Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
Die Stiftung zur Erhaltung der Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) ist eine Organisation, die sich weltweit für die Erhaltung und Verbreitung des Mahayana-Buddhismus einsetzt, indem sie Möglichkeiten schafft, den makellosen Lehren des Buddha zuzuhören, über sie zur reflektieren und zu meditieren und auf der Grundlage dieser Erfahrung das Dharma unter den Lebewesen zu verbreiten.
Wir bieten integrierte Schulungswege an, durch denen der Geist und das Herz der Menschen in ihr höchstes Potential verwandelt werden zum Wohl der anderen – inspiriert durch eine Haltung der universellen Verantwortung und dem Wunsch zu dienen. Wir haben uns verpflichtet, harmonische Umgebungen zu schaffen und allen Wesen zu helfen, ihr volles Potenzial unendlicher Weisheit und grenzenlosen Mitgefühls zu verwirklichen.
Unsere Organisation basiert auf der buddhistischen Tradition von Lama Tsongkhapa von Tibet, so wie sie uns von unseren Gründern Lama Thubten Yeshe und Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche gelehrt wird.
La Fundación para la preservación de la tradición Mahayana (FPMT) es una organización que se dedica a preservar y difundir el budismo Mahayana en todo el mundo, creando oportunidades para escuchar, reflexionar, meditar, practicar y actualizar las enseñanzas inconfundibles de Buda y en base a esa experiencia difundir el Dharma a los seres.
Proporcionamos una educación integrada a través de la cual las mentes y los corazones de las personas se pueden transformar en su mayor potencial para el beneficio de los demás, inspirados por una actitud de responsabilidad y servicio universales. Estamos comprometidos a crear ambientes armoniosos y ayudar a todos los seres a desarrollar todo su potencial de infinita sabiduría y compasión.
Nuestra organización se basa en la tradición budista de Lama Tsongkhapa del Tíbet como nos lo enseñaron nuestros fundadores Lama Thubten Yeshe y Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
A continuación puede ver una lista de los centros y sus páginas web en su lengua preferida.
L’organisation de la FPMT a pour vocation la préservation et la diffusion du bouddhisme du mahayana dans le monde entier. Elle offre l’opportunité d’écouter, de réfléchir, de méditer, de pratiquer et de réaliser les enseignements excellents du Bouddha, pour ensuite transmettre le Dharma à tous les êtres. Nous proposons une formation intégrée grâce à laquelle le cœur et l’esprit de chacun peuvent accomplir leur potentiel le plus élevé pour le bien d’autrui, inspirés par le sens du service et une responsabilité universelle. Nous nous engageons à créer un environnement harmonieux et à aider tous les êtres à épanouir leur potentiel illimité de compassion et de sagesse. Notre organisation s’appuie sur la tradition guéloukpa de Lama Tsongkhapa du Tibet, telle qu’elle a été enseignée par nos fondateurs Lama Thoubtèn Yéshé et Lama Zopa Rinpoché.
L’FPMT è un organizzazione il cui scopo è preservare e diffondere il Buddhismo Mahayana nel mondo, creando occasioni di ascolto, riflessione, meditazione e pratica dei perfetti insegnamenti del Buddha, al fine di attualizzare e diffondere il Dharma fra tutti gli esseri senzienti.
Offriamo un’educazione integrata, che può trasformare la mente e i cuori delle persone nel loro massimo potenziale, per il beneficio di tutti gli esseri, ispirati da un’attitudine di responsabilità universale e di servizio.
Il nostro obiettivo è quello di creare contesti armoniosi e aiutare tutti gli esseri a sviluppare in modo completo le proprie potenzialità di infinita saggezza e compassione.
La nostra organizzazione si basa sulla tradizione buddhista di Lama Tsongkhapa del Tibet, così come ci è stata insegnata dai nostri fondatori Lama Thubten Yeshe e Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Di seguito potete trovare un elenco dei centri e dei loro siti nella lingua da voi prescelta.
“护持大乘法脉基金会”( 英文简称：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) 是一个致力于护持和弘扬大乘佛法的国际佛教组织。我们提供听闻，思维，禅修，修行和实证佛陀无误教法的机会，以便让一切众生都能够享受佛法的指引和滋润。
護持大乘法脈基金會”（ 英文簡稱：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition ）是一個致力於護持和弘揚大乘佛法的國際佛教組織。我們提供聽聞，思維，禪修，修行和實證佛陀無誤教法的機會，以便讓一切眾生都能夠享受佛法的指引和滋潤。
In the lam-rim, there’s some advice on how to get up early in the morning without being overwhelmed by sleep. Before getting into bed the night before, wash your feet while thinking of light. Try it; it works.
