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Vast Compassion
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor 100 million mani retreats (100,000 recitations of 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM) around the world.
About this vision, Rinpoche commented:
“[I would like] for the organization to establish 100,000 recitations of 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM mantras. This can be retreats of 100 million recitations, so 100,000 different retreats in different parts of the world and where it is happening, then for it to happen regularly, each year.
“There are two ways to count this, one way is once it is established for it to happen regularly each year. Or it can happen in different places, one time and you count like that, maybe they are unable to do regularly but able to do one time or a few times.
“So to establish this in different parts of the world such as Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Australia, China, etc.
“We should create a plan on how to lead the retreat of 100 million mani recitations: What practices to do, a plan on how to schedule the retreat, the whole structure. Once you have a structure then it is easy for people to lead the retreat.
“Also you can make mani pills in the retreats.”
100 Million Mani Retreat, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, June 2018. Photo by Ianzhina Bartanova.
Retreats Completed
(current as of February 2020)
100 Million Mani Retreats
These retreats accumulated at least 100 million mani recitations among the participants.
- 19 retreats offered by the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Kagyu Nunnery in Nepal, as well as supporting a geshe to teach lamrim to the nuns.
- 1 retreat offered by Institut Vajra Yogini, France.
- 7 retreats Offered by Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, FPMT center in Mongolia and this is now an annual event.
- 2 retreats at Potawa Nunnery, Tibet.
- 1 retreat, Tsum, Nepal at Rachen Nunnery.
- 1 retreat, Rabagayling Tibetan Settlement in Hunsur in the community hall that was sponsored by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Other Mani Retreats
Smaller mani retreats that accumulated millions of recitations among the participants.
- 500-600 people held a one week mani retreat in Tsum in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday and recited 30,587,000 mani mantras.
Help Us Offer Grants
The Practice and Retreat Fund offers grants toward the successful completion of 100 Million Mani Retreats. If you would like to contribute to Rinpoche’s Vast Vision, you may contribute any amount to this fund below.
For larger donations by bank wire, or to submit a check by mail, please contact FPMT Donor Services. For more information about the Practice and Retreat Fund or 100 million mani retreats, please contact the FPMT Charitable Projects Coordinator.
The Practice and Retreat Fund is a project of FPMT, Inc. and is administered by FPMT International Office located in Portland, Oregon, United States. All donations made to this fund are tax-deductible within the United States in accordance with IRS Code article 501(c)(3) to the extent allowed by law.
Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
All of the monks of Sera Je Monastery are offered three nutritious meals daily through the Sera Je Food Fund.
Every day, 8,300 meals are served to all 2,500 monks studying at Sera Je Monastery through the Sera Je Food Fund. Before each meal, all of the monks offer prayers and dedications to all of the many kind sponsors of the Sera Je Food Fund which provides an annual operating budget of US$280,000 in order to provide 3,029,500 meals every year.
This video shows the monks offering prayers, before lunch. The prayers are always dedicated for the supporters of the Sera Je Food Fund.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Sera Je Monastery Abbot are also seen enjoying the same nutritious vegetarian lunch offered to all the other monks.
You may donate any amount to this incredibly beneficial project which provides one of the most fundamental needs for life – food – and allows the monks to focus on their studies without the burden of sourcing and preparing their own meals.
The site of the new temple for Ngari Khangtsen.
Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Thegchok.
Ngari Khangtsen, the khangtsen of Khensur Rinpoche Jampa Thegchok in south India, has recently begun their new Temple Project.
In their own words, “We have outgrown the old 1983 prayer/ assembly hall made to house a maximum of 50 persons. In the new quarters, there is room for a brand new spacious prayer hall. Today, we have over 150 monks ranging from the very young to the very old. And we have definitely outgrown the old prayer hall. On hot summer days, the hall just does not accommodate enough oxygen for the number of praying and reciting participants!”
The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund recently offered support to this important project. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was inspired to support this project and help it achieve fruition.
US$100,000 was offered to this project which has an estimated budget of over US$500,000.
