FPMT Community: Stories & News

“In his death the world has lost a great leader, whose steadfast and unflinching determination played a key role in securing peace and reconciliation during South Africa’s transition from apartheid rule. Under his leadership South Africa was transformed through peaceful means, in the spirit of reconciliation,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote in a letter to the family of Nelson Mandela, expressing his deep sadness on learning of Mandela’s death. 

“He was a man of courage, principle and unquestionable integrity, a great human being, someone of whom we can truly say, ‘He lived a meaningful life,’” said His Holiness, who held Mandela as a dear friend. 

“Peace is a state of joy and its method [for accomplishment] is harmony,” Maitripa College president Yangsi Rinpoche said as he reflected on the life of Nelson Mandela during a teaching on the day of Mandela’s passing away. Rinpoche called Mandela a “living example of peace and harmony,” saying it was a great loss and that we need to make prayers for more beings like Mandela to live among us, exemplifying peace and harmony.

Yangsi Rinpoche also referred to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s call for unity and harmony, made at the end of His Holiness’ visit to Portland in May. He advised that as citizens of the world, we begin creating peace by first creating harmony in ourselves and in our relationships and then in our communities. Being harmonious is a skill, Rinpoche suggested, one of “deescalation” that needs to be practiced with awareness and that becomes grounding and enriches our wisdom and compassion.

The story of the Four Harmonious Friends, which we share with the new online edition of Mandala January-March 2014, illustrates how by working harmoniously together, we can create a peaceful world. 

Mandala expresses our sadness at the loss of world leader known for promoting peace, harmony and reconciliation. 

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Students from Choe Khor Sum Ling received teachings from Gyume Monastery abbot Geshe Tashi Tsering (center in sunglasses), Hunsur, India, September 2013. Photo by Danyele Gringnon.

By Deepthy Shekhar

Student Deepthy Shekhar shares news from Choe Khor Sum Ling, the FPMT study group in Bangalore, India.

In September, a few Choe Khor Sum Ling students attended a retreat for Discovering Buddhism’s modules 1 and 2 at the glorious Snowland School for Tantric Studies at the Gyume Monastery campus in Hunsur, India. Ven. Tenzin Namdak led the retreat.

The main focus of this retreat was to engage in meditations on “Awakening One’s Enlightenment Potential.” The specific meditations were on the lam-rim topics of precious human rebirth, our innate potential to eliminate negative states of mind, buddhanature and on the topics of compassion and loving kindness.

All the participants were encouraged to take the Eight Mahayana Precepts and engage in Jorchö practices along with both analytical and single-pointed meditations around the topics mentioned above. 

Following the tradition of Gyume Monastery, the participants had the precious opportunity of listening to Dharma teachings by the abbot of Gyume Monastery, Geshe Tashi Tsering, who gave two audiences. In the first teaching, Geshe-la spoke about habitual states of mind, inner and outer conditions, the law of cause and effect and purification with the four opponent powers. 

In his second teaching, Geshe-la elaborated on the topic “Mind and Its Potential.” He spoke of considering Buddhist centers to be hospitals of the mind and of looking at the study of Buddhism as the study of inner science. During this teaching, he elaborated on topics such as mental factors, how to develop a main mind of loving kindness and developing the main mind for bodhichitta. He also spoke about the importance for meditating on emptiness as the antidote for grasping, anger and related mental factors.

During the retreat, participants were also encouraged to participate in tsog offerings and had discussions with each other in order to develop confidence in talking about their learning. 

The students left fully immersed in precious human rebirth and Dharma teachings on mind and its potential, with aspirations for another retreat soon.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Ray Furminger, Garden of Enlightenment’s artist in residence. Photo courtesy of Garrey Foulkes.

By Garrey Foulkes

In late October, Garrey Foulkes, arts manager of Chenrezig Institute, shared with Mandala an update about the three projects he manages – the Garden of Enlightenment, the Chenrezig Institute Art Studio and the Enlightenment Project for Purification and Merit – and introduces us to Ray Furminger, artist in residence:

For these three projects – the Garden of Enlightenment, the Chenrezig Institute Art Studio and the Enlightenment Project for Purification and Merit, this has been a rather mixed year with an interesting ratio of struggles and successes.

Happily, the positive side of all of this amounts to a very constructive year. Significant repair work, replacing poor-quality casts on the eight stupas in the Garden of Enlightenment and re-painting the decorations, is almost completed thanks to a group of willing and skillful volunteers offering their help despite very hot weather and many large “marsh flies” who enjoy biting people.

