Education: The Heart of FPMT

Lama Zopa Rinpoche performing a puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

An auspicious merit multiplying day, the full moon of the month of Saka Dawa, is coming up on June 5.

The fifteenth day of Saka Dawa is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana. Any actions done on this day, both auspicious and harmful, are magnified in their power. Karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. This year’s fifteenth day of Saka Dawa also falls on a lunar eclipse, multiplying karmic results by a further seven hundred.

In November 2019, Rinpoche wrote out this specific advice for merit multiplying days and eclipses:

What are the merit multiplying days? They are the fifteen days of Losar (Chotrul Duchen), Saka Dawa, Chokhor Duchen, and Lhabab Duchen. Also, there are solar eclipses. Once the day starts, then the merit is multiplied by one hundred million times.

So what can you do on these days?

• • You can rejoice in your, other sentient beings’, and the buddhas’ three times’ merits.
  • You can read the Vajra Cutter Sutra, Chanting the Names of Manjushri, and King of Prayers.
  • You can meditate on emptiness, and especially meditate on bodhichitta, with whichever technique.
  • You can do Lama Chopa. At either the beginning of Lama Chopa or during the lamrim section, you can meditate on emptiness.
  • Whatever activity they are doing at your local FPMT center, you can join them.
  • Of course, you can do self-initiation—that is the best one.
  • You can do prostrations by reciting the Thirty-Five Buddha prayer.
  • You can make more offerings or help sentient beings more. Liberate animals or, with bodhichitta, practice charity to people or animals—you can do whatever you can.
  • Recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ with bodhichitta.
  • Of course, don’t forget that the best practice is bodhichitta, tonglen.

Keep this advice, especially in order to educate and help others, the numberless sentient beings.

It is so important also to understand that if one collects non-virtue on merit multiplying days, then that will also increase by that many number of times. One has to be careful to not increase non-virtuous actions during the merit multiplying days, as well as during solar eclipses. (When there is a lunar eclipse, the merit is only increased by seven hundred times!)

The longest period of time when merit is multiplied so much is during the Fifteen Days of Miracles (i.e., the fifteen days of Losar). To know this is unbelievable. During all those days one can create so much merit!

Please help by letting sentient beings know, so that they can achieve full enlightenment soon.

I received this information that the merit is multiplied one hundred million times from His Holiness Chobgye Trichen Rinpoche. It comes from Dulwa Lung (‘dul ba lung). Often in Tibetan calendars it says that the merit is only increased one hundred thousand times, but that is not right. It is one hundred million times.

Written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, November 2019, United States. Edited by Michael D. Jolliffe for publication on FPMT.org.

Fruit offering, Madrid, Spain, April 2019. Photo by Alexis Roitman.

According to Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates auspicious dates according to the time in India.

Additional advice for practices to do on merit multiplying days can be found here, including advice to recite the Sutra Remembering the Three Jewels.

If you choose to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on this or any other day, don’t forget to report your recitations, which can be done on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.

Special thanks to the Liberation Prison Project for preparing a Tibetan calendar with information on holy days and other important dates for avoiding or engaging in various activities.

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, Thubten Norbu Ling, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, August 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In a teaching titled “Sentient Beings Come before God and Mantras to Benefit Others,” part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s COVID-19 Crisis Teachings, Rinpoche discussed the benefits of reciting the holy name of Buddha Rinchen Tsugtor Chen. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has frequently spoken about how reciting the name of this buddha is the very first thing to do to support someone who is dying:

“When an animal or person is dying—now, this hour, today, or in several hours, whatever—the first thing to recite is [the name of Buddha Rinchen Tsugtor Chen,]” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in August 2017 at Thubten Norbu Ling in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the United States.

Rinpoche continued with a recitation of the mantra and additional advice:

“CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO
To Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Complete Buddha, Precious Ushnisha, I prostrate.

“Then after that, you do a short Medicine Buddha practice. If you recite it to an animal loudly, if a person or animal hears it, they will never get born in lower realms. You must write that down in your ‘diarrhea’ [diary] book.”

In 2010 during the Light of the Path retreat, Rinpoche gave more extensive teachings on the name:

“In one of Buddha’s past life stories, it says that tens of thousands of fish were dying due to their pond having dried out. He brought water from very far away and chanted this buddha’s mantra to the fish: CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO. Due to this, they were all reborn in the Deva Realm of the Thirty-Three. Then they all came down to thank him together with a rainfall of flowers. There are quite a few stories about this verse.

