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Study & Practice News
Nyung nä merit field from a thangka painting by Peter Iseli
The FPMT Foundation Store offers several beautiful full-color posters of meditation and practice deities. The following large-format, printed posters are currently available for order:
- Shakyamuni Buddha
- Four-Armed Chenrezig
- Thousand-Armed Chenrezig
- Nyung Nä Merit Field
- White Tara
- Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas
The posters feature original paintings by artists Robert Beer and Peter Iseli.
The Foundation Store stocks many cards and posters of meditation and practice deities. Find a complete listing here:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Cards-Posters_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 attends Saka Dawa celebrations at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
An auspicious merit multiplying day, the full moon of the month of Saka Dawa, is coming up on June 17.
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.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommends practices for these special days. Specific 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.
Water bowl offerings, Martigny, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Harald Weichhart.
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.
FPMT Educations Services has recently released three new Vajrayogini practices texts—The Secret Advanced Practices of Vajrayogini, The Quick Path to Great Bliss, and A Compilation of Tsog Offerings to Vajrayogini.
The Secret Advanced Practices of Vajrayogini (in hardcopy and digital formats) is the fourth and final volume of the FPMT’s series of Vajrayogini practice manuals. 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.
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.
The Quick Path to Great Bliss (PDF format) was composed by Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo and is the foundational long sadhana text for any Vajrayogini retreat. In the FPMT Vajrayogini series, this long sadhana is found in the first volume, The Initial Practices of Vajrayogini: An FPMT Manual for Initiates, under the title The Nearing Path to Great Bliss. This is FPMT’s most up-to-date version of the sadhana.
A Compilation of Tsog Offerings to Vajrayogini (PDF format) comprises tsog offering texts to Vajrayogini including the standard Vajrayogini Tsog Offering; an abbreviated tsog offering called A Pleasing Uncontaminated Feast; and a short tsog offering, all authored by Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo. It also includes an extremely abbreviated tsog offering authored by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
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.
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.
Basic Program students, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, July 2018. Photo by Sylvia Mairs.
FPMT registered teacher and German monk Ven. Fedor Stracke has agreed to teach two Basic Program subjects—Ornament for Clear Realization and Seventy Topics and Grounds and Paths of Secret Mantra—during July and August of 2019 at Kopan Monastery, FPMT’s mother monastery, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
“Ven. Fedor Stracke is a highly qualified and committed teacher who has been teaching the FPMT Basic Program (BP) at Kopan Monastery for ten years,” said Ven. Fran Mohoupt, Kopan Monastery course coordinator. “These two subjects conclude the second round of Basic Program he has offered at Kopan. Ven. Fedor has studied extensively at Sera Je and also offers the Basic Program as the resident teacher of Aryatara Institut in Munich, Germany. He has contributed much treasured BP materials and translations, both in English and in German.”
Ven. Fedor Stracke, Munich, Germany, February 2017. Photo by Hermann Wittekopf.
“Students who attend these study retreats with Ven. Fedor are often very impressed. Basic Program graduates who studied at Kopan have become Discovering Buddhism teachers and Kopan meditation leaders, and the current teaching assistant for the residential Basic Program at Nalanda Monastery in France completed part of her BP at Kopan.”
Kopan offers the Basic Program in summer intensives over consecutive years. This unique format allows students who missed BP subjects in another center to complete the program while visiting Kopan and connecting with FPMT’s roots. The residential setting allows for daily meditation and group discussion in addition to receiving teachings from Ven. Fedor. A three-month lamrim retreat, which is necessary for graduation from the entire program, is scheduled for next year.
The view from Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2018. July 2018. Photo by Sylvia Mairs.
Learn more about how to register for Basic Program at Kopan Monastery:
https://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses/fpmt-basic-program/2018-program
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.
FPMT.org makes available a variety of White Umbrella Deity (Sitatapatra) resource to interested students, including a devotional card and White Umbrella Deity practices in PDF format. Students can also find a White Umbrella Deity text than can be worn as a protection amulet. Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches that White Umbrella Deity practices protect from fear.