The new art studio received a grant to upgrade the parking and landscaping in front of the new building. Our intention is to make this as attractive as possible and encourage visitors to stop, visit the studio, and hopefully find something suitable in our shop to take home with them.

Our resident artist Ray Furminger has now been with us for several year working on a project to complete eight paintings suggested by Rinpoche some years back to be placed on the walls inside the building which houses our large prayer wheel. Needless to say Ray’s skills have been called on to help with many other projects, not the least being a great deal of intricate art work finishing the decorations in the garden in time for His Holiness’ visit some years back.

Since this visit, we have had consistent visits to the center from a large number of school students studying different world religions. These tours happen on roughly a monthly basis and Ray, along with others, give talks on Tibetan iconography and answer basic questions relating to the project.

Ray has been holding regular art workshops at Chenrezig Institute that continue to have good attendance from the local area and Brisbane city. Several students come on a daily basis to paint under his guidance. The energy, good humor and emerging talent among the people working on a daily basis at the art studio gives us great hope for the future.

Ray is a long-time student of Andy Weber, who also comes to the center every year and holds intensive art courses in traditional thangka painting. Assisted by Ray, Andy’s course last September was attended by around 20 people and was seen by all as a great success. It really is quite inspiring to see the changes that these students undergo once they begin to learn the intricacies and symbolism of traditional art and, in many cases, overcome their lack of confidence in their own latent skills and produce some amazing work.

Our big challenge with Ray is to try and find a way keep him here. Ray is British and is currently here on a soon-to-expire extended visa. Australian regulations regarding overseas visitors are now very tight so we need to apply for a special visa that recognizes his great skills as a teacher of traditional spiritual art.

The Enlightenment Project for Purification and Merit, since moving back to Chenrezig Institute, now has its own special space in the new art studio. We are encouraging all of the regional centers to look at what we produce and consider placing stock in their own center shops. Stupas that are required for the Garden of Enlightenment and for other places will also be produced in this workshop. We currently have quite a big commission for Singapore and an ongoing need for more stupas in the gardens.

Updated websites are being worked on so that more people in the region and around the world can see what we have to offer. Several students have ordered molds for tsa-tsa’s relating to their particular practices and commitments. We have a large range to select from.

We are fortunate to have a couple of very skilled three-dimensional artists involved with the project and our intention is to also produce molds for a variety of non-Dharma products like fountains, bird-baths, etc. to display at our sales outlet. Hopefully this will enable us to bring in some extra income that is outside of holy objects and this money can be used in a more general way to keep us functioning by allowing our workers to take a small income.

Chenrezig Institute on Australia’s Sunshine Coast is an active and vibrant Dharma center, offering a robust selection of retreats, workshops and events. Check out their Facebook page for photos and announcements.

Geshe Tarchin, resident geshe at Chandrakirti Meditation Centre, on the cover of the Nelson Mail blessing a chicken. Photo courtesy of Enlightenment for the Dear Animals.

From Phil Hunt and Tania Duratovic, project coordinators and founders of Enlightenment for the Dear Animals and coordinators of the Animal Liberation Sanctuary in Nepal:

World Animal Day was celebrated across the globe on October 4, 2013. At Chandrakirti Meditation Centre in New Zealand, Geshe Tharchin and students visited the Nelson SPCA and blessed all the animals (which made the front page of the local paper!), as well as blessing the beings in the ocean. The students pledged to be vegetarian for the day and the center screened 108 Yaks in the evening.

In Bangalore, India, Choe Khor Sum Ling also screened 108 Yaks, visited a local animal shelter and made donations for the animals. 

A student in Germany committed to go vegetarian for October with the hope to make it last longer.

Animals were blessed on World Animal Day at Vajrayana Institute’s stupa, Ashfield, Australia, October 2013. Photo courtesy of Enlightenment for the Dear Animals.

At Vajrayana Institute, Australia, students brought their pets and resident teacher Geshe Samten lead the animal blessing and many circumambulations of the stupa.

Enlightenment for the Dear Animals wants to know how you celebrated World Animal Day, email info@enlightenmentforanimals.org or visit their Facebook page to share.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Masters Program students (left to right): Ven. Tiziana Losa, Jacob Fisher, Yaniv Sagi, Marina Brucet, Hans Burghardt, Yumi Terada and Joan Dombón, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia, Italy, July 2013. Photo courtesy of ILTK.

The 2008-2013 class of the FPMT Masters Program have “just completed their final exams with the intention to enter retreat in 2014,” Olga Planken, Basic Program and Masters Program coordinator for FPMT Education Services, reported to Mandala this week. 

