Education: The Heart of FPMT

Students can now find the short, middle-length, and long sadhanas of Vajrayogini composed by Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo available by donation through the Foundation Store in ebook and PDF formats.

Two versions of the short sadhana are available: A Short Daily Practice of Venerable Vajrayogini Naro Khechari, Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s original, and, Vajrayogini Short Sadhana, the same text arranged according to the instructions of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Vajrayogini Short Sadhana is part of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Practice Series, a special collection of practice materials that serves to present and preserve Rinpoche’s lineage of practice, oral instructions, and translations.

“[Vajrayogini] is the totally developed female aspect energy, female buddha, and the totality quality that is … beyond duality, beyond the energy of ego,” taught FPMT founder Lama Thubten Yeshe. “The purpose of this yoga method is to identify oneself with that divine totality quality. Thus, this method strongly emphasizes wisdom, to lead us on the quickest path to enlightenment.”

“This yoga method is so powerful. In this twentieth century we have super delusion, super sense concrete delusion, and especially super grasping at concrete sense pleasure. Thus, we are urgently, badly, in need of a wisdom method to transform it… This yoga method is for the transformation of emotion. Vajrayogini has a kind of super radiating red light body that has the quality of transforming all suffocated emotion, all blocked energy, transforming it into the divine quality.”

Note: In order to perform these practices, you must have received a highest yoga tantra initiation and the blessing initiation (jinlab) of Vajrayogini. 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 leading prostrations before teaching, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, November 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the complimentary Living in the Path module “The Eight Mahayana Precepts,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche shows us the importance of taking and keeping these special one-day vows based on the Mahayana motivation of bodhichitta. If you have not previously received the lineage of the eight Mahayana precepts from a teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given special permission to take the lineage from him via the video “Actual Ceremony for Taking the Precepts,” which is part of the course materials.

“Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is another 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. It’s not for a lifetime.”

In this short introductory video to the module, Ven. Paloma Alba explains the reason for taking the eight Mahayana precepts and the benefits of keeping them.

Watch “Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts—An Introduction” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/wDSbB3DHnsA

Ven. Paloma Alba (Tenzin Chokyi) did her first Buddhist course on the island of Ibiza in the Balearic Islands in 1982 and ordained in 1986. Since then she has offered service in a variety of FPMT centers in Spain, where she has also taught extensively. She is currently tutor for the FPMT Basic Program at Centro Nagarjuna Valencia in Valencia, Spain. Ven. Paloma is an FPMT registered teacher.

Living in the Path is an online lamrim course taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5

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.

Practicing the Five Powers Near the Time of Death by Lama Zopa Rinpoche is available through the Foundation Store in ebook and PDF formats.

Practicing the Five Powers Near the Time of Death contains advice and commentary to help ensure a peaceful death and positive rebirth. Although this book was intended for use by those facing imminent death, it is a deeply profound teaching on how to live life for anyone who wishes to make their life and eventual death most meaningful.

Rinpoche explains, “When you practice the five powers, every single thing you do is only for numberless sentient beings and therefore, everything you do only becomes the cause for achieving the peerless happiness of full enlightenment. This is the greatest profit that can be achieved with this life and so this practice is the most beneficial one for achieving peerless happiness. It means that every single action you do, whether it is meditation and prayers or doing your job, becomes the cause of happiness for all sentient beings. This means that you will have the best, happiest life now and also the best, happiest life in the future – like the sun shining in this world and eliminating all darkness.”

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 takes a pinch of chemar, a mixture of butter and roasted barley flour, in celebration of the new year, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The Fifteen Days of Miracles—from the first day of the Tibetan new year (Losar, February 24) until the fifteenth (March 9)—commemorate the special time when Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed miraculous powers in order to subdue six tirthika, or non-Buddhist teachers, who lacked faith in him, and to inspire more faith in his followers. It culminates on the full moon, the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, which is the actual day of Chotrul Duchen.

Losar is traditionally celebrated for three days, during which Tibetans spend time with friends and family, eat, play games, and relax. A number of rituals and customs have developed around it, such as the eating of a special soup called “guthug” on the 29th day of the last Tibetan month of the year, two days before Losar. In the monasteries, there is a Losar tradition to do the extensive Palden Lhamo puja before dawn.

