Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
Die Stiftung zur Erhaltung der Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) ist eine Organisation, die sich weltweit für die Erhaltung und Verbreitung des Mahayana-Buddhismus einsetzt, indem sie Möglichkeiten schafft, den makellosen Lehren des Buddha zuzuhören, über sie zur reflektieren und zu meditieren und auf der Grundlage dieser Erfahrung das Dharma unter den Lebewesen zu verbreiten.
Wir bieten integrierte Schulungswege an, durch denen der Geist und das Herz der Menschen in ihr höchstes Potential verwandelt werden zum Wohl der anderen – inspiriert durch eine Haltung der universellen Verantwortung und dem Wunsch zu dienen. Wir haben uns verpflichtet, harmonische Umgebungen zu schaffen und allen Wesen zu helfen, ihr volles Potenzial unendlicher Weisheit und grenzenlosen Mitgefühls zu verwirklichen.
Unsere Organisation basiert auf der buddhistischen Tradition von Lama Tsongkhapa von Tibet, so wie sie uns von unseren Gründern Lama Thubten Yeshe und Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche gelehrt wird.
La Fundación para la preservación de la tradición Mahayana (FPMT) es una organización que se dedica a preservar y difundir el budismo Mahayana en todo el mundo, creando oportunidades para escuchar, reflexionar, meditar, practicar y actualizar las enseñanzas inconfundibles de Buda y en base a esa experiencia difundir el Dharma a los seres.
Proporcionamos una educación integrada a través de la cual las mentes y los corazones de las personas se pueden transformar en su mayor potencial para el beneficio de los demás, inspirados por una actitud de responsabilidad y servicio universales. Estamos comprometidos a crear ambientes armoniosos y ayudar a todos los seres a desarrollar todo su potencial de infinita sabiduría y compasión.
Nuestra organización se basa en la tradición budista de Lama Tsongkhapa del Tíbet como nos lo enseñaron nuestros fundadores Lama Thubten Yeshe y Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
A continuación puede ver una lista de los centros y sus páginas web en su lengua preferida.
L’organisation de la FPMT a pour vocation la préservation et la diffusion du bouddhisme du mahayana dans le monde entier. Elle offre l’opportunité d’écouter, de réfléchir, de méditer, de pratiquer et de réaliser les enseignements excellents du Bouddha, pour ensuite transmettre le Dharma à tous les êtres. Nous proposons une formation intégrée grâce à laquelle le cœur et l’esprit de chacun peuvent accomplir leur potentiel le plus élevé pour le bien d’autrui, inspirés par le sens du service et une responsabilité universelle. Nous nous engageons à créer un environnement harmonieux et à aider tous les êtres à épanouir leur potentiel illimité de compassion et de sagesse. Notre organisation s’appuie sur la tradition guéloukpa de Lama Tsongkhapa du Tibet, telle qu’elle a été enseignée par nos fondateurs Lama Thoubtèn Yéshé et Lama Zopa Rinpoché.
L’FPMT è un organizzazione il cui scopo è preservare e diffondere il Buddhismo Mahayana nel mondo, creando occasioni di ascolto, riflessione, meditazione e pratica dei perfetti insegnamenti del Buddha, al fine di attualizzare e diffondere il Dharma fra tutti gli esseri senzienti.
Offriamo un’educazione integrata, che può trasformare la mente e i cuori delle persone nel loro massimo potenziale, per il beneficio di tutti gli esseri, ispirati da un’attitudine di responsabilità universale e di servizio.
Il nostro obiettivo è quello di creare contesti armoniosi e aiutare tutti gli esseri a sviluppare in modo completo le proprie potenzialità di infinita saggezza e compassione.
La nostra organizzazione si basa sulla tradizione buddhista di Lama Tsongkhapa del Tibet, così come ci è stata insegnata dai nostri fondatori Lama Thubten Yeshe e Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Di seguito potete trovare un elenco dei centri e dei loro siti nella lingua da voi prescelta.
“护持大乘法脉基金会”( 英文简称：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) 是一个致力于护持和弘扬大乘佛法的国际佛教组织。我们提供听闻，思维，禅修，修行和实证佛陀无误教法的机会，以便让一切众生都能够享受佛法的指引和滋润。
護持大乘法脈基金會”（ 英文簡稱：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition ）是一個致力於護持和弘揚大乘佛法的國際佛教組織。我們提供聽聞，思維，禪修，修行和實證佛陀無誤教法的機會，以便讓一切眾生都能夠享受佛法的指引和滋潤。
The Foundation Store is FPMT’s online shop and features a vast selection of Buddhist study and practice materials written or recommended by our lineage gurus. These items include homestudy programs, prayers and practices in PDF or eBook format, materials for children, and other resources to support practitioners.
