receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Study & Practice News
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing and offering a meal in California. November, 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Eating and drinking is an essential part of daily life for most living beings. By taking a few minutes to offer what we are about to consume, we can create merit and transform a seemingly mundane activity into a blessing. The Words of Requesting and Offering to One’s Own Kind Root Guru (Garsha Drink Offering) provides an opportunity to offer drinks of any kind to our own kind guru.
The first verse was composed by Kachen Yeshe Gyältsen and translated and amended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who felt that taking the Kachen Yeshe Gyältsen verses of offering to the Buddha and applying them to one’s own guru, this would help students view the virtuous friend as Buddha. The second and third verses were composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
This Garsha Drink Offering practice can be found as a free downloadable PDF on the FPMT Foundation Store.
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.
Mipham Jamyang Namgyal Gyatso (1846–1912), also commonly known as Ju Mipham, was an important Nyingma scholar, lama and practitioner and was also a central figure of the non-sectarian Rime movement. Mipham was born in Derge, Kham. It was exactly in this eastern region of Tibet where the majority of the early teachers promoting this non-sectarian approach to the Buddha’s teachings came from.
The Verses for the Eight Auspicious Noble Ones, or Tashi Gyepa in Tibetan, is one of Mipham’s most well-known compositions and is recited daily by practitioners from a variety of different traditions. The verses are directly based on the Mangalashtaka Sutra or Eight Auspicious Noble Ones Sutra. In these verses one pays homage to the Three Jewels, eight sugatas, the eight great bodhisattvas, the eight offering goddesses, and the eight worldly guardians. The text also describes the hand implements or offerings held by each of the eight bodhisattvas, goddesses and guardians.
The text invokes the auspiciousness of all these figures, and as mentioned by Mipham at the end of the text, its recitation, if done daily or especially before commencing new activities or projects, has inconceivable benefits. It removes obstacles, creates favorable circumstances and allows one to accomplish all of one’s desires. This new translation of the verses was recently made by Ven. Gyalten Lekden who currently studies at Sera Je Monastic University in Bylakuppe.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recommended reciting this prayer every morning for “the success of the center and your own success, the success of FPMT, and the holy wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”
You can download this text for free online at the FPMT Foundation Store.
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 giving the oral transmission of the Vajra Cutter Sutra at the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, India, March 2015. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
FPMT Education Services makes available a variety of resources for students wishing to deepen and strengthen their Buddhist study and practice. Please explore all that is available to you!
News
Students can keep up with news and updates from FPMT Education Services and be kept up-to-date on new materials, programs, events, and advice. By subscribing to the FPMT News Blog, you can have this information delivered right to your email.
Prayers and Practices
The prayers and practice section of the FPMT website can connect you to all the resources and materials you need for individual or group study. Of particular interest to students is our free downloads page which has many of the most recommended prayers and practices. Additionally, the FPMT Foundation Store offers a majority of available materials as free downloadable PDFs and has an exhaustive inventory of FPMT materials and supporting resources available.
Mantras and Sutras
Both mantras and sutras are considered holy objects and bring great blessings to one’s mind and life through engagement. Dozens of commonly used and recommended mantras and sutras can be utilized by students freely.
Please feel free to spend time on the FPMT Education sections of fpmt.org. Many resources for study and practice are available and we encourage all to take full advantage of these opportunities.
If you are ever looking for a particular practice, mantra, or sutra but cannot locate it, you are welcome to contact FPMT Education Services (education@fpmt.org) and we will be happy to help you.
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 Light of the Path Retreat, North Carolina, US, May 2014. Photo by Roy Harvey.
Light of the Path Retreat 2016 (August 14-28, 2016) is the fourth part of a series of teaching retreats led by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA, and hosted by FPMT’s Kadampa Center.
The retreat is structured around a morning group practice, daily teachings with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, review sessions with an older student, and guided meditations.
All are welcome to attend, even those who did not come in previous years.
To help you prepare for these teachings, it would be ideal to do one or more modules of Living in the Path, an online program based on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings. Many of these modules have been recently revised to include guidelines for study, meditation, and practice, and are offered free of charge.
