Lama Zopa Rinpoche displaying ‘The Secret Advanced Practices of Vajrayogini’, Institut Vajra Yogini, Marzens, France, May 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

FPMT Education Services released The Secret Advanced Practices of Vajrayogini, the fourth and final volume of FPMT’s series of Vajrayogini practice manuals, in May 2019. As with the previous volumes—which include the sadhanas, the fire offering, and the self-initiation ritual—all of the works contained in this fourth volume were composed by the great Vajrayogini master, Kyabje Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was offered a copy of the text during the May-June 2019 Vajrayogini retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini, France.

This volume is an important milestone in the modern-day transmission of this cycle of teachings in the Gelug tradition. For the first time, all of the indispensable materials needed to engage in the Vajrayogini great retreat and its subsequent practices have been translated into English. These materials include not only the retreat manual, which presents the instructions on the various practices, but also all the essential ritual texts.

The profound practices in this volume are intended for experienced practitioners of Vajrayogini Naro Khechari in the Gelug lineage and should be engaged in under the direct guidance of a qualified Vajrayana teacher.

This practice is restricted to only those with the appropriate tantric empowerment. If you are unsure whether you are qualified or not, please email us at education@fpmt.org. By purchasing this text, you confirm you have received the appropriate empowerment. 

Note: For customers in Europe or Asia, order print copies directly from Institut Vajra Yogini in France (shoptfpmt@fpmt.org) in order save on shipping costs!

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.

The Medicine Buddha Ritual Set for Pujas, available from the Foundation Store

The Medicine Buddha Ritual Set for Pujas allows students to better fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice regarding how to perform Medicine Buddha pujas, taught as being powerful rituals for success and to benefit the dying, sick, and dead. The Foundation Store is now offering these sets nearly at cost.

The set includes one printed copy of the Medicine Buddha Sutra in Tibetan from the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, pecha style; one printed copy of the Medicine Buddha mandala, a visual representation of Medicine Buddha’s purified environment; and a wrapping cloth representing the Five Dhyani Buddhas, designed by Kopan Monastery. (To encourage practice of the puja, the Medicine Buddha puja text itself—Medicine Buddha: The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel—is an optional add-on.)

The Medicine Buddha Sutra, or Sutra of the Extensive Qualities of the Previous Vaidurya Light Prayers of the Bhagavan Medicine Guru, recounts the twelve aspirational prayers made by Medicine Buddha in his past lives that came to fruition through the force of his enlightenment. The sutra also recounts the great benefits of Medicine Buddha practice, such as those of reciting and hearing his name.

“The Medicine Buddha encompasses all the buddhas,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in Benefits of Medicine Buddha Mantra and Practice, available on FPMT.org. “This means that when we practice the seven-limb prayer and make offerings with the seven limbs, we receive the same merit as we would if we had made offerings to all the buddhas. Similarly, when we recite the mantra of Medicine Buddha, we collect unbelievable merit just as when we offer the seven-limb practice to Medicine Buddha.”

Find news and advice related to Medicine Buddha on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/tag/medicine-buddha/

Find other Dharma items to support your Medicine Buddha practice through the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=Medicine+Buddha&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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of prayer flags, Tso Pema Lake, India, February 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Students can find over a dozen prayer flags in the Foundation Store, most offered at cost!

Find these and other prayer flags in the Foundation Store:

• Gyaltsen Tsemoi Phugen (Wind Horse) Prayer Flag, designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to protect from harm, fear, contagious disease, and fire, and give victory over wars, disputes, fighting, and danger.
• Tendil Nyersel Prayer Flag, recommended by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la) for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health. The flags feature an emanation of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) considered beneficial for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health, various prayers and mantras chosen by Rinpoche, and the supernatural animals of the cardinal directions.
• Prayer Flag to Avert War, the special prayer on this prayer flag was written by the great yogi Thangtong Gyalpo when a war broke out between the Sakya clan and their surrounding neighbors. Due to the power of reciting the prayer, the war was averted.
• Eight Powerful Mantras Prayer Flags, these eight powerful mantras are the most powerful means to remove all obstacles to spiritual and material success. The Kadampa stupa in the middle of the prayer flag symbolizes removing obstacles to the spreading of the Dharma teachings. 

Find over a dozen prayer flags at cost in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Prayer-Flags_c_159.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.

Liberation Cards for a Dying Person in English

Students can find dozens of printed Dharma cards and posters in the Foundation Store, most offered at cost!

Find these and other cards and posters in the Foundation Store:

• His Holiness the Dalai Lama Card
• His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche Card
• Buddha’s Teachings on Our Lives Card, created by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Flower Offering Card, created by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Liberation Card for a Dying Person, Chinese and English
• Shakyamuni Buddha Poster
• Nyung Nä Merit Field Poster
• White Tara Poster

Nyung nä merit field from a thangka painting by Peter Iseli

Find dozens of Dharma cards and posters at cost in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Hardcopy_c_529.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 teaching at Vajrayogini retreat, Institut Vajra Yogini, May 2019. Photo by Tsanka Petkova.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche frequently encourages students to study and practice Lama Chopa (Guru Puja), written by Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen in the 17th century and often combined with the preliminary practice of Jorcho. FPMT makes a variety of Lama Chopa Jorcho materials available including the text itself, long and short commentaries on the practice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and audio recordings to help students learn the practice’s traditional tunes.

