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Graphic by Michaela Kirchem.
As social distancing and self-isolation measures are happening around the world, Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW), an international FPMT project, is offering a range of online resources to help meet the new challenges that we all now face. Victoria Coleman, executive director, describes the new resources.
Free Online Community Sessions: Universal Education Coming Together
In March 2020, our senior trainers Marian O’Dwyer, Martha Cabral, and Wendy Ridley began offering weekly online sessions called “Universal Education (UE) Coming Together.” These sessions proved so popular that we decided to offer them in April too. Other FDCW facilitators such as Elaine Jackson and Hilary McMichael have volunteered to lead sessions.
Each sixty-minute session includes a guided meditation on a universal value such as courage, resilience, or kindness and provides a safe space for participants to share and support each other in a heartfelt way. Around twenty people have been taking part in each interactive session.
Sessions are free and drop-in, and are open to everyone. They are available every Thursday in April at various times in either English or Spanish.
For more information about these free online sessions visit the FDCW calendar:
https://www.compassionandwisdom.org/calendar
Online Course: Building Inner Strength: 16 Guidelines Level 1
For the first time, FDCW is offering this twelve-hour Building Inner Strength: 16 Guidelines Level 1 course live online. Exploring values such as compassion, humility, aspiration, and courage, this course offers very practical tools and specific techniques for transforming how we think, act, relate to others, and lead a meaningful life.
The course is facilitated by Marian O’Dwyer who is our Senior Trainer and Program Developer. She facilitates all levels of FDCW’s 16 Guidelines for Life program and has thirty years of experience teaching mindfulness-based practices. If you are interested in becoming an accredited 16 Guidelines for Life facilitator then completing Level 1 is the first step.
To register for Building Inner Strength: 16 Guidelines Level 1 visit the FDCW website:
https://www.compassionandwisdom.org/course-booking
Graphic by Michaela Kirchem.
Online Course: 16 Guidelines for Children and Teens
FDCW is offering a new course for parents and those who work with children and teenagers. It was developed by 16 Guidelines for Life accredited facilitator, teacher, and neuro-psycho educator Cecilia (“Ceci”) Buzón. Ceci founded her own school in Argentina and has worked with children for twenty years.
The course offers a wide range of age-appropriate activities to explore mindfulness and encourage children to name and integrate values like courage, kindness, compassion, and patience into their daily lives.
Seventeen people attended the facilitator training with Ceci in March. Participants shared their thoughts with us. Kitty D’Costa, UK, said, “It was inspiring, uplifting, revealing, experiential, and imaginative.” Pilar Maldonado Alcubierre, Mexico, commented, “I gained a lot of ideas I can use when working with children and teens such as mindfulness techniques and how to apply 16 Guidelines for Life to activities and games.” Silvie Walraven, Netherlands, shared, “The training was engaging and full of practical ideas for activities. The breakout groups worked very well. It creates a sense of community even though we’re physically far apart.”
FDCW has adapted this new twelve-hour in-person course into an eight-hour online course because so many people are at home with their children right now and need activities for them. Ceci will offer this course beginning on April 14.
For more information about 16 Guidelines for Children and Teens visit the FDCW website:
https://www.compassionandwisdom.org/course-booking
To learn more about the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, visit their 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 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
In these difficult times, it is especially important to remember the powerful practice of rejoicing. “Among the virtues, rejoicing is the best, because it is the easiest one to practice. It simply involves our mind thinking, and the merit we accumulate is infinite,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains in the teaching “Rejoicing Is the Best” (published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in May 2016).
International Office, also called Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office, helps fulfill the vision of FPMT’s founders Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, assists with the actualization of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision for the FPMT organization, and supports 165 centers, projects, and services in 40 countries that comprise the international FPMT network.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during visit to bless all the beings in the Caspian Sea, Russia, October 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
“Billions of thanks for your kindness, for working for, volunteering at, and supporting in various ways FPMT centers, projects, and services,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche writes in this year’s annual review.