In particular, the following two modules explain practices that will be fundamental components of the Light of the Path retreat:
- The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (a daily morning practice compiled by Rinpoche)
- Bodhichitta Mindfulness(how to transform common daily activities with bodhichitta)
All are welcome to engage with these modules and prepare for this unique and beneficial retreat experience with Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Registration for Light of the Path 2016 can be done through the Kadampa Center website. Additional information about this unique retreat can be found there as well.
Shakyamuni Buddha by Jane Seidlitz
Saka Dawa is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing into parinirvana. Any actions done during Saka Dawa, both auspicious and harmful, are multiplied 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. It is a very powerful time to practice and increase one’s commitment to both practice and study.
Saka Dawa is on Saturday May 21 this 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 Buddha Days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recommended practices for these special days. Specific advice for practices to do on the Buddha multiplying days can be found here, including new advice to recite the Sutra for Remembering the Three Jewels.
Ven. Lobsang Tendron organizes continuous recitations of the Sutra of Golden Light during the fifteen days of Saka Dawa. All are invited to recite the entire sutra at once or break it up into one chapter, one page, one line, or whatever is manageable. Recitations can be reported on the fpmt.org website.
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with his new book ‘How to Enjoy Death,’ Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, India, December 2015.
All of us live with reminders of impermanence and the loss of those we hold dear, yet it is difficult to accept the inevitability of our own deaths or the deaths of our loved ones. While avoiding death is not possible, it is possible to prepare for death and equip ourselves with the tools to help those around us engage with their own deaths in the most beneficial way.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given extensive advice and instruction for caring for ourselves and others at the time of death, or during the process of dying. FPMT Education Services would like to make sure students are aware of and have access to all of the resources available.
Heart Advice for Death and Dying
This package is a collection of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s essential advice and commentaries for the time of death and for finding the deepest fulfillment in life. Teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche include, “The Nine-Point Meditation on Death,” “The Process of Dying,” “Preparing for Death,” “Practicing the Five Powers,” “Caring for the Dying and the Dead,” “Essential Activities at the Death Time,” and “Mantras to Benefit the Dying and Dead.” This collection also includes an MP3 CD of 11 hours of teachings on death by Ven. Sangye Khadro. In addition to the book and CD, this material is also available as a program for students more interested in structured study.
Available as:
- Hard copy book
- eBook
- FPMT Online Learning Center program
- Hard copy program for centers hosting
- PDF program for centers hosting
Heart Practices for Death and Dying
This condensed resource book provides the heart practices to do at the time of death, including the Medicine Buddha puja and the traditional eight prayers done in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. This collection also contains the most powerful mantras to say for those who are dying or who have died, teachings on their precise benefits, as well as a sheet of mantras to place on the body of one who has died. It contains precious texts to benefit the minds of those who are dying by relieving pain and purifying negative karma.
Available as:
How to Enjoy Death
A unique new collection, How to Enjoy Death: Preparing to Meet Life’s Final Challenge Without Fear, brings together all the extensive commentary from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as a number of essential prayers, practices, and other materials that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has compiled over the years, skillfully edited by Ven. Robina Courtin.
“We Buddhists all know about death and impermanence, but when death comes into our lives we often panic and don’t know what to do to help,” said Ven. Robina. “Rinpoche lays out all the instructions so clearly, one step at a time, for how to help our loved ones: what to do in the months and weeks before death, what to do in the hours before death, at the time the breath stops, and in the three days as well as the 49 days after death, including transforming our loved one’s ashes into a holy object.”
All of the practices one needs to be prepared to face death are included, making this an essential reference for Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, caregivers, hospice workers, or chaplains.
Available as:
- Hard copy book from Wisdom Publications, How to Enjoy Death: Preparing to Meet Life’s Final Challenge Without Fear
- Free PDF, How to Help Your Loved Ones Enjoy Death and Go Happily to Their Next Rebirth: A Handbook by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The Liberation Box contains many resources recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to help one’s self and others at the time of death.
Liberation Box: Protection Tool for a Fortunate Rebirth
A must-have toolkit to go along with any of the above texts, this invaluable collection of holy objects and essential blessed materials was put together on the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Available as:
- Hard copy collection
- PDF digital edition (omitting stupa, phowa pill, and blessed cord)
Resource Webpage
The FPMT Death and Dying Heart Practices and Advice webpage is kept up to date with all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s latest advice and materials concerning death and dying. FPMT Education Services hopes that you will take full advantage of these resources.
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.
