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Geshe Thupten Jinpa, Portland, Oregon, US, May 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.
“I have had the privilege to serve His Holiness for so long and I know that one of his main focuses is to promote an appreciation of basic human values. He calls it ‘secular ethics,'” Geshe Thubten Jinpa, His Holiness’ principal English-language interpreter, told Mandala in an extensive interview.
“His Holiness is deeply interested in promoting this way of understanding and exploring human experience, and appreciating the key defining characteristics of what makes us human beings. These are qualities of compassion, empathy, forgiveness, a sense of connection, appreciation of others and so on, which are fundamental values. One of the things that His Holiness does is to convey this without any connection to Buddhism or religion. And I have been very impressed and inspired by that line of thinking and work. It has made a tremendous difference in the larger world.”
Read the complete interview “Cultivating Compassion: Geshe Thupten Jinpa Brings Dharma into the Secular World,” one of Mandala‘s featured online interviews. In it, Geshe Jinpa talks about the secular compassion training program he helped create as well as his newest book A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives.
Kshitigarbha statue at Land of Medicine Buddha, California, US, January 2015
Ven. Losang Drimay reports on Land of Medicine Buddha’s 24-hour New Year’s Kshitigarbha “mantra-thon” to help fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice to pacify earthquakes, particularly those on the West Coast of the United States. Rinpoche has asked FPMT students to complete this advice by January 31, 2016:
Kshitigarbha statue. Photo courtesy of Ven. Losang Drimay.
With one month left to accomplish the practices recommend by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to pacify earthquakes in California and throughout the world, Land of Medicine Buddha held a 24-hour mantra-thon as a push to accumulate more recitations of the Kshitigarbha long mantra, one of the practices advised by Rinpoche. Over the 24 hours, we collectively recited 6,253 long mantras. As of January 11, Land of Medicine Buddha and other FPMT centers have collected 479,828 of the recommended 1.8 million long mantras, which is just over a quarter of the way towards the goal.
The mantra-thon went from 10 a.m. on December 31 to 10 a.m. on January 1. We had anywhere from 17 people (during the 11 p.m. session) to one person (during the 3 a.m. session), with six to eight being typical. Sessions began each hour with a 15-minute break between and a rotation of session leaders.
Staff member and participant Laurel Woolley said, “I thought it was a memorable and powerful way to bring in the New Year with the sangha, especially in light of the environmental events that we are expecting this year.”
Work-study resident Sue Ann Powers said, “Denice and all the sangha were inspirational in fulfilling our guru’s wishes.”
Some people here are still having a hard time deciding to do this Kshitigarbha practice, even though they consider themselves Buddhists. I try to remind people that following the guru’s advice is a way to create the cause to have the gurus stay with us and continue to guide us. Also, I stress that doing what the guru requests is not a matter of blind faith. First, we check carefully that the guru is qualified and has only our best interest in mind. Then, if what he or she is telling us to do is not dangerous or harmful, we should try to do it.
In this case, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) are trying to protect us from harm by giving us ways to purifying our negative karma in relation to the environment. That’s why we are doing these pacifying earthquake practices.
To help students everywhere with the mantra recitations, student Nadzeya Norton put together a subtitled video of Ven. Steve Carlier reciting the mantra clearly.
Watch “Kshitigarbha Practice Long Mantra” on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XurWgnnE8ro
The only way we are going to reach our goal of 1.8 million recitations is to get many more people reciting the mantra. If one million people recited the mantra just once, that’s a million right there! The mantra gets easier with practice. You just start out slow and gradually a rhythm develops. Thank you for helping!
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 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 having tea with Ven. Thubten Labdron (Trisha Donnelly) at Root Institute, India, February 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Long-time FPMT student Ven. Thubten Labdron (Trisha Donnelly) passed away on December 19, 2015, in Queensland, Australia, due to cancer, with which she had recently been diagnosed. She was 71.
Ven. Trisha offered decades of service to FPMT. She helped start Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre in Dehli, India, in 1978 and worked there until 1985. From there she went to Dharamsala to do retreat. In 1986 she traveled with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and a small group on Rinpoche’s first trip to Tibet. In the 1990s she lived for several years at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, doing her ngondro practice and working in the monastery clinic taking care of young monks. She also worked for the Maitreya Project from 1996 to 1998 while living at Kopan. In February 1999 Ven. Trisha, who was still a lay student at the time, became director of Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India. She left Root in December 2003 and got ordained. Then she returned for a second term as director at Root in 2007, remaining there until June 2015.
During her illness, Ven. Trisha was staying next to Chenrezig Institute in Queensland and was looked after by Sangha and lay friends. She spent her last hours at Dove House Hospice. When Ven. Trisha took her last breath, Ven. Yeshe Khadro, an old friend, was with her and on Skype with Ven. Holly Ansett who was with Lama Zopa Rinpoche in India. Rinpoche immediately began prayers for Ven. Trisha. Ven. Khadro was able to administer a holy relic pill offered by Rinpoche, who dedicated the Lama Chopa tsog on December 20 at Kopan House at Sera Monastery for Ven. Trisha.
