Study & Practice News

Beautiful offerings to holy objects at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington State, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.

The creation of holy objects for world peace is a key priority among Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization. FPMT Education Services makes available many resources related to creating and offering to holy objects. 

Holy objects purify negativities and create merit for all who come into contact with them. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, “My wish is for FPMT to build many holy objects everywhere, as many as possible. Making it so easy for sentient beings to purify their heavy negative karma and making it so easy for sentient beings to create extensive merit. Which makes it so easy to achieve the realizations of the path and so easy to achieve liberation and enlightenment.” 

Holy objects and extensive offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling. Photo by Chris Majors.

Holy Object Resources

• Prayer Wheels
• Prayer Flags
• Relics
• Stupas
• Statues
• Thangkas
• Tsa-Tsas
• Information on microfilm for stupas and prayer wheels
• Guide for filling and consecrating your holy object
• To order Buddhist microfilm

Further Reading on Holy Objects

• Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice regarding holy objects can be found on his Advice Page as well as on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s Online Advice Book.
• “Benefits of Having Many Holy Objects” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• “The Benefits of Making Prayer Wheels” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Benefits and Practices Related to Stupas and Statues Part 1
• Benefits and Practices Related to Stupas and Statues Part 2
• Benefits and Practices Related to Stupas and Statues Part 3
• “An Essay on Relics” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• “Essential Mantras for Holy Objects” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice on Circumambulation compiled by Ven. Sarah Thresher
• Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated “Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas,” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas.
• The Wheel of Great Compassion: The Practice of Prayer Wheel in Tibetan Buddhism edited by Lorne Ladner, foreword by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

• Extensive auspicious offerings are made to holy objects by many FPMT centers, projects and services around the world. Please rejoice in some of this amazing activity. 

You can explore more resources and information about holy objects:
fpmt.org/education/practice/holy-objects

By contributing toward the building of statues, stupas, prayer wheels and large thangkas the Holy Objects Fund contributes to world peace and harmony in a very unique way.

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 blessing and offering a meal in California, November, 2015

This time of year means, for many, an increase in festive meals celebrated with friends and family. There are a variety of ways to enjoy your meal while still practicing virtue.

FPMT Education Services makes available a collection of practices, Food Offering Practices, which includes an extensive food offering practice, general food offering prayers, and the yogas of eating food according to Hinayana, Mahayana sutra, and Mahayana tantra. 

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

Whatever your traditions this time of year, you can make each meal a meaningful offering for yourself and others. Enjoy!

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 Lama Yeshe conducting a long life puja at end of the First Enlightened Experience Celebration, Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, May 1982. Photo by Bill Kane.

Every organization has its own distinctive culture. Around the world, in FPMT centers, projects and services, reflected in policies, charitable giving, and educational programs, FPMT “Wisdom Culture” remains at the heart of all activity.

Wisdom Culture signifies a fusion of two perfectly unique presentations of Buddhist philosophy epitomized in the life-work of our founders, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Their collective presentations are reflected in the “study-practice-service” teaching format perfected in the month-long Kopan meditation courses in Nepal, which began in 1971.

Lama Yeshe felt so strongly that Wisdom Culture defined FPMT that he included “for Wisdom Culture” in the names of early centers and projects. For example, Chenrezig Institute in Australia began as Chenrezig Institute for Wisdom Culture and Wisdom Publications, now in the United States, began as Publications for Wisdom Culture. 

The term “Wisdom Culture” is now not used as widely as it was during Lama Yeshe’s time. In this age of abbreviations and e-speak, it is possibly viewed as too lengthy an appendage to attach to center and project names. However, while Lama Yeshe’s vocabulary was sometimes unconventional, it was extraordinarily accurate. Lama Yeshe explained:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe, Chenrezig Institute, Australia, 1975. Photo by Nick Ribush, restoration by David Zinn.