The Foundation Store is FPMT’s online shop and features a vast selection of Buddhist study and practice materials written or recommended by our lineage gurus. These items include homestudy programs, prayers and practices in PDF or eBook format, materials for children, and other resources to support practitioners.
Items displayed in the shop are made available for Dharma practice and educational purposes, and never for the purpose of profiting from their sale. Please read FPMT Foundation Store Policy Regarding Dharma Items for more information.
In the Noble Great Dharani, Buddha pledged that those who take up, retain, recite, and memorize it will be protected from all infectious diseases, fear, and harm, including from fires, poisons, and persecution. Furthermore, “they will not turn away from bodhicitta.”
Thus, it was one of the practices that Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended for the Sangha to recite during the COVID-19 outbreak at Kopan Monastery and Kachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery in May 2021.
Dharani (Skt. dhāraṇī), or zung in Tibetan (Tib. gzungs), has the connotation of “to hold or maintain.” Rinpoche explains that it can also mean the “unforgetting wisdom for abandoning nonvirtue and abiding in virtue.” A dharani usually consists of Sanskrit phrases and mantras, and can also be a short summary of the essential teaching contained in a much longer sutra text.
Upon the translation of the Noble Great Dharani, which he had requested, Rinpoche said, “Now that it is available in English and other languages, it is something that is best for sentient beings, for healing, and whatever [purposes].”
Download these translations of this precious dharani: English, Italian, and Spanish.
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.
Rinpoche with Khadro-la making prayers in front of the different statues and thangkas in a new museum of Newari art, Kathmandu, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that the only thing that can directly cut ignorance, which is the root of suffering and samsara, is wisdom realizing emptiness. There are many teachings on emptiness, but these teachings are found condensed in the Heart Sutra.
“Ignorance [has been] holding the false I as real from beginningless rebirths. That’s how we have been in samsara until now. Never liberated from suffering. But now there is, for example, the short one, the Heart Sutra, to cut that ignorance, that wrong concept,” Rinpoche explained before offering the oral transmission of the sutra in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2015.
Just hearing the Heart Sutra, or reading it, Rinpoche tells us, leaves a positive imprint to be free of samsara and to actualize the path, achieving enlightenment to free numberless sentient beings from oceans of samsara and bring them to enlightenment.
“If we are able to read or hear [the Heart Sutra] just one time, the positive imprint left by this definitely causes us in the near future to understand much more easily the teachings on emptiness. We will be able to understand the words and the meanings of the teachings on emptiness very easily, and we’ll be able to have realizations of emptiness easily, quickly in the future. Developing that wisdom ceases the gross and subtle defilements, the mistakes of the mind, and it makes us achieve the sorrowless state, the cessation of the suffering and its causes on our mental continuum, as well as great liberation even from the subtle mistakes of the mind, that which is full enlightenment on our own mental continuum,” Rinpoche explained.
Students can listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting the Heart Sutra on a new digital audio album available in the FPMT Foundation Store. The downloadable album comes bundled with a digital version of the sutra in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats as well as the transcript of Rinpoche giving the oral transmission at the 2015 retreat in Mexico, from which the audio for the album was taken.
Students can find more links to Heart Sutra materials and resources below:
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 response to the recent feedback we have received, we are delighted to offer you an immediate update to the recently released FPMT Essential Prayer Book.
This latest version now includes the special practice compiled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche titled The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (including Enlightenment). Rinpoche has emphasized on many occasions that this is a practice that he would like all of his students to do on a daily basis.
In this practice, Rinpoche presents us with the means to attain the ultimate happiness that is enlightenment. It includes a skillfully selected lamrim prayer that sets out the entire path from guru devotion to enlightenment and verses on bodhicitta that spur us to live, as Rinpoche urges, with the greatest meaning, with bodhicitta motivation for all sentient beings.
This update of the FPMT Essential Prayer Book also adds to its lamrim section A Hymn of Experience by Je Tsongkhapa.
If you have purchased the FPMT Essential Prayer Book from the Foundation Store, you will soon receive this updated version as a PDF via email.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche holding up the German translation of The Method, Aryatara Institut, Germany, 2018. Photo by Harald Weichhart.
For FPMT groups and other organizations wishing to download this e-publication for distribution, please refer to FPMT Education Services Licensing Page.
