Study & Practice News

Lama Zopa Rinpoche making prayers in front of the new Atisha statue at Kadampa Center, North Carolina, USA. Lama Atisha was author of Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment, the first text that established the lamrim genre.

FPMT Education Services would like to remind you of several resources available to help you integrate the lamrim into daily life. We have created a webpage devoted to lamrim with links to free resources and texts to assist you in your study and practice.

“The most unbelievably important thing in our life is lamrim,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module “Advice for Realizing Lamrim,” which is part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lamrim program. “The practice of the three principal aspects of the path is the most important thing. This is the most important, more important than a job, money, or anything else in our life. It is the most important thing.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice suggesting that students follow a lamrim outline and meditate on each subject for two weeks or one month until all subjects have been completed. “The amount of time for meditation is up to the individual, but the general advice is to finish the lamrim in one year,” Rinpoche said. “To meditate like this each year—wow, wow, wow! That would be great.”

To help students follow this advice, we have created a schedule to help you plan daily lamrim meditation sessions over the course of a calendar year. It was created on the basis of the book The Essential Nectar by Geshe Rabten, which is available through the Foundation Store. The schedule is available as an Excel spreadsheet and PDF.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche meets the students of Root Institute’s Basic Program, Bodhgaya, India, January 2017. Photo courtesy of Root Institute.

“Root Institute is offering the residential Basic Program for the in-depth study of Buddhist philosophy and psychology,” shared spiritual program coordinator Ven. Khadro. “The design of the program means that participants are welcome to study one module, one year, or the whole program. And to study the subjects of the second year, it is not compulsory to study the subjects of first year—students can join the program at any stage. In our first year (2016–2017), a small, enthusiastic, and harmonious group of students gathered from all over the world to study with Geshe Rabga, a lharampa geshe from Lhowa Khamtsen at Sera Je Monastery, and our center’s first resident geshe.”

“Three subjects will be covered: ‘Tenets’ (September 4 to November 25) introduces the four main Buddhist philosophical schools; ‘Heart Sutra’ (November 27 to December 15) explores emptiness and the five Mahayana paths; and ‘Calm Abiding and Special Insight’ (January 15 to April 18) covers the concluding topics in Lama Tsongkhapa’s middling lamrim text.

Geshe Rabga

“Studying in Bodhgaya, where the Buddha manifested enlightenment, is extremely auspicious and brings great blessings. Typically, during our winter season, Root Institute has the great good fortune to host Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and to have visits from other high lamas and renowned teachers.

“Students are also able to participate in the other short courses of our spiritual program, which increases their understanding of Buddhism and affords the opportunity meet many like-minded people and create meaningful and rewarding friendships.”

Geshe Rabga teaches Basic Program, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, February 2017. Photo courtesy of Root Institute.

Find more information about Root Institute’s Basic Program:
http://www.rootinstitute.ngo/spiritual-programme?option=com_jevents&task=cat.listevents&offset=1&category_fv=37

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Vajrasattva. Artist unknown.

On Monday, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States. It will only be visible in other countries as a partial eclipse.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between earth and the sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the earth’s view of the sun.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises that on solar eclipses the merit generated is multiplied by 100 million and that any beneficial practices can be done.

In particular, Rinpoche recommends:

• Recitation of the names of the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas
• Vajrasattva mantras

Practices specifically recommended by Rinpoche for eclipses, and what are known as Buddha Multiplying Days, include:

• Taking the eight Mahayana precepts
• Doing nyung näs
• Performing the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha puja
• Reciting the Sutra for Remembering the Three Jewels

Of course, any other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, such as recitation of the Sanghata Sutra, Sutra of Golden Light, etc., with extensive dedications, are also good to do on these days. These texts are available on our sutras page. 

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Root Institute, Bodhgaya, February 2017. Excerpted from the video recording.

In February 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave a three-and-a-half hour teaching at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, on the essence of lojong, the Tibetan word for “thought transformation” or “mind training.”

In this new Living in the Path module “Transforming Kaka into Gold,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains a particular type of lojong practice that makes use of suffering and problems in the path to enlightenment. This practice involves changing our usual mindset of disliking and rejecting problems into one that sees problems as rare opportunities to engage in Dharma practice and come to want them, need them, and make use of them. In short, by doing this lojong practice we become able to transform kaka (suffering and problems, including cancer and impending death) into gold (a method for developing bodhichitta and attaining full enlightenment). As Rinpoche says:

Although the whole lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment, is lojong, there is a particular lojong found in the lamrim that utilizes obstacles and misfortunes in the path to enlightenment. Like transforming poison into medicine or transforming kaka into gold, by transforming obstacles, they become the utmost need in your life. All the obstacles to practicing Dharma, the misfortunes, and black magic, and when nothing is working and everything is stuck, by practicing the particular lojong from the lamrim you utilize these in the path to enlightenment, in the path to the happiness of all sentient beings, not just their temporary happiness but their ultimate happiness, the enlightenment of all sentient beings.

