FPMT Community: Stories & News

Kopan monks departing Kopan Monastery with a torma symbolizing Kalarupa, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

The community at Kopan Monastery, the FPMT monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, shares about the annual Losar (Tibetan New Year) rituals that took place at Kopan in 2019.

The Tibetan Losar tradition contains elements and values that we all share as human beings, and, similar to Western cultures, the New Year here means a fresh beginning. Losar rituals have many Buddhist elements, but Losar is primarily a secular event with its own flavor.

At all the major monasteries, special ceremonies called Gyutor are performed on the last day of the year. The purpose of these ceremonies is to move into the new year with a clean slate after having purified the negativities of the past year.

Kopan monks making offerings to a torma symbolizing Kalarupa, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

At Kopan Monastery, the purification ceremonies start with an extensive puja by the tantric monks in which vast amounts of offerings are made to the protectors. A special torma symbolizing Kalarupa is consecrated, which will later be offered to the fire. In the puja, extensive offerings are made, and all the protectors of the teachings of the Buddha are beseeched to fulfill the pledges they made in the past.

The rituals continue with the assembly of the tantric monks in the Kopan Monastery courtyard, with the torma placed in the middle. The ritual master first performs an extensive tea offering to the protectors in which they are requested to remove all hindrances and obstacles. The tea offering is repeated four times, with the first one dedicated to the Lama, the second one to the Deity, the third one to all enlightened protectors, and the fourth to the worldly protectors and the landlords.

Geshe Lhakpa, Geshe Thubten Jinpa, and a procession of Kopan monks departing Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

Following this, the torma is carried in a procession with music and chanting of prayers to a nearby field where a straw hut has been erected. The torma is then thrown into the burning straw hut, symbolically destroying all negativities and causes of negativities, the grasping and self-cherishing mind. Prayers are made for the removal of all obstacles to the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa, and for the teachings to continue for a long time.

Extensive dedications made to the torma symbolizing Kalarupa, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

Extensive dedications are made throughout the rituals. All FPMT centers, projects, services, and students are always included in the prayers to remove all obstacles and to have the right conditions to fulfill all the wishes of all the lamas, and in particular the wishes of His Holiness Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Fire in a bamboo and straw hut consuming a torma symbolizing Kalarupa, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

Watch Kopan Monastery’s short video of the puja:
https://youtu.be/DJFShkjqHaw

The next day is Losar, the New Year’s day, which is welcomed in the monasteries with a Palden Lhamo puja in the early morning, followed by a celebration of Guru Puja with extensive tsog offering at 8 a.m. This being the main puja of the New Year, it goes on until midday.

Losar is mostly celebrated over three days.

The first day is dedicated to the lamas. This is when lay people go to the monasteries to make offerings and visit their teachers to receive a blessing string. The monasteries celebrate this day as the first day of the Fifteen Days of Miracles. At Kopan Monastery this is also the anniversary of Lama Yeshe’s passing.

The second day is dedicated to the king or leader of the country. The third day is then dedicated to the family.

For more information about Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/
http://www.kopannunnery.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, Nepal, December 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

We hope you enjoy our March FPMT International Office e-News!

This month we bring you:

• A beautiful portrait photo of Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• News about our Annual Review 2018!
• New Materials, including Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Recognizing the False I
• Updates from the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program

…and more!

Have this 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.

FPMT International Office is happy to announce FPMT Annual Review 2018: Live with Compassion. The new annual review is 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 40 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, thank you all 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 writes in this year’s annual review. 

In addition to advice from Rinpoche, the FPMT Annual Review 2018 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. 

Please note: The FPMT Annual Review 2018 is available in digital format only, meaning it will not be printed and posted to FPMT centers, projects, and services. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a teaching organized by Gendun Drupa Center, Savièse, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

We invite you to read FPMT Annual Review 2018: Live with Compassion, now available online in eZine and PDF formats:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/annual-review/

See photo highlights from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2018:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/#2018

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.”

Guru bumstog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

FPMT Sangha and students gathered together at the Kickstart Community Arts Centre in New Town, Tasmania, in November 2018 to make 100,000 tsog offerings to Guru Rinpoche, also known as Padmasambhava. This was the second year in a row that the FPMT Australia National Office organized and FPMT center Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre, Tasmania, co-hosted a Guru bumtsog. They were assisted in the months leading up to and during the event by students and executive committee members from Logsang Dragpa Centre, the FPMT center in Selangor, Malaysia. This created a warm, FPMT global family feeling at the four-day event. FPMT center Vajrayana Institute student Shannon Murphy shares the story.