During a 2018 retreat in Bendigo, Australia, Lama Zopa Rinpoche taught: “ … Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen checked all the guru yogas, what made the great Indian yogis—Saraha, Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, etc.—and the four sects’ great enlightened beings—Chokyi Dorje, Gyalwa Ensapa, etc.—achieve enlightenment in a brief lifetime during degenerate times. He checked all the guru yogas that they practiced and put them together here in Lama Chopa. He put them together after checking them all. At the end of Lama Chopa is lamrim, the whole path to enlightenment; the essence of lamrim is there. There is lojong to transform the mind from an ordinary mind into the path of enlightenment. (Actually, the whole lamrim is lojong, but there is a particular part called ‘lojong’ that comes at the end.) By thinking of their benefits, you look at all the undesirable things as positive, using them in the path to achieve enlightenment quickly. It is all there in Lama Chopa. It is complete. Kyabje Phabongkha Rinpoche says, ‘Every day, if you get to practice Lama Chopa, then you are able to practice the condensed vital points of sutra and tantra, the complete path.’ …”

Watch “Lama Chopa Leaves a Very Special Imprint of the Whole Path in Your Mind” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/LoNgzDKC_8w

Find more Lama Chopa materials in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=lama+chopa&search=

Find Guru Puja is the Heart Practice, a new multimedia series based on teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the 2009 Light of the Path retreat, through the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/lywa-multimedia-guru-puja-heart-practice

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.

Please dedicate for auspiciousness that this is His Holiness returning to Tibet

In January 2019, Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructed students to begin replacing His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life prayer that begins with “GANG RII RA WÄ” with a new long life prayer. The new prayer, which begins with “JIG TEN KHAM DIR,” was finalized by Rinpoche in May 2019 during the Vajrayogini retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini in France.

“I told the Kopan Monastery umdze (chant leader) that he must do this one,” Rinpoche shared. “His Holiness is now known in the whole world. That is mentioned in the prayer. Before he was only known in Tibet, but now the whole world. I told the umdze he should recite this all the time now instead of ‘GANG RII RA WÄ.’ Do you understand? Anyone being the umdze, even a mouse being the umdze, even the birds, should recite this new prayer. …”

Prayer for the Long Life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

༄༅། །འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་འདིར་ཕན་བདེ་མ་ལུས་པ། །
གང་ལས་འབྱུང་བའི་བསམ་འཕེལ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར། །
བཀའ་དྲིན་མཚུངས་མེད་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ལ། །
གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་ཐུགས་བཞེད་ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་ཤོག །

JIG TEN KHAM DIR PHÄN DE MA LÜ PA
The wish-granting Wish-Fulfilling Jewel,
GANG LÄ JUNG WÄI SAM PHEL YI ZHIN NOR
Source of every single benefit and happiness in this world,
KA DRIN TSHUNG ME TÄN DZIN GYA TSHO LA
To the incomparably kind Tenzin Gyatso, I beseech:
SÖL WA DEB SO THUG ZHE LHÜN DRUB SHOG
May all your holy wishes be spontaneously fulfilled.

The tune of “JIG TEN KHAM DIR” accords with tune for “TONG NYI NYING JE.” In order to learn the tune, students can listen to these recordings. 

The tune for “JIG TEN KHAM DIR” can be found on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/new-long-life-prayer-for-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama

Prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibet can be found in the Foundation Store and 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 blesses horse at an animal sanctuary, June 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Students can now find information and resources on how to benefit animals on a new page on FPMT.org.

Students can access the page to learn about how to complete animal liberation practices; perform animal blessings with mantras and holy objects; make charity to ants; bless oceans, seas, lakes, and other bodies of water; benefit insects and other small beings; stop animal sacrifice in Nepal; and benefit turkeys eaten during Thanksgiving, among other ideas for benefiting animals in the short and long term.

Students will also find interesting information about vegetarianism and veganism, including a 2011 statement from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on how avoiding eating meat or reducing meat consumption helps reduce the number of animals that are killed.

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 find over a dozen Dharma CDs in the Foundation Store available by donation!

Find these titles and more in the Foundation Store:

• Recitations for the Time of Death, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recites mantras and texts that are especially suitable for humans or animals to hear at the time of death.
• Recitation for Animals, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recites mantras and texts that are especially suitable for animals to hear throughout their lives.
• Recitations for Alleviating Pain, Lama Zopa Rinpoche recites the Sutra for Entering the City of Vaishali as well as other prayers and mantras to help alleviate pain.
• Oral Transmission of the Golden Light Sutra, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers the oral transmission of the Golden Light Sutra (Sutra of Golden Light). Rinpoche allows those who listen to this recording to receive the transmission in full. You must listen to the entire sutra in order to receive the full transmission.
• How to Meditate on Emptiness, Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches on emptiness and other topics in Barcelona, Spain.
• Heruka Vajrasattva Tsog Offering, Lama Yeshe chants the Heruka Vajrasattva tsog text he composed in 1982.