“The main benefit of the centers is to offer Dharma teachings, teaching compassion; teaching from where suffering comes and from where happiness comes; teaching about karma, about how to stop negative karma and how to practice virtuous actions, which cause all the happiness up to enlightenment: the happiness of this life, the happiness of future lives, the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara, and then the peerless happiness of enlightenment, which is everlasting happiness, with total cessation of the obscurations and completion of the realizations (sang gye).
“Achieving enlightenment is especially to liberate all the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever and lead them to peerless happiness, with cessation of the gross and subtle defilements and completion of the realizations. This is most important. This is what sentient beings need; this is their most important need.”
In addition to advice from Rinpoche, the FPMT Annual Review 2019 includes updates from FPMT Inc. CEO Ven. Roger Kunsang and Board of Directors Chair Andrew Haynes. We also share an overview of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s tireless Dharma activities and highlights of International Office’s work on behalf of Rinpoche and all in the FPMT organization.
May we take a moment as an international community of Dharma practitioners to rejoice in all the ways we have come together to practice Dharma and fulfill the wishes of our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. May the merits we accumulate from rejoicing be dedicated so that we become most helpful to all beings.
We invite you to read FPMT Annual Review 2019: Coming Together to Practice Dharma, now available online in eZine and PDF formats. (Please note, the FPMT Annual Review 2019 is available in digital format only.)
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/annual-review/#archive
See photo highlights from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2019:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/#2019
FPMT International Office is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office and works daily to achieve its mission of “preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice, and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha, and based on that experience, spread the Dharma to sentient beings.”
Spain
FPMT Spain launched a calendar of online activities based on Rinpoche’s advice which was shared with all members of centers and study groups in Spain. Over 650 people joined for one morning meditation!
United Kingdom
FPMT UK has organized the prayers recommended by Rinpoche for all centers and study groups, and has set up a page on the FPMTUK website where online prayers and practices, meditation classes, and pujas can be viewed by all. Approximately 300 people joined the first online classes.
“Thanks for your online meditations, it helps during these times, as I live alone and I am quite isolated.” — JustGiving Anonymous Donor
Australia
FPMT Australia is in the process of collecting information from Australian centers who are already able to livestream classes and will share this with all centers and study groups to help those who aren’t yet using livestream. The aim is to also provide better live-streaming alternatives for those already doing this.
As individuals and communities the world over are attempting to establish new normal practices during this time, we look forward to sharing what other regions and countries of the FPMT mandala are doing to support students.
For detailed advice on the practices recommended by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the coronavirus pandemic, please visit the page “Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche for Coronavirus.”
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche-for-coronavirus/
Additional resources, including Dharma study-from-home opportunities, can be found on the page “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic.”
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/
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.
Geshe Tenzin Loden (Institut Vajra Yogini, France), Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Domo Geshe Rinpoche, and Geshe Tenzin Tenphel (Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa, Italy), South India, February 2020. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Welcome to the March FPMT International Office e-News!
This month we bring you news about:
- New Page with Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic
- Prayers and Practices for the Benefit of All
- New Issue of Mandala magazine!
- LRZTP 8 Concludes, LRZTP 9 is Prepared
…and more.
Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.
The FPMT International Office e-News comes from your FPMT International Office. Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email box.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, March 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In these challenging and anxious times, FPMT International Office offers our prayers and best wishes to all who are navigating uncertainty and change during the coronavirus pandemic.
We have created a page of resources and advice related to this crisis in order to make it as easy as possible for you to find recommended practices, prayers, online study and practice resources, and news about Lama Zopa Rinpoche and from around the FPMT organization.
This page will be updated as new advice and news become available and should be consulted as an up-to-date resource for Dharma practice during the time of this pandemic.
Find advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Dharma study materials, and other updates on “Resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic” page on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/
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.
Joan, Lorena, Paco, Kamlo, Noelia, Rafa, Gernán, Kris, Paloma, Charo, Francoise, Lydia, Jessi, Kiko, Jose, and Luan on the top row, and Javi, Ven. Namdrol, Conchi, Charo, Javi, Fernando, Kelsang, and Pablo on the bottom row, Foundation Service Seminar, Lliria, Spain, November 2019. Photo by FSS graduate.