Items displayed in the shop are made available for Dharma practice and educational purposes, and never for the purpose of profiting from their sale. Please read FPMT Foundation Store Policy Regarding Dharma Items for more information.
Dog at a large animal blessing event organized by FPMT center Ganden Tendar Ling, Moscow, September 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Did you know that October 4 is World Animal Day?
The annual tradition was established in 1931, making this year’s celebration the ninety-second official World Animal Day. According to the World Animal Day organizing website, the mission is to “raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe.” The UK-based Naturewatch Foundation has been the annual sponsor and organizer since 2003, and shares that World Animal Day has grown to be celebrated in a wide variety of ways by governments, charities, groups, and individuals, with events now taking place in about 100 countries.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has expressed that humans are especially called to care for all species of beings, “Where there is a mind, there are feelings such as pain, pleasure, and joy. No sentient being wants pain; instead all want happiness. Since we all share these feelings at some basic level, we as rational human beings have an obligation to contribute in whatever way we can to the happiness of other species and try our best to relieve their fears and sufferings.”
The bodhisattva attitude is to serve others—always having the wish to be useful to sentient beings for their happiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche continuously reminds us. If we want happiness for ourselves, we should be good human beings, and to be good human beings, we must commit to helping all sentient beings, particularly the most vulnerable among us.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a cat during his visit to Singapore, July 2022. Photo by Lim Hock Leng.
Animal Liberation Resources Available
There are many ways we can help animals, including rescuing them from untimely death, caring for their health, and helping plant imprints that purify their karma, create merit and become the causes that can ripen their future enlightenment. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained the benefits of the practice of animal liberation, “By doing prayers and chanting powerful mantras for the animals, they receive a higher rebirth and liberation. This practice purifies immediately the oceans of samsaric suffering.”
FPMT Education Services has published a number of prayer and practice resources that are available to engage in animal liberation practice at home, including ebooks and PDFs, a printable liberation bug catcher tool designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and audio recordings. We invite you to explore these materials below in celebration of World Animal Day:
The FPMT Animal Liberation Fund has supported ongoing animal liberations throughout the FPMT organization for many years, including weekly liberations and blessings performed by Sangha at the residences of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The Animal Liberation Fund and has also offered substantial support to projects that rescue and benefit animals like Kopan Monastery’s Animal Liberation Sanctuary, and others. You can read about some of the grants offered this year in support of animal care and rescue from untimely death.
Rinpoche has also strongly encouraged using the Namgyalma mantra to bless animals and beings living in the water around the world. This is now being done regularly in oceans and lakes in the United States, Singapore, Nepal, and other countries.
Kopan monk feeding a goat that was rescued from slaughter. Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2021. Photo by Geshe Thubten Chonyi.
Every day around the world millions of animals are killed and mistreated needlessly. As Rinpoche has reminded us, animals cannot speak out against their mistreatment, they cannot protest in the street against their conditions. Animals cannot create much merit on their own, but there are many ways we can help them. However you choose to celebrate World Animal Day on October 4, please rejoice in all the compassionate activities undertaken for the welfare of the sentient beings who, like us, want happiness and do not want suffering.
All are welcome to contribute to the Animal Liberation Fund to help ensure that our work sponsoring animal liberations around the world continues.
The FPMT Masters Program (MP) is FPMT’s most advanced education program. Six years of full-time study—combining a comprehensive curriculum with practice, training, service, and month-long retreats—are completed with the integrating experience of a three-month review, essay assignments, and a year-long lamrim retreat.
This program profoundly deepens students’ Dharma knowledge and understanding. It is the actualization of Lama Yeshe’s unique vision for FPMT education; its implementation is greatly enhanced by Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s detailed advice.
FPMT Masters Programs are being offered at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in the Tuscany region of Italy, and at Nalanda Monastery in the South of France. To guarantee their high standard and encourage students to attend onsite, these MPs are now supported by an FPMT Scholarship scheme. Scholarship conditions include a commitment to serve in FPMT centers upon MP completion.
Entrance to Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy.
MP graduates are confident and capable to become teachers at all levels and enrich all programs and courses offered in FPMT centers.
Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa has decades of experience in developing and implementing the FPMT Basic and Masters Programs. Its inspiring ambiance is further enhanced by the Institute’s beautiful location in the Tuscan countryside. This will be ILTK’s fourth FPMT Masters Program, starting February 2023; it will be offered in English, Italian, and Spanish; residential and online.
Retreat land at Nalanda Monastery, France.
