receive our newsletters
join Friends of FPMT
Charitable Activities
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT is for some FPMT centers to display huge thangkas and host festival days.
The beautiful appliquéd thangka of Guru Rinpoche. The thangka will be displayed during 1,000 Padmasambhava tsog offerings in India and Nepal and during special occasions.
A close up of Guru Rinpoche as depicted in this large thangka.
In 2011 Lama Zopa Rinpoche through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund commissioned a 55 ft x 40 ft high stitched appliquéd thangka of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava). The thangka will be displayed during 1,000 Padmasambhava tsog offerings in India and Nepal and during special occasions.The total cost of the thangka was US$75,000 and was fully sponsored by an incredibly kind benefactor.
In the middle of the thangka is the Padmasambhava merit field. The right side has eight aspects of Padmasambhava and the left side displays Padmasambhava’s pure land.
In 2012 Rinpoche went to see the progress of the thangka which was quite incredible.
It was blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the Jangchup Lamrim 2013 teachings.
The following advice was given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche regarding specifics for this Vast Vision:
“I would like for there to be many thousands of offerings in front of the thangkas as well as offering banners. People could sit facing the thangka, or sit like they would in a puja. Extensive offerings can be set up and practices such as offering bath, prostrations, extensive offering practice etc. Students can recite the Seven Limb Prayer and offer a puja.
The beautiful appliquéd thangka of Guru Rinpoche.
“During the festival day in the beginning the centers could give some introduction to Buddhism, then also to lead a deity puja (according to what thangka is being displayed). Then people can offer music, dances, etc., to the thangka (and also for everyone to enjoy). In this way many people make a connection to the deity and connect to Dharma. Also many people who would not normally come to the centers will come: people with children, the elderly, neighbors.
“The idea is for many people to offer music to the Buddha, offer dancing, offer singing, etc. The main thing is making the offering to Buddha. By offering to Buddha then it is something so meaningful, instead of just entertainment.
“The centers can have a large umbrella above the thangka (yellow or orange color cloth). Also can have a procession up to the place where the thangka is displayed.
“The center could advertise the festival day widely and invite people outside the center.
“My wish is for the big centers in FPMT to have these large thangkas. This is a way to leave imprints for all these people [who see them], for enlightenment.
“Then also to have tea, food, a little bit like a party. Can be a buffet, but to offer delicious food. Then people always remember that and for sure they will come next time. They will ask, ‘When will it happen again?’
“The festival days can be within the first day or Losar or the 15th day of Losar (Day of Miracles). On that day the merit is multiplied, so therefore every offering and practice you do, any virtue you do, increases one hundred million times. So if the festival is done on one of those days.
“Other ideas: people can do three circumambulations around the thangka, centers could organize to have a horse carriage so that children can go around the thangka in a horse carriage. Then the horse also collects merit. Any animal that comes on that day makes their life meaningful. Children can go around on the horse carriage and all the people that can’t walk, they can still go around too.
“This tradition comes from Tibet, where they would display a very, very large thangka on a mountainside, or on the wall once a year.
Prayer wheels are filled with mantras traditionally printed on strips of paper and tightly rolled around the core. These days mantras are reproduced onto microfilm; the more mantras, the more powerful. Prayer wheels can be small enough to be held in the hand, table-based or can be very large containing billions of mantras. The Prayer Wheel Fund is sponsoring the building of 100,000 prayer wheels around the world for peace.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a prayer wheel to Richard Gere, Dharamsala, India, 1998.
These are some of the amazing benefits that Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated when giving his own prayer wheel to Richard Gere in 1998 in Dharamsala when he came for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Losar teaching:
The Limitless Light Buddha Amitabha said: “For the benefit of sentient beings of the degenerate age, I have explained the benefits of the mani wheel. The one who practices while turning equals the fortune of the thousand buddhas.”
The Founder Savior, the unequalled Shakya King, told the bodhisattva Dripa Namsil: “It is more beneficial to turn the Dharma wheel one time than [to be] a meditator of highest capacity who engages in one-year retreat on the essence meaning of mantra. It is more beneficial than [to be] a middle capacity meditator who does retreat for seven years or a lower capacity meditator who does a nine-year retreat.”
