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Shakyamuni Buddha by Jane Seidlitz
Chokhor Duchen, one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, takes place this year on Saturday, August 6.
Also known as the Festival of Turning the Wheel of Dharma, Chokhor Duchen commemorates the anniversary upon which Shakyamuni Buddha first began teaching the Dharma. For seven weeks after his enlightenment, the Buddha did not teach. After this period, Indra and Brahma offered a Dharmachakra and a conch shell and requested Shakyamuni to teach. Accepting, Buddha Shakyamuni turned the Wheel of Dharma for the first time at Sarnath by teaching on the four noble truths.
Specific advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for practices to do on Buddha Multiplying Days such as Chokhor Duchen can be found here, including new advice to recite the Sutra for Remembering the Three Jewels.
Chokhor Duchen also commemorates FPMT’s International Sangha Day!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Sangha at Light of the Path retreat, 2014
Here is how you can celebrate monastics on Sangha Day:
- Show respect for and appreciation of the Sangha
- Generate deeper awareness of the Sangha Jewel
- Donate to the Lama Yeshe Sangha Fund
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.
If you decide 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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Light of the Path Retreat, May 2014, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
The FPMT Retreat Prayer Book was originally compiled in 2008 in preparation for the first Light of the Path Retreat and has become a critical resource for those attending longer teaching events and retreats with Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Many students have also found it to be very useful when attending other teaching events, going on pilgrimage, and for their own personal daily practices and retreats. The collection is made up of prayers and practices drawn from various FPMT materials.
In preparation for the Light of the Path Retreat 2016, the FPMT Education Services and Translation Service teams have spent the last few months carefully updating the prayer book based on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice and FPMT’s most current materials. As a result, the order of the prayers contained in particular practices has changed, revisions to the Tibetan and Sanskrit phonetics have been incorporated, and updates to some translations have been included. Also, the colophons have been expanded significantly to provide clear indication of which texts were used and any related details.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised many changes for this edition, which reflect Rinpoche’s continuous efforts to ensure that we do these practices as perfectly as possible. In addition, Rinpoche, who has always placed great emphasis on the importance of accurate translations, has advised us to change some familiar, but not entirely accurate, terms.
Rinpoche has also recently been stressing the importance of preserving the correct pronunciation of mantras, as reflected in Tibetan transliterations of Sanskrit. For this reason, in the sections of “Blessing the Speech” and “Daily Mantras,” we have temporarily implemented a simple system using double vowels to convey long vowel sounds. Cha, chha, and ja have been changed to tsa, tsha, and dza to better correspond with Rinpoche’s pronunciation of these letters. With Rinpoche’s instructions in mind, FPMT Translation Services will, in the coming months, review whether to use the standard international system for writing Sanskrit, which entails the use of diacritics, or to develop some variation of this international system.
The changes in this edition also reflect the on-going work of FPMT Translation Services to not only develop a standard FPMT glossary of translation terms, but to begin the work of standardizing the translations of common prayers. This work is essential as the prayers and practices that make up this book, as well as many other FPMT practice materials, are a conglomerate of translations completed over multiple decades by a host of translators. In addition, FPMT Translation Services is beginning the work of checking the translations of these prayers and practices for accuracy against the original Tibetan. This will be ongoing and extensive work that is expected to take many years.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Light of the Path Retreat, May 2014, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
All the changes and corrections made to this edition that did not come directly from the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche are the result of extensive discussions. The FPMT Education Services and Translation Services teams accept full responsibility for any mistakes made and welcome your suggestions and feedback. We ask for your patience and understanding that the work of translating Buddhism into English, as well as into many other languages, is still in its initial phase and is going to be an ongoing process, perhaps for centuries to come.
If you have purchased the Retreat Prayer Book in the past from the Foundation Store, you will soon receive this new version as a PDF via email.
We are only making the PDF version of the book available, confident that this will afford students and facilitators greater ease in accessing this text. Also, working in digital formats allows us to more easily make updates indicated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and hastens the distribution of updated editions to students.
If you would like more information on the changes made, or need more information about printing the PDF for your needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us at education@fpmt.org.
To learn more about the Light of the Path Retreat 2016: kadampa-center.org/light-path-retreat-2016
To purchase the new FPMT Retreat Prayer Book as a downloadable PDF: https://shop.fpmt.org/FPMT-Retreat-Prayer-eBook-PDF_p_3038.html
Lama Atisha (980-1054 C.E.)
Lama Atisha (980-1054 C.E.) introduced the lojong, also known as “mind training” or “thought transformation,” tradition of Mahayana practice in Tibet. Lojong teachings are quintessential Mahayana teachings in that their aim is to eliminate both the self-cherishing attitude and self-grasping. Like the stages of the path teachings, the mind training tradition is one that is embraced by all Tibetan lineages.