What we normally understand as the meaning of “culture” is the relative mind or spirit, the collective illusions of a certain land or people. It actually has nothing to do with the wisdom truth of Dharma. If we stretch the meaning we could say that Dharma is the “culture” of our progressively developing wisdom. I was brought up in a great culture that is two thousand years old. Now I am working with Westerners. I think the meeting of East and West is on a gross level, but could be worked progressively towards a finer level of understanding. I think we must work towards a wisdom culture.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching methods typify a detailed, traditional presentation of Buddhism enlivened by Rinpoche’s yogi-like conduct. About the purpose of FPMT, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said:

The conclusion is for all the people to practice the lamrim, which is the heart of Dharma. Especially to try to put all the effort to live with bodhichitta motivation, in particular to have kindness to others, which is the most essential practice. Aiming to have the realization of bodhichitta as our main goal, of course based on guru devotion.

Between Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, we find the entire spectrum of possible ways in which to fully develop one’s highest potential. Wisdom Culture is rooted in the joy, love, and utter dedication to the service of others that both Lamas embody and inspire, as well as constant emphasis on navigating the road map of mental development outlined in the structured teachings of the “Graduated Path” or “lamrim.”

FPMT Wisdom Culture, which is a reflection of that spectrum, is summarized in the following way:

• Openness and breadth in presenting the Dharma. Lama Yeshe’s teaching style was non-traditional, yet completely pure in source and content. Lama Yeshe made the Dharma accessible according to the individual culture and needs of a particular student.

• Detail and depth of instruction. Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching style emphasizes how to practice and make each moment deeply meaningful through an emphasis on guru devotion; bodhichitta motivation; intensive practices to purify negativities and accumulate merit; and actualizing the lamrim teachings in the heart, not just through intellectual study. 

• Constant practice of merit accumulation and purification. These practices are emphasized as essential to bringing temporal happiness and preparing the mind for realization.

• Reliance on tantra; encouraging students to have spiritual confidence.

• Respect and support for ordained Sangha. We consider ordained Sangha essential to the tradition.

• Cultivation of a close family feeling. FPMT is a worldwide family of practitioners, united by our culture, devotion to our teachers, and standard practice materials.

• Thinking big. Lama Yeshe taught: “Anything is possible. Everything is possible.”

• Big love. Cherishing others. Imparting a universal love for all beings. 

FPMT Education Services is dedicated to preserving and innovating integrated education programs, practice materials, and training seminars true to Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s unique tradition of Wisdom Culture.

Lama Yeshe teaching at University of California at Santa Cruz, 1978. Photo by Jon Landaw.

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.

Shakyamuni Buddha with offerings, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.

Lhabab Duchen, one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, takes place this year on Sunday, November 20.

Lhabab Duchen celebrates when Lord Buddha actually descended from the God Realm of Thirty-Three after teaching his mother and the gods living there Dharma for several months. As a Buddha Multiplying Day, karmic results of actions on this day are multiplied 100 million times. This amazing result is sourced by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Please keep in mind that 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 Buddha Days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.

FPMT Education Services thought you might like a reminder of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended practices for these special days. Specific advice for practices to do on the Buddha Multiplying Days can be found on the FPMT website, including new advice to recite the Sutra for Remembering the Three Jewels. If you choose to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on this special day, you might like to report your recitations using the facility on the FPMT website, which you can find on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.

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.

Practice for Buddha Multiplying Days: fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/practice-on-the-four-great-holy-days/

Sutra of Golden Light: fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/sutras/golden-light-sutra/

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 recently updated the design of a Samantabhadra protection card for one’s wall. FPMT Education Services is pleased to make this protection card available as a printable PDF. 

Rinpoche advises, “By displaying this card, all the outer and inner evil enemies (living beings or bad feng shui) are stopped. It was said by Vajradharma, who is the all knowing one, that this instruction can stop any kind of harm, including the nine harms. By displaying this protection in the house, activities that take place in the house and have no meaning will become meaningful and virtue will be created. In this way, having this protection in the home becomes good feng shui, a way of creating an auspicious environment.” 

This protection comes from the great lama Thugyen Chokyi Nyima. According to Rinpoche, “It eliminates bad things, creates outer and inner success, and can also prevent all the bad extremes of the earth.” 

Regarding the artwork, Rinpoche explains, “The main deity is the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, white in color, riding an elephant, his two hands carrying a container filled with piles of jewels. Above are the three types of deities: Chenrezig, Vajrapani, and Manjushri. On one side is Hayagriva and on the other is Lion-Faced Dakini. Below are the two kinds of garudas: Multi-Colored Garuda and Black Garuda.” 

