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The dance of the five dakinis is offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life pujas.
Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) advised that FPMT centers include the dakinis’ request to the lama in the long life pujas arranged for Rinpoche
In the January-March 2015 print edition, Mandala magazine published a piece about the two long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche following the 2014 CPMT meeting in Australia this past September.
A tremendous amount of work, supplies and service goes into the organization of a long life puja and Mandala has done a wonderful job capturing some of the behind-the-scenes effort involved. In particular, you can read about what is needed for the dakinis’ request to the lama, which is offered with five dancers in full costume. Following Lama Zopa Rinpoche manifesting a stroke in 2011, Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) advised that FPMT centers include the dakinis’ request to the lama in the long life pujas arranged for Rinpoche.
Please enjoy this piece, complete with photos, from Mandala magazine.
You can follow the news of other long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, or offer any amount to future pujas offered to His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Blankets were offered to 30 children in a local Kushinagar orphanage by Maitreya Project Kushinagar. In December 500 blankets were offered to poor villagers.
An ambulance was offered to help very poor villagers in Kushinagar with basic medical help.
In early 2014 Lama Zopa Rinpoche, via the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, offered a donation to Maitreya Project Kushinagar to be used toward the incredible humanitarian work they are now undertaking.
Some of the money was used for a much needed ambulance that helps villagers in very poor areas of Kushinagar with basic medical help. Other funds were used to distribute mosquito nets in the Summer to villagers to protect them from malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, and was a big problem in the area during Summer months.
Mosquito nets were distributed to villagers to help with the spread of malaria.
Currently Maitreya Project Kushinagar is fundraising for a blanket drive so they can offer blankets to very poor villagers who suffer in the Winter. In December, the first 500 blankets were distributed. This past week, 30 blankets were distributed to a local orphanage which is home to children who were mostly picked up from the streets and very desperate. These children had no decent blankets to protect them from the Winter cold.
Please rejoice in this amazing humanitarian work being offered by Maitreya Project Kushinagar. You can offer directly to this beneficial work.
You can learn more about the work of Maitreya Project Kushinagar as well as other beneficial activities being supported by the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.
21 Taras thangka is 14 meters (46 feet) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide. This thangkha is being painted by artist Peter Iseli at a workshop at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.
The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund sponsored the creation of a workshop where large thangkas can be created at Institut Vajra Yogini in France. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is to create many large thangkas around the world.
Artist Peter Iseli with the amazing 21 Tara thangka.
The workshop is 8.5 meters (28 feet) tall. Rinpoche’s first order was a 21 Taras thangka that is 14 meters (46 feet) high and 9 meters (30 feet) wide which is being painted by artist Peter Iseli.
The first third of the giant 21 Taras thangka is now finished, the canvas has been rolled up, and Peter Iseli has already started to draw on the second third of the canvas. This giant 21 Tara thangka is going to go to Tara Institute in Australia when it is finished.
“My wish is for the big centers in FPMT to have these large thangkas.” Rinpoche explained. “This is a way to leave imprints for all these people [who see them], for enlightenment.”
Please rejoice in the amazing work of Peter Iseli manifesting incredible holy objects that can be used by all to make merit.
You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund or Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT.
8,300 meals are offered every day to all of the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
The Sera Je Food Fund offers 8,300 meals every single day to the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery. 3,300 monks are offered breakfast and 2,500 monks are offered lunch and dinner.
65,900 pounds of rice is needed every year to offer lunch and dinner to 2,500 monks.
Amazingly, approximately 65,900 pounds of rice are needed for one year of daily lunches and dinners. Additionally, 1,300 pounds of tea are required for breakfast for one year. An incredible amount of other fruits, vegetables, starches and other ingredients are also required to offer this ongoing commitment o three nutritious meals daily. You can see more details about what the monks are offered for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The cost of offering all the food to all the monks is currently US$280,000 yearly. If you would like to contribute to the Sera Je Food Fund, you may offer any amount you are able.
You can learn more about the Sera Je Food Fund or the other Charitable Projects of FPMT which offer support to many beneficial activities around the world.
1,100 blankets were distributed to those in need in Kushinagar by the Maitreya Project Kushinagar, January 2015.
On January 5, 2015, Maitreya Project Kushinagar published an update on the blanket distribution initiative taking place in Kushinagar which was made possible by an appeal to donors the month prior. You can read this update which includes information about the population this project serves, the situation of death and illness due to cold that many in Kushinagar face, and how you can get involved.