Sitatapatra, which can also be translated as “The White Parasol,” protects sentient beings from natural catastrophes, diseases, black magic, and so forth. She is white in color because the principal means by which she accomplishes protection is the enlightened energy of pacification.
Sitatapatra is a female counterpart of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Like Avalokiteshvara, she has a thousand eyes that watch over living beings and a thousand arms that protect and assist them.
Find White Umbrella Deity resources in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/White-Umbrella-Deity-Card-Arya-Sitatapatra_p_2305.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.
The book Buddhism in a Nutshell: Essentials for Practice and Study combines short teachings of the precious gurus Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche with short teachings by the much-loved American nun, Ven. Amy Miller. It comes with an MP3 CD containing eleven hours of clear and accessible teachings and guided meditations by Ven. Amy Miller intended for beginners who would like a structured approach to learning about Buddhism in the Tibetan tradition.
The teachings by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche contained in the book consist of well-chosen essential teachings on the lamrim subjects and are supplemented by Ven. Amy’s teachings on the same topics. The recordings of Ven. Amy’s teachings cover the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, the four noble truths, and the stages of the path to enlightenment (lamrim) based on the short text Foundation of All Good Qualities by Lama Tsongkhapa. Together they provide a wonderful and comprehensive overview of Buddhism as taught and practiced in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa. The teachings are supplemented by recordings of five guided meditations as well as instructions for meditations on the lamrim topics found in the book itself.
Find Buddhism in a Nutshell: Essentials for Practice and Study in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Buddhism-in-a-Nutshell-_p_866.html
Buddhism in a Nutshell is also available as an introductory course through the Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/view.php?id=21
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 Liberation Box: Protection Tool for a Fortunate Rebirth
Of the thousands of items offered by the FPMT Foundation Store, the Liberation Box: Tools for a Fortunate Rebirth is one of the most unique and special. It is a collection of materials to assist students at the time of death. Assembled according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s specific advice on what a person should hear, see, and have placed on their body, the Liberation Box contains powerful methods for ensuring a fortunate rebirth for those who have died or are in the process of dying.
The box includes a Kadampa stupa filled with the four dharmakaya relic mantras, a powa pill, a cord blessed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, plus various mantras and a copy of Shetor to place on the dying person’s body. The Liberation Card for a Dying Person, a Namgyälma mantra card, and the CDs Recitations to Alleviate Pain and Recitations for the Time of Death are also included to be seen and heard by the dying person. In addition, the books Heart Practices for Death and Dying and Heart Advice for Death and Dying, and a booklet with instruction on how to use all the items and additional mantras are all part of the Liberation Box.
“So much went into creating the Liberation Box. So many people have put work into it. And it was requested by Rinpoche. The Sangha at Rinpoche’s house in Aptos, California, are involved, creating and consecrating the stupas. Volunteers bring them up to Oregon and they are painted in the Foundation Store. Every little thing has a story,” Foundation Store manager Diana Ospina said.
Foundation Store manager Diana Ospina looking over the book inventory in the FPMT Foundation Store, Portland, Oregon, US
The powa pill included in the box was made by either Geshe Lama Konchog or Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup at Kopan Monastery and was blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his home in Dharamsala, India, and also blessed in the FPMT International Office by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness Sakya Trichen.
The stupa and smaller items come packed in a specially designed golden paper box from Nepal. The FPMT Foundation Store, which assembles the Liberation Box, has been making the boxes available since May 2010. To date, 745 Liberation Boxes have been distributed around the world.
“When we hear ‘Please, please, I need the Liberation Box,’ I tell you, we run to send it out,” Diana said. “And then we hear back from the customer, ‘I never will forget this box.’ There are so many stories. It is so special how it takes on meaning for each individual.”