The Fifteen Days of Miracles are also a time for pilgrimage and intensive Dharma practice. During this period, many Tibetan monasteries, including Kopan Monastery in Nepal, hold a Great Prayer Festival—Monlam Chenmo—for several days or even weeks during which the Sangha recite prayers from morning until evening.

This year, Losar falls on February 24. The Fifteen Days of Miracles continue through Chotrul Duchen on March 9.

All fifteen days are merit multiplying days, when the merit of virtuous actions performed on these days is multiplied by 100 million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche presides over a Losar puja, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Advice Specifically for Losar

For FPMT, Losar is a special time as it commemorates the anniversary of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe’s parinirvana at dawn of Losar in 1984. Lama Zopa Rinpoche asks centers to offer students the opportunity to offer extensive Lama Chopa with tsog in honor of this anniversary. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that one generates incredible merit by offering tsog on that occasion every year. This Losar marks thirty-six years since the passing of Lama.

Rinpoche also recommends that centers host annual events to introduce new students to Lama Yeshe. These events might include students who knew Lama Yeshe sharing their favorite stories, watching videos of Lama teaching, or reading stories about Lama.

Lama Yeshe, Lake Arrowhead, California, United States, 1975. Photo by Carol Royce-Wilder, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Advice for the Fifteen Days of Miracles

Students can find Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for the Fifteen Days of Miracles collected here. Advice for merit multiplying days in general can be found here. (Advice for merit multiplying days can also be found in French.)

If the members of your community decide to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on these special days, we invite them to report their recitations on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.

Losar Tashi Delek! Happy Tibetan New Year!

Please keep in mind: According to the late 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 merit multiplying days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.

On merit multiplying days, the FPMT Puja Fund sponsors, on behalf of the entire FPMT, 6,000 monks at Sera Lachi; 3,400 monks at Ganden Lachi; 4,200 monks at Drepung Lachi; 650 monks at Gyurme Tantric College; and 600 monks at Gyuto Tantric College to perform various prayers and pujas. These prayers are dedicated to all FPMT centers, projects, and services; all students, volunteers, and those who offer service in FPMT; and to all beings in general. Offerings are also made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to sangha in FPMT international sangha communities. On Losar and the Fifteen Miracle Days of Chotrul Duchen specifically, the FPMT Puja Fund additionally offers a full set of robes to all FPMT geshes and monastic resident teachers; offers lunch and money to 400 nuns and 370 monks at Kopan Nunnery and Monastery on Losar; and offers money to the Kopan nuns and monks during the Monlam Chenmo.

Special thanks to the Liberation Prison Project for preparing this year’s Tibetan calendar. A limited view of the calendar is always available on “Dharma Practice Dates” as a courtesy to FPMT students around the world.

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Saviese, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given advice regarding merit multiplying days such as the Fifteen Days of Miracles, Saka Dawa, Chokhor Duchen, and Lhabab Duchen. In 2020, the Fifteen Days of Miracles takes place February 24 through March 9.

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.

Students can now find A Brief Meditation-Recitation on Guru Medicine Buddha, written and arranged by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, in the Foundation Store in PDF and ebook formats.

In 2018, Rinpoche encouraged FPMT to make the text “immediately, immediately” available for the benefit of students around the world. Anyone can practice the text, with slight modifications for students without initiations.

A Brief Meditation-Recitation on Guru Medicine Buddha begins with requests to the Medicine Buddhas composed by Rinpoche and follows with recitation of their holy names; recitation of either—or all of—the long, middle-length, or short Medicine Buddha mantra; and recitation of the mantra of Tathagata Stainless Excellent Gold and other dharani-mantras, extracted from the Fifth Dalai Lama’s The Wish-Granting Sovereign: A Ceremony for Worshiping the Seven Sugatas. The practice concludes with prayers, requests, and dedications also authored by Rinpoche.

Rinpoche has consistently taught that Medicine Buddha practice is beneficial for anyone who is dying, sick, injured, or who has already died, and for success in general.

