Online Features

Dieter Kratzer on Becoming a Teacher
Dieter Kratzer is an FPMT registered in-depth teacher who has been teaching the Dharma for forty years. He spoke with Mandala associate editor Donna Lynn Brown about his development as a teacher from the early 1970s to the present day. ...
Dhi! Ven. Tenzin Namjong on Debate, Study, and Life at Sera Je
Ven. Tenzin Namjong (Matthew Pasion) was born in 1977 in Hawai’i, USA. He ordained in 2007 and is currently in the tenth year of the geshe studies program at Sera Je Monastery in South India. This interview brings together a ...
Teaching Buddhism, Spreading Dharma
When did Tibetan Buddhism come to the West? In 1958 Geshe Wangyal established a monastery in New Jersey where several of the first Americans to learn Tibetan studied in the 1960s. Sakya lama Dezhung Rinpoche arrived in the USA in ...
Strasbourg, France Hosts His Holiness the Dalai Lama
By Cynthia Karena, Photos by Olivier Adam Strasbourg, France hosted His Holiness the Dalai Lama on September 17 and 18, 2016. His Holiness taught from Nagarjuna’s Commentary on Bodhichitta, conferred an Avalokiteshvara initiation, and gave a public talk entitled “Ethics ...
Human Spirit: Bridging Buddhism and Psychoanalysis in Israel
By Ven. Sangye Khadro The news about Israel in the international media is usually gloomy, but, as is the case everywhere, there are bright stories that don’t make the headlines. One such story is a new project, the Human Spirit ...
Cultivating Compassion: Geshe Thupten Jinpa Brings Dharma into the Secular World
In May 2015, Geshe Thupten Jinpa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s principal English-language interpreter, came to Maitripa College in the United States to talk about his newest book A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our ...
Animal Welfare in the Aftermath of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake
The massive April 25, 2015, earthquake in Nepal brought devastation to the country’s people, economy and culture. Many in the international FPMT community responded to the crisis by offering prayers and making donations to FPMT’s Nepal Earthquake Support Fund . ...
Finding Freshness: Ven. Losang Drimay Attends the Interfaith Gethsemani Encounter IV
Photo caption: Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, New Haven, Kentucky, May 2015. Photo by Martin Verhoven. In May 2015, Ven. Losang Drimay, teacher and resident at Land of Medicine Buddha in Soquel, California, was one of 12 Buddhists to ...
How Do Holy Objects Work?
By Ven. Tenzin Legtsok Recently, a Dharma friend asked me a question which comes up often in relation to holy objects such as stupas, sutras, and mantras. “So, there’s a story in the lam-rim about a fly unintentionally going around ...
The Inside Story: Microfilm, Holy Objects, and the Passion of Tai Vautier
By Donna Lynn Brown Who hasn’t spun a prayer wheel? Whether a massive work of art that we propel with our whole bodies, a desktop ornament we twist with our fingertips, a decorated paint can on a spoke or a ...
Bringing Dharma into the Corporate World: Rasmus Hougaard Talks about the Potential Project
Rasmus Hougaard is the founder and managing director of the Potential Project, an international program based in Copenhagen, Denmark, that works with corporations and organizations to equip their leaders and employees with methods to be more kind, clear-minded, focused and ...