An auspicious annual event took place in a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, in November 2018. Geshe Thubten Rabten, the FPMT resident geshe from Atisha Centre and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery; Geshe Phuntsok Tsultrim, the FPMT resident geshe from Chenrezig Institute; and Geshe Tenzin Zopa, an FPMT touring geshe were among eighteen ordained Sangha and more than one hundred men, women, and children from FPMT centers all over Australia and beyond who came together for a Guru bumtsog.

Guru bumtsog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

The event honored Guru Rinpoche an 8th-century Buddhist master from India who played an essential role in the flourishing of Buddhism in Tibet. He represents an embodiment of the Dharma lineage, so that the ritual of making offerings to Guru Rinpoche was an offering to all our precious teachers, notably His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and an offering to the Buddha potential within every being.

We kept in mind all those who suffer in the cycles of life, death, and the bardo, in all realms of existence. With this expansive view, the aspiration was to make 100,000 tsog offerings and 100,000 mantra recitations during our four days together!

Geshe Phuntsok Tsultrim, Ven. Thubten Dondrub, Ven. Tenzin Tsapel, and Ven. Tenzin Chodron at the Guru bumtsog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa led the prayers and mantras, inspiring us with heart-felt motivations and rotating chant tunes with support from Geshe Thubten Rabten. Geshe Tenzin Zopa and Ven. Lozang Sherab—who sometimes assists at FPMT center Langri Tangpa Centre—offered music on the big brass cymbals. Ven. Thubten Chokyi and Ven. Lozang Thubten from FPMT center Chenrezig Institute offered music on the drums.

It created a powerful practice that, once we got our tongues around the Tibetan, could really carry the mind into an expansive offering. The practice sessions were solid blocks of mantra recitation that lasted for a couple of hours each, five sessions a day.

Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre director Ven. Lindy Mailhot, FPMT Australia national coordinator Peter Stickels, and education coordinator Stephanie Brennan making the offerings at the Guru bumtsog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

To refresh us between sessions, we were generously catered for by the Chag Tong Chen Tong Centre community, with a variety of hot drinks, delicious pastries, and freshly prepared breakfasts and lunches.

Participants caught up with old friends and met new ones. Some took time to do personal meditation or to visit the exhibition of holy artworks curated in the art center by artist Martin Watson Walker.

Ven. Tenzin Sherab, Mary Richards, and Martin Walker-Watson making offerings to the Buddha at the Guru bumtsog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

A large Buddha Shakyamuni, one of the preliminary sculptures made for the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace, was positioned in the heart of the garden for guests to circumambulate and make light, incense, water bowl, and Sur offerings to, while stupas, thangkas, relics, and extensive offerings were arranged in the hall.

Martin oversaw the gilding of the beautiful Buddha so that participants could make offerings of gold leaf. Placed around the centerpiece were hundreds of water bowls, which gradually filled with multicolored blossoms. Incense billowed and candles flickered. When the rain came down the monks and nuns led the congregation under umbrellas to offer Sur prayers before the dusk settled.

Gavyn Teh, Losang Dragpa Centre (LDC) program support and setup, Geshe Phuntsok Tsultrim, Geshe Thubten Rabten, Geshe Tenzin Zopa, Candy Tan, LDC spiritual program coordinator, and Lua Chiew Fei, LDC assistant spiritual program coordinator, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo courtesy of Candy Tan.

One participant commented that for years he had kept getting blocked in his study of Dharma. He found incorporating prayer and mantra into his practice has been instrumental to opening his mind.

When we put all the busy demands of life aside and focus on our intention to create the causes for the elimination of all suffering, that all beings receive all the conducive conditions that will lead to an enlightened state, what an incredible practice of compassion it becomes! All the more inspiring to do it in a group setting where there where more than one hundred people were sharing a space and an intention to put good energy out into the world.

Students participating in the Guru bumtsog, Tasmania, Australia, November 2018. Photo by Markus Ravik.

For more information about FPMT Australia, visit their website:
http://fpmta.org.au/

For more information about Chag Tong Chen Tong, visit their website:
https://www.chagtong.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.