Nalanda Monastery invites lay and ordained students to join their second FPMT Masters Program in February 2024. Their wonderful monastic environment is an excellent support for this in-depth study; the recently acquired retreat land right next to the monastery grounds provides all conditions for retreats that MP students need while their study progresses. Nalanda’s Masters Program will be offered in English and in French, residential and online.
“With student numbers declining and the pandemic decimating residential attendance, to provide what we consider the conditions for a quality MP has become a struggle,” explains Olga Planken, In-Depth Program Coordinator for FPMT Education Services. “To preserve and re-establish the quality of the FPMT Masters Program, we have decided to assist with the hiring of qualified Teaching Assistants and with attracting committed residential students into the program.
“In addition to a high academic standard, the MP needs to provide active student engagement, various training elements, integrated meditation and instruction on how to guide meditation, a variety of retreat experiences, and guidance on how to lead retreats. This is the kind of learning experience that we intend to offer and that we envision will inspire program-long commitment of students, Teaching Assistants, and tutors; and will spark graduates’ interest to serve in centers and in next MPs.
“The FPMT Masters Program scholarship scheme with salary support helps realize these objectives by including student and center requirements that aim at securing this high standard of Dharma education.”
You can learn more about the FPMT Masters Programs being offered at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in the Tuscany region of Italy, and at Nalanda Monastery in the South of France.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education Services nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
We are pleased to share news about a book that is a unique collaboration between the monks of Sera Jey Monastery Translation Department and Sera IMI House. Just released by Wisdom Publications, Freedom though Correct Knowing; Khedrup Jé’s Interpretation of Dharmakīrti’s Seven Treatise on Valid Cognitionis a translation and contemporary explanation of pivotal sections of Khedrup Jé’s most extensive treatise on Buddhist logic and epistemology. Ven. Tenzin Legtsok, who assisted with editing and translation of this book, as well as shaping the final form, shares some background information on how this project came to be.
In his foreword to the book, Freedom though Correct Knowing; Khedrup Jé’s Interpretation of Dharmakīrti’s Seven Treatise on Valid Cognition, His Holiness the Dalai Lama traces the historical development of this branch of Buddhist thought from ancient India up to the current work with the observation that:
While one may engage in the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni by means of faith, the ideal way to truly appreciate and embrace the doctrine of the Buddha is through inquiry and critical reasoning. The Buddha himself has said:
Oh, monks and scholars, just as you test gold By burning, cutting, and rubbing, So too examine my speech well; Do not accept it merely out of respect.
The collaboration that has given rise to this work began fourteen years ago when Geshe Tenzin Namdak was asked to start a program at Sera Jey Monastery to educate monks with basic English in English Dharma vocabulary and the skills to do written and oral translations from Tibetan. This project gradually grew into the Sera Je Monastic University Translation Department which now also includes training in translation from Tibetan to Chinese. In subsequent years myself, Tenzin Namjong, and Lobsang Tsondru also served as regular teachers in the program and other monks of Sera IMI House helped with editing and supplementing the translations made for this book. It is a valuable precedent set by the great scholars who labored to translate the Buddhist canon from Sanskrit to Tibetan that interpretations were always made as a collaboration between native speakers of both the source and the target language. We have tried to follow their lead.
Geshe Tenzin Namdak with students from the Sera Jey Monastery Translation Department at Sera IMI House, 2017.
When His Holiness learned of the Translation Department during a visit to Sera Monastery in 2013, He suggested that we translate Khedrup Jé’s Clearing Mental Darkness: An Ornament of Dharmakīrti’s “Seven Treatises on Valid Cognition” (Tshad ma sde bdun gyi rgyan yid kyi mun sel). Seeing that it would be extremely difficult for most English readers to follow parts of this work involving detailed debates between the author and opposing views, Geshe Namdak first identified sections that clearly set out Khedrup Jé’s own positions and some central debates. Next, Geshe Namdak and myself worked for several years with groups of Tibetan speaking monastic translator students making draft translations. Once this was done it became clear that we needed native English speakers to convert the work of different groups of translators into text having uniform style and vocabulary. Also, we deemed that this work would be even more useful to a wider range of readers by supplementing Khedrup Jé’s presentation with explanations of many basic concepts and terms that he assumes readers are conversant with since they are covered in the early years of the Tibetan Buddhist philosophy programs. To develop this content, we requested the assistance of other IMI House monks, especially Venerables Tenzin Namjong, Tenzin Gache, and Dan Frey. With all this content gathered together, Geshe Namdak and myself primarily took responsibility for shaping the book into its final form having smooth progression from topic to topic, a rich glossary, and helpful appendices.
