FPMT Community: Stories & News

Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna has a new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo by Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna community.

FPMT center Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna (Nagarjuna’s Wisdom Center) in Bilbao, Spain, began as an FPMT study group in December 2012 with four members. They affiliated and became an FPMT center in April 2016, and now have twenty-five members.

In December 2017, Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna moved out of the space they had occupied for the previous three years in preparation for a move to a new home. Center director Koke Muro brings us the news:

We are delighted to share with you that on Saturday, February 24, 2018, we inaugurated our new center in Bilbao, Spain.

Geshe Lamsang, center director Koke Muro, and guests during the inauguration of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo by Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna community.

Over the past five years since our founding, thanks to our amazing members, volunteers, and benefactors, as well as the kind care and guidance of our dear lamas and teachers, the center has been developing and blossoming like a beautiful flower.

The old center was getting too small to host all of the beautiful people and holy objects, and it was on the third floor of a business building. Following the advice of our most kind Lama Zopa Rinpoche, we started looking for another place. We feel really fortunate that this amazing location appeared. Our new center exists due to the enthusiastic work of many, many people. Our wish is that it becomes a source of peace in the city for everyone.

Volunteers painting the ceiling of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s Facebook page.

After nine months of hard work—and thanks to the unbelievable kindness of our lamas, more than two hundred benefactors, and an amazing team of volunteers—we had a great weekend.

Centro La Sabiduria de Nagarjuna volunteers preparing for the inauguration, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo by Centro La Sabiduria de Nagarjuna community.

Geshe Lamsang, resident teacher at Centro Nagarjuna Valencia, consecrated our new center. We also began the lamrim module of the Basic Program, taught by Geshe Lamsang that same day.

Geshe Lamsang in front of the entrance to Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna, Bilbao, Spain, February 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna’s Facebook page.

We enjoyed traditional welcome dances, food, a touching video about the volunteers who made our move possible, songs, gifts for everyone, and lots of tears of happiness and rejoicing. The joy was shared by the nearly fifty people who attended our inauguration, including members from other Dharma centers.

Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna has a new center, Bilbao, Spain, February 2017. Photo by Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna community.

It was an unforgettable day. We want offer all this to our precious guru Lama Zopa Rinpoche so we can always please him and follow his advice for the sake of all beings. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Please come soon!

To learn more about Centro La Sabiduría de Nagarjuna visit the center’s website. Watch the video about the volunteers who made their move possible:
https://youtu.be/Lm5gzyc8VvM

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.

Root Institute thirtieth anniversary celebration, Bodhgaya, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On January 14, 2018, FPMT center Root Institute for Wisdom Culture celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, which occurred on May 27, 2017.

Over 150 guests attended the event, including Ling Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Namsel Drönme), Dagri Rinpoche, Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche, Ribur Rinpoche’s reincarnation, and Geshe Sengye’s reincarnation. Also in attendance were visiting dignitaries including Richard Gere, Root Institute’s resident geshe Geshe Ngawang Rabga, other visiting geshes and lamas, the FPMT Sangha and lay community, as well as a group of pilgrims who had recently completed Root Institute’s first meditative pilgrimage to the eight holy sites of the Buddha.

During the event, Ven. Kabir Saxena, Root Institute’s first director, recalled when Lama Zopa Rinpoche came to Root Institute in 1989 to give his first teaching there:

“When we first brought Rinpoche to the land, we were walking down the path and Rinpoche looked in the distance. It was all fields in those days and Rinpoche said, ‘Oh, it’s like the beach here, it’s like the beach. You know, it’s kind of very relaxed.’ But then immediately Rinpoche said, ‘But we don’t come with the attitude of going to the beach.’ And as soon as Rinpoche came to the gates (well, there weren’t gates there in those days), Rinpoche blew a conch shell very loudly. I think that that Dharma is still reverberating now.”

Ven. Kabir Saxena continued, “I remember once when His Holiness the Karmapa came, he said, ‘So many blessings on this land. This land has so many blessings, you don’t realize it.’ By then, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many of the great lamas had already been here.”

