Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the large light offering to Guru Rinpoche statue in Chailsa, Nepal.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche often explains the benefits of offering to holy objects and encourages extensive offerings around the world. “We are not aware of the limitless skies of benefits we achieve from the practice of offering, what we can achieve and enjoy from life to life,” Rinpoche explains in Extensive Offering Practice to Accumulate the Most Extensive Merit. “Even while you are in samsara, you enjoy good rebirths, wealth, and every happiness. Even just the samsaric perfections are amazing, without adding all those incredible realizations that allow us to offer deep benefit to sentient beings, liberating them from oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusion and karma.”

We’d like to invite you to rejoice in just some of the extensive light offerings which Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsors through the FPMT Puja Fund. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche making offerings to the Hayagriva statue on the altar at Idgaa Choizinling College in Mongolia.

Bodhgaya, India: Recently while in Bodhgaya, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was pleased with the extensive light offerings arranged on the roof of the apartment he occupies when there. The electricity for the offerings has now been sponsored for the entire year so they can remain on at all times. 

Chailsa, Nepal: The cost of butter for one year was recently sponsored to a light offering in front of a very special Guru Rinpoche statue in Chailsa, Nepal. 

Mongolia: The electricity for lotus light offerings is offered to all the holy objects on the altar at Idgaa Choizinling College in Mongolia. The lights are offered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Among the holy objects on this altar is an incredible Most Secret Hayagriva statue.

Garsha, India: All the butter is offered to keep alight a brass butter lamp in front of a holy self-emanating image of Chenrezig in a cave in Garsha, India.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residences in USA: Extensive light offerings are made daily by the Sangha at Rinpoche’s residences in California and Washington State. Additionally, many other daily practices are offered at Rinpoche’s residences including animal liberation practice, flower and water bowl offerings, and protector practices.

Please rejoice in these offerings and also feel very free to use them in your own practice by mentally offering these light offerings. 

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for pujas and offerings dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund, or FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

An Incredible Accomplishment: An Endowment Supporting the Monks of Sera Je Monastery Long into the Future

The monks of Sera Je Monastery.

For the last ten years FPMT International Office has been building an endowment large enough to support the long-term health of the Sera Je Food Fund, whereby the interest from the endowment would cover the annual costs associated with offering three nutritious meals daily for all the monks of Sera Je Monastery, for as long as the endowment remains.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the new abbot of Sera Je Monastery, Ven. Choesang Rinpoche.

Amazingly, due to the kindness of so many generous donors, we have now reached our targeted amount for the endowment fund. This is a monumental achievement and we could not have done it without all of the kind, generous, and ongoing support that has been offered to the Sera Je Food Fund for the last twenty-six years. Thank you!

This is an incredible accomplishment for the entire FPMT organization. Lama Zopa Rinpoche started the Sera Je Food Fund in 1991 on the occasion of Tenzin Ösel Rinpoche entering Sera Je Monastery. Rinpoche wanted to make an offering to the whole monastery, not just one time, but continuously.  At the time it seemed like such an ambitious plan to offer meals to every monk studying at Sera Je Monastery every day of every year. In 2017 this amounts to an incredible 700,000 meals per year, 2,900 meals per day.

Thanks to the support of so many people, this fund operated without interruption for twenty-six years. In the beginning we were only able to offer a small amount of money to each monk for their midday meal. Then we started to provide a cooked meal that was served to every monk. Later we added dinner, and then breakfast. We built a kitchen and catered to the thousands of monks every day with special attention given to maintaining a hygienic environment for meal preparation, and a balanced offering of nutritious food.

When Rinpoche first mentioned his wish to start this project, we had no idea how we were going to make it happen. Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang were the main fundraisers for so many years. Then slowly FPMT International Office took on the entire responsibility so Rinpoche didn’t have to personally raise the funds. In addition, a few centers were key in helping with fundraising and tens of thousands of supporters over the years have also been inspired to donate. Each year we covered the annual costs and eventually were able to create an endowment fund so the project could continue to run on the interest accrued each year.

Sangha participating in the long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Sera Je Monastery. January, 2017.

At the beginning of this year, the abbot and monks of Sera Je Monastery offered a long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche to thank Rinpoche and the FPMT organization for this incredible offering made over a quarter of a century. At that time we discussed with the monastery that the endowment and the ongoing management of the food fund now be managed entirely by Sera Je Monastery.