Geshe Chekhawa wrote The Seven-Point Thought Transformation in the 12th century as an explanation of lojong. These teachings, like all from this tradition, involve refining and purifying one’s motivations and attitudes as a means for transforming thoughts into virtue. FPMT Education Services recently made this precious text available as a free download.
You can watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach, “Lojong: The Quickest Way to Lam-rim Realizations.”
Students have an opportunity to further their understanding of lojong. In the tenth section of the Living in the Path module, “Advice for Realizing the Lam-rim,” you can find “Lojong: The Quickest Way to Lam-rim Realizations.“
His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia, Italy, June 13, 2014. Photo by Olivier Adam.
Yesterday, on July 6, the world celebrated another year of life for His Holiness the Dalai Lama who brings so much joy and inspiration with his message of of universal compassion and human decency.
FPMT Education Services makes many resources available to help celebrate and praise His Holiness.
When His Holiness was nineteen years old he composed a Chenrezig guru yoga sadhana called, The Inseparability of the Spiritual Master and Avalokiteshvara. The practice includes visualizations that inspire the development of compassion and wisdom and is included in Becoming the Compassion Buddha by Lama Yeshe, published by Wisdom Publications.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Queensland, Australia, June 2011. Photo by Bonnie Jenkins.
Prayers and Praise for His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Long life prayers to one’s guru purify mistakes that occur in relation to the teacher, and create the causes and conditions to continue to receive benefit from that teacher for a very long time.
“Prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibet” includes all the prayers for His Holiness and Tibet that are found within Essential Buddhist Prayers, such as “Prayers for the Long Life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the “Prayer that Spontaneously Fulfills all Wishes,” “Remembering the Kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan People,” and a “Prayer for Tibet.”
“Long Life Prayers for His Holiness Dalai Lama” was composed by the late tutors to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness Ling Rinpoche and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche. Translated by Gelongma Khechog Palmo in Rumtek, Sikkim.
“Remembering the Kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan People” was composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche especially for the success of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wishes, and in particular for the Tibetan people, and for there to be perfect peace and happiness in the world and for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment.
“Praises and Requests to His Holiness the Dalai Lama” is a collection of praises, comments, and requests by Lama Zopa Rinpoche concerning His Holiness the Dalai Lama available on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Online Advice Book.
FPMT Education Services wishes His Holiness a very auspicious 81st birthday and sincerely requests His Holiness to live for a very long time to continue bringing his universal message of compassion to the world.
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 Lama Chöpa Merit Field.
FPMT Education Services makes available several resources for those wishing to learn the advised pronunciations of FPMT standard prayers, practices, and mantras.
Lama Chöpa
“Practicing this Guru Puja, which is an integration of the three deities, makes it much easier to achieve enlightenment in a brief life of this degenerated time. Doing this practice every day, with purification and many infinite skies of merit, brings the mind closer to the path to enlightenment and closer to enlightenment itself, and so much closer to freeing all sentient beings from obscurations and suffering and leading them to enlightenment. Putting the meaning of this into practice in one’s life makes each day extremely rich and worthwhile.”
— Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Mantras and Prayers
- Essential Buddhist Prayers Volume 1 Tunes
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche Mantra Recitations Volume 1
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche Mantra Recitations Volume 2
- “Calling the Guru from Afar”
- “Praises to the Twenty-One Taras”
Please stay tuned the release of Lama Zopa Rinpoche Mantra Recitations Volume 3 which is forthcoming from FPMT Education Services.
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 animals at the Fattoria della Pace Ippoasi, an animal sanctuary run by young vegans near ILTK, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Animal liberation is a specific practice done for animals which would otherwise be killed. The practice involves taking the animals-in-danger around holy objects to leave positive imprints in their minds, reciting mantras for them, blessing water to sprinkle onto their bodies, and then releasing them. Animal blessings involve blessing any animal with mantras or a holy object. Animal liberation and animal blessings are two ways to benefit animals, bless their minds, and allow them to make a connection with the Dharma. Animal liberation practice is an incredible practice for anyone who has illnesses or is experiencing life obstacles.
Resident sheep at Animal Liberation Sanctuary, Kopan, Nepal, January 2014. Photo courtesy of Phil Hunt.
- FPMT Education Services publishes a booklet from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about how to benefit animals, including the animal liberation practice, Liberating Animals from Danger and Death, in booklet and eReader formats. A shorter version is also available.
- A collection of advice is available from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about benefiting animals.
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche designed Animal Liberation Tools, unique bug catchers that bless small animals before their release.
“Like yourself, all sentient beings want happiness and no not want suffering, problems or discomfort.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
During the animal liberation practice, animals are carried around holy objects so the worms can create merit.
Benefiting animals in any way possible is a high priority for FPMT and one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the organization.
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. 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.