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Completed buildings and prayer wheels at Lugsum Elderly Home.
Over two years, the Social Services Fund offered grants to support the building of ten new rooms for accommodation (we provided sponsorship for five of these rooms) and the construction of large and smaller prayer wheels on the property of Lugsum Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled, an elderly home in Bylakuppe, India, which cares for approximately forty elderly Tibetan individuals. Without homes and accommodation like this, many elderly first-wave Tibetan refugees have very little prospect of accommodation or support as many are without families of their own. Further, by supporting the creation of holy objects, FPMT is helping to take ultimate care of the elders by providing the conditions for them to create merit for this and future lives, not simply their immediate needs for survival.
We invite you to rejoice in the completion of both of these projects, which were finished with high quality design and materials, for the benefit of this important community.
New prayer wheels and upgrade to the grounds of Lugsum Elderly Home.
Two residents share these new simple, clean, and safe rooms at Lugsum Samduling Home for the Aged and Disabled.
New rooms at Lugsum Elderly Home.
Safe and accessible bathroom accommodation for the elderly.
Prayer wheels on the property which can be used by the elders in the community.
FPMT Charitable Projects is honored to support the homes of the eldest and destitute Tibetan refugees. You can show your support by making a donation to the Social Services Fund.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, September, 2018. Photo by Lobsang Sherab.
Recently Lama Zopa Rinpoche shared a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported the Sera Je Food Fund for twenty-seven years of operation. The food fund provided free meals to all of the monks of Sera Je Monastery for nearly three decades before handing over an endowment to the monastery which allows this offering to continue long into the future.
Rinpoche wanted to send his sincere thanks to all who made the food fund and endowment possible, an achievement for the entire FPMT organization which is truly worth rejoicing about:
Thank you very, very, very much! Thank you very, very much! So much merit you created, so many lifetimes to enjoy, to meet Dharma, to achieve enlightenment, not only to be free from samsara, but to achieve enlightenment. Free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering by you, and bring to enlightenment. So, thank you very much.
Rinpoche explains the incredible benefits of having offered food to Sangha through the Sera Food Fund for so many years:
You have to recognize the good karma, how much unbelievable good karma you collected. So many years, so many years, so many years, wow! You have to rejoice, rejoice! No time for depression, no space for depression in the life! Can’t imagine! For so many years, you have offered dinner, lunch, breakfast, can’t imagine, wow!
On the impact on the lives of all who benefit from the monks’ education and training including the Sera Je monks who go on to teach in FPMT centers around the world:
Now, in many countries in the world, so many people are receiving lamrim teachings, philosophy teachings. Those people who offered food, they developed their education, they got their education and so many people in the world are receiving benefit from them. This is not material benefit but this is benefit for the mind!
Rinpoche discussing the merit of offering food to those who share one’s guru:
All those Sera Je monks, they are His Holiness’s disciples also. So, you are making offerings to the pores of your guru. In that case, every day, every breakfast, every lunch, every dinner, even if it was just one time, the merit you collect by making offering to one disciple of the same guru, His Holiness, you collect FAARRRRRRRRR more merits than offering to numberless Buddhas, numberless Dharma, numberless Sangha, numberless statues, numberless stupas, numberless scriptures. They become so small compared to offering to one pore of the guru, a disciple.
On behalf of all who have been involved in the Sera Food Fund for the last twenty-seven years we would like to join Rinpoche—who made this project possible due to his incredible courage, kindness, and compassion—in thanking everyone from our heart. Thank you for your kind support, time, effort, and service over so many years. Many people came together to make this possible.
You can watch this entire message from Rinpoche on YouTube. An edited transcript of this message is also available via PDF.
Please also enjoy this recent in-depth look at the accomplishments and historical context of the Sera Je Fund over the last twenty-seven years. All are welcome to view this article in eZine or PDF format.
You can read more about the history and impact of the Sera Je Food Fund.
If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world.
Karnataka, India. Photo courtesy of FPMT Charitable Projects.
The latest issue of Mandala magazine features an extensive article, “Sustaining the Pure Unbroken Lineage of Buddha’s Teachings in This World: The Legacy of the Sera Je Food Fund,” which is an in-depth look at the accomplishments and historical context of the Sera Je Fund over the last twenty-seven years. All are welcome to enjoy this article in eZine or PDF format.
If you want to help Sangha, please learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries around the world.