From The Peerless Wish-Granting Jewel Tantra: “The person who turns this wheel which possesses OM MANI PADME HUM will be blessed by all the gurus, the deities will grant realizations, those gone to bliss will pay attention to him or her, and the Dharma protectors will eliminate all obstacles.”
From The Will of the Action of the Compassionate Eye Loving One: “Each time you turn this OM MANI PADME HUM Dharma wheel equals the number (of the mantra) of the approximation retreat.”
Therefore, the fortunate capable beings turn the great Dharma wheel upright: the highest intelligent person will achieve enlightenment and work for sentient beings; the middle capable being will achieve fortunate rebirth and join the holy Dharma; and the lowest capable being will achieve good rebirth, separate from the ten non-virtuous actions.
If you place the Dharma wheel at home and turn it, the migrator beings abiding in that house will be liberated, and the home will become similar to the Potala (Pure Land of Chenrezig). At the time of death, if you place the Dharma wheel with OM MANI PADME HUM next to your head and make requests with intense devotional mind, without need of practicing powa (transference of consciousness) your consciousness will be transferred in one instant to the heart of the Compassionate One. Therefore, without qualms of a two-pointed mind in this profound supreme Dharma wheel, one should cherish it, build the Dharma wheel with perseverance, and turn it with an intense wish.
From The Tantra of the Circle of Six Thousand: “Even for the person who turns this precious wheel, any sentient being who sees, hears, remembers, or touches him or her completes the merits, purifies defilements, and achieves enlightenment.”
Thus is explained by the Buddha. When death comes, place the Dharma wheel at your crown and you won’t need to practice powa. When you carry the Dharma wheel and meet other sentient beings, even those who have killed their father or mother will be liberated. Even the sentient beings who see the wheel on the bridge will be liberated.”
You can also read “Benefits of Making Prayer Wheels” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT Education Services has created a Prayer Wheel Resource page.
If you would like to contribute to the building of prayer wheels around the world, you can donate any amount to the Prayer Wheel Fund
Some of the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery.
Since 2009 the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund has sponsored a small nunnery, Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery, located in a remote area of Nepal, to undertake annual 100 million mani retreats. In 2012 the fund started to sponsor two 100 million mani retreats.
In addition to sponsoring the actual retreat and offering food to all the nuns in retreat, the fund also sponsors one geshe to stay at the nunnery and give ongoing lam-rim teachings to the nuns.
We just received this message from the geshe: “Then nuns are just completing their 200 million mani retreat. They always do strong dedications for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the FPMT organization and the retreat sponsors. They really feel that Rinpoche’s kindness is incomparable. This year there are eight new young nuns who have joined the nunnery.
Please rejoice in this incredible practice for world peace and that we have this opportunity to support this nunnery in this way.
If you would like to help sponsor these 100 million mani retreats, you may donate any amount to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund:
Please enjoy this inspiring new video, filmed by Ven. Thubten Kalden and edited by Ven. Lhundrup Daychen, that shows the annual Hayagriva Retreat of Sera Je Monastery. The entire retreat was dedicated to all the kind benefactors of the Sera Je Food Fund.
The Sera Je Food Fund provided all the food for the retreaters and the video also shows the preparation and offering of the food.
The Great Yogi Milarepa said: “The practitioner and benefactor offering food create the cause to achieve enlightenment together.”
Monks offering puja on behalf of the Puja Fund.
This year Chokhor Duchen, the annual celebration commemoration of Lord Buddha’s first teaching, took place on July 12. Please rejoice in the incredible array of pujas and activities sponsored by the Puja Fund with strong prayers. Some of these activities were: The recitation of the entire Kangyur offered by the Kopan nuns; A new set of robes were offered to the Jowo Buddha statue in Tibet and offerings of paint and an umbrella were made to the two precious stupas: Bouddhanath and Swayambunath.
You can be a part of these incredible pujas and offerings by donating to the Puja Fund.
Monks participating in the daily clean up at Sera Je Monastery.