The FPMT Foundation Store carries many items for one’s protection and the protection of others. 

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 Tsongkhapa statue at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residence, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California. Lama Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) is the founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Je Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo or The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path is one of the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist classics. Photo by Chris Majors.

“The most unbelievably important thing in our life is lam-rim,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches in the module “Advice for Realizing Lam-rim,” which is part of Living in the Path, FPMT Education Services’ essential lam-rim 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.”

FPMT Education Services would like to remind you of several lam-rim resources available to help you in this most important task of integrating the lam-rim into daily life:

We have created a webpage devoted to lam-rim with links to free resources and texts to assist you in your study and practice. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the teaching throne during the lam-rim retreat, Guadalajara, Mexico, September 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

You can find “Lam-rim Is the Most Important Thing,” which includes a short video clip of Rinpoche teaching, on FPMT’s Online Learning Center:
http://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/mod/page/view.php?id=4536

Additionally, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice suggesting that students follow a lam-rim 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 lam-rim 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 lam-rim 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, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

In the Living in the Path module “Realizing the Lam-rim,” students can find “This Is Going to Happen to You,” a free course based on Pabongka Rinpoche’s Heart Spoon, one of the most graphic and heart-wrenching poems on death ever written.

The Heart Spoon, with its strong language and disturbing images, is a clear admonishment to stop postponing our practice of virtue and use our lives well. “It is meditation on impermanence and death that persuade us to practice Dharma,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains. “Otherwise, we will continue to wait for the perfect conditions, thinking, ‘Not now, but later I will practice Dharma.'” 

The text is meant to be “taken personally” and taken to heart. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises, it is best read, thinking, “This is going to happen to me.”

The course’s format encourages students to not only read and listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings, but to deepen their personal understanding and experience through meditation and practice. For this reason, course readings are interspersed with guidelines for meditation, for keeping the teachings present throughout the day with mindfulness practices, and for offering service to others.

In a 20-minute video, “This Is Going to Happen to You: The Inevitability of Death,” Ven. Amy Miller introduces Heart Spoon and discusses the nature of death and more. 

Watch “This Is Going to Happen to You: The Inevitability of Death” on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVW_owiEVAc&feature=youtu.be

All of the modules of 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 lam-rim, participants are recommended to have previously received teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Ven. Amy Miller (Lobsang Chodren) attended the one-month lam-rim November course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in 1987 and ordained in 2000. She has offered service in a variety of FPMT centers since 1992 and has led pilgrimages to India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim. She has completed the FPMT Basic Program and is the co-author of Buddhism in a Nutshell and a contributor to Living in the Path. Ven. Amy is an FPMT registered teacher.

Living in the Path is an FPMT program taught exclusively by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the FPMT. Plans are underway to also draw from the teachings of Lama Yeshe, FPMT’s founder, to offer a program that preserves the entire FPMT lineage.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche painting mantras onto rock, Manali, India, July 2013. Photo by Maya.

FPMT Education Services makes available many commonly used mantras, which students can download freely for their personal use. 

Mantras, meaning “mind protection,” are Sanskrit syllables usually recited in conjunction with the practice of a particular meditational deity. As they embody the qualities of the deity with whom they are associated, they bring benefit to all who see, touch, hear or speak them and can even help eliminate obstacles to one’s progress on the path.

For extensive advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about the benefits and protective qualities of particular mantras, please visit the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book and FPMT.org for Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

If you are in need of mantras not listed on this page, feel free to contact FPMT Education Services at education@fpmt.org and we will do our best to get you what you need. 

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 during a long life puja at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, March 13, 2016. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

It is said that making sincere requests for one’s guru to live long and to continue teaching creates the causes and conditions needed to receive benefit from that teacher for a very long time. With this in mind, we wanted to remind you of the long life prayers we have available for Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Rinpoche has suggested that “Bestowing Supreme Immortality” is particularly effective as it was composed by Rinpoche’s root guru, His Holiness Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la having tea after long life puja at Kopan Monastery, April 29, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

FPMT Education Services offers a number of other long life prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche on our website, all of which can be used in personal practice. We now have the long life prayer that Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) spontaneously composed for Rinpoche’s long life available in English with Tibetan phonetics, Tibetan, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese. 

