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The Chenrezig gompa was in the original “old house” at Kopan, pictured here in 1969, until a new gompa was built in the 1990s. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
The Chenrezig gompa at Kopan Monastery is one of FPMT’s most precious destinations. Since the early days of the organization, this gompa has been a place for new and seasoned students to engage with the Dharma, strengthen their practice, and connect and reconnect with Dharma family old and new. The gompa was severely damaged in the April 2015 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks that struck Nepal. Due to a very kind benefactor, a team of engineers from Taiwan flew to Kopan to professionally evaluate the structural damages to buildings. Based on their advice, the entire Chenrezig gompa was pulled down and is being rebuilt.
The Chenrezig gompa was severely damaged due to the earthquake but is now being rebuilt.
Many donors generously came to Nepal’s aid through the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund which was set up by FPMT International Office immediately following the earthquake as a way to help raise funds for both short-term relief needs and long-term rebuilding plans.
Huge thanks to all who have contributed to the rebuilding efforts in Nepal, and please rejoice in the rebuilding of this gompa so that it can benefit students far into the future. To date the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund has been able to contribute US$235,400 in initial aid relief and US$608,000 in grants for rebuilding efforts.
You can read a recent report on the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund to learn more about the ways this fund has contributed to short-term aid and long-term rebuilding needs in Nepal.
The monks of Sera Je Monastery offering extensive Medicine Buddha puja.
Please rejoice in the amazing array of pujas and offerings which will be sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund this year on Lhabab Duchen (November 3 this year), one of the year’s holy Buddha Multiplying Days. 15,650 Sangha will participate in this activity.
You can read an entire list of these activities, as well as descriptions of the pujas and offerings sponsored, but here are a few highlights of what will be offered:
- Recitation of the Prajnaparamita (three versions) offered by the 650 monks of Gyurme Tantric College.
- Druk Chu Ma (64 offerings to Kalarupa to eliminate obstacles), Namgyäl Tong Chö (One thousand sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyälma) and Zangcho (King of Prayers) offered by the 6,000 monks of Sera Je and Sera Mey Monastery.
- Offerings are made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.
- Small money offerings made to 15,650 Sangha at the great monasteries of India and Nepal, as well as to Sangha at IMI international Sangha communities.
- Offerings made to holy objects: Bouddhanath and Swayambunath stupas, the Buddha inside Bodhgaya Mahabodhi temple, and to the Jowo Buddha in Lhasa’s Jokang.
All are welcome to join in on these incredible offerings by rejoicing in, donating toward, or mentally offering.
You can learn more about the FPMT Puja Fund and the various activities it supports. You can also enjoy an overview of all the FPMT Charitable Projects which contribute to many beneficial endeavors.
This stupa in Swayambhunath was built by the Tibetan community in Nepal for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It is in need of repair due to the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.
At Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s request, the Stupa Fund has offered a grant to the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office to repair a stupa at Swayambhunath, Nepal, which was damaged during the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April. This stupa was built by the Tibetan community in Nepal for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Please rejoice that this precious stupa will be rebuilt!
As Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, “Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings. As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace – for the beings who see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings.”
You can read more from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about the benefits of stupas or about the Holy Object Fund which was established to offer grants toward the completion of holy objects around the world.
Sera Je Monastery monk receives new robes sponsored by the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund in recognition of his memorization.
Every year the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund sponsors an oral examination of Sera Je Monastery’s top scholars who have shown a propensity for memorization. This year, 212 monks were awarded new robes for their successful memorization of particular texts. Please rejoice in these incredible accomplishments!
212 Sera Je Monastery monks were offered new robes in recognition of their memorization of important texts.
- One monk memorized Five Treatises of Maitreya
- One monk memorized Six Treatises on the Middle Way by Nagarjuna
- One monk memorized commentary on the Middle Path by Lama Jetsunpa
- Six monks memorized commentary on the Prajnaparamita, Part One, by Lama Jetsunpa
- Thirty-one monks memorized Bodhisattvacaryavatara (Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) by Shantideva
- Seventy-four monks memorized The Essence of Eloquence on the Art of Interpretation by Lama Tsongkhapa
- Ninety-eight monks memorized a commentary on the Prajnaparamita
Please rejoice in the offering of robes to these future teachers, who contribute to the preservation the gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in the monasteries. Supporting the Sangha of the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition is the main objectives of the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund.
As Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains:
“The continuity and spread of Buddhadharma throughout the world depends upon highly qualified teachers. The three great monasteries are the only place in the world where the entire, complete teachings of the Buddha are studied and practiced with deep logic.”
All are welcome to join in on this offering by contributing any amount to the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund.
