FPMT Community: Stories & News

Amitabha Budda statue and altar at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA. September 14, 2014. Photo by Julia Sanderson.

After a week of preparations, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL), in Washington State, USA, hosted an Amitabha Buddha Festival for the seventh time, attended by thirty people. The festival was envisioned by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to honor the large Amitabha Buddha statue which is on the land at BAPL. Rinpoche created the text for the celebration, basing it on Lama Tsongkhapa’s text for the Monlam celebration. The text includes an extensive bath offering, prayers to the 35 Buddhas of Confession, and an extensive offering practice, similar to one done during a long life puja.

The local FPMT center, Pamtingpa, is located about an hour from Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, and students from there, as well as from friends from a nearby town, helped prepare food and set everything up for the puja.

Yangsi Rinpoche accepted an invitation to attend this festival and led a beautiful motivation before the puja began, reminding everyone how much effort Lama Zpoa Rinpoche had put into creating this festival, compiling the festival text, and the details Rinpoche put into making sure all of the offerings were of best quality and beautifully arranged—all so that students would have the opportunity to create extensive merit. Yangsi Rinpoche also emphasized that all of this merit would be dedicated for the quick return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and for the welfare of all beings.

Ven. Thubten Wongmo with Yangsi Rinpoche, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, September 14. Photo by Julia Sanderson.

The puja itself starts off with refuge and bodhicitta, bath offering, then the extensive prayer to the Thirty-Five Buddhas, “The Flowing Water of the Ganga, a Thorough Praise of the Thirty-Five Sugatas,” which lists the various negative karmas that each of the thirty-five buddhas purifies.

Next in the text, all of the various traditional offerings are made to Guru Amitabha: The three Dharma robes and begging bowl, the seven objects of a King’s reign, the eight auspicious signs and substances etc. For lots of the offerings Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised to have many of the same offering available. Rinpoche said to do this so that the organizers could hand them out and everyone could participate in actually physically making the offerings. Rinpoche advised to have actual representations of each of the offerings made, and personally bought many of them, including many small horses, elephants, giant umbrellas, banners, representations of kings, queens, ministers, etc. Many people attending are not necessarily Buddhist but Ven. Tenzin Tharchin, a monk who resides at Buddha Amitabha Buddha Land, noticed that, “Everyone really gets into the puja and they enjoy very much participating in making the offerings.”

Two of the last offering verses were composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche himself: “Offering Trucks, Cars, Trains, and Other Vehicles,” and “Offering Airplanes.” Ven. Tharchin shares, “The toy car that Yangsi Rinpoche offered for the first of these made a sound of a car speeding along faster and faster and then pulling the handbrake into a screeching turn! Rinpoche kept playing the sound effects while all the other toy vehicles were being handed out to the others which caused everyone to crack up with laughter!”

Offering Trucks, Cars, Trains, and Other Vehicles
Due to the merits of having offered these vehicles
May ourselves and all transmigratory beings
Realize the basis of the two truths.
(The truth for the absolute wisdom and the truth for the all obscuring mind)
And by completing the path method possessed by wisdom and wisdom possessed by method
Cross from beyond the oceans of samsaric suffering and
May the unified holy body and mind of Buddha be achieved.

Offering Airplanes
Due to the method of having offered these airplanes
And especially by the blessings of the Virtuous Friend,
The essence of embodiment of numberless Buddhas.
May ourselves and all transmigratory beings actualize the unification
Of holy body and holy mind of no more learning
In the brief lifetime of degenerated time.

Thus, may all the wishes of the students, the benefactors, the benefactors of the Dharma centers, the sentient beings who rely on me, those whom I have promised to pray for, those whose names have been given to me, and those who merely see us, hear us, remember us, touch us, talk to us, see photos of us, and dream of us, be fulfilled in accordance with the Dharma. At the time of our death, may we see Amitabha directly, and be able to go without obstruction to the Blissful Realm.

Participants in the Amitabha Buddha Festival, September 14, 2024. Photo by Julia Sanderson.

