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Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at the conclusion of the Exploring & Living in the Path course at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore, August 7, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
From March 27 through August 7 of this year, FPMT East & Southeast Asia offered their first international live online course to bring together students throughout the region. The classes varied in topics and formats, alternated between Chinese and English, and were led by a number of class leaders. The program concluded auspiciously with Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a surprise teaching, “You Are So Fortunate to Meet the Lamrim Teachings,” for the final session of the course during his visit of Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore. This is a very useful teaching for us all in which Rinpoche discusses the importance of the lamrim and Dharma study.
Below is a cheerful report from Selina Foong, Regional Coordinator for FPMT East & Southeast Asia Regional Office, on the Exploring & Living in the Path course:
We recently concluded our first regional course Exploring & Living in the Path, and what a wonderful experience it was! When 2021 was drawing to a close, this course did not even have a name. In fact, it was nothing more than a vague wish to connect with more of our Dharma brothers and sisters in the East and Southeast Asian region, and to encourage and inspire each other amidst the challenges of Covid-19 which by that point had worn many of us out. We decided that the undoubted basis of the course should surely be Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his precious teachings, and that was how it all began.
The idea germinated rapidly, and in March 2022, we launched Exploring & Living in the Path to an international online audience, with more than 175 people joining us on 27th March. WOW! (The course draws from Rinpoche’s Living in the Path program, which has a selection of Rinpoche’s teaching videos as a part of every session.)
From that auspicious beginning, a session was held every fortnight. There were a total of 10 sessions, alternating between English and Chinese. Every session was centered on a specific theme, and was a lively mix which included Rinpoche’s video extracts as well as further elaborations and personal sharing. Each session was presented by a different class leader, drawn from across our region. This worked very well as it highlighted both the rich variety and strong commonality between us all. We also noticed a consistent core of participants as the sessions progressed, which was very encouraging.
Class leaders for Exploring & Living in the Path regional online course. Images courtesy of FPMT East & Southeast Asia Facebook page.
The class leaders worked really hard to prepare for their respective sessions and to select their relevant Rinpoche video extracts, so much so that many of them said they were unable to sleep prior to their session, such was their level of anticipation (and anxiety!). Well, it was all worth it in the end. Every session went without a hitch—give or take a few hyperactive monkeys jumping on overhead wires, impatient pet dogs barking for the session to finish, and a translator unable to hear much of what the class leader was saying due to poor internet connection! It all added to the fun (in retrospect!).
It had been such a humble start to our regional cooperation. When it started, we had no idea if anybody would even join our Zoom sessions. As the weeks and months went by, momentum gathered. Even so, we could not have predicted, even in our wildest dreams, that the final teaching would be by Rinpoche himself, simultaneously translated into seven languages, with participants from our entire region (Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Taiwan and the other Chinese speaking countries), and students and friends from seventeen other countries in total, including Argentina, Canada, Finland, and the Philippines. Amazing!
And the most profoundly joyful thing? Feeling our Holy Guru and his blessings with us, every step of the way. The online course had started on March 27, a tsog day, which we had no idea about when we were preparing the schedule. Our first class leader, Ven. Drachom, then surprised us by presenting his session not from his base in Singapore, but from Kopan Monastery where Lama Zopa Rinpoche also was at the time. And the course concluded on August 7, another tsog day, with a beautiful guru puja followed by a teaching by Rinpoche himself at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, our very doorstep! We had zero inkling of any of this until the last minute, and we continue to marvel at it all.
May the merits generated from this first regional course be dedicated to our incomparably kind and precious Holy Guru Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, without whom we would be hopelessly lost. May Rinpoche have excellent health, a stupendously long life, and may all his wishes be instantly fulfilled!
We invite you to enjoy this video celebrating a year’s highlights from FPMT East & Southeast Asia during 2021-2022, which was compiled by regional coordinator Selina Foong and played before Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s first teaching on August 7 at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore.
