Education: The Heart of FPMT

Prajnaparamita Sutra written in gold, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US. Photo by Chris Majors.

As the Dharma takes root in the West, clear and accurate translations of Buddhist texts, prayers, and teachings are crucial. FPMT Translation Services oversees the translating, editing, publishing, and updating of translations of sadhanas, prayers, rituals, sutras, and other key texts for FPMT students and Education programs. Joona Repo, FPMT Translation Coordinator for Education Services, shares this report on the team’s work regarding some of their larger ongoing projects.

FPMT Translation Services has several big, long-term translation projects that its currently supporting.

The editing of the Sze Gee Toh’s translation of the Ornament of the Essence, a commentary by Gyaltsab Je on the Ornament of Clear Realization, is underway. Gyaltsab Je was one of the two primary disciples of Je Tsongkhapa, who founded the Gelug tradition, and the Ornament of Clear Realizations is one of five principal works studied in the geshe curriculum of the major Gelug monasteries. Gyaltsab Je’s text is an important commentary on this key Tibetan Buddhist text and part of the FPMT Masters Program curriculum. The translation is gradually being prepared for publication, as a part of our plan to make our rich collection of Masters Program and Basic Program translations available to a wider audience.

Sze Gee Toh is a Singaporean student who graduated from the first Masters Program at Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa in Italy. She served as a teaching assistant during the second Masters Program at ILTK on the topic of the Ornament of Clear Realizations while also translating the Ornament of the Essence. Her translation is being updated, annotated, and compared against the original Tibetan text in preparation for eventual publication. Another translation by Sze Gee, Panchen Lozang Yeshe’s Nyurlam, i.e. The Swift Path lamrim, has also been completed and editing on the text has begun.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche taking blessings from the Sutra of Great Liberation, which he started to an give oral transmission of on Saka Dawa, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, June 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

We are also continuing our work on translating a number of rather extensive sutras. These translations have all been requested by FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche. They include:

• The Golden Light Sutra in 31 Chapters, which was translated by Berthe Jansen and is currently being edited;
• Kshitigarbha Dashachakra Sutra, translated by Gavin Kilty and also currently being edited;
• Golden Light Sutra in 29 Chapters, which Rhonwen Sayer recently began translating; and
• Great Liberation Sutra, which will soon begin to be translated. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been giving the oral transmission of this sutra in his Thought Transformation Teachings video series.)
  

Philip Quarcoo’s translation of Tsongkhapa’s Middle-Length Lamrim is going through the final stages of editing in preparation for publication. This is another important text for students within the Gelug traditions and a translation we are very excited about.

The translation work of some of these texts has been supported by several sponsors and we rejoice in their generosity.

The translation and editing of texts is supported by the FPMT Translation Fund. Further funds are need to complete some of these projects. For more:
https://fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/education-and-preservation-fund/

For more on FPMT Translation Services:
https://fpmt.org/education/translation/

Shakyamuni Buddha turning the wheel of Dharma for the first time, Land of Medicine Buddha, Wish Fulfilling Temple mural, Soquel, California, USA

Chokhor Duchen, one of the four annual holy days of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, takes place this year on July 24. 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 by teaching the four noble truths.

Nuns from Kopan Nunnery attending Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings, Kathmandu, Nepal, April 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for practices to do on merit multiplying days such as Chokhor Duchen can be found here. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice and recommended practices for merit multiplying days is also available in French.) 

Chokhor Duchen is also the day on which FPMT celebrates International Sangha Day! You can read more about monks and nuns in FPMT.

Young monks, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Kopan monks performing Lama Chopa on Saka Dawa, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, June 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On merit multiplying days, the FPMT Puja Fund typically sponsors a large number of pujas and practices performed by thousands of sangha on behalf of the entire FPMT. Unfortunately, many of the monasteries in South India are unable to host such pujas and practices due to the current pandemic. During this Chokhor Duchen, the FPMT Puja Fund will offer on behalf of the entire FPMT organization and all students, benefactors, and beings:

• The recitation of the Kangyur (108 volumes of translated words of the Buddha), offered by 400 nuns of Kopan Nunnery;
• Offerings to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to all of the International Mahayana Institute sangha communities; and
• Offerings of gold, robes, saffron, and umbrellas to the Jowo Buddha in Tibet, the Shakyamuni Buddha in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, and Boudhanath and Swayambunath Stupas.

We rejoice in all of the meritorious activities happening around the world on this auspicious merit multiplying day!

Ven. Amy Miller receiving teachings, Institut Vajra Yogini, Marzens, France, May 2019. Photo by Tsanka Petkova.

Please keep in mind: According to the late Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus, 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 the great holy days of the Buddha and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.

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:
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=calendar&search=

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, Manali, Himachal Pradesh, India, August 2019. Photo by Neal Patrick.

On July 6 the world celebrates His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 85th birthday. Enjoy these many resources to praise, learn from, and rejoice in His Holiness!