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 actualize the advice that service is practice, practice is service, and how to always enjoy and rejoice when offering service.
Twenty-two FPMT students graduated from the FSS held in Spain, while thirty one students graduated from the FSS held at Nalanda Monastery, the FPMT monastery in Lavaur, France.
Spain
Francisco (“Kiko”) LLopis, FPMT Spain National coordinator, shared the following:
We had the fortune of hosting an FSS from October 29 to November 3 in Lliria, near Valencia. Twenty FPMT students from Spain and two FPMT students from abroad joined the seminar.
Under the guidance of FSS registered facilitators Paloma Fernandez and François Lecointre, we had fun together and deepened our experience of offering service to others in the organization. We dealt with fundamental aspects of offering service such as understanding the FPMT organization, the link between service and practice, good motivation and attitude, kind and effective communication, conflict resolution, burn-out prevention, rejoicing, and more. These topics were always addressed with a very practical and experiential approach.
Germán and Kelsan in the background and Juan, Joan, Paco, and Jessi in the foreground during a Foundation Service Seminar session, Lliria, Spain, November 2019. Photo by FSS graduate.
Graduates offered remarks such as:
- “It has opened my views regarding FPMT and gave more meaning to my service in FPMT for so many years.”
- “Life changing … has deepened my practice and confidence in my spiritual community.”
- “Positive, constructive, and inspiring.”
Of the many useful resources offered during the FSS, we would like to highlight the Inner Job Description, a great tool for developing mindfulness about our thoughts, speech, and actions. It is available for all to use, via a paper format or a free app, in English, Chinese, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.
Foundation Service Seminar graduates and facilitators, Nalanda Monastery, Lavaur, France, January 2020. Photo by Harold Weichart.
France
This FSS was facilitated by Annelies van der Heijden and François Lecointre in January 2020.
Graduates offered remarks such as:
- “I connected with the wider vision of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Now I feel more enthusiastic to help with different projects.”
- “Practice is service, and service is practice. I collected many ideas to implement in our center.”
- “FSS is very practical, providing material to deal with basic problems at the center. Now that I have learned about immersion aversion I better understand why people act in different ways … and I know there is support for that.”
Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on FSS
While meeting with FSS facilitators in October 2017, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered the advice that follows (which you can also listen to as an audio recording):
“The hard work at the center—one should know and relate to Milarepa or Naropa’s life story, the great practitioners, one must remember and relate to that. What made them enlightened so fast? What? It was following the guru’s advice exactly without arising heresy or anger, by following it perfectly. As a result, becoming enlightened in a brief lifetime of this degenerate time, and receiving realizations. So similarly, however hard it is working for the center, you must relate to that and see the unbelievable benefit, benefit like limitless sky! So then it becomes the most enjoyable work in the life, the happiest thing to do in the life.”
Thubten Kunga Center, the FPMT center in Deerfield Beach, Florida, US, will be hosting a Foundation Service Seminar August 15-19, 2020. Institut Vajra Yogini, an FPMT center in Lavaur, France, will be hosting a Foundation Service Seminar August 17 -22, 2020. For more information on the Foundation Service Seminar and to find out how to register for future events, visit FPMT Service Seminars.
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.
As last reported in December 2019, FPMT Inc. has contracted with FaithTrust Institute (FTI) to undertake a fact-finding assessment with a review and report on findings in response to allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of Dagri Rinpoche at FPMT centers. FPMT Inc. takes this matter very seriously. Harm and abuse by a spiritual teacher is antithetical to our community. Further, FPMT Inc. will not tolerate any retaliation against anyone who comes forward.
