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Tara Lanka Study Group preparing for its one hundredth Medicine Buddha puja, held at Abhayagiri Stupa in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, April 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Lanka Study Group.
Tara Lanka Study Group in Sri Lanka has been organizing Medicine Buddha pujas in accordance with advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The island country, which is currently experiencing many extreme hardships, has a rich Buddhist history dating back two millennia. Ven.Tenzin Lekdron, who is the study group coordinator, shared this story on two big events that took place recently.
On April 9, 2022, Tara Lanka Study Group in Sri Lanka organized their one hundredth Medicine Buddha puja. Despite severe difficulties, more than one hundred Tara Lanka people from different parts of the island gathered at Abhayagiri Temple in the ancient and sacred city of Anuradhapura for this milestone event.
Participants were expecting to hear Lama Zopa Rinpoche offer the Medicine Buddha lung via Zoom to those gathered. An hour before the event, however, he asked Khandro Kunga Bhuma, who was to be arriving in Sri Lanka for a private visit, to take his place. You can imagine that at first there was some panic, but after a few phone calls, a plan was made. Khandro-la agreed to offer an in-person teaching to Tara Lanka students a few days later. Despite the last minute changes, the event at Abhayagiri Temple was a big success.
Offerings for the Medicine Buddha puja at Abhayagiri Stupa, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, April 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Lanka Study Group.
Malintha Perera from Tara Lanka organized all the logistics for the Medicine Buddha puja event, including getting the approval from the head monk at the temple and ensuring technology was available and working in that location. She arranged speakers, shelter, and food along with transport—an almost impossible task given Sri Lanka’s severe shortages. In addition to the onsite participants, many others, including people from outside the country, were able to attend on Zoom.
A monk from the temple led Pali prayers, which is an indication of the expanding interest and understanding between our traditions. Two learned speakers—Prof. Sunil Wijesiriwardana and Dr. Bertram Liyanage—gave introductions to Mahayana Buddhism, addressing key elements relevant to the attendees. Prof. Wijesiriwardana explained Mahayana ideas and their history in Sri Lanka. Dr. Liyanage spoke about the eighteen Nalanda masters and their influence in Sri Lanka.
Medicine Buddha puja event at Abhayagiri Stupa in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, April 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Lanka Study Group.
On April 22, Khandro-la gave an in-person teaching to about thirty Tara Lanka students. Malintha Perera said that Khando-la’s talk was a “very deep teaching on dependent origination, taught in a very practical way, which also encouraged us to develop compassion.” Dr. Liyanage, who also attended, said “I never expected to hear such wisdom.” Of Khandro-la, Ruwan Basnayaka said, “Although I’ve heard about Buddha nature, this is the first time I was able to see the qualities of a Buddha embodied in a human.”
Since May, Tara Lanka Study Group has done two extensive Medicine Buddha pujas, taking Rinpoche’s most recent advice on board. Malintha organized these pujas and is aiming to continue to organize them until conditions change in the country. Dedications of these practices are also being made for the building of a 15-meter (50-foot) Medicine Buddha statue in the future.
Tara Lanka is proud to be giving people the chance to once again practice the bodhisattva path in Sri Lanka.
Tara Lanka students with Khandro-la, Sri Lanka, April 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Lanka Study Group.
You can learn more about Tara Lanka Study Group on their website: taralanka.org.
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.
Screenshot from Online Foundation Service Seminar, June 2022
The Foundation Service Seminar (FSS) is the “FPMT immersion retreat.” It provides essential information and nourishment for all serving, or wishing to serve, in the FPMT organization. The FSS retreat is key to deeply understanding the FPMT organization and the attitude we seek to cultivate as we offer service in the organization. This experiential retreat helps us to actualize the advice that service is practice and to enjoy and rejoice when offering service.
Gilda Urbina, FPMT Mexico National Coordinator, and Martha Portillo—both registered Foundation Service Seminar facilitators—recently led the first pilot of the new Online Foundation Service Seminar in Spanish.
The FPMT Foundation Service Seminar helps develop a shared understanding of the FPMT mission set out by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and a firm basis to serve joyfully and effectively within the organization. We have offered the Foundation Service Seminar Retreat for some years and are now newly offering the slightly shorter Online Foundation Service Seminar. The online FSS does not replace the full FSS retreat—our aim is for it to be helpful if on-site events are not possible or easy; and to provide an additional training format, so that the most students can engage with this fantastic learning experience.
