Hundreds of Mongolian students attended the FPMT Mongolia’s fourth 100 million mani retreat, Ulaanbaatar, August 2016. Photos courtesy of FPMT Mongolia.

During August 1–30, FPMT Mongolia, a collection of FPMT centers, projects, and services in Mongolia, hosted its fourth 100 million mani retreat at Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang in Ulaanbaatar, the nation’s capital. 

“The participants in the gompa together with the home retreatants accomplished a total number of 110,870,500 manis,” director M. Enhmandah sent in a report to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. “We are delighted to offer Rinpoche this number, and with the merit created, may it be a cause for Rinpoche to have a very long life and to perfectly benefit sentient beings, liberating them from the oceans of samsaric suffering.  

“During the mani retreat, approximately 100 to 200 people attended every day.

Ven. Tenzin Choidan taught on the four noble truths on Chokhor Duchen, Ulaanbaatar, August 2016

“Geshe Thubten Zopa, a lharampa geshe from Sera Je, gave an inspiring talk on the benefits of the practice and mantra at the opening ceremony. Jhado Rinpoche kindly gave the Great Chenrezig initiation in a condensed way on the second day of the retreat. Geshe Senge Rinpoche’s incarnation, Tenzin Choidan, came to the retreat on Chokhor Duchen to give a teaching on the four noble truths for auspiciousness, and Damtsig Dorj Rinpoche attended the very last session on our last day.

“… We are most thankful for Rinpoche’s skillful means to benefit all sentient beings by giving us the precious advice to do the mani retreat here in Mongolia on an annual basis.”

Rinpoche responded:

“My most precious, most kind, most dear, wish-fulfilling ones,

“I want to thank from the depths of my heart, from the very inside of my heart bones. Thank you and the others for organizing the mani retreat each year. This is one of my dreams: to have this each year and to continue forever—even after I die, even after the people living now, who are working and offering service, die—to continue as long as Mongolia exists.

“The retreat is like offering infinite skies of help to sentient beings. Each session, even reciting one mala, purifies negative karma, including all the obscurations, created from beginningless rebirths. This is even without doing it with bodhichitta. It collects merit more than the drops of water in the Pacific Ocean, more than the grains of sand in the Pacific Ocean, more than the blades of grass growing in the mountains and on the lands of the earth.

Several teachers came to give talks during the retreat Ulaanbaatar, August 2016

“If one is doing it with bodhichitta—even just reciting OM MANI PADME HUM one time—it collects merit more than the sky. It’s unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. In particular, it causes one to develop compassion for others: for the numberless sentient beings of the six realms—numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras—and numberless intermediate state beings.

“Generating compassion is most powerful and is what makes one achieve enlightenment rapidly. Even if you generate compassion for only one sentient being, that is the quickest way to purify all the defilements and accumulate all merits, which are necessary conditions, and to actualize the path to enlightenment.

“The conclusion is that compassion makes it possible to achieve enlightenment—buddhahood, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations—as quickly as possible. This means being able to free all the six realm sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering quickly, which means being able to bring the numberless sentient beings to buddhahood quickly. This is the most important achievement, more important than anything else in life. By generating compassion, you are able to achieve this quickly.

Many Sangha were in attendance during the retreat, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, August 2016

“My mother was not able to read texts, she hadn’t learned the alphabet. I, this little Mickey Mouse, have read Dharma texts, and also I explain them a little bit to people and can write, but her compassion was 100 times more than mine. She told me one year before she died that she would recite 50,000 OM MANI PADME HUMs a day, but later she was too old and could not recite that much. From this she had so much compassion for people. For example, once in Nepal we took her by car down to Bouddha Stupa and other different places, and when she saw the Nepali people walking without shoes, she felt so sorry and had so much compassion, so much feeling—she didn’t want them to suffer. In Dharamsala we have a meditation center called Tushita. Every morning when she was there she ate breakfast, like pancakes, and she would eat some and then would pack up and keep half in her donkar (shirt) pocket. She would carry this pancake half and when she circumambulated His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s temple (she also went around the mountain where His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s palace is), she would share her pancake half with the beggars on the road. So like that she had so much greater compassion than me—so much, so much.

“I see many old people, such as the ladies who often do nyung näs in the temples in the villages, who haven’t learned the alphabet. So many of them can’t read texts or the sadhana, but still they have so much faith in Chenrezig and recite OM MANI PADME HUM and take the eight Mahayana precepts. I felt one of the ladies I spoke to for just a few words had much compassion—more than me—and this was because of reciting OM MANI PADME HUM every day and doing nyung näs, as I have explained.

Elaborate tormas were offered during the mani retreat, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, August 2016

“My plan is not only to do the 100 million mani retreat in Ulaanbaatar but also in other Mongolian cities, to gradually start 100 million mani retreats in other places.

“All the people that come to the retreat are helped. They achieve the happiness of future lives so easily; ultimate happiness, liberation from the oceans of samsaric suffering, so easily; and buddhahood, the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

“That all those people have been able to give time to come to this mani retreat, even coming to just one part of the retreat, even coming just one day, is very wise.

“The retreat is one of the extremely worthwhile functions of FPMT Mongolia. It is so beneficial to sentient beings, particularly those in Mongolia.

“With much love and prayers, hope to see you soon.”

A vegetarian lunch was offered each day to all the retreatants. At the end of the retreat, money offerings were given to Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang and to the many people who helped make the month-long event possible.

Volunteers during the retreat received gifts of thanks, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, August 2016

Establishing and sponsoring 100 million mani retreats is part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision for FPMT.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s letter above was dictated to Ven. Holly Ansett on October 2016. Edited for inclusion on FPMT.org.

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