receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
FPMT News Around the World
Tony Migalka, Judy Wagner, Jan Vaughan, and Cathy Davis making long life offerings to Gen Dondrub at Buddha House, Adelaide, South Australia, June 2021. Photo by Joanne Foo.
Buddha House, the FPMT center located in a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, celebrated their resident teacher Ven. Thubten Dondrub. Carole Migalka, Tara Hall coordinator, shares the story.
On June 20, 2021, Dharma brothers and sisters from around Australia and overseas gathered at Buddha House, Adelaide, Australia, in person and online, to offer a White Tara long life ceremony to Ven. Thubten Dondrub—fondly known to students as Gen Dondrub. Approximately 130 people participated in the event, with forty-nine people in our gompa and with the livestream being watched throughout Australia and as far away as Malaysia and Mongolia. People traveled from Western Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales to enjoy the puja. Following the event, a delicious lunch was served to fifty-three people in Tara Hall.
When Buddha House director Lyndy Abram and spiritual program coordinator Judy Wagner presented the idea of offering a long life puja, it took some convincing to get Gen Dondrub to agree. However, with the knowledge that full support was expressed from International Office and FPMT Australia, Gen-la humbly agreed to the event, making it the first long life puja offered to a member of the International Mahayana Institute (IMI), which is the community of FPMT monks and nuns, and an important example of honoring Western Sangha.
Pavel Janko, Ven. Drime, Ven. Kaye Miner, and Sandy Faber seated in the front row offering prayers at the White Tara Long Life Ceremony at Buddha House, Adelaide, South Australia, June 2021. Photo by Joanne Foo.
Leading the puja was Ven. Thubten Drime, one of four nuns living in temporary accommodation while working to establish the Machig Labdron nuns community at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo. Some students were unable to attend in person due to COVID-19 restrictions, but conducive conditions saw the South Australia border open to regional Victoria just in time for Ven. Drime, who took lay vows with Gen Dondrub, to travel to Adelaide to lead the ceremony.
Extensive offerings were made, an abundance of flowers arranged, and students—dressing for the theme—transformed the gompa into a sea of white. Sponsorship and offerings came, with gratitude, from across the globe, and true to Gen Dondrub’s manner he offered them on to fellow Australian monastics.
With skies of devotion and respect, Gen Dondrub has offered extensive service to Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche since meeting them both in 1976 and receiving gelong ordination from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Australia in 1979. Gen Dondrub has served as a director, on boards, and led the month-long November course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, eight times. He continues to lead lamrim retreats at De-Tong Ling Retreat Center on Kangaroo Island in Australia.
Gen Dondrub has lived at Sera Je Monastery in India. He has taught in Taiwan as well as helped establish Jinsiu Farlin, the FPMT center in Taipei. He has been a resident and director at Nalanda Monastery in France and has taught in many additional countries, including New Zealand, India, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, United States, and Mexico. Gen Dondrub has served as IMI’s education officer, been the resident teacher at Hayagriva Buddhist Centre, in Perth, Australia, and supported and taught at the Tara Meditation Centre in Bunbury and the Gyalwa Ensapa Broome Study Group.
Gen Dondrub continues to teach an extensive Dharma program as resident teacher at Buddha House. The program includes Discovering Buddhism, lamrim, traditional practices and pujas, retreat days, and the popular Sunday talks, offering practical Dharma solutions for everyday living.
In “Preparing for Ordination” on the IMI website, Gen Thubten Dondrub writes, “Adopting the life of a renunciate is a life-long commitment in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. One takes ordination because one realizes that this human life really is rare and precious and wants to use it in the most meaningful way—both for oneself and others.”
Students around the globe touched by Gen Dondrub’s service and commitment can wholeheartedly agree he has, and continues to, use his life in the most meaningful way.
Gen Dondrub’s Thank You Letter
Gen Dondrub at Buddha House, Adelaide, South Australia, June 2021. Photo by Joanne Foo.
Dear Dharma brothers and sisters,
I would just like to thank everyone who was involved in any way, big or small, directly or indirectly, in the wonderful, auspicious White Tara long life puja that was held at Buddha House on Sunday, June 20, 2021.
Thank you to all the people who attended the puja in person at Buddha House, and to those who watched online in various places around Australia and even overseas.
Thank you to all those generous people whose sponsorship made the puja not just possible, but a genuinely beautiful and joyful event.
Thank you to all the many hard-working people whose enthusiastic efforts over many months made this puja a reality that went so smoothly and harmoniously.
Thank you, Judy Wagner, the amazing spiritual program coordinator of Buddha House, whose original idea it was to have this puja and who meticulously planned and organized the event down to the finest detail.
