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Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a Mongolian jacket, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, August 19, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Live and recorded webcasts of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching during the 100 Million Mani Retreat in Mongolia can be watched on FPMT’s livestreaming webpage.
Several videos of Rinpoche’s teachings, the first from August 16, have already been posted. Rinpoche will continue offering teachings that will be streamed live through the end of the month. The recordings of the teachings will also be made available to watch later.
The teachings are taking place at the 100 Million Mani Retreat. FPMT Mongolia organized the retreat, which is being held at Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang (College), Gandan Monastery, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Check the FPMT Facebook page for updates on new webcasts. You can find photos from the Mongolia retreat on the FPMT Facebook page as well as the FPMT Mongolia Facebook page.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Villagers of Nimi finally have water as a result of MATRI’s work, Fatehpur, India, July 2013. Photo courtesy of MAITRI.
From Adriana Ferranti, director of MAITRI Charitable Trust
Since February, MAITRI Charitable Trust, an FPMT-affiliated project in Bodhgaya, India, has been carrying out sterilizations of street dogs from Bodhgaya with a major three-week camp and two smaller ones. We’ve seen 395 dogs that have been sterilized, vaccinated against rabies and released to their territories after full recovery. We seem to be catching many “latest-generation” dogs. Amazing how many have managed to escape our drives and how many puppies have managed to survive.
Post-operative ward for street dogs, Bodhgaya, India. Photo courtesy of MAITRI.
In April, we finalized the results of the end-of-year test in our three village schools. Since only pupils with regular attendance were admitted, 326 took the exam in all six grades in both formal and non-formal classes and 108 were promoted. The new school year started with 547 pupils, inclusive of promoted, failed and newly registered children.
In May, we organized and paid for a deep boring tube-well and hand pump in the extremely undeveloped and destitute village of Nimi in Fatehpur province. There are hundreds of such villages in the district, which somehow fall in the blind spot of the government services that are supposed to provide hand pumps to all villages.
The blasts of July 7 in and around the Mahabodhi Temple have marked a fault-line in Bodhgaya. Gone are the shops and hawkers that crowded, littered and polluted with unbearable noise the space outside the temple, but in have come armed guards and detectors of various kinds that are certainly at odds with the seat of enlightenment. But finally the International Buddhist Council has found some common cause to pray for besides electricity bills, taxes and so forth – every week we meet to pray for peace.
MAITRI Charitable Trust does humanitarian work in Bihar, one of India’s poorest and most densely populated states, providing programs addressing the needs of people in the areas health, nutrition and education as well as care for animals.
Mandala brings you news of FPMT activities, teachers and events from more than 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Webcasts of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching this year (and in previous years), including the teachings Rinpoche gave during this year’s Light of the Path retreat are available online 24/7 on FPMT’s livestreaming webpage.
Also, all Light of the Path Retreat Resources 2009, 2010 and 2014 are available on the Online Learning Center.
Rinpoche doing prayers for those who have died and who are seriously sick at the end of the day’s teaching at the Llight of the Path retreat.
Photo: Ven.Roger Kunsang, May 2014
DNSJ students liberating fish, Tokyo, July 2013. Photo courtesy of Doc O’Connor.
From Doc O’Connor, director Do Ngak Sung Juk Centre
One of the many benefits of a being a small center in a large organization is joining with our global friends in activities to increase blessings. Do Ngak Sung Juk Centre (DNSJ) in Tokyo participated in FPMT North America’s Compassion Day on His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday.
DNSJ students doing animal liberation practice, Tokyo, July 2013. Photo courtesy of Doc O’Connor.
It was perfect timing for our annual animal liberation. Fifteen participants and 1,000-plus animals survived that day’s sweltering heat and humidity. The small fish weren’t the only ones wanting to jump in the river! Our activity was also dedicated to our most kind and generous Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life.
We appreciate centers including DNSJ in their activities and we’d like to invite everyone, especially our Asian friends, to DNSJ’s nyung nä! The intense three-day practice is scheduled for September 20-23 in Mitake, north Tokyo, at a mountain shrine that’s been in existence for almost 2,000 years. Ven. Thubten Dechen, the multilingual translator from Heruka Center in Taiwan, will lead the practice. Visit our website for more information.
Mandala rejoices in the practices of dedicated FPMT students from the more than 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the world and seeks to shares their stories of beneficial activities. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at 100 Million Mani Retreat, Mongolia, August 15, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On the morning of August 15, Lama Zopa Rinpoche joined the 100 Million Mani Retreat currently taking place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. FPMT Mongolia organized the retreat, which is being held at Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang (College), Gandan Monastery.