Although Gilda and Mar had to overcome some technological difficulties, and despite the fact that both they and seminar participants were taking time on a Monday evening after a full day of work, all were delighted that they had made the effort.
Gilda comments, “The seminar was very enriching, despite the fact that we did it online, the warmth of participants and the family feeling was felt in an important way. We had a lot of learning.”
Mar adds, “I am still moved by the last session and very grateful to have lived the whole experience. Having taught the course with Gilda was very enriching for me.”
Participants also made the following comments:
“It was a very rewarding and different experience; I learned things I took for granted. Thanks!”
“The FFS course is great. It is not an easy task to lead it, but the way Gilda and Mar combine the theory with the spiritual and practical parts, shows the good heart they share with us in every session. I rejoice.”
We also rejoice and hope that this new format will be a very beneficial addition to our range of resources and support for those serving in the FPMT organization.
For more information on the Foundation Service Seminar and to find out how to register for future events, visit FPMT Service Seminars. You can also read more about past Foundation Service Seminars held around the world.
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.
Photo courtesy of Santa Cruz Mission Chapel.
Andrew Vahldiek, 69, died in Santa Cruz, CA, on June 7, 2022.
Long-time student of FPMT, Andrew Vahldiek, became a quadriplegic at the age of 17, following a near-death swimming accident in Wisconsin, US. This experience devastated him both physically and emotionally as his once active lifestyle had to be abandoned for life in a wheelchair, dependent on the assistance of others. Without the benefit of tools to cope with his life-changing injury and following months spent in an acute care hospital, his doctors prescribed him a wide variety of painkillers, to which he became tolerant and subsequently addicted. Isolated and mentally unwell, he decided to quit the drugs “cold-turkey.” This is when Andrew discovered systematic relaxation, breathing mantra recitations, and in time, Tibetan Buddhism.
In an article published in Mandala in 1999, Andrew explained this change in his worldview:
“My personal care assistant who had traveled to India and who was also interested in Zen Buddhism had become good friends with a senior student of Geshe Lhundup Sopa in the University of Wisconsin Southeast Asia Studies Department. He invited me to come to Geshe-la’s private talks that he had begun giving on weekends. He suggested I look at a book entitled The Tibetan Tradition of Mental Development by Geshe Dhargyey. This was very powerful for me, although I had a problem with the concept of the hell realms and using fear as a motivating factor for spiritual practice. But this was the first contact with Tibetan Buddhism.
“Tibetan Buddhism takes a very psychological approach and goes right to the heart of the matter, instead of issuing commandments, rules. Instead of saying what is good conduct and bad conduct alone, it also presents a variety of methodological vehicles whereby one can develop the skills needed to operate in accord with a code of behavior that is positive and beneficial, not only for oneself, but for all other beings. There are so many different aspects of the Dharma that appealed to me the more I studied and went to teachings. I was a very poor student at first – I had little conception of how vast the literature is. For some years I floundered about and wasted a lot of time, but nonetheless used what little skill I had to work with difficult states of mind.
“The concept of emptiness enabled me to gradually see that I was not my body alone, and that was a great comfort to me. Instead of being someone with a concrete physical status, I was a being with consciousness with a body that is impermanent that would not remain, eventually would die, and given my karmic predisposition I could go to a different body. Just the fact of having a way intellectually of seeing myself other than this body, this disability that defines myself and my existence, helped a great deal, even though my understanding of emptiness was very, very modest. The concept alone was very helpful.”
We invite you to read more of Andrew’s inspiring story, “Changing Suffering into Happiness.”
Please also see an obituary for Andrew published in Santa Cruz Mission Chapel.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche requests that students who read obituaries pray that the person mentioned finds a perfect human body, meets a Mahayana guru, and becomes enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the tantric teachings exist and they can become enlightened.” While reading obituaries we can also reflect on our own death and impermanence prompting us to live our lives in the most meaningful way. More advice from Lama Zopa Ripoche on death and dying is available, see Death and Dying: Practices and Resources (fpmt.org/death/).