Mandala January-June 2019

The cover story from the January-June 2019 issue of Mandala magazine, “Sustaining the Pure Unbroken Lineage of Buddha’s Teachings in This World: The Legacy of the Sera Je Food Fund,” shares the history and success of the Sera Je Food Fund. Through the extraordinary generosity of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the supporters of the fund, an endowment was created large enough to support the long-term health of the Sera Je Food Fund. Interest from this endowment covers the entire cost of offering the monks at Sera Je Monastery three nutritious meals a day throughout the year.

You can read the complete article on the food fund, “Sustaining the Pure Unbroken Lineage of Buddha’s Teachings in This World: The Legacy of the Sera Je Food Fund,” in eZine format and as a PDF.

The latest print edition also includes the story “Buxa Chogar: Saving Tibetan Buddhism in Exile” by Robyn Brentan. The article looks at the extraordinary hardships the Tibetan monastic refugee community experienced as they dedicated themselves to preserving the authentic Dharma in exile. The kindness these refugee monastics demonstrated by going on to rebuild the monasteries in India and to teach Dharma to Westerners is beyond measure. In this issue’s online content, you can read stories from and about FPMT geshes, sharing some of their personal experiences of Buxa Chogar and exile.

Mandala magazine is published twice a year. Mandala January-June 2019 has been mailed to Friends of FPMT supporters and to the FPMT centers, projects, and services who offer the magazine as a benefit.

If you would like to have future issues of Mandala sent to you in the mail, sign up for Friends of FPMT at the Foundation Friends level or higher. Friends of FPMT can also read the full issue online or download it to their electronic reading devices. They can also choose to donate their print issue to an incarcerated person, facilitated by the Liberation Prison Project.

For those wishing to purchase a copy, the January-June 2019 issue is also available through the FPMT Foundation Store.

We hope you enjoy the January-June 2019 issue of Mandala magazine.

If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about FPMT Charitable Project’s Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world. 

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.

MAITRI field coordinator Binod Patra and teacher Ganesh Sharma raising awareness about leprosy in a village, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by MAITRI.

FPMT project MAITRI Charitable Trust in Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, celebrated World Leprosy Day on January 27, 2019. The day’s activities included a visit to MAITRI’s leprosy awareness stall by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. MAITRI’s director, Adriana Ferranti, shares the story.

World Leprosy Day is not only a day of reflection on the victims of this devastating disease. It is first and foremost a day of solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are afflicted by it.

Leprosy is still widespread in India and particularly in Bihar. It can affect anybody: rich and poor; high and low caste; male and female; child and adult; educated and uneducated.

MAITRI leprosy patients Shankar Mahto, Kamlesh Manjhi who was discharged in February 2019 after more than two months of treatment, and Ramswaroop Paswan, MAITRI, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by MAITRI.

Leprosy is a communicable disease, but one of the least contagious ones. It is caused by the germ Mycobacterium leprae; it is neither hereditary nor a curse. If left untreated, the intense inflammation that causes severe swelling of the person’s features can lead to permanent scars and deformities. However, if treated with regular care and medication, the recovery can be full.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting MAITRI’s leprosy awareness stall near the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

MAITRI’s celebration of World Leprosy Day traditionally consists of an awareness campaign about the disease and its treatment in most provinces of Gaya District. Two teams of paramedical workers travel on two jeeps equipped with loudspeakers, heading to different destinations in the district, visiting villages in forgotten corners of the hinterland. The workers interact with the population, distribute leaflets, and possibly detect new cases.

By 3 p.m., both jeeps converge at our stall in Bodhgaya, where a worker has kept the MAITRI stall open since early morning. All field staff—joined by the teachers and myself—continue addressing the public and distributing leaflets until 5 p.m.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche advising Adriana Ferranti and MAITRI staff, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

On the teams’ return to the campus, the celebration ends with the distribution of samosas and sweets to MAITRI inpatients, the living representatives for whom MAITRI was created almost thirty years ago.

In 2018 we assessed 586 high risk cases; instructed 792 disabled cases for self-care; and trained 576 deformed patients, 2,983 community members and 417 government staff members. MAITRI held thirty-four camps to distribute sandals and dressing kits. We assisted the government with bi-monthly leprosy sections at the government-run public health clinics and carried out education programs across the region. At MAITRI Hospital fifty-nine ulcer cases and two reaction cases have been admitted.