FPMT has always had a close connection with Sera Je Monastery. Most of our resident geshes come from this highly respected monastery and we are very happy to make such a substantial offering. It’s also wonderful that the monastery is now able to manage this next chapter.  

His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many geshes who were serving as resident teachers in FPMT centers at the 2007 Geshe Conference organized by FPMT.

We are working to ensure that this transition is smooth and that the endowment and ongoing interest raised will be exclusively used for the food fund. The official handover of the project began in May 2017 and the endowment will be transferred over a period of a few years.  Therefore the Sera Je Food Fund is no longer an FPMT charitable project. 

Please rejoice in this incredible offering, the benefits of which will continue long into the future. Every person who has contributed to the Sera Je Food Fund — whether with donations, time, or prayers — all of this incredible merit of offering to the Sangha will continue to grow and benefit.  

The Next Chapter in Supporting Sangha 

The monks of Idgaa Choizinling College are offered lunch every day through the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund.

Supporting monks and nuns has always been one of the highest priorities for Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT organization because the preservation of the Buddhadharma is dependent on the existence of Sangha.

We invite you to please join us in developing the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund which is offering support to monasteries, nunneries, and individual monks and nuns for food, accommodation, health care, education and practice.  

Since 2009 we have offered support to the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, Nepal.

This fund is not limited to any one institution and able to benefit many nunneries, monasteries and Sangha in need.

From our hearts we sincerely thank you for helping to actualize this incredible offering. May the food fund and endowment continue to grow and benefit the Sangha at Sera Je Monastery for as long as space endures and as long as sentient beings remain.

“Offering even one cent to the Sangha community brings uncountable benefit and merit. As long as the Sangha community exists your merit exist. It will not be exhausted.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Beautiful hand-painted houses for the prayer wheels. Photo by Laura Miller.

Last year, the Holy Objects Fund offered a substantial grant to the Mani Chungyur, Stupa, and Water Park, a project being built in Namche Bazaar, Nepal, located in the Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (SNPBZ). The grant is being used for five prayer wheels which will be turned by flowing water, thus blessing all of the water used throughout the entire park. This project is also a restoration of original prayer wheels and artwork and will become a tourist attraction that is beneficial for the visitors. 

Mandala Publication’s managing editor Laura Miller recently visited the park and reports that all appeared to be finished except for the actual prayer wheel installation. She also commented, “It was beautiful and amazing to see. The fresh water rushing down the hill, through the houses for the prayer wheels and the fountain shooting a spray of water up.” 

The park is attending to practical as well as spiritual needs of the community. The water from the water park runs under a small bridge to a laundry area. In this way, locals can bring their washing to be cleaned in the blessed water! 

The water from the water park runs under a small bridge to the laundry area. Photo by Laura Miller.

Five restored prayer wheels are being installed in the new park. Photo by Laura Miller.

The prayer wheels will be turned by flowing water. Photo by Laura Miller.

Please rejoice in the progress of the new Mani Chungyur, Stupa, and Water Park which will bring so much benefit to residents of Namche Bazaar and tourists alike due to the incredible power of the prayer wheels. 

If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.  

Some of the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery (also known as Bigu Nuns).

In 2014 a grant was offered to Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery for new accommodation needed for the resident nuns. The nunnery recently sent an update that three rows of rooms are nearly finished and some nuns have already begun moving in. They are anticipating the entire project to be finished by the year’s end. 

The nuns are very pleased with their new accommodations and offered, “Our sincere prayers and dedication to the long life of our gurus and good health of all friends, benefactors, donors, and well wishers.”

The new accommodations for the nuns.

Since 2009 sponsorship has been offered to the nuns to complete one and now two 100 million mani retreats (100 million recitations of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM). In addition to the 100 million mani retreats, funds are offered to cover the cost of food to all the nuns for this period as well as the cost of a very qualified geshe to stay during the retreat in order to give lamrim teachings. With the help of donors, we will offer this again in 2017. 