Find the Liberation Box: Protection Tool for a Fortunate Rebirth exclusively in the FPMT Foundation Store. The Liberation Box is being offered now at a special discount while inventory lasts:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberation-Box-Tools-For-a-Fortunate-Rebirth–Digital-Edition_p_2416.html
A digital version of the Liberation Box is also available. Please note, the digital version does not contain the stupa, powa pill, and blessing string:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberation-Box-Tools-For-a-Fortunate-Rebirth–Digital-Edition_p_2416.html
Find advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about how to help those who are sick and dying on FPMT.org’s “Death and Dying: Heart Practices and Advice”:
https://fpmt.org/death/
Read about the FPMT Foundation Store in “The Foundation Store: Sending Dharma to Every Corner of the World” from Mandala eZine May 2011:
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/18/ensuring-a-fortunate-rebirth-the-liberation-box/The-Foundation-Store-Mandala-ezine-May-2011.pdf
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Saviese, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice regarding merit multiplying days such as the Fifteen Days of Miracles, Saka Dawa, Chokhor Duchen, and Lhabab Duchen. The next merit multiplying day is Saka Dawa on June 17, 2019.
On the day of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s turning the Wheel of Dharma, if you do one prostration while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas, it becomes equal to having done 100 million prostrations while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas. If you recite one Vajrasattva mantra, it becomes the same as having done the Vajrasattva mantra 100 million times. If you recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra (Vajra Cutter Sutra) one time, it becomes the same as having recited the Diamond Cutter Sutra 100 million times—so that much purification and you collect that many merits to quickly be free from samsara, and if the practices are done with bodhichitta, then to quickly achieve enlightenment.
Reading the Golden Light Sutra (Sutra of Golden Light), besides the personal benefits that creates, also brings so much peace in the world, for the Buddhadharma to last a long time, which means more sentient beings being able to meet the Dharma and to achieve enlightenment. Then, also reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra, which brings success, including enlightenment. Each recitation becomes 100 million recitations—so please tell your parents and friends this.
This is the best way to help your parents and this really helps your parents. You can tell others this also and their friends. This really helps the world, to make a better world.
Please read my notes well. Don’t rush. Think about each word.
Also on these days, you can do tonglen—taking others sufferings and giving away one’s own happiness—then, also rejoicing. You can meditate on dependent arising (meaning, emptiness only) and develop bodhichitta. Of course, you can do self-initiation during this very special time according to the time in India.
If you want to know which lama and which text mentioned this, it was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s and His Eminence Sakya Trizin’s guru—Chobgye Trichen Rinpoche. Rinpoche referred to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching Dulwa Lung (‘dul ba lung) as saying that the number the merit multiplies by is 100 million. It is a great advantage to practice during these times; like for myself, who is the most extremely laziest person in this world.
Another very important practice to do on these days is taking the eight Mahayana precepts for one day until the next day at sunrise. That doesn’t mean necessarily until sunrise Indian time. It means sunrise at the place where you are; up until dawn, when the sun rises in your part of the world.
In case there are difficulties to keeping all eight precepts, perhaps due to work, for example, you can take the rest of the vows well. Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is so beneficial for world peace, for crops to grow well, to receive timely rains—all this is needed to make the world better. Then, there are incredible benefits for yourself. This is explained in the book of the eight Mahayana precepts. This is so important for your own life to be better and to make the world better, to bring benefit.
Written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, August 2017, United States. Edited by Michael D. Jolliffe for publication on FPMT.org.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.
Namgyalma mandala
The Namgyalma mantra is extremely powerful and is the main mantra to purify and liberate beings from the lower realms, purify negative karma, and help those who are dying or have died either by chanting it in their ear or placing it on their body.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has discussed many times its power and use to benefit sentient beings. The FPMT Foundation Store currently makes available several items featuring the Namgyalma mantra, including amulets, cards, and stickers.
- The Namgyalma and Lama Atisha Protection Amulet is a printed mantra packet that contains the Namgyalma Mantra Wheel and the Lama Atisha Protection Mantra. In addition to the benefits taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for each mantra, keeping this amulet close to one’s body protects one from harm and mental pollution.
This amulet also contains these powerful mantras: 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; and the Six Syllables of Clairvoyance Mantra, which after fifteen days upon seeing, purifies any heavy negative karma created in the past.
- The Namgyalma Mantra Card (seen above) is a colorful modern take on the Namgyalma mantra and comes in two sizes.
