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FPMT Community: Stories & News
FPMT News Around the World
Thubten Shedrup Ling’s new Maitreya statue
In March, FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered to sponsor life-size Maitreya statues at any FPMT center, service or project that wished to have one. Thubten Shedrup Ling (TSL) in Victoria, Australia, accepted the offer and received a statue two weeks ago.
“We are very grateful for Rinpoche’s kindness and generosity allowing us to have such a beautiful statue in the monastery,” writes Ven. Lhundrup, director at TSL. “The picture is of Maitreya seated in our temporary gompa where he keeps a watchful eye on the monks during puja. Maitreya will eventually be placed in our new, much larger gompa which we hope to commence building next month.”
The statues are scale replicas of the larger Maitreya statues that are to be built by the Maitreya Project in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. The plan to build a 500-foot (152-meter) tall Maitreya statue was inspired by FPMT founder Lama Yeshe.
While there are many depictions of Maitreya Buddha, the large statues that will be built by the Maitreya Project will show Maitreya Buddha in a simple form – without ornaments, wearing monk’s robes and seated on a throne – so as to be recognizable to many Buddhist traditions.
Directors of FPMT centers, projects and services that wish to receive a Maitreya statue can contact Peter Kedge at the Maitreya Project for more information.
With 160 centers, projects, and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
FPMT News Around the World
Collages created by Land of Medicine Buddha students
Over the past few years volunteers at Land of Medicine Buddha (LMB) in Soquel, California, have cut pictures of deities, holy objects and lineage lamas out of Dharma publications – including Mandala magazine – before burning the excess Dharma material, based on advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. As a result, LMB has amassed a collection of boxes, bags and envelopes of differently sized holy images which they planned to put into a stupa.
“It is difficult to organize [the pictures] nicely and respectfully, so the idea to make collages came up, sticking them on old printed prayers sheets that were waiting to be burned,” Ven. Tsomo told Mandala. With that though in mind, LMB students and visitors started creating the collages.
“It turned out to benefit both organizing the pictures nicely for the stupas and also having less Dharma excess to burn!” said Ven. Tsomo, who took photos of some of their creations and posted them on Land of Medicine Buddha’s Facebook page.
In addition to cutting and pasting holy images, LBM students and staff continue to fill their gigantic prayer wheel with mantras and holy texts. You can see photographs documenting their prayer wheel improvements, which include rolling one ton of microfilm mantras on to the prayer wheel, on their Facebook page.
With 160 centers, projects, and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
FPMT News Around the World
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and young Hawaiian dancers, April 2012. Photo by Elan Sun Star.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama just wrapped up a busy four-day visit to Hawaii, kicking off a visit to the United States and Canada. During his stay in Hawaii, His Holiness’ visit touched on many familiar themes, including secular ethics and the importance of compassion and education. On April 15, His Holiness gave a sold-out public talk called “Advancing Peace Through the Power of Aloha.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks in Hawaii, April 2012. Photo by Elan Sun Star.
“We’re all human brothers and sisters. We’re all the same human being. Mentally, emotionally, physically, we are the same. So whenever I give a talk to people, I always feel I am just one of you. No differences. No barrier,” His Holiness told the audience of 9,000.
“I have been a few times here. This time having the opportunity meeting more people. Yesterday, children. I feel some sort of meaningful day. Now here a public talk. I am very happy. My friend, in his introduction, gave a clear explanation of the meaning of aloha. Now I learned some sort of deeper meaning of aloha. Very helpful. Thank you.
“Expressing the word aloha very easy. But implementing the real meaning of aloha not easy. …
FPMT News Around the World
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nalanda Monastery, France, October 2011. Photo by Philippe Garric.
In his letter for the entire FPMT community published in the Annual Review 2011: Cherishing Life, Lama Zopa Rinpoche connects his experience of manifesting a stroke to learning the lam-rim and understanding karma. As Rinpoche explains, “karma is expandable – even if what is created is very small, the result is expandable. For example, according to King Ashoka’s life story, when he was a child playing in the sand, he offered a handful of sand to the Buddha, but he visualized that it was gold and he actually received the merit of having actually offered gold in Buddha’s beggar bowl. In his next life, he was born as a Dharma King, he was very wealthy and was able to build ten million stupas in one day. So that is amazing, amazing, amazing, unbelievable merits he was able to collect. So this is the same in regards to negative karma.
“This means it is very important to abandon even small negative karma as much as possible and to practice even small good karma as much as possible. To really put effort in this way,” Rinpoche writes.
Rinpoche has often given advice on karma, some of which can be found at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. FPMT’s Discovering Buddhism program also offers a module on karma, which has been recently made available on FPMT’s YouTube channel.
Rinpoche’s Annual Review letter is meant to be read as widely as possible and is available in English, Chinese, French, Italian and Spanish.
With 160 centers, projects, and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
FPMT News Around the World
Gunjiimaa translating in Mongolia
It is with sadness that we share the news of Gunjiimaa Ganbat passing away. After struggling with a very difficult to treat form of drug-resistant tuberculosis, Gunjiimaa died in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on April 1, 2012. Gunjiimaa made significant contributions to the development of FPMT Mongolia, including serving as an FPMT Mongolia translator, as Ven. Thubten Gyatso’s (Adrian Feldmann) Mongolian translator and as the previous director of the FPMT center in Ulaanbaatar, Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, founded in 2000.