Find A Brief Meditation-Recitation on Guru Medicine Buddha on the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/A-Brief-Meditation-Recitation-on-Guru-Medicine-Buddha-PDF_p_3121.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 Meditation-Recitation of Black Manjushri, composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and translated by the official Italian translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and a senior translator for the FPMT Masters Program and Basic Program Fabrizio Pallotti Champa Pelgye, is now available by donation through the Foundation Store in ebook and PDF formats.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches that there are many benefits associated with the practice: “This meditation-recitation averts all spells, cursing spirits, black magic, and curses of the ancient writings. It averts all epidemics and infectious diseases, spirits and interferers, evil demons, and bad astrological charts. It averts [the effects] of the ritual master of the sangha assembly performing wrathful rituals and initiations without first subduing the ground. It averts all types of uncleanliness and pollution from corpses, defilements, masonry work, and the demolishing of old houses. In short, all evils, negative beings, bad business transactions, and so forth—whatever one may think of—is all averted by this meditation-recitation. It also cures internal illnesses, tumors, phlegm diseases, and so forth.”

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 Amitabha Buddha Festival, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Omak, Washington, United States. Photo by Chris Majors.

In the complimentary Living in the Path module “Bodhichitta Mindfulness,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche shows students how to take the essence of our precious human life by transforming our normal daily activities—walking, washing, dressing, etc.—into a cause of enlightenment by doing them with a bodhichitta motivation to benefit all sentient beings.

“The sutra explains that in the morning when one wakes up, the very first thing to do when one wakes up from sleep is to think, ‘May all sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya,'” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches. “The minute you wake up, you should think that. Maybe the eyes are still closed, the mind woke up but the eyes are still closed—I’m joking—remember that.”

“Then when you get dressed, think, ‘May all sentient beings wear the dress of shyness and shame.’ …

“When you put on a belt, think, ‘May sentient beings’ minds be bound by the three higher trainings.’ These are the higher trainings of morality, concentration, and special insight. Because that is what is said in sutra, when you release a belt, think, ‘May sentient beings be freed from the bondage of karma and delusions.’

“When you lay down to go to bed, ‘May sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya.’ Then the same thing when you see a stupa. When you see a stupa or other holy object, think, ‘May all sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya.’ When you see a holy object such as a Buddha statue, ‘May all sentient beings achieve enlightenment quickly.’ You can dedicate like that.”

“Bodhichitta Mindfulness” is available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/view.php?id=120

Living in the Path is an online lamrim program taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5

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

Monks making light offerings, Bodhgaya, India, May 2008. Photo by Olivier Adam.

In the complimentary Living in the Path module “Making Offerings,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives inspiring explanations on how to take the essence of our precious human life by making offerings to the guru and the Three Rare Sublime Ones—the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

“If you offer to a statue of Buddha, or a scripture, or a stupa, or a picture, no matter how big they are, no matter how small they are, if you offer to them one grain or one tiny flower… Even if it is without a bodhichitta motivation, even without Dharma, neither bodhichitta nor renunciation to achieve liberation from samsara, nor the motivation to achieve the happiness of future lives, not even that—without any Dharma motivation; even if the motivation is totally black, totally the eight worldly dharmas, seeking the happiness of this life, nothing else—if you offer one grain or one tiny flower to a holy object, no matter how big or small it is, the minute you offer it you collect [merit] and it becomes the cause of enlightenment. Immediately, it becomes the cause of enlightenment,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module.

“Here, when [this text] talks about offerings becoming virtue and the cause of enlightenment, it doesn’t depend on the motivation being virtue. In these exceptional cases, like circumambulation and making offerings to even statues, stupas, or pictures of Buddha, it immediately becomes the cause of enlightenment. That means it becomes the cause of the happiness of future lives, not just the happiness of one life but hundreds of thousands of happinesses in future lives, such as a good rebirth and many things. It becomes many happinesses of future lives, then ultimate happiness—liberation from samsara; all happiness and, as I mentioned before, enlightenment.”