Thank you to Lyndy Abram, the director of Buddha House and to Peter Stickels and Stephanie Brennan at FPMTA who gave their strong support to this project.
Although I don’t personally deserve such a wonderful event, I accepted on behalf of all the monks and nuns of the International Mahayana Institute, the Sangha arm of the FPMT organization, in the hope that the puja would be auspicious for people to develop a greater recognition and appreciation for the work that the IMI Sangha have done in spreading the Dharma and supporting people in their practice. I personally feel that the event was genuinely auspicious because there was such a joyful atmosphere throughout the puja and the meal that followed, but also a sense of lightness and calmness and a strong “family feeling” that Lama Yeshe always encouraged.
So this puja was a long life puja for everyone involved and an offering to all the Sangha. For this reason all excess sponsorship will be donated to Thubten Shedrub Ling Monastery and Machig Labdron Nunnery in Bendigo. In addition a total of $4,417 was offered to me by various centers and students during the puja, which I also offer to the same two monastic communities.
Best wishes,
Thubten Dondrub
To learn more about Buddha House, visit their website Buddhahouse.org. You can find the International Mahayana Institute online at IMIsangha.org.
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Tara altar prepared by Maria Berger for the New Year’s Eve practice at Tara Mandala Center, Bavaria, Germany, December 2020. Photo by Maria Kruming.
Tara Mandala Center, the FPMT center in Landau an der Isar, Bavaria, Germany, has continued to engage in Dharma practice during the past year. Katrin Veicht, a board member for the center, shares the story about their eight million Tara mantra goal and other activities:
Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic everything that had felt normal became difficult. Meeting in our gompa was no longer possible and lots of teaching and courses had to be canceled. Before, we had not been particularly well equipped or technically experienced, but the COVID crisis taught us to move to online programs and establish Zoom meetings for the weekly lamrim courses with our resident teacher, Dieter Kratzer. Now we are very grateful to use these online resources. It has helped a lot to keep us connected.
In January 2021 we started to recite the Green Tara mantra upon the recommendation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to stop the pandemic, with the goal to recite eight million mantras by the end of 2021. Once a week, we meet online and recite “Praises to the Twenty-One Taras” and the mantra together. Two Sunday mornings a month, we do the Chittamani Tara Puja, led from Ven. Thubten Drolma. By mid of June 2021, we recited had 4,784,854 Tara mantras, accomplished by about twenty-five members reciting the mantra on a daily basis.
Weekly lamrim class taught by Dieter Kratzer, Tara Mandala Center, Bavaria, Germany, December 2020. Photo by Maria Kruming.
In February, at Losar, we started to do the recommended practice to protect from the Coronavirus by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on a daily basis. Every morning from Monday to Friday we come together via Zoom and do the daily morning practice by Rinpoche “The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness” and recite the Vajra Armor mantra and the Black Manjushri mantra. At the end we recite and contemplate on the wonderful prayer of Khadro Namsel Dorje Rinpoche. We dedicate all the merits accumulated by these prayers and recitations to all who are affected by the virus.
Another wonderful highlight for Tara Mandala Center was the twenty-four hour recitation of the Sanghata Sutra on Saka Dawa Duchen in May 2021.This was inspired by prayer marathons at other centers in the FPMT. Sixteen participants recited the Sutra six times completely. Please rejoice with us!
We are still very motivated and keen to continue with all these wonderful and helpful practice and prayers.
To learn more about Tara Mandala Center, visit their website:
https://www.tara-mandala.de/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Ven. Paloma Alba and Karen Molina at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain, May 2021. Photo by Steve Milton.
On May 20, 2021, Centro Nagarjuna Valencia, the FPMT center in Valencia, Spain, joyously announced the publication of El Mundo Físico, a 568-page hardcover Spanish translation of Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 1: The Physical World, published by Madrid-based Kailas Editorial. The English translation, edited by Geshe Thupten Jinpa and translated into English by Ian Coghlan, was published by Wisdom Publications in 2017. Center director Steve Milton shares the story.
Our center is pleased to have translated The Physical World into Spanish. It is the first in a series of four volumes of books called Science and Philosophy In The Indian Buddhist Classics. Conceived of and introduced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this is a project very close to His Holiness’s heart and one that he is keen to see translated into as many languages as possible.
The wish to translate the book into Spanish (and many other languages) comes directly from His Holiness. The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama directly contacted Karen Molina, who has served as His Holiness’s Spanish translator at his events across Europe. They asked Karen if she was interested, and if so how much she would charge to translate the book and how long she would need to finish the project.
