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.

Long Life Prayers

The PDF booklet Prayers for the Long Life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibet contains prayers for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for Tibet.

Praises and Requests

“Praises and Requests to His Holiness the Dalai Lama” is a collection of praises of, comments about, and requests for His Holiness by Lama Zopa Rinpoche found in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Online Advice Book.

Online Teachings by His Holiness

Over the last two years, His Holiness has been offering regular live online teachings. DalaiLama.com has links to video recordings of online teachings, live web streams, scheduled events, summaries of events, and more.

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.  

Other compositions by His Holiness:

• The Source of All Attainments: The Yoga of the Inseparability of the Guru and Avalokiteshvara—An extensive Chenrezig guru yoga practice
• The All-Pervasive Sphere of Great Bliss, Free of Elaboration: Requesting Activities of Palden Lhamo 

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.

To further explore the practice of Chenrezig, visit our website for more information and materials.

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:

• A Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche PDF (English with Tibetan and Tibetan Phonetics)
• Oración para la larga vida de Kyabje Lama Zopa Rimpoché PDF 
• Una preghiera per la lunga vita di Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche PDF 
• Langlebensgebet für Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche PDF 
• A Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche PDF (Chinese) 
• A Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche PDF (Tibetan)

Chant the Long Life Prayer

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:

• A Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche – MP3 Download

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.

Find resources to support your practice of refuge, including video teachings from Rinpoche as well as FPMT Education’s practice materials and programs.

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:

• Taking the eight Mahayana precepts: students can receive the lineage of these precepts from a specially produced video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche granting them, which was edited from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Teachings on Thought Transformation video series, recorded in May 2020 at Kopan Monastery.
• Reciting the Sutra Remembering the Three Jewels

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.)

A longer list of recommended practices can be found at “Practices for Merit Multiplying Days and Eclipses.” You can also find advice for merit-multiplying days in French and practice materials for merit-multiplying days in other language.

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.

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.

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:

Find Offerings to the Boudha Stupa as a PDF in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Offerings-to-the-Boudha-Stupa-PDF-_p_3682.html

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 gompa, Nepal, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Two new cycles of the FPMT Masters Program, our most advanced FPMT Education program, begin in early 2023 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.

FPMT Masters Program Locations

Nalanda Monastery in the South of France invites students to join their second FPMT Masters Program, beginning in January 2023. 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.

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.

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 FMPT 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!

Learn more about the vision and history of the FPMT Masters Program. For details on the upcoming programs, please visit Nalanda Monastery’s FPMT Masters Program page and Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa’s FPMT Masters Program page.

Read a Mandala interview with students who completed the second FPMT Masters Program at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa: “‘A Transforming Experience in a Completely Unexpected Way.'”

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.

You can find Rinpoche’s advice for merit-multiplying days, including the Fifteen Days of Miracles, collected online. (Find advice for merit-multiplying days in French and practice materials for merit-multiplying days in other languages.) If you decide to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on these special days, please report your recitations on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.

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.

Losar Tashi Delek! Happy Tibetan New Year!

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.

You can find a full catalogue of FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on 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 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.”

So, who is Maitreya Buddha? Chapter 4 of Universal Love shares the following:

“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.”

If you would like to include Maitreya Buddha in your practice, the Foundation Store offers the Arya Maitreya’s Promise Dharani PDF and an audio recording of Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting this dharani.

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.

You can read Rinpoche discussing the benefits of reciting the Maitreya Buddha mantra during a teaching in Bodhgaya, India, in 2006.

Additional materials related to Universal Love are available on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. 

You can find a full catalogue of FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on 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 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.

Students can also find online FPMT Education programs in French and Spanish.

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:

• The Thought Transformation Teachings videos from 2021 have been translated into Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish. Audio files of these translations are also available. 
• The Thought Transformation Teaching videos from 2020 have been translated into Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian. There are also audio files for French, Italian, and Spanish.
• 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.

You can find a full catalogue of FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org.

Find materials in various language in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Other-Languages_c_385.html

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.

Pechas at Lawudo Gompa, Nepal, 2019. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

In order to make it easier for FPMT students to find prayers and practice materials, we’ve created a new page: “Full Catalogue of Prayers and Practices.” From this page, you can find a collection of all FPMT Education Services prayers, practices, and advice materials that are available as downloadable PDFs, ebooks, and audio MP3s.

This collection is organized into the following categories:

• Deity Practices & Prayers
• Other Prayers & Practices
• Mantras & Holy Names
• Sutras & Dharani
• Teachings, Advice & Commentaries
• Other Texts & Translations
• Pilgrimage Manuals

You can find these additional materials and resources on our new catalogue page:

• Printable images of deities, mantras, protection items, Dharma verses, and quotations
• Audio recordings of Buddhist teachings, chants, meditations, supplementary materials for study programs, and more
• Link to our microfilm resources page, which has information about mantras on microfilm and how to acquire them for filling stupas and prayer wheels.

Most materials can be ordered through the Foundation Store by donation, which goes toward supporting our future Dharma publications.

FPMT Education Services has also been making more practice materials and prayers available as ebooks. In addition, editors are regularly updating existing materials based on advice from Rinpoche and to ensure consistency across our publications. You can use these links to find all new arrivals and updated materials available on our Foundation Store.