Currently Geshe Namdak is the resident teacher at Jamyang Center in London teaching several extensive FPMT programs simultaneously including the newly developed Exploring Buddhism. Myself and Tenzin Namjong teach regularly at Choe KhorSum Ling Centre in Bangalore, for Ocean of Compassion Center online, and are engaged in translation and editing work for FPMT Education Services. Tenzin Gache recently published a translation of Kyabje Choden Rinpoche’s instructions on calm abiding and Mahamudra entitled, Mastering Meditation, and is working on a forthcoming translation of instructions on six-session guru yoga. Dan Frey is newly working with Wisdom Publications to help develop their online platform. There are now four junior monks at IMI House engaged in the early years of the Geshe Studies Program and several other Western monks at Sera at various stages of their studies. We hope that more men and women from Western and other countries will also undertake studies and practice at Sera and other traditional Tibetan Buddhist institutions to continue this work while the opportunity still exists.
It is only through the inspiration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama that we dared to embark on such an undertaking, through the guidance of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Sera IMI House since its inception, and through the inexpressible kindness of our teachers and peers at Sera Jey that this work has been possible. May it bring much benefit.
“Freedom through Correct Knowing presents the core part of Khedrup Jé’s Clearing Mental Darkness, which is famed for its clear and comprehensive analysis of key issues of importance for Buddhist epistemology. Through this book the reader can join Khedrup Jé’s brilliant mind as he engages with important questions of logic and epistemology via a dialogical format that powerfully guides the reader.”
—Thupten Jinpa, founder, Institute of Tibetan Classics; founder, Compassion Institute; translator of major Tibetan works in The Library of Tibetan Classics and author of Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows
“Serious students of Buddhist philosophy will delight in this translation of Khedrup Jé’s text on valid cognition, carefully and generously supplemented by commentary that draws on other classic Tibetan treatises. The chapter on the four truths is the crowning jewel, providing an elaborate account of how we enter into and free ourselves from cycling in samsara. The six appendices kindly offer a complementary map of important topics touched on but not explained in the root text. This is a beautiful handbook for those desiring a detailed map of the path to awakening and the role different types of mind play in this.”
—Bhiksuni Thubten Chodron, abbess of Sravasti Abbey and author of Buddhism for Beginners
“In the present so-called post-truth era, where misinformation abounds, it is crucial to be able to differentiate between fact and fiction and between valid and invalid ways of knowing something. Freedom through Correct Knowing provides the Buddhist analytical tools needed for this task, as interpreted by two of the greatest Tibetan Gelugpa scholars, Khedrup Jé and his commentator Purbu Chok. To open up the meaning of the technical language of the text, the editors have interspersed clear explanations and have added generous appendices with background material. The translators and editors are to be congratulated on this beautifully written, welcome contribution to our understanding of how the mind works.”
—Dr. Alexander Berzin, founder, studybuddhism.com, a project of the Berzin Archives
View of Swayambunath, Nepal, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Chokhor Duchen, one of the four annual holy days of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, takes place this year on August 1. On these holy days, the power of any meritorious action is multiplied by 100 million, as taught in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Known in English as “Turning the Wheel of Dharma,” Chokhor Duchen commemorates the anniversary of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s first teaching. It is said that for seven weeks after his enlightenment, the Buddha did not teach. Afterward, Indra and Brahma offered a dharmachakra and a conch shell, and requested Guru Shakyamuni Buddha to teach. Accepting, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma for the first time at Sarnath in his teaching on the four noble truths.
Practice Advice
Specific practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for merit-multiplying days include:
In addition, Rinpoche recommends doing Shakyamuni Buddha Puja. A beautiful and deeply inspirational puja, the text was recently reformatted with hyperlinks for smooth navigation so that individuals can easily do the core practice and any additional ones as their time allows. (This puja was performed with Khandro Kunga Bhuma on Vesak Day 2022 at Losang Dragpa Centre in Malaysia with its resident teacher, Geshe Jampa Tsondu, as chant master. You can watch this online, starting at 6:10 in the video.)
Of course, it is also good to do any of the other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on these great holy days.
In accordance with the advice of Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche observes all the auspicious dates in the Buddhist calendar by Indian Standard time, instead of any other local time.