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 offering a mandala to a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on His Holiness’s birthday, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, July 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Chokhor Duchen, one of the four annual holy days of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, takes place this year on July 14. On these holy days, the power of any meritorious action is multiplied by 100 million, as taught in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Known in English as “Turning the Wheel of Dharma,” Chokhor Duchen commemorates the anniversary of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s first teaching. It is said that for seven weeks after his enlightenment, the Buddha did not teach. Afterward, Indra and Brahma offered a dharmachakra and a conch shell and requested Guru Shakyamuni Buddha to teach. Accepting, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha turned the wheel of Dharma for the first time at Sarnath in his teaching on the four noble truths.
Specific practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for these special days include:
Of course, it is also good to do any of the other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on these great holy days. (Find here practice materials in French, German, Italian, and Spanish).
In accordance with the advice of Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche observes all the auspicious dates in the Buddhist calendar by Indian Standard time, instead of any other local time.
A flower offering at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, June 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Chokhor Duchen is also the day on which FPMT celebrates International Sangha Day! International Sangha Day provides an opportunity for monastic and lay communities to come together in recognition of their interdependence and celebrate the ways in which they mutually rely on each other’s practice of the Dharma. For lay students, it’s a great time to learn about the International Mahayana Institute, which is the international community of monks and nuns in the FPMT organization, and the Lama Yeshe Sangha Fund. You can also watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche praise the amazing commitment of Sangha to live in the path in “The Sangha Are the Real Heroes Because They Are Defeating the Delusions.” Find additional inspiration, encouragement, and advice from Rinpoche for Sangha collected online.
On merit-multiplying days, the Puja Fund sponsors pujas and practices on behalf of the entire FPMT organization. These pujas are usually offered by up to 10,000 Sangha from Sera Lachi, Ganden Lachi, Drepung Lachi, Gyume Tantric College, Gyuto Tantric College, and Kopan Monastery and Nunnery. This year the Sangha will be reciting the entire Kangyur and Prajnaparamita Sutra, and will be offering one thousand sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyalma and Medicine Buddha pujas among other pujas and prayers. In addition, offerings of gold, robes, saffron, and umbrellas will be made to the holy statues of Jowo Buddha in Tibet and Buddha at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, and to Boudhanath and Swayambunath Stupas in Nepal. Sangha will also be printing sutras, making tsa-tsas, and doing animal liberations. Offerings will also be made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to 10,000 Sangha. Please note: Some of these pujas may be offered by less Sangha to ensure the safety of all and in accordance with any local restrictions due to the pandemic.
Let’s rejoice in all of the meritorious practices, offerings, and activities happening within the international FPMT mandala on this auspicious merit-multiplying day!
Swayambunath Stupa, Nepal, June 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
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.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama meeting with Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Bodhgaya, India, January 2020. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
On July 6 the world celebrates His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 86th birthday. We’ve collected several resources for students to use in their celebration of His Holiness and in their ongoing Buddhist study.
Great Festival Celebrating His Holiness
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given extensive advice on prayers and practices to do for His Holiness’s birthday, remarking that by doing these prayers and practices, students also benefit their own Dharma practice. You can find Rinpoche’s collected advice in the booklet How to Do the Great Festival of His Holiness’ Birthday in the Best Possible Way.
The FPMT Foundation Store offers a number of books from His Holiness.
Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) Materials
His Holiness is generally considered to be a manifestation of Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), the buddha of compassion. We offer these Chenrezig practice materials:
FPMT International Office wishes His Holiness a very auspicious 86th birthday and sincerely requests His Holiness to live for a very long time and to continue bringing his universal message of compassion to the world.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.
We are pleased to announce a new publication: FPMT Essential Prayer Book. In it, you will find prayers and practices common in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition that are recommended for FPMT by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. It also features Rinpoche’s quintessential advice on the benefits and practice of some of those prayers. This makes the FPMT Essential Prayer Book a must-have for all FPMT centers and study groups. And for the individual student, it is an invaluable—and inspiring—resource for devotional practice on a daily basis, and during retreat.
The new publication, which is more than 300 pages long, includes practices composed, compiled, or arranged by Rinpoche as well as other prayers and practices frequently included by Rinpoche at his teachings and events. The 2021 prayer book presents an extensive update of the 2011 collection, Essential Buddhist Prayers, Vol. 1, which has been discontinued.
Highlights of this prayer book:
Cultivating the Mindfulness of Bodhicitta in Daily Activities, where Lama Zopa Rinpoche shows us how to take the essence of our precious human life by transforming our everyday activities—such as sitting down, standing up, washing, and dressing—into causes for enlightenment by undertaking them with the bodhicitta motivation to benefit all sentient beings.
