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Five dakinis in front of Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life puja, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2012. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
A long life puja was offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT spiritual director, on behalf of the centers, projects, services and students of FPMT on Sunday, December 29, 2012, at Kopan Monastery in Nepal.
The long life puja purifies the relationship between teacher and disciple, and creates the merit for the teacher to remain and guide students and all sentient beings.
“To understand why a long life puja is essential, we must understand the value of the Guru. He is our guide in this life, the bardo and future lives. He is immensely important. It is not a case where if we ask him to live he will, and vice-versa, but that to offer such a ceremony purifies our own broken samayas,” Geshe Lama Konchog instructed.
FPMT’s Long Life Puja Fund supports annual long life pujas for Lama Zopa Rinpoche and for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Visit the Long Life Puja Fund page to learn more.
To see more photographs from the recent long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, visit Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s page on Facebook.
Gyatso offering mandala to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life puja, Kopan Monastery, December 2012
With more than 160 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
FPMT News Around the World
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during Chenrezig initiation at Boudhanath Stupa, Nepal, December 2012
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a Chenrezig initiation at the Boudhanath Stupa in Nepal for the Tamang people on December 23, 2012. About 3000 Tamang traveled from all over Nepal to attend the initiation. The Tamang are traditionally Buddhist and live scattered throughout the remote mountainous areas of Nepal. (more…)
Occasionally Ösel shares his thoughts and experiences on his Facebook page. In this update, he gives us a some wisdom to consider in the face of the changing year.
Give yourself time and space, think less, breathe deeply, feel your body, sense our vibration, and be your true self who is inside of you and always aware.
Enjoy the elevation of consciousness, the alignment of the planets is a special occasion, and a time for celebrating, rejoicing and enforcing our moral code/conduct. Even though this is an amazing time for all of us, we should treat every moment like that. In this way, we can achieve a continuous flow of wellbeing in our existence.
Enjoy the next three days, and if some disaster does happen in some part of the world, let us pray for their wellbeing in this and many lives.
Let us together be attuned with a higher level of frequency in relation to all the positive emotions and energies; in such a way that it affects the whole collective memory of the entire planet. Take care and be love, family.
Onelove
FPMT News Around the World
New Medicine Buddha statue at O.Sel.Ling Centro de Retiros, Spain, November 2012. Photos courtesy of O.Sel.Ling.
Recently, O.Sel.Ling Centro de Retiros, located near Granada, Spain, received a life-sized Medicine Buddha statue from Nepal, where it was made. At the end of November, the O.Sel.Ling community filled the statue, which weighed about 500 kilograms (1100 pounds), with mantras and carefully placed it inside a glass and iron house.
Medicine Buddha statue, O.Sel.Ling
“It was a very special evening,” wrote center director Anne Wenaas. “When everything was ready, the temperature was below 0° C (32° F) and the sun was setting as the moon rose, shinning brightly.
“The statue is very beautiful, situated just above the stupa on the ‘pilgrimage-tour’ to the Tara statue, so many, many visitors will pass by and see it.”
On behalf of O.Sel.Ling, Wenaas shared a message for Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
This statue is dedicated to Rinpoche’s quick recovery, good health and long life! Please stay with us for a very long time. Life after life, guide all of us. And may we be able to always please your mind!
O.Sel.Ling community after placing the Medicine Buddha statue in the new house, Spain, November 2012.
With more than 160 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT
, which supports our work.
FPMT Around the World
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso by Kenneth Gingerich, pencil on paper, Centennial Correctional Facility, Colorado, U.S., 2007
In coordination with the Liberation Prison Project (LPP), Mandala magazine is mailed to about 500 prisoners every issue. For the January-March 2013 issue, 533 LPP students in Australia, Canada, England, Germany, New Zealand, Scotland, Thailand and the United States have been sent a print copy. Without access to computers and the internet, prisoners rely on the mail to receive Dharma instruction and to keep up-to-date with the activities of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the FPMT. From LPP student letters, we know that each issue of Mandala is closely read and shared.
We are able to send Mandala magazine to prisoners due to the support of the Liberation Prison Project, Merit Box grants and contributions to our Mandala Magazine for Prisoners Fund and the more than 70 Friends of FPMT who donate their print subscriptions to prisoners. We deeply appreciate the generosity of all who have offered donations to these different funds and projects.