“It is very good to learn it and to write it down because if an animal or a person is dying, this is the very first thing to recite to them. But don’t recite it like you are reciting it for yourself, so the other person doesn’t hear it. The other person has to hear it! Don’t mumble; you have to recite it loudly. Since the person who is dying has to hear it, get near their ear and recite it loudly. Even if there are many other practices you are going to do for the dying person, phowa, Medicine Buddha puja, or any other practice, the first thing to do is to recite CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO. If the other person is able to hear that, it is impossible for them to be reborn in the lower realms. Therefore, it is very important. It is also very short (Rinpoche snaps his fingers) and it is done. Whatever else you are going to do, first do that. Also, even if you cannot be sure when the person is going to die, [you can recite it because] if the person or animal hears that verse, they will never get reborn in the lower realms. Even for animals and insects, it is unbelievably powerful.”

Listen to Rinpoche recite the holy name of Buddha Rinchen Tsugtor Chen:
https://youtu.be/joH14-PjPOQ

Find more advice and video teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from Kopan Monastery during the COVID-19 crisis:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

For more on mantras, visit FPMT Education’s mantra resource page:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/texts/mantras/

For more practices and resources for the dead and dying, please visit:
https://fpmt.org/death/

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 watching a teaching with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on a tablet. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Dharma practitioners around the world have been advised to isolate themselves from others as much as possible to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. This can be a challenge to those wishing to study without access to their local centers.

We are offering several FPMT Online Learning Center programs to any student or center who would like to use them. (Please note: Students who are new to the Online Learning Center will need to create an account. For details, see “Getting Started Guide.”)

• Discovering Buddhism: Module 11, Transforming Problems
  Enrollment key: tonglen33
• Basic Program: Mahayana Mind Training, Wheel of Sharp Weapons 
  Enrollment key: lojong100
• Living in the Path
  We have made this entire program available for free. Find the enrollment keys for the individual modules here.
• Living in the Path (Spanish)
  This program is also in Spanish and is available for free. Find the enrollment keys for individual modules here. 
• Discovering Buddhism (French)
  All of the modules of Discovering Buddhism in French are available for free and do not require enrollment keys. 

Additionally, students are welcome to access complete teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche via Rinpoche Available Now. Find video of recent and archive teachings from Nepal, Russia, Singapore, Latvia, France, and many other teaching events.

Please also visit the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive for freely available teachings by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in a variety of digital formats.

We hope that students will take full advantage of these opportunities during this isolating time of uncertainty. 

For detailed advice on the practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic, please visit the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Coronavirus.”
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/

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 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A new video from Lama Zopa Rinpoche focuses on advice for students supporting someone who is dying. Rinpoche recorded this video in March 2020 at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. 

In the video, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recites various mantras and teaches on their benefits. These mantras can be used to support a person who is dying.

Rinpoche teaches on:

• Buddha’s Name Mantra (Rinchhen Tsugtorchen Name Mantra)
• the short Chenrezig mantra
• Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghaspasha Mantra
• Celestial Mansion Extremely Secret Sublime Success
• Maitreya Buddha mantras (root mantra, heart mantra, and close heart mantra)
• the short Medicine Buddha mantra 
• the short Namgyalma mantra
• Mantra from “The Sutra of Great Liberation”

Watch “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice to a Person Who is Dying” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/wmIVjkVDyVE

• Read the transcript of this teaching.
• Find the mantras to recite for the dying discussed in this video.
• Find additional resources for the dying and other mantras on FPMT.org.
  

For detailed advice on the practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the coronavirus pandemic, please visit the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Coronavirus.”

Additional resources, including Dharma study-from-home opportunities, can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Thangtong Gyalpo

We recently shared a new video from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in which Rinpoche shares his advice for practices concerning protection and healing from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as well as oral transmissions of the Vajra Armor mantra and four other recommended prayers. 

FPMT Education Services is pleased to share a draft transcript of this advice. All are welcome to download this to your device or read online. 

For more detailed advice on the practices recommended by Rinpoche, please visit the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Coronavirus.”

Additional resources for this difficult time, including Dharma study-from-home opportunities, can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

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.

Students can now find two newly translated texts relevant to the practice of six-session guru yoga, often given in the Gelug tradition as a daily practice commitment to all those who have received a highest yoga tantric initiation, in ebook and PDF formats in the Foundation Store.