Mandala recently featured an interview with five students from the 2008-2013 cohort before their exams had taken place, answering questions about the challenges and benefits of completing the extensive program and what they were looking forward to in the future:

Students from the 2008-2013 FPMT Masters Program cohort sit for their final exams, 2013. Photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/mpretreat.

What do you hope to gain from the culminating one-year retreat?

Marina: I really hope to be able to integrate some of the things we’ve learned during the Masters Program into myself, to gain deeper understanding of the Dharma and of myself, and to set the basis to stabilize and start transforming my mind at a deeper level, a task that I hope will not only be done during the retreat but will continue for the rest of my life. As I see it, it’s the only way to effectively be of benefit to others.

Yumi: I hope to be able to develop some inner qualities that can be really used to help others.

Ven. Tiziana: I feel the need now to have more time to reflect on what I have been studying. Reflection and meditation are essential to gain experience of what we have learned. I am feeling very fortunate to have this rare opportunity. 

Jacob: The opportunity to really be in a perfect environment for meditation, and the chance to try and really become this Dharma that we’ve been studying.

Hans: The integration at a deeper level of some of the subjects we’ve studied, and an increased wish to do long retreats.

Masters Program students are now making preparations for their one-year retreat. As part of the preparations, seven of the students have created a fundraising campaign to make it possible for them to be supported during their retreat. So far they have raised €37,800 (US$50,800).

After Masters Program students successfully complete their retreat, they graduate from the program and are then eligible to apply to become FPMT registered teachers. As reported in “The Need for Qualified Teachers” (Mandala April-June 2013), FPMT registered teachers serve as much-needed instructors at FPMT centers around the world, offering authentic Dharma instruction and helping fulfill the wishes of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for education within FPMT. Several resident teachers in FPMT centers today were trained in the FPMT Masters Program’s first cohort, including Don Handrick, Thubten Norbu Ling, US; Sixte Vinçotte, Institut Vajra Yogini, France; Emily Hsu, Gyalwa Gyatso Buddhist Center, US; and Wai Cheong Kok, Vajrayana Institute, Australia.

Masters Program graduates also serve in various other roles to support FPMT education programs, such as teaching assistants, tutors, and coordinators for Masters and Basic Programs, both residential and online, and several teach Discovering Buddhism.

To learn more about the fundraising campaign to finance Masters Program students on their one-year retreats, visit their webpage: Support the rEvolution.  You can also connect with the students on their Facebook page.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Ven. Thubten Dechen arrives at Mt. Mitake, Japan, September 2013. Photo by Doc O’Connor.

Do Ngak Sung Juk is the FPMT center in Tokyo, Japan. Center director Doc O’Connor shares news of hosting two esteemed teachers:

Do Ngak Sung Juk in Tokyo had their annual nyung nä with FPMT Taiwan’s Ven. Thubten Dechen September 20-23, 2013. The weekend retreat took place at a traditional Japanese inn on Mt. Mitake. Located in a vast national park, Mitake has a mountain shrine that has existed for almost 2,000 years. The inn has catered to pilgrims for decades. 

It was good to read Rinpoche’s comments about serving delicious food in the recent FPMT newsletter. The inn is known for their exquisite meals and even with the nyung nä meal requirements, they were able to maintain their high standard. So not only during the nyung nä did we experience the suffering of beings in the lower realms, but the limited meals gave us a god realm experience, enabling us to generate compassion and make offerings to beings in all realms.

Do Ngak Sung Juk is grateful to Taiwan’s Heruka Center for sharing their invaluable translator with us.

After two years and three postponements, Do Ngak Sung Juk members were happy to have Ven. Tenzin Pemba, co-director of Mahayana Buddhist Association (Cham Tse Ling) in Hong Kong, visit us the weekend of October 19-20, 2013. Ven. Pemba finished teaching the 17-verse The Courageous Hero Gaining Liberation by Overcoming the Fears of the Hazardous Passage of the Intermediate State. At the conclusion of his teachings, we had mixed feelings – happy because we had finished the text, but on the other hand, sad because it is said that an unfinished text creates the cause for the teacher to return.

We hope to purify obstacles and create the karma for more frequent visits by Ven. Pemba to Tokyo. Much, much gratitude to Hong Kong’s Mahayana Buddhist Association for sharing their wonderful teacher with Do Ngak Sung Juk.

Ven. Pemba with the students of Do Ngak Sung Juk, Tokyo, Japan, October 2013. Photo by Doc O’Connor.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Homemade candles are a keepsake of the day. Photo by Ven. Lozang Drolkar.