The retreat began on August 1. Rinpoche’s arrival in Mongolia was delayed due to his private retreat in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh taking longer than originally planned. Rinpoche also stopped at Kopan Monastery in Nepal on this way from India to Mongolia.
Participants of 100 Million Mani Retreat, Mongolia, August 2013. Photo courtesy of FPMT Mongolia’s Facebook page.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche making prostrations to his altar at Kopan Monastery, August 10, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“First thing in the morning, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is doing prostrations to the altar in his room,” Ven. Roger Kunsang, Rinpoche’s assistant wrote on August 10 from Kopan Monastery in Nepal. “There is one altar that has many holy relics on it and Rinpoche circumambulates it every day. Rinpoche is making a very quick stop here on the way to Mongolia.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing morning prayers, Kopan Monastery, August 10, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“Rinpoche this morning doing prayers before breakfast, with a view of the Kathmandu Valley (from Kopan ),” Ven. Roger wrote. “The valley is very green at the moment. … It’s monsoon and there has been plenty of rain.”
Meanwhile in Mongolia the 100 Million Mani Retreat is underway. Participants are looking forward to Rinpoche’s arrival. FPMT Mongolia organized the retreat, which is being held at Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang (College), Gandan Monastery, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and which started on August 1. Rinpoche is guiding the retreat and is expected to arrive on August 13.
100 Million Mani Retreat, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, August 2013. Photo courtesy of FPMT Mongolia on Facebook.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche arriving at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August 8, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche is making a brief stop at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. Rinpoche arrived on August 8 and will be staying for a few days. Rinpoche had been in private retreat in northern India for several weeks and had also been visiting Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala. Rinpoche travels on to Mongolia next to lead the 100 Million Mani retreat organized by FPMT Mongolia.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and young lama, Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery gompa, August 8, 2013. Photos by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Upon returning to Kopan, Rinpoche made prostration in the Kopan Nunnery gompa with a small lama who is staying with the nuns.
Rinpoche’s assistant Ven. Roger Kunsang wrote, “The very small young Lama wanted to copy everything Rinpoche did! … Watching very closely how Rinpoche does prostrations.”
By the third prostration the young lama “had it down very well,” Ven. Roger wrote.
Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche commissioned a Padmasambhava crystal to help bless water, March 2013. Photo courtesy of Murray Wright.
“It felt like an odyssey imbued with divine inspiration, magnitude and benefit,” shared long-time student Murray Wright. “During the worst New Zealand drought in 65 years, Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi, Brian Rae and I offered holy crystals to bless the waters of New Zealand’s North Island this year. From the guidance received, we felt like instruments of the guru-buddhas’ compassionate activity.
“To benefit people in Bodhgaya, Lama Zopa Rinpoche commissioned glass crystals engraved with a special mantra of Guru Padmasambhava. Due to Padmasambhava’s stainless prayers impregnated with bodhichitta and wisdom, the minds of those drinking water touched by the mantra are blessed. Veteran stupa builder Tom Waggoner brought the crystals when he visited in 2011. We offered them into several large reservoirs around Auckland. An enthusiast of holy objects he said, ‘Wow, it’s so easy to create merit with these crystals. All you have to do is place them in the water!’ He urged me to ‘get some inventory’ from the FPMT Foundation Store to offer more.” …
From Mandala July-September 2013
Animal liberations in Singapore, July 2011. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre.
In July, FPMT’s Animal Liberation Fund announced that it had donated SGD$2,500 (US$2,051) toward animal liberations – the practice of extending and protecting an animal’s life and exposing it to Dharma – organized by student Fred Cheong and fellow students from Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore. Amitabha Buddhist Centre regularly organizes large animal liberations, generally freeing up to six types of shellfish and occasionally larger fish (see “10 Million Lives for the Guru” Mandala October-December 2011).
“On His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday, July 6, Amitabha Buddhist Centre liberated 11,000 kg (24,250 lbs) of [shellfish], an estimated 1 million lives,” Animal Liberation Fund reports. “On Chokor Duchen, July 12, when merit is multiplied 100 million times, Amitabha Buddhist Centre liberated another 700,000 animals.
“Strong prayers and dedications were made for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life and to stay with us and guide us, and for all of His Holiness’ prayers and wishes to come true. Dedications were also made for the long life and perfect health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and for all of Rinpoche’s wishes and prayers to succeed.”
Animal liberation is one of the practices that have been recently advised as important to do for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and long life.