Bird feeder at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land with roof painted with a mantra to bless all the birds who go under it to eat. Washington State, 2014. Photo by Ven. Kunsang.
Resident Sangha at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington State and Kachoe Dechen Ling in California, in the United States, engage in weekly animal liberation practice; offer charity to over 80 different ant nests; perform extensive daily offering practices of water, light, incense, and flowers; make tsa-tsas and stupas daily for those who have passed away or who are sick; and engage in nightly Dharma protector practices and sur offering.
At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land a bird feeder with mantras on the roof blesses the birds while eating the seeds, and there are continuous mantras and sutras playing through a speaker which they can hear while eating. Additionally, a bird bath is filled with water blessed by mantras and precious substances so the birds receive blessings when they wash and play in the water. Speakers also play various sutra recitations and mantras so the birds can hear and receive blessings.
During Summer months (when the snow is not present) the monks regularly visit lakes in the area to bless the sentient beings abiding there with Namgyälma mantras and blessed fish food. As they offer the food a speaker under the water plays sutras and mantras for the animals. At Kachoe Dechen Ling the Sangha make regular trips to the Pacific Ocean in order to bless all the beings living there by using large Namgyälma mantra boards and doing practices which bless the ocean with mantras.
During the animal liberation practice, animals are carried around holy objects so they can create merit.
All of this is done with extensive dedications and prayers for the entire FPMT organization and all beings, as requested by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Approximately 125,149 animals were liberated at Amitabha Pure Land and Kachoe Dechen Ling in 2018. This year, over 51,000 more animals were liberated than in previous years and these were specifically dedicated to the long lives of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme). Since 2015, approximately 728,099 lives were liberated.
Not only were the animals saved from untimely death by the Sangha, they were also taken around an incredible amount of holy objects, mantras were recited and blown on them, and they were carefully placed where they could live out the rest of their lives. When Sangha finish these liberations, they make strong prayers for all those who are sick, have recently died, or who have requested prayers. This is one of the most beneficial aspects of this practice as the merit is shared among so many.
Please rejoice in the liberation of these most vulnerable sentient beings who have no opportunity to protect themselves from danger or accumulate merit on their own.
Read more about the lake blessings:
fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news/lama-zopa-rinpoche-blesses-lake-bound-beings
Read more advice about how to benefit small animals and insects from Lama Zopa Rinpoche:
fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/how-to-benefit-insects-and-other-small-beings
Read more about the daily stupas and tsa-tsas made for those who are sick or have passed away:
fpmt.org/charitable-activities/projects/holy-objects/daily-stupas-and-tsa-tsas-made-for-those-who-have-passed-away-or-are-sick
The Animal Liberation Fund sponsors these practices and offerings. All are welcome to contribute to this fund to help with one’s own life obstacles or obstacles to the lives of loved ones.
New Year celebration attendees at Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, Mongolia.
Beneficiaries offered songs and poems in Mongolian in appreciation of the generosity.
Since 2003 Lamp of the Path NGO (LOP), part of Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, has offered essential social services in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
This year, the new year was celebrated with 130 poor and homeless individuals from the area thanks to kind organizers and volunteers from LOP. Hot soup, Mongolian dumplings, bread with jam, as well as cake and sweets were offered. Additionally, everyone was gifted with essential clothing items such as shirts, pants, coats, and socks.
Some grateful attendees offered a song or poem in Mongolian in appreciation of the party, while others listened and joined the singing, or cheerfully applauded. LOP reported, “It was a great day full of joy and we were very happy to see our beneficiaries so relaxed and sincerely happy.”
Please rejoice in this generous and kind celebration for those in need who might otherwise have no opportunity to enjoy welcoming the new year.
A child is offered warm clothes for the new year.
The Social Services Fund contributes to many beneficial charitable projects as funds allow. You can learn more about these activities, or make a donation of any amount.
You can offer directly to LOP to help ensure services such as these continue in Mongolia in the future.
Children of Sagarmatha Secondary School engaged in prayer. A school supported by FPMT Charitable Projects.
FPMT Charitable Projects had an incredible year offering support to beneficial initiates which include: offering food to ordained Sangha; providing scholarships to study Buddhist philosophy; offering to the main teachers of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition and sponsoring annual debates; offering grants for social services such as schools, hospitals and monastic institutions; providing comprehensive Dharma programs; translating Dharma texts; sponsoring holy objects: statues, stupas and prayer wheels, and saving animals.