Lama Zopa with Adriana Ferranti and MAITRI staff, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

For more information about MAITRI Charitable Trust, visit their website:
http://www.maitri-bodhgaya.org/home/

For the seventh year, due to the kindness of a benefactor, the FPMT Social Services Fund has been offering substantial grants to MAITRI in support of their incredible and compassionate work and service.

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.

Kopan Monastery School student Ven. Lobsang Yonten explaining his team’s project to Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi and Geshe Thubten Jinpa at the school’s Science Fair, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, January 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

On Sunday, January 13, 2019, Kopan Monastery School at FPMT’s Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, held their second-ever Science Fair. They invited the local community to come to the monastery to talk with the students and learn about their group projects. Kopan Monastery School Headmaster Geshe Tashi Sherab shares the story.

Although we have had a science class at Kopan Monastery School since the very beginning of the school’s founding in 2009, last year was the first year we held a Science Fair.

Kopan Monastery School Science Fair, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, January 2019. Photo by Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

I think it’s very important not only to give students theoretical explanations, but to also engage the students in projects which depend on teamwork.

Kopan Monastery School student Ven. Lhundub Pelkar explaining his team’s project at the school’s Science Fair, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, January 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

This Science Fair was all the result of their teamwork. They had been working on it for more than a week. I am amazed to see their passion and efforts. All of the students—including our youngest students who are seven years old—are involved in these events.

Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche exploring the Kopan Monastery School Science Fair, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, January 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

The reasons we teach science to our Buddhist monks is as follows: both science and Buddhism are looking for the truth—whatever it may be. We use philosophical methods and scientists use experiments to discover the truth. So, if we can learn the methodology of science, it is going help us a lot. That’s why we feel it is very important to introduce science to our students.

Kopan Monastery School students Ven. Lobsang Choezin and Ven. Lobsang Jampa explaining their team’s project at the school’s Science Fair, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, January 2019. Photo by Geshe Tashi Sherab.

For more information about Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/
http://www.kopannunnery.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 offered lunch to Dagri Rinpoche and his attendant, Ven. Tenzin Gyaltsen, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, January 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Out now – the February FPMT International Office e-News!

• This month we bring you:
  Lama Zopa Rinpoche Schedule Updates
• Thanks from Rinpoche for the Sera Je Food Fund
• We’re Seeking New Friends!

…and more!

Have this translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page. French and Spanish speakers will find the FPMT International Office News translated each month in the “Bienvenue” and “Bienvenidos” tabs on the FPMT homepage.

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.

Alcohol and Other Drugs Program participants gazing with arms locked at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, January 2019. Photo by Alyce Crosbie.

The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, a FPMT project near Bendigo in Victoria, Australia, has been running an Alcohol and Other Drugs Program for the past several months. Community service is one of the five FPMT Pillars of Service. Participants in the Salvation Army Bridge Program—a live-in six-week recovery program for men and women with an alcohol and/or drug addiction—visit the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion (the Great Stupa) once every two weeks for art therapy, mindfulness, and meditation activities. Participants occasionally have the opportunity to ask questions of a Buddhist nun from the FPMT community. Rhiannon Charles, a tour guide at the Great Stupa who initiated the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program shares the story.

I’ve been running this program for six months now, and the response from participants has just been amazing. Participants have told us that they have gained new skills, and will continue with their mindfulness and meditation practices even after they leave the program.

This well-being program here at the Great Stupa helps our participants voluntarily make the right choices to improve health and well-being. It encourages participants to become more self-aware, provides participants with better skills to cope with the various difficult life situations and problems that confront them, and gives back to the community in a wholesome way.

One of our Alcohol and Other Drugs Program participants shared their experience with us.

“From seventeen years of addiction coming to the Great Stupa and being a part of this program, I finally connected with myself for the first time. This program has inspired me to look into Buddhism, and opened me up to change aspects of my life. I will continue to practice mindfulness and meditation outside of the program, and I will be returning to the Great Stupa once I’m no longer in the program.

After losing my daughter to cot death (sudden infant death syndrome), I have been searching for some answers as to what happens to us in the afterlife. Having the chance to engage with a Buddhist nun and getting insight into a Buddhist understanding of the afterlife, I now feel more at ease. It has helped me immensely.

The well-being program at the Great Stupa has opened a new doorway for me and changed different aspects of the way I look at life. I love the art therapy and the way the program allows me to completely be myself. I’d recommend the Great Stupa to everyone.”

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

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Tenzin Ösel Hita and his son, Tenzin Norbu, Madrid, Spain, October 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

FPMT International Office wishes Tenzin Ösel Hita a very happy birthday and a long, healthy life. May his beneficial activities flourish and wishes come instantly into fruition!

Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe, turns 34 on February 12, 2019. 

While Lama Zopa Rinpoche was giving teachings in Madrid, Spain, in October 2018, Tenzin Ösel Hita visited Rinpoche with his son Tenzin Norbu. 

In December 2018, Ösel and Norbu visited Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) in France. Ven. Robina was teaching at IVY at the time. Ösel also gave talks during his visit there.

For Losar last week, Ösel celebrated at Centro Narajuna Valencia in Spain.

The Big Love Fund provides financial resources that enable Ösel to continue his endeavors on behalf of FPMT. 

You can follow news and updates about Ösel on the Tenzin Ösel Hita news feed. Find recordings of talks by Ösel on the Tenzin Ösel Hita Videos page.

Statues ready to be filed with mantras rolled by Ven. Jan Bijman (Konchog Phuntsok) at Maitreya Instituut, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photo by Ven. Jan Bijman.

Each month Maitreya Instituut, an FPMT center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, organizes a mantra rolling activity facilitated by Ven. Jan Bijman (Konchog Phuntsok). Students learn about and roll mantras that they can then use to fill their own statues and stupas. Greg Suffanti, a long-time student and Maitreya Instituut volunteer, shares the story.

In 2019 Maitreya Instituut will celebrate its fortieth anniversary, making it one of the oldest Buddhist organizations in the Netherlands. I’ve been a student and a volunteer at Maitreya Instituut’s Amsterdam center for nearly twenty years, and all through the years I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the very quiet and modest Ven. Jan Bijman.

Ven. Jan Bijman (Konchog Phuntsok) holding a sheet of mantras, Maitreya Instituut, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photo courtesy of Maitreya Instituut.

Ven. Jan began rolling mantras back in 1983, when he went to live at the center, then located in Bruchem. Today, Maitreya Instituut has two centers: a large retreat center in Loenen and a small city center in Amsterdam.

Ven. Jan took refuge with Lama Yeshe in 1982 and took ordination on December 28, 1988.

“You have to start with a blessing,” Ven. Jan said, “which I got from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Maasbommel, the Netherlands, sometime around 1985-1986. The blessing allows you to do the retreat and the fire puja, at which point you get permission to give the blessing of the mantra rolls.”

Ven. Jan was quick to add, “Geshe Lhundrup first helped me, as well as Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen.” Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen is Maitreya Instituut’s resident geshe.

When I asked Ven. Khedrup—who knows Ven. Jan from his years of translating for Geshe Sonam Ngodrup in Holland—to comment about Ven. Jan, Ven. Khedrup immediately replied, “Patient acceptance is what I think of when I think of Ven. Jan. He’s not the type of person who seeks the limelight for himself. An example to all. A quiet, steady presence who inspires all with his patience and acceptance.”

There are many tasks and rituals involved in the process of filling a statue—from copying the mantras on to paper, which has to be dyed saffron yellow—to carefully cutting out the individual mantras on a single sheet, then rolling each one tightly around a stick of incense, to then bundling the incense in saffron colored cloth.

When I asked Paula de Wijs, Amsterdam center director and Maitreya Instituut co-founder, to comment for this story, she said, “Mantra rolling is a quiet thing, not spectacular to watch or participate in. But it reflects what it takes to keep a Buddhist center open and on track … persistence, patience, having an idea what you are working towards, doing it all with a good motivation for the benefit of all, knowing that even seemingly small actions can culminate in producing something of great meaning.”

Paula continued, “In Dutch there is a term, monnikenwerk, which literally translates as ‘monk’s work,’ meaning doing something that takes time and patience to do, and that is exactly what mantra rolling is.”

We are fortunate at Maitreya Instituut that so many people like Ven. Jan have selflessly given their lives to help keep the two centers alive and thriving for forty years. This is quite remarkable in this day and age.