After the puja, a lovely lunch was offered and students from Pamtingpa Center performed the Dance of the Twenty-One Qualities of Tara. “It was very beautiful and moving,” shares Ven. Tharchin. “In the backdrop behind the dancers was a large thangka of Mother Tara smiling down on everyone.” Next, a good friend of Amitabha Buddha Land and of Pamtingpa Center, Gary Davis, chanted two Native American songs with much devotion.

Gary Davis offering chants in front of the Amitabha Buddha statue. Photo by Julia Sanderson.

“One of the chants was about the Aurora Borealis which is held to be very sacred in the tradition and another about paying attention to the voice that comes from the sky,” Ven. Tharchin explained. “It was a wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche that we represent and include the local traditions in the festival and so we were very grateful that Gary accepted our request to perform.”

Yangsi Rinpoche offering the Black Hat Dance, September 14, 2024. Photo by Julia Sanderson.

The festivities concluded with Yangsi Rinpoche performing a Black Hat Dance for all. The dance is performed as a method to eliminate and purify obstacles. He had recently been offered a full costume by one of his students when he was in France so he then had the thought to bring the costume with him to the festival and to perform the dance for all. “We asked Rinpoche where he had learned the dance,” Ven. Tharchin shared, “but Rinpoche seemed to indicate he hadn’t actually formally learned it before! You would not have known. Rinpoche performed the dance very elegantly and you could see the depth of concentration in Rinpoche’s eyes as he performed it. Everyone in attendance found it very moving and it was a perfect conclusion to a very special day for all of us.”

With grateful thanks to Ven. Tenzin Tharchin for providing details of this special event and to all who helped make the festival a success. 

The Amitabha Festival Book: Extensive Benefits from Now up to Enlightenment (Peerless Happiness), Including Liberation from Saṃsāra (Definite Happiness) is available for all to use. This text is in relation to Amitabha Buddha but it can be used as a basis for another deity by replacing the praises and prayers of Amitabha with those of the deity.

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

Participants in the recent Foundation Service Seminar Retreat held at Vajrapani Institute from September 10-14.

Led by experienced facilitators Amy Cayton and François Lecointre, the latest Foundation Service Seminar (FSS) held at Vajrapani Institute, USA, from September 10-14, 2024, was a great success, with the 16 participants from seven different FPMT affiliates from the North American Region working joyfully on how to better integrate practice and service. We are pleased to share the following report of this FSS by Nina Highfill, Executive Director of the Thubten Norbu Ling Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. 

FSS and the Family Feeling

Lama Yeshe during a family gathering at Vajrapani Institute, California, US, 1983. Photo by Carol Royce, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Yeshe, the founder of the Foundation for the Preservation for the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), believed that the most important thing for us to thrive as an organization, is to cherish and nurture the family feeling among us. How often do we pause to appreciate the connections we forge in our Dharma practice? The Foundation Services Seminar (FSS) reminded me of the profound impact these relationships have on our journey.

I did not know how important this “family feeling” was to Lama. I didn’t know many things when I arrived at the Vajrapani Institute in California, USA, on a sunny September afternoon, to join the 5-day FSS retreat experience.

The aims of the FSS are to support individuals wishing to offer service at any level within our organization, explore how we can serve in ways that are most beneficial to ourselves and others, and review the guiding principles and structure of FPMT. As I walked into the gompa for the opening session, this was exactly what I expected. However, as the days unfolded, I discovered that I was receiving much more than I had anticipated.

Learning Experience

Nestled among towering redwoods and full of holy objects and relics, the serene atmosphere of Vajrapani was imbued with a palpable sense of peace. Together with 15 fellow FPMT volunteers, we were gently and skillfully guided by the seminar leaders, Amy Cayton and Francois Lecointre, through interactive presentations, discussions and a variety of exercises, introducing us to the FPMT history, structure, programs and projects. We also learned many practical skills, like dealing with stress, learning to communicate more effectively and to deal with complaints or mental health issues.

Francois Lecointre leading the FSS at Vajrapani Institute, CA, USA, September 2024. Photo by Nina Highfill.