Anyone who may have experienced or witnessed harm from Dagri Rinpoche in his role as a spiritual teacher at FPMT centers is invited to contact FTI via email at confidential@faithtrustinstitute.org. FTI will continue to receive information for the assessment through March 16, 2020. After that time, they will be working to summarize the findings and complete the assessment report for the FPMT Inc. Board of Directors. The confidential report will be delivered to the Board of Directors towards the end of March 2020. After that time the Board of Directors with the help of FTI will release a summary report on the findings and recommendations for next steps to the community. We strive to be transparent as we respond to these allegations.
During the months of January and February 2020, the staff and Board of Directors of FPMT Inc. has undergone a training program around boundaries and responding to misconduct in spiritual communities. Further, the Board of Directors will be receiving additional training as they prepare to receive the report.
The Board of Directors at its last meeting also received the Summary Review of the Safeguarding Audit that was commissioned from Thirtyone:eight. There will be more information in the coming months about the next steps associated with the Thirtyone:eight audit.
If you want to contact the FPMT Inc. Board of Directors, please email Andrew Haynes: chairofboard@fpmt.org. If you have questions about the assessment process or want to speak with FaithTrust Institute, please contact Emily Cohen via the confidential mailbox listed above or call +1-206-634-1903.
Links to past updates can be found here.
Building Inner Strength graphic by Zoe Butler.
In January 2020, Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW), an international FPMT project, published its Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide, a new free resource designed to help more people around the world learn about and benefit from their 16 Guidelines for Life program. The Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide gives its readers tools that can be used to facilitate a weekly discussion group for a period of sixteen weeks, with participants exploring one of the 16 Guidelines each week.
Universal Education for Compassion and Wisdom is one of FPMT’s five pillars of service, and FDCW creates programs based on this system of sharing the essence of Buddhism within a secular context. Victoria Coleman, FDCW director, gives an update about this new free publication.
The Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide is an easy-to-follow weekly outline for anyone in the world who is interested in exploring universal values such as humility, kindness, compassion, aspiration, service, and courage in discussion with others. The Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide is based on our 16 Guidelines for Life program and draws inspiration from the 16 Guidelines for Life book.
The purpose of the Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide is to help those who would like to facilitate weekly discussion groups exploring the 16 Guidelines for Life. Each weekly discussion group session lasts ninety minutes and explores one universal value. Participants reflect deeply on the value, then discuss questions that help draw out their own wisdom and their individual experience of that value. The focus is on experiential learning, coming not just from an intellectual perspective but from the heart. The Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide includes suggested questions to spark discussions, guided meditations, and notes for the discussion leader.
No prior experience of the 16 Guidelines for Life program, training, or certification is needed. The Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide is offered by FDCW as a free resource available to anyone with an interest in exploring these values with others and how they can be applied in daily life. Discussion groups can be formed with a circle of friends, colleagues in the workplace, drawn from the local community, or a mix.
Our aspiration is that this Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide will help to globalize the 16 Guidelines for Life program by sharing the values much more widely and encourage the habit of applying the values to challenges in daily life.
We have already received a big response to the Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide. People have shared ideas for using the discussion guide not only for a sixteen-week series, but also for beginner retreats, evening meditation classes, weekend workshops, and social outreach to the community.
Ven. Carolyn Lawler in New Zealand said, “Many thanks for the information you sent. I think you’ve solved a problem for me. The material Building Inner Strength seems to be what I’ve need for a new class. In the past we had classes on The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives by Dr. Thupten Jinpa. These were very successful, but I couldn’t find a follow-on, which was wanted. I think the material you sent could work very well.”
Mikkel Bjelke Kristiansen, SEE Learning Coordinator, Europe, wrote, “Thank you very much for sharing this updated and upgraded version of the discussion guide. I like everything about it: the simplicity, visual appearance, emphasis on personal practice, practical applications in everyday life, and the critical reflections arising from the discussions.”
Lynne Knight in England shared, “Thanks so much to you and all involved for this wonderful resource. I was just looking for something like this to take our fortnightly meditation group forward by opening up the leading of the group to others. This looks to be perfect, and perfect timing! Thanks for making it so freely available. I’ll let you know how we get on with it at the Jamyang Bath Study Group.”