To read more obituaries from the international FPMT mandala, and to find information on submission guidelines, please visit our new Obituaries page (fpmt.org/media/obituaries/).
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We are pleased to share our June 2022 e-news with you! This issue features news, updates, resources, opportunities, and causes for rejoicing, including:
- News of Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the Kopan November course
- Links to new teachings from Rinpoche
- Rejoicing in an incredibly meritorious array of pujas and prayers offered this Saka Dawa
- An update on the first Foundation Service Seminar in Australia
- Newly available materials from the Foundation Store
- Opportunities and changes within the organization
And much more!
Please read this month’s e-news in its entirety.
Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page. French and Spanish speakers will find the FPMT International Office News translated each month in the “Bienvenue” and “Bienvenidos” tabs on the FPMT homepage.
Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.
Foundation Service Seminar participants, Tara Institute, Melbourne, Australia, May 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Institute.
The Foundation Service Seminar (FSS) is the “FPMT immersion retreat.” It provides essential information and nourishment for all serving, or wishing to serve, in the FPMT organization. The FSS retreat is key to deeply understanding the FPMT organization and the attitude we seek to cultivate as we offer service in the organization. This experiential retreat helps us to actualize the advice that service is practice and to enjoy and rejoice when offering service. Tara Institute student Kathryn Gomersal, who participated in the recent FSS at Tara Institute in Melbourne, Australia, shared the following about the retreat:
Tara Institute in Melbourne, Australia, hosted Australia’s first FPMT Foundation Services Seminar on May 18–22, 2022. Thirty-two people attended from many Australian FPMT centers, including Atisha Centre (Bendigo), Vajrayana Institute (Sydney), and Langri Tangpa Centre (Brisbane), among others. François Lecointre facilitated the five-day seminar that focused on building and strengthening our Dharma community, based on the story of the Four Harmonious Friends and on the Four Means for Drawing Sentient Beings. Participants had the opportunity to learn about the broader mission and work of the international FPMT movement and to place their own work within the context of this global community.
The retreat was an excellent opportunity for practitioners across Australia who wish to offer service within the FPMT organization. We came together, shared in the vision of FPMT founders Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and built relationships that will support the preservation and growth of Dharma practice in this country.
François Lecointre facilitating the Foundation Service Seminar, Tara Institute, Melbourne, Australia, May 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Institute.
“This seminar provided a timely opportunity for participants to reconnect with the wider FPMT family,” said François. “It was a real joy to observe the incredible richness of interactions and exchanges. Many thanks to Dave Andrews for his perseverance in organizing the seminar despite the difficult health situation and to his wife, Allys, who was supposed to co-facilitate, but had to step down at the last minute as she and Dave both tested positive for COVID. Without them, this FSS would not have happened.”
The five-day retreat has inspired us all to work together to make our centers warm and welcoming places for members, and the public more generally, who come looking for peace of mind or to learn about Buddhist spirituality. It is our wish that the skills we learned at the retreat will provide a strong foundation upon which the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche will flourish in Australia.
Foundation Service Seminar, Tara Institute, Melbourne, Australia, May 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Institute.
In recognition of the community building spirit upon which the FSS was designed, I want to share quotes about the FSS from my fellow participants:
“It was a very meaningful discussion about the past, present, and future of FPMT.”—Ven. Tenzin Lekdron
“I found the FSS really inspiring, and it energized me. I found learning about the structure of the FPMT helpful. I loved meeting new friends from around Australia and have made plans to visit Chenrezig and Langri Tangpa soon.”—Kate Danford-Storey
“Tara Institute looked after us very well, especially Ven. Tsering’s kind, hearty lunches. I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know new people and reconnect with others. The presentation and small group exercises helped me to gain a clearer sense of our national FPMT arm that links to the international foundation. I felt revitalized by the shared experience—happy for our strengths and commitment. The FSS presentation emphasized the natural evolution of our organization, through our kind lamas’ guidance and the efforts of students over the decades. François was a good example of the harmonious methods taught in FSS, encouraging openness and addressing needs as they arose. FPMT is a precious jewel in the world and will be what we make of it through our efforts together. How fortunate we are to have so many people with a broad range of skills and dedication, and common aim of universal wellbeing.” —Ven. Tenzin Tsapel
“FSS proved to be a more powerful immersion retreat than I honestly expected. Challenging, evocative, informative, compelling. Beyond this, it is a genuine vehicle to drive knowledge and harmony within the wider FPMT community, all with wisdom and compassion. How wonderful.”—Deb Stokes
“An incredible opportunity to be with members of the broader FPMT family. The FPMT educational programs are excellent. They are a graded path to take students from a raw introduction to the highest levels of Buddhist philosophy. We are part of the FPMT Family. This family has as its head His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There is then the inspiration and leadership from Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which then flows to our resident teachers at the centers. This should give us all a sense of security and faith that what we are doing is the true Buddhadharma in an unbroken tradition from the Buddha himself.”—Alan Molloy
Foundation Service Seminar, Tara Institute, Melbourne, Australia, May 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Institute.