I was blown away by the richness of the FPMT tradition, culture and program and by the vast scope and huge impact of FPMT’s charitable projects, which not only support the ordained Sangha and provide educational scholarships but also promote social services and animal rescue, all in alignment with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision for a more compassionate world. Did you know that in 2023 alone, as FPMT, we offered almost $3.5 million to charitable projects? Isn’t it a reason to celebrate and rejoice?

Personal Insights

Lama Zopa Rinpoche once said, “The big thing is how to always enjoy when offering service, regardless of what’s going on.” When things get busy and stressful, it is easy to forget this and to spiral down the cycle of frustration, annoyance, and disappointment with ourselves and others. Despite our best intentions, we end up falling into our old, well-ingrained patterns of conflict or dissatisfaction. One of the exercises during the seminar brought it home. We were asked to imagine that we have an important and very urgent task to finish and we are running through the center in stress, while a newcomer is requesting help. We played out two scenarios in pairs—one in our “usual” state of mind and one after reflecting on bodhicitta for a few moments before we responded to the stranger. The type of connection we were all able to generate and the quality and pleasure of the conversation in the second scenario left us with new appreciation that bodhicitta is not an ideal we learn about from ancient texts, but a mindset we can cultivate every day, moment by moment, so that we can enjoy the service and show up for others with kindness, compassion, and openness.

FSS participants circumambulating the prayer wheel at Vajrapani Institute, September 2024. Photo by Nina Highfill.

On a personal level, the FSS helped me to better grasp Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision for the FPMT and for the role of the centers within it. It was very timely, as at my home center, Thubten Norbu Ling in New Mexico, USA, we are currently working on our 5-year strategy. I took fervent notes throughout the seminar and had a few epiphany moments regarding the direction for our center and our guiding principles. I now feel confident that we have a solid foundation and are moving forward toward fulfilling the founding lamas’ vision and benefiting as many sentient beings as possible. 

 Concluding Reflections

It was hard to leave the beauty and the profound energy of Vajrapani and the wonderful group of FSS participants. Somewhere in the process, we have not only learned about the “family feeling.” We started to experience it with each other. However, I left California with a new sense of optimism and energy. FPMT is an amazing organization with a unique and vast vision and beautiful values rooted in authentic wisdom and compassion. But most of all, we are a family of warm-hearted, sincere Dharma practitioners, who have an endless amount of talent and wisdom among us. There is nothing we cannot accomplish, if we put our heads and our hearts together!

As we offer service in our respective centers and services, let us remember that we are helping our lamas to realize their vast visions and that our service is our practice and our offering to sentient beings. Let’s offer it with the mind of bodhicitta and a sense of joy. And if you ever feel in need of inspiration and warm connection, remember to look up and join the next Foundation Services Seminar!

Nina Highfill, currently the Executive Director of The Buddhist Center Thubten Norbu Ling in Santa Fe, NM, USA, is the founder and former director of the Lhagsam Center in Zurich, Switzerland. She is a devoted student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and currently lives in Crestone, Colorado. Originally from Poland, she loves traveling to Nepal and considers Kopan Monastery her spiritual home. She loves reading, studying, running, and being in the nature. 

Chandrakirti Centre, New Zealand, is hosting an FSS from November 6-10. Read more information and reserve your place.

To learn more about the FPMT Foundation Service Seminar:
https://fpmt.org/education/training/#fss

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 at Lawudo Retreat Centre, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang, date uncertain. From the LYWA collection.

This month’s e-news brings you important news, updates, and causes for rejoicing including:

• How to help the devastating situation in Thame
• Teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe
• Information on this year’s Kopan November Course
• Writing out the Prajnaparamita for as long as FPMT exists
• An update on regional consultations paving the way for CPMT 2025
• Newly available and revised materials for your practice
• Changes and opportunities in the organization

And so much more! 

Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety. 

Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page. 

Visit our subscribe page to receive the monthly FPMT International Office e-News directly in your email inbox.

Flood of August 16 tearing through a village on the way to Namche Bazaar, Nepal. Photo courtesy of Khabarhub.

Co-director of Lawudo Retreat Centre, Frances Howland reports on the flood that struck the village of Thame, Nepal, birthplace of Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

In a tragic event, the village of Thame in the Solu Khumbu district of Nepal, was devastated by a catastrophic flood on August 16, 2024. Thame holds a special place in our hearts as the birthplace of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It is also the home to many Kopan monks and nuns including Charok Lama, and a number of legendary mountain climbers.