Watch a video excerpt “The Selfish Mind Makes Everything into an Enemy” from the course on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/1_hBGe_SicY

View or download a word-for-word transcript of the video.

All of the modules of the Living in the Path program are available on the FPMT Online Center. This program is ideal for anyone who wishes to deepen their personal practice and develop the realizations of the path to enlightenment by relying on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s heart advice and teachings. As the teachings often assume familiarity with the lamrim, participants are recommended to have previously received teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Living in the Path is an FPMT education program.

FPMT Education Services would like to remind students about an essential practice, Cultivating Mindfulness of Bodhichitta in Daily Activities, a collection of daily bodhichitta mindfulness practices.

In Cultivating Mindfulness of Bodhichitta in Daily Activities, Lama Zopa Rinpoche shows us how to take the essence of our precious human life by transforming our normal daily activities—such as sitting down, standing up, washing, and dressing—into a cause for enlightenment by accompanying them with a bodhichitta motivation to benefit all sentient beings.

As Rinpoche explains in the text:

Anyone who is seeking the state of omniscience needs to attend to the many methods for collecting merits and purifying delusions. The Omniscient One, who was very skillful and had great compassion for us sentient beings, explained that even the activities that we normally do—such as eating, sleeping, sitting, walking, and doing our jobs—can become ways to collect unfathomable virtue and skies of merit. With mindfulness of bodhichitta, they can become not only beneficial to oneself, but beneficial to all sentient beings. The Buddha explained this to us who do not have a bodhichitta realization. This is how everything we do can be dedicated to become a cause of happiness for all sentient beings. This is something that we can practice immediately. Then all the activities we do in the breaks between our lamrim meditations will be done with bodhichitta and the thought to make them beneficial for all sentient beings. Our daily activities will become a cause for us to attain omniscience so that we can liberate sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. 

This free downloadable PDF is available through the FPMT Foundation Store.

Students who would like to delve deeper into this topic are invited to start the Living in the Path course “Taking the Essence,” which includes the module “Bodhichitta Mindfulness.” This Online Learning Center module includes video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as an introduction to the practices by Ven. Sarah Thresher, additional readings, access to a discussion forum, and other helpful resources for those wishing to study and practice this material in an organized way.  

Living in the Path is an FPMT education program.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with IMI Sangha in Mexico, September 2015

July 27 is Chokhor Duchen, which is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar and marks the occasion of Buddha’s first teaching. Specific advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for practices to do on Buddha Multiplying Days such as Chokhor Duchen can be found here.

As merit is multiplied 100 million times on this holy day, it would be an excellent opportunity to follow Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme’s advice that students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offer recitations of the Vajra Cutter Sutra and Dependent Arising: A Praise of the Buddha (Tendrel Topa) for Rinpoche’s long life. 

Ven. Barbara participates in the Open Arms initiative, London, UK, September 2015. Photo courtesy of Jamyang Buddhist Centre.

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 the FPMT website.

Chokhor Duchen is also the day on which FPMT celebrates International Sangha Day!

Here are some suggested ways you can celebrate 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 Buddha Multiplying Day!

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Kopan Monastery, 2016. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

The achievement of both liberation from samsara and enlightenment depend on realizing emptiness—how the “I” and all phenomena do not exist at all from their own side, even though this is how they appear to us ordinary sentient beings.

In the new Living in the Path module “Are You Sitting on Your I?,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche speaks extensively about how the real I that appears to us is a total hallucination, how believing in a real I is the root of samsara, and how it is necessary to become free from this hallucination in order to achieve freedom from samsara and reach enlightenment.  

Rinpoche begins his teaching, given during the 2016 Kopan November Course, by pointing out that not only can a real I not be found anywhere, even a merely labeled I can’t be found anywhere, even though this I actually exists. In order to make this point clear, Rinpoche engages in a wonderful debate with the Kopan course teacher who has studied Madhyamaka philosophy extensively. Rinpoche manages to skillfully corner him with the consequence that if his merely labeled I is on his cushion — which the course teacher said it is — then he is sitting on his merely labeled I!

Watch the debate yourself on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLlWE_g_u8w

All of the modules of the Living in the Path program are available on the FPMT Online Center. This program is ideal for anyone who wishes to deepen their personal practice and develop the realizations of the path to enlightenment by relying on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s heart advice and teachings. As the teachings often assume familiarity with the lamrim, participants are recommended to have previously received teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Living in the Path is an FPMT education program.

Medicine Buddha, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, July 2014. Photo by Chris Majors.

The Inner Job Description Card (Mindfulness Practice Tool) was created to help those offering service to FPMT track their progress throughout the day as they attempt to develop the inner professional and subdue outer expressions of ignorance, anger, attachment, and selfish motivation. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains, “You have all these external professions—how to do this, how to do that from school, college, university—but without inner professionalism: how to live life, how to do everything mentally, how to do everything—business, professional activity, whatever you do—with pure attitude, positive mind, non-ignorance, non-anger, non-attachment, especially with the non-selfish mind.”