Rinpoche has said about 100 million mani retreats: “The benefits of reciting the Compassion Buddha mantra are infinite, like the limitless sky. Even if you don’t have much intellectual understanding of Dharma, even if the only thing you know is OM MANI PADME HUM, still the happiest life is one lived with an attitude free of the eight worldly concerns. If you live your life with the pure attitude free of attachment clinging to this life and simply spend your life chanting OM MANI PADME HUM—this six-syllable mantra that is the essence of all Dharma—that’s the purest Dharma. Whoever attends a mani retreat is unbelievably fortunate. This retreat also blesses the country where it is held and brings so much peace, happiness and prosperity. Without bodhichitta, you cannot cause all the happiness for all sentient beings. You cannot do perfect work for all sentient beings, and you cannot achieve the complete qualities of the realizations and cessation, even for yourself. “

Please rejoice in the progress of these new rooms for the sincere nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In March 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited the village of Chailsa, in Solu Khumbu, Nepal. Among various activities there, he visited Sagarmatha Secondary School. More than two years ago, FPMT took on the commitment of sponsoring this school, which has about 120 students, with its Social Service Fund. Kopan Monastery oversees the management of the school.

Chailsa is in Solu Khumbu, north-eastern Nepal, the district where Lama Zopa Rinpoche was born and where many Himayalan Buddhists live. Chailsa is in the southern part of the district near Salleri, the district headquarters. The area is remote but still reachable by jeep—a day-long drive from Kathmandu over difficult roads.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how to do water bowl offerings to the children of Sagarmatha school. Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche blessed the school and was welcomed by the children with a traditional dance. He gave a talk to them, giving them an explanation of how to do water bowls. He also sponsored a picnic for the children and their teachers. The school provided prizes for the children’s exams, which Rinpoche handed out. Rinpoche and Kopan are working to identify the needs of the schoolchildren so they can ensure that the necessary donations are organized.

Schoolchildren offering Lama Zopa Rinpoche a traditional dance. Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In the village, Rinpoche gave a lung and some commentary for the Vajrayogini three-year retreat privately to some students, one who is planning to soon do the retreat. He also gave a short commentary to the local gompa keeper of the torma gyatsa practice. Finally, he offered an Amitabha long life initiation with teachings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering an Amitabha long life initiation, Chailsa, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Rinpoche also visited Thubten Shedrup Ling. This monastery, located in Chailsa, is under the care of Kopan Monastery, which took it over in 2004. It has only a few dozen residents, and with the help of Kopan, it has been partially rebuilt. It offers an opportunity for young people to receive a monastic education, to live in their vows in a monastic environment, and study and practice the teachings of the Buddha.

Rinpoche is also trying to locate land in Chailsa on which to keep goats and other animals whose lives have been saved.

On the trip, Rinpoche also went to Thubten Chöling, a large monastery built by the late Trulshik Rinpoche in the 1960s in Junbesi, which is near Salleri and on the Jiri-Everest trekking trail.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the monks and nuns of Thupten Chöling Monastery doing prayers in front of the Holy Body of Trulshik Rinpoche. Solu Khumbu, Nepal, March 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

One of the greatest living masters of the Nyingma and rime traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Trulshik Rinpoche, who passed away in 2011, was one of Rinpoche’s gurus. While at Thubten Chöling, Rinpoche offered to sponsor a portion of the costs of a stupa being constructed there. He paid his respects to Trulshik Rinpoche’s holy body (which is in a mandala house above the altar), made prayers, and made offerings to each of the approximately 400 Sangha present. Rinpoche’s assistant, Ven.Roger, requested the Sangha to do an extensive Medicine Buddha puja for Rinpoche’s health and long life, following the advice of Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme).

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.

Extensive Long life puja offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, April 23, 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

An extensive White Tara long life puja was offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery on behalf of the entire FPMT organization on April 23, 2017. 

White Tara long life statue offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche by Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja. April 23, 2017. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Earlier this year, Ven. Roger Kunsang received advice from Khadro Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Nangsel Dronme (Khadro-la)  on what pujas and practices are needed for Rinpoche’s health and long life. Khadro-la advised for there to be an extensive White Tara long life puja which was completed at Kopan. A beautiful White Tara long life statue was also offered to Rinpoche during the ceremony by Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Ven. Roger Kunsang. Prior to the puja Kopan monks completed a seven day White Tara retreat as part of the puja and offering. Extensive offerings were made to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the puja on behalf of all the FPMT centers, projects, and services as well as all students.