Six-Session Guru Yoga, translated by Joona Repo, contains three versions of the guru yoga practice that Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo arranged together and briefly commented on. It is recommended by both Phabongkha and Lama Zopa Rinpoche that students practice the extensive or abbreviated versions of the practice instead of the single-verse version.

Phabongkha’s work also serves as the basis of Six-Session Guru Yoga Commentary, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s in-depth teachings on the six-session guru yoga practice. This text, recently updated, provides Rinpoche’s commentary on the benefits of the practice, how to meditate on each verse of the sadhana, and the samayas of the five buddha families. The commentary uses the extensive version of the six-session guru yoga practice as its basis.

Note: You need to have received an initiation (wang) of the yoga tantra or highest yoga tantra class in order to read these commentaries of the six-session guru yoga. These texts are restricted to only those with the appropriate tantric initiation. If you are unsure whether you are qualified or not, please email us at education@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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching in Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.

“If animals hear this Namgyalma mantra, it is last time they will be animals; they will never get reborn in lower realms at all, ” Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught in Ganden Tendar Ling in Moscow, Russia, in 2017. “They will always get higher rebirths, always meet buddhas and bodhisattvas, always have a pure life, always go to enlightenment, and never return to the lower realms. The Namgyalma mantra has great benefit. Even if animals hear, it is their last time being an animal. So, there is no question it is the same for human beings.”

Rinpoche spoke more about the benefits of the mantra in “The Benefits of Namgyalma Mantra,” found in the August-September 2008 issue of Mandala.

“Also it is mentioned in the commentary on Namgyalma’s mantra:

“If one recites this mantra twenty-one times, then blows on yellow mustard seeds and throws them on the bones of the sentient being who has accumulated much negative karma and has died, even if that sentient being has been reborn as a hell being, a preta, an animal, in the world of Yama, or in other evil transmigratory realms, because of the power of this mantra he will be liberated from those unfortunate realms.

“Namgyalma is a deity for long life and purification. The mantra has infinite benefits; it is so powerful. It is said that for anyone who hears this mantra, this will be the last time that person is born in the womb. If animals hear it, they will not be reborn in the lower realms.

“The kind and compassionate Guru Shakyamuni Buddha taught the benefits of reciting the Namgyalma mantra to the Four Guardians. If you wash the body, wear clean clothes and, while living in the eight precepts, recite the mantra 1,000 times, even if you are in danger of death due to the lifespan accorded by past karma finishing, your lifespan can be prolonged, the obscurations are purified, and you are freed from disease.

“If you recite the mantra in the ears of animals, it will ensure that this is their last animal rebirth. If somebody has a very heavy disease that doctors cannot diagnose, by doing the practice mentioned above, the patient will be liberated from the disease. They will not be reborn in the lower realms ever again. After death, you will be reborn in the blissful realm, the pure land. For humans, it makes the present life the last rebirth from a womb. If you recite this mantra twenty-one times, blow on mustard seeds, and then throw them on the bones of very evil beings who have created many heavy negative karmas, even those beings will be immediately liberated from the lower realms and will be reborn in a higher realm, such as those of the devas. By throwing the seeds on bones or dead bodies, the mantra affects the consciousness and purifies it, even though the beings have already been reborn in the hells or any of the lower realms, and those beings are reborn in the deva realms and so on. …”

Listen to Rinpoche recite the long and short Namgyalma mantras:
https://youtu.be/a7mDVdUbPLg

Note: Listening to this recording does not count as receiving the oral transmission, which must be done in person. However, students do receive the benefits of reciting the mantra, as taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, whether they have received the oral transmission or not.

Find more Namgyalma mantra items in the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=namgyalma&search=

For more on mantras, visit FPMT Education’s mantra resource page:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/texts/mantras/

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.

Students can now find the short, middle-length, and long sadhanas of Vajrayogini composed by Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo available by donation through the Foundation Store in ebook and PDF formats.

Two versions of the short sadhana are available: A Short Daily Practice of Venerable Vajrayogini Naro Khechari, Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s original, and, Vajrayogini Short Sadhana, the same text arranged according to the instructions of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Vajrayogini Short Sadhana is part of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Practice Series, a special collection of practice materials that serves to present and preserve Rinpoche’s lineage of practice, oral instructions, and translations.

“[Vajrayogini] is the totally developed female aspect energy, female buddha, and the totality quality that is … beyond duality, beyond the energy of ego,” taught FPMT founder Lama Thubten Yeshe. “The purpose of this yoga method is to identify oneself with that divine totality quality. Thus, this method strongly emphasizes wisdom, to lead us on the quickest path to enlightenment.”