The fund continues to support smaller weekly animal liberations by the Sangha at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s house.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving advice to the cooks of Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
During Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s most recent visit to Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India, Rinpoche gave the following advice to the Tushita cooks:
I have been hearing from people that the food at Tushita is fantastic. Generally, they tell me they are very happy with the place and especially the food. I was amazed to hear this and particularly that you have been able to improve the flavor and quality of the food without using onions, garlic or other black foods. Of course, the initial reason why people come to Tushita is not the food, but for the teachings and meditations; they are a little bored with the lives they have and are looking for something new. However, the conditions at Tushita –and especially the food – are a very important support for the teachings and meditations. Sometimes in the past, for example, when I would teach on impermanence, the hells and the eight worldly dharmas, people would get scared and leave, but if the food was good, they would stay. That’s one way to keep them!
So I’ve been thinking for many days to come to the kitchen and explain a short meditation to the cooks. There is a short morning motivation I have put together with a direct meditation on the graduated path to the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. (Most of the time in English we use the expression “fully enlightened” but in Tibetan it is sang gye; sang means that all the obscurations, gross and subtle have been purified, and gye that all the realizations have been fully developed and there is nothing more to achieve. “Fully enlightened” has a different meaning; it’s better to say “fully omniscient mind.”) [This meditation is] followed by some verses explaining how precious and kind sentient beings are.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with one of the Tushita cooks, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Every single sentient being is most precious, dear and wishfulfilling – fulfilling all your wishes for the happiness of future lives, liberation and enlightenment. Every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, insect, ant, mosquito, bird, goat, human being, sura and asura does this. That is because all our beginningless past lives’ happiness, present happiness and future happiness comes from good karma and that good karma comes from your mind, from mental intention. Buddha’s enlightened activity is of two types: one comes from Buddha’s holy mind and one from your mind. Buddhas come from bodhisattvas, bodhisattvas come from bodhichitta and bodhichitta comes from great compassion. Great compassion comes from every single obscured suffering sentient being. There is no way to generate great compassion without depending on every single suffering sentient being. Therefore, there is no bodhichitta, no bodhisattva, no Buddha and no way to create good karma, the cause of happiness, without them. In other words, every single happiness and comfort comes from sentient beings, even a cool breeze or a drink of water when you are thirsty. Without sentient beings there is no way to experience happiness in this life, future lives, liberation or enlightenment. All our happiness comes from every single sentient being.
For example, all my happiness comes from every one of you and from all the rest of the sentient beings; every hell being, hungry ghost, animal, human, sura and asura. All my past, present and future happiness comes from everyone because Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in whom I take refuge and with whom I purify every single negative karma and achieve the peerless happiness of full enlightenment come from everyone. That is why sentient beings are most kind, dear, precious and wishfulfilling.
Sentient beings are more precious than a wishfulfilling jewel because you can’t practice morality, purify negative karma and achieve a higher rebirth with a wishfulfilling jewel. Nor can you practice the three higher trainings and achieve the ultimate happiness of liberation or generate great compassion and achieve enlightenment with a wishgranting jewel, but you can with sentient beings. If you pray to a wishgranting jewel you can get a house, car, swimming pool and so on, but not higher rebirths, liberation and enlightenment. That’s why sentient beings are most unbelievably precious. Which one is more precious – skies of wishgranting jewels or sentient beings? Sentient beings are more precious!
Therefore, dedicating your life to others and helping them is the best, most exciting thing you can do. Serving them in any way you can and giving them whatever help you can give is what brings the most happiness. For example, helping an old man carrying a very heavy load or giving your seat to somebody in a bus, train or car. Doing whatever it is that sentient beings need, whether big or small, is the most satisfying, exciting thing you can do.
That’s why making delicious food and offering it to the people who come here is a really great opportunity. Wow, wow, wow, wow. It is a way of offering comfort and happiness to sentient beings who are most wishfulfilling. That’s what brings the most happiness and excitement. It’s the real Dharma. Dharma is something that protects your life, protects you from suffering and guides you to happiness….
There is a great deal to rejoice in that you have this very precious opportunity to offer food to sentient beings who are most precious, dear, kind and wishfulfilling.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la with Tushita Meditation Centre cooks, June 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Practicing bodhichitta mindfulness in the kitchen
Here are some ways to think while you are preparing and cooking the food:
When you are cutting anything, for example onions, think,
I am cutting the root of all sentient beings’ suffering which comes from ignorance and the self-cherishing thought, with the knife of the wisdom realizing emptiness (shunyata) and bodhichitta.
When you are washing pots and so on think,
I am washing away all the obscurations and negative karmas from all sentient beings’ minds.
You can think that you are washing away your own obscurations and negative karmas but most important is to think you are washing away those of all sentient beings. And you can think the water is nectar coming from Vajrasattva, the Guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. There is always a lot of washing up to do in the kitchen and you can use the opportunity to purify all sentient beings’ obscurations. It’s very good if you can sincerely think this way because all the washing up becomes Dharma practice purifying your negative karma and defilements and collecting merits. In India even the beggars keep their pots very clean!