- The Namgyalma Mantra Car Sticker is meant to be put on your car so that when insects inevitably die as you drive, the Namgyalma mantra helps to purify their negative karma and support their good rebirth.
In addition, the Foundation Store offers a Vairochana Mantra card. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said, “Just by reciting this mantra one receives success, and one does not get harmed by weapons, fire, water, poisons, substances mixed with poisons, black magic, one cannot be harmed by kings, thieves, robbers, and so forth. Wherever this mantra is written and left, people do not receive sicknesses, harm and contagious diseases and will achieve the concentration called stainless light.”
The Foundation Store also offers Mantra Stickers—Protection From Negative Energies. There are three stickers available: the mani mantra, the Shakyamuni Buddha mantra, and also Kalachakra yantra.
Since all of these mantras are to be seen as holy objects, students are reminded to take care when placing the stickers, cards, and amulets, and demonstrate proper respect for them.
For more on mantras, visit FPMT Education’s “Mantra” resource page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/mantras/
Find more protection and practice items at the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended in early 2019 that it would be good for FPMT centers, projects, and services to have access to a particular image of the Wheel of Life. Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked that a translated verse be included with the image.
The verse reads:
Energetically undertake THIS and renounce THAT. The one who engages in this Dharma that subdues the mind VINAYA. Like an elephant in a mud hut, destroys the domain of the Lord of Death. The one who is extremely conscientious and careful engages in this Dharma that subdues, thoroughly abandoning the wheel of birth and bringing suffering to an end.
This image of the Wheel of Life was painted at Tushita Meditation Centre, India, at Rinpoche’s request. The creation of the painting was overseen by Jhado Rinpoche.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche considers this particular image of the Wheel of Life to be correct.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche also recommended that it would be good for FPMT centers, projects, and services to have access to an image of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha with the Seventeen Pandits.
The Seventeen Pandits, according to “The Seventeen Pandits of Nalanda Monastery” by the late FPMT student and Buddhist scholar Dr. James Blumenthal, “refers to a grouping of seventeen of the most important and influential Mahayana Buddhist masters from India’s past.”
Find the downloadable images of Wheel of Life and Guru Shakyamuni Buddha with the Seventeen Pandits by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Wheel-of-Life–PDF-_p_3203.html
https://shop.fpmt.org/Guru-Shakyamuni-Buddha-with-the-Seventeen-Pandits–PDF_p_3202.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 created the Flower Offering Card as a welcoming and explanatory sign for anyone visiting the gardens of his house in Aptos, California, United States. Rinpoche said that any student is welcome to use the same sign in front of their own offerings.
The card reads:
Every single flower here is offered to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, on behalf of every single sentient being in each realm, numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals in the numberless universes, every single fish in the ocean size as large as a mountain and ones who are so small that you can only see through a machine, numberless pitiful ants, numberless pitiful mosquitos, numberless pitiful maggots, slugs, tiny crabs at the beach and so forth, every animal, numberless human beings in different universes, numberless suras and asuras to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and the causes and to achieve peerless happiness, the cessation of all the obstacles and completion of all the realizations.
This means every single flower is every sentient being’s offering and this is similar with the water offerings, it is offered from every sentient being and is every sentient being’s water offering.
Thank you very much.
Find the Flower Offering Card in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Flower-Offering-Card_p_2532.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.
Students can now find two texts—Meditations on White Tara and A Meditation on Orange Manjushri—in ebook and PDF formats.
Meditations on White Tara contains practices to strengthen and restore health and life-force energy. By relying on White Tara, students are able to accumulate merit and purify negative karma in order accomplish their aims. If one has experienced many health problems, accidents, depression, or a loss of vitality, the practices of White Tara might be helpful.
These White Tara meditations can also be done on behalf of oneself or others, and are frequently done to remove obstacles to the long lives and health of one’s gurus.
A Meditation on Orange Manjushri includes “A Meditation on Orange Manjushri,” a short sadhana written by the Fifth Dalai Lama as well as “Practice to Receive the Seven Types of Wisdom.” These practices are considered excellent for developing wisdom and clarity, improving one’s memory, and for understanding and explaining Dharma to others.
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.