Who is Maitreya Buddha by Lama Yeshe
You can make a donation to support Maitreya Project Kushinagar.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Names of the 35 Buddhas during the Long Life Puja at Kopan Monastery. Photo by Ven.Roger Kunsang.
From November 29 – December 7, 2014, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught at the lam-rim retreat at Kopan Monastery, known as the November Course. The November Courses have been taking place at Kopan for more than 40 years. Many of FPMT’s senior students first met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche attending one of these retreats. For three years in the seventies, two courses were offered every year and this year’s course was number 47!
The Kopan gompa was packed with participants in the long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Photo by Bill Kane.
At the conclusion of the course, Kopan Monastery offered Lama Zopa Rinpoche an elaborate long life puja, including the traditional five dakini offering, on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. You can enjoy many beautiful photos of this joyous occasion at Bill Kane’s Facebook gallery of this event.
Thank you to all the kind donors who made this offering possible.
The Long Life Puja Fund always contributes to long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You are welcome to contribute at any time. You can also learn about the many Charitable Projects of FPMT and discover the many ways the various funds and projects are benefiting others.
The monks of Sera Je Monastery offering extensive Medicine Buddha puja dedicated to peace between Israel and Palestine.
In November, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended for Shantideva Study Group, located in Israel, to arrange an extensive Medicine Buddha puja and to sponsor recitation of the Sutra of Golden Light to help the bring peace to the escalating situation between Israel and Palestine and bring peace to the world.
Due to the kindness of many who contributed, as well as the FPMT Puja Fund which offered US$1,000, the Medicine Buddha puja was offered by the monks of Sera Je Monastery successfully and the monks of Gaden Shartse Monastery recited the Sutra of Golden Light and tea and lunch were offered to the Sangha.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche had said: “To be able to make offerings to the monks, who are living in the higher vows, there will be unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable good results and happiness that you will experience and if the offering is made with bodhichitta, then it becomes the cause of enlightenment.
Every single offering or service done then, becomes the cause of enlightenment – to be able to free numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and achieve the state of omniscient mind.”
Ven. Thekchok Tenzin, Coordinator of Shantideva Study Group, offered the following prayer for all who contributed:
By the virtue of our merits
May all beings everywhere,
Plagued by sufferings of body and mind,
Obtain an ocean of happiness and joy, and live in peace and harmony
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has also advised what we as individuals can do for ongoing peace, especially regarding the situation between Israel and Palestine.
- Recitation of the Sutra of the Golden Light
- Recitation of White Umbrella Deity Praises in Israel
- Recitation of the Prayer for Peace by the great yogi Tang Tong Gyalpo
Thank you to all who all made offerings that enabled Shantideva Study Group to follow Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for ending the conflict between Israel and Palestine. May peace prevail in the world.
You can learn more about the pujas and practices offered through the FPMT Puja Fund or read about the many Charitable Projects of FPMT.
Sangha and students rented a truck and transported a large Namgyalma mantra board to bless beings in the ocean. Photo by Troy Stafford.
Sangha at Kachoe Dechen Ling offer a weekly blessing of all sentient beings in the ocean by submerging large Namgyälma mantra boards into the water. The Namgyälma mantra is embossed and by entering the ocean, it blesses all beings who come in contact with the water.
While the mantra board is in the water extensive prayers are made, including visualizing Chenrezig over the ocean with nectar coming from Chenrezig which blesses all beings in the ocean.
Sangha and students braved the cold Winter beach weather to bless beings in the ocean. Photo by Troy Stafford.
Other practices are offered, such as reciting the long Namgyälma mantra and generating strong compassion. As the the mantra is recited, nectar beams being emitted are visualized which purify the negative karma of every sentient being since beginningless rebirth. They all receive the blessings of Namgyälma.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has requested this practice be done each week by the Sangha in addition to the other animal liberation practices they do.
In November Sangha and local students (including Rinpoche’s dog Uma Jangsem) took the giant Namgyälma mantra board (5 x 7 ft) out for this practice. This particular board is a little more difficult to bring regularly due to the size of the board. To use it, they had to rent a truck and accompany it into the ocean. Since it is winter in California, the freezing water was quite intense! But still, some took the board out into the ocean, swimming beside it to stabilize it, while other students and Sangha did prayers on the sand.
Ven. Namgyal and others spent many months repairing the mantra board and making it strong enough to withstand the rough Pacific Ocean. Tremendous thanks to all who make this happen and please rejoice in this incredible practice that is benefitting so many beings in the ocean.
You can learn more about the Animal Liberation Fund, or about other Namgyälma mantra blessings and ideas for how you can use this powerful mantra to bless beings in water.
The nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.
Due to the kindness of a very generous benefactor, a full set of robes are being made by tailors in Kathmandu and then will be offered to the 75 nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery and three monks (the abbot, a geshe and a teacher). The robes will be offered during Chinese New Year.
During Lhabab Duchen the nuns offered Guru Padmasambhava Bumstok (100,000 tsog offerings to Padmasambhava). These pujas were dedicated to the good health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, students of FPMT, the sponsors of the 100 million mani retreats, and all the kind donors of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.
If you were Sangha but you didn’t wear robes, then people would not know [that you were ordained], but with robes on there is no question. That is how the robes have such incredible benefit for the mind. It is planting the seed for enlightenment when people show respect to your wearing of the robes, or to the robes themselves: This is planting the seed of liberation, and is a way of benefiting sentient beings.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The geshe of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery sent the following message to Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently:
“On Lama Tsongkhapa Day, the nuns started seven days of Amitabha Bumtsok here at nunnery. These pujas organized are dedicated to all sentient beings and particularly for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life and members of FPMT.”
Please rejoice in this offering to the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery and also in their amazing practice and dedication to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the students of FPMT.
You can learn more about the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, or about the 100 million mani retreats that the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery have offered in alignment with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for FPMT.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche being led into the long life puja offered by Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, November 23, 2014.
The dance of the five dakinis was offered in this elaborate long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s 25th anniversary celebrations culminated with a very extensive long life puja with the five dakini dance offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on November 23, 2014.
Follwing the puja, Rinpoche commented that he felt the students were sincerely praying for his long life and that there was a heart connection between him and the students.
Please rejoice in ABC’s 25 years of offering the Dharma and offering this beautiful and elaborate long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja offered to him at ABC, November 23, 2014.
You can enjoy more photos of this celebration and the auspicious long life puja on ABC’s and student Stephen Ching’s respective Facebook pages.
You can read more about this year’s other long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the Long Life Puja Fund’s News archive, and you can learn more about the various Charitable Projects of FPMT.
Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery offered the pujas which Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended for the elimination and prevention of Ebola.
Recently, Lama Zopa Rinpoche checked what pujas could be done to help control and prevent this serious outbreak of Ebola, and requested Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery to offer three recitations of the Prajñaparamita; three extensive Medicine Buddha pujas; and one Drolma Yuldro puja.
Rinpoche sponsored these pujas, the monastery and nunnery offered the tea, and the Sangha did not accept any offerings during the pujas – an extremely kind and precious gesture on their part. The pujas were done with strong prayers to prevent the spreading of the Ebola virus and for success in destroying the disease completely. Thanks to the Sangha at Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery for making these prayers for the benefit of the whole world.
The offering of these pujas are an example of how Rinpoche uses every opportunity to benefit the world wherever there is a need.
You can learn more about the beneficial monthly and yearly pujas offered at the request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche by keeping up with the Puja Fund News.
Daily Sutra of Golden Light recitations at Institut Vajra Yogini.
The students of Institut Vajra Yogini, France, have committed to engage in yet another one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT. This is the third Vast Vision they are actively supporting. In addition to hosting yearly Nyung-Nä retreats and building a large studio so that large thangkas can be painted, they will now recite the Sutra of Golden Light every day as a group with each participants’ recitation counted toward the accumulation of recitations. They organize two sessions daily to complete the entire sutra: 12pm-1pm and also 6pm-7pm. Students are also encouraged to recite from a distance. In the first nine days of beginning this new commitment, 35 full recitations of the sutra were accumulated and about 80 different students have taken part.
Institut Vajra Yogini decided to take on this commitment once they heard Lama Zopa Rinpoche advise about the benefits of the Sutra of Golden Light.
The holy Golden Light Sutra is the king of the sutras. It is extremely powerful and fulfills all one’s wishes, as well as bringing peace and happiness for all sentient beings, up to enlightenment. It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection and for the protection of the country and the world. Also, it has great healing power for people in the country.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Please rejoice in these recitations. Anyone can join in this accumulation of merit and support of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions by reciting this incredible sutra which you can download freely in several languages.
After five weeks of recitations, Institut Vajra Yogini’s students have accumulated 160 full recitations of the Sutra. Almost 200 people have taken part in these recitations! Please rejoice!
FPMT Education Services has created a resource page to help you learn more about and start reciting the Sutra of Golden Light. You can download the sutra in 12 languages, report completed recitations, share your experiences, and ask questions about the text itself.