Education: The Heart of FPMT

Sanghata Sutra

The Sanghata Sutra is a Mahayana sutra containing stories illustrating the power of invoking the bodhisattva wish when interacting with others; and the power of past and present actions to produce expansive results. Imbued with the blessings of the power of prayer invoked by Shakyamuni Buddha himself, recitation of this sutra produces a great mass of positive karma that can quickly ripen, even in this life.

“Probably I don’t need to tell you what the text says about how much merit you collect each time you hear this sutra,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche remarks. “Each time you hear it, how much merit do you collect? First of all, one buddha has completed the merit of wisdom and the merit of virtue—there is nothing more to collect … and then how many buddhas? The number of buddhas equaling the number of sands of grain in the Ganga River times twelve. And these sand grains are not ordinary grains of sand. It is explained in the teachings, in the great enlightened Phabongkha Rinpoche’s notes, that these grains are made of extremely subtle atoms. There are seven kinds of subtle atoms, water atoms, earth atoms, and so forth. These sand grains are much, much finer than what we usually think.

“In addition to that, when it comes to talking about the benefits of bodhichitta, or the benefits of the Arya Sanghata Sutra, the Ganga does not refer to the Indian River Ganges. It refers to the Pacific Ocean. Now, that many numbers of buddhas times twelve. The merit of just one set of buddhas equaling the number of sand grains in the River Ganga, even just one set—how much merit that is … is beyond words, unimaginable. Even just the merit that one buddha has collected is beyond words. So, now, beyond that, the merit that you collect every time you hear the Arya Sanghata Sutra is equal to twelve times the merit of the number of buddhas as there are sand grains in the River Ganga.

“So, that is just by hearing it. This means that anyone hearing it—animals, frogs, birds, so no question about pets like your beautiful cat, your darling cat, even spirits—collects that much merit. Can you imagine? It is like an impossible thing in the life that happens. When those animals, your cat and other animals, hear you recite Buddha’s teachings, it definitely makes them to receive higher rebirth and to meet Dharma.

“The very minute you hear it, the five uninterrupted negative karmas—the extremely heavy negative karmas that right after death, immediately without interruption of another life, you get born into hell; you get reborn in the lowest hot hell, which has the heaviest suffering of the lower realms, of which the life span lasts for one intermediate eon—those get completely purified. This happens even for the sentient beings who hear the sutra, the minute they hear the sutra. …”

Find the Sanghta Sutra in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Sanghata-Sutra-English-_p_603.html

Learn more about the Sanghata Sutra on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/sutras/sanghata-sutra-in-various-languages/

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.

Namgyalma mantra

The Namgyalma mantra on this full-color card printed on pearlized paper 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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has discussed many times its power and use to benefit sentient beings.

“If you put this mantra in a stupa or on a banner inside the house or above the roof, the negative karma of the insects or people who are touched by the shadow of the banner or the stupa are purified, and they are liberated from the lower realms,” Rinpoche has taught. “Also, the wind that touches this stupa or banner or statues with this mantra inside will purify the negative karma to experience rebirth in the lower realms, as soon as it touches any being. They are not reborn in the lower realms.

“If the Namgyalma mantra is on a mountain, the negative karma of all the insects or people who walk on that mountain are purified. It is also mentioned that if you have the Namgyalma mantra in your house, the house becomes purified and blessed, and the same applies to your car. It is very good to have the Namgyalma mantra in your car, because any insects or people who touch the car will be purified. There is no question about how much purification there is when sentient beings recite this mantra, touch this mantra, or keep it on their bodies.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche describes more benefits of the Namgyalma mantra on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/8hZg9Me_Ogs

Find more Namgyalma mantra items in the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/search.asp?keyword=namgyalma+mantra&search=

For more on mantras, visit FPMT Education’s mantra resource page:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/texts/mantras/

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

How to Make Charity to Ants was compiled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and is inspired by a text written by Ngulchu Dharmabhadra, a well-known yogi and lineage lama. Using food, visualization, blessed substances, and mantras, students can free ants from the lower realms and plant the seeds of enlightenment in their mind streams.

“I go for walks for my diabetes; His Holiness the Dalai Lama has told me to do so,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche shares. “Twice, during my walks up a mountain at the Washington retreat place, I saw two nests of ants covered by short dry grass; they were next to a rock, and there were one or two ants outside the nests. Now it is winter, so there will be snow for a long time, and the grass helps protect the ants from the rain and snow. Amazing! Even the ants know that the grass prevents the water from leaking inside; they made it this way. Human beings use grass on the roofs of their huts; I was very surprised that ants could think of that too, their bodies being so tiny.”

But Rinpoche reminds students, “The ants cannot practice lamrim; there is no way for them to learn. You can explain to them for 1 billion eons day and night without break for even a second that the cause of happiness is virtue, but there is no way they can learn.” By relying on this short practice, students can benefit ants despite the limitations of the ant mind.

How to Make Charity to Ants is available by donation through the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Charity-to-Ants_p_1430.html

Read more on FPMT.org about how Lama Zopa Rinpoche has cared for ants in the past:
https://fpmt.org/tag/ants/

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.

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 Secreted Advanced Practices of Vajrayogini, The Quick Path to Great Bliss, and A Compilation of Tsog Offerings to Vajrayogini.

The Secreted 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 pre-printed 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-Protection-Tool-for-a-Fortunate-Rebirth-_p_872.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 Mantra Card

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/teachings/texts/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.