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FPMT Community: Stories & News
Geshe Sherab with Thubten Norbu Ling retreat participants, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, September 2014. Photo courtesy of Thubten Norbu Ling.
In late October, Rowena Mayer, director of Thubten Norbu Ling in Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, shared a brief news update with Mandala.
Thubten Norbu Ling has been experiencing promising and beneficial developments. Geshe Thubten Sherab finished his six-month stay with us this year with a wonderful weekend retreat on the power of purification. Over 40 people attended the retreat for the two days which concluded with a Dorje Khadro fire purification practice under the sunny skies of Santa Fe.
Since Geshe-la arrived almost two years ago, the number of people coming to our center has grown. This is due to Geshe-la’s presence and Don Handrick’s steady expertise. With both Don and Geshe-la as resident teachers, we are able to offer a greater variety of programs. We have also started a Sunday program for children based on the 16 Guidelines. The main host is our new assistant director, Adam Baker. Judith Baillie, a current board member, is hosting a weekly recovery support group incorporating Buddhist principles to help people overcome addictions.
Due to all this new activity and our plans to develop our program further, we may soon outgrow our current center space!
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Professor Jeffrey Hopkins, Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, United States, September 2011. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.
Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins, now 74, is professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and one of the world’s top scholars of Buddhism. He has published 42 books, acted as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s translator, and had a long academic career during which he trained many prominent Tibetan Buddhist scholars and translators. He currently leads UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies. Dr. Hopkins has been remarkably open in public about a wide range of matters, such as his initial lack of faith in His Holiness, past-life memories, a near-death experience, his youthful delinquency, his sexuality, and so on.
Donna Lynn Brown interviewed him in December 2014 to find out what lessons his honesty might hold for other Buddhist practitioners.
Dr. Hopkins, what is the source of your frankness? Why are you so open?
I was born in 1940 in Barrington, Rhode Island, and I was in my teens in the 1950s. There was a group of us who were disgusted by the aims that were being presented to us: merely making money and so forth. There was a lot of rebellion that was focused against the dishonesty of society, which gradually in my own mind became a matter of seeking my own integrity. My own integrity meant a great deal to me.
I was part of a juvenile gang that got into difficulty with the law, in the sense of increasingly violent pranks, drinking and so forth. It was a relief when I went to a liberal prep school where students were given a great deal of responsibility for their own governance. Despite all my acting out at my public school, I responded very well in that kind of environment, and got excellent grades, because we were respected as people, which is something I had lacked prior to that. Then, in my first year at Harvard, I read Walden by Henry David Thoreau and I was inspired to leave Harvard for the woods of Vermont. I stayed in a small one-room cabin and read, wrote poetry, walked a lot, dreamt out my recurrent trapped dreams, and I believe at that point, began finding my own integrity. And I kept returning to that kind of life.
I was inspired by Herman Melville’s novel Typee, which is set in the Marquesas, north of Tahiti near the equator, and Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence about the artist Paul Gauguin, who painted in the South Seas. It was 1960 and when Vermont got too cold for the wood heater, I went to the woods in Rhode Island. When that got too cold, I shipped out of New York as a passenger on a freighter to Tahiti. I had gotten used to meditating in Vermont on the lake that was down below, and by gazing off into space. On the freighter I would lie on my back and stare upward, filling my mind with the blueness of the sky. The Pacific Ocean was clean and tremendously calm and I filled my mind with that. I didn’t have a visa for Tahiti and after a while some official noticed this and asked me to leave. I used all but my last $15 to take a seaplane to Hawaii. It was nuts, but it was a search for my own integrity.
Ven. Rita Riniker teaches at Shedrup Zungdel Study Group, Burg-Reuland, Belgium, December 2014. Photo courtesy of Shedrup Zungdel Study Group.
Student Marguy Krier from Shedrup Zungdel Study Group in Beligum sent Mandala a short news update:
On a rather cool December 2014 weekend, Ven. Rita Riniker worked with more than 22 students from Shedrup Zungdel Study Group in Burg-Reuland, Belgium in order to adjust our internal compasses so as not to let fear and shame grow into feelings of guilt. We examined our expectiations, our motivations and our goals. We learned about how setting limits, taking responsibility and not identifying with “the dirt” will lead us to more compassion for ourselves and for others. Looking with empathic eyes at our karma, seeking opportunities for growth and learning will certainly help us to become more resilient and agreeable for all living beings around us.
We do wish that again and again that we may have the opportunity to greet and enjoy Ani Rita in our midst. Her kind and simple way of being helps us so much. And her loving and wise way of teaching opens up our hearts!
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Students from Grupul de Studiu Buddhist White Tara visit a home for seniors and bring gifts, Romania, December 2014. Photo courtesy of Thubten Saldron.