We invite you to rejoice in a few areas of great accomplishment which were made possible by grants generated from FPMT Charitable Projects in 2018.
- The final handover of an endowment large enough to support the long-term health of the Sera Je Food Fund has been completed. The interest from this endowment will cover the annual costs associated with offering three nutritious meals daily for all the monks of Sera Je Monastery, for as long as the endowment remains. After offering the daily meals through the fund to the monks of Sera Je for twenty-six years, this is a massive achievement.
- A new project was launched, Protecting the Environment and Living Beings Project, which was initiated due to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent advice that specific pujas and practices should be done regularly to pacify harm from the elements and to protect those (humans, animals, insects) who have been affected.
Residents of the Dhondenling Elderly Home, one of the elderly homes supported by FPMT Charitable Projects.
- Ongoing support was offered to six elderly homes serving Tibetan refugees in India. We have been offering support to elderly Tibetans in this way since 2015.
- Ongoing support was offered to six schools providing education to children of Tibetan, Nepali, Sherpa, and Indian heritage in India, Nepal, and Mongolia. We have been offering support to education in this way since 2012.
- Completed rebuild of a magnificent 460-foot by 54-foot stupa, with a large prayer wheel inside, on the site where a previous stupa was destroyed by the 2015 earthquake in the Thame region of Nepal.
- Grants were offered to programs which support people in prison wishing to study and practice Buddhism in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Mexico through the Liberation Prison Project.
- On every one of the four great Buddha holy days of the calendar, up to 15,650 Sangha are sponsored through the FPMT Puja Fund to offer specific pujas and engage in particular practices selected by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way, as well as all beings.
- Continued support to annual Winter Jang Debate and Special Memorization Examination for top scholars of the Gelug tradition.
- Sponsorship of ten people continued with food and accommodation for each round of 108 nyung nä retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini, south-west France. This year marked the seventh round of 108 nyung näs to be completed there.
- Weekly animal liberations were sponsored at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residences in California and Washington State. Sangha offer the practice of animal liberation every week (the Winter months in Washington State are not conducive to this practice due to the snow being too much for the animals), dedicated to anyone who is sick, dying, or having life obstacles and extensive prayers are made for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
- A grant was offered toward the building of a gompa, reception area, offices, and library for
Dorje Pamo Monastery, a new nunnery for approximately twelve FPMT nuns in the South of France.
Tremendous thanks to everyone who donated to the various FPMT Charitable Projects or generated good wishes for our work, and rejoiced in grants offered.
You can learn more about all the activities of FPMT Charitable Projects and keep up on news of grants offered and progress made on sponsored projects.
Completed magnificent stupa in Thame, Nepal.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born in the Mount Everest region of Thame, located close to Lawudo which was the home of his previous incarnation known as the Lawudo Lama. Many Kopan monks are also from Thame.
During the earthquake of 2015, the Thame region was seriously affected. Almost all the homes in the area were damaged or completely destroyed and several people died. Only a few houses remained standing. Amidst the destruction, a large stupa was destroyed. The new stupa, which stands nearly 46 feet tall with a base measuring 54 feet across, is larger than the one which previously stood and is utilizing much of the materials from the original stupa. This magnificent stupa also features a large prayer wheel inside, pilgrims and locals can enter the stupa to spin it and create even more merit.
Rebuilding this stupa was a tremendous undertaking with many obstacles and hardships along the way to completion including the utilization of helicopters to deliver supplies and mantras. Please join us in rejoicing in the effort of every person who worked on the stupa in any way, and specifically Ven. Tenpa Choden who managed the entire project.
The previous Thame stupa was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Stupa Fund, has offered over US$300,000 for the rebuilding of the stupa which took two years to complete. Please take a minute to enjoy these videos which show various aspects of this incredible holy object project.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated Padmasambhava’s Instructions on Offering to Stupas which explains numerous benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings to, and offering service to, stupas.
“All those who rejoice in the stupa will generate every single quality of a buddha in their mental continuum.” — Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
Over 12,000 meals are offered to the poor each year through the LOP soup kitchen.