Starting at 4 a.m. every morning, on-duty cooks start the work of preparing breakfast for 2,500. These cooks are monks studying at Sera Je Monastery who also benefit daily from the three nutritious meals offered by the Sera Je Food Fund. Each day, between 50-70 monks are assigned kitchen work. Breakfast is served at 6:30 a.m. and after clean-up, lunch preparations begin. Lunch is served at 10:30 a.m. and dinner at 5:00 p.m. Promptly at 6 p.m. the kitchen is thoroughly cleaned to ensure that the food program is operating in the most hygienic way possible.
The work and enthusiasm put into making this program a success is astounding: Truly this is an example of community in action, a collective effort that is beneficial to all involved.
To help illustrate the scale of what is offered, and thus, prepared, here is a list of some of the food and cooking items used in June of this year:
- 19,600 bananas were offered
Monks working together to prepare food for 2,500.
- 5,736 pounds of rice and 3,329 pounds of dahl were prepared
- 10,968 pounds of baking powder and flour were incorporated into recipes
- 1,987 bundles of green vegetables and 5,840 pounds of combined other vegetables were served
- 89 bottles of soy sauce were utilized
- 3,796 cups of cooking oil and 86 gas cylinders were needed
You may join in this colossal effort to offer three nutritious meals every day to the 2,500 monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
Vegetarian savory puffs.
A giant batch of delicious vegetarian puffs were prepared for 2,500 monks as a test for a possible new addition to the regular rotation of menu items offered every day to the monks of Sera Je Monastery through the Sera Je Food Fund.
The puffs were stuffed with green beans, cheese and white noodles. The monks enjoyed this addition very much!
To see the amazing food offered every day to the monks of Sera Je Monastery visit photo galleries of seven days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Sera Je Kitchen Crew preparing to offer the vegetarian puffs to 2,500 monks.
The Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund is extremely honored to sponsor another 10 people to do 108 Nyung-Nä retreats at Institut Vajra Yogini, France. The 108 Nyung-Nä retreats starts in November 2013 and lasts until June 2014. In 2012 the fund also sponsored 10 people to complete 108 Nyung-Nä retreats.
Please enjoy this amazing account from Ven. Lhundrup Chodron, former director of the International Mahayana Institute, regarding her experience of completing the 108 Nyung-Näs.
Compilation of photos taken during the seven-month Nyung-Na retreat.
108 Nyung-Nä Retreat
by Ven. Lhundub Chodron
At the outset of the seven month-108 Nyung-Nä retreat at Institute Vajra Yogini (IVY) I felt certain that it would be a transformative experience, one that would alter my mind in some definitive way. But as the days, weeks and months passed it became clear that there probably wouldn’t be any major shift in my heart/mind, no big breakthrough in my gnarly habits. What I did know was that every day I was planting many positive seeds in my mind that were being watered by the unfathomable skill and kindness of Lama Chenrezig.
We had the most perfect conditions for the retreat. All the staff at IVY were incredibly supportive, always encouraging and rejoicing for us. Many staff said that often they would wake up at 5 a.m and think: “They are in there doing Nyung-Näs. I rejoice!” Then roll over and go back to sleep. We really felt that the Institute was happy we were there and honored to take care of and support us. “C’est mon plaisir (it’s my pleasure)” is something we heard over and over again.
Retreat leader Ven. Charles.
There was a core group who did the entire retreat, specifically Vens Charles and Namdrol, both of whom have done many, many Nyung-Näs. Other people came and went, staying for a session, a Nyung-Nä, a month or more. As the retreat leader, Ven. Charles created an environment that was spacious, loving and inclusive for all who wished to join the practice. Over the course of seven months dozens of people engaged in Nyung-Näs with us.
A friend of mine had an opportunity to receive advice from Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) about a retreat she was planning. Khadro-la said “If you don’t harm the self-grasping mind retreat is worthless and you might come out worse than when you went in.” The Nyung-Nä is a very beautiful and powerful practice for harming self-cherishing and the underlying self-grasping mind.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche indicated that it is very, very beneficial for Ven. Charles to lead another 108 Nyung-Nä retreat at IVY beginning in November. I highly recommend this retreat to anyone interested in expanding their capacity to live solely for the benefit of others.