If you would like to help ensure the future funding of Mandala magazine for prisoners, please consider making a donation to the Mandala Magazine for Prisoner Fund today. These funds go directly toward covering the costs of printing and shipping magazines to LPP students. To learn more about how you can help prisoners receive Mandala – including how to donate your Friends of FPMT print subscription – and to read about the history of Mandala‘s 16 years of offering support to prisoners, please visit our “Supporting Prisoners” page.
FPMT Around the World
His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Kurukulla Center, October 2012. Photo by Kadri Kurgun.
The following is an excerpt from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s A Human Approach to World Peace, a booklet published in 1984 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
“According to Buddhist psychology, most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities. The pursuit of the objects of our desire and attachment involves the use of aggression and competitiveness as supposedly efficacious instruments. These mental processes easily translate into actions, breeding belligerence as an obvious effect. Such processes have been going on in the human mind since time immemorial, but their execution has become more effective under modern conditions. What can we do to control and regulate these ‘poisons’— delusion, greed, and aggression? For it is these poisons that are behind almost every trouble in the world.
“As one brought up in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, I feel that love and compassion are the moral fabric of world peace. Let me first define what I mean by compassion. When you have pity or compassion for a very poor person, you are showing sympathy because he or she is poor; your compassion is based on altruistic considerations. On the other hand, love towards your wife, your husband, your children, or a close friend is usually based on attachment. When your attachment changes, your kindness also changes; it may disappear. This is not true love. Real love is not based on attachment, but on altruism. In this case your compassion will remain as a humane response to suffering as long as beings continue to suffer.
“This type of compassion is what we must strive to cultivate in ourselves, and we must develop it from a limited amount to the limitless. Undiscriminating, spontaneous, and unlimited compassion for all sentient beings is obviously not the usual love that one has for friends or family, which is alloyed with ignorance, desire, and attachment. The kind of love we should advocate is this wider love that you can have even for someone who has done harm to you: your enemy.”
You can read this teaching on world peace by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in its entirety on Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s website.
Occasionally Ösel shares his thoughts and experiences on his Facebook page. In this update, he gives us a potent reminder about how special each day is.
Today is such an amazng day because it is 12-12-12! But apart from that, it is still an amazing day! Why? Because we’re alive! Just like every day! If we meditate every day like today, then every day is amazing!
So don’t wait for a special date, just being the self is enough to call it a special day. Big love, Family! Wish you all the best, don’t worry, be happy and love every moment, because it is magic!
Hoy es un dia increíble! Porque es el 12-12-12! Pero aparte de eso, aun así es un día increíble!! Porque estamos vivos! como cada día!! Si meditamos cada día como hoy, entonces cada día es maravilloso!
Así que no espereis para una fecha especial, solo siendo el Ser, es suficiente para llamarlo un día especial. Grande amor familia!! Deseando a todos lo mejor, no os preocupéis, sed felices y amad cada momento, porque es magia!
FPMT Around the World
From left, front: Dagri Rinpoche, Khadro-la, Lama Zopa Ripoche and Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche visit Ling Rinpoche in hospital, Goa, India, December 6, 2012. Photo courtesy of Ven. Roger Kunsang.
FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited H.E. Ling Rinpoche, who is recovering well from an automobile collision. Ling Rinpoche is the main organizer of the Jangchup Lamrim teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama that are concluding in Mundgod, Karnataka, South India. Ling Rinpoche and two other monks were injured and another was killed in the accident, which happened on November 29. They were driving to meet His Holiness in Goa, India.
“They were hit head on by a truck at high speed. The front of the car was demolished,” TibetSun.com reports, adding that Ling Rinpoche was in the front passenger seat and the seat belt he was wearing “protected Rinpoche from being killed like the driver.”
Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT and assistant to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, writes, “We visited Ling Rinpoche; he was well. There was Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Dagri Rinpoche, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche and Khadro-la [Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme]. It was a short visit, but very nice. Ling Rinpoche will leave the hospital soon and stay at a private home in Goa for some time recovering.”