Ven. Lozang Pema shares how some nuns at Chenrezig Institute in Queensland, Australia, support the Buddhist and non-Buddhist members of their local community:

Although many members of the Chenrezig Nuns Community are engaged in the study program at Chenrezig Institute, we are also engaging with the community on a number of levels, including conducting baby naming ceremonies.

Vens. Lhagsam and Drolkar have conducted the ceremonies over many years with the practice becoming increasingly popular. The simple ceremonies take place at Chenrezig Institute under the Bodhi tree, near one of our stupas or at the Garden of Enlightenment.

“My role in the ceremony is to set the tone, be the visible sign of a spiritual path and bring that element to the event,” Ven. Drolkar said. “I tailor the ceremony to suit the family’s wishes and, as much as I can, make the occasion special and personal for them, something they remember fondly.

“We have an outline, but it is very flexible. We welcome the guests and the baby, read poems that reflect Buddhist or secular values; there is also an opportunity for the baby’s parents or grandparents and family members to speak. We light candles which they can take home as a keepsake. I say a short prayer and sometimes chant mantra. We can plan for it to be non-denominational or very Buddhist.

Rebecca and Kurt Rogers doing a reading at their son Knox’s naming ceremony. Photo by Christine Foxwell.

“People from all walks of life, and often from interstate, attend the ceremony. My guess is about 30% of the parents would identify as Buddhist and 30% have values that align with Buddhist values or philosophy; the rest want a non-denominational ceremony.

“I’m not a civil celebrant. His Holiness the Dalai Lama encourages Buddhists (and others) to value other religions, so I aim to make the ceremony inclusive. We have had great feedback about our ability to be flexible.

“It’s a privilege to be a part of an occasion parents consider very special, an occasion that marks the beginning of their child’s spiritual life. It’s also wonderful that people who probably wouldn’t ever come to a Buddhist center have come to Chenrezig Institute.”

Chenrezig Institute offers to its community a venue and support for other important occasions, including commitment ceremonies between partners and memorial/dedication ceremonies.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

A very long, winding queue at the Thimphu event, Bhutan, October 2013. Photo courtesy of Maitreya Heart Shrine Relic Tour.

The Maitreya Heart Shrine Relic Tour, a collection of sacred relics of the Buddha and other Buddhist masters assembled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, broke a record for most visitors in Thimphu, Bhutan, the country’s capital. The relics were showcased in RAPA Hall to an estimated 62,000 according to Ugyen Wangdi in an email to Rinpoche.

“A lady in yesterday’s TV interview on Bhutan Broadcast Service,” Ugen adds, “said that the relics came to Bhutan through your auspices.” 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche replied:

Thank you very, very much your kind letter and photos and thank you so much supporting the relics. It becomes great purification, way to collect extensive merits for sentient beings, plants the seed of the path to enlightenment that makes it more possible to achieve enlightenment and to free all the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring to enlightenment.”

After Bhutan, the Maitreya Heart Shrine Relic Tour continues its European and Asian tour in Sikkim and then with an extended stay in Australia. The concurrent Americas tour is in Miami, Florida, United States until November 17 before moving on to Texas, New Mexico, California and Washington.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Past editions of the FPMT International Office e-news are always available to enjoy.

Ven. Tenzin Gyeltsen, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Dagri Rinpoche going to the ocean to bless sentient beings, Aptos, California, USA, October 2013.
Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang

Geshe Kelsang Wangmo at Kadampa Center, Raleigh, North Carolina, US, October 26, 2013. Photo by David Strevel.

Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, who became the world’s first female geshe in April 2011, nears completion of her US teaching tour, which includes several FPMT centers.

Geshe Kelsang Wangmo speaking in New York, NY, US, October 2013. Photo courtesy of Shantideva Meditation Center’s Facebook page.

On October 16, Shantideva Meditation Center, in New York City, co-sponsored with Tibet House US a talk with Geshe Wangmo on scriptural presentations of the Buddhist understanding of reality.

Geshe Wangmo then traveled to North Carolina to meet the enthusiastic students at Kadampa Center in Raleigh. Over three days in late October, she explained the purpose of debate in Tibetan Buddhism and her journey to become the first female geshe. On October 28, she left students with advice on how to establish their own daily practice, drawing from the materials in FPMT’s Discovering Buddhism courses.

Next, Geshe Wangmo traveled to Northern California for a three-day visit to Land of Medicine Buddha (November 1-3) to talk about the sixteen aspects of the four noble truth. She visited Vajrapani Institute on November 6 and gave a public talk on how her intensive studies transformed her personally.