Celebrate International Sangha Day
Chokhor Duchen is also the day on which FPMT celebrates International Sangha Day! International Sangha Day provides an opportunity for monastic and lay communities to come together in recognition of their interdependence and celebrate the ways in which they mutually rely on each other’s practice of the Dharma. Donations may also be offered to the International Mahayana Institute, which supports the worldwide FPMT Sangha community.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with senior teachers and staff from Kopan Monastery and Nunnery, Nepal, November 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Offerings on Chokhor Duchen
Every merit multiplying day, the Puja Fund sponsors a large number of pujas and practices performed by thousands of Sangha. During this Chohkor Duchen, the Puja Fund will offer the following on behalf of the entire FPMT organization and all students, benefactors, and beings:
Recitation of the Kangyur by Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery
Recitation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra by Gyudmed Tantric College
One Thousand Offerings to Namgyalma and Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa by Sera Lachi Monastery and Gyuto Tantric College
Medicine Buddha puja and Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa by Gaden Lachi Monastery
Namgyalma long life ritual and Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa by Drepung Lachi Monastery
Offerings to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to over 10,000 Sangha, including those in International Mahayana Institute Sangha communities
Offerings of robes to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, and saffron and umbrellas to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal
Printing sutras, making stupas and Buddha tsa-tsas, and liberating animals
Please consider joining in these pujas and offerings by supporting the Puja Fund.
Sangha at Kopan Monastery during a long life puja, Nepal, May 2022. Photo by Ven,. Lobsang Sherab.
Let’s rejoice in all of the meritorious activities happening in the FPMT and around the world on this auspicious merit-multiplying day!
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama greeting audience members after the first day of Saka Dawa teachings, Dharamsala, India, June 13, 2022. Photo by Tenzin Choejor, courtesy of DalaiLama.com.
On July 6, 2022, the world celebrates His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 87th birthday! We’ve collected several resources for students to use in their celebration of His Holiness and in their ongoing Buddhist study.
Great Festival Celebrating His Holiness
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given extensive advice on prayers and practices to do for His Holiness’s birthday, remarking that by doing these prayers and practices, students also benefit their own Dharma practice. You can find Rinpoche’s collected advice in the booklet How to Do the Great Festival of His Holiness’ Birthday in the Best Possible Way.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche watching His Holiness teach on Saka Dawa, Kopan Monastery, June 14, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Prayers and Teachings by His Holiness
On the occasion of His Holiness’ birthday, we are delighted to bring you two new translations of His Holiness’ works.
The All-Encompassing Yoga Mind Meditation is a meditation practice on the two types of bodhicitta. His Holiness himself does this practice everyday and urges his Dharma friends to likewise do and put effort into it.
Known as “the generation of the all-encompassing yoga mind,” the meditation involves generating conventional bodhicitta—the aspiration to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings—with the visualization a moon disc at one’s heart; and ultimate bodhicitta—the wisdom realizing emptiness—with the visualization of a five-pronged white vajra standing on that moon disc.
Ven. Michael Lozang Yeshe translated this meditation practice from an oral teaching given by His Holiness in June 2021.
Staircase to Potala Pure Land Guru Yoga—A Practice of Avalokiteśvara is a short Chenrezig guru yoga, which references the compassion buddha’s pure land, composed by His Holiness for our ease of practice. Centering on the inseparability of Chenrezig and our own guru, it includes the seven-limb prayer and OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ recitation, and concludes with a request for blessing for us to actualize Chenrezig ourselves in order to benefit all sentient beings.
The FPMT Foundation Store also offers a number of books from His Holiness.
Additional Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) Practice Materials
His Holiness is generally regarded as a manifestation of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), the buddha of compassion.
Request to the Supreme Compassionate One is a newly revised request prayer to Chenrezig that Lama Zopa Rinpoche finds inspiring and effective. “[This is] a very good prayer, in which you are expressing your mistakes,” Rinpoche explains. “You are trying to practice Dharma with your body, speech, and mind, but when you check, in reality, nothing has become Dharma. Nothing has become pure Dharma because your motivation has always been the eight worldly concerns.” This practice can help you purify heavy negative karma. It also helps you generate compassion for others and be guided by Chenrezig.
FPMT International Office wishes His Holiness a very auspicious 87th birthday and sincerely requests His Holiness to live for a very long time and to continue bringing his universal message of compassion to the world.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Khandro Kunga Bhuma and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In 2016, Khandro Kunga Bhuma spontaneously composed a long life prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Khandro-la is consulted every year for advice on practices to clear obstacles for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s good health and long life. That year she advised that all students in all the FPMT centers, projects, and services come together and offer a special long life puja with 100,000 tsog offerings.
This advice resulted in a beautiful long life puja held March 13, 2016, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, which was attended by about 750 students with hundreds, if not thousands, of additional students participating from afar. While Khandro-la was not physically present, the day before the event she composed a long life prayer for Rinpoche, which was offered during the long life puja.
Recite the Long Life Prayer
The Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Khandro Kunga Bhuma is now available as a PDF in the following language in the Foundation Store:
Khandro Kunga Bhuma during long life puja for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Two Bhutanese musicians, Pema Samdrup and Pema Lhamo, composed a tune for chanting this special long life prayer. In 2018, audio and video recordings were made of Vens. Thubten Dechen and Gyalten Wangmo during the Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa Retreat at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Benidgo, Australia, to help facilitate students learning the tune.