Video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching at the end of this event, “You Are So Fortunate to Meet the Lamrim Teachings,” is available to view on YouTube . A full transcript of this teaching is available for download.
Recordings of the “Exploring & Living in the Path” online course can be found on the FPMT East & Southeast Asia Youtube channel.
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 Friends of FPMT member, which supports our work.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaching in Dharamsala to 9,000 students, July 2022. Photo by Cynthia Karena.
From July 8-9, 2022, His Holiness gave teachings in Main Tibetan Temple in Dharamsala, HP, India, to 9,000 students. His Holiness offered the Heruka Initiation of the Luipa Tradition. FPMT Australian student Cynthia Karena, a regular contributor to FPMT.org who attended the initiation with others from Tara Institute, Australia, spoke to participants about their experience, and shared her own.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama blessing Tara Institute Resident Teacher Geshe Doga, July 2022. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Initially I thought it was madness when I heard a group from Tara Institute was going to Dharamsala in July. Who goes to India in the monsoon? But Geshe Doga (our resident teacher) once told me that when you have an opportunity to see His Holiness, you should take it. So twenty-one of us donned our gumboots and traveled with Geshe Doga to receive the Heruka Initiation of the Luipa Tradition, along with around 9,000 others.
The initiation was held from July 8-9 in the Main Tibetan Temple in Dharamsala with a long life prayer to His Holiness on July 10. We were also lucky enough to arrive in time for His Holiness’s 87th birthday celebrations on July 6.
As well as the Heruka initiation, His Holiness also spoke about selfishness and compassion. I couldn’t help but notice His Holiness spoke on this almost immediately after one group with plenty of space around them refused a seat to one of their own! There are always selfish seating issues in every teaching I have ever attended.
What really struck a chord with me was when His Holiness emphasized looking within, rather than externally, to reach Buddhahood. Getting there is the tricky bit. His Holiness says we need to manifest and use the clear light mind to meditate on emptiness. Am I capable? I’m hoping this initiation will kick-start something profound.
Chatting to people about their experiences, doubts, and fears, I’m convinced there were 9,000 versions of His Holiness individually interacting and benefitting each one of us. I continue to be amazed at the profound effect His Holiness has on us all.
His Holiness teaches a crowd of 9,000 in Dharamsala India, July 8-9 2022. Photo by Cynthia Karena.
Dr. Ross Moore, FPMT registered teacher, and former director of Tara Institute came to India in the wake of a bone marrow transplant to treat cancer. “I was so very deeply moved by the opening twenty minutes of His Holiness’s introduction to the preliminaries of the Luipa Chakrasamvara practice in which a concise and profound account of the purpose of tantra was given,” Ross shared. “Sitting there among hundreds of accomplished Sangha and dedicated lay practitioners I shared in the inspirational call to seek enlightenment, not by referring out there—to the realm of sensual perceptions—but rather, to turn inside by learning how to dissolve our coarse conceptual minds into our own innate mind of clear light and then use this to realize emptiness.”
For Ross, this was a truly transformative event. “Having had my own brush with death and serious illness, it was made blatantly obvious that to delay attempting such—admittedly very profound—practices was clearly nothing less than negligence, if not also deluded foolishness. The message is clear: there is no better time to meditate than now.”
When Damien Busby, another former director of Tara Institute saw His Holiness in person he had a “sudden feeling that everything was right in the world. Just seeing His Holiness was enough for me, the whole trip felt justified.
“The one thing that struck me was seeing some of the old lamas; and thinking how many of the lamas that I was fortunate enough to see in past trips have now departed. The sense I got was that my life was also over and that I really need to reduce the distractions and trivial activities from my life.”
We recently published very precious words from Lama Zopa Rinpoche praising the qualities of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
https://fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/his-holiness-has-taken-the-responsibility-to-do-the-holy-actions-of-all-the-infinite-buddhas/
For more information on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his beneficial activities, please visit DalaiLama.com and also view His Holiness’s public schedule.
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.