We encourage you to visit our new “Full Catalogue of Prayers and Practices” page and bookmark it for your practice needs:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/full-catalogue/

Please visit our Licensing page if you have questions about our distribution, licensing, and copyright guidelines. 

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.

Monks making light offerings at Kopan Monastery in Nepal on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Ganden Ngamchoe, literally “Ganden Offering of the Twenty-Fifth Day,” is also known as Lama Tsongkhapa Day. It is a celebration of the anniversary of the parinirvana of Lama Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), the founder of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. This auspicious and holy day is celebrated on the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the Tibetan calendar, which is December 29 this year.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages FPMT students to engage in a variety of practices on Ganden Ngamchoe to celebrate and create merit, including making light offerings. While at Kopan Monastery last year on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Rinpoche said, “Light offering is very important, in particular, by making light offerings you are able to dispel the darkness of ignorance and develop Dharma wisdom. Any light offering can dispel darkness, it doesn’t have to be just a butter lamp. You can offer electric lights and even the sun.”

Many FMPT centers are offering celebrations on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, both on site and online. For students unable to attend a celebration at an FPMT center or join an online celebration, the main practice recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche is Lama Chopa with extensive light offerings if possible. If one is unable to arrange Lama Chopa, Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga is also recommended. In addition, recitation of any or all of the Lama Tsongkhapa-related prayers and texts is encouraged.

Puja at Kopan Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Nepal, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche has also given detailed advice about practices to do at FPMT centers, projects, and services. Please see the page “Practices for Ganden Ngamchoe, Lama Tsongkhapa Day” for details on these practices. Here are some of the prayers and practices recommended by Rinpoche for a celebration of Lama Tsongkhapa Day, which can also be done by students as they are able:

English

• 1000 Offerings to Lama Tsongkhapa
• Extensive Offering Practice
• The Glorious One of the Three Worlds (Päl dän sa sum ma)
• A Hymn of Experience
• Destiny Fulfilled
• Prayer for the Flourishing of Tsongkhapa’s Teachings
• Lama Tsongkhapa’s Secret Biography
• Dependent Arising: A Praise to the Buddha

Tibetan

• The Thousand Offerings to Lama Tsongkhapa
• Päl dän sa sum ma (The Glorious One of the Three Worlds)
• Lama Tsongkhapa’s Secret Biography

French materials, including “Prière pour le développement de Lama Tsongkhapa” and “Hymne au Bouddha Shakyamouni pour son enseignement sur la production dépendante,” are available through Les Éditions Mahayana. You can also find more practice materials related to Lama Tsongkhapa, including practices in Spanish and other languages, in the Foundation Store.

* 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.

You can read more about Lama Tsongkhapa Day and find a full catalogue of FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on 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.

We’re excited to announce that the Liberation Tibetan Calendar 2022 has just arrived to us from the Liberation Prison Project and is available to order today!

This calendar for 2022, the year of the Water Tiger 2149, is available as a PDF from the Foundation Store. It includes lunar dates, dates for merit multiplying days, and information about more than thirty kinds of practice days as well as the auspicious and inauspicious days for each month. The calendar is an invaluable tool for supporting your Dharma practice and helping it become most beneficial.

The calendar was prepared by astrologer Paksam Ngawang Thartho based on the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute’s calendar, with additional advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Geshe Ngawang Dakpa.

By ordering this digital format calendar, you are directly supporting the Liberation Prison Project, an FPMT project that works with Dharma students in prison.

Find the 2022 Liberation Tibetan Calendar PDF at the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/2022-Liberation-Tibetan-Calendar-PDF-Dowloadable-Format-_p_3641.html

Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Lawudo, Nepal, 1969

FPMT’s Foundation Store offers more than fifty cards and posters suitable for printing.

These images are made available as high quality PDFs that can be printed as cards for your home and altar. Many of these images have been created on the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche to offer protection and purification. Here are a few examples:

• Lama Atisha Protection Mantra
• Powerful Mantras for the Body at Death Time
• Phagpa Chulung Rolpai Do Mantra and Six Syllables of Clairvoyance Mantra
• Thang Thong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection
• Door Mantra by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Thang Thong Gyalpo Earthquake Protection

In addition, the Foundation Store offers images of our teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Lawudo, Nepal, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Sarnath.

You can also find images of many deities and merit fields to support your practices. Here a few example of the deity images available:

• Medicine Buddha
• Twenty-one Taras
• Vajrasattva with Wisdom Mother
• Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession
• Nyung Na merit field
• Lama Chopa merit field

Other inspiring and beneficial images include the Meritorious Elephant Generating Power, Rinpoche’s Live with Compassion poster, and many more mantras, including several different Namgyama mantra images.

Door mantra by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

You can find more than fifty downloadable cards and posters at the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Printable-Cards-Posters-_c_712.html

You can find a full catalogue of all FPMT prayers, practices, and advice materials on FPMT.org. If you have questions about copyright and distribution (digital and print) for Foundation Store materials, cards, and posters, please see Copyright Guidelines.

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.