Ven. Trisha will be remembered as a dedicated Dharma practitioner, a good friend and a wonderful, warm-hearted person by the countless FPMT students who had the good fortune to meet her.
Ven. Thubten Labron (Trisha Donnelly) before the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Maitreya Project in Kushinagar, India, December 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.
Over the years, Ven. Trisha contributed several articles to Mandala, including an account from December 2013 of the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Maitreya Project in Kushinagar.
Mandala will share a complete obituary of Ven. Trisha in the July-December 2016 issue.
Video teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche are available 24/7 via Rinpoche Available Now!
Season’s greetings to you! We hope you enjoy the December 2015 FPMT International Office eNews.
There’s so much to rejoice about, including:
- A long life puja being offered to His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the Jangchup Lamrim teachings
- Sera Je Food Fund’s celebration of 25 years of offering food
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s newest book, How to Enjoy Death (coming out soon!)
- Giving the gift of Dharma – Foundation Store’s holiday specials
Subscribe to the FPMT International Office eNews today and receive important updates about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT International Office, and the broader FPMT organization directly to your email box.
Thubten Gyatso with new marble statues for Thubten Shedrup Ling, August 2015. Photo courtesy of TSL.
Long-time student and monk, Thubten Gyatso, shared with Mandala news from Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery (TSL) in Australia:
All the monks and several volunteers have been working for six months to repair the fire damage to our new building, and at last we are nearing completion. The cost of repairs and replacement of destroyed equipment and holy objects has been completely covered by the generosity of many friends, in particular, the Vietnamese community of Melbourne.
Marble Tara statue carved for Thubten Shedrup Ling, 2015. Photo courtesy of TSL.
Now, Geshe Rapten from Sera Je and his translator, Losang Dorje from Nalanda Monastery, will be able to move directly into their new accommodation when they arrive in January. Geshe Rapten will be the new geshe for Atisha Centre.
Again through the generosity of the Vietnamese people, we have commissioned 1.2-meter (4-feet) high statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Sixteen Arhats, carved from white marble. These will be placed in the garden. In Saigon, another artisan is making similar-sized statues of Tara and Amithabha Buddha, copied from photographs of Mongolian statues made by the great bodhisattva Zanabazar. The artisan is also making a 2-meter (6.5-feet) high Thousand-armed Chenrezig for our new altar.
It appears that, on top of the current drought, we are facing the hottest and driest summer on record. With this and the recent theft of our AUS$5,000 solar powered water pump that brought water from a dam, our flowers are quite worried. But isn’t it wonderful that so much karma has been purified?
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 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.
For more on Mandala January-June 2016, visit our webpage (https://fpmt.org/mandala/this-issue/), where you can also find this issue’s exclusive online content.
Mandala is offered as a benefit of the Friends of FPMT program. You can also order it from the FPMT Foundation Store.
Geshe Konchog Kyab with students of Milarepa Center, Barnet, Vermont, US, July 2015. Photo courtesy of Milarepa Center.
Student Tommy Nimrod shares this news update from Milarepa Center in Barnet, Vermont in the United States:
Blessed by the presence of our Dharma brothers and sisters from Tubten Kunga Center in Florida, Geshe Konchog Kyab led a vibrant five-day Kopan Vermont course in July. Shortly after, Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Jampa taught an intimate retreat on patience, which left us excited for his return.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Milarepa Center staff, New York City, New York, US, August 2015. Photo courtesy of Milarepa Center.
As the trees changed during autumn, so too did the team at Milarepa Center. We welcomed our first ever spiritual program coordinator, Kiira Anderson; our new center manager, Helena Montgomery; and new kitchen manager, Samantha Ferrato. Familiar face Ven. Paula Chichester spent a week in August benefiting the center, which also resulted in daily sang (incense) and sur (burned) offerings being added to the practice schedule. Team members traveled to New York City at the end of August to attend Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on “Opening the Door to Liberation.” They were deeply humbled at the chance to have a once-in-a-lifetime meeting with Rinpoche before returning to Vermont. This awe-inspiring meeting gave a sense of certainty and purpose on the path. Under Rinpoche’s direct guidance and encouragement, Daily Meditation is now being practiced every morning.
Milarepa Center has also had a great experience hosting two WWOOF volunteers, Leslie from Ohio and Jovin from Germany. Looking ahead, Milarepa Center will continue to open its doors to the community weekly with meditation sessions and yoga classes.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 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 abbot of Gyume Tantric Monastery, Ven. Tenzin Namdak and the students of Choe Khor Sum Ling, Gyume Tantric Monastery, Hunsur, India, October 2015. Photo courtesy of Choe Khor Sum Ling.