Miscellaneous mantras, including Mantras to Make Charity of the Contaminants of the Body as well as mantras for washing, for blessing meat, to avert the pollution that comes from consuming offerings, and to prevent being stained by faults when stepping on holy objects and shadows of holy objects.
Deity practices, including those of Shakyamuni Buddha, Thousand-armed Chenrezig, the Praises to Twenty-One Taras, and Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga as well as common deity mantras.
The Eight Prayers, a collection of prayers that are commonly recited in Gelug monastic communities for the recently deceased. (King of Prayers is included in this collection.)
Extensive long life prayers and name mantras of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja offered to him at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The FPMT Essential Prayer Book is only available in the PDF version. Most of the prayers and mantras found in the prayer book are available as downloadable audio.
For FPMT groups and other organizations wishing to download this e-publication for distribution, please refer to FPMT Education Services Licensing Page.
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 March 2020, Lama Zopa Rinpoche did an observation and the prayer Swift Fulfillment of Wishes in Dependence on the Great Jetsun Tsongkhapa, composed by Serkong Rinpoche Ngawang Tsultrim Donden, came out to be a powerful prayer to pacify epidemic disease. Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche recite this prayer in the MP3 download Swift Fulfillment of Wishes in Dependence of the Great Jetsun Tsongkhapa.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of a prayer that came from Buddha Amitabha, The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra, in the MP3 download The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra. According to the root text, “In this eon, all Dharma practices that are sealed with this prayer of dedication are greatly meritorious. If those who write, recite, keep, or disseminate it, read or recite it three times, they will not experience sickness or (untimely) death. May all of their wishes be fulfilled, and may they meet with those who are propitious and endowed with the fortunate karma to be reborn in Sukhavati Pure Land.”
The Five Powerful Mantras for Liberating Sentient Beings from the Lower Realms MP3 download contains Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s oral transmission of the five powerful mantras: the Kunrig Mantra, the Stainless Pinnacle Essence Mantra, the Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha Mantra, the Namgyalma mantras (long and short), and the Buddha Mitrugpa Mantra. These powerful mantras, mentioned in Giving Breath to the Wretched by Kusali Dharmavajra, can be recited to benefit individuals who are dying or have died. Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches that they liberate not only those who are dying, but also those already dead, even those in the lower realms.
Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche give the oral transmission of Ngulchu Dharmabhadra’s The Flowing Water of the Ganga: A Thorough Praise of the Thirty-Five Sugatas in the MP3 download The Flowing Water of the Ganga—A Practice of Prostrations to the Thirty-Five Buddhas. This prayer is a versified homage to the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas, which has been expanded by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to include the recitation of the names of the Medicine Buddhas, as well as the confession prayer from the Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls (also known as the Confession of a Bodhisattva’s Downfalls to the Thirty-Five Buddhas).
Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches, “The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras are a sacred relic. They are the highest relics of Buddha, relics of the dharmakaya. Other relics, the ones that we normally see, such as relics of the robes or parts of Buddha’s holy body, are secondary relics. These four mantras are the highest relic.” Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s oral transmission of these mantras in The Four Dharmakaya Relic Heart Mantras MP3 download.
Vajra Armor Protection Wheel Short Practice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
The Vajra Armor Protection Wheel Short Practice MP3 download contains the oral transmission of the Vajra Armor Protection Wheel – Short Practice granted by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. This practice is associated with Vajrapani, according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, “This is one of the most powerful mantras to cure cancer. It is also commonly used for any disease, black magic, and spirit harm. If you recite it many times every day, you can become a great healer helping other people. You can give others the water blessed with this mantra to drink and, in this way, heal them.”
Students can listen to these MP3 downloads while commuting, walking, resting, or as part of their practice.
These MP3 downloads, freely offered by the Foundation Store, also include supplemental materials in PDF and ebook formats.
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 and Khadro-la doing a bhumi puja on the ground where a 66-foot-tall Padmasambhava statue will be built, Maratika, Nepal, April 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) is an essential daily practice created by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to help students start their day, and all their activities, with a perfect Dharma intention and bodhichitta motivation. It is sometimes referred to as simply The Method. Now students can listen to the audio recording of this practice in The Method with Additional Practices, an MP3 download bundled with supporting digital materials from the Foundation Store.