For more information on the Foundation Service Seminar and to find out how to register for future events, visit FPMT Service Seminars.
You can learn more about Tara Institute in Melbourne by visiting their website:
https://www.tarainstitute.org.au/
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.
Shakyamuni Buddha with offerings, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.
We wish everyone an auspicious Saka Dawa Duchen!
Depending on one’s time zone, a collective effort of merit-making is underway or has already occurred in FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world and in the homes of teachers, students, teachers, benefactors, volunteers, and those serving the organization in all varieties of ways.
We invite you to please REJOICE in all prayers, practices, and activities celebrating Shakyamuni Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana. Karmic results on this day are multiplied by 300 million.
We would also like to remind everyone about the recommended practices for Saka Dawa we shared earlier in the month.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW), an international FPMT project, had a lively year in 2021, as shared in their recently released Annual Review 2021. And the project continues to build and expand on their beneficial and uplifting work in 2022. FDCW’s programs are based on Universal Education for Compassion and Wisdom (UECW), which is one of FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service. UECW is a secular system of inner learning that cultivates and explores universal values. FDCW shared the following update of some key activities of 2021 and new offerings for 2022:
The highlight of 2021 was without doubt the Compassion and Wisdom in Action Conference, which followed in the footsteps of the previous year’s Big Love Festival. Seventeen speakers—including FDCW’s Honorary President Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Tenzin Ösel Hita, and Ven. Robina Courtin—shared their wisdom in engaging sessions under the four conference themes: values, mind, healing, and engaged action. Hundreds of participants joined the talks in the spirit of compassion, connection, community, and caring, and made the conference an unforgettable event.
The essence of all these activities is best summarized with a quote from a course participant who wrote, “The gentleness that threads through all of FDCW courses is what I love most.”
2022 will be a busy year, and FDCW hopes that many more people will be able to benefit from the wisdom and compassion that Universal Education offers. FDCW is also keen to hear about Universal Education initiatives from FPMT centers.
“Lama Yeshe’s vision for Universal Education was vast and in the last forty years it has inspired many people and projects around the world,” said FDCW Executive Director Victoria Coleman. “Whether you are running Universal Education activities that you would like to share with the wider world or want to strengthen the UE pillar at your center and are looking for support, please get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you!”
To learn more about the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, visit the FDCW website: https://www.compassionandwisdom.org
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We are saddened to share the news that Khyongla Rato Rinpoche peacefully passed away in Dharamsala, India, on May 24, 2022.
Khyongla Rato Rinpoche was a reincarnate lama and scholar of the Gelugpa order of Tibetan Buddhism, who was born in 1923 in the Dagyab region of Kham, in southeastern Tibet. In 1928, senior Gelugpa monks divined that a five-year-old boy living in this remote part of Tibet was the reincarnation of the ninth Khyongla. On his sixth birthday, monks on horseback took him from his parents’ home to a monastery some distance away where he was installed as its spiritual head.
For over three decades, he lived the life of a monk, studying at the most famous monasteries in Tibet and earning the Lharampa Geshe degree. In 1959, along with thousands of monks as well as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he fled the Chinese army on foot over the Himalayas to safety and to a radically different life in India, Europe, and eventually the United States.
In 1975, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche founded The Tibet Center, in New York City, US.