“Gunjii,” as she was fondly known, was also the driving force in connecting MK Sen, current CEO of FPMT Mongolia, with several parties able to offer the help and assistance needed for Rinpoche’s priority projects in Mongolia. Gunjii was part of the special team overseeing these projects. Her immense personal contributions to ensure the success of each project will remain as testimony of her faith and devotion to her guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. As MK puts it, “Gunjii will be irreplaceable and a great loss to FPMT Mongolia. We pray for her blessed rebirth.”
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When reading an obituary or an announcement of death in Mandala, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises that students make prayers for the recently deceased that they “find a perfect human body, meet a Mahayana guru and become enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the teachings exist and they can become enlightened.”
Advice and practices for sickness and death can be found on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice page and at the Foundation Store.
FPMT News Around the World
Loving Kindness Peaceful Youth (LKPY), an international project of FPMT, received some much deserved recognition in a thoughtful piece on school violence written by Russell Evans and published on Shambala Sun’s blog Sunspace. Evans, a school teacher in a rural and conservative part of the United States, wanted to offer his students some tools to help them handle the stress they encounter in school. He discovered LKPY’s secular curriculum of mindfulness practices and introduced his class to LKPY’s Be Kind Day, where students brainstorm ideas about what it means to practice kindness and then engaged in those activities.
“Be Kind Day was one of the most wonderful days I ever had in the classroom. Students began laughing, others cried, and everybody left school feeling blessed,” writes Evans. “When I began this journey, I made the assumption that I could actually teach and model kindness. I now know that this is only partly true. Yes, by using the Be Kind Day curriculum and drawing on my own practice, I could make some helpful suggestions and hold the space. What really happened though is that my students already possessed abundant kindness and were just waiting for the opportunity to practice it.”
With 160 centers, projects, and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
News from Kopan Monastery and Its Projects. From Mandala April-June 2012.
Each issue, Mandala receives amazing photos for our FPMT News Around the World section – far more photos than we can squeeze into our print magazine. We’ve collected some of these photos into an online photo gallery for your viewing pleasure. Please enjoy this little photo journey to FPMT centers around the world.
Occasionally Osel Hita shares his thoughts and experiences on his Facebook page. In this update, he discusses the meaning of happiness.
The following, from Osel, was included in FPMT’s Annual Review, February 2011:
2011 was a great year for me. I was able to travel so much and had the opportunity to become involved in many FPMT activities.
I was thrilled to be able to meet many old friends and to make so many new friendships too.
From my home in Ibiza, Spain, I traveled to California for an FPMT Board meeting in March.
In April together with Gomo Tulku I traveled to Australia to visit Lama Zopa Rinpoche who was in the initial stages of recovering from his stroke.
In July I traveled to Kopan with Karuna Cayton. I very much wanted to visit Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup whose health was declining.
It turned out to be a great visit. Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested me to speak to the assembly of nuns at the nunnery and then to all the monks at the monastery. I was very happy with the visit and connected very well with the monks and nuns.
In August I was able to direct the filming of a documentary on Universal Wisdom Education (UWE) along with Matteo Passigato and other crew members. The filming took place at Vajrayogini Institute in France during the first international gathering of UWE which was attended by individuals and families from all over the world. The documentary is currently in the stage of “director’s final cut.”
In November I traveled with my partner Mai, and brother Kunkyen to India. We stayed in my former home Osel Labrang at Sera Monastery.
I was invited to address the Kopan monks at Sera and was able to spend time with my teacher, Geshe Genden Chomphel, and thoroughly enjoyed the visit. From Sera we traveled onto Bodhgaya to attend the Kalachakra initiation given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in January 2012.
In between my travels, I have been developing a number of business concepts I hope will contribute to FPMT’s long-term sustainability.
So many people welcomed and helped me everywhere I went and I really thank everyone especially those I didn’t get to thank personally. I am looking forward to being much more in touch with everyone who has been helping me over the years, and I am so happy to be available to help wherever I can in the future.
Big love,
Osel
Osel gave this message at the January 2012 South Asian Regiona Meeting. Pictured below is Osel with other participants of this meeting.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is such an inspiration and someday he will have private time for himself. Up until now he has dedicated all of his time to others, we have to give him space so he can rest. Given his situation now, I think it is important to be aware of that.
Things evolve slowly, slowly. We’re all trying to reach as many people as possible through different ways, not just through this organization, but other ways also. One of my jobs is to reach people who are not Buddhist, people who will never pick up a book, people who never even think of meditating, for example. As things evolve we have to also adapt to those changes which don’t have to necessarily be bad. In the long run it can be positive too, we all learn from our mistakes in the long run.
There are many different levels of helping others that FPMT is working on. Like in the collective memory each individual works for themselves, each of us has to do our own thing, whether or not we are doing it for someone else we have to do it for ourselves. We are all connected, the real guru is inside ourselves, no one can give you the truth. You have to find your own truth and that’s your guru. The same way just like when Lama Yeshe passed away and people are still attached to that image of Lama Yeshe that will never exist again, things change and we have to adapt. We have to help ourselves in the end, only we can do that, in the end it depends only on ourselves. The regional thing [the establishment of FPMT regional offices] is to come together so we can all help each other grow and make the organization last as long as possible so we can expand and do what we have to do in order to reach people so they can help themselves.
On December 8, 2011 Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi was officially appointed abbot of Kopan Monastery and Kopan Nunnery by the private office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Please stay tuned for the next print issue of Mandala, April-June 2012, for full coverage of this significant appointment.