Gen Ngawang Namgyal, pictured right, with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the young Rigsel Rinpoche, November 2021, Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Gen Ngawang Namgyal died in Kathmandu, Nepal, on July 5, 2022.
Gen Ngawang Namgyal was one of the first monks at Lawudo and Kopan Monastery. Before his passing on July 5, Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited him at Karuna Hospital, offering prayers and pujas for him, at his bedside. We invite you to rejoice in his life, living in morality and serving the Dharma. Please offer prayers at this critical time for him, that he may quickly attain enlightenment or be born in a pure land where he can become enlightened quickly.
Gen Ngawang Namgyal was born in Solo Khumbu, Nepal. His father had a close connection with Lama Zopa Rinpoche when both he and Rinpoche were young. He ordained as a child and split his early life between the villages of Thame and Lawudo, sometimes receiving teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche when Rinpoche would visit Lawudo in the very early days. He later arrived at Kopan Monastery from Lawudo during Kopan’s very first days, receiving teachings from Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khensur Lama Lhundrup, and others, as the monastery began to take form.
Gen Ngawang Namgyal shared the following from a June 2020 interview about his time during the founding of Kopan:
“At Kopan Monastery also texts were rare. At night we would copy out Tenets and prayers and other texts on our own notebooks, then Lama Yeshe would teach us how to recite prayers and so forth. We carried on like that. From that time, I’ve stayed at Kopan, for a long time. The number of monks has gradually increased, the studies and facilities and so forth gradually becoming better and better without much trouble. We all work together very well. It’s not that those of us here from the beginning have done everything. Everybody has worked very hard to make it what it is.”
While the monastery was developing, Gen Ngawang Namgyal would continue to travel back to Lawudo. Life was challenging there, and the small group of Lawudo monks had to beg for potatoes at times for food. Eventually, as the number of monks increased at Kopan, and trips to Lawudo became more difficult, he moved to Kopan permanently, where he would spend the rest of his life.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting mantras for Gen Ngawang Namgyal just before he passed away at Karuna Hospital. Gen Namgyal was one of the first monks of Kopan and Lawudo Monasteries. Kathmandu, Nepal, June 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
To conclude the 2020 interview about his life at Kopan, Gen Ngawang Namgyal shared:
“In dependence on [the lamas’ and so many supporters’] kindness our monastery has developed and improved. The main improvement is subduing one’s own mind, improving oneself depends on subduing the mind. It’s just as it says in the prayer:
‘Bless me that my mind becomes Dharma, that Dharma becomes the path, and that path be without obstacles.’
“And then if one can make effort until reaching the state of buddhahood that is excellent. Just external development is not development. In order to develop internally we need study, but to study and not understand how to use that to develop internally one becomes very strange. To use the studies one has put within to develop and improve as a person we need to work at using methods to subdue our minds through practice. When we have external needs fulfilled with favorable conditions, these are just external things. The main thing is to improve our minds by improving our studies and improving our practice in order to gradually achieve liberation and enlightenment. You all probably know all this. So, this is what little I have to say.
“May Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche have a long stable life, and all his holy activities spread, and whatever Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche intends, may this be effortlessly and spontaneously accomplished. Then also, may all the various foreigners who have helped our monastery develop through sponsorship and their efforts caring for the monastery, they have really wonderfully served the monastery, then all the ordained Sangha, and the teachers, for all the benefactors, and for all I offer prayers. We should not pray just for ourselves alone that we achieve the state of enlightenment, that’s not good, but if we can pray for all sentient beings to achieve the state of enlightenment that’s best.”
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 in Singapore, July 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
We are pleased to share our August 2022 e-news with you! This issue features news, updates, resources, opportunities, and causes for rejoicing, including:
- News about Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings in Singapore
- Newly published teachings and advice
- Rejoicing in support offered to children in India and Nepal
- Information about scholarships available for the next FPMT Masters programs
- Opportunities and changes within the FPMT organization
- Highlights from the Foundation Store
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.
Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.