The Foundation Store offers a downloadable MP3 audio file that includes recordings of the long life prayer chanted by Pema Samdrup and Pema Lhamo, and also Vens. Dechen and Gyalten:
These recordings can be played at big retreats during break times or while students are waiting in the gompa. It is also good for students to learn the tunes and use them when offering the prayer.
Reminder: Continued Prayers for Rinpoche
Following advice shared by Ven. Roger Kunsang last month, we would like to remind all that Khandro-la has advised that refuge and bodhicitta prayers be recited and dedicated for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s good health and long life at this time.
Taking Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta
Sang gyä chhö dang tshog kyi chhog nam la
Jang chhub bar du dag ni kyab su chhi
Dag gi jin sog gyi päi tshog nam kyi
Dro la phän chhir sang gyä drub par shog
I take refuge until I am enlightened In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. By my merits of generosity and so forth, May I become a buddha to benefit transmigratory beings.
“Taking Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta” can be found in FPMT Education Services’ Daily Prayers.
The FPMT Foundation Store continues to add new practice materials for FPMT students worldwide. Find all the new arrivals—including new audio downloads, translations, ebooks, and more—by visiting shop.fpmt.org.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Offering room overlooking Boudha Stupa, Nepal, March 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We are fast approaching the auspicious merit-multiplying day of Saka Dawa Duchen—the fifteenth day of the fourth month in the Tibetan lunar calendar—which commemorates Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana.
Saka Dawa Duchen is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, each of which celebrates an anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha’s display of extraordinary powerful deeds for sentient beings’ sake. On these four days, karmic results are multiplied by 100 million, as taught in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Falling on June 14, 2022 for us this year, it is a day when karmic results are multiplied by 300 million times as it commemorates Shakyamuni Buddha’s three major life events.
Specific practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for this special day include:
In addition, Rinpoche recommends doing Shakyamuni Buddha Puja. A beautiful and deeply inspirational puja, its extensive seven-limb practice includes an homage to the Buddha that recollects his heroic and compassionate deeds as a bodhisattva in his previous lives. The puja text was recently reformatted, with hyperlinks for smooth navigation, so that individuals can easily do the core practice and any additional ones as their time allows. (This puja was recently performed with Khandro Kunga Bhuma on Vesak Day at Losang Dragpa Centre in Malaysia, with its resident teacher, Geshe Jampa Tsondu, as chant master. You can watch this online, starting at 6:10 in the video.)
Boudha Stupa at night, Nepal, April 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Of course, it is also good to do any of the other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on these great holy days.
In accordance with the advice of Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche observes all the auspicious dates in the Buddhist calendar by Indian Standard time, instead of any other local time.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Rinpoche making prayers in offering room overlooking Boudha Stupa, Nepal, April 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
In January, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice on how to collect “the most unbelievable merit” when making offerings, recently published as Offerings to the Boudha Stupa. Rinpoche offered this advice in relation to a rented room that overlooks Boudha Stupa, in Nepal, and that has been filled with offerings. Rinpoche’s advice was printed, framed, and hung in this offering room to serve as a reminder of how one should make offerings.
This advice from Rinpoche, however, can be followed whenever offerings are made to holy objects as it contains the essence of the meditation for making offerings, which Rinpoche elaborated in Extensive Offering Practice.
Offering room overlooking Boudha Stupa, Nepal, March 2022. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
“There’s no question how much merit you will collect with each offering you make to the Stupa while thinking that, in essence, it is your root guru,” Rinpoche says in Offerings to the Boudha Stupa.
Boudha Stupa, Nepal, March 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
“You collect the most unbelievable merit and it becomes purification as well. Please think this with any offering you make to the Stupa, and then offer it on behalf of all sentient beings: the offerings are theirs and you are offering them on their behalf. So then every sentient being gets merit—every hell being gets merit, every hungry ghost gets merit, every animal gets merit. For example, every ant gets merit, every mosquito gets merit, and every chick gets merit. No matter how tiny it is and no matter how big it is, every animal gets merit. Also, every human being, every asura, and every sura gets merit. In this way, the offering helps them to become free from their suffering of pain and to receive peace and pleasure.”
Rinpoche frequently goes to Boudha Stupa to circumambulate and to make offerings and prayers. In September 2021, Rinpoche recorded a Thought Transformation Teaching video called, “Making Offerings to Boudha Stupa.” At the beginning of this video, Rinpoche talks about doing a tsog offering practice at Boudha Stupa and the benefits of making offerings to stupas. He explains how offering tsog to stupas makes you achieve all the realizations; offering medicine to stupas stops diseases; and offering grains to stupas stops famine in the world. Rinpoche also discusses how important it is to consecrate stupas, including the benefit of eliminating war. Rinpoche then led an offering practice to Boudha Stupa accompanied by many senior Sangha members. (You can follow along with the offering practice by watching the video.)