The flood was triggered by a sudden glacial lake outburst. This sent a torrent of water hurtling down the mountain slopes, filled with mud and debris, the water surged down with a deafening roar, giving villagers just enough time to flee to safer, higher ground.

Miraculously there was no loss of human life, had it happened at night human casualties would likely have been unavoidable. Thame, at 12,450 feet (3,800 meters) usually has a population of 300 Sherpa people who depend mostly on trekking and mountaineering for their livelihood. Due to the off-season for tourism, there were few people in the village.

Some of the devastation from the flood in Thame village, August 16, 2024. Photo courtesy of Khabarhub.

Villagers left behind their houses, hotels, animals, and everything they owned. About half of the village has been destroyed or severely damaged, including the school and health clinic, plus vital infrastructure. The dam and hydroelectric plant that provide electricity to the whole valley, including Lawudo Retreat Centre and the main town of Namche Bazaar, were severely damaged. Several bridges were washed away and the walking trail to Thame was swept away.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birth house, and the prayer wheel next to it, were spared. Water came up to the prayer wheel house but did not enter inside. The prayer wheel, inaugurated in 2022, contains 100 trillion mantras on microfilm. Rinpoche lived his early years in Thame village with his family, until he was recognized at a young age as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, Kunzang Yeshe, who was also from Thame, but had spent his later life meditating in the Lawudo cave.

The ancient, historic Thame Monastery located high up on the ridge was unaffected by the flood.

Thame was also seriously damaged during the 2015 earthquake. Almost all of the homes in the area were damaged or destroyed and several people died. The Thame Stupa was then rebuilt under Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s financial assistance and direction, completed in 2020. It is located over the ridge in Thame Teng, this area was not affected by the flood.

The Lawudo Retreat Centre, a couple of hours walk from Thame, the home of Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, is home to Rinpoche’s sister, Anila Ngawang Samten. A number of FPMT sangha are currently in retreat there.  Lawudo has no electricity due to the flood, but it was not affected by the floodwaters as it lies further down the valley high up on a ridge. 

Immediately following the disaster, the Nepal Police and Army were dispatched to help and rescued some trapped animals. In the following days the local people salvaged any personal belongings they could find in the mud and debris that was left behind. However, questions remain about the safety of rebuilding in this area. There are several glacial lakes above Thame. These lakes forming, becoming larger, and then bursting has become increasingly common in the Himalayas due to rising global temperatures.

A video clip of this devastating flood can be viewed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwJb34aOx7Y

FPMT International Office, through the Social Services Fund, is working with Kopan Helping Hands to offer support directly on the ground in Thame, where it is most needed now and in the future as the situation and urgent needs become clearer. Please consider offering support at this most critical time: 
https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/thame/

Please look for more information regarding this coming soon. 

With grateful thanks to Frances Howland for providing the FPMT community with this moving report.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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 in a group photo from the Fourth Meditation Course, Kopan Monastery, spring, 1973. Photo courtesy LYWA Collection.

Kopan Monastery’s yearly month-long lamrim course, known affectionately as the November Course, will be held from November 8 through December 8, 2024 in Nepal. Registration for this course is open and there are still spots available! 

Lama Yeshe and Rinpoche at the 11th Kopan Meditation Course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1978. Photo by Murray Wright, courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

In 2017, Rinpoche told the attendees of the famous Kopan November Course, “So it is really of the utmost importance, you coming here to learn not just meditation but lamrim, lamrim meditation. … Only then, you can understand how to live life, how in the past how you live, and how you should live now, in a positive way to benefit not only yourself but all the numberless beings. So I want to say, your coming to Kopan to do meditation course, oh, this is the best! If you want to help the world, to bring peace, your coming here is the best. Your coming here to do the meditation course, to learn, that is the best. You have to bring peace in the world by your mind, by your good heart. You yourself have to have a good heart to bring perfect peace and happiness in the world. That is the best. … Coming to a Kopan Course is the most important education of your life.”