On May 24, 2022, The Tibet Center shared the following announcement:
“Venerable Khenpo Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland is with him and is currently performing prayers along with Rato monks in Rinpoche’s presence. His Holiness’ office has been informed and [His Eminence] Venerable Ling Rinpoche is advising Venerable Vreeland. Venerable Vreeland asks us to kindly say prayers on Rinpoche’s behalf and we will have a further statement in the near future.”
Khyongla Rato Rinpoche was a teacher of FPMT Spiritual Director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who received many oral transmissions from him over the years. In recent years, Khyongla Rato Rinpoche also visited FPMT’s Root Institute and Tushita Meditation Centre, both in India.
On May 24, 2022, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Kopan Monastery offered Lama Chopa puja for the fulfillment of all the wishes of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche.
The passing of this highly respected teacher is a great loss for his students and the world. Please pray for the continuation of his good works far, far into the future.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, 2018. Photo by Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland.
UPDATE: Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland shared photos of Khyongla Rato Rinpoche’s passing in the post “Rinpoche Has Departed” on his website.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with senior monks and nuns doing Tara puja at Tara Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Welcome to the May 2022 edition of our e-news! This issue features news, updates, resources, opportunities, and causes for rejoicing including:
- An important update on prayers to do for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health
- New teachings and advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
- An opportunity for free books for FPMT centers from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
- Newly available materials from the FPMT Foundation Store
- Opportunities and changes within the organization
And much more!
Please enjoy this month’s e-news in its entirety.
Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page. French and Spanish speakers will find the FPMT International Office News translated each month in the “Bienvenue” and “Bienvenidos” tabs on the FPMT homepage.
Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.
Geshe Thubten Rinchen giving an oral transmission at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
From April 15 to May 9, 2022, about 390 monks and nuns from Kopan Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, as well as a few others from various locations, received precious oral transmissions (lungs) from Geshe Thubten Rinchen, a great hidden yogi and the main teacher of Sera Mey and Tashi Lhunpo monasteries. The lungs were a transmission of parts of the five great texts that are the curriculum of Sera Je Monastery and some of the other great monasteries.
The three weeks of oral transmissions ended with an auspicious long life puja for Geshe Thubten Rinchen on May 10. Please rejoice!
Geshe Thubten Rinchen during the long life puja offered to him, Kopan Monastery, May 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Geshe Rinchen was born in 1937 and became a monk at age thirteen at Sera Mey Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. He fled in the aftermath of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the Chinese army. Like many other Tibetan monks, he ended up at Buxa Chogar, the camp established for 1,500 exiled Tibetan monastics in Buxa Duar, West Bengal, India. This is where he met Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Geshe Rinchen first started teaching at Buxa Chogar and continues to teach to this day.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Geshe Thubten Rinchen, Boudhanath, Nepal, April 13, 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Geshe Rinchen is both a learned scholar and a true practitioner, who consistently demonstrates great humility. He offers not only traditional monastic teachings, but also advice on retreats and rituals.
Geshe Rinchen spoke clearly and slowly, enunciating every single word while giving the transmission, which made it easy to follow without distraction. It was notable for everybody in attendance that the gompa was quiet and still with participants intensely listening to every word. In his introduction, Geshe Rinchen said that there are three ways of receiving an oral transmission. The best way is if the receiver understands every word and its meaning because this equals the benefit of receiving both the commentary and the oral transmission. It seems those in attendance tried very hard to achieve this.
Geshe Rinchen’s visit was a truly remarkable opportunity for the Kopan community. As the number of living masters who came from Tibet has dwindled, Geshe Rinchen, at age eighty-six, continues to share our precious lineage. He has already transmitted the Buddha’s teachings to thousands of others, some of whom have become upholders of the Dharma themselves. This time, about 150 nuns from Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery attended the lungs, twenty-one of whom will be going for the geshema degree this year.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the long life puja offered to Geshe Thubten Rinchen, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2022. Photo by Ven,. Lobsang Sherab.
This event at Kopan Monastery was very inspiring for all in attendance. Lama Zopa Rinpoche had asked Geshe Rinchen several times to give these lungs to the Kopan community, and it is a great blessing that Geshe Rinchen offered them. These lungs will hopefully be continued very soon for the benefit of all. May this lineage continue to be passed from the hearts of teachers to students for millennia to come.