Current director Ven. Tenzin Paldron thanked Root Institute’s local Indian staff for their tireless years of service and reminded guests of the contributions of the Indian people to the center. “As Sahid our foreman, who has worked at Root for over twenty years, said to me, ‘Madam, directors come and go, but it is the Indian staff that have been the main branches of Root.’”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during Root Institute’s thirtieth anniversary celebration, Bodhgaya, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche spoke on Root Institute’s contributions to sentient beings. “By teaching lamrim and so forth, they liberate sentient beings from samsara.”

“Because we have been in samsara, the lower realms have been our resident home from beginningless rebirths. This time we have received a perfect human rebirth and an opportunity to no longer be in samsara and suffer. Dharma centers are so important; there are many teachers in the center teaching the philosophy, lamrim. Basically, all to subdue the mind.”

He added, “Not only that, but they teach the Mahayana teachings, bodhichitta, the Mayahana path to peerless happiness, liberation, cessation, and the completion of realizations, causing sentient beings to acheive enlightenment. That’s what the center does; that’s what Root Institute does.”

Filmmaker Marc Israel documented Root Institute’s rich history and ongoing activites—including service projects Shakyamuni Buddha Health Care Clinic, Maitreya School, Tara Children’s Project, and spiritual programs—and its vision for the future in a seventeen-minute film premiered at the celebration.

Watch “ROOT INSTITUTE: From The Ground Up” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/g9ipm09qXLs

To read more about the Root Institute’s history and spiritual programs offerings, visit the center’s website:
http://www.rootinstitute.ngo/

To watch the thirtieth anniversary celebration, including remarks by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, you can watch Bill Kane’s recording of the event:
https://youtu.be/QxIfNF2H9KQ

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.

Guru bumtsog at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

A new 15-minute video captures the sounds and scenes of a beautiful and auspicious 100,000 tsog offerings event for Guru Rinpoche done at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, also called Kopan Nunnery, in December 2017. The Guru bumtsog took place in conjunction with the display of an enormous Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) thangka. The new video shares detailed images of the thangka, extensive offerings, and puja.

This was the third year that the very large thangka was displayed at the nunnery with a Guru bumstog. The thangka, which is 75 feet (23 meters) high and 87 feet (27 meters) wide, hung from a large scaffolding and depicts in stitched appliqué the Padmasambhava merit field in the center.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended the event with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, who is the current abbot of the nunnery, and the reincarnation of Trulshik Rinpoche. Losang Namgyal Rinpoche and Thubten Rigsel Rinpoche, the reincarnation of the former abbot Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup Rigsel, were also in attendance along with more than a thousand Kopan Sangha, local Tibetans and Sherpas, and foreign students.

Watch “Guru Bumtsog at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/uoYmfrHOQ-k

Learn more about the Kopan Nunnery, Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, online:
http://www.kopannunnery.org/

FPMT.org 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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Kopan monks doing Guru Puja on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

As students of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, we may be familiar with the practice of Guru Puja, also known as Lama Chöpa. But how well do we understand its significance?

Now a new, multimedia online series from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA), called Guru Puja is the Heart Practice, offers detailed instruction on this key practice, which was composed by Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662).

The six-part series contains a wealth of teachings and instructions on Guru Puja, based on teachings given by FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the first Light of the Path retreat in the United States and augmented with similar teachings given by Rinpoche at retreats around the world.

Panchen Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen. Photo © 2018 Himalayan Art Resources Inc. Photographed Image Copyright © 2004 Rubin Museum of Art.

Generations of great masters and yogi-practitioners have taken Guru Puja as the very heart of their practice. And Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasizes to his students that they do the same. 

LYWA recently published the first installment in this series, entitled “The Importance of Practicing Guru Puja,” which introduces the Guru Puja, explains why tantra is such a quick path to enlightenment, presents Rinpoche’s commentary to Pabongka Rinpoche’s heartfelt advice on the importance of practicing Guru Puja, and explains why all our meditation should be integrated into the lamrim.

Guru Puja is the Heart Practice multimedia series was edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher. The teachings are supplemented by images as well as audio and video recordings, along with links to related materials. Future installments will introduce chanting and the lineage of chanting used for Guru Puja within FPMT.