Light of the Path Retreat 2016 (August 14-August 28, 2016) is the fourth part of series of teaching retreats led by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Black Mountain, North Carolina, USA, and hosted by FPMT’s Kadampa Center. The root text for the course is Lama Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. All are welcome to attend, even those who did not come in previous years. You are welcome to stream the teachings from past years on the Online Learning Center to help prepare.
Living in the Path, an FPMT education program based on the Light of the Path Retreat teachings, is unique in that it draws completely from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings. 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.
Registration is now open through the Kadampa Center website. Additional information about this unique retreat opportunity can be found there as well.
Centers and study groups are encouraged to download and print this poster and place it in commonly used areas so that students are made aware of this teaching event with Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, ILTK, Pomaia, Italy, June 17, 2014. Photo by Piero Sirianni.
Many important audio resources from Lama Zopa Rinpoche are available for download via the Foundation Store. Acquiring audio can often be cost prohibitive for students due to shipping costs. By ordering these digital files, you can access the materials right away, without waiting and paying for shipping costs. In addition, these files are offered for free! You are welcome to make an offering for the files, but it is not required.
Please take a look at what is available to you. Utilizing audio resources helps bring a richness to your study and practice and enables you to access Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings and recitations quickly and efficiently.
Sutras
Mantras, Prayers, and Teachings
- Mantra Recitations Volume 1
- Mantra Recitations Volume 2
- Calling the Guru from Afar
- How to Meditate on Emptiness
The Foundation Store also stocks many other audio resources including recitations of Prostrations to the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas, Medicine Buddha Puja, Lama Chöpa Tunes and Audio Guide, and you can also learn the tunes of essential FPMT prayers by downloading Essential Buddhist Prayers Volume 1 Tunes.
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.
Thirty-five Confession Buddhas thangka available from the FPMT Foundation Store.
On lunar and solar eclipses, Lama Zopa Rinoche advises that the merit generated is multiplied by 700,000 and 100 million, respectively, and 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 this and other 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 are also good to do on these days, such as recitation of the Sanghata Sutra, Sutra of Golden Light, etc. with extensive dedications. 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.
This set of talks from September 2005 is particularly valuable as Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave extraordinary teachings on emptiness and how to meditate on emptiness. Rinpoche defines the “I,” and addresses issues of the false “I” and our fear of losing the “I.” Emptiness is explained relating to external objects and when practicing guru yoga. Also, a detailed explanation is given for how to meditate on the emptiness of the “I,” the emptiness of others, and the emptiness of time.
Rinpoche concludes with teachings on refuge, and provides commentary and recitation of several sutras, including four chapters of the Sutra of Golden Light.
This and many other Dharma materials are available by donation through the Foundation Store.
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.
FPMT Education Services has made available a variety of commonly used prayers and practices which students can download for free or utilize online.
On this page you can find resources for death and dying, long life prayers and practices, plus a variety of recommended materials that can be used daily.
Also available through the Foundation Store are Essential Buddhist Prayer Books, Buddhist practices, and Tibetan texts available for purchase as hard copy materials and/or eBooks and PDF downloads (many of which are available for free download).
In addition, you can find various mantras and sutras for your use as well, available for free on the website.
There are many resources available to students who wish to strengthen or enhance their daily practice. Please let us know if you can’t find what you are looking for and we are happy to help you in any way we can. You can reach us at education@fpmt.org.
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 in sambhogakaya aspect with offerings in the jokhang of Maitripa College. Photo by Noah Gunnell.
The practice of offering 100,000 water bowls is one of nine preliminary practices or “ngöndros” performed in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The preliminary practices are designed to accumulate merit and purify negativities in order to quickly generate realizations on the path. They are also done in preparation for longer tantric retreats. The nine preliminaries are to do 100,000 repetitions related to the following practices: prostrations, mandala offerings, guru yoga, Vajrasattva, Damtsig Dorje, Dorje Khadro, tsa-tsas, water bowl offerings, and refuge.
The Preliminary Practice of Altar Set-up and Water Bowl Offerings has been revised and is now available in PDF format, or as an eBook available from the FPMT Foundation Store or Amazon Kindle Store.
Contents of this booklet include: “The Practice of Offering” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, “Guidelines for Completing 100,000 Water Bowl Offerings,” “Extensive Offering Practice,” “Light Offering Prayer” by Lama Atisha, and “How to Fill a Small Statue.”
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.