In the recording, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gives the oral transmission of The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment), the additional practices, and commentary. The twelve audio tracks that comprise The Method with Additional Practices have been extracted from videos made during the 2016 Light of the Path retreat.
This concise practice is composed of an inspiring lamrim prayer by Dorje Chang Lozang Jinpa, two key thought transformation verses, and special verses from Shantideva’s Engaging in a Bodhisattva’s Deeds about how to live your life for others. The additional practices include the recitation of Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo and additional mantra recitations for further blessings and purification.
“My wish is that all of you do this most important practice for generating a Dharma motivation, and especially a bodhichitta motivation, when you open your eyes in the morning. As soon as you wake up, whether your sleep has been positive or negative, you begin this practice,” Rinpoche advises in his commentary on this practice.
The Method with Additional Practices by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
This MP3 download, freely offered by the Foundation Store, is seventy-five minutes long and come bundled with a PDF copy of “A Guide to Sanskrit Transliteration and Pronunciation” compiled by FPMT Translation Services; “Oral Transmission of The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) with Additional Practices,” which is a transcript of the teaching and oral transmission included in the MP3; and a copy of the practice text itself in PDF and ebook formats.
Students can listen to this MP3 album while commuting, walking, resting, or as part of their practice. By listening to the audio recordings, students can practice mantra pronunciation and recitation, and learn the practice more deeply.
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.
Boudhanath, Nepal, February 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang. Every month on the full moon and on the four Buddha Days, including Saka Dawa, the Puja Fund sponsors offerings to the holy Boudhanath and Swayambhunath stupas in Nepal.
We are fast approaching the auspicious merit-multiplying day of Saka Dawa Duchen—the fifteenth day of the fourth month in the Tibetan lunar calendar—which commemorates Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana.
Saka Dawa Duchen, which is on May 26 this year, is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar. Each of these holy days celebrates an anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha’s display of extraordinary powerful deeds for sentient beings’ sake. On these four days, the karmic results of actions are multiplied by 100 million, as taught in the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic. For Saka Dawa Duchen, the karmic results are multiplied by 300 million times, as it commemorates Shakyamuni Buddha’s three major life events.
Specific practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for these special days:
Of course, any other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are also good to do on these great holy days. (Find practice materials in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.)
In accordance to the advice of Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche observes all the auspicious dates in the Buddhist calendar by Indian Standard time, instead of any other local time.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a visit to Boudha Stupa, Nepal, March 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
On merit-multiplying days, the Puja Fund sponsors pujas and practices on behalf of the entire FPMT. These pujas are usually offered by up to 10,000 Sangha from Sera Lachi; Ganden Lachi; Drepung Lachi; Gyume Tantric College; Gyuto Tantric College and Kopan Monastery and Nunnery. This year we will be arranging recitation of Prajnaparamita, three different recitations of 100,000 Praises to Tara, one thousand sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyalma, Medicine Buddha puja, and sponsoring 100 million mani retreat.
In addition, offerings of gold, robes, saffron, and umbrellas will be made to the Jowo Buddha in Lhasa, Tibet; the Buddha in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India; and Boudhanath and Swayambunath Stupas in Nepal. Offering are also made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to 10,000 Sangha.
Please rejoice in these amazing offerings and practices that will be happening on Saka Dawa!
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.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Light of the Path Retreat, Black Mountain, North Carolina, US, 2017. Photo by Kalleen Mortensen.
The FPMT Retreat Prayer Book has become a valued resource for students attending longer teaching events and retreats with Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as for those doing personal retreats, pilgrimage, and daily practice. The prayer book, which was first prepared in 2008 for the Light of the Path Retreat, contains daily practices, lamrim prayers, Lama Chopa Jorcho, Praises to the Twenty-One Taras, protector prayers, long life and dedication prayers, Six-Session Guru Yoga, and more.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who was closely involved in the development of the prayer book, continues to guide updates to it. The 416-page 2020 edition incorporates all the updates made to the 2016 edition, which was the most recent previous edition. There are many types of updates that have been made to the prayer book. For example, updates to the 2016 edition include prayers updated with new translations, clarifications to practice instructions, and the addition of new prayers, such as the inclusion of “A Long Life Prayer for Lama Zopa Rinpoche Spontaneously Composed by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme.”
The 2020 edition of the FPMT Retreat Prayer Book is being made available only as a digital PDF, with the hope that this will allow students and facilitators greater ease in accessing the text. Also, working in digital formats allows FPMT Education Services to more easily make updates indicated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and hastens the distribution of updated editions to students.