The series includes the following parts, which will be released in the coming months:

• Part One: The Importance of Practicing Guru Puja
• Part Two: An Introduction to the Chanting through to the Prostrations
• Part Three: The Offering Section
• Part Four: Renewing the Bodhisattva Vows to Mantra Recitation
• Part Five: The Tsog Offering
• Part Six: The Lamrim Prayer to the Verses of Auspiciousness

For more on Guru Puja is the Heart Practice series:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/lywa-multimedia-guru-puja-heart-practice

Learn more about Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on their website:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php

FPMT.org 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.

Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, December 2017. Photo courtesy of Tan Hup Cheng.

Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC) in Singapore is creating a gold crown for the 3.3-meter (10.8-feet) high Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue that occupies ABC’s main altar. The crown is the newest addition to a project that has been ongoing for more than eighteen years.

Here, ABC director Tan Hup Cheng shares a personal account of the creative endeavor:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche chose the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue for our main altar way back in 1995. He advised us that we must construct this statue. He further advised that we seek the services of Denise and Peter Griffin, both students of his, to build it. After a long and difficult journey, due to their many other commitments, we successfully secured Denise and Peter’s services.

Work on the statue’s parts began in 2013, with inputs from Rinpoche. After much hard work, the statue parts were completed and shipped to Singapore for assembly in August 2015. Finally, in March 2016 the statue was completed, in time for Rinpoche’s visit to ABC.

ABC’s Executive Committee had discussed the making of the crown for the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue, and with great devotion and lots of faith, we decided to build the crown in pure 24-carat gold. An estimate of the amount of gold required was about 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds).

In order to raise the amount of solid gold required, we sent an email to 4,000 members of ABC’s fan club. We described the unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and inconceivable merit, to offer a gold crown to Chenrezig.

We asked people to buy pure Swiss 999.99 finesse gold bars in denominations of 1 gram (0.4 ounces), 5 gram (1.8 ounces), 10 gram (0.4 ounces), 20 gram (0.7 ounces), 50 gram (1.8 ounces), 100 gram (3.5 ounces), or whatever amount of 24-carat gold they could afford. We told them that their gold bars would be melted down to form part of the large 4 kilograms (8.8 pound) gold crown. So for a small investment of 1 gram of gold, we explained that they would receive the same amount of merit as offering 4 kilograms of gold.

The email went viral, and people began flooding the ABC office with offerings of Swiss gold bars. After two months we had collected 4.2 kg (9.3 pounds) of pure gold.

Close-up of the gold crown placed on the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, December 2017. Photo courtesy of Tan Hup Cheng.

Peter Griffin made the crown using the age-old technique of lost-wax casting. He had to make wax master pieces. He used computer aided programs to design the crown parts, and had the wax master pieces printed in 3D using a special machine. Peter printed a total of 169 wax pieces.

A benefactor in Singapore who owned a jewelry foundry offered his gold casting workshop equipment to us so that we could melt and cast the gold. While at Nalanda Monastery in France, Peter invited Joan, who had previously worked as a goldsmith, to come to Singapore to cast the parts into gold. Joan reached Singapore in August 2017, and successfully cast all of the 169 gold parts.

Peter is working with our benefactor jeweler so that all of the gold parts can be soldered together to form a solid three-tier crown. In sum, nine small crowns will be soldered together to form the crown for the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue.

Thanks to another student of Rinpoche, Piero in Italy, we managed to purchase thousands of pieces of blood red coral and turquoise stones, in various sizes to adorn the gold crown base.

When all has been completed, the gold crown will be securely locked away. We will then offer the gold crown to Rinpoche, to offer to the Thousand-Arm Chenrezig statue when Rinpoche visits in October 2019.

We believe that our guru’s pure mind can dedicate the merit created. We also believe that, as Rinpoche told me, the statue can become a cause for Dharma to flourish in this world for 10,000 years; as well as work for the FPMT; and the success of Rinpoche’s vision and wishes to be fulfilled.

To learn more about Amitabha Buddhist Centre visit their website: http://www.fpmtabc.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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his sister, Anila Ngawang Samten, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Welcome to the March edition of the monthly FPMT International Office e-News!