Khadro-la also advised practices that can be done by students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche to help create the conditions for Rinpoche to have good health for the coming year.

The prayers advised are the Vajra Cutter Sutra, and the Dependent Arising: A Praise of the Buddha (Tendrel Topa).

All are welcome and encouraged to join in the recitation of these prayers during the rest of this Tibetan year, and keep track of your recitations.  At the end of the Tibetan year FPMT International Office will request students to report on the number of prayers recited, and then all of the accumulated recitations will be offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Please use the following dedication (ideally in addition to the usual FPMT dedication prayers):
For Lama Zopa Rinpoche to always have perfect health and to always be free of obstacles; and for all Rinpoche’s Dharma projects around the world to be highly successful, including all FPMT centers, projects, and services.

All are welcome to contribute to the expenses associated with the long life puja and statue offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Long Life Puja Fund. 

57 monks are offered lunch daily at Idgaa Choizinling through the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund offers sponsorship for daily lunch for the 57 monks studying at Idgaa Choizinling Dratsang in Mongolia. Recently US$9,000 was offered to cover all of 2017. 

Idgaa Choizinling was established in 2003 through FPMT Mongolia due to the kindness of many benefactors. Idgaa is strongly connected to Sera Je Monastery in India and serves as a focal point of Buddhist learning in Mongolia. Since its inception, FPMT has been offering food to the monks studying there. 

In a letter to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the monks expressed their gratitude, “Your very generous support of meals provides a most important condition for us to be well nourished, to be free to engage in practices, to listen to our Dharma teachers, and to contemplate and meditate on the Dharma.” 

Young monks at Idgaa Choizinling enjoying daily lunch together.

“If you offer with the recognition that they are the guru’s pores,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche said in 2011 in reference to the Sera Je Food Fund which offers three vegetarian meals every day to the monks of Sera Je Monastery, “then that is an unbelievable way to collect merit. When you offer to many Sangha who have the same guru, then you are making offerings to that many pores of the guru. This is the easiest way to collect skies of merit by offering. By offering even just one candy or flowers or even one grain of rice to a statue of Buddha or even a visualized Buddha, you collect skies of merit. It is much more powerful than offering to the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) as well as all the statues, stupas and scriptures existing in all directions, so there is no question if really offering to the same guru’s disciple. These benefits should be understood so that when you make offerings to the guru’s pores that you think correctly. This is the best business.”

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund supports ordained monks and nuns as well as monasteries and nunneries by providing sponsorship for food, accommodations, educational needs, and health care for Sangha. 

Please rejoice in this offering of daily food to these earnest monks who study and practice so sincerely to keep Buddhism alive in Mongolia. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Enthronement ceremony of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Gendun Choephel, Sera Je Monastery, Bylakuppe, South India, July 2016. Photo via http://www.serajeymonastery.org

A new stupa is being built at Sera Je Monastery for Khen Rinpoche Geshe Gendun Choephel who passed away on July 31, 2016. Among Khen Rinpoche’s many students is Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe.

“My dearest and most precious Teacher, Friend, Mother, Father and Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Gendun Choephel, just passed away in a very sudden way,” Ösel wrote on his Facebook page on July 31. “He was the closest person in my life, he raised me and gave me everything, taught me and loved me like no one else. It is devastating and so hard to accept, but I feel joy for having known him and it has been such an honor to grow up under his guidance. Thank you so much Gen-la, you are always in my heart.”

Ösel requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to assist with this precious stupa, and Rinpoche, through the Stupa Fund, offered US$20,000 toward its completion. 

Young Osel with Geshe Gendun Choephel (left) and Lama Zopa Rinpoche (right) at Sera Je Monastery.

“Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings. As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace – for the beings who see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Tenzin Osel Hita with Geshe Gendun Choephel and brother Kunkyen.

Geshe Gendun Choephel was born in 1941 in Karze in eastern Tibet. He later joined Sera Je Monastery in 1955 and went into exile in India in 1959, joining the Buxa Duar community to study and practice. He was among the foremost group who re-established Sera Je in Bylakuppe, South India. After earning his Lharampa Geshe degree, Khen Rinpoche began teaching at the monastery and did so for the rest of his life. He was enthroned as the 75th abbot of Sera Je Monastery on July 18, 2016. 