In 1989, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered advice in response to requests by students to help them understand how best to prolong the life of the guru and how to avoid creating obstacles that can cause the guru sickness and a shortened life. 

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.

The main topic of the Living in the Path module “Everything Comes from Mind” is summed up by Lama Zopa Rinpoche: “The view of Buddhism, Buddhist philosophy, the very foundation, the very essence, is that everything comes from your mind.” 

But how does everything come from mind? In this module, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains that everything that appears to us comes from our karma–the mental factor of intention–as well as from our mind labeling phenomena and our mind projecting the hallucination of true existence on phenomena. The teachings also include a variety of methods to help stop anger and develop patience based on understanding karma and emptiness.

In a short video, “Mind: The Creator,” just one of several videos included in the module, Ven. Robina Courtin, in her usual engaging and dynamic style, introduces the Buddha’s explanation of mind and karma.

Watch “Mind: The Creator” on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL_2yXFv-Mk

All of the modules of 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 lam-rim, participants are recommended to have previously received teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

FPMT registered teacher Ven. Robina Courtin met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1976 and ordained in 1977. She has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of Mandala magazine, director of the Liberation Prison Project, and now teaches extensively around the world.

Living in the Path is an FPMT program taught exclusively by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the FPMT. Plans are underway to also draw from the teachings of Lama Yeshe, FPMT’s founder, to offer a program that preserves the entire FPMT lineage.

FPMT Education Services is pleased to announce the release of Cultivating Mindfulness of Bodhichitta in Daily Activities, a collection of essential 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 lam-rim 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. 

Rinpoche has been teaching these mindfulness practices at various retreats and teaching events for the past several years and has been gradually adding more practices and advice to this collection. Rinpoche strongly emphasizes that these are beneficial practices to be done in daily life as well as in a retreat setting.

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

Students who would like to delve deeper into this topic are invited to engage in 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.  

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.

Participants of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2016 Light of the Path Retreat in North Carolina. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“By entering into retreat, we enter into a situation where it is possible to fulfill our basic human potential and develop all the positive qualities within us. Retreat gives one the time and the space to allow for the growth of this basic human quality,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in Heart Advice for Retreat. “There will always be problems and dissatisfaction as long as we think that the causes of happiness and the causes of suffering lie outside ourselves. But the experiences of our life – and what the omniscient mind says – tell us that the source of happiness is within one’s own mind. You can find satisfaction, peace and happiness only within your own mind. Therefore, retreat and meditation practice become the ultimate solution for any and all of our problems.”

For those who are interested in engaging in long and short retreat, FPMT Education Services would like to remind students about the many resources available to them. 

Heart Advice for Retreat eBook

The great Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo said, “Knowing Dharma is not enough; you must practice.” This collection, Heart Advice for Retreat, is a must-have for all practitioners, especially those engaging in longer retreats. Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers advice and commentary on the essential aspects of retreat and how to bring about the result of enlightenment. 

FPMT Retreat Prayer Book PDF

FPMT Retreat Prayer Book is an essential book for FPMT teaching events, pilgrimages, and personal daily practices and retreats. The collection is made up of prayers and practices drawn from various FPMT materials.

Retreat Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche PDF

Retreat Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a compilation of essential instructions and commentary for those interested in retreat. 

Retreat Advice from Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo PDF

Retreat Advice from Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo contains three separate lam-rim texts with heart instructions for how to make the most out of retreat. Includes detailed explanation of how to meditate on the stages of the path to gain realizations. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has advised that this is an essential retreat companion as well as important instructions for practicing in daily life.

Schedule for Three Day Lam-rim Retreat PDF

Schedule for Three Day Lam-rim Retreat provides a comprehensive schedule for completing a three-day, six-day, nine-day or longer lam-rim retreat according to the instructions of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Rituals and Procedures for Commencing Retreat PDF

Rituals and Procedures for Commencing Retreat includes practice instructions for both commencing and finishing any retreat from Lama Yeshe, Pabongka Rinpoche and Jampa Trinley Tenzin Gyatso.