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 collection Prayers for the Long Life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibet includes:
  • “JIG TEN KHAM DIR”;
  • “Prayer That Spontaneously Fulfills All Wishes”;
  • “Remembering the Kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan People,” composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche especially for the success of His Holiness’s wishes, and in particular for the Tibetan people, and for there to be perfect peace and happiness in the world and for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment;
  • “Prayer for Tibet”;
  • “Prayer to Be Able to Correctly Devote to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Fulfill All His Advice”;
  • “Song of Immortality,” an extensive long life prayer composed by His Holiness’s late tutors His Holiness Ling Rinpoche and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche and translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa; and
  • His Holiness’s holy name mantra.

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.

Writings

• When His Holiness was nineteen years old, he composed a Chenrezig guru yoga sadhana titled The Source of All Attainments: The Yoga of the Inseparability of the Guru and Avalokiteshvara, newly translated by Joona Repo, FPMT translation coordinator. The practice, which includes visualizations to inspire the development of compassion and wisdom, is explained by Lama Yeshe in Becoming the Compassion Buddha.
• Wisdom Publications offers a number of books from His Holiness.

New and Revised Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) Materials

His Holiness is generally considered to be a manifestation of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), the buddha of compassion. We offer these new and revised Chenrezig practice materials.

• Arya Avalokiteshvara Simhanada: Exalted Lion’s Roar Chenrezig Who Dispels All Diseases and Exalted Lion’s Roar Chenrezig mantras, practice instructions by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Everflowing Nectar of Bodhichitta: Annihilating the Demon of the Self-Cherishing Mind, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Spontaneously Accomplishing Desired Aims: An Abbreviated Way to Perform the Meditation-Recitation of Eleven-Faced Chenrezig, by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama
• The Welfare of Living Beings That Pervades Space: The Meditation-Recitation of the Great Compassionate One, by Thangtong Gyalpo

FPMT International Office wishes His Holiness a very auspicious 85th 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.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Bodhgaya, Bihar, India, January 2017. Photo by Neal Patrick.

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, May 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche often speaks about solar and lunar eclipses, which are considered auspicious for practice and provide opportunities for accumulating increased merit.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds students that the merit generated is multiplied by one hundred million on solar eclipses and by seven hundred thousand on lunar eclipses, and that the multiplying effect of eclipses occurs regardless of whether the eclipse is partial or full. Also, Rinpoche advises that the merit multiplying effect does not last the whole calendar day and that merit making activities should be carried out during the time of the eclipse itself.

Whether or not an eclipse is visible and its local timing depends on where a student is on Earth. Websites like timeanddate.com can help students determine when there is an opportunity to practice during an eclipse.

Upcoming solar eclipse: June 21, 2020 (This eclipse is at its maximum at 6:41 UTC.)

In November 2019, Rinpoche wrote out specific advice for eclipses:

… 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 ….

Any other meritorious activities advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are also good to do on solar eclipses. In the video “Advice for Saka Dawa Duchen,” Rinpoche discusses additional ideas for virtuous activities to complete when merit is multiplied, such as during solar eclipses, as well as the source of Rinpoche’s knowledge about the merit multiplying effects of certain days throughout the year:

To learn more about merit multiplying days, watch “Advice for Saka Dawa Duchen” on YouTube and find a transcript of the video on FPMT.org:
https://youtu.be/xYWCFIwZgTk

You can read more about practices specifically recommended by Rinpoche for solar and lunar eclipses, and other merit multiplying days:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/practice-on-merit-multiplying-days-and-eclipses/

Check “Dharma Practice Dates” for information on auspicious days for practice:
https://fpmt.org/media/resources/dharma-dates/

Acquire your own copy of the Liberation Prison Project calendar through the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/2020-Liberation-Tibetan-Calendar-PDF-Dowloadable-Format-_p_3252.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing an incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Recently, Lama Zopa Rinpoche described the multiplying effects of the fifteenth day of Saka Dawa, a Buddhist holy day, which this year is on June 5.

Saka Dawa commemorates three of the Buddha’s major life events—the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana. Each event is considered to multiply the power of actions done on this day, both auspicious and harmful, by one hundred million. Rinpoche clarified that on Saka Dawa, the power of actions is actually multiplied by three hundred million, not just one hundred million.

During this year’s Saka Dawa, there is also a lunar eclipse. During the actual time of the eclipse, the power of actions is further multiplied by seven hundred thousand, bringing the total multiplying effect of this year’s Saka Dawa to three hundred million seven hundred thousand (300,700,000).

Rinpoche reminds students that this is an incredible day to focus on auspicious and meaningful practices and activities.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Losang Sherab.

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.

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 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 thousand while the eclipse lasts.

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 thousand 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.

The eight Mahayana precepts are a set of special and powerful vows taken for twenty-four hours. You can take the eight Mahayana precepts from a specially created video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering the precepts. “Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is a 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.”

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.