Director of IVY, François Lecointre, reports:
“If we add up everybody, almost 100 different participants in total have participated in one or more Nyung-Näs and almost 850 individual Nyung-Näs have been accumulated during these seven months.”
Institut Vajra Yogini is hosting another round of 108 Nyung-Näs November 15, 2013 – June 19, 2014. Once again Lama Zopa Rinpoche wishes to sponsor 10 students to do the 108 Nyung-Näs. This sponsorship is the continued expression of one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT which he explained in 2007. For more information please contact Institut Vajra Yogini.
You can also be a part of this incredible offering by donating any amount to the
Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund.
DONATE
Monks help with clean-up after a meal.
The Sera Food Fund kitchen continues to stay within the budget and be able to offer excellent nutritious vegetarian meals to all the monks of Sera Je Monastery (see photos of 7 days of breakfast, lunch and dinner).
Some recent expenses included:
- US$5,015 for a new steam boiler using wood (to reduce usage of LPG gas cylinders) plus fittings and materials and a new rice cooking vessel.
- US$3,779 for new potato peeling machines, a new wood-cutting machine, seven new steel gas stoves and two steel storage boxes for storing baked breads.
To help illustrate the scale of what is offered through the Sera Je Food Fund, in one month:
- Nearly 25,000 bananas were offered
- 6,166 pounds of rice and 4,369 pounds of dahl were prepared
- 10,579 pounds of baking powder and flour were incorporated into recipes
- 2,509 bundles of green vegetables and 6,382 pounds of combined other vegetables were served
- 107 bottles of soy sauce were utilized
- 3,580 cups of cooking oil and 65 gas cylinders were needed
You may join in this colossal effort to offer three nutritious meals every day to the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
Photo by Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL.
In April 2013 the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund was very happy to offer $100,000 towards the building of the new classrooms at Sera Je Monastery. The classrooms will also primarily be used to teach subjects such as science and other fields of knowledge within the monastic curriculum. This is a direct request from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and is a long term objective of Sera Je Monastery to be in line with the vision and recommendations of His Holiness The Dalai Lama in integrating this kind of study into the monastic education.
In July 2013, during His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to Sera Je Monastery, His Holiness was able to visit the new classrooms. The photo above is a student monk describing a science experiment. Science classes are now part of the curriculum at the Tibetan monastic universities in India.
Animal liberations in Singapore, July 2011.
In July the Animal Liberation Fund was very happy to donate SGD$ 2500 (US$2051) toward larger animal liberations that are organized by Fred Cheong and Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore. Prayers and dedication were included for all the donors of the Animal Liberation Fund, as well as those who have requested prayers and are ill.
On His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s birthday, July 6, Amitabha Buddhist Centre liberated 11,000 kg (24,250 lbs) of sea shell, an estimated 1 million lives. On Chokor Duchen, July 12, when merit is multiplied 100 million times, Amitabha Buddhist Centre liberated another 700,000 animals.
Strong prayers and dedications were made for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life and to stay with us and guide us, and for all of His Holiness’s prayers and wishes to come true. Dedications were also made for the long life and perfect health of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and for all of Rinpoche’s wishes and prayers to succeed.
Animal Liberation practice is one of the practices that have been recently advised as important to do for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and long life.
Please rejoice in all the lives saved and thank you to all the kind donors, Fred Cheong and the students of Amitabha Buddhist Center who help to make all this possible.
The Animal Liberation Fund continues to support smaller weekly animal liberations, with strong prayers, by the Sangha at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s house.
If you would also like to participate in future animal liberations:
DONATE
Kitchen helpers preparing for meals to feed 30,000 visitors expected on July 6 for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 78th birthday celebration.
The Sera Je Food Fund Kitchen is preparing to offer food to 30,000 visitors to the monastery in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit to Sera Je from July 5-12, and in celebration of his 78th birthday on July 6. Many monks stayed all night to help prepare the food; a massive, collective effort.
The menu includes: tea and bread for the morning long life initiation, tea and sweet rice for the birthday celebration, and fried rice and butter tea for lunch.
To support the Sera Je Food Fund:
DONATE