The first course was offered in 1971 with a dozen of students in attendance, and over the years, an average of 200 spiritual seekers from diverse backgrounds have received the immense blessings of this legendary course. Many of FPMT’s senior students first met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche after walking up the beautiful and holy Kopan hill for the month-long retreat. This historic course is responsible for the lamas’ teachings spreading throughout the West as these students established FPMT centers around the world.

The course still follows the exact same structure set up by the lamas. This year, one of FPMT’s first Western students, Tubten Pende (aka Jim Dougherty), will be leading the course. Since 1972, Pende has been offering service in so many ways to FPMT. 

2024 Kopan November Course teacher, Tubten Pende.

“Tubten Pende is one of FPMT’s most senior teachers,” says Merry Colony, former director of FPMT Education Services. “As a monk Pende studied with Khensur Jampa Tegchok at both Manjushri Institute and Nalanda Monastery for many years. Pende was instrumental in getting the FPMT Masters Program off the ground and headed up FPMT’s Education Department in the 1990s. Later he was one of the FPMT senior teachers invited to help formulate the Discovering Buddhism program. Since its inception, Pende has been involved with the program, first as a teacher of module 12, the Wisdom of Emptiness, and later as an elder for the DB online forum and assessor for DB certificate students. Pende has always stood out as an exceptional teacher of all topics, but most especially emptiness, having the very sharp analytical mind necessary for delving deeply into this profound topic. Pende’s presentations are always exceptionally clear and to the point.”

This will be Pende’s third time teaching the course; he also taught in 1985 and 1994. Attending this course is an incredibly precious opportunity, and receiving these teachings from Tubten Pende is a true blessing. 

For more information on this year’s course and to register, please visit Kopan Monastery’s website: https://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses/november-course

You can watch videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching the 2022 November Course and download a full transcript of the entire event. 

Please read the story about how the Kopan courses began.

Read Rinpoche’s advice to a student who was planning to go Kopan Monastery in Nepal for the first time to attend a meditation course.

Here’s a taste of the teachings given at Kopan Courses starting from the earliest days.

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

Ven. Thubten Jamyang with Nalanda Monastery volunteers who participated in FDCW’s 16 Guidelines.

FDCW (Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom) brings us some wonderful initiatives, available
to those interested in understanding their own mind and emotions and bringing compassion into daily life. In 1983 Lama Yeshe began formulating the idea of Universal Education. “The world needs a new system of education because the old one is too dated for the intelligent people of today and produces a great deal of conflict and dissatisfaction in the present generation. […] We have to get rid of people’s old concepts and give them a new imagination; a new, broad way of looking at themselves and the world. That’s what I mean by “universal.” 

Executive director of FDCW, Victoria Coleman, shares a success story about how Universal Education, via the 16 Guidelines for Life, worked within a particular FPMT community, Nalanda Monastery in France:

Foundation for Developing Compassion & Wisdom is passionate that everyone has the chance to live their best life. We believe the key is cultivating a warm heart and a wise mind. The Foundation was inspired by the late Lama Yeshe who saw the importance of a new kind of education. He named it Universal Education. Its aim is for people to fulfil their incredible potential and live their best lives – for themselves and for others.

The Foundation’s Patron, His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, “Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family, or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the real key to human survival.”

The Foundation’s core program is the 16 Guidelines for Life. The Foundation has trained a global network of facilitators spread across 21 countries dedicated to sharing these techniques for happiness. Ven. Thubten Jamyang is a 16 Guidelines facilitator as well as a psychologist and a carer. Here he shares what happened when he introduced the 16 Guidelines to volunteers living at Nalanda Monastery in France:

“I decided to offer 16 Guidelines to volunteers at Nalanda because we needed to offer them something besides Dharma. Not many of them came here for the Dharma. They came with different motivations. Universal education is suitable for all seekers. Those who don’t know why they came, and those who are looking for some answers.

“The course ran on Saturdays for eight weeks with each session lasting just over two hours. It was quite a small group of six participants. I decided not to allow people to ‘drop into’ sessions without completing the whole course. I felt that this was important for maintaining the group stability. 

