa Centre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, November 2020. Photo by Carolyn Mason.
The amazing biography Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, written by Adele Hulse and published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, tells the following story on page 663. It took place in 1978, during the first Council for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition at the then Manjushri Institute in England:
“Stepping outside after one meeting session, Lama Yeshe looked up at the Priory’s soaring Gothic spires and said to Nick Ribush, ‘You know, dear, I think we should buy every Christian church in the world!’ Surprised, ‘Er, yes Lama,‘ was all Nick could offer. Just one more example of Lama thinking big.”
In 2007, the Management Committee of Langri Tangpa Centre together with benefactors did just that—we bought a church in Brisbane. In 2020, we built a mini one with the creation of a Street Library, our Buddhist Book Box, opening it to the public in a small ceremony held on November 4.
The LTC Street Library:
- Spreads the Dharma further into our community through providing free books.
- Contains appropriate Dharma books, books donated by students, old library books, and postcards about LTC.
- Library and seated area are skillful means to bring people to the center.
- Encourages those people curious about Buddhism but not yet ready to come into the center.
- Prior to COVID-19, many new attendees heard about LTC by walking or driving by, so we hope the Street Library will generate more interest for this group.
Street Library, Langri Tangpa Centre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, November 2020. Photo by Carolyn Mason.
Created by our wonderful volunteer artist Helene Holland, it’s the most beautiful exquisitely detailed mini-LTC you ever did see! It has bricks and tiles, and the tip of the roof has a stupa instead of a spire.
Helene spent many hours decorating it with paint and hundreds of hand-made tiles (complete with moss!). The back of the Street Library is decorated with windows that “look” into LTC’s library. The sides of it have the church building’s brick pattern and are decorated with auspicious symbols. Prayer flags are on the front of the Street Library.
Helene is a skilled artist. She has regularly completed workshops with Andy Weber and conducts art classes herself, as well as painting stupas, molding and painting auspicious symbols for the center, and completing repairs on holy objects.
Our Street Library has a solar powered mini-chandelier inside, and the blue-painted interior and row of books draw the eye, especially in the dark. So far over 80 books have been borrowed! We just keep filling it up with books donated to the center.
We are now literally on the (Street Library) map in Australia, becoming the 2,500th Street Library in the country. We dedicate that this becomes a welcoming bridge from our passersby to the Buddhadharma.
To learn more about Langri Tangpa Centre, visit their website:
https://langritangpa.org.au/
If you would like start accumulating offerings with your own Merit Box practice, you can order a free Merit Box for your home or office altar from the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Merit-Box-_p_619.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.
The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, January 2020. Photo by Alyce Crosbie.
In 1981, Lama Thubten Yeshe laid out the original plans for the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, an FPMT project near Bendigo in Victoria, Australia. On Tuesday, December 17, 2019, the community celebrated as the final pieces of the Great Stupa were lifted into place. Alyce Crosbie, marketing and events coordinator, shares that story and others in this update on activities at the stupa during 2020 and the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Raising the top of the stupa is a once-in-a-millennium moment in what we plan to be the 1,000-year life of the Great Stupa,” said Ian Green, director and chairman of the project since its inception. “It must be what it felt like for the builders of the great cathedrals or mosques of the world when the final spire or domes were put in place.”
Two massive cranes lifted the final structures—the sokshing, harmika, thirteen rings, and parasol—into place. The harmika and the thirteen rings alone weigh around 30 metric tons (33 US tons). The last 19 meters (62 feet) are completely decorated with traditional Buddhist artwork done by a team of local artists as well as custom-made works done in Nepal.
“For the past sixteen years, we have been focused on concrete and steel,” Ian Green said. “But the top of the stupa will be fully decorated in the brilliant colors of traditional Buddhist iconography. It gives us a real sense of how spectacular the whole stupa will be when complete.”
The Great Stupa had been standing close to 30 meters (98 feet) high and has now reached its total height of 48 meters (157 feet).
The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, January 2020. Photo by Alyce Crosbie.
The top of the Great Stupa was unveiled in a spectacular ceremony one month later. The mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo, two local members of parliament, and Ian Green were hoisted 60 meters (197 feet) above the ground in a “man cage” from which they lifted a veil off the top of the stupa. The unveiling was part of the Lunar New Year celebrations held at the stupa in January and February, one of our three major annual events.
Behind-the-scenes construction projects have continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. These included renovating and extending the gift shop as well as major earthworks for a sewage and water filtration system to make the site as self-sustainable as possible.
Ian Green reported that the services works projects have been successfully completed even though progress was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “It has slowed down our work due to delays in provision of important component parts and competition for contractors due to high demand created by government housing incentives. At the same time the pandemic closures at the Great Stupa, which were over five months, did enable some major trenching that would have been difficult to handle if we had our normal number of visitors to the stupa.”
Ian Green said, “A new power house will be the next major project at the stupa. This will include provision for solar power, batteries, and generators.”
There is a twelve-minute video virtual tour around the Peace Park at the Great Stupa, highlighting the interfaith installations in the park as well as the different plant and tree varieties. This video is part of the Bendigo “Bloom” garden series created by Bendigo Tourism to showcase the beautiful parks and gardens in our region.
Watch Alyce lead the “Bendigo Bloom – Peace Park Tour” at the Great Stupa for Universal Compassion:
https://youtu.be/YbB81Zw8f0I
We were preparing for an increase in visitors this year due to the completion of the outside of the building, but like most people we have felt the effects of COVID-19. We were hugely saddened to have to close our doors twice this year. This included canceling ILLUMIN8: Festival of Light and Peace, one of our three major annual events, when we celebrate the Buddha’s life on Saka Dawa with an amazing line-up of cultural performances and activities, light sculptures, food, and family fun.
Our Vegecareian Festival, a major annual event at the Great Stupa celebrating vegetarian cuisine from around the world, was held virtually for the first time. The November 21 livestream included cooking demonstrations, virtual animal blessings, and self-care activities. Thanks to everyone who tuned in on Facebook! For those of you who didn’t get a chance to join in, you can now watch the recording anytime on our YouTube channel. We look forward to seeing you and your pets for Vegecaerian Festival 2021.
A 6 meters (23 feet) high Quan Yin statue, installed during the COVID-19 pandemic, overlooks the entire Peace Park at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, August 2020. Photo by Alyce Crosbie.
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
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.