Watch “Offerings Cause Enlightenment” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/2tlAmIvSYqg

“Making Offerings” is available on the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/view.php?id=119

Living in the Path is an online lamrim course taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5

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 blessing the ocean at a harbor in Singapore, November 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the complimentary Living in the Path module “Atisha’s Light of the Path,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche briefly recounts the life story of Atisha and the circumstances under which Atisha composed Light of the Path to Enlightenment, and then explains the three capable beings and how to ensure that our actions become Dharma.

“All the 84,000 teachings, which come in three levels, all are integrated. [The three levels] created so much confusion in Tibet, but Atisha integrated all of this very simply, like lunch; like food made and set on the table for you to eat, so all you have to do is eat. Lama Atisha integrated them all in a few pages, very simply. He made it very clear how all this—the Hinayana, the Mahayana Paramitayana, the Mahayana Secret Mantra Vajrayana—is a graduated practice for one person to achieve enlightenment. There is nothing contradictory for that person. Everything is advice. Everything is practice. All three levels are a graduated practice for one person to achieve enlightenment, presented very simply in a few pages.”

Watch “Like Lunch on the Table” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/YNpKGPSFjvY

“Atisha’s Light of the Path” is available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/view.php?id=134

Living in the Path is an online lamrim course taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5

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 blessing food, Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the complimentary Living in the Path module “Offering Food and Drink,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives teachings on taking the essence of a perfect human life by making offerings of whatever food and drink we consume.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is well known for the extensive visualizations, offering prayers, and dedications he does before eating and drinking. In fact, the actual eating and drinking seem of little importance to Rinpoche, whereas what is important to him is to use the food and drink he is about to consume as an opportunity to create the most extensive merit possible. In this teaching, Rinpoche begins with an extensive motivation based on the three principal aspects of the path. The actual visualization and prayers of the food offering practice are based on how Rinpoche himself does them, although apparently condensed, given that Rinpoche says, “Personally, I do like this, just to say a little bit.”

Watch “How I Offer Food – Motivation, Part 1” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/FuYQhA3Cs_c

“Offering Food and Drink” is available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/view.php?id=123

Living in the Path is an online lamrim course taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5

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.

Past and present members of the FPMT Spanish Translation Service, 2010. Photo courtesy of Marina Brucet.

Marina Brucet, former coordinator of the FPMT Spanish Translation Service (Servicio de Traducción), discusses the service’s return after a brief hiatus.

After a few years of pause, we are happy to announce that the FPMT Spanish Translation Service has returned. We will continue the task of translating and distributing FPMT Dharma practice texts and study programs in Spanish so that more and more students can benefit.

Quite a lot of practice texts have been translated or updated and made available in the Foundation Store.

Also, a new collaboration is starting with Mexico in order to adapt the texts to the Spanish in different regions. We have inaugurated translations into Catalan, starting with the Heart Sutra (el Sutra del cor) and others.

Teresa Vega will continue now with the coordination of the FPMT Spanish Translation Service. We feel a deep gratitude towards the people who, on a volunteer basis, have and are making it possible; towards Isabel Arocena, who is making it possible thanks to her incredible generosity; and especially towards those who began the FPMT Spanish Translation Service and started this marvelous and beneficial task—Beatriz Guergué and Ven. Nerea Basurto.

Después de unos años de pausa, estamos muy contentos de anunciar que el Servicio de Traducción de la FPMT hispana ha empezado a funcionar de nuevo. Continuaremos la labor de traducir y distribuir los textos de práctica de dharma de la FPMT, así como sus programas de estudio, para que más y más estudiantes se puedan beneficiar de ello.

Se han traducido y actualizado bastantes textos de práctica, que se han puesto a disposición en la tienda en línea de la Foundation Store.

Además, se ha empezado una colaboración con México para adaptar los textos al español de distintas regiones, y se han inaugurado traducciones al catalán, empezando por el Sutra del cor y otros.

Teresa Vega continuará a partir de ahora con la coordinación del Servicio de Traducción. Nos sentimos enormemente agradecidos a las personas que, de forma voluntaria, lo han hecho y lo están haciendo posible; a Isabel Arocena, quien lo hace posible gracias a su increíble generosidad; y especialmente a aquellas personas que iniciaron el Servicio de Traducción y empezaron esta maravillosa labor, de tan gran beneficio, Beatriz Guergué y V. Nerea Basurto.

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.