The total cost for this stupa is US$27,000 and the remaining US$7,000 will be raised by Sera Je monks.  Please rejoice in the creation of this holy object dedicated to a most kind teacher, Geshe Gendun Choephel. 

If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues. The Stupa Fund is a sub fund of the Holy Objects Fund. 

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. Also available is, “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Circumambulation.”

The monks of Sera Je Monastery are offered three nutritious meals every single day through the Sera Je Food Fund.

The Sera Je Food Fund (a project of the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund) has been in operation for twenty-five years, offering free meals to the sincere monks of Sera Je Monastery daily.

In a typical month, nearly 22,000 bananas, 120 bottles of soy sauce, and an incredible 5,500 pounds of flour, among many other ingredients including vegetables, rice, noodles, and tea, are utilized in preparation for this offering of vegetarian meals for, on average, 1,600 monks every day.

Approximately 50 monks help prepare meals for in the Sera Je Food Fund kitchen.

The Sera Je Food Fund doesn’t just supply food. A tremendous amount of work must go into the planning, cooking, serving, and cleaning up of the daily meals.

Every day each khangtsen (monastic house made up of monks from the same regions) informs the Sera Je Food Fund Kitchen how many monks will be joining for meals so the cooks can always prepare the right amount of food. There is almost no waste from the kitchen because any leftovers are offered to monks who engage in evening debate or classes allowing the monks to enjoy a second dinner if they are studying or debating late. Any food bought by the kitchen that is not used is sold back to the market making the waste for the kitchen extremely low. This is quite impressive when considering the volume of food being prepared and cooked. 

Typically, about 50 monks are assigned to kitchen duties every day.  They help ensure that the ingredients are top quality, that the kitchen is always hygienic and efficient, and that the food is tasty for the monks. Lunch is often eaten as a group in the Sera Je gompa when there are pujas or practices happening.

It takes a tremendous amount of food, supplies, equipment, and collective work to offer meals every day to the monks of Sera Je Monastery.

Equipment and kitchen supply needs are ongoing, maintenance and repairs are frequent, office supplies are needed for administration and accounting, pujas and prayers for the project’s success are regularly sponsored, and dry food is organized during special occasions such as holidays and major teaching events when the monastery kitchen is closed down. All of this costs approximately US$200,000 every year to actualize. A small price considering the incredible benefit offered to so many. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has taught extensively on the benefits of offering to Sangha.

The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund was established to support monks and nuns with a focus on the health and sustainability of monasteries and nunneries. While the Sera Je Food Fund has been our most successful and ambitious project to date, future plans for this fund will enable FPMT to make ongoing offerings in a much broader way.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the nuns of Kopan Nunnery.

“Educating monks and nuns is one of the most important things in the world.” – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The Sera Je Food Fund was established with very clear goals and recently one of those major objectives has been achieved. We look forward to releasing details on this in weeks to come.  We invite all to connect with the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund to keep up on news,  information on new initiatives, and opportunities to get involved and support these efforts to help monasteries and nunneries thrive. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Amitabha Buddhist Centre community liberates sea creatures at the shoreline in Singapore.

Benefiting animals in any way possible is a high priority for FPMT and one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the organization. The Animal Liberation Fund helps carry forth this work.

The Animal Liberation Fund sponsored the liberations of approximately 70,400 animals at Rinpoche’s houses in California and Washington State in 2016. Not only were the animals saved from untimely death by resident Sangha, but they were also taken around an incredible amount of holy objects, mantras were recited and blown on them and they were carefully placed where they could live out the rest of their life. When Sangha finish these liberations, they make strong prayers for all those who are sick, have recently died, or who have requested prayers. This is one of the most beneficial aspects of this practice as the merit is shared among so many. All are welcome to request prayers and dedications from the Sangha at Rinpoche’s residences for themselves or loved ones. In addition to the animal liberations in Washington State, the Sangha regularly bless the beings living in the lakes of this area. 

During the animal liberation practice, animals are carried around holy objects so they can create merit.

About once a month at Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC), Singapore, sea creatures are purchased at a seafood market to liberate. The animals are then circumambulated around center, which has 100 sets of the Kangyur and Tengyur as well as more than 300 stupas and many holy objects, including prayer wheels and statues. The community then offers animal liberation practice for  the animals according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s instructions and advice. Incredibly, 4,199,007 crabs, shellfish, and fish were liberated in 2016.  ABC estimates that they have helped liberate 218,000,000 lives to date. 