You can learn more about the many activities of the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund including support given to the most senior teachers of the Tsongkhapa tradition, the annual Gelugpa Exam, and the annual Winter Debate in India and Nepal.
Due to a US$50,000 grant from the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund, Kopan Helping Hands was able to distribute aid to ten villages in Nepal over July and August.
In June of this year, due to the generosity of many, the Earthquake Support Fund was able to offer a US$50,000 grant to Kopan Helping Hands in support of their ongoing work to offer relief aid in Nepal. This grant is part of a total US$793,400 which the Earthquake Support Fund has offered to Kopan Helping hands since the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. We are pleased to offer this report on how that $50,000 grant was used in ten different areas. Please rejoice in the distribution of all this essential aid in July and August to various villages in need!
- Orang VDC Dolakha: 610 bags of rice, 161 gallons of cooking oil
- Babare Chilan Kha Dolakha: rice, cooking oil, and salt for 250 families
- Lambager VDC Dolakha: rice, cooking oil, and salt for 180 families
- Balefi Sindhupalchok: rice and cooking oil for 95 families
- Lamjung: mattress foam for 158 families
- Buling VDC Dolakha: 715 bags of rice, cooking oil
- Kopan Village and surrounding area: 41 bags of rice, 17 sacks of sugar
- Bimtar VDC Sindhupalchok: 174 bundles of zinc sheets
- Lava VDC: 66 pounds of rice for 56 families
- Khaten Gompa Dhadaing: 22 bundles of zinc sheets
The devastation in many areas left villagers with very little. The essential aid offered through Kopan Helping Hands has made a huge difference to many lives.
A tremendous thanks to all generous donors who made this offering of aid possible. Additionally, many individuals and organizations have offered support directly to Kopan Helping Hands, a tremendous collective effort around the world has enabled their work to flourish in Nepal.
To learn more and offer support to FPMT’s Nepal Earthquake Support Fund, which was established to support relief and rebuilding efforts: https://fpmt.org/support/socialservices/
For “Prayers and Practice for Earthquake in Nepal,” see:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/prayers-and-practices-for-earthquake-in-nepal/
For continuing updates and news from Kopan Monastery and other FPMT centers and projects in Nepal affected by the earthquake, please visit our “Updates from Nepal after the Earthquake” page:
https://fpmt.org/nepal-earthquake/
The gallery includes touching images of the courageous relief work of volunteers and groups such as Kopan Helping Hands. One can glimpse the massive amounts of aid supplies distributed to affected people and the dramatic destruction that was inflicted onto monasteries, residences and other structures.
Much of the recovery work and humanitarian aid seen in these gallery photos was supported by the incredible kindness of donors in and outside of the FPMT community, who quickly and generously came to Nepal’s aid through the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund.
Please visit the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund photo gallery here, and we invite you to rejoice in all of the compassionate actions of so many volunteers and donors.
Through the Sera Je Food Fund, 8,300 meals are offered every day to the monks of Sera Je Monastery.
The Sera Je Food Fund offers three meals, daily, to all of the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery. Over three million meals are offered every year, a massive and collective effort of many volunteers at the monastery (who shop for, prepare, and clean up after each meal) as well as many kind donors who contribute to this fund. Lama Zopa Rinpoche started this project in 1991 and has committed to making this offering every day, every year, for as long as possible. Please rejoice that another year of food for this project has been successfully sponsored. Funds offered, together with local interest earned, is used to sponsor food for the entire year.
Many volunteers at the monastery shop for food, prepare meals, and clean up after each meal. This is a huge collective effort which must happen every single day.
Why a Food Fund?
In the Tibetan tradition, it is customary for monastics to support themselves. In addition to providing for their own housing, individual monks are responsible for purchasing and preparing all of their meals. As many of the monks are refugees from Tibet or from refugee families living in India, they have very little money for quality food and, consequently, were often malnourished and ill. Before the Sera Je Food Fund, most monks at the monastery never had a full stomach. Now, for the first time, they are well-nourished, and this makes a dramatic difference in the energy they are able to devote to their studies. Additionally, group preparation of meals and use of a communal kitchen allows more time for the monks to apply themselves to their studies without the added worry of cleaning up and preparing individual meals, monitoring their individual health for adequate protein and nutrition, etc.
Please read about the benefits of the Sera Je Food Fund and the benefits of making offerings to the Sangha by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
You can learn more about the Sera Je Food Fund, read an overview of the food offered daily, or support this project with a donation of any amount.
Jangchup Lamrim teaching event, December 2013, Sera Je Monastery. Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be seen with his teacher, the late Choden Rinpoche in the fourth row of this photo. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, “Making offerings to the Sangha is a way of collecting unbelievable merit because all the sangha are the pores of the guru. They are all disciples of the same guru – His Holiness the Dalai Lama. By offering to pores of the guru one collects more merit than offering to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, as well as numberless statues, stupas.” 17,000 students of His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be offered food during a three day teaching event at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery this December.
Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Bylakuppe, India, will be welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama to their monastery December 19-29, 2015. During the visit, His Holiness will inaugurate the monastery’s new assembly hall and give teachings on Dharmakirti’s commentary on Pramana-samuccaya over the course of three days. Following this teaching event, His Holiness will continue his teachings on the Jangchup Lamrim (18 Treatises on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment) at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. This teaching series began in 2012.)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 2014 Jangchup Lamrim teaching event, South India. Photo by OHHDL.
To support this visit from His Holiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has offered, through the Preserving the Lineage Fund, to cover the cost of food for lunch for the more than 17,000 people attending the three days of initial teachings with His Holiness. This is an incredible offering as all 17,000 attendees are also students of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained:
“Making offerings to the Sangha is a way of collecting unbelievable merit because all the sangha are the pores of the guru. They are all disciples of the same guru – His Holiness the Dalai Lama. By offering to pores of the guru one collects more merit than offering to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, as well as numberless statues, stupas. If you offer with the recognition that they are the guru’s pores then that is an unbelievable way to collect merit. When you offer to many Sanghas who have the same guru then you are making offerings to that many pores of the guru. So this is the easiest way to collect skies of merit by offering. By offering even just one candy, flowers or even one grain of rice to a statue of Buddha or even a visualized Buddha you collect skies of merit but here it is much more powerful than offering to the three jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) as well as all the statues, stupas and scriptures existing in all directions, so no question if offering to really the same guru’s disciple. These benefits should be understood so that when you make offerings to the guru’s pores you think correctly. This is the best business.”
Please rejoice in this offering of food to more than 17,000 pores of the guru.
You can learn more about the Preserving the Lineage Fund and how it has supported His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Jangchup Lamrim teaching event in previous years.
Between 500-600 people joined together to offer 30,587,000 mani mantras in celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday.
In July of this year, between 500-600 residents of Tsum Valley, Nepal, close to the Tibet border, recited 30,587,000 OM MANI PADME HUM mantras over the course of a one-week-long retreat in celebration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday.
As Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains:
“Even if you don’t have much intellectual understanding of Dharma, even if the only thing you know is OM MANI PADME HUM, still the happiest life is one lived with an attitude free of the eight worldly concerns. If you live your life with the pure attitude free of attachment clinging to this life and simply spend your life chanting OM MANI PADME HUM —this six-syllable mantra that is the essence of all Dharma—that’s the purest Dharma.”
Additionally:
“It is said that up to seven generations of that person’s descendents won’t get reborn in the lower realms. The reason for this is that due to the power of mantra, the body is blessed by the person reciting the mantra and visualizing their body in form of the holy body of Chenrezig. Therefore, the body becomes so powerful, so blessed that this affects the consciousness up to seven generations and has the effect that if one dies with a non-virtuous thought, one is not reborn in a lower realm.”
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions is for the FPMT organization to support 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM retreats around the world. Please rejoice in this incredible offering of mani mantras from the people of Tsum. They also recited 6,820,000 Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) mantras during this retreat. Amazing!
You can learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization or discover the ways that the Practice and Retreat Fund supports students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat
Cooking and food staples, such as flour, were offered to 2,973 monks at Sera Je Monastery over the Summer break.
The Sera Je Food Fund is responsible for offering three nutritious meals to all the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery. As the monastery closes for the Summer (and thus, the kitchen closes), the fund makes other arrangements so the monks at the monastery have meals while the monastery is on break.
Basic dry food staples are distributed to 2,973 monks ensuring they are able to provide meals for themselves until the monastery and kitchen are back in full operation.
Without support from the Sera Je Food Fund, the monks of Sera Je Monastery would have to struggle to adequately feed themselves when the monastery closes for Summer break.
In 2011, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said the following, “Regarding the Sera Je Food Fund, this is making offerings to Sangha … wow … wow! Can you imagine the merit of that? Even making small charity the size of a single strand of hair? Can you imagine? In the monastery there are Sangha living in the five vows, but the majority of the Sangha are living in higher vows such as getsül (36 vows) and gelong, a fully ordained bhikkshu (253 vows). Most of the Sangha are gelongs and living in highest number of vows … wow … wow … wow! One creates so much merit by making offerings to Sangha due to the power of the object.” You can read Rinpoche’s complete advice, “Benefits of the Sera Je Food Fund.”