When you are sweeping the floor think that the broom is the whole path to enlightenment, especially wisdom and bodhichitta, and that the dust is all sentient beings’ obscurations.
I am sweeping away the dust of all sentient beings’ obscurations with the broom of the path to enlightenment and especially wisdom and bodhichitta.
If you sincerely think this while you are cleaning it becomes real Dharma practice that benefits all sentient beings. In the lam-rim it says to think that you are abandoning the dust of the three poisonous minds – anger, attachment and ignorance – which are the gross obscurations and also the stains of the three poisonous minds, the subtle obscurations.
When you are kneading dough so that it can be made into any shape think,
I am taming all sentient beings’ minds by softening them with my two hands of the wisdom realizing emptiness and bodhichitta.
When you are making momos or shapale – rolling out pastry and filling it with cheese, potato and vegetables – think,
I am filling all sentient beings’ minds with the realizations of the path from guru devotion up to enlightenment so that they can actualize all the qualities of a buddha.
When you are cooking soup or other food you can think that the fire is the Six Yogas’ tummo fire that causes the kundalini to melt. Do the same meditation that is used to bless the inner offering in highest yoga tantra. Or you can think that the fire is the wisdom realizing emptiness and the uncooked food is the unsubdued mind. By cooking the food all the gross and even the subtle delusions are purified and all the realizations of Buddha are achieved.
These are some ways of thinking as you are working in the kitchen. You can think in a similar way with other kitchen activities.
Typed and edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, June 17, 2013.
Mandala brings you news of FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Jangste Chöje arriving at Vajrapani Institute, California, June 11, 2013. Photo courtesy of Vajrapani Institute.
Jangtse Chöje Lobsang Tenzin Rinpoche, second in line for the Ganden throne (Ganden Tripa), arrived at Vajrapani Institute near Boulder Creek, California, for the first time June 11, 2013. It had been over two years since Lama Zopa Rinpoche acted on our behalf and presented the initial request for Jangtse Chöje to teach here and for the conditions to manifest his actual arrival. It was well worth the wait!
While welcoming Jangtse Chöje to our center over tea and sweet rice in the gompa, he commented to our staff that the most important thing for us to remember is study. Study, he said, is more important than center work, and while of course we need to make sure the center functions, we need to also remember study.
The day after Rinpoche’s arrival, almost the entire staff along with 40 others attended Rinpoche’s teachings on the 37 practices of the bodhisattvas. Rinpoche’s teachings were very clear, precise and illuminated the essential meaning of each topic he spoke on. His teachings continued through June 20 and covered not only teachings on the general path and bodhichitta, but a Yamantaka initiation and commentary as well.
Jangste Chöje with Vajrapani Institute staff and guests at end of retreat, June 2013. Photo courtesy of Vajrapani Institute.
We even had a surprise visit from Ven. René Feusi who graced us with reviews and meditations on the Yamantaka practice, helping students to immediately put Rinpoche’s teachings into practice and demystify its complicated aspects. This all combined with the dedication and enthusiasm of the students helped to make this retreat a great success. Students left inspired to carry on or start their practice and Rinpoche manifested genuine enjoyment at his time here on the land. For us, this is what keeps us motivated to carry out our mission to provide conducive conditions where minds can be transformed and the Dharma can flourish.
Jangtse Chöje is truly a great Tibetan Buddhist master with all the qualities of a great teacher. We feel so fortunate to Lama Zopa Rinpoche for requesting him to come teach us and pray that Jangtse Chöje will live long and will return again soon to teach us for many more years to come.
To learn more on Vajrapani Institute’s programs and activities, visit Vajrapani’s website.
Mandala brings you news of FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
Red Chenrezig mandala by Andy Weber. Image courtesy of Andy Weber Studios Facebook page.
Artist Andy Weber visited Ganden Tendar Ling Center, the FPMT center in Moscow, Russia, in June 2013, where he led workshops on thangka painting and Buddhist art. Andy has taught at FPMT centers around the world and his work is well known to FPMT students.
Filmmaker Roman Sukhostavsky documented Andy’s visit with two videos available on YouTube: a 26-minute profile of Andy Weber and a two-hour long video of Andy’s presentation on drawing Buddha Shakyamuni.
While the narration in the videos is in Russian, Andy speaks in English, making the two pieces well worth watching. In addition, Andy, who was an early student of Lama Yeshe, shares some of his memories of Lama Yeshe along with his insight and knowledge of the tradition of creating images of the Buddha.
In August, Andy teaches a 10-day course on “Emanations of Compassion” at Maitreya Instituut in the Netherlands.
You can find out more about Andy Weber on the Andy Weber Studios website and Facebook page.
Mandala brings you news of FPMT activities, teachers and events from over 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.