Rinpoche in the garden at Kopan Monastery, Kopan Monastery, Boudhanath, Nepal; Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
We are pleased to share our July 2022 e-news with you! This issue features news, updates, resources, opportunities, and causes for rejoicing, including:
- An update on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and practices offered for Rinpoche’s long life
- An overview and new photo album of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent activities
- Links to new teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
- Social Service grants offered in support of elderly Tibetans as well as vulnerable animals
- New resources for your Dharma study and practice
- Opportunities and changes within the FPMT 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.
Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering an oral transmission of the Sutra of Golden Light, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia, October 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said about the Sutra of Golden Light, “This text is very precious; it brings peace and happiness and is very powerful to stop violence. By hearing this text, one’s karma is purified.” Rinpoche has made a personal vow to propagate the Sutra of Golden Light and give oral transmissions of it in many parts of the world. Having the sutra recited as much as possible is also one of Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT. Rinpoche has said, “I would like to make this request with my two palms together, to please recite the Sutra of Golden Light for world peace as much as you can.”
Flower offering on a river bank in Ukraine where students performed an animal liberation on Saka Dawa despite a bomb landing near their location.
For many years, students around the world have been reciting this powerful sutra to fulfill Rinpoche’s wishes and bring about a better world. So far this year, students in more than thirty countries have been reciting the Sutra of Golden Light. As of June, the sutra has been recited more than 1,250 times in 2022, with more than a fourth of those recitations happening in Ukraine.
When war broke out in Ukraine, a Buddhist student there made a translation of the sutra into Ukrainian. A group of students there then began reciting the sutra daily. This group also held an animal liberation for over 100 crawfish on Saka Dawa. A bomb landed in front of them on the other bank of river as they practiced, but they continued. One of the participants shared, “So this is our life now—hearing bombs and warning alarms, but keeping on practicing.” This practice of animal liberation was inspired by Chapter Seventeen, “The Previous Lives of Jalavahana’s Fish Disciples.” Another student shared, “That chapter told us how Jalavahana saw the numerous hundreds of fish, that had a lack of food and water and helped them. The strength of Jalavahana’s compassion for those fish was so powerful that it touched my heart. Having read this chapter, the seed of bodhicitta emerged in our hearts.”
Ganden Tendar Ling Center in Moscow has also organized a group recitation of the Sutra of Golden Light on Zoom, completing 108 recitations as of late May. Ganden Tendar Ling wrote about the ongoing group recitation practice, “We dedicated the merits to peace in the whole world, to a good rebirth of the killed people, to the leaders of all countries to meet the Dharma and to govern their countries according to the Dharma, to development of compassion in the heart of all people especially of the military people, to generating bodhicitta in the mind of those who were reciting the sutra and in the minds of all sentient beings. We dedicated merits to the long life of His Holiness Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. We continue the group recitation and are going to collect another 108.”
Students in Singapore, the Netherlands, and Italy have also contributed significantly to this year’s recitation count. The total count of Sutra of Golden Light recitations done is 54,029 by students in ninety countries. Students doing the recitations have regularly reported experiencing a sense of peace from even reciting a small amount of the sutra.
Please visit our webpage dedicated to the recitation of the Sutra of Golden Light where you will find many resources and links, including:
- PDFs of the sutra in fifteen different languages
- Audio and video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering an oral transmission of the sutra
- Advice from Rinpoche on the benefits of reciting the sutra
- Instructions on how to dedicate your recitations and how to report them
- Stories from students about experiences reciting the sutra
“The holy Sutra of Golden Light is extremely powerful and fulfills all one’s wishes, as well as bringing peace and happiness for all sentient beings, up to enlightenment,” Rinpoche said in the advice “Recite the Golden Light Sutra for World Peace.” “It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection, the protection of your country, and the world. Also, it has great healing power for living beings in the area in which you are reciting.”