Maureen McIntyre, Langri Tangpa Centre director in Queensland, Australia, said, “I think that I will introduce these discussions to some of my family and friends. They often ask me about Buddhist principles but aren’t interested in studying. Discussing this over coffee would be ‘skillful means.'”
Many thanks to Rasmus Hougaard, Keith Halford, Wendy Ridley, Angela Sanchez, and Michaela Kirchem for their skills and care in creating this.
We welcome feedback from discussion leaders and participants so that we can improve the Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide. May thousands and thousands of beings benefit from this free resource!
To receive a free copy of the Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide please contact admin@compassionandwisdom.org. No training from FPMT, Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, or familiarity with Buddhism is necessary in order to receive a copy or make use of the free discussion guide. Please share this invitation with anyone you feel would be interested in reading the Building Inner Strength Discussion Guide.
To learn more about the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, visit their 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 160 FPMT centers, projects, and services around the globe. If you like what you read, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Seventh 100 million mani retreat at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, September 2019. Photo by Ianzhina Bartanova.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM retreats around the world. Rinpoche has said, “[I would like] for the organization to establish 100,000 recitations of 100 million OM MANI PADME HUM mantras. This can be retreats of 100 million recitations, so 100,000 different retreats in different parts of the world and where it is happening, then for it to happen regularly, each year.”
The FPMT center in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, organized their first mani retreat in 2013 with assistance from the FPMT Practice and Retreat Fund. Led by Lama Zopa Rinpoche that year, it was the first big retreat he had led since he manifested a stroke in 2011. They have been organizing and self-sustaining a mani retreat annually ever since, completing their seventh annual retreat in September 2019. Center director Ianzhina Bartanova shares the story.
Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling has completed its seventh 100 million mani retreat in a row. In 2019, for some logistical reasons, this major annual event took place in the month of September. It was a surprisingly warm and pleasant month for Mongolia, enabling participants to better concentrate on the practice without experiencing the discomfort of a hot summer or cold winter.
However, we observed that there was a reduction in the number of people who could join us in the Idgaa Choinzinling Monastery gompa because the retreat coincided with the beginning of the new school year. Nevertheless, the average attendance of approximately 100 to 150 people yielded the excellent result of a collective recitation of 108,000,000 OM MANI PADME HUM mantra recitations. These were offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the first mani retreat in Elista, Kalmykia, in October 2019.
Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling center director, Ianzhina Bartanova, paid a visit to Elista and offered congratulations to the abbot of the Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni (the Golden Temple) upon the successful hosting of the mani retreat there. Ven. Anja was pleased to know about the annual 100 million mani retreat in Mongolia. Ven. Anja expressed that people from Kalmykia might now be more interested in visiting Mongolia and participating in the mani retreat here.
Ani Thubten Gyalmo, Ani Nyima, and Ani Kunkyen taking part in the seventh 100 million mani retreat at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, September 2019. Photo by Ianzhina Bartanova.
Thirty days of retreat passed very quickly at Idgaa Choinzinling Monastery, and new lessons were learned along the way. Although we have some familiarity with how to organize this event, there is always room for improved service and further implementation of skillful ways to overcome obstacles.
The second day of the retreat was marked by the sudden declaration of a state holiday due to the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin. When the Mongolian government made this announcement they recommended citizens stay home in order to reduce traffic congestion for the two presidents! Fortunately for our staff and retreat participants we followed our normal schedule. The daily schedule was changed only once, when Geshe Thubten Soepa gave special teachings explaining the meaning of the OM MANI PADME HUM mantra.
Seventh 100 Million Mani Retreat at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, September 2019. Photo by Ianzhina Bartanova.
Every year the devoted retreatants touch our hearts with their seemingly magical stories. Retreatants share about experiencing immediate healing with blessed water and other miraculous events that have happened in their lives. We view these stories as further confirmation of the power of the Buddha of Compassion, the power of faith, and the power of merits. We sincerely dedicate our collective merits for world peace and the resolution of the climate crisis to significantly reduce the suffering on this planet.