Watch Rinpoche making prayers in the offering room next to Boudha Stupa:
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
View from Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Two new cycles of theFPMT Masters Program, our most advanced FPMT Education Program, will begin in 2023 and 2024 with residential and online options. The in-depth program is being offered at both Nalanda Monastery in France and Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy. The opportunity to study the complete FPMT Masters Program (MP) happens once a decade. Students interested in deepening their knowledge and practice of Buddhism are encouraged to explore enrolling in the next MP now.
Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, in the beautiful Tuscany region of Italy, has decades of experience in developing and implementing the program and will host its fourth FPMT Masters Program, starting in February 2023. Lharampa Geshe Jampa Gelek is an experienced MP teacher. He is appreciated for the great depth and detail of his presentations and for his ability to enrich his teachings with an extensive knowledge of multiple commentaries. The program is being offered in English, Italian, and Spanish, and has residential and online options. Learn more.
Nalanda Monastery in the South of France invites students to join their second FPMT Masters Program, beginning in January 2024. Nalanda Monastery is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the West and offers Westerner lay and ordained students a unique opportunity to deepen their understanding and practice of Buddhism in a monastic environment. Lharampa Geshe Gyaltsen, who has been teaching at Nalanda since 2014, will teach the MP. Geshe Gyaltsen is widely admired by students for his deep and clear explanations. The program will be offered in English and French, and has residential and online options. Learn more.
About the FPMT Masters Program
The FPMT Masters Program comprises six years of full-time study—combining a comprehensive curriculum with practice, training, service, and month-long retreats—and the integrating experience of a year-long lamrim retreat. This program profoundly deepens students’ Dharma knowledge and understanding. Graduates are confident and qualified to become teachers, and will go on to enrich the programs and courses offered in FPMT centers.
FPMT founder Lama Yeshe had the original vision for the FPMT Masters Program. Geshe Jampa Gyatso, who taught the first MP at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, told Mandala magazine, “Lama Yeshe’s aim, his wish in setting up this program, was to enable people to study and come to a deeper understanding of the Buddhist teachings, both the vast and profound, as well as sutra and tantra, so that they could then teach other people. His purpose was also to enable each person to develop his or her inner qualities, such as perfect love and compassion, to complete the six perfections, and to achieve final enlightenment. In this way they would be able to help other sentient beings by leading them from cyclic existence to the great city of enlightenment.”
FPMT centers are asked to assist and encourage interested students to join the FPMT Masters Program, the actualization of Lama Yeshe’s unique vision for FPMT education. For those who enjoy in-depth study and practice, this is a not to be missed, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
On Losar, Kopan nuns taking a pinch of chemar as New Year greeting, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The Fifteen Days of Miracles—beginning on the first day of the Tibetan New Year, Losar, on March 3, 2022—commemorate the special time when Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed miraculous powers in order to subdue six tirthikas, or non-Buddhist teachers, who lacked faith in him, and to inspire more faith in his followers. The Days of Miracles culminate on Chotrul Duchen on March 18, 2022, which is the full moon and the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar.
All fifteen days are merit-multiplying days, when the merit of virtuous actions performed on these days is multiplied by 100 million, according to the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Because of this, the Fifteen Days of Miracles are a time for pilgrimage and intensive Dharma practice. Many Tibetan monasteries, including Kopan Monastery in Nepal, participate in a Great Prayer Festival—Monlam Chenmo—for several days or even weeks, during which the sangha recite prayers from morning until evening. This year there will be a Monlam Chenmo at a monastery in Swayambhu that Kopan monks will be attending.
Advice for Losar and the Fifteen Days of Miracles
For the FPMT organization, Losar is a special time as it commemorates the anniversary of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe’s parinirvana at dawn of Losar in 1984. This Losar marks thirty-eight years since the passing away of Lama Yeshe. New this year is a short Tibetan text translated and commented on by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Advice for the Anniversary of the Guru’s Passing Away. This text explains the importance of making offerings on the anniversary of the passing away of one’s guru and can be integrated into Losar practices.
Please keep in mind: In accordance with the advice of Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche observes all the auspicious dates in the Buddhist calendar by Indian Standard time, instead of any other local time.
Puja Fund Activities for the FPMT Organization
Swayambhu Stupa to which offerings are made during merit-multiplying days, Nepal, March 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On merit-multiplying days, the Puja Fund sponsors extensive pujas and sutra recitations. During the fifteen days of miracles, 650 monks at Gyurme Tantric College will recite the Prajnaparamita, and 600 monks at Gyuto Tantric College will offer Namgyäl Tong Chö. There will be smaller pujas offered at Sera Lachi, Gaden Lachi, and Drepung Lachi Monasteries.
