Mandala

FPMT News Around the World

His Holiness the Sakya Trizin with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, April 2012. Photo courtesy of Sakya Drolma Phodrang.

During April, FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, along with Dhakpa Rinpoche and Dagri Rinpoche, were in Dehradun, India, receiving initiations from His Holiness the Sakya Trizin. Many others from the Sakya tradition, including Sangha from the Sakya Monastery and Nunnery, also took part in the ongoing Wangya Norbu Tangwa (Garlands of Jewels of Hundreds of Initiations) transmission. This is the fifth year the Sakya Trizin has been giving this very long series of initiations.

Dhakpa Rinpoche (far left) and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Dehradun, India, April 2012. Photo courtesy of Sakya Drolma Phodrang.

Several years ago, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested to receive this transmission as the lineage of some of the initiations had already died out in the Gelug tradition. Rinpoche and FPMT’s Preserving the Lineage Fund have been the main sponsors of the initiation series and long life puja for His Holiness the Sakya Trizin. The Preserving the Lineage Fund supports the transmission of rare Mahayana teachings through initiations and oral transmissions, thereby allowing future lamas and students the benefits of receiving the Buddhadharma through an unbroken lineage.

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Dagri Rinpoche, Dehradun, India, April 2012. Photo courtesy of Sakya Drolma Phodrang.

Ven. Gyalten Wangmo describes Dorje Chang Institute’s organized effort to gather enough sponsors to save 60 Kaimanawa wild horses from being slaughtered in New Zealand in celebration of Saka Dawa.

From Mandala October-December 2009.

Did you know that Mandala offers hours of video and audio content freely through the FPMT Mandala eZine? The “Archive” tab at left will take you to all 13 issues. Happy exploring!

Mandala recommends the content in the August 2010 issue. On page 21, Lama Zopa Rinpoche provides instruction on how to visualize and think while reciting the abbreviated version of Calling the Guru from Afar.

“A Buddhist Approach to Mental Illness,” an interview with Lama Yeshe. Excerpted from Make Your Mind an Ocean, published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA).

From Mandala May-June 1999.

FPMT News Around the World 

Have you ever wanted to improve your visualization practice? Instead of struggling to retrieve a fuzzy image, have you wished for Buddha’s face to pop clearly into mind as soon as you closed your eyes? Jon Landaw, a long-time FPMT teacher, recently led his Discovering Buddhism students through an exercise of drawing Buddha’s face to help them improve their visualizations. His students reported good results, saying they could bring Buddha’s image to mind more easily.

Landaw explains that he supplied students with artist Andy Weber’s gridded drawing of Buddha’s face, blank copies of the grid and some pencils. Then put on a recording of Lama Yeshe chanting mani and let them get to work.

“A couple of the students contented themselves with merely tracing the Buddha’s face, but the rest actually drew it ‘free hand,’ as it were,” Landaw writes. “They were very happily occupied for more than an hour, at the end of which time I led a brief visualization practice. Then on the following week, when I ask them whether they noticed any change in their meditation practice and their ability to bring Buddha’s image to their mind, I got an overwhelming positive response.”

“Even though I didn’t have the opportunity of joining the class while they were doing their work,” Landaw writes, “the mere activity of looking closely at all their work left a strong impression on my mind. So when I led the closing meditation, Buddha’s face appeared before my mind’s eye much more vividly than it has in ages.”

You can watch video of Andy Weber drawing Buddha’s face online, where you can also download copies of the gridded face and the empty grid. If you’re interested in the Discovering Buddhism course and it’s not offered in your area, you can take it online at the FPMT Online Learning Center.

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.

Miffi Maximillion of Langri Tangpa Centre in Brisbane, Australia – “I’ve had one foot in the nether world of boarding houses and the street for years” – makes some down-to-earth recommendations for dealing with mentally unstable people who come to Dharma centers.

From Mandala September-October 1999.

Glenn H. Mullin describes meeting Lama Yeshe in what was for Mullin a truly mystical encounter.

From September-October 1995.

Lama Yeshe describes mantra and meditation in this fascinating excerpt taken from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s Freedom Through Understanding, one of the archive’s books offered freely to the public. You can also find the audio that is the source of these teachings on fpmt.org/mandala/.

From Mandala January-March 2010.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche discusses his recommendations for Guru Shakyamuni Puja on Buddha days, special days in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar when it is said that the power of virtuous activity is multiplied. A version of this puja can already be found on fpmt.org on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice page. You can find upcoming Buddha days using Liberation Prison Project’s immensely popular astrological calendar. 

From Mandala April 1990. 

Thubten Pemo speaks with Ani-la Tenzin Palmo in this very early interview from Mandala April 1988. Ani-la Tenzin Palmo later became Jetsünma Tenzin Palmo, a title recognizing for her significant spiritual achievements and bestowed on her by His Holiness the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa. 

From Mandala April 1988.

FPMT News Around the World

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nalanda Monastery, France, October 2011. Photo by Philippe Garric.

In his letter for the entire FPMT community published in the Annual Review 2011: Cherishing Life, Lama Zopa Rinpoche connects his experience of manifesting a stroke to learning the lam-rim and understanding karma. As Rinpoche explains, “karma is expandable – even if what is created is very small, the result is expandable. For example, according to King Ashoka’s life story, when he was a child playing in the sand, he offered a handful of sand to the Buddha, but he visualized that it was gold and he actually received the merit of having actually offered gold in Buddha’s beggar bowl. In his next life, he was born as a Dharma King, he was very wealthy and was able to build ten million stupas in one day. So that is amazing, amazing, amazing, unbelievable merits he was able to collect. So this is the same in regards to negative karma.

“This means it is very important to abandon even small negative karma as much as possible and to practice even small good karma as much as possible. To really put effort in this way,” Rinpoche writes.

Rinpoche has often given advice on karma, some of which can be found at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. FPMT’s Discovering Buddhism program also offers a module on karma, which has been recently made available on FPMT’s YouTube channel.

Rinpoche’s Annual Review letter is meant to be read as widely as possible and is available in English, Chinese, French, Italian and Spanish.

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.

In “You Can, You Must,” Mandala editor Laura Miller interviews Thubten Gyatso (Adrian Feldmann), Australian senior student and author, ordained 35 years ago by Lama Yeshe. Gyatso discusses experiences from the beginning, middle and end of retreat, and provides some valuable advice and encouragement for those considering retreat.

From Mandala April-June 2012; and part of Mandala‘s “Subduing the Mind, Actualizing the Path” Resource Area