As we look towards the future and consider how we can continue to improve our offerings, we are discussing the possibility of organizing a strict retreat in 2020. This retreat would conclude with a fire puja for participants who can commit to full participation and the recitation of the required number of mantras. We warmly invite everyone to join us and help in fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Vision for Mongolia.
For more information about Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, visit their website:
http://www.fpmtmongolia.org/shedrub-ling-center
The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras, and long term retreat:
https://fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/practice-and-retreats-fund/
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 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, Kalachakra Teaching Ground, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, January 2020. Photo by Cynthia Karena.
Few things are more precious than being able to receive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, the location of the Buddha’s enlightenment. From January 2-6, 2020, His Holiness gave teachings at the Kalachakra Teaching Ground on Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, conferred an Avalokiteshvera Initiation, and completed The Wheel of Teachings on Manjushri Empowerments based on its proximal lineage that he began in Bodhgaya in December 2018. An estimated 35,000 people, including 2,500 people from sixty-seven countries, attended the five days of teachings. FPMT Australian student Cynthia Karena, a regular contributor to Mandala, attended the teachings and now shares the story.
Devotees approaching the Kalachakra Teaching Ground, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, January 2020. Photo by Cynthia Karena.
I’m here in Bodhgaya for His Holiness’s teachings. I’m looking forward to them, but it’s super cold and it’s dusty; in fact it’s downright miserable.
Most of the hotels here are set up for the heat of summer, which is most of the year, so for the two or three weeks that is Winter, hotel rooms are like fridges.
So why do I do it? Why do I come back year after (mostly) year? Why go through this suffering?
I suppose I just answered my own question. We are in samsara; we are already suffering. Should I complain, or should I practice? As with any teaching, it’s not just about the teaching. It’s also about transforming what you are going through.
“Integrate the teachings within yourself and gradually transform your mind. This is the way to make your life meaningful,” says His Holiness.
But of course the main draw cards that trump the dust, cold, and inevitable coughing and sneezing are the bright light of His Holiness’s teachings, the energy of the stupa, seeing Lama Zopa and Khadro-la, and being here with Geshe Doga. No contest really.
Steadfast devotees in the rain at the outer edge of the pavilion tent, Kalachakra Teaching Ground, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, January 2020. Photo by Cynthia Karena.
His Holiness is teaching on Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, giving an Avalokiteshvara Initiation, and continuing The Wheel of Teachings on Manjushri Empowerments he began in Bodhgaya last time in December 2018.
Over the years I’ve been coming to Bodhgaya to hear His Holiness, I must admit the teachings do all sound the same to me. He brings most things around to kindness and emptiness: ‘Focus on others…meditate on emptiness…then ordinary appearances will stop…benefit others as much as possible…understanding the reality of the self is the only way to (remove) self-grasping.’
I keep coming back because it’s Bodhgaya; the place is like a big spiritual magnet. And teachings on emptiness from His Holiness are positively immersive. I’ve heard the words before, but each time I hope I have enough merit for them to sink in even deeper, and make a difference.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kalachakra Teaching Ground, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, January 2020. Photo by Cynthia Karena.
Years ago in Bodhgaya, when I heard him say ‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form’, it blew my mind, even though I have heard and recited these words many, many times. Was it his voice, or being in Bodhgaya, I don’t know! So I’m like an addict returning, wanting a little flash of insight here and a blessing there.
However, one sentence this year blew my mind in a more stern and shocking fashion, prompting me to watch myself more closely: “If you are selfish and don’t behave with bodhichitta, then you are deceiving the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.”
I asked the police what they thought of it all, but none of them spoke English so they couldn’t understand my questions. And of course they had no earbuds to hear a translation. But my driver to the airport said that most of the police are Hindus, so believe the Buddha is a reincarnation of one of their gods. They also believe that the Dalai Lama is a great spiritual teacher.
And with that, I’m back in fire-ravaged Australia trying to remember the teachings and transform my anger at our government’s inaction on our climate catastrophe.