All of this is possible due to the kindness of many donors contributing in large and small ways. If you would like to get involved, to help ensure that the monks of Sera Je Monastery are offered food long into the future, you are welcome to contribute any amount to the Sera Je Food Fund.
You can sponsor meals for the monks of Sera Je Monastery as well as keep up on news and updates for this project.
View of the property where the new debate courtyard is being built for the monks of Sera Mey Monastery.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was very happy to offer a grant to Sera Mey Monastery, Mysore, India, toward the construction of a debate courtyard. Due to the kindness of an extremely generous benefactor, the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund was able to offer a substantial contribution for this project.
Progress on the debate courtyard. September, 2015. Photo courtesy of Sera May Monastery.
The tradition of debate in Tibetan Buddhism can be traced back to Lama Tsongkhapa, where the best scholars gather to hone their understanding of the Buddha’s highest teachings. With logical reasoning as the governing rule, students practice the art of debate by questioning one another.
Without a proper debate courtyard, the monks of Sera Mey cannot engage in debate under the best conditions. The old debate courtyard was very small and had other problems such as echoing, exposure to rain, hot sun, no classrooms or science lab rooms, among other issues. Approximately 2,000 monks study at Sera Mey, the presence of a proper area for debate at the monastery will have lasting benefit.
Approximately 2,000 monks study at Sera Mey Monastery and will benefit from the new debate courtyard being built.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is extremely pleased to be supporting Sera Mey Monastery in this way. Please rejoice in the construction of this new debate courtyard which will benefit many Buddhist scholars now and far into the future.
You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the many ways which it is able to make offerings to Sangha.
Medicine Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
The Sangha living at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL), located in North Central Washington state in the United States, engage in weekly practices for animals and make extensive offerings to holy objects.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche often explains the benefits of offering to many holy objects and encourages extensive offerings around the world.
We are not aware of the limitless skies of benefits we achieve from the practice of offering, what we can achieve and enjoy from life to life. Even while you are in samsara, you enjoy good rebirths, wealth, and every happiness. Even just the samsaric perfections are amazing, without adding all those incredible realizations that allow us to offer deep benefit to sentient beings, liberating them from oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusion and karma.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche, (from Extensive Offerings, published by FPMT Education Services)
Extensive offerings at BAPL, Washington, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
Weekly animal liberation practice and charity for ants, extensive daily offering practices, and nightly dharma protector practices and sur are offered. All of this is done with extensive dedications and prayers for the entire FPMT organization and all beings, as requested by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Offering to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, BAPL, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said that by having as many holy objects as possible, when you enter the room then you can put your palms together in the mudra of prostration to all the holy objects, looking at each tiny holy object and prostrating. You can look around the room with your hands in the mudra of prostration and think “I am prostrating to all the buddhas.” When you do this you collect eight benefits in that second so for however many thousands or hundreds of pictures of buddhas, statues, tsa-tsas etc. you have, merely by placing your palms together respectfully you receive these eight benefits, the last benefit is that you will be enlightened.
Some of the many holy objects such as tsa tsas’s at BAPL, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
In this way, in just one second, it is so easy to collect merit because there are so many pictures of deities and buddhas; even in one photo there are many buddhas, such as the Guru Puja merit field or the thirty-five buddhas, even in one picture there are so many merit fields. Each time you prostrate to them you collect that many causes of enlightenment, that many causes of liberation from samsara and, by the way, happiness of future lives.
Extensive offerings to the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas. Photo by Chris Majors.
So you can see that it is very helpful to have many pictures and statues for prostrations, it helps the visualization and also with each prostration you do to just one holy object you create incredible causes, so the more holy objects the more causes you create.
When you prostrate you can think of all the ten direction buddhas, Dharma, sangha, statues, stupas, scriptures, tsa-tsas etc.; if you have many, many pictures of holy objects it makes it very easy to visualize the ten directions actually filled with buddhas. This is also very good if you can’t visualize very well.
When you are not prostrating, but even just entering the room where you have all the holy objects (the gompa or your meditation room), if you put your palms together to the holy objects every time, then in that second it is an unbelievable easy way to collect extensive merit.
Extensive Offerings to holy objects and the Dalai Lama lineage. Photo by Chris Majors.
Amitabha Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
Extensive offerings to 21 Tara, BAPL, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
It is explained by Buddha in the Sutra of the Mudra of Developing the Power of Devotion:
The minute you see a holy object you create infinite merits, so no question, if you actually make prostrations, offerings and so forth, you create far greater merit.
Holy objects and extensive offerings at BAPL, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
Please rejoice in the offerings and practices that take place daily at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land and the beautiful photography of Chris Majors which shows the extensive offerings to the holy objects.
The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund enables Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others to flourish. You can learn more about other beneficial activities this fund supports.