El Mundo Físico, Valencia, Spain, May 2021. Photo by Steve Milton.
Karen felt that it would be an honor and a privilege, but she realized she really didn’t have the time to dedicate to such a project. Karen serves as translator and attendant to Geshe Lamsang, our FPMT resident geshe, and she is extremely busy taking care of our teacher and translating at our public events. She also translates for the FPMT Basic Program and travels to the other FPMT centers in Spain with with Geshe Lamsang to translate his teachings.
While discussing the opportunity with Karen, I remembered that in the past Lama Zopa Rinpoche had said that the purpose of the FPMT organization and centers is to fulfill His Holiness’s wishes. I encouraged Karen to agree to the project with the support of our center, and on the condition that it be volunteer work with no payment involved.
I suggested to Karen that instead of translating the text herself, that she seek permission from the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to form a team of volunteers from our center to translate the text. Since the text had already been translated into English, our team could translate from English into Spanish, and Karen could refer to the original Tibetan text if needed. Karen thought that two years would be a realistic amount of time to complete the project. The Office of His Holiness liked the idea and gave Karen permission to move forward.
Karen began to consider who should be on this translation project dream team of five people. The team would need four people to focus on translation work and one person to edit each contribution and the final text to ensure a consistent style, vocabulary usage, and seamless flow. Each volunteer would need to have an excellent level of English, a good understanding of the Dharma, and it would be great if some team members had a scientific background.
Karen quickly identified four people from our center who would be perfect for the project. German Torregroa and Carolina Gallego are biologists, and Carolina has a PhD in biotechnology. They have been studying the Dharma and the FPMT Basic Program at our center for a long time and are proficient in English. David Vivas is a medical doctor, a PhD, a professor of health economics and management at the University Polytecnic of Valencia, and a long-time Dharma student. David has also worked on our center’s publishing projects, helping to share Geshe Lamsang’s teachings with more people. Ven. Paloma Alba is our center’s spiritual coordinator, long-time Dharma student, and editor of the free distribution books we’ve published of Geshe Lamsang’s teachings.
Carolina, David, German, and Karen began by dividing the English translation of the text up into four sections. Each person would translate a different section. Ven. Paloma would check their translations, and correct the style and flow, and then edit the final Spanish translation. The team gathered together in our center to discuss the best translation of terms and scientific expressions, and to agree on which vocabulary words they would stick to. Karen managed the overall project, while Ven. Paloma inspired everyone with her infectious enthusiasm and boundless energy.
This was a difficult book to translate, and it took two years to complete the project. Readers will encounter Indian Buddhist scholastic concerns with the material elements, the sensory capacities, time, atomism, cosmology, theories of the body, the brain, and even discussions of micro-organisms found in the body. The language is very scientific, and the concepts presented are very complicated. This is why some members of our translation team come from scientific backgrounds. Despite the difficulties, they persevered, and now the first book is finally finished.
Although this was a big project, our center is grateful we had this opportunity to fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wish to serve His Holiness and fulfill His Holiness’s wish that this text be made available to everyone around the world. We felt it was particularly important to translate it into Spanish because so many people around the world speak Spanish. We also rejoice in the skies of merit our center members, donors, and volunteers created through our efforts.
Read more about it in the Spanish language online news outlet El Español: “Editando al Dalái Lama el día que señalan los planetas.”
Geshe Lamsang announced the book’s publication during an online Basic Program class, praising the students involved and thanking them for their hard work. He also thanked the publishers for printing the book. Due to the pandemic our celebration will have to wait, but we will definitely organize a rejoicing party at our center as soon as we can get together again. In the meantime our team has already started translating the second volume in the series.
Watch the thirty-minute video “Presentación del libro del Dalai Lama: ‘Ciencia y filosofía: El mundo físico'” (Presentation of the Dalai Lama’s book: “Science and Philosophy: The Physical World”):
To learn more about Centro Nagarjuna Valencia, visit their website:
https://nagarjunavalencia.com/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Karuna Hospice Services nurses Mel and Hollie testing new podcasting equipment with Ven. Tsultrim at Karuna Hospice Services in preparation for an interview with Alana Cresswell from Donate Life Queensland and Phillipa Lazenby from the Queensland Tissue Bank, April 2021. Photo by Verena Coombs.