Please watch this short video of Geshe Rinchen offering part of one of the oral transmissions to the Kopan community.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Namgyalma mantra board used for blessing sentient beings in Phewa Lake being held by Nawang Sangey and Dawa Sherpa, the former manager of Ganden Yiga Choezin, Pokhara, Nepal.
Wherever we go we can benefit sentient beings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche frequently reminds us. In fact, there are many ways to benefit animals, who may suffer in the animal realm not just for this one lifetime but for many eons. As Buddhists, our job is to cherish all sentient beings, including even the tiniest (and most irritating!) among us, such as mosquitoes, or those we cannot see easily such as beings living underwater.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has talked about many ways to benefit sentient beings according to the conditions in which they live. We can benefit them by offering blessed water and food, reciting prayers and mantras to them, playing sutras for them to hear, taking them around holy objects, and so forth. We can also build holy objects that animals can circumambulate to collect merit.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing all the beings in Palmer Lake, Washington, US. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
Since 2016, Sangha at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in Washington state have been using Rinpoche unique methods to bless the beings at nearby lakes. Following a recent visit to Pokhara, Nepal, where Rinpoche took time to bless beings in Phewa Lake, Rinpoche requested Ganden Yiga Choezin Pokhara, a satellite group of Kopan Monastery, to begin this practice once a month as well. They enthusiastically have taken on this practice. They recite the Namgyalma mantra and then let the mantra board float on the water to bless all the beings as the boat travels. They also offer blessed food to the fish, perform a bath offering puja, recite prayers, and play audio of Lama Zopa Rinpoche chanting.
Please enjoy a video of various aspects of this practice as it is done by Ganden Yiga Choezin for beings residing in Phewa Lake:
In 2019, while blessing beings on Palmer Lake in Washington, US, Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained the various ways one can benefit the water creatures with mantras and blessed substances:
You can read other accounts of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s unique methods of blessing beings in water to get inspired to perhaps incorporate benefiting animals into all of your aquatic activities.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Screenshot of the Meridian Trust website homepage.
For more than three decades, the Meridian Trust has been using film and video to document Buddhist teachings and traditions around the world. The UK-based organization has collected an archive of more than 3,500 hours of footage, including rare recordings of the generation of Tibetan lineage holders who first went into exile. Meridian Trust was founded by Geoff Jukes, a long-time British student of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and manager of some of the biggest names in the British music industry.
Screenshot of the Meridian Trust’s “category” section of their new website.
Now, Meridian’s precious and inspiring content is reaching an even wider audience with their new website. Director of Projects Kaska Phuntsok and Administrative Director Emma Lewis have been working with Copenhagen-based web developers We Add Motion to transform Meridian’s film streaming site.
The new site hosts Meridian’s historic film and video archive as well as new content. The team has spent the last two years editing almost forty years’ worth of Dharma materials—eighty-nine collections—jointly with the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. This content is now presented in a simple and clear way through easy-to-navigate categories, such as for culture and teachers, enabling visitors of the site to find what they are looking for (or perhaps didn’t realize they were looking for!) with ease.
Screenshot of the Meridian Trust’s website.
One video FPMT students might particularly appreciate is “Extracting the Essence,” which is two interviews with Lama Yeshe, recorded in 1982 and 1983. In the video Lama Yeshe tells his personal life story and how his involvement with Western Buddhist students evolved, including the development of the FMPT organization. Lama Yeshe also responds to questions about his personal vision for the future development and consolidation of Dharma centers in the West and gives detailed practical advice on how to extract the essence of Buddha’s teachings as they become integrated into our Western way of life.
About the new website, Meridian Trust writes, “The responses we have received so far have been heart-warming. We hope the result will delight Dharma students. We are looking forward to bringing more content into our translations area, continuing our filming work, and promoting the site, to bring the message of Tibetan Buddhism compassion and wisdom to a new audience.”
You can read more about the history of the Meridian Trust and its connection to FPMT in Vickie Mackenzie’s in-depth story, “Preserving the Past for Future Generations: The Meridian Trust Documents the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition as It Grows in the West.”
Visit the Meridian Trust online to watch videos and learn more about the video archive.
FPMT.org brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 150 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.