 “At the very beginning, I stressed the importance of practicing between sessions, and to my delight, they enthusiastically embraced the ‘homework.’ I began by sharing a little of my own story so that participants got to know me a bit. Being open encourages a spirit of openness in the group. This helped to create safety and trust within the group.

“The group was harmonious and not too big for me to handle. They had enough time and space to ask questions and to share their experience all within the time limit for each session. I could see that with bigger groups, I would probably need to shorten some discussions. It helped that the group was already working together as volunteers and was in fact one of the best volunteer groups we have had at Nalanda. 

“Our sessions took place in the afternoon just after lunch and so sometimes we felt a bit sleepy. Halfway through the course I had the idea of asking someone who knows tai chi to offer this to the group during the middle of the session. The 10 minutes of tai chi worked very nicely and was appreciated by the volunteers. Personally, I found that I felt more energetic after that short exercise. I have also noticed participants filling out their learning logs throughout the course. It is another way to integrate their learning and to reflect. 

“After the eight sessions were completed, the group continued meeting each week for discussions on the 16 Guidelines. These weekly discussions and sharing will continue until the time when the volunteers move on from Nalanda. Actually a few of them became Basic Program students at Nalanda.”

One of the volunteers who participated, Omar, shared, “I’ve very much enjoyed the 16 Guidelines course in its ability to present wholesome and relatable content. You don’t need to be a Buddhist to understand the shared values we can adopt that can unite all of us as a human family.” 

To begin your 16 Guidelines journey today, check out the course, app and book all available from the FDCW website.

To learn more about the origins of FDCW, please explore a three part video series of Lama Zopa Rinpoche speaking about Universal Education in 2005. 

Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW) provides secular training, programs and resources across many sectors of society – schools, universities, hospices, workplaces, healthcare, youth groups and community centers. 

Atisha Centre in Australia received two 2024 Merit Box grants to refurbish their golden Buddha statue and complete their Kadampa stupa project. Photo courtesy of Atisha Centre.

The International Merit Box Project was created in order to cultivate generosity as part of a daily practice and in turn help provide resources for local projects that are fulfilling the FPMT mission. The program began in 2001 with students and communities keeping a small Merit Box on their altars or elsewhere to make and collect offerings in. Although new physical Merit Boxes have not been distributed in recent years, offerings are still being collected from FPMT students, centers, projects and services worldwide.

The collected offerings are disbursed annually as grants supporting a wide range of Dharma activity. To date, 370 grants have been awarded over the years, with US$1,258,580 in total being disbursed! This generosity has provided needed aid for holy objects, book publishing, retreat sponsorship, social service projects, translation work, Dharma libraries, education initiatives and trainings, and many Dharma activities!

The gompa and community house for Pamtingpa Center, Washington, USA. The center received a 2024 Merit Box grant to build a septic system for the building.

Recently, US$19,000 in grant awards for the 2024 giving cycle were disbursed through the Merit Box Fund for sixteen projects of FPMT communities in Australia, France, Italy, Mongolia, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

FPMT Mongolia received a 2024 Merit Box grant for their Mahayana Children’s Program. Photo courtesy of FPMT Mongolia.

Projects that received funding include a translation of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s new book The Power of Meditation into Italian, FPMT Mongolia’s Mahayana Children’s Program, and the Planetary Crisis Summit hosted by Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London earlier this year. Grants have also provided aid for a number of repairs and renovations to center facilities, making the entrances to Tse Chen Ling’s center in the USA accessible for people with disabilities, and to help build a septic system for the rural buildings of Pamtingpa Center, USA. Other grants have been awarded supporting eight holy objects – stupas, statues, prayer wheels and thangkas.

The full list of grant recipients can be found here.  A huge thanks to all of the generous donors to the Merit Box Fund who have made these grants possible!

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is 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, Pomaia, Itay, 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

This month’s e-news brings you important news, updates, and causes for rejoicing including:

• Introducing the Unmistaken Incarnation Fund
• Teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe
• Upcoming public teachings with  His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• Support offered to Sangha in 2024
• Awarded Merit Box grants for 2024
• News from FPMT centers and study groups
• Resources for your study and practice
• Opportunities and changes within the organization

and much more! 

Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety. 

Have the e-news translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page. 

Peter “Stripes” Langham. Photo courtesy of Tara Institute.

Peter (“Stripes”) Langham passed away on August 25, 2024, age 82, at his home in Glenlyon, Australia

Peter was a long-time Dharma practitioner after meeting Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the 1970s. He was a great contributor to the various tours of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Australia and had undeniable skills in many areas. He was known as an eccentric and deeply caring and devoted friend to many. Long time friend, Ian Green, director of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, shares the following obituary with contributions from others:

Peter Langham (aka Mr. Stripes, Stripes, Stripey) and his parents escaped Nazi Germany as refugees. After settling in England, they eventually made their way to Melbourne where they set themselves up in the rag trade. After graduating from art school, it was a natural choice for Peter to make a name for himself as an innovative fabric and fashion designer riding the wave of the 1960’s psychedelic era. These colorful clothes and the shops he opened were where he gained the nickname “Mr. Stripes” which stuck with for the rest of his life.

Yeshe Khadro, Peter Langham, and Lama Yeshe, Victoria, Australia, 1976. Photo courtesy of Nick Ribush.

Growing up in Melbourne, Peter mixed with many of the key figures in the birth of Tibetan Buddhism in Australia including Adrian Feldmann (Thubten Gyatso), Nick Ribush, Max Redlich, Tom Vichta, and Garrey Foulkes. So, when Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche came to Melbourne in the early seventies, Peter became a fixture (usually in the front row) listening to their teachings. Kathy Vichta recalls how Peter gave Lama Yeshe his first car. It was a little red Fiat. When taking his first driving lesson, instructed by Australian nun Yeshe Khadro, Lama sped off at breakneck speed to end up with the car teetering on the edge of steep embankment.  

These encounters with the Lamas changed Peter’s life. He attended the fourth Kopan course in the Spring of 1973 and many courses and retreats in Bendigo, Tara Institute and Chenrezig Institute in Australia as well as several in India.

Peter Langham at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia.

In 1995 Peter, along with his son Tao, Garrey Foulkes and I went to Tibet to study the Gyantse stupa in preparation to building its twin in Bendigo. Peter’s eccentric dress style and “out-there” personality were difficult for some of the authorities in Tibet to accept but Peter blissfully sailed through everything. As Garrey recalls, “Thanks for almost sixty years of friendship. Thanks for your many contributions to Dharma projects and special thanks for your quirky sense of humor; though I don’t recall it being all that funny when you spent the last few emergency dollars we had left in Tibet on a couple of packets of potato chips.”

Peter became friends with so many people he met at Buddhist retreats. David Andrews recalls one retreat in particular when he and his wife Allys spent a lot of time with Peter: “He told me tales of derring-do in his youth, of lovers, his success with his various businesses, but above all his deep heartfelt commitment to the lamas and the Dharma. In his later years, I felt he assumed the guise of a sadhu, forsaking prosperity for his faith. He had that slightly quizzical yet knowing look about him, always smiling, always greeting friends and acquaintances with a hug or a smile and a direct look, straight into your heart. His laconic nature belied a genuine care about your wellbeing, an appreciation of the trials and tribulations of daily life and a certainty that with faith in the gurus, all would be well.”

David continues, “At the retreat I admired his blue Great Stupa beanie, which contrasted with my less striking grey one. As I was leaving the retreat and saying my farewells he gave me his beanie with the words, ‘I hope this brings you blessings.’ Knowing Stripey was a real blessing.”

In the last decade or so, Peter became passionate about setting up Dromtonpa Study Group in Daylesford and the Daylesford Buddhist School. A person who worked with Peter on these projects, Greig Leith commented: “We often hear of people described as larger than life. I think in regard to Stripey those words are apt. He was a dedicated Dharma practitioner, a truly generous benefactor who was kind and considerate.” Another member of Dromtonpa, Karina De Wolf, describes him as a, “spontaneous spirit who loved to bring people together on adventures and dream up great projects.”