FPMT’s Preserving the Lineage Fund helped sponsor the Jangchup Lamrin teaching event. Video recordings of the first five days of teachings are available for streaming and download. More recordings are being added. The teachings will continue in 2013 at Sera Monastery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, South India. For more, visit the Jangchup Lamrim teachings website.
It’s not too late to receive the new print edition of Mandala in the mail. Become a Friend of FPMT at the basic level or higher by December 31, 2012, and we will mail you the magazine, featuring pieces from Lama Yeshe, Geshe Sopa and Osel Hita not available online. In addition, we will send you a link to an electronic version of the print magazine for your tablet or ereader.
Thank you for reading Mandala online!
FPMT News Around the World
The Jangchup Lamrim Teaching Organizing Committee issued an update on H.E. Ling Rinpoche:
“H.E. Ling Rinpoche is recovering very well following a car accident on 28 November 2012. H.E. Ling Rinpoche experienced injuries only to his legs and has already been discharged from the hospital. He has been watching the Jangchup Lamrim Teachings via the live webcast.
“At the time of the accident, H.E. Ling Rinpoche was travelling to Goa to meet and welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama to South India.
“We appreciate the many phone calls and messages of concern and support from students and people all around the world. We would like to assure all of you that H.E. Ling Rinpoche is recovering rapidly and there is no need to worry.”
Ling Rinpoche is the main organizer of the Jangchup Lamrim teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama currently taking place at Gaden Monastery and Drepung Monastery in Mundgod, South India.
FPMT News Around the World
Mantras written on stones. Image: Dreamstime.
Mantras, meaning “mind protection” are Sanskrit syllables that bring benefit to all who see, touch, hear or speak them. As a resource for FPMT students, FPMT Education Services has created a new “Mantras” webpage where they have collected PDFs of many popular mantras and practices. You can also find on the page links to advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about the practice and benefits of reading, writing and reciting mantras.
In addition, Education Services offers resources pages for many prayers and practices as well as a page devoted specifically to sutra practice. These pages are regularly being updated and expanded, so check back regularly to find out what’s new.
FPMT Education Services is the education department of FPMT International Office and develops study programs, practice materials, translations and trainings designed to foster an integration of four broad education areas: study, practice, service and behavior. These programs and materials are available through Education Services webpages, the FPMT Foundation Store, the FPMT Online Learning Center and FPMT centers worldwide.
With 160 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
FPMT News Around the World
Photo of local paper reporting on November 29, 2012, accident involving Ling Rinpoche
Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the main organizer of the Jangchup Lamrim teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama currently taking place in Mundgod Tibetan Settlement in India, was injured in a deadly automobile collision the day before the teachings began. According to Phayul.com, Ling Rinpoche was traveling to Goa to receive His Holiness on November 29 when there was an accident, which left the driver of Rinpoche’s car dead. Ling Rinpoche is in a hospital in Goa and reported to be “out of danger.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s attendant Ven. Roger Kunsang, who is currently at the teachings in Mundgod with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, shared in an email that Ling Rinpoche received the full impact of the collision and should be dead. He also wrote that Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la) miraculously arrived at the scene of the accident five minutes after it happened, just after Ling Rinpoche, who was in a great deal of pain, had been freed from the car.
“Khadro-la had just arrived in Goa (about two or three hours away) and said to her two attendants they needed to do puja as it was a bad day, and then suddenly she said they should leave Goa straight away and drive quickly ‒ that was all!” Ven. Roger wrote. “Then they came on the accident scene. There was no one else there. The accident had just happened and one man had dragged Ling Rinpoche free. It was a strange scene they said. The driver was already dead. Also in the car was TT-la (a 79-year-old monk who had been the previous Ling Rinpoche’s secretary), who was in a bad way, as well as another young monk. It took a long time to get help.
“Khadro-la took control of the whole scene and started checking everyone and doing her thing,” Ven. Roger wrote. “They got everyone to a small hospital and after some quick patching and more transport, took them to the main hospital in Goa ‒ in all more than eight hours. It was 11 hours before they got Ling Rinpoche in on the operating table and then it was a seven-hour operation. The young monk is OK. TT-la has had several operations and seems stable.”
With 160 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.