The 2020 edition is being made available for donation only. (Students may choose to make a $0 donation.) Those who have ordered the prayer book in the past can download the new edition from the FPMT Foundation Store. If you already have the 2016 edition, these errata sheets (A5, spread) can be used to update your text.
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 and monks doing Yamantaka self-initiation during the Fifteen Days of Miracles at Kopan Monastery, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The Fifteen Days of Miracles—from the first day of the Tibetan new year (Losar,February 12) until the fifteenth—commemorate the special time when Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed miraculous powers in order to subdue six tirthikas, or non-Buddhist teachers, who lacked faith in him, and to inspire more faith in his followers. It culminates on the full moon, the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, which is the actual day of Chotrul Duchen (February 27).
The Fifteen Days of Miracles are a time for pilgrimage and intensive Dharma practice. During this period, many Tibetan monasteries, including Kopan Monastery in Nepal, normally hold a Great Prayer Festival—Monlam Chenmo—for several days or even weeks, during which the sangha recite prayers from morning until evening. This year due to pandemic lockdowns, Kopan Monastery will not be holding the annual prayer festival. The monks and nuns of Kopan will instead be doing group retreat as advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
All fifteen days are merit multiplying days, when the merit of virtuous actions performed on these days is multiplied by 100 million, according to the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.
Advice Specifically for Losar
For FPMT, Losar is a special time as it commemorates the anniversary of FPMT founder Lama Thubten Yeshe’s parinirvana at dawn of Losar in 1984. Lama Zopa Rinpoche asks centers to offer students the opportunity to offer extensive Lama Chopa with tsog in honor of this anniversary. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that one generates incredible merit by offering tsog on that occasion every year. This Losar marks thirty-seven years since the passing of Lama Yeshe.
Rinpoche also recommends that centers host annual events to introduce new students to Lama Yeshe. These events might include students who knew Lama Yeshe sharing their favorite stories, watching videos of Lama teaching, or reading stories about Lama. During the pandemic, centers will be following public health guidelines for their local areas and these events may be held online. (Rinpoche offers additional advice for special days throughout the year in the Affiliates Area.)
This year’s Losar offers the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of Lama Yeshe. Ösel was born on February 12, 1985.
Please keep in mind: According to Kyabje Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates merit multiplying days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.
On merit multiplying days, the FPMT Puja Fund normally sponsors extensive pujas, but due to the current restrictions in South India, many of the monasteries are not able to gather in large groups and offer the pujas. During the fifteen days the 650 monks at Gyurme Tantric College will recite the Prajnapramita, and 600 monks at Gyuto Tantric College will offer Namgyäl Tong Chö and Zangcho. There will be smaller pujas offered at Sera Lachi, Gaden Lachi, and Drepung Lachi in the various khangtsens. These prayers are dedicated to all FPMT centers, projects, and services; all students, volunteers, and those who offer service in FPMT; and to all beings in general. Offerings are also made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to sangha in FPMT international sangha communities. In addition, robes are offered to the Buddha statue in Bodhgaya, new parasols and whitewash are offered to Boudha and Swayambu stupas, and sutra printing is done. Lunch and money are offered to 400 nuns and 370 monks at Kopan Nunnery and Monastery.
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.
Sunrise at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“The solution is purification every day. Practice as much as possible purification,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said during a teaching on purification.
To support this advice from Rinpoche, FPMT Education Services has created a page where students can find links to many purification practices and resources, including prostrations to the Thirty-Five Buddhas, Dorje Khadro (Vajradaka), Mitrugpa, Samayavajra (Damtsig Dorje), and Vajrasattva. Students can also find the following practices for long life on this page: Amitayus, Namgyalma, and White Tara.
“There are many different buddhas’ names to purify different negative karmas. There are many different mantras that are so powerful, not only Vajrasattva. But the Thirty-Five Buddhas are so powerful,” Rinpoche said. “By reciting [their names] one time, by practicing well the Thirty-Five Buddhas, it purifies the tsham me nga, the very heavy five heavy negative karmas without break: killed father or mother or an arhat, harmed a buddha, [caused] disunity among the sangha. So, that means there is no question about the ten nonvirtuous actions collected in this life and past lives. Then no question. Even the very heavy negative karmas without break, the five, the five heavy negative karmas, even them, they get completely purified, those collected in this life and past lives. Wow, wow, wow.”
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.
From the Buddhist point of view, attachment for something means that it’s very difficult for us to separate from it. We have a very strong attachment – strong like iron – for the things we think of as being very good. We need to learn to be flexible.
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