“This yoga method is so powerful. In this twentieth century we have super delusion, super sense concrete delusion, and especially super grasping at concrete sense pleasure. Thus, we are urgently, badly, in need of a wisdom method to transform it… This yoga method is for the transformation of emotion. Vajrayogini has a kind of super radiating red light body that has the quality of transforming all suffocated emotion, all blocked energy, transforming it into the divine quality.”

Note: In order to perform these practices, you must have received a highest yoga tantra initiation and the blessing initiation (jinlab) of Vajrayogini. If you are unsure whether you are qualified or not, please email us at education@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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading prostrations before teaching, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, November 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the complimentary Living in the Path module “The Eight Mahayana Precepts,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche shows us the importance of taking and keeping these special one-day vows based on the Mahayana motivation of bodhichitta. If you have not previously received the lineage of the eight Mahayana precepts from a teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given special permission to take the lineage from him via the video “Actual Ceremony for Taking the Precepts,” which is part of the course materials.

“Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is another way to make life meaningful, to take its essence all day and night, by taking vows,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught. “It is so simple. It is just for one day. Just for one day. It makes it so easy. It’s not for a lifetime.”

In this short introductory video to the module, Ven. Paloma Alba explains the reason for taking the eight Mahayana precepts and the benefits of keeping them.

Watch “Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts—An Introduction” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/wDSbB3DHnsA

Ven. Paloma Alba (Tenzin Chokyi) did her first Buddhist course on the island of Ibiza in the Balearic Islands in 1982 and ordained in 1986. Since then she has offered service in a variety of FPMT centers in Spain, where she has also taught extensively. She is currently tutor for the FPMT Basic Program at Centro Nagarjuna Valencia in Valencia, Spain. Ven. Paloma is an FPMT registered teacher.

Living in the Path is an online lamrim course taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5

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.

Practicing the Five Powers Near the Time of Death by Lama Zopa Rinpoche is available through the Foundation Store in ebook and PDF formats.

Practicing the Five Powers Near the Time of Death contains advice and commentary to help ensure a peaceful death and positive rebirth. Although this book was intended for use by those facing imminent death, it is a deeply profound teaching on how to live life for anyone who wishes to make their life and eventual death most meaningful.

Rinpoche explains, “When you practice the five powers, every single thing you do is only for numberless sentient beings and therefore, everything you do only becomes the cause for achieving the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. This is the greatest profit that can be achieved with this life and so this practice is the most beneficial one for achieving peerless happiness. It means that every single action you do, whether it is meditation and prayers or doing your job, becomes the cause of happiness for all sentient beings. This means that you will have the best, happiest life now and also the best, happiest life in the future – like the sun shining in this world and eliminating all darkness.”

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 takes a pinch of chemar, a mixture of butter and roasted barley flour, in celebration of the new year, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The Fifteen Days of Miracles—from the first day of the Tibetan new year (Losar, February 24) until the fifteenth (March 9)—commemorate the special time when Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed miraculous powers in order to subdue six tirthika, or non-Buddhist teachers, who lacked faith in him, and to inspire more faith in his followers. It culminates on the full moon, the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, which is the actual day of Chotrul Duchen.

Losar is traditionally celebrated for three days, during which Tibetans spend time with friends and family, eat, play games, and relax. A number of rituals and customs have developed around it, such as the eating of a special soup called “guthug” on the 29th day of the last Tibetan month of the year, two days before Losar. In the monasteries, there is a Losar tradition to do the extensive Palden Lhamo puja before dawn.

The Fifteen Days of Miracles are also a time for pilgrimage and intensive Dharma practice. During this period, many Tibetan monasteries, including Kopan Monastery in Nepal, hold a Great Prayer Festival—Monlam Chenmo—for several days or even weeks during which the Sangha recite prayers from morning until evening.

This year, Losar falls on February 24. The Fifteen Days of Miracles continue through Chotrul Duchen on March 9.

All fifteen days are merit multiplying days, when the merit of virtuous actions performed on these days is multiplied by 100 million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche presides over a Losar puja, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Advice Specifically for Losar

For FPMT, Losar is a special time as it commemorates the anniversary of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe’s parinirvana at dawn of Losar in 1984. Lama Zopa Rinpoche asks centers to offer students the opportunity to offer extensive Lama Chopa with tsog in honor of this anniversary. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that one generates incredible merit by offering tsog on that occasion every year. This Losar marks thirty-six years since the passing of Lama.

