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FPMT Students Experienced that FPMT Family Feeling in Nepal
In February 2018 a group of FPMT students traveled together from Australia to Kathmandu, Nepal, for a pilgrimage led by Gen Thubten Dondrub*, FPMT resident teacher at Buddha House, an FPMT center in Australia. In addition to encountering Lama Zopa ...
Maitreya Instituut’s Interfaith Retreat Creates a Community Experience Focused on Compassion
Maitreya Instituut in the Netherlands hosted an interfaith dialogue that transcended the usual exchange of words. Buddhist and Sufi students came together to learn about each other’s traditions and to practice during a four-day retreat focused on compassion. Interfaith activities ...
An Adventurous Trip to Lawudo in Nepal
Venerable Amy Miller, an FPMT registered teacher, has been informally leading people to Lawudo in Nepal’s Solu Khumbu District since 1990. She shares about the October 5-22, 2018, trip she led for twenty-three people from around the world. It was ...
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Teaches in Bodhgaya
Few things are more precious than being able to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama teach in Bodhgaya, India, the location of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Australian student Cynthia Karena, a regular contributor to Mandala, traveled to India in December 2018 ...
The Karmic Bond That Connected Us All in Mongolia
Ianzhina Bartanova, director of FPMT center Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, shares about an August 2018 fourteen-day pilgrimage the center organized to holy sites in Mongolia. Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling placed an advertisement in the January-June ...
Pilgrimage to the Hidden Valley of Tsum, Nepal
In the remote borderlands of the high Himalayas, several valleys are said to be beyul—hidden or secret valleys—only open to those with very pure minds and hearts. According to ancient scriptures, they were established by Guru Rinpoche, the 8th-century Indian ...
MAITRI Charitable Trust: Service in the Land of Noble Truths
Phil Hunt, coordinator of FPMT probationary project Enlightenment for the Dear Animals, shares about his visit in early 2018 to FPMT project MAITRI Charitable Trust in Bodhgaya, India. Heading out at dawn through the outskirts of Bodhgaya on one of ...
The Power of Guru Rinpoche: The Heart-Opening Australian Guru Bumtsog Experience
In June 2017 FPMT in Australia (FPMTA) and Chag Tong Chen Tong Tibetan Buddhist Centre (CTCT) organized 100,000 tsog offerings to Guru Rinpoche, also known as a “Guru bumtsog.” Participants from all over Australia took part in the powerful and ...
Personalizing the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination
By Ven. Tenzin Gache His Holiness the Dalai Lama often comments that as Buddhists, our distinctive practice is non-violence, and our distinctive view is dependent origination. His Holiness’s comments echo a common strand in the Buddhist tradition: Lama Tsongkhapa claimed ...
Presenting the Path to Modern Students: An Interview with Ven. Thubten Chodron
Ven. Thubten Chodron is a celebrated American Buddhist teacher, scholar, author, and leader who has published many popular books explaining the Dharma, including a 2013 work co-authored with His Holiness the Dalai Lama called Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions. She ...
Community and Commitment: A Yamantaka Study Group at Tara Institute in Australia
Recently, a group of students from Tara Institute in Melbourne, Australia, who had previously received a Yamantaka initiation from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and again from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, gathered to form a Yamantaka study group. Yamantaka is a ...