Karuna Hospice Services in Windsor, Queensland, Australia, has a new initiative to help people prepare for their own death and the deaths of loved ones. Verena Coombs, who does community relations for the hospice, shares the story of their podcast, “What About Death!?”:
Karuna Hospice Service in Brisbane, Australia, launched a podcast in April called “What About Death!? Everything you wanted to know about death but were afraid to ask.” The purpose of the podcast is to bring the topic of death out of the dark and into the open by exploring the many aspects, perspectives, and nuances of dying and death with the hope of reducing some of the stigma, taboo, fear, difficulty, and discomfort that often accompanies this inevitable part of life.
Ven. Lozang Tsultrim, who is a counselor at Karuna and previously presented a community radio program for several years, interviews people from Australia and around the world, who share their various experiences, insights, and research into dying and death.
What About Death!? podcast. Image by Karuna Hospice Services.
We are hopeful that by listening to these many and varied perspectives and experiences that we can stimulate curiosity in a very non-threatening way, thereby opening up the conversation and sparking interest. We hope that will result in more people talking openly about dying and death with their friends and family, leading to a greater understanding, less stress and a more peaceful and spacious way of responding whether death is arriving for us or for others.
We have a new episode every two weeks and the podcast can be found on Apple, Spotify, Google, and on the Karuna website. Special thanks to our podcasting team Joshua Byrd, Shannon Callander, Ven. Tsultrim, and Verena Coombs.
In addition, Karuna is continuing to provide regular community education online, with mindfulness courses, and the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom courses Unlocking Your Potential and Building Balanced Empathy. We hope to continue with the 16 Guidelines in the not too distant future. Do take a look at our website for upcoming course information.
Host Ven. Tsultrim recording an introduction with volunteer podcast editor Kiara Fauzi at Karuna Hospice Services, April 2021. Photo by Verena Coombs.
As a free community hospice service that has been offering palliative care in Brisbane, Australia for twenty-nine years, we are so very grateful for the privilege and the gift of caring for the dying and those with life limiting illness. We are very aware that so few others are afforded such a worthwhile, satisfying, and profound opportunity. Karuna is hopeful that in supporting individuals and families as they navigate their way along this path that we can continue to relish this opportunity to offer people comfort, care, and clinical expertise free of charge. We are very happy to announce that 2022 is our thirtieth anniversary, an amazing achievement!
To learn more about Karuna Hospice Services, including ways to offer support, visit their website:
https://karuna.org.au/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Karuna Trust healthcare worker and patient, India
Three FPMT centers in the United Kingdom joined together to helped those affected by the COVID-19 crisis in India and Nepal. Offering community and social service is one of FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service. Ven. Fabienne Pradelle, director of Jamyang London Buddhist Centre, shares the story:
Big problems require us to come together and work jointly to help others. It is in this spirit that the three main FPMT centers in the UK—Land of Joy, Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds, and Jamyang Buddhist Centre London—came together to launch a joint appeal to help our brothers and sisters in India and Nepal.
The pressure was intense due to COVID-19 with medicines, oxygen, and medical care in short supply. Being the birthplace of Buddhism, our respective communities had a strong feeling of connection with India and the Himalayan communities, and therefore, an equally strong wish to help.
We launched our campaign in early May 2021 with a timeline of a month to send funds where they were urgently needed. We carefully selected three projects that we felt were directly helping communities in India and Nepal with the COVID-19 crisis. By the time the campaign closed, we had raised £14,151.34 (US$19,694). So we were able to send £4,717 (US$6,564) per project each.
Lelung Dharma Trust, India
Each of the three projects shared their thank yous, including photos of work supported by the donations, to our communities.
Lelung Rinpoche of the Lelung Dharma Trust, a UK charity that supports Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism, wrote:
“I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those who have supported the COVID-19 second wave appeal for Tibetan communities in India. I would also like to extend thanks to all the FPMT centers in the UK for their support in helping raise funds for this crisis situation.”
From the Karuna Trust, a UK charity dedicated to ending caste-based discrimination, inequality, and poverty in India and Nepal:
“Karuna is grateful beyond measure to the community of friends and well-wishers around Jamyang Centre Leeds and London, and Land of Joy for their generosity and kindness in supporting our work in India at this crucial time.”
Karuna Trust ambulance project
From the Himalayan Trust UK, a UK charity that supports healthcare and education in the northeastern Himalayan regions of Nepal:
“Thank you for supporting the Himalayan Trust UK. With the re-emerging problems for the very poor remote mountain villagers, we will undertake to make the most of ‘every penny.’”
Packing PPE (personal protection equipment) for distribution in rural Himalayan Nepal, supported by Himalayan Trust UK
Hand washing practice, Nepal, from the Himalayan Trust UK
It was heart-warming to see so many people wanting to help and how this sense of deep connection and gratitude towards the Tibetan, Indian, and Nepali Himalayan communities translated into spontaneous action and generosity. The joining of efforts across FPMT UK centers was also deeply meaningful—working together to benefit others helps us have greater impact, but it also supports harmony in our communities and strengthens our sense of confidence and agency so that we create the causes for coming together again to help others. And how wonderful is that!