Geshe Ngawang Sangye, one of the main teachers of Sera Je Monastery.
Nagri Khangtsen also has a school in Ladakh and The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodchitta Fund is also sponsoring, for the second year, the entire cost of a year’s food offering for the children studying at Ngari Institute of Buddhist Dialectics.
Please rejoice in the building of this new temple for the monks of Ngari Khangtsen.
The death of these fish was certain but they were offered animal liberation practice by Cham Tse Ling in Hong Kong.
The Animal Liberation Fund was incredibly pleased to offer $2,000 toward a very large animal liberation which was organized by Hong Kong’s Cham Tse Ling Center. This center recently purchased $20,000 worth of fish and other animals that were intended to be killed, and liberated them. The number of animals in this liberation totaled 14,500!
This animal liberation was dedicated to all beings and specifically to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and all the holy kind gurus; all the donors of the Animal Liberation Fund; all those who have sent in their names requesting prayers; as
well as all the students, benefactors, and volunteers
of all FPMT centers, projects and services.
After the animal liberation, the dear animals were released back to their homes.
Complete animal liberation practice was offered to the animals who were taken around many holy objects and blessed with blessed water before being released. This is according to the specific advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche on how to offer charity the animals in the best way, ensuring their long term benefit.
Thank you so much to Ven. Pemba, Esther and all the students of Cham Tse Ling and please rejoice in this incredible practice. Saving 14,500 sentient beings, how incredible!
If you would like to offer any amount the Animal Liberation Fund, your donation will be used for large animal liberations such as this, as well as weekly animal liberations offered.
A monk offering robes, made of best quality cloth, to Buddha statue at Mahabodhi Stupa. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche carefully choosing the cloth that will be offered as robes for the Buddha statue at Mahabodhi Stupa.
Every month Lama Zopa Rinpoche arranges for a new set of robes to be offered to the precious Buddha statue inside the Mahabodhi Stupa in Bodhgaya, India.
In February, Rinpoche went to the market to choose the exact, best quality cloth for the robes and then offered prayers as a monk offered the robes to the Buddha very slowly and precisely (even though it was a busy evening with many pilgrims). This material, chosen by Rinpoche, will now always be used when offering the monthly set of robes to the statue.
The beautiful cloth Rinpoche chose for the offered robes.
In addition to offering robes every month to the Buddha statue in Bodhgaya, Lama Zopa Rinpoche also offers gold to the Jowo Buddha in Tibet and offer saffron flower petals, white wash, and material for umbrellas to Bouddhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal.
Please rejoice in these incredible monthly offerings.
You are welcome to contribute any amount to these ongoing offerings to holy objects in India, Tibet and Nepal.
Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, has a beautiful 50 feet high thangka that they unfurl for celebrations.
Amitabha Buddha Centre (ABC), Singapore, has undertaken several projects which are in alignment with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for the FPMT organization.
Recently, they commissioned a 50 feet high x 30 feet wide large thangka depicting Amitabha Buddha in Sukavati pure land accompanied by the eight great bodhisattvas. Sewn entirely by hand by Tibetan artists in south India, it took over one year to complete the detailed applique work. Rinpoche requested ABC to arrange this thangka so the center could hold regular festival days where many offerings and practices could be done in front of the thangka as an incredible way to create merit and for people to connect with Amitabha Buddha.
Other centers are also contributing to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision for FPMT centers to display large thangkas and host festival days where these thangkas can be enjoyed. Please rejoice in the incredible large thangkas currently being utilized in FPMT centers around the world!
Please enjoy this video of ABC hoisting up their large thankga for the 2014 Vesak Celebration.
The incredible and precious Jowo Buddha statue in Tibet.
The extensive range of monthly and annual practices and pujas that are offered in India, Nepal and around the world through the Puja Fund is astounding. As Charitable Projects Coordinator, Ven. Holly Ansett, commented, “It is like Rinpoche has taken on the personal responsibility to care for all the main holy objects in the world on behalf of FPMT.”