Lamp of the Path NGO (LOP), part of Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, has offered social services to some of the poor and homeless living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia since 2003. Its main program is a soup kitchen which offers food as well as free medical support through a health clinic, which reopened in 2017. LOP helps bring awareness to the epidemic of alcoholism in Mongolia and offers tuberculosis checkups for the disadvantaged in the area.
Since 2012, a generous benefactor has worked with the Social Services Fund to provide ongoing grants to enable these charitable activities. According to a recent video report (below), LOP has sixty-seven consistent donors who help make this work possible.
Altar at the LOP soup kitchen.
The following prayer is offered before meals are enjoyed in the soup kitchen:
Due to the kindness of others, I am able to receive this food and drink– How wonderful! May I eat and drink this food to be healthy and strong, kind and helpful, all day long!
You can watch the directors of Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling offering appreciation for the support offered to LOP as well as a brief update on some of the activities:
Please rejoice in fifteen years of social service being offered in Mongolia through LOP.
The Social Services Fund contributes to many beneficial charitable projects as funds allow. You can learn more about these activities, or make a donation of any amount.
You can offer directly to FPMT Mongolia to help ensure services such as these continue in Mongolia in the future.
Offering tsog at the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the last day of the 2016 Kopan November course. The five dakinis are also shown. Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Every year, the Long Life Puja Fund supports a long life puja offered on behalf of FPMT centers, projects, services, and students to our most kind and immeasurably precious spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The next puja will be offered at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, on December 17 following Rinpoche’s teaching during the one-month lamrim course.
The ritual itself is the extensive Lama Chöpa with an added request to the dakinis, a moving plea by the students for the five dakinis who have come to take away the teacher to a pure land to allow the students’ teacher to remain with them on earth.
The purpose of the long life puja is for students to purify the mistakes that occur in relation to their teacher, and to create the causes and conditions to continue to receive benefit from that teacher for a very long time.
Extensive Long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, April 23, 2017.
By maintaining harmony, following Rinpoche’s advice and offering long life pujas, FPMT students are accumulating the merits so that our precious guru will stay in the world with us for a long time. Having the continued guidance of the guru depends on the merits of the disciples. We need to create the cause for us to keep meeting with the precious guru in future lives until we attain the highest goal of enlightenment, for the benefit of all.
Rinpoche also regularly mentions that offering long life pujas is a cause for one’s own long life.
All are welcome to participate in this long life puja by making a donation toward it. For your name to be included in this incredible offering, donations must be received no later than December 12th.
Additionally, you may download one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life prayers to use at any time:
- “Bestowing Supreme Immortality” by His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche
- Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme
The Long Life Puja Fund always contributes to long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You can also learn about the many Charitable Projects of FPMT and discover the many ways the various funds and projects are benefiting others.
Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa blessing the prayer wheel site at Vajrapani Institute.
Vajrapani Insititute, an FPMT retreat center in Northern California, is now well on its way to building the Prayer Wheel of Compassion which was announced in December 2016. The 10 ft x 7 ft prayer wheel will contain 5 trillion (5,000,000,000,000) copies of OM MANI PADME HUM, the mantra of Chenrezig, the Buddhist deity who embodies universal compassion—a request that came from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The first phase of this ambitious project reached completion over the Summer months in California including all of the planning, completion of initial designs, and securing required permits.
The prayer wheel foundation with concrete finish work and steel structure.
The second phase of the project, slated to begin in January 2019, includes framing out the rest of the structure, installing copper roofing and bearings, structurally rebuilding the frame, and the erection of the prayer wheel which will be filled with 250 billion mani mantras to start. At this point the traditional ornate wood-carved artwork that will adorn the structure will also be made.
To reach the 5 trillion mantras, Vajrapani Institute will gradually raise all of the funds required and build the structure in a way that will be able to hold the weight (estimated at 18,000 lbs) and spin easily.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Holy Objects Fund, joined other generous donors and offered US$20,000 and has pledged an additional US$20,000 toward the construction of this incredible holy object.
“Each time you rejoice you collect skies of merit, making it such an easy way to achieve enlightenment.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Rinpoche has explained that every time you rejoice in an offering, the construction of the prayer wheel, and in the effort of all those who are working to actualize it, the merit doubles. When you rejoice the second time, the merit is multiplied by four. The third time, it is multiplied by eight. It is amazing! Lama Tsongkhapa said that to collect merit, the best way is through rejoicing.
You can watch a short video on this project which outlines some of the many benefits of the completed prayer wheel.