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
You can learn more about these UK centers—Land of Joy, Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds, and Jamyang Buddhist Centre London—by visiting their respective websites.
Live with Compassion poster at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s “Live with Compassion” quote has inspired four new posters that are being displayed at FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world. These beautiful posters combine Rinpoche’s quote with portraits of Rinpoche and are available for download as high resolution PDFs suitable for printing.
“I really want every FPMT center, project, and service to have a poster of the ‘Live with Compassion’ quote displayed prominently—as this is the very essence of the FPMT organization, regarding our practice, and who we are,” Rinpoche said in June 2021.
As Rinpoche explained that this quote encapsulates our practice and our FPMT culture, Ven. Lobsang Sherab made four posters for FPMT affiliates to display. Several centers have shared photos of the posters at their centers in response to Rinpoche’s request.
At the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia, director Ian Green said that they have two A1 size “Live with Compassion” posters up, one inside the gift shop and one inside the stupa itself.
Live with Compassion poster at Gendun Drubpa Center, Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada
Gendun Drubpa Center in western Canada has posted one poster by their tea station and another in their “tiny library so that it can be seen when our students turn on the lights,” center director Colleen Oneill wrote.
Live with Compassion poster at Naropa Meditation Center, Tahiti
Naropa Meditation Center in Tahiti shared a photo of the poster framed in red.
Live with Compassion poster at Nalanda Monastery, Labastide St. Georges, France
At Nalanda Monastery in France, Ven. Zoksang created a French translation of the poster. A framed version of it hangs in the entrance.
Live with Compassion poster at Gendun Drupa Center, Martigny, Switzerland
At Gendun Drupa Center in Switzerland, the poster is on the door to their center. Center director Jean-Paul Gloor explained that with the poster on the door, students are reminded to think that it is with compassion they open the door to liberation from samsara for every living beings until enlightenment.
Nagarjuna Alicante in Spain writes, “As you well know, we still don’t have a location for the center of Alicante, so Jessi, the director, has put the compassion poster on our website for the moment.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s ‘Live with Compassion’
Live with compassion
Work with compassion
Meditate with compassion
When problems come, experience them with compassion
Die with compassion
Enjoy with compassion
Practicing this gives you the best happy life
It fulfills all your wishes and all living beings’ wishes for happiness.
Find the Live with Compassion poster PDF in the Foundation Store.
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
The FPMT community celebrated the one-year anniversary of “Healing the World with Thangtong Gyalpo’s Prayer” on July 31–August 1, 2021, with Sangha and students worldwide joining the online prayerathon.
The International Mahayana Institute (IMI), FPMT’s community of monks and nuns, began coming together for a global online recitation of The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: The Blessed Prayer Known as “Liberating Sakya from Disease” with OM MANI PADME HUM on August 1, 2020. Since then, every Saturday for twenty-four hours, the prayer and Mani Mantra have been recited for the benefit of all sentient beings and to reduce the suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The twenty-four hour prayerathon was advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. About one hundred IMI Sangha have been involved in organizing and leading the recitations over the last year. The Chenrezig Institute Multimedia Team hosts the online event, providing the YouTube channel and technical support.
In a recent video teaching, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered “a million, zillion, trillion” thanks to all who join together on Saturdays for the prayerathon. He also thanked the Chenrezig Institute Multimedia Team. During the teaching Rinpoche discussed the benefits of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM and also offered an oral transmission of three Thangtong Gyalpo Prayers: “Liberating Sakya from Disease,” “Words of Truth Pacifying the Danger of Weapons,” and “A Request to Pacify the Fear of Famine.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, in his Advice to Protect Yourself and Others from the Coronavirus, instructs students on practices to counter the virus, including Thangtong Gyalpo’s prayer The Vajra Speech of Mahasiddha Thangtong Gyalpo: The Blessed Prayer Known as “Liberating Sakya from Disease.” Thangtong Gyalpo (1385–1464) was a great Tibetan yogi. And this prayer is recited for protecting and healing from diseases and epidemics. Rinpoche advises that while doing this prayer, students should look at an image of Thangtong Gyalpo.
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Francesa Fantauzzi, Centro Muni Gyana, Palermo, Italy, 2021. Photo by Francesa Fantauzzi.