Learn more and find links and resources on our Sutra of Golden Light page:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/sutras/golden-light-sutra/
Related reading: Institut Vajra Yogini Offers Over 1,000 Recitations of ‘Sutra of Golden Light’ to Rinpoche:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt-community-news/news-around-the-world/institut-vajra-yogini-offers-over-1000-recitations-of-sutra-of-golden-light-to-rinpoche/
Currently FPMT Translation Services is overseeing the translation of the 29-chapter and 31-chapter versions of the Sutra of Golden Light as well as reviewing the translation of the 21-chapter edition. You can help sponsor these projects through the FPMT Translation Fund.
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from 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.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama smiling at guests gathered for a long life ceremony for His Holiness, Dharamsala, India, June 24, 2022. Photo by Tenzin Choejor, courtesy of DalaiLama.com.
Tibetans around the world, along with an international community of students of Tibetan Buddhism, celebrate His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 87th birthday on July 6.
FPMT International Office joins the world in gratefully rejoicing in His Holiness’s exceptionally beneficial life and we offer prayers for his good health and long life among us. His Holiness has been an incomparable source of reverence and guidance to the FPMT organization since its inception, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds us continuously that the highest priority for the organization is fulfilling the wishes of and offering service to His Holiness. “This is the quickest and most vast way of benefiting sentient beings,” Rinpoche has explained.
We have compiled resources for all of those wishing to make His Holiness’s birthday as beneficial as possible, as the means to honor a life of unending service to others, marked with extraordinary patience which inspires all.
On behalf of all sentient beings in desperate need of your perfect example of universal love and unending compassion for others—please, please live a very long time, Your Holiness!
For more on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his beneficial activities, please visit DalaiLama.com.
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.
Illumin8 Festival of Light and Peace, June 4, 2022, the Great Stupa, AUS. Photo courtesy of the Great Stupa.
On June 4, 2022, the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, in Bendigo, Australia, offered a sold-out Illumin8 Festival for the first time since 2019, enabling them to showcase all of the new Peace Park lighting features onsite. Thanks to funding from Regional Development Victoria and the City of Greater Bendigo, the Peace Park was lit up in a vibrant display of lights and color. The Great Stupa shared the following in a recent newsletter:
“The guests who braved the weather were treated to a fun night of multicultural performances from local talent, local vegetarian food, a chance to explore our Peace Park at night, and the all new fairy light display, as well as enjoy roaming performers, all concluding with a fireworks show and our Burning the Bad. It was such a great experience to be able to hold an event again, we can’t thank all our supporters enough who helped by coming or being a part of our night. We are looking forward to bringing you much more night time entertainment throughout the years to come.”
We invite you all to rejoice in these incredible images of this festival below and the inspiring work and ongoing achievements of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion.
Illumin8 Festival of Light and Peace, June 4, 2022, the Great Stupa, AUS. Photo courtesy of the Great Stupa.
Illumin8 Festival of Light and Peace, June 4, 2022, the Great Stupa, AUS. Photo courtesy of the Great Stupa.
Illumin8 Festival of Light and Peace, June 4, 2022, the Great Stupa, AUS. Photo courtesy of the Great Stupa.
Illumin8 Festival of Light and Peace, June 4, 2022, the Great Stupa, AUS. Photo courtesy of the Great Stupa.
Interfaith members joined Maree Edwards MP and Great Stupa Library volunteers following news of the funding for the new Great Stupa Library. Photo courtesy of the Great Stupa.
We are also rejoicing in the additional news that the Great Stupa has received funding to begin building a library, which will be located inside the stupa, due to be completed in November 2022. Lama Yeshe had a vision that the Great Stupa would include a library, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama encouraged the project to develop the library as a center to encourage wider research, study, and discussion on Buddhism, along with science, other religions, and contemplative philosophies. The Great Stupa offered thanks to the Multicultural Community Infrastructure Fund and the Victorian Government for providing the funding. More information can be found in a recent article by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
To learn more about the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion and the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace, visit the website:
https://www.stupa.org.au
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.
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.
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