Peter was also a devoted family man, leaving behind his wife Jenny and large extended family. He would generously welcome others, including my wife Judy and I into his family. To us, Peter was a kind-hearted, funny, close friend who truly wanted all beings to be well and all great projects to prosper.  

With grateful thanks to Ian Green and all contributors for this moving obituary. 

Please pray that Peter may never ever be reborn in the lower realms, may he be immediately born in a pure land where he can be enlightened or to receive a perfect human body, meet the Mahayana teachings and meet a perfectly qualified guru and by only pleasing the guru’s mind, achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. More advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on death and dying is available, see Death and Dying: Practices and Resources (fpmt.org/death/).

To read more obituaries from the international FPMT mandala, and to find information on submission guidelines, please visit our new Obituaries page (fpmt.org/media/obituaries/).

A view inside the main temple during the long life puja offered to HIs Holiness the Dalai Lama by the FPMT organization, May 24, 2023. Photo by Tenzin Choejor, courtesy of DalaiLama.com.

Save the Date: Today we are sharing news announced by the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey that a long life puja for His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be offered on August 22 in Elmont, New York, at the UBS Arena. from 9am-10am. This puja will be offered by the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey as well as other Himalayan communities.

His Holiness is in New York State following a successful knee replacement surgery that took place on June 28. You can read the latest medical update on this procedure. 

Those interested in attending should look for more updates, including ticketing and seating information for this long life puja, from the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey in the coming days. 

The PDF booklet Prayers for the Long Life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibet contains prayers for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for Tibet.

For more on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his beneficial activities, please visit DalaiLama.com.

White Mahakala study group members with Ven. Gendun. Photo courtesy of White Mahakala study group.

In 2017 Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised the White Mahakala study group in Romania to build a Kadampa stupa. Rinpoche advised that if they put it on top of a mountain, then they could put more Namgyalma mantras in it (in addition to what is normally placed inside) and then the whole mountain becomes, “extremely blessed.” They decided on the stupa being 2+ meters high (7.5 feet) and placed on the highest spot of the land. 

Marius Micu, who is an architect, spent a year volunteering in Buddhist organizations in Europe before returning to Romania in 2017 and founding the White Mahakala study group in Cluj, the second largest city in Romania and county seat. The study group has been offering Buddhism in a Nutshell and Discovering Buddhism programs and inviting visiting FPMT registered teachers since then.

In 2017 Marius also bought a plot of land in Tranișu, a village in Cluj County, in the region he had been connected to since childhood. Impressed by the stupa he saw in Iceland, he envisioned building a stupa and a retreat center on this plot of land.

According to the plan, one of the buildings, which is under construction, consists of an event hall on the ground floor and rooms for participants upstairs. The construction of a small building with teachers’ quarters and the Kadampa stupa have been completed.

The event hall is under construction. Photo courtesy of White Mahakala study group.

The construction of the Kadampa stupa concluded in June this year. More than 200 donors and volunteers took part in this process. The members of the study group decided that they would make tsa-tsas and prepare all mantra rolls which are placed inside the stupa themselves instead of getting ready made ones, a process that took few years.

“We could have commissioned them to be made by someone else more quickly, but by making them ourselves, community members will understand the value of the stupa much better,” says Marius.

Ven. Tenzin Gendun from Nalanda Monastery in France, who has been visiting the group over the last five years, supervised the final stages of the construction of the Kadampa stupa on June 14-15, 2024.

“Being filled with sacred objects, the stupa emanates a powerful energy, helping anyone who sees it or surrounds it to eliminate negative energy. In this way, generosity and patience can be attained more easily, bringing happiness into this life,” says Ven. Gendun.

Please join us in rejoicing in this powerful holy object being built in Romania according to the instructions of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, supporting Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization. 

“My wish is for FPMT to build many holy objects everywhere, as many as possible. Making it so easy for sentient beings to purify their heavy negative karma and making it so easy for sentient beings to create extensive merit. Which makes it so easy to achieve the realizations of the path and so easy to achieve liberation and enlightenment.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

We thank Marius Micu, Mircea Lupescu, and Győrffy Gáborf for their help with the details for this update and photos. You can learn more about this project from the stupa’s Facebook page. 

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