Centro Muni Gyana, the FPMT center in Palermo, Italy, is hoping to inspire more Dharma centers to offer programs in sign language. Center director Marco Farina shares the story:
Our center was founded in 1990, thanks to the determination of our founder Rodolfo Bajardi and his wife Elia Manto. We have recently begun numerous social and inclusivity initiatives with the motivation to take responsibility to free not only ourselves but all beings from suffering.
We are working on a new initiative: a Dharma course offered in Italian sign language (LIS), the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Dharma LIS is a new Dharma project in Palermo, realized with the support of the Italian Buddhist Union and 8×1000 contributions from Italian taxpayers. Our goal is to initiate communication with more people and make Buddhist teachings accessible to all.
We would like to thank our LIS interpreter, Francesca Fantauzzi, who became involved in this initiative thanks to one of our members. Francesca is helping us with our first course offered in LIS. The first video will be on the four noble truths. The entire course will be offered for free on YouTube.
We would also like to thank Fabrizio Pallotti, Italian translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for his support. Fabrizio offered Francesca a short Dharma course and taught Francesca about its translation into the Italian culture before Francesca began translating the Dharma into LIS. We hope our new initiative inspires other centers to offer the Dharma in LIS thereby making Dharma more accessible.
Watch the four-minute promotional video “Dharma LIS – Promozione Corso di Dharma in Lingua Italiana dei Segni” (“Dharma LIS – Dharma Course Promotion in Italian Sign Language”) on the Muni Gyana YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/sVzMGJuKlOc
To learn more about Centro Muni Gyana, visit their website:
https://centromunigyana.it/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Geshema Ngawang Chokyi, India
Yeshin Norbu Center, the FPMT center in Stockholm, Sweden, recently hosted an online teaching with Geshema Ngawang Chokyi, who graduated with the first group of geshemas in 2016 and has a special connection to FPMT. In addition, many years ago, Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked Geshema Chokyi to teach in the West. Zarina Osmonalieva, spiritual program coordinator at Yeshin Norbu, shares how the center helped fulfill this wish of Rinpoche:
In the summer of 2019, the team of Yeshin Norbu had the honor of having an audience with Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Riga, Latvia. Rinpoche advised us to invite Geshema Ngawang Chokyi to teach the Dharma in Sweden. We learned that Geshema was one of a handful of Tibetan nuns who had received the prestigious geshe degree and spent a year studying tantra at Gyuto Monastery. We also learned that she was Lama Yeshe’s niece. The thought of hosting Geshema at our center felt very inspiring, and we followed Rinpoche’s advice by sending an invitation to Geshema, which she kindly accepted.
In the beginning of April 2020, Geshema, who was in India, collected all the necessary documents and was on her way to apply for a Swedish visa. At that time, the quickly escalating pandemic forced us to pause and reconsider our plans. We decided that it might be wisest to postpone her visit. Shortly thereafter, India introduced its first lockdown.
In May this year, Lola Odessey, a graduate of the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program who has a special connection to Geshema, suggested that we organize an online teaching while waiting for the world to reopen. What a wonderful idea! Saka Dawa was approaching, and we thought that this was a wonderful opportunity to request Geshema to teach the twelve deeds of Buddha Shakyamuni.
Geshema Chokyi gave her teaching from Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Mundgod, South India, which she joined in 1992 upon her arrival from Tibet. Jangchub Choeling Nunnery is her permanent residence, where she teaches Dharma to other nuns.
Screen shot of Geshema Chokyi teaching with Lola Odessey translating, June 2021. Photo courtesy of Yeshin Norbu.
Geshema blessed us with a teaching that was clear and concise, easy to follow, and filled with warmth. She made the story of Buddha Shakyamuni into something relatable, and, at the same time, utterly inspirational for us to continue on the path. She kindly offered to answer questions at the end of the talk, which gave participants a precious chance to share some of their queries and hear her perspective.
Lola Odessey joined us from Institut Vajra Yogini in France and did a fantastic job of translating. We were delighted to see that the event was attended by not only members of Yeshin Norbu in Sweden but also by people from other places in Europe.
Needless to say, we hope that this was the first of many more teachings by Geshema Chokyi, and we are very happy and grateful to all who made this come true.
Learn more about Yeshin Norbu Center:
http://yeshenorbu.se/
Read the Mandala July-December 2019 interview with Geshema Ngawang Chokyi: “If I May Be Able to Benefit Others, I Should Try”
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Maitripa College commencement held in the Maitripa College Jokhang and broadcast on Zoom, Portland, Oregon, US, May 2021. Photo by Laura Miller.