Thubten Saldron, study group coordinator of Grupul de Studiu Buddhist White Tara in south central Romania sent news about the group’s activities and how it spent Lama Tsongkhapa Day in 2014:
In September, we started to study Discovering Buddhism online, which bring us so much understanding. All our gratitude for all who are involved in this meaningful project!
Students from Grupul de Studiu Buddhist White Tara also visited a center for children with developmental disabilities, Romania, December 2014. Photo courtesy of Thubten Saldron.
On December 16, we honored Lama Tsongkhapa Day by practicing what we studied. In the morning, we blessed food for poor children with a tsog. We also went with other gifts to one center for children with developmental disabilities and to a home for older people abandoned by their families. At the end of the day, we liberated some fish.
We did all these activities with the motivation to make people happy and at the end, all of us experienced the real happiness of serving others.
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Ven. Rita Riniker teaches with enthusiasm at the first annual Swiss Buddhist Festival, Berne, Switzerland, September 2014. Photo courtesy of Longku Center.
Francesca Paoletti from Longku Center in Switzerland sent Mandala news of the country’s first annual Swiss Buddhist Festival in early September 2014.
The Swiss Buddhist Union, which encompasses most Buddhist groups in Switzerland, has launched its first Swiss Buddhist Festival in order to increase the public awareness of Buddhist groups in Switzerland and to provide a public platform for their activities and projects.
The two Swiss FPMT centers, Longku Center in Berne and Gendun Drupa Centre in Martigny, were both present at the festival with an information stand, a small FPMT shop and a food stand. This was a beautiful way to get in contact with many new people and inform them about the activities in our centers.
The festival took place on September 6, 2014, in the city center of Berne, the capital of Switzerland, not far from the federal parliament. The participants to the festival were a large variety of Buddhist groups, representing a diversity of traditions and geographic areas. In a large tent, public talks, teachings, ceremonies and meditations were offered throughout the whole day to a large public audience. This was a unique opportunity for many people to gain an insight of the multitude of Buddhist traditions. Around the tent there were several stands with Dharma shops and food. It was like a small, colorful Buddhist bazaar enriched by the numerous, high-spirited and interested visitors.
FPMT registered teacher and long-time student Ven. Rita Riniker from Longku was among the Buddhist teachers giving a public talk in the tent. With her usual lively and humorous style she explained the significance of Buddhist rituals in a clear, understandable way that inspired many listeners. As you can see from the picture, Ani Rita was committed with her full power as usual!
Many interesting conversations and exchanges of opinions and experiences took place both with the visitors and with the representatives of other Buddhist groups. It was a beautiful event, a nice success for our center and truly a positive experience of the connectedness of the Dharma within the diversity of the various Buddhist traditions.
Longku Center had and information booth where gifts and food could be purchased at the first annual Swiss Buddhist Festival, Berne, Switzerland, September 2014. Photo courtesy of Longku Center.
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the November Course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, November 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
FPMT.org now makes dozens of videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other Buddhist teachers available for free to students anywhere in the world as part of its recently redesigned FPMT Video Resources page.
Students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche can access his teachings from the Kopan November Course, which took place in Nepal this December; the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat held at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia in September and October; and the extensive Light of the Path 2014 teachings completed in North Carolina, USA in May. (The other years of Light of the Path have been condensed into the videos for the Living in the Path online learning program.) When time is limited, students can get a quick dose of inspiration by watching shorter, miscellaneous clips or checking out the preview for Mystic Tibet, the successful 90-minute documentary chronicling an important pilgrimage Rinpoche made to Tibet in 2002.
The site also features FPMT: A Documentary, a short video that explores the history and future of FPMT and the Mahayana tradition; and nine of the 13 videos that are part the Discovering Buddhism education program, introduced by Richard Gere and Keanu Reeves.
FPMT International Office is the administrative headquarters for the FPMT, an organization devoted to 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. Your support allows us to continue our work.
Austrian television crew filming Panchen Losang Chogyen’s animal liberation, October 2014. Photo courtesy of Panchen Losang Chogyen.
“A small action can often reach an unexpected number of people and beings, like as happened in Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelug-Zentrum in Vienna recently,” said director Stefan Seidler in late October. “For some years now, most Buddhist temples in Austria have been organizing an open house once a year. This day happened to be just some weeks ago. We, like many other groups in Vienna, had our doors wide open for an afternoon and were planning to liberate a few boxes of worms. To our delight and despite bright autumn weather, not only did many visitors come, but also Austrian television visited us. Our announcement of a ‘Life Saving Ceremony’ [animal liberation] made them curious, and the TV crew put together a wonderful report about the liberation of the worms. This program aired a week after. And the wonderful thing is, in addition to the freedom of the worms, was that the practice was seen by about 200,000 people, who probably didn’t know anything about it until now!”
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Osel in attendance of a long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Land of Medicine Buddha, September 2013.