During the 2014 CPMT meeting in Bendigo, Australia, François Lecointre led a talk and meditation on the Inner Job Description. All are welcome to watch and participate via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0gYX3CL8Ew 

Inner Job Description Cards

• Inner Job Description Card (Mindfulness Practice Tool) a4 format
• Inner Job Description Card (Mindfulness Practice Tool) letter format
• “How to Be a Real Professional” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

You can also attend the Inner Job Description Service Seminar. Find out more on our Service Seminar page.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la enjoying lunch together in Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) is consulted every year for advice on practices to clear obstacles for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and long life. In 2016 she advised that all the students in all FPMT centers, projects, and services come together and offer a long life puja to Rinpoche and do 100,000 tsog offerings. This advice resulted in the beautiful long life puja held March 13 at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore. Khadro-la was not physically present at the long life puja, but the day before, she spontaneously composed a prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which was offered during the puja. The English translation of the prayer was read for all to hear while Rinpoche received the prayer in Tibetan. 

Pema Lhamo and Pema Samdrup

We are pleased to make the prayer available in a variety of languages and formats, including the newly revised English version with Tibetan phonetics and Tibetan script.

Recently, two Bhutanese singers, Pema Lhamo and Pema Samdrup, composed two tunes for this prayer, both of which Lama Zopa Rinpoche enjoyed. He asked that their recordings be played at big retreats during break times or while students are waiting in the gompa. He also asked that both or either of these tunes be learned and used when offering the prayer. We are delighted to offer Rinpoche’s students these lovely tunes—with music or with guitar—and we hope that you will download and learn them for your own practice. 

This year, Khadro-la advised that students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offer recitations of the Vajra Cutter Sutra and Dependent Arising: A Praise of the Buddha (Tendrel Topa) for Rinpoche’s long life. FPMT International Office has requested everyone to join in and keep track of their recitations during the rest of this Tibetan year. The total number of recitations will be offered to Rinpoche at a later date.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Dharma wheel painted by Gelek Sherpa

FPMT Education Services develops, reviews, and constantly improves a range of introductory to advanced Buddhist education programs available in FPMT centers and online; publishes practice materials in digital and hard copy formats; works with translators and editors to translate crucial texts; and oversees the registration process for and provides support to non-Tibetan teachers.

With all that we offer, we wanted to remind you of some of the services available to you and your Dharma community:

Education Programs

FPMT education programs help students learn, study, and meditate on the Dharma. We offer a range of Buddhist study programs, available in FPMT centers, as homestudy courses, or online through the FPMT Online Learning Center. From introductory courses to opportunities to study the highest philosophical texts, we provide everything needed to learn, practice, and fully realize the Buddha’s teachings.

Practice Materials

FPMT Education Services produces a variety of prayer books, practices, and texts available as hard copy materials and/or ebooks and PDF downloads. Most of our practice materials are offered  as free downloads or by donation only. 

Photo by Olivier Adam

Translations

FPMT Translation Services is responsible for overseeing the standardization of English translation terminology within the FPMT, revising existing translations, and managing the production of new translations. We work with translators around the world to translate Tibetan texts into various languages. If you would like to help fund this beneficial translation work, please see our FPMT Translation Fund.

Teachers

The Teacher Registration Committee is responsible for overseeing the registration process for teachers qualified to teach in FPMT centers, projects, and services; provides support to registered teachers; creates and adjusts teacher-related policies; and works with centers on teacher invites. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, “Offering qualified teachers, teaching the correct path to enlightenment, is one very powerful thing we can do for sentient beings. We are able to give sentient beings the correct path to enlightenment. In the world, even with Buddhism, there can be misunderstandings of the teachings, wrong teachings, and if one practices those, one can’t achieve and complete the path.”

We hope that you will take advantage of all that FPMT Education Services has available to support your Dharma study and practice.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Students can access FPMT Education materials, prayers, and practices in a variety of formats including ebooks. A wide selection of ebooks can be found at the Foundation Store and a growing number are being made available on the Amazon Kindle Store. 

One benefit of purchasing from the Amazon Kindle Store is that your purchase will be available in your Kindle Cloud Library and can be sent to any device on which you are able to read Kindle books. Additionally, your devices will sync, allowing you to pick up where you left off no matter what device you are using.

An advantage of obtaining ebooks directly from the Foundation Store is that each order comes with a copy of the mobi, epub and PDF versions of each title, which can be utilized according to your preferences and needs. 

We are particularly pleased to release Lama Chöpa Jorchö as an ebook. This practice is especially useful to FPMT students. “Practicing this Guru Puja [Lama Chöpa], which is an integration of the three deities, makes it much easier to achieve enlightenment in a brief life of this degenerated time, ” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains. “Doing this practice every day, with purification and many infinite skies of merit, brings the mind closer to the path to enlightenment and closer to enlightenment itself, and so much closer to freeing all sentient beings from obscurations and suffering and leading them to enlightenment. Putting the meaning of this into practice in ones life makes each day extremely rich and worthwhile.”

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, training seminars, and scholarships, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.