Maitripa College is a Buddhist institution of higher education affiliated with the FPMT in Portland, Oregon, US. Yangsi Rinpoche, Maitripa College president and faculty member, began teaching a four-year advanced Buddhist studies program at Maitripa Institute in January 2006. Maitripa became a college in July 2008, after receiving legal authority to offer graduate degrees in Buddhist Studies in Oregon. Currently, the college offers a Master of Arts degree in Buddhist Studies and a Master of Divinity degree. Dean of Education Namdrol Miranda Adams shares how the college has adapted during the COVID pandemic.
We concluded our fifteenth year of operations with a joyful commencement ceremony in May 2021, our first in-person activity held at our physical location in over a year. For our four new graduates, as for everyone in our community and the world, it has been a year like no other.
In March 2020, we pivoted our entire operation into an online model for the foreseeable future. This was done in response to emergency orders from the State of Oregon due to the emerging COVID crisis. From the outset, our college was faced with two main challenges. First, how would we survive when two of our primary income streams—investment income and donations—became completely unavailable? How would we care for our teachers and staff members, who in turn care for our students and community? Where would the money come from? Second, would our students stay? Would they still feel it valuable to attend classes, practices, and community events now that those activities were being held in virtual reality?
Maitripa College commencement held in the Maitripa College jokhang and broadcast on Zoom, Portland, Oregon, US, May 2021. Photo by Laura Miller.
We happily discovered that our community’s generosity, resiliency, and dedication exceeded our expectations. Our teachers and staff members took twenty to forty percent pay cuts across the board, according to their capacities, so everyone could remain employed by the college during this time of great uncertainty. The reduced expenses that this brought—along with emergency benefits from state and local governments—allowed us to ensure our employees were cared for while also ending the year in a good financial position.
Our students did decide to continue their studies and even reported a “seamless” transition to online learning. This was a delightful surprise to our staff, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make it happen, and to the students, who continued to learn and grow together.
Our spring term enrollment was up by about twenty percent and our programs and classes continue to be well attended. New and continuing students enrolled in our two degree programs. Our continuing education students and our students who join classes as auditors are enthusiastically looking forward to beginning the 2021-2022 academic year. Classes begin in August and will be offered through online and in-person delivery methods.
Yangsi Rinpoche teaching a Maitripa College class on Zoom, Portland, Oregon, US, April 2020. Photo by Namdrol Miranda Adams.
We will continue to offer the majority of our classes and programs online this summer. Prospective students among our FPMT family worldwide are warmly invited to join the Discovering Buddhism modules we will be offering online this summer. We will offer at least one more academic semester partially online, including philosophy and meditation classes with Yangsi Rinpoche, starting in August. We will begin to slowly shift back to more in-person classes as conditions and comfort levels improve and restrictions loosen.
We are so grateful for our resilient minds and spirits that have carried us through the pandemic thus far. We appreciate the access we have had to the basic requirements of life—including food, shelter, and medicines—that have sustained us during this time. We thank our teachers and the teachings for showing us the way. The destruction COVID brought throughout the world has been unimaginable. We look at the great suffering that this crisis has laid bare before us with clear eyes and compassion. The pandemic has strengthened our intentions to develop and provide a Buddhist education that can help us alleviate suffering, in both conventional and ultimate terms, as our wonderful students aspire to do every day.
Maitripa College staff meeting on Zoom, April 2020. Photo by Alfredo Pineiro.
To learn more about Maitripa College, visit their website:
https://maitripa.org/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
In September 1982, H.H. Dalai Lama visited a retreat center that Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinopche had just set up in Bubión, a small town near the Alpujarra mountains near Granada, Spain. At the end of His Holiness’s teaching he named the center O Sel Ling. Photo by Pablo Giralt de Arquer, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
In September 1982, His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Rome, Italy, to begin a month-long tour of Europe at the invitation of FPMT and other groups. His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with His Holiness Pope John Paul II, then traveled to Barcelona, Granada, and Bubión in Spain; Toulouse, Lavaur, Paris, and Strasbourg in France; Milan, Pisa, and Pomaia in Italy; and finally six cities in Germany. Four FPMT centers hosted His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the tour. They were Centro Nagarjuna in both Barcelona and Bubión, near Granada; Institut Vajra Yogini and Nalanda Monastery in France; and Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy.
The American nun Thubten Yeshe, who photographed the tour, shared her impressions of it with the first issue of Wisdom (the FPMT magazine that preceded Mandala). Here’s part of the story from the Wisdom article “A Man of Peace on Tour”:
This was a journey to the West that would inspire people on a spiritual level, and forge cultural ties with the people of Europe. This was the 1982 European tour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the message was clear, from one stop to the next: we are all human beings, seeking happiness and an end to pain; we have the capacity, and the responsibility, to realize these goals for ourselves and others.