These prayers are dedicated to all FPMT centers, projects, and services; all students, volunteers, and those offering service within the FPMT organization; and to all beings in general.
Offerings are also made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to sangha in FPMT’s international sangha communities. In addition, robes are offered to the Buddha statue in Bodhgaya, new parasols and whitewash are offered to Boudha and Swayambhu stupas, and sutras are printed.
Please join us in rejoicing in these offerings, especially remembering them on the actual days, when one’s merit is multiplied 100 million times.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with group in front of the large Maitreya Buddha statue in Lagan, Kalmykia, Russia, 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama says in his book The Art of Happiness. As students of Dharma know, love and compassion are essential to Buddhist practice. When we think about bringing more love into the world and into our practice, we can think about the Maitreya Buddha.
Lama Yeshe, who founded FPMT with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, taught on the yoga method of Maitreya Buddha at Maitreya Instituut, the FPMT center in the Netherlands, in 1981. These teachings were collected in the book Universal Love: The Yoga Method of Buddha Maitreya. In it, Lama Yeshe says, “Maitreya is the manifestation of the love of all the buddhas—the supreme beings who have achieved limitless, universal love.”
“Countless eons ago, having made many offerings, Maitreya took bodhisattva vows from the Tathagata Great Power in front of many other buddhas. From that moment on he has led countless sentient beings to enlightenment, guiding them along the path of the three higher trainings of discipline, concentration, and wisdom by means of the three vehicles: Shravakayana, Pratyekabuddhayana, and Mahayana.
“While practicing as a bodhisattva he specialized in the meditation on great love. He not only taught this path to others but also meditated upon it continuously himself, often stationing himself at the gate of a city and contemplating deeply on loving kindness. His meditation was so powerful that people passing by close enough to touch his feet would themselves receive the realization of great love. This greatly pleased the tathagatas of the ten directions, who rejoiced in his actions and predicted that in all his future lives as a bodhisattva and a buddha he would be known as ‘Love’ [Skt: Maitreya; Tib: Jampa]. This is how he received his name. …
“In the absolute sense Maitreya is subject to neither death nor rebirth; he is forever benefiting all mother sentient beings. Furthermore, he once declared, ‘Anybody keeping just one vow of moral discipline purely during the time of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings will become my personal disciple when I appear and I shall liberate all such disciples,’ and he faithfully keeps this promise, his sworn oath and pledge.
“Therefore, those of us fortunate enough to have met the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha and maintained some level of pure discipline are guaranteed to make direct contact with Maitreya, become his disciple and quickly achieve enlightenment.”
Rinpoche has explained the benefits of reciting this dharani as follows:
By listening and reciting the mantra daily, and reflecting and meditating on the meaning, one will not be reborn in the lower realms. Even if an animal hears the mantra, it does not get reborn in the lower realms.
One will be reborn as a Wheel-Turning King for thousands of lives with a lifespan lasting thousands of eons of devas’ lifespans.
One is able to engage and live in the path of the ten virtues.
One receives all the enjoyments one is looking for.
Maitreya Buddha will never let this sentient being suffer poverty and so forth.
Even when a sentient being is in hell, Maitreya Buddha will definitely come and look for it and will give the prediction of enlightenment by causing the being to reincarnate in the human realm.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche giving a teaching at Boudha Stupa with Khadro-la, followed by taking Bodhisattva Vows, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The international FPMT mandala spans more than thirty countries around the world. To meet the study and practice needs of our non-English speaking students, many practice resources, texts, study programs, and teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche are made available in a variety of languages. Here’s a summary of the resources available through FPMT.org, the Foundation Store, and the Online Learning Center.
Practice Materials in Different Languages
FPMT’s Foundation Store offers hundreds of Dharma practice resources that have been translated into various languages in addition to English. Common FPMT prayers and practices have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Chinese, and other languages.
Many of these materials and programs have been translated by FPMT students working with language specific translation groups and publishing houses. (Find links to FPMT translation houses.)
Teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Translation
Students can watch hundreds of hours of video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which have been translated into several languages by dedicated volunteer interpreters:
Many other teaching events with Rinpoche have been translated and are available on our Rinpoche Available Now video pages. Check each event’s page to see what languages are available.
Teachings in Tibetan
An exciting opportunity for Tibetan speakers began this year as Rinpoche started offering video teachings in Tibetan. About twenty videos have been recorded. A few practices, some created by Rinpoche, were made available in Tibetan.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
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