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 blesses horse at an animal sanctuary, June 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Students can now find practices and advice for benefiting animals on FPMT.org, including instructions on animal liberation and animal blessings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends animal liberation as a specific practice done for animals who would otherwise be killed, such as livestock, bait worms, and live feeder insects. The practice involves taking the endangered animals around holy objects, reciting mantras for them (such as those found on the audio CD Recitations for Animals), blessing water to sprinkle onto their bodies, and then releasing them. Rinpoche teaches that the practice benefits animal spiritually and is an incredible practice for anyone who is ill or experiencing life obstacles. Animal blessings, on the other hand, involve blessing animals with mantras or holy objects, even if they are not in danger.

On the “Benefiting Animals” page on FPMT.org, students can also learn about how to make charity to birds, insects such as ants, and other small animals; mantras beneficial to animals; and ideas for blessing oceans, seas, lakes, and other bodies of water. Students can also find advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about how to best benefit animals during their lifetimes, encouragement to reduce one’s meat consumption and become vegetarian or vegan, and a sampling of animal-focused FPMT centers, projects, and services.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading an animal liberation during a Vajrayogini retreat, Institut Vajra Yogini, Marzens, France, May 2019. Photo by Tsanka Petkova.

Find animal liberation and animal blessing resources in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=animals&search=

The Animal Liberation Fund supports animal liberation at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residences and other animal liberations worldwide:
https://fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/alf/

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.

Precious mantra hat, available in the Foundation Store

This cotton precious mantra hat, designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, is covered with embroidered mantras:

• The mantra of Chenrezig, which is for developing compassion, among other benefits.
• The Phagpa Chulung Rolpai Do Mantra, which upon seeing, purifies 100,000 eons of negative karma and obscurations.
• The Wish-Granting Wheel Mantra, which purifies one thousand eons of negative karma for anyone that passes beneath it.
• The Six Syllables of Clairvoyance Mantra, which after fifteen days upon seeing, purifies any heavy negative karma created in the past.

“Just by wearing this hat when you go out in public, not only when you play golf but anywhere, in the street, on the beach, in the market, where many people are shopping—anywhere that animals or people can see you—you are liberating others,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught about the benefits of wearing the hat. “If any flies or other insects go under or around your hat (with mantras on), or maybe a person walks around you on the way to another shop, all the time you are liberating so many sentient beings who are suffering.”

Learn more about the benefits of the precious mantra hat on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/80N3dGDXpJU

Find the precious mantra hat in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Precious-Mantra-Hat-_p_606.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.

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 August 4. On these holy days, the power of any meritorious action is multiplied by 100 million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. Specific 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 for merit multiplying days is also available in French.)

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.

If you decide to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on this special day, you might like to report your recitations using the reporting facility on FPMT.org.

Sangha members, Kopan Nunnery, Kathmandu, Nepal, April 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Chokhor Duchen is also the day on which FPMT celebrates International Sangha Day! International Sangha Day provides an opportunity for the lay and monastic communities to come together in recognition of their interdependence and acknowledge the ways in which they rely on each other for the practice of Dharma.

Sangha member and lay students receiving teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Madrid, Spain, April 2019. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

Here are some suggested ways you can honor monastics on International Sangha Day:

• Recite The Sutra for Remembering the Three Jewels
• Show respect for and appreciation of the sangha
• Generate deeper awareness of the Sangha Jewel
• Donate to the Lama Yeshe Sangha Fund

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other sangha members, Nalanda Monastery, Rouzegas, Labastide-Saint-Georges, France, June 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

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.

The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) with Additional Practices is available in print from the Foundation Store. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said very strongly on many occasions that this is a practice that he would like all his students to do every day.

In this updated edition of the practice, the sections “Blessing the Speech” and “Daily Mantras” have been revised based on Rinpoche’s commentaries and the original Tibetan texts from which they are drawn. A new section—“Mantras for Specific Occasions”—includes mantras for increasing the power of sutra recitations and for blessing the feet and the wheels of a car. All the mantras in this edition have been written using a modified version of the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) system that accords with Rinpoche’s instructions.

In addition, the many oral commentaries that Rinpoche has given on this practice have now been compiled and edited into an ebook—The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) with Additional Practices: A Commentary—to help students do these practices in the most meaningful way possible. In the commentary, Rinpoche explains how and why it is important to transform our life into Dharma by generating a bodhichitta motivation. In the commentaries to “Blessing the Speech,” “Daily Mantras,” and “Mantras for Specific Occasions,” Rinpoche explains the benefits of doing these practices and how to do them. We hope the commentaries will help inspire all of Rinpoche’s students to take up these practices in their daily lives!

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.