When I asked Ven. Jan where he gets the inspiration decade after decade to make mantra rolls and fill statues, he said with a big smile, “The pleasure is the people. When I give a filled statue back, the receiver is always so happy. Their happiness inspires me.”

For more information about Maitreya Instituut, visit their website:
https://maitreya.nl/index.htm

This story was originally published by the Quest for Wisdom Foundation on their website:
https://questforwisdom.org/wijsheid/bringing-buddhist-statues-to-life-with-mantras/#_ftn1

Essential Mantras for Holy Objects (statues, stupas, and tsa-tas) is available for free download from FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/essential-mantras-for-holy-objects/

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.

Ven. Thubten Dondrub with students Phoebe McColl, Catherine Honeychurch, Peter Koegst, Paul Kersten, Katherine Danford-Storey, Marlene Robins, Tim Eisemann, John Niessen, Judy Wagner, Sue Dixon, as well as center director Becky Geisler and center manager Fran Rowley, De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, Kangraroo Island, South Australia, October 2018. Photo by retreatant.

Each year De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, an FPMT center on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, offers an annual ten-day lamrim meditation retreat. Anthony Reid, one of the center’s board members, shares about the 2018 retreat.

Meditative retreat is a cornerstone of the Buddhist tradition. Retreat is the physical action of living in a quiet location; it is avoiding unnecessary conversations; and it is the process of cultivating mental focus on the Buddhadharma.

It takes special conditions for a meditative retreat to be effective, powerful, and transformative. Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “A retreat place is not for gaining power like black magic, it’s not for a honeymoon or holiday. Also it is not a place in which to be spaced out.

“The whole purpose of a retreat place is to subdue the mind and to actualize the lamrim up to enlightenment. It is a place for a holiday from negative karma, a holiday from the three poisonous minds and the self-cherishing thought, a holiday from the self-grasping of the person and phenomena, a holiday from the wrong concepts: non-devotional thought towards the guru up to the subtle dual view of white, increasing, attainment.”

Enlightenment stupa and prayer wheel house, De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, July 2018. Photo courtesy of De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre.

At De-Tong Ling Retreat Center, located on the beautiful Kangaroo Island off the southern coast of South Australia, the conditions for deep retreat are met.

Ten people joined experienced FPMT registered teacher Ven. Thubten Dondrub for the annual Ten-Day Lamrim Retreat at De-Tong Ling, from October 1-10, 2018.

Lamrim teachings and guided meditations by Ven. Thubten Dondrub were aimed at facilitating internal experience and transformation for the retreatants. With the optimal external conditions of a silent meditation hall located beneath an inspiring enlightenment stupa overlooking a turquoise blue lake and a view out across pristine native vegetation towards the distant ocean, the retreat delivered experience in abundance for the fortunate attendees.

Ven. Thubten Dondrub and students inside of the gompa beneath the enlightenment stupa, De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, October 2018. Photo by retreatant.

“Being led through meditations … and reflecting on the lamrim brings the teachings alive and has deepened my understanding,” shared one retreatant.

One of the benefits of group retreat is having support of fellow attendees. One attendee noted the group energy made “the atmosphere very pleasant,” and people found courage to persist through times of difficulty and clarify their perceptions of the teachings through focused discussion.

Accommodation at De-Tong Ling was enjoyed by all, with some opting for rooms in the eco-friendly rammed earth house on adjoining Yacca Creeks land, and others for more “rustic” experience in tents. Either way the opportunity to get back in touch with nature, with the vast Kangaroo Island skies and the silence of the Australian bush, brought a new level of experience for the retreatants.

Ven. Thubten Dondrub and De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre center manager Fran Rowley, De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, October 2018. Photo by retreatant.

And the conclusion? Participants were grateful for the opportunity to connect with Dharma at a deeper level. In the words of one, they “returned to mundane life with enhanced motivation to put a more concentrated and consistent effort into my practice.”

Taking the experience into daily life will be forever one of the challenges of retreat. With a clarity derived from the retreat another participant noted, “Dharma is about perfection but until then it’s about progress.”

We hope that this transition to daily life outside of the retreat setting will be made easier knowing a place like De-Tong Ling is in existence and is a sanctuary for students from across FPMT providing the perfect conditions for retreat.

For more information about De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre, visit their website:
https://detongling.org/

This story was originally published on De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre’s website:
https://detongling.org/events/

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