Earlier this month Ösel shared his philosophical insight about the universe and one’s relation to it and others on his Facebook page. Please enjoy his unique and thoughtful perspective:
The universe has a perfect design and the more I live the more I see it. It is always on target, the dates and times, moments and spaces, movements and encounters. All so perfectly coordinated. Look at every present situation, it’s spectacular! All of us in a material form with the capacity to comprehend and digest the creation of life, form, energy, sound, smell… every instance! So many variations in existence, each step, each thought we are creating a whole new universe. How amazing is that!? Look into someone’s eyes and behold the window to their soul, the galaxy, the universe. That is us, that is you, that is me, that is all.
The Big Love Fund helps support the education and creative endeavors of Ösel. You can learn more about this project, follow Ösel’s news or discover other Charitable Projects of FPMT.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Tim McNeill, Boston, Mass., US, October 20, 2014. Photo by Sonam Zoksang.
In October, Tim McNeill, CEO and publisher of Wisdom Publications, had the opportunity to offer His Holiness the Dalai Lama a copy of the new book Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions, authored by His Holiness with Ven. Thubten Chodron and published by Wisdom. The book explores the similarities and differences within Buddhist traditions.
McNeill was able to see His Holiness at His Holiness’ talk on the “Eight Verses of Thought Transformation” at the Wang Theater in Boston, US, on October 30, 2014, organized by the Prajna Upadesa Foundation.
Ven. Chodron told Mandala about her work on Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions, during an interview published in Mandala October-December 2014:
“There were certain topics that His Holiness definitely wanted included, for example, the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths. The other topics were fundamental topics common to all the traditions: refuge, the three higher trainings, selflessness, the four immeasurables. The Pali tradition also speaks of generating bodhichitta and following the path of the perfections, so that, too, is included. These topics are vast but are presented as succinctly as possible in the book.
“Something I was enthused to talk about in the book is similarities between the traditions that I didn’t know existed before. Since the time I lived in Singapore, where there are a variety of Buddhist traditions, I’ve been aware that Buddhists have a lot of misconceptions about other traditions. For example, many Chinese think Tibetan Buddhists practice magic and that Tibetan Buddhism is degenerate because of tantra. Most Tibetans believe that the Chinese do blank-minded meditation and that all the people who practice in the Pali tradition are selfish. The Pali tradition looks at the Tibetans and says, ‘Do they practice vinaya? It doesn’t look like it,’ and ‘tantra isn’t the Buddha’s teachings.’ None of these ideas are correct.
“Seeing this, I understood His Holiness’ reason for wanting to have this book show, from the side of the teachings, what we have in common and where we have differences. Then people can see that all the traditions adhere to the same basic teachings and that a lot of the misconceptions that we have about each other are just that – misconceptions.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Tim McNeill, Boston, Mass., US, October 20, 2014. Photo by Sonam Zoksang.
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lawudo Gompa complex, Lawudo, Nepal, October 2014. Photo by Gregor Beer.
Gregor Beer, a student and helicopter pilot who has flown Lama Zopa Rinpoche to visit Lawudo Gompa and Retreat Centre and Tsum in Nepal, shared this amazing aerial shot of the Lawudo complex with Mandala.
Lawudo Gompa and Retreat Centre, located where Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s predecessor Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe lived and meditated, is open to students who seek ideal conditions for personal retreat and reflection.
“The best word to describe Lawudo is ‘still,'” said Ven. Tenzin Namdrol (Ani Jan), a resident at Kopan Monastery in Nepal who recently visited Lawudo. “The mountains are big and unmoving. Even though the wind blows, the clouds come and go, the fog rolls in, the river below is always flowing, and small planes and helicopters pass through the valley – like the yaks – it’s quiet and still. If you meet a yak as you walk, he will just look at you with his big eyes. Still.
“Lawudo has developed a lot as Ani-la Ngawang Samten, Rinpoche’s sister and Lawudo’s caretaker, will tell you. There are many comforts to make staying there very pleasant. The Lawudo family cares for whoever walks through the gate or moves on that mountain side, visitors and locals alike. The cows are loved and cared for, as are the humans, with potato pancakes, Sherpa stew and the like. There’s even a warm shower.
“The Lawudo Lama’s meditation cave is like visiting a wonderland, blessed by one holy being’s decades of meditation. The blessings literally drip from the ceiling. The gompa has been renovated, preserving the devotion and labor of love that built it. There’s a bell ringing with the turns of the big prayer wheel, and a sunny deck overlooking the snow-covered mountains for library users who prefer a view.
“There’s also so much time and space. Time to do practice, uncluttered due to simplicity and the space is enormous. Welcoming rooms, complete with meditation boxes and altar await their occupants. Combined with the stillness, it’s a great place for meditation. Many people comment that it’s the best place they’ve been to!”