All are welcome to participate in the activities sponsored by the Puja Fund by offering any amount toward these ongoing beneficial pujas and practices which are performed by as many as 9,000 Sangha members:
If someone offers a small flower or rice to a Buddha statue, a stupa or scripture then the benefit extends from then up to Enlightenment. Amazing, amazing. It is said in the sutra Piled Flowers, on top of that benefit, you achieve ultimate happiness – liberation from the causes of delusion and karma and on top of that full Enlightenment – all the realizations and omniscient mind. After this, then you liberate numberless hell beings, pretas, animals, humans, suras and asuras from the ocean of samsaric sufferings and bring them to full Enlightenment. When all beings are brought to Enlightenment, only then are all the results of offering achieved.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Scribe Ven. Tenzin Namdrol. Kopan, December 2012.
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
Monks at Sera Je Monastery after lunch sponsored by the Sera Je Food Fund.
“Path to Geshe” by William Judge and Bodhi Leaf Productions tells the story of monastic life at Sera Je Monastery. You can learn more about this wonderful film on the Bodhi Leaf Productions website. You can also view the trailer below.
Sera Je Monastery is the learning institution of many of FPMT’s teachers. Nearly all of the 46 geshes teaching in FPMT centers around the world come from Sera Je Monastery. Since 1991, the Sera Je Food Fund has been offering meals to all the monks studying at this monastery. The fund currently offers three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks studying at Sera Je.
This film is now available to the public and can be purchased via Amazon.
Most Secret Hayagriva torma offering.
Every month on the Tibetan 29th day, an important day to offer protector pujas, The Puja Fund sponsors about 40 of the most senior monks of Sera Je Monastery, who specialize in the practice of Most Secret Hayagriva, to offer the Extensive Most Secret Hayagriva puja (Hayagriva Tsog Kong). This is an all day puja with an elaborate torma offering (pictured above) and extensive prayers and meditation.
The Puja Fund just offered funds to cover the last 12 months of these pujas. The total amount for this is US$5,250.82
The Extensive Most Secret Hayagriva puja is dedicated to all FPMT centers, services, projects; the success of all Dharma activities and removal of obstacles; to all students who are facing obstacles; to the benefactors of the Puja Fund and to all beings.
You are welcome to contribute any amount to these powerful monthly pujas:
Land of Medicine Buddha’s stupa plans. This 39 foot stupa will be a replicate of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche had previously pledged to support Land of Medicine Buddha’s planned 39-ft stupa which is a replication of the holy Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, the site where the Buddha attained enlightenment.
We are happy to report that $50,000 has now been offered, through the Stupa Fund, to this incredible stupa project.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for FPMT is to build 100,000 stupas around the world. Please rejoice that yet another stupa will be completed toward this long-term aim!
You are welcome to offer any amount directly to the completion of this stupa.
If you would like to support the Stupa Fund, to help ensure that pledges like this continue, you may do so at any time.
Land of Medicine Buddha will be building a Mahabodhi stupa, dedicated to the promotion of peace.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Maitripa College, Portland, OR, April 2014. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently offered a series of teachings at Maitripa College in Portland, OR. These teachings were streamed live and are now available to watch at any time.
Rinpoche was very inspired by the work being done at Maitripa College, which has a strong focus on community service in addition to an impressive academic program. To help Maitripa continue this valuable work, Rinpoche offered, through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund, US$10,000 to the college.
Please rejoice in this offering and in the incredible work being done by Yangsi Rinpoche and his team at Maitripa College.
For over 14 years, Yeshe Norbu Association has benefited Tibetan refugees and children struggling to survive.
Yeshe Norbu Association is an Italian FPMT non-profit association which supports important projects benefiting Tibetan refugees and children. One project that Yeshe Norbu has benefited immensely is the Sera Je Food Fund. Over the past ten years, Yeshe Norbu has contributed funds to cover over 3 million meals provided by the Sera Je Food Fund.
This is something amazing to rejoice in. Please watch this video which outlines all of the charitable work undertaken by Yeshe Norbu Association for the benefit of Tibetan refugees and children who need the support so desperately.