This month we bring you:

• Highlights of Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche
• An Invitation to Read Our 2017Annual Review: Serving the Teachings of the Buddha
• Rejoice in Our Investment in the Entire Organization
• New Materials from Education Services
• New FPMT Study Groups
• Tara Introduced to Australia!

..and more!

The FPMT International Office News comes from your FPMT International Office. Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email box.

FPMT International Office is happy to announce FPMT Annual Review 2017: Serving the Teachings of the Buddha is now available to read as an eZine and a downloadable PDF.

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 164 centers, projects, and services in 39 countries that comprise the international FPMT network. Each year, International Office shares our accomplishments and rejoices in what has been achieved. 

“From the bottom of my heart and bones, thank you numberless times for all your service; dedication; practice of holy Dharma with your body, speech, and mind; and for your devotion and good heart,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche says in his letter in this year’s annual review. 

“The ultimate aim is to benefit sentient beings, whose minds are obscured and suffering, and for them to achieve happiness in this life and happiness in future lives, then the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara and of buddhahood, the total cessation of obscurations and completion of realizations,” Rinpoche continues.

“Therefore, sentient beings receive all the peace and happiness up to enlightenment by serving the teachings of Buddha, so that the teachings exist continually and develop, and also by serving the Sangha, who preserve and spread Dharma in this world.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Roger Kunsang in Vienna, Austria, September 2017. Photo by Andrea Husnik.

In addition to Rinpoche’s letter, FPMT Annual Review 2017 includes an update from FPMT CEO Ven. Roger Kunsang, an overview of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s tireless Dharma activities, and highlights from International Office’s departments. 

New this year, we’ve made a special online photo album for the annual review, sharing photos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2017 travels to India, Nepal, Mongolia, Russia, the United States, Austria, and Italy. Scroll or click through to see Rinpoche throughout the year bringing benefit to all sentient beings and giving us so much in which to rejoice!

We invite you to read FPMT Annual Review 2017: Serving the Teachings of the Buddha, now available online in eZine and PDF formats:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/annual-review/

See photo highlights from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s 2017:
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/lama-zopa-rinpoches-2017/

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.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recorded a message to thank all who recited the practices requested for his health and long life.

Listen to Rinpoche’s message, and read the edited transcript:

“This is a message from Mickey Mouse, little one, little Mickey Mouse from Lawudo, expressing from the heart a billion, zillion, trillion thanks for alllllllllllllll your prayers: 15,249.5 recitations of the Diamond Cutter Sutra and 19,265 recitations of Dependent Arising: A Praise to Buddha, that is showing us dependent arising, the subtle one, that which shows exactly what emptiness is unified.

Even if you recited OM MANI PADME HUM, or even recited OM AH HUM, or even recited just OM day and night, or weeks, months and years.

So I thank a billion, zillion, trillion times.

This is also a big puja for yourself, for purification and to collect merits. Therefore, to free yourself from samsara and achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, so that means it is for all sentient beings that you have done this. Thank you very much.

If I stay longer, one year or a month or a week or day or an hour, I will try to benefit the fish, or pigs, or dogs—something simple. OK? Thank you very much.”

Listen to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s message, recorded March 4, 2018, in Nepal:
https://fpmt.app.box.com/s/v6ekdwvz1ttedg44tw1ypo2wwlqimdzg

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.

Exterior of Dorje Pamo Monastery, 2016. Photo courtesy of Ven. Chantal Carrerot.

Monastère Dorje Pamo is a new probationary nunnery in the South of France, situated close to FPMT centers Institut Vajra Yogini and Nalanda Monastery.

Monastère Dorje Pamo is modeled on the previous Dorje Pamo, which was founded by Lama Yeshe in the early ’80s and was the first facility for Western FPMT nuns. The original Dorje Pamo was housed in a large building belonging to Institut Vajra Yogini and was supported by a group of up to a dozen young nuns of diverse nationalities.

After a few years, the building was returned to Institut Vajra Yogini and the community of nuns dissolved. Many of the nuns were called upon to help with the management and teaching in various FPMT centers.