Geshe Wangmo returns to the East Coast and will meet with Guhyasamaja Buddhist Center students in Virginia on November 8-10. She will give a public talk and weekend retreat on the four noble truths and how they are “relevant to contemporary life and how we can use them to define a balanced, realistic sense of happiness.”

Geshe Kelsang Wangmo with (from left) Vajrapani Institute director Fabienne Pradelle, Land of Medicine Buddha director Denice Macy and Geshe Wangmo’s mother, LMB, California, US, October 2013. Photo courtesy of LMB’s Facebook page.

In co-sponsorship with Jewel Heart Center in New York City, Shantideva Meditation Center welcomes Geshe Wangmo back for the tour’s concluding event, an explanation of the Heart Sutra in relation to emptiness and the two truths.

In Mandala’s exclusive October-December 2012 interview with Geshe Kelsang Wangmo – “The Joy of Study: An Interview with Geshe Kelsang Wangmo” – Geshe Wangmo shares how she became a geshe, the obstacles she overcame, and the benefits of rigorous study.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Occasionally Ösel shares his thoughts and experiences on his Facebook page. In this update, he pleads with us to shift our minds from oriented toward gaining wealth, self enjoyment and power, toward taking care of the earth and its inhabitants.

Tenzin Ösel Hita. September 2013, Land of Medicine Buddha, California, USA. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

Today I woke up with a very strong feeling in my being. I felt that Mother Earth is suffering immensely and whatever we are doing every day, if it is not to help Earth get better, there won’t be a planet for us to live in 50 years from now. If these atrocities keep happening then we have no possibility of life, of practicing loving-kindness or Dharma. But worst of all, the opportunity for all the sentient beings who will be born in the future on this planet will become null.

The strong karma we are creating by egoistically focusing on wealth, self enjoyment, and power is keeping alive the ignorance in our beings. This karma is creating a vortex of energy which is drowning Planet Earth and everyone else. The planets may look lifeless from our perspective, but this is just like the perspective that bacteria and ameba have of our individual self. We are composed by millions of living organisms. They don’t understand what we are going through, but they are affected by our emotions and experiences even though they don’t know why or have the capacity to understand.

The main reason why I’m talking about this is because I saw it so clearly this morning. The doctor prescribed me a double dose of the strongest antibiotics due to an infection that suddenly appeared on my leg for no particular reason. After a week it kept growing, no clear cause of why it started, it just popped out by itself. Even with antibiotic cream it kept getting worse. The doctor said it is very dangerous if the infection gets into my bloodstream.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ösel. October, 2013, Aptos, California. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

So I’ve been taking antibiotics for two days now and last night i had the two pills on an empty stomach. This morning i was so dizzy and weak, I couldn’t stand up. I felt that my little infection is so small compared to what happens every day on this planet just because people are chasing continuously after wealth, power and self-enjoyment. This is the direct cause of so much suffering everywhere, and I believe very strongly that each of us can make a huge difference if we just try to be more conscious of our actions and our thoughts. Personally i am thinking of studying permaculture and starting work for the planet. To sleep near the earth and be far from all these distractions and chaos created by society. It doesn’t make sense to burn down your own home while you are in the office struggling with what society expects of you. The true richness is inside of us, the true wealth is inside of us, the real understanding of what our potential is. We are not here to make money and pollute the planet, we are here to evolve and help the planet improve. Each individual has the power to do this, and it is our job to make this a reality. Already there are many people involved in this movement, and I really want to help this energy flower everywhere.

Thank you for participating and please keep up the good work.

Take care and Big love. osel

Jetsün Pema with Sangha at Nalanda Monstery, France, October 21, 2013. Photo courtesy of Nalanda’s Facebook page.

Jetsün Pema at Nalanda Monastery, France, October 21, 2013. Photo courtesy of Dana Lissy’s Facebook page.

Jetsün Pema, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s sister, recently visited Nalanda Monastery. Jetsün Pema was welcomed by the resident Sangha and lay community on a sunny autumn Sunday in October. A large outdoor lunch was organized in Nalanda’s garden in honor of her visit. 

Nalanda, located in rural France, is FPMT’s monastery for Western monks. In September, Nalanda began offering the residential Masters Program for the first time. Nalanda also welcomed Jangste Chöje Rinpoche in October.

Lunch at Nalanda with Jetsün Pema, France, October 21, 2013. Photo courtesy of Dana Lissy’s Facebook page.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.