Student Jeffrey G. Butts, Jr. shares the latest news from Choe Khor Sum Ling in Bangalore, India:
Taking advantage of a long weekend earlier in October, students from the Choe Khor Sum Ling (CKSL) meditation and study center in Bangalore, India, sojourned outside city limits for a much needed four-day meditation retreat in the peaceful Gyume Tantric Monastery, within the Hunsur Tibetan settlement. The retreat was guided by teacher Ven. Tenzin Namdak from Sera Je Monastery in Bylakuppe.
The retreat, entitled “Happiness and Its Causes: Discovering Buddhism Meditation Retreat, Awakening One’s Enlightenment Potential,” was a silent and compassion-intensive program. The first teaching of the retreat was given by the abbot of the monastery himself.
For the next couple of days, students were guided through teachings on meditational methods to develop bodhichitta – exchanging self for others and tonglen – as well as taking the eight Mahayana precepts and learning about the wisdom of emptiness. The retreatants learned to live the ways of a bodhisattva. Due to these well-structured retreats, both maturing practitioners and spiritual skeptics were simultaneously able to take part in these teachings from the Buddha – and also just get away from the city for a few days!
Back in Bangalore, the weekend following the retreat, the center held a recitation session of the Sanghata Sutra. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has advised us all to recite this profound teaching of the Buddha as it an unbelievable source of merit.
A Choe Khor Sum Ling student volunteering in the kitchen during retreat, Gyume Tantric Monastery, Hunsur, India, October 2015. Photo courtesy of Choe Khor Sum Ling.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 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.
Geshe Sherab during the short interviews with Edward Sczudlo. Photo by Edward Sczudlo
Shantideva Meditation Center in New York City recently released seven video clips of Geshe Thubten Sherab answering questions and teaching for beginning Dharma practitioners during a recent visit. All the videos are freely available on YouTube, and include:
- We sometimes powerful and successful people doing many harmful actions towards others, does that mean that bad actions lead to good results? (Watch now …)
- What is the Buddhist practice of animal liberation? (Watch now …)
- What is conventional reality? (Watch now …)
- Why is it helpful to think about death while we are alive? (Watch now …)
- What happens when we die, from the Buddhist point of view? (Watch now …)
- What is emptiness and how can we apply that wisdom in our daily lives? (Watch now …)
- Praise to Shakyamuni Buddha and the Shakyamuni Buddha mantra. (Watch now …)
Watch “Interview with Geshe Sherab: What is emptiness…” on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6C6z0q2lVM
Shantideva Meditation Center in New York offers other short online videos from teachers like Geshe Tenley from Kurukulla Center, Geshe Jampa Tharchin from Chandrakirti Centre, and Ven. Amy Miller to bring the wisdom of its visiting teachers to the entire FPMT community:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9hMpiBTECFdjsym8hV0oKFUJi1WI_xFT
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a new friend he met while shopping and to whom he gave a 30-minute introduction to Buddhism, California, US, October 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang
We invite you into the November FPMT International Office E-News, out now. Enjoy:
- Highlights of Lama Zopa Rinpoche News
- What’s New from FPMT Education Services
- How to Give a Gift that Helps Others
- Opportunities to Rejoice
and more!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Vajrapani Institute, California, US, November 2015. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given urgent advice on practices to be do to pacify an imminent earthquake in California. The advice needs to be completed by February 2016 and includes:
- 1,800,000 recitations of the long Kshitigarbha mantra done as part of a Kshitigarbha practice.
- Taking the Eight Mahayana precepts 300 times.
- Performing the extensive Medicine Buddha puja – ongoing.
- Reading of the Tengyur four times – to be done at Sera Je Monastery.
The California Bay Area centers have already started work on accomplishing this advice, but as of Tuesday, November 17, have only accumulated about 8,200 long mantra recitations so far. In accordance with Rinpoche’s advice, they are now asking for the help of students worldwide.
The Bay Area centers have created a website with more information on the advice and ways to make pledges and report mantra recitations; contribute to the Tengyur recitations; and report the taking of the eight Mahayana precepts. For more information and to participate:
www.pacifyearthquakes.org
“Lama Zopa Rinpoche pushes us beyond what we think is possible. He pushes the boundaries of our limitations. Four recitations of the Tengyur alone is phenomenal. And then the 1.8 million Kshitigarbha long mantras to complete in about 10 weeks!” said Fabienne Pradelle, director of Vajrapani Institute.
“We can only accomplish this if thousands of us come together as a virtual family and make sincere effort to do this. We are incredibly fortunate to have a spiritual leader who gives us these opportunities to break through our sense of limitations to benefit beings. Thanks to that, we grow beyond measure. It may not be comfortable, it’s certainly daunting, but it’s infinitely precious.”
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 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.
FPMT has just launched a new gift-giving program that offers an alternative to buying material gifts for friends and family. Give a Gift that Helps Others enables one to contribute to a compassionate charitable project as a gift for someone else. One then gets to send a special gift card or e-card to the recipient that highlights how their gift will benefit others.
Donations can be made to help liberate animals, offer food to the monks of Sera Je Monastery, build holy objects, or provide for the basic needs of others through the social services.
You can learn more and also order a gift for someone here.