Watch “5 Trillion Mantra Prayer Wheel Project” on YouTube:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught, “This practice of turning the prayer wheel is a result of the unbearable compassion of all the Buddhas for us sentient beings—whose minds are so obscured and filled with disturbing thoughts, like an ocean covering a whole city, and who are extremely lazy and ignorant—to guide us to enlightenment as quickly as possible. It helps us to complete the accumulation of extensive merit and purify obscurations so as to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.”
Supporting the creation of prayer wheels and other holy objects is part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#pw
Find out more and give your support to the 5 Trillion Mantra Prayer Wheel Project:
http://www.vajrapani.org/prayerwheel/pw/index.php
To help ensure grants like this continue toward holy objects, all are welcome to offer a donation of any amount to the Holy Object Fund.
Flowers at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.
Thanks to a kind benefactor, the Education and Preservation Fund issued several grants earlier this year in support of Liberation Prison Project, an FPMT project founded in 1996, which offers spiritual advice and teachings, as well as books and materials, to people in prison interested in exploring, studying and practicing Buddhism. In total, US$44,100 was offered to programs in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Mexico.
Approximately 300 Dharma friends correspond with prisoner students worldwide. On average, 2,000 inmates are supported with Dharma materials every year.
These grants will contribute to the costs of postage, Dharma resources, printing, design needs, computer upgrades, subscriptions to Mandala magazine, and pujas for success at Kopan monastery.
Please rejoice in the ongoing work of the Liberation Prison Project and in the generosity of the donor who made these recent grants possible. Community Service, such as that provided by the Liberation Prison Project, is one of FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service.
The Education and Preservation Fund supports Dharma study and contributes to the development of Buddhist education programs and the preservation of the Dharma through the publication of Dharma practice materials and translations.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Washington State, USA, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab
Welcome to our new initiative, the Protecting the Environment and Living Beings Project. This project began due to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent advice that specific pujas and practices should be done regularly to pacify harm from the elements and to protect those (humans, animals, insects) who have been affected.
“If you wonder what to do, what prayers to make when there are disasters caused by the elements (fire, water, wind, and earth) such as tornadoes, hurricanes, heavy rain, storms, floods, earthquakes, fires; as well as disasters that destroy crops; disasters that destroy entire towns and cities within one hour; disasters that cause so many billions of dollars of damage and so much money has to be spent to rebuild the towns; disasters where so many hundreds and thousands of people die or lose their homes, have no food or clean water; disasters where so many animals and insects are killed and harmed – Here I am offering some suggestions on what to do so that you can help a country at risk, save so many lives, and prevent the destruction of houses, villages, and cities,” Rinpoche explained in July 2018.
According to Rinpoche’s advice, every month the following practices will be offered with strong prayers:
Medicine Buddha by Peter-Iseli
- Extensive Medicine Buddha Puja offered five times by Shu Cho Khangtsen of Drepung Gomang Monastery, Kopan Monastery, and Gyuto Tantric College
- Guhyasamaja root text recited four times by Kopan Lama Gyupas
- Kshitigarbha Sutra recited one time by the nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery
- Sutra of Golden Light recited eight times by Sangha in the USA
- Arya Sanghata Sutra recited five by Sangha in the USA
- Vajra Cutter Sutra recited four times by Yangsi Rinpoche
We are very happy to announce that these have now all begun. Rinpoche has been emphasizing the tremendous importance of these pujas and practices and that this is one unique way that we can offer support for so many around the world.
In 2012 Rinpoche had advised to build a Stupa to Minimize Harm to prevent earthquakes on the West Coast of the United States. The stupa was to be built in a very specific area, following the precise direction of Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la). For three years we tried to do this, but there were insurmountable obstacles to securing the exact land. After checking if we could build it elsewhere, Rinpoche then identified specific practices that could mitigate the dangers from the earthquakes. Incredibly, all these practices were completed and much more.
The Protecting the Environment and Living Beings Project is following on from this advice and is relevant to needs right now in the USA and around the world.
Rinpoche, in his incredible kindness, immediately offered $24,000 enabling us to begin sponsorship of the pujas and recitations without delay.
Please consider being a part of this vision to benefit the environment, those affected by disasters of the elements, and all beings.
You can learn more about the Protecting the Environment and Living Beings Fund, keep up on the latest news, or contribute with a donation.