Rinpoche also recommends that centers host annual events to introduce new students to Lama Yeshe. These events might include students who knew Lama Yeshe sharing their favorite stories, watching videos of Lama teaching, or reading stories about Lama.

Lama Yeshe, Lake Arrowhead, California, United States, 1975. Photo by Carol Royce-Wilder, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Advice for the Fifteen Days of Miracles

Students can find Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for the Fifteen Days of Miracles collected here. Advice for merit multiplying days in general can be found here. (Advice for merit multiplying days can also be found in French.)

If the members of your community decide to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on these special days, we invite them to report their recitations on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.

Losar Tashi Delek! Happy Tibetan New Year!

Please keep in mind: According to the late Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates merit multiplying days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.

On merit multiplying days, the FPMT Puja Fund sponsors, on behalf of the entire FPMT, 6,000 monks at Sera Lachi; 3,400 monks at Ganden Lachi; 4,200 monks at Drepung Lachi; 650 monks at Gyurme Tantric College; and 600 monks at Gyuto Tantric College to perform various prayers and pujas. These prayers are dedicated to all FPMT centers, projects, and services; all students, volunteers, and those who offer service in FPMT; and to all beings in general. Offerings are also made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to sangha in FPMT international sangha communities. On Losar and the Fifteen Miracle Days of Chotrul Duchen specifically, the FPMT Puja Fund additionally offers a full set of robes to all FPMT geshes and monastic resident teachers; offers lunch and money to 400 nuns and 370 monks at Kopan Nunnery and Monastery on Losar; and offers money to the Kopan nuns and monks during the Monlam Chenmo.

Special thanks to the Liberation Prison Project for preparing this year’s Tibetan calendar. A limited view of the calendar is always available on “Dharma Practice Dates” as a courtesy to FPMT students around 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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Saviese, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given advice regarding merit multiplying days such as the Fifteen Days of Miracles, Saka Dawa, Chokhor Duchen, and Lhabab Duchen. In 2020, the Fifteen Days of Miracles takes place February 24 through March 9.

On the day of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s turning the Wheel of Dharma, if you do one prostration while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas, it becomes equal to having done 100 million prostrations while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas. If you recite one Vajrasattva mantra, it becomes the same as having done the Vajrasattva mantra 100 million times. If you recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra (Vajra Cutter Sutra) one time, it becomes the same as having recited the Diamond Cutter Sutra 100 million times—so that much purification and you collect that many merits to quickly be free from samsara, and if the practices are done with bodhichitta, then to quickly achieve enlightenment.

Reading the Golden Light Sutra (Sutra of Golden Light), besides the personal benefits that creates, also brings so much peace in the world, for the Buddhadharma to last a long time, which means more sentient beings being able to meet the Dharma and to achieve enlightenment. Then, also reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra, which brings success, including enlightenment. Each recitation becomes 100 million recitations—so please tell your parents and friends this.

This is the best way to help your parents and this really helps your parents. You can tell others this also and their friends. This really helps the world, to make a better world.

Please read my notes well. Don’t rush. Think about each word.

Also on these days, you can do tonglen—taking others sufferings and giving away one’s own happiness—then, also rejoicing. You can meditate on dependent arising (meaning, emptiness only) and develop bodhichitta. Of course, you can do self-initiation during this very special time according to the time in India.

If you want to know which lama and which text mentioned this, it was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s and His Eminence Sakya Trizin’s guru—Chobgye Trichen Rinpoche. Rinpoche referred to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching Dulwa Lung (‘dul ba lung) as saying that the number the merit multiplies by is 100 million. It is a great advantage to practice during these times; like for myself, who is the most extremely laziest person in this world.

Another very important practice to do on these days is taking the eight Mahayana precepts for one day until the next day at sunrise. That doesn’t mean necessarily until sunrise Indian time. It means sunrise at the place where you are; up until dawn, when the sun rises in your part of the world.

In case there are difficulties to keeping all eight precepts, perhaps due to work, for example, you can take the rest of the vows well. Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is so beneficial for world peace, for crops to grow well, to receive timely rains—all this is needed to make the world better. Then, there are incredible benefits for yourself. This is explained in the book of the eight Mahayana precepts. This is so important for your own life to be better and to make the world better, to bring benefit.

Written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, August 2017, United States. Edited by Michael D. Jolliffe for publication on FPMT.org.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.