FPMT nuns living near the future Monastère Dorje Pamo, France, February 2017. Photo by Véronique Alber Latour.

“In 2016, we were blessed to receive the donation of a large house surrounded by six hectares [15 acres] of land, orchards, meadows, woods, and even a small lake,” shared Ven. Chantal Carrerot, coodinartor of the new Monastère Dorje Pamo. “We finally had a home for our monastery! Naturally, and following the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, we have revived its original name, Monastère Dorje Pamo. The house has the potential to accommodate fifteen or more nuns.”

“Today, the project is gaining momentum,” Ven Chantal continued. “We have worked with an architect to transform the building over several years. The plans have been drawn up and the estimates for renovations have been completed.”

“We are grateful to the kind benefactors who have donated enough funds to start the first round of renovations, which will begin in March 2018. This phase involves renovating the nuns quarters and creating a temple. The first nuns are expected to move in at the end of summer. However, there is still a lot to do and we are still looking for funding to complete the gompa and the library next to it.

“Monastic communities that provide a proper environment where Buddhists nuns can live according to their vows, where they can practice together, where new nuns can be educated, and where all can be taken care of, are very rare in the world, even more so in the Western world. That a few such projects are coming forward at this time in various places in the FPMT is a source of great rejoicing!”

To learn more about Monastère Dorje Pamo, visit their website:
http://monasteredorjepamo.org/en/

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Practice in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Thubten Kunga Center, Deerfield Beach, Florida, US, February 2018. Photo by Martha Lucia Gonzalez.

On the afternoon of February 14, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, US. Fourteen students and three teachers were killed. A further fourteen people were wounded.

In the days after the shooting, Thubten Kunga Center, an FPMT center located near the tragedy, held a Medicine Buddha puja and read the “King of Prayers,” which is often recited to benefit those who have recently died.

Practitioners at the center lit a total of eighteen candles: one for each of the victims and one for the young man that carried out the shooting.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche always advises to make strong prayers to Medicine Buddha for anyone who is dying, sick, injured, or who has already died from violence such as that which occurred in Florida or elsewhere.

The short mantra of Medicine Buddha is:

TADYATHĀ / OṂ BHAIṢHAJYE BHAIṢHAJYE / MAHĀBHAIṢHAJYE [BHAIṢHAJYE] /
RĀJA SAMUDGATE SVĀHĀ

Find the long and short Medicine Buddha mantras with their common pronunciations on FPMT.org.

Read The Benefits of Medicine Buddha Mantra and Practice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Mandala 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 on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during Root Institute’s 30th anniversary celebration, India, January 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

All good wishes for Losar (Tibetan New Year) to you, from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and all at FPMT International Office.

Our Losar greetings are part of the February FPMT International Office e-News.

In addition to our Losar message, we invite you to enjoy:

• Updates to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Schedule
• How we can keep you updated daily!
• Why it’s time to empty your Merit Box
• News about Foundation Service Seminars in Spanish

and more…..

The FPMT International Office News comes from your FPMT International Office. Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email box.

“Happy Losar” card by Raven Jones, 2018

Currently a prisoner at Idaho Correctional Institution-Orofino (ICIO) in the United States, Raven Jones has been sharing his print copies of Mandala with fellow inmates. This small group of Dharma students recently offered two Losar (Tibetan new year) cards to FPMT in celebration of the year of the Earth Dog 2145. One was sent directly to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the other to Mandala. This year, Losar takes place on February 16.

Along with the card to Mandala came a note of gratitude, containing the mantra of Amitabha:

Thank you so very much for all you do!!! So, during this year of the Earth Dog, have a great New Year! Losar Tashi Delek! OM AMI DEWA HRI!

Raven Jones holds the unique distinction of being the only FPMT Masters Program student to complete the six-year study program entirely from prison.

Learn more about the work of the Liberation Prison Project, an FPMT project that supports Dharma students in prison, on FPMT.org.

Read a full interview with Raven Jones in “Liberation through Education,” part of the Mandala October-December 2014 issue.

Mandala brings you news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and of activities, teachings and events from nearly 160 FPMT centers, projects and services around the globe. If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.