New Education Services for FPMT Centers

By Ven. Connie Miller, FPMT Education Services Coordinator

Recently, the education department at the FPMT International Office was restructured under the office’s new director, Sharon Gross. Our individual responsibilities were further clarified, and in consequence, we have also undertaken some new activities.

Tubten Pende is now the education programs coordinator, and I am now the education services coordinator. Very briefly, Tubten Pende’s areas of responsibility are:

• Developing standard FPMT education programs (Master’s Program, Basic Program, and so on)
• FPMT teachers (training certification, approved teachers, and so on)

And my areas of responsibility are:

• Educational materials and resources
• Spiritual program coordinator (SPC) services – assistance for center spiritual program coordinators
• Universal Education

There are a number of projects in progress in education services.

What’s happening with materials and resources?

Educational resources library The International Office Education Department has a growing collection of educational and spiritual materials, including prayers, sadhanas, text translations, practice instructions. Our collection isn’t yet exhaustive, but we are working to eventually make it so.

We are currently focusing on developing these materials into standardized edited booklets that will be available on request to centers or FPMT practitioners. (Some are available already; see the list of prepared materials at the end of this article.) This resources library includes the collection of translations of many practices, sadhanas, prayers, and instructions by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, as well as translations by Lama Yeshe. One by one we are preparing these materials in the standardized editorial and design format for distribution in the FPMT.

FPMT Prayer Book There have been many requests for a standard FPMT prayer book over the last few years, and the need was reiterated once again at CPMT ‘98. A draft FPMT Prayer Book was presented to Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the beginning of the Vajrasattva retreat at Land of Medicine Buddha in February 1999. Clearly, this project is closely linked to the overall work of developing an education resource library described above. The tentative plan for the spring of 1999 is to distribute a very limited number of copies of this draft to various individuals around the world whose job it will be to assist in the evaluation process, by collecting feedback from people around them and in FPMT centers in their area. This feedback will be gathered together, the draft will be adjusted accordingly – clearly taking into special account Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s comments and suggestions – and this will be the start of a new standard FPMT Prayer Book for all centers.

Just a brief preview We anticipate that the format will be a small 3-ring binder for Letterhalf/A5 size booklets. When students acquire the basic prayer book, this will consist of the ring binder together with a basic set of prayers: morning prayers and mantras, prayers for before and after teachings, several glance meditation prayers on the Lam-rim, The Heart Sutra, The Bodhisattva’s Confession of Downfalls, Six-Session Guru Yoga, a few basic sadhanas for daily practice, and as many as possible of the practices listed for FPMT centers listed in The FPMT Handbook. Additional prayers, sadhanas and practices will be available on an individual basis so that any person will be able to “mix and match” their own prayer book to their own individual needs. But everyone will receive the basic set with their binder.

Clearly, as well as wishing to have a collection of beautiful and melodious prayers to chant and recite, we also want to have translations that are correct and accurate. Thus, an essential part of the process of developing a new FPMT Prayer Book will be checking the contents for accuracy. To this end, we are aiming to eventually bring together a kind of “quality control group” for FPMT materials. At this point in our evolution, we are only able to take responsibility to produce the Prayer Book and other materials in English. In the long run, however, it is our intention to work closely with the local language translation units in the FPMT national offices as they develop, to ensure that the developed FPMT practice materials are translated and made available in the appropriate languages for FPMT students.

What is spiritual program coordinator support?

Education is the principal activity of the FPMT. In fact, FPMT Dharma centers would not exist if it were not for their core spiritual program. And the person who organizes and makes sure that spiritual program happens makes a fundamental and indispensable contribution to the development of their center and the benefit it can offer to the center members and the surrounding community.

Over the years it has become more and more apparent that the spiritual program coordinators in FPMT centers have received far too little acknowledgement of their overwhelmingly important tasks in the day-to-day running of our Dharma centers. Certainly, some centers take excellent care of their spiritual program coordinators. In other centers, there is only one person who actually does all the work – director, spiritual program coordinator, cook and bottle-washer! But overall, they receive far too little help to fulfill their immensely important tasks.