Read accounts of each day of the teachings on the website of The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
https://www.dalailama.com/news
Watch His Holiness’s January 2, 2020, teaching on Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo’s “Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva” given in Bodhgaya, India, on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/rvo4rkRBFaA
FPMT.org and Mandala Publications brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings, and events from over 160 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 recently met with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, with Ven. Roger Kunsang, India, January 2020. Photo courtesy of the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Welcome to the February FPMT International Office e-News.
This month we bring you:
- Warm Losar (Tibetan New Year) Greetings!
- Reminder of Rinpoche’s Schedule
- News of Action Needed with your Merit Box
- FPMT Service Seminar News
- News of an Honour Awarded to an FPMT Director
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Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT resident geshe Khen Rinpoche Geshe Thubten Chonyi with the traditional Tibetan drum dance performers at Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s 30th anniversary dinner, Jubilee Garden Restaurant at SAFRA Club, Singapore, September 2019. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre.
On Friday, September 20, 2019, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, the FPMT center in Singapore, celebrated the center’s 30th birthday at an evening celebration with Lama Zopa Rinpoche as their guest of honor. Lobsang Drolkar (Cecilia Tsong), a long-time student, active ABC member, and volunteer shares the story about Rinpoche’s visit to Singapore and the celebration.
Amitahba Buddhist Centre (ABC) can be said to be one of the most fortunate centers in the FPMT family in that we have been blessed to be able to host Lama Zopa Rinpoche on almost a yearly basis. Just as Rinpoche had graced our 25th anniversary celebrations, so now on our 30th birthday, our most precious Guru was here to celebrate this most happy of occasions with us again.
Center director Tan Hup Cheng offering the mandala to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, September 2019. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre.
Much has transpired over the last five years. In accordance with Rinpoche’s extensive advice, the twelve-foot (3.7-meter) high Chenrezig statue was commissioned and completed. A traditional Tibetan style gateway was constructed at the main entrance. It was painstakingly decorated with specially chosen mantras and Buddhist symbols as advised by Rinpoche. And prior to Rinpoche’s visit last year, after thirty long years, Amitabha Buddhist Centre was finally graced with a stunning Amitabha Buddha statue flanked by a pair of dragons at its gateway.
Watch the video “Our ABC 2019,” commemorating ABC’s 30th anniversary on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/4AgHK7pS6U8
Rinpoche’s blessings began with an unexpected early arrival. Rinpoche offered many additional teachings, an extensive commentary on Lama Chopa (Guru Puja), and initiations and empowerments that were not announced earlier. Rinpoche conferred a special jenang of Vajrapani Hayagriva and Garuda, and prior to the long life puja Rinpoche conferred a White Tara initiation. In addition, in response to the unrest in Hong Kong, a group recitation of the Gyaltsen Sema Punkyen was organized.
Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s 30th anniversary dinner, Jubilee Garden Restaurant at SAFRA Club, Singapore, September 2019. Photo courtesy of Amitabha Buddhist Centre.
The highlight of the celebrations was a special 30th anniversary dinner. Our very own Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim had compiled a special commemorative video that contained much archival material of ABC’s earliest beginnings. Those present had much fun trying to identify senior students during their salad days! Not only was the video nostalgic for the old timers, but it showed how far ABC has come in the last three decades.
Watch the video “Look Back & Celebrate!” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/R9ghQETWZq0
In addition, there was live entertainment in the form of dance performances by the adorable little children from ABC’s childcare center, vocal performances by ABC’s very own choral group, Mudita, and a very well-received traditional Tibetan drum dance performed by ABC members and staff, who had rehearsed tirelessly for the past five months. To commemorate the occasion, all those present were given a specially designed hand-held prayer wheel.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Amitabha Buddhist Centre’s 30th anniversary dinner, Jubilee Garden Restaurant at SAFRA Club, Singapore, September 2019. Photo by Tan Seow Kheng.
To learn more about Amitabha Buddhist Centre visit their website:
http://www.fpmtabc.org
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