Read more about Lawudo on FPMT.org.
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Kopan Monastery at night, Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup’s stupa to the left, Geshe Lama Konchog’s stupa to the right and new light offerings on the trees, Nepal, December 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Many of the Western students who came to Kopan Monastery to hear FPMT founders Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach in the 1970s came from Christian backgrounds. Recognizing this, each year Lama Yeshe gave teachings that touched on these students’ experiences of Christmas celebration. In 1978, Wisdom Publications published a collection of these teachings called Silent Mind, Holy Mind. Here’s a short excerpt of Lama Yeshe’s teachings:
“… It is characteristic of materialistic people that they believe their happiness and frustration to be totally dependent on internal phenomena and possessions. If they do not receive enough ice cream and cake they are despondent: ‘I feel so empty. This Christmas has been such a flop I could die!’ For them, the success or failure of a religious holiday depends entirely on material things. They cannot discover peace and happiness within their own consciousness, depending instead on some external, physical sign of ‘love.’ It does not matter how much they might profess to be spiritual; their minds are completely obsessed by the gross, material level of reality.
“The investigation of such matters is Dharma, the true religious pursuit. Dharma study does not mean something coming out of the sky from another world. It deals directly with such questions as our motivation, what we are thinking and feeling right now in the midst of our everyday life.
“If we don’t not make an attempt to control the negative, confused mind, then there is no such thing as Christianity, there is no Buddhism, no Mahayana. There is nothing worthwhile! We must recognize the negative mind for what it is, and then slowly begin to find a solution for the pain it causes ourselves and others. In this way our mind can be brought to a state of everlastingly peaceful realization. If we do nothing to correct our motivation and distorted ways of thinking, then Christmas exists merely for the ego. Although supposedly making a celebration for Jesus, what we are actually doing is completely degenerate.
“Therefore, if you want to come to this Christmas celebration and bring a present, the best present you can bring is a peaceful mind. If you can make such an offering with true love for one another, that is enough. …”
The above excerpt is taken from Mandala December 2006-January 2007.
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi with participants of the 1K Event 2014, Losang Dragpa Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 2014. Photo by Elenie Tan.
Candy Tan, spiritual program coordinator at Losang Dragpa Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, recently told Mandala about the center’s 15th annual 1K Event, a two-day prayer festival for the public.
Located just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the heart of the city of Kuala Lumpur, Losang Dragpa Centre (LDC) was first established in 1993 and after a lengthy registration process at the local authorities, was formally registered in 1995 through the kindness of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 1999, Rinpoche was scheduled to visit the center with a rich treasure of holy relics. In an effort to honor the presence of Rinpoche and these sacred jewels, the first One Thousand Offerings to the Buddhas event, now known at the 1K Event, was organized to enable as many people as possible to make connection with Rinpoche and the Dharma. It also had the unexpected but happy result of being a good fundraiser for the center’s activities.
Lama dance at the 1K Event 2013, Losang Dragpa Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 2013. Photo by Elenie Tan.
2014 marks the 15th anniversary of LDC’s annual One Thousand Offerings Event as it continues to open doors to our gurus, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Why do we call it the 1K Event? Because LDC offers literally over 1,000 items, including gold leaves, crystal jewels, food, flowers, lights and water in cups and bottles.
Held over a weekend in a public hall, the 1K Event always presents an elaborately decorated stage complete with large Buddha thangkas, long altars with large photos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and His Holiness the Dalai Lama and a teaching throne. There are several altars dedicated to a different buddha, e.g. Medicine Buddha, Tara, Maitreya Buddha, each set up with beautiful offerings. The festival offers a wide range of Dharma activities to suit the various inclinations of the public. For instance, they can elect to participate in a range of activities such as incense puja; Medicine Buddha jangwa for the dead; Chabdu, a cleansing puja to clear health-related obstacles; oral transmissions by the presiding lama; Tara puja; sur offering; light offerings; public talks, etc.
These activities also serve as a platform to offer support to other projects like the Sera Food Fund and the Tsum Project. In more recent years, Sangha members from Kopan have been invited to perform special events like construct mandalas, perform lama dances and conduct house and office pujas upon request.
Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi offering a large jewel to Dzambhala during the 1K Event 2013, Losang Dragpa Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 2013. Photo by Elenie Tan.
Presiding lamas of the 1K Event bring blessings and their own brand of grace and skillfulness to their interactions with the public. The late Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lundrup, Dagri Rinpoche, Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, just to name a few, have been among the high lamas presiding over this event. Their presence has given the Malaysian public a special opportunity to meet the Dharma and create merit.
Although enthusiasm runs high during an event of such a scale, it also means much hard work and has its share of logistical nightmares! Center members and our executive committee volunteer their efforts months ahead in preparation for the event. Amazingly, even non-members, including friends and relatives of members come forward to help!
Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.