As the education services coordinator, I am seeking to remedy this by gradually developing spiritual program coordinator support services. It will function in much the same way that our much-loved Petra McWilliams at the center services department functions for center directors – giving advice and support, answering questions, finding needed help, providing materials, networking with other spiritual program coordinators, sharing valuable information, and just generally being there to support them and resident teachers throughout the FPMT.

At the moment (January 1999), this activity is still embryonic in nature. Because I am currently the only staff member in education services, spiritual program coordinator support services is functioning more in a passive rather than proactive mode. I am here to help at the other end of the phone line or an email message, and I am very happy to hear from spiritual program coordinators and to assist in whatever way I can. As the national entities develop throughout the FPMT, then Spiritual Program Coordinator (SPC) Support Services will more appropriately become an activity of those national offices. SPC Services in each country will thus be equipped for a more proactive approach, able to keep in close contact with SPCs in that country, checking on how they are doing and helping them in whatever ways they need. Clearly in this regard, I am hoping that national entities develop quickly throughout the FPMT, enabling SPC
Services in each country to develop as well, and bringing ever-expanding benefit to the FPMT.

What’s happening with Universal Education?

There are a number on ongoing activities taking place around the world that are operating under the umbrella of the name “Universal Education (UE)”:

• Summer camps and other activities, Universal Education-Italy
• Alice Project School, Valentino Giacomin, Sarnath, India
• Root School, Bodhgaya, India
• Lama’s Vision for Kids (Tara Redwood School and Tara Daycare), Pam Cayton, California, USA
• Teachers’ UE discussion group, Fritz Grohmann, Taiwan
• Summer camps, Rafael Ferrer, Spain

Essential to the long-term development of Universal Education is a general meeting of all active and committed Universal Education folks from around the world. I am hoping to organize such a meeting in 1999 in a location convenient to the greatest number of active participants. The purposes of such a gathering will be (1) to learn about what everyone is doing in their respective projects, (2) to share ideas and learn new skills and approaches from each other, and (3) to work together to gain an ever more clear common understanding of Universal Education, its nature and uniqueness.

I want to thank everyone who is constantly lending their support to these endeavors for the FPMT. By harmoniously working together, we can benefit so many sentient beings and make huge strides toward accomplishing the magnificently vast wishes of our kind teachers, fulfilling the vision of Lama Yeshe for the 1,000-year FPMT.

List of Standardized Prayers and Practices currently available from the Education Department — FPMT International Office

• Mahayana Prayers (a standard set of prayers for before and after sutra teachings)
• Prayers for the Long Lives of Special Virtuous Friends
• The Bodhisattva Vows
• The Six-Session Guru Yoga
• The Three Purifications of Shri Heruka
• Calling the Guru from Afar
• The Everflowing Nectar of Bodhicitta Annihilating the Demon of the Self-Cherishing Mind (the practice of Thousand-armed Chenrezig with the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation)
• Amitabha Pho-wa
• The Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls
• The Dharani of Glorious Vajra Claws (Dorje Dermo)
• Giving Breath to the Wretched
• The Great King of Prayers
• The Hundred Deities of the Land of Joy
• How to Make Light Offerings to Accumulate the Most Extensive Merit
• The Meditation of the Yellow Leaf-Wearing Female Solitary Ascetic (Lo Gyonma)
• A White Manjushri Method
• The Concise Essence Sutra Ritual of Bhagavan Medicine Buddha called The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel
• Vajrayogini Daily Practices
• Vajrayogini Uncommon Sadhana and Self-Initiation and Tsog
• The Means of Accomplishing the Venerable Arya Tara Chittamani: A New Moon Destroying the Darkness of Faults and Transgressions (self-initiation text)
• Praises to the Twenty-one Taras
• The Thirty-seven Practices of All Bodhisattvas
• Daily Sadhana Practice of the Glorious Solitary Hero, Dorje Jigje (Yamantaka)

All other prayers, practices, sadhanas, etc. from our Dharma files are also available upon request. On the above list are those that have been prepared for distribution in the new standard design and editorial format for FPMT practice materials. Please contact Ven. Connie Miller at the education department, FPMT International Office, for further information on other materials available.

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