That inspiration was manifest throughout the trip in people’s responses to His Holiness. The old and dying clinging to him at a hospice near Pisa. Smiling pictures and double page spreads in Spain’s major dailies. Thousands cramming into the already overcrowded city halls. A peace award from a group of Italian school children. The radiant smiles of reclusive Catholic monks after hours of shared insights with this Buddhist monk. “This has been the most important and moving day of my life,” said the mayor of a major European city to His Holiness after a private interview.
Cover of Wisdom Vol. 1, May 1983
Sightseeing tours and walkabouts did not seem to be the way the Dalai Lama thought best to spend his time, and they were frequently rushed and cut short. However, in small intimate meetings with Christian monks, educators, philosophers, and scientists he was most at ease, animated, and deeply interested. These were moments of listening and often a profound sharing of wisdom. At the monastery of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, meeting with a group of monks—Eastern and Western Europeans, Americans, Asians—discussing monastic life and the ways the Church in Eastern Europe had found to co-exist with Communist governments. An interview with the speakers from the Universal Education conference in Pomaia in which His Holiness did the interviewing—looking for Western educational wisdom that he could apply to the Tibetan situation.
It was almost restful to arrive at the four FPMT centers in southern Europe after the hurly-burly of the rest of the tour. His Holiness spent a day at Nagarjuna’s retreat center, which clings to the side of a mountain reminiscent of dry Himalayan peaks where the monasteries and retreats are indistinguishable from the rocky landscape. The Dalai Lama of Tibet seemed at home in this calm place … .
Read this article as a scanned PDF from Wisdom, May 1983:
“A Man of Peace on Tour from Wisdom”
You can read more about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 1982 tour of Europe in chapter 20, “1982: The Celebration of the Enlightened Experience,” of the Lama Yeshe biography Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe.
To keep up with all the activities of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, visit DalaiLama.com.
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications 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, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Geneva, Switzerland, 2016. Photo by Olivier Adam.
Tibetans around the world, along with an international community of students of Tibetan Buddhism, celebrate His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 86th birthday on July 6.
FPMT International Office enthusiastically joins the world in rejoicing in His Holiness’s beneficial life and we offer prayers for his continued long life among us.
Supporting the wishes of His Holiness is a primary aim of the FPMT organization as described in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for FPMT. Rinpoche has explained that “[I would like] for FPMT to offer service to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as much as possible and to be able to fulfill His Holiness’ wishes. This is the highest priority for the organization.” Rinpoche has further said, “This is the quickest and most vast way of benefiting sentient beings.”
Since its inception, the FPMT organization has turned to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for inspiration and guidance, as well as worked to actualize His Holiness’s vision and create the cause for his long life.
The finalization of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s offering of the Maitreya Project land in Bodhgaya to His Holiness the Dalai Lama was a highlight of last year. The donation of about thirty acres (twelve hectares) of prime land in Bodhgaya will help fulfill His Holiness’s wish to build an international institute that will share the wisdom of the Nalanda tradition in order to create happiness and peace in the world. (You can read more about this in Ven. Roger Kunsang’s message in the FPMT Annual Review 2020.)
In February 2021, His Holiness the Dalai Lama offered a teaching at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization on Changkya Rölpai Dorjé’s Recognizing My Mother: An Experiential Song of the View. Rinpoche offered the introduction and dedication for the online event. After the dedication, His Holiness declared, “Zopa Rinpoche and I have known each other a long time. We are trusted friends. You and your teacher Lama Thubten Yeshe founded many centers around the world to help others. Rinpoche, you have done your best, thank you. Please be determined to keep up your efforts. What you have achieved cannot be overlooked. Thank you and Tashi Delek.”
The FPMT organization regularly participates in the offering of a long life puja to His Holiness. Rinpoche has also given extensive advice on prayers and practices to be done on His Holiness’s birthday and arranged 1,000 Buddhas to be offered to His Holiness on behalf of the FPMT organization.
At 86 years, His Holiness continues to be relevant and tuned into the needs of people around the world, engaging in discussions with young people and participating in dialogues on peace, the environment, science and the mind, and interfaith understanding. During the coronavirus pandemic, His Holiness is offering live webcasts of teachings to continue to connect with students and bring the teachings of the Buddha to the world.
On behalf of all sentient beings in desperate need of your compassionate guidance and presence in this world—please, please live a very long time, Your Holiness!
For more on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his beneficial activities, please visit DalaiLama.com.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.