During animal liberation practice, an altar like this one designed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche filled with holy objects can be used for circumambulating the animals.

Recently, a student wrote to Rinpoche asking what they could do when finding dead insects. Rinpoche responded, not only to give advice but to describe in detail how he and Sangha at his residences work to benefit insects, birds, and other small animals.

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. This differs from general animal blessings which involve blessing any animal with mantras or a holy object. Animal blessings are, of course, wonderful to do for animals, but this is not what is meant by “animal liberations.”

Animal liberation practice is an incredible practice for anyone who has illnesses or is experiencing life obstacles. FPMT Education Services makes available many resources for those wishing to engage in this practice. 

All are welcome to contribute to the Animal Liberation Fund to help ensure that our work sponsoring animal liberations around the world continues. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Yarpel outside Heruka Pure Land Retreat Cabin.

Out of control wildfires ravaged many parts of the United States’ Pacific Northwest during the Summer of 2015. Several fires occurred in Okanogan County, Washington, where Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) is located. Among the damage done, a retreat cabin on BAPL land was partly destroyed, making it unusable. In addition, all of the contents of the kitchen, bathroom, and sitting area were destroyed.

We are very happy to report that the retreat cabin has now been fully rebuilt. Parts of the cabin that were not destroyed were utilized in the rebuild, contents of the previous cabin were replaced, burnt trees cleared, and repairs were made to the deer fence.

The new cabin is now 561 square feet with 433 square feet of living space. The new building was designed, partly built, and fully supervised by Ven. Yarpel (who is a retired builder and also long-term retreatant).

With the new building some essential upgrades were added, such as bringing a larger water storage tank up to the cabin (the previous one required pumping each day) and also joining the kitchen and bathroom to the existing cabin. Before there were separate buildings and this meant that a retreatant would have to go out in the snow to use the kitchen and bathroom. These upgrades have made the retreat cabin safer and more useful.

The finished cabin is 561 square feet with 433 square feet of living space.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently visited the cabin and was very happy with the additions, blessed the new retreat cabin, and gave it the name: Heruka Pure Land Retreat Cabin.

It has been the ongoing wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for retreat places to be established around the world where senior Sangha and longtime senior students of the FPMT can live in retreat or retirement. In order for this wish to become a reality in the United States, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT have made available a great majority of the land at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land for the purpose of establishing such a place. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with some of the Land of Joy community on the retreat center’s grounds, July 2014. Photo courtesy of Land of Joy website.

Land of Joy is an FPMT-affiliated Buddhist retreat center located in the Northumberland National Park in the north of England. We are pleased to report that due to the kindness of a generous benefactor, the Practice and Retreat Fund was recently able to invest in the current operations and growth of this retreat center. 

Land of Joy enables individuals and groups at all levels of experience to undertake retreats and find support for their Dharma studies and practice. All are welcome to visit, share their spiritual practice, volunteer to provide for the needs of the retreatants, and participate in other activities such as working in the garden and woodlands.

In the future Land of Joy  will develop Tara Hospice Care, providing compassionate support for terminally ill individuals and their families. Initially, hospice service will be provided to individuals in their own homes but in time the team will develop to include on-site care for patients who wish to end their lives in the quiet, contemplative environment of Land of Joy.

The lush and beautiful view from the Land of Joy property. Photo courtesy of Land of Joy website. 

About the importance of retreat centers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said:

“A retreat place is not for gaining power like black magic, it’s not for a honeymoon or holiday. Also it is not a place to be spaced out. The whole purpose is to subdue the mind and to actualize lam-rim up to enlightenment. It is a place for a holiday from negative karma, a holiday from the three poisonous minds and the self-cherishing thought, a holiday from the self-grasping of the person and phenomena, a holiday from the wrong concepts: non-devotional thought toward guru up to the subtle dual view of white, increasing, attainment.”

Please rejoice that Land of Joy has received some generous support it needs to actualize its vision long into the future.  You can read more about this unique center including testimonials from those involved in the establishment and operation of Land of Joy. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. Creating opportunities for and sponsoring students to engage in retreats is an essential component of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization.