Mandala Blogs

Geshe Tenzin Zopa at Hospice of Mother Tara, Burnbury, Western Australia, September 2018. Photo by Julie Halse.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa visited FPMT center Hospice of Mother Tara in Bunbury, Western Australia, from September 1-2, 2018. Fran Steele, spiritual program coordinator, shares about the visit.

On Saturday, September 1, Geshe Tenzin Zopa taught about how to care compassionately for the dying person.

Geshe-la stressed the importance of correct motivation, of kindness at all moments. Often we act as carers doing a job, or out of obligation.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa, Robert, and Beth at Hospice of Mother Tara, Burnbury, Western Australia, September 2018. Photo by Julie Halse.

He then talked about the need for mindfulness, using his brother’s care of Geshe Lama Konchog as his example.

To care well we can’t come from a place of thinking, but from the heart that is in tune with the other person’s needs. We cannot be concerned about showing the person our Buddhist way, rather to simply listen, and help them connect with their own inner peace.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa and Naomi at Hospice of Mother Tara, Burnbury, Western Australia, September 2018. Photo by Julie Halse.

The extreme delicacy of those final moments as the mind propels us from the ‘hallucinations’ of this life to the next ‘hallucination’ was brought home vividly. It is a great responsibility to care for a loved one at this time.

The following day, Geshe-la talked about compassionate dying from the perspective of the person who is dying. We can use our death to create compassion in ourselves for those around us, so that our mind is filled with compassion when we die. Alternatively, we can use meditation on emptiness to prepare us to use the clear light wisely. 

Many in the audience did not have tantric initiation so Geshe-la based his explanation of the stages of dying on what is said in sutra. The emphasis is on preparing our mind in the Bodhisattva path now before we are faced with the pain and confusion that occurs at the time of death.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa at Hospice of Mother Tara, Burnbury, Western Australia, September 2018. Photo by Julie Halse.

In response to a question, Geshe-la explained the importance of reliance on a guru as refuge.

He also described how to set up the environment, get help or give help with practices and mantra and what might be helpful after death, such as laying Namgyalma mantra on the body and blessing ashes.

This is only a fraction of all the wonderful wisdom we were given, and I finished hoping that Geshe-la would come back and continue the story of what to do between death and the next rebirth.

For more information about Hospice of Mother Tara, visit their website:
http://hmt.org.au/

For additional advice on death and dying, visit:
https://fpmt.org/death/

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, Australia, May 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has just published The Path to Ultimate Happiness, an ebook of teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course. In this book, Rinpoche discusses our potential to bring benefit and happiness, including full enlightenment, to all sentient beings. Here’s a short excerpt:

By realizing the most subtle level of emptiness we are able to cut the very root of samsara, ignorance. There are many types of ignorance, but this is particularly the ignorance holding the I, the self, as something real in the sense of existing from its own side, not merely labeled by mind. The I that exists from its own side is something that is not there at all; it totally doesn’t exist. But this ignorance holds onto such a false I, not the I that does exist.

There is an I that exists, but it is empty. While it exists it’s empty, unifying emptiness and dependent arising, unifying ultimate truth and conventional truth, the truth for the ultimate wisdom and the truth for the all-obscuring mind. There are these two truths, ultimate truth and conventional truth, and emptiness and dependent arising unifies the two. That is how the I exists.

This ignorance that holds onto the non-existent I as existing is the root of all karma and delusion, and all the oceans of sufferings of the hell beings, the hungry ghosts, the animals, the human beings, the gods and demigods and the intermediate state beings. The wisdom that realizes emptiness can cut this root, eliminating the root of samsara and even the seed of that ignorance, ceasing all karma and delusion. Then, we become totally liberated from the oceans of samsaric suffering and never experience suffering again. We achieve ultimate happiness, the blissful state of peace, for ourselves.

That is the view of the Prasangika school, the wisdom realizing emptiness that is explained by that school, by recognizing the subtle object to be refuted, the very subtle hallucination. This does not happen by realizing the emptiness explained by the previous schools, only by the Prasangika’s explanation. There is only one emptiness and only by realizing that can we cut the root of samsara, ignorance.

Excerpted from The Path to Ultimate Happiness, teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course in 2009 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, lightly edited by Gordon McDougall and Sandra Smith.

You can order The Path to Ultimate Happiness from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive or the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/shop/path-ultimate-happiness-ebook
https://shop.fpmt.org/-The-Path-to-Ultimate-Happiness-eBook-PDF-_p_3134.html

Watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach LIVE from Spain, Germany, and Switzerland, October 19-November 18! For links to live video streams:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

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.

Dagri Rinpoche with Geshe Drakpa Tsundue, Ven. Thubten Donyo, Ven. Elisabeth Drukier, and students, Kalachakra Centre’s retreat facility, France, August 2018. Photo by Charles Ho.

In order to give Kalachakra Centre students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of Buddhism and go further in their practice, the FPMT Paris-based center acquired a large farm in Perche in northwest France. Student Christa Muller-Rappard shares details about the retreat facility, a two-hour direct train ride from Paris, and Dagri Rinpoche’s recent visit.

The sun is shining hot and bright over Kalachakra Centre’s retreat facility, Saint Cosme en Vairais retreat centre. The sound of a tractor breaks the silence as it comes nearer; the birds and crickets sing their songs.

Dagri Rinpoche and Ven. Elisabeth Drukier at Kalachakra Centre’s retreat facility, France, August 2018. Photo by Charles Ho.

A big country house with a joyful and bustling kitchen and dining area welcomes you. Moving beyond this area, a beautiful wooden gompa is revealed. It is in stark contrast to what came before, like the transition between the mundane and the spiritual.

One is held in awe, surrounded by exquisite hand-painted thangkas. They beautify the stone and adobe walls with their bucolic and rustic charm, reminiscent of a time long gone.

The robe-colored cushions invite one to be seated. A certain calm takes over because of the palpable reverberation of thousands of mantras, prayers, and aspirations of the holy beings, buddhas, and lamas who have graced this space.

A wooden staircase leads upstairs to a bright and airy corridor with several dormitories.

Kalachakra Centre’s retreat facility, inaugurated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, has been beautifully renovated. It is quiet and beautiful, spacious and cozy. In addition to the big country house, there are three other buildings on the land. These buildings are for guests and retreat participants. It is also possible to camp on the grounds around the center.

Dagri Rinpoche at Kalachakra Centre’s retreat facility, France, August 2018. Photo by Charles Ho.

The retreat facility offers annual one-month lamrim teachings given by Venerable Jamphel Gyaltsen, a resident at Nalanda Monstery, as well as a Vajrasattva retreat, Kalachakra retreat, and Shamatha retreat.

Dagri Rinpoche at Kalachakra Centre’s retreat facility, France, August 2018. Photo by Charles Ho.

This year Kalachakra Centre was incredibly fortunate to receive Dagri Rinpoche at its retreat facility. Rinpoche kindly taught us for several days in August 2018. His visit marked the retreat facility’s ten-year anniversary.

With his usual good humor and incredible kindness, Rinpoche gave us commentaries on Langri Tangpa Dorje Senghe’s famous text, The Eight Verses of Thought Transformation, as well as Vajrasattva and Tara initiations, offering us all immense benefits and clarity.

The retreat finished with a beautiful tsog offering with Kalachakra Centre’s resident geshe, Geshe Drakpa Tsundue in attendance.

Most of the students came from Paris, where they are regular students at Kalachakra Centre.

Dagri Rinpoche had not come for nine years, but he was very happy to recognize some old faces. We hope he can visit us again soon.

For more information about Kalachakra Centre in Paris and its retreat facility, visit their website:
https://www.centre-kalachakra.com/#

The Eight Verses of Mind Training is available from the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://fpmt.org/edu-news/eight-verses-of-thought-transformation/

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 blessing all the beings in a lake in Washington State, US, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has just published The Path to Ultimate Happiness, a new ebook of teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course.

In this book, Rinpoche discusses our potential to bring benefit and happiness, including full enlightenment, to all sentient beings. Rinpoche explains the lamrim, the stages of the path to enlightenment, teaches extensively on emptiness and the good heart, and gives commentaries on sur practice, the Offering Cloud Mantra, and other prayers and practices. 

The Path to Ultimate Happiness conveys the spontaneous and intimate quality of Rinpoche’s teaching style and includes many anecdotes from his own experiences. Here’s a short excerpt:

The teachings about karma are very, very important. If you remember this in your daily life you will become very careful, not only avoiding negativities, not harming others, but also being kind, generous and gentle to them. You are able to practice this because you see its importance. You are able to abandon the negative karmas that cause you to receive harm from sentient beings for hundreds or thousands of lifetimes.

Conversely, when you do one act of kindness for a sentient being, you will receive help from that sentient being for hundreds and thousands of lifetimes. From your one act of kindness you receive the benefit from that sentient being for hundreds, thousands of lifetimes. Therefore, if you want to be happy, if you don’t want to receive harm from others, you need to practice the good heart, you need to be kind to others, not only to your friends but even to your enemies and strangers. Practicing kindness, you receive the result—happiness, enjoyment—from that sentient being for many hundreds, thousands of lifetimes.

The conclusion is that every day of your life, day and night, practice kindness to others, thus causing others to have happiness. That is essential; it’s the cause of your own happiness, not only in this life but in thousands of future lifetimes.

If you want your wishes to succeed all the time, you should make others’ wishes succeed. Causing others’ wishes to succeed is the cause of success of your wishes every day of your life. As much as you are able to do that, the result will be that in this life and all the future lives, all the time your wishes will succeed. Without any effort, without any worry or fear, whatever wish you have will just happen, exactly like that, including achieving enlightenment. Practicing kindness, as much as you can, you should fulfill the wishes of others. From one act of kindness your wishes are fulfilled for hundreds of thousands of lifetimes.

As His Holiness the Dalai Lama always says, if you want to live your life with a selfish attitude it’s better to live it by being intelligently selfish. By helping others, being kind to others, the result is that you will get happiness. From one act of fulfilling one wish of a sentient being, your wishes will succeed for hundreds of lifetimes, thousands of lifetimes. This is being intelligently selfish, thinking of how to get all your wishes fulfilled. This is correct but the main reason for helping others is still for your own happiness.

For bodhisattvas there is never a thought for their own happiness. It doesn’t arise even for a second. There is always the thought of cherishing others, of seeking happiness for the other sentient beings: the numberless hell beings, the numberless hungry ghosts, the numberless animals, the numberless human beings and the numberless gods and demigods. Only practicing kindness, fulfilling others’ wishes for happiness, thinking of others’ happiness, the bodhisattvas’ attitude is very pure. This is what we should all try to practice in our daily life.

Excerpted from The Path to Ultimate Happiness, teachings given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the 42nd Kopan lamrim course in 2009 at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, lightly edited by Gordon McDougall and Sandra Smith.

To order the new ebook The Path to Ultimate Happiness, visit:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/shop/path-ultimate-happiness-ebook

An ebook series that presents teachings from the 24th Kopan course in 1991 is also available from Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. For more:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/kopan-course-no-24-1991-ebook-series

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.

Reciting the Suwarnoththaba Sutra, the Sinhala version of the Golden Light Sutra at Abayagirya stupa, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, August 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Lekdron.

Ven. Tenzin Lekdron, Tara Lanka Study Group coordinator, rents a flat in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and regularly travels to Colombo to help the community. She shares an update from Sri Lanka.

Three years ago, I landed back in my home country of Sri Lanka. It had been an unplanned return driven by the earthquake that struck while I was staying at Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery in Nepal. Before that I had been newly ordained in India by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I lived eighteen years in Australia, where I met Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Golden Light Sutra.

The Suwarnoththaba Sutra, the Sinhala version of the Golden Light Sutra, Sri Lanka, September 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Lekdron.

In Sri Lanka, I’m an oddity; a Sri Lankan nun but in robes that are unlike anything else in the country. We have an FPMT Study Group called Tara Lanka.

There are probably around fifty people who have connected with Tara Lanka Study Group in various parts of the country where I have given talks and performed Sutra and Medicine Buddha pujas and so on. Those people are from various strata of society.

Reciting the Suwarnoththaba Sutra, the Sinhala version of the Golden Light Sutra, Kandy, Sri Lanka, January 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Lekdron.

Life is very harsh for most of the people here, so the focus is on purification and trying to help wherever it is practical.

In July 2018 FPMT registered teacher Ven. Birgit Schweiberer came to Tara Lanka Study Group for three weeks. She generously funded herself to come out from Austria and give commentary on the Golden Light Sutra.

Completing thirty-six recitations of the Golden Light Sutra as an offering to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Aranayaka, Sri Lanka, November 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Lekdron.

There are some great stories about results we’ve had from reciting the Golden Light Sutra.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche talks about freeing suffering pretas through giving them Dharma. In June 2017 I led a family in a recitation of the Golden Light Sutra at their home. This recitation was an interesting one. The lady of the house was being urged by spirits to keep reciting the Golden Light Sutra. Fingers crossed that the spirits have migrated to a better rebirth.

Completing thirty-six recitations of the Golden Light Sutra as an offering to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Aranayaka, Sri Lanka, November 2017. Photo courtesy of Ven. Tenzin Lekdron.

To learn more about Tara Lanka Study Group, visit their website:
http://taralanka.org

Learn about and download the Golden Light Sutra by visiting the FPMT website:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/sutras/golden-light-sutra/

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.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during Lama Chopa at Kopan Monastery on Lama Tsongkhapa Day, Nepal, December 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Every year the month-long lamrim meditation course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal draws more than two hundred students from around the world. And every year the November Course, as it’s called, fills up quickly. Many students starting planning to attend the transformative program months, if not years, in advance.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche first taught the month-long lamrim course in 1971. Rinpoche continues to offer teachings at the course almost every year. Last year Rinpoche spoke to students about the significance of attending the course and how it helps one deal with individual and societal problems. The following is a short excerpt from that teaching:

Coming to Kopan Monastery—attending one of the meditation courses—is to pacify the negative mind that brings all the problems, global problems. Coming here is to pacify that. You understand the point? It is most important.

So you are coming here to learn meditation. What you are learning, that is the most important thing in the world, the most important thing in your life.

That helps not only this life, it helps not only the next life, it helps hundreds and thousands, millions, it goes on, the benefit goes on and on. It goes on to enlightenment.

Ultimately it goes on to enlightenment. Your coming here to do meditation—listening and meditating—all this goes up to enlightenment for numberless sentient beings.

You achieve enlightenment for numberless sentient beings—for every ant you see in the road, in the gompa, every bird, every dog and cat, people, every sentient being—to benefit everyone, to free them from the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to buddhahood, peerless happiness, buddhahood.  

So your coming here, learning lamrim meditation, meditating to actualize, is so the mind, the child mind, is transformed into a mind that cherishes others, like the Buddha did. …

Watch the teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from which this excerpt is taken:
https://youtu.be/r2fmyis25pw

Colophon: Excerpted from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings at Kopan Monastery, December 8, 2017. Simultaneously transcribed by Ven. Joan Nicell. Lightly edited by Laura Miller, October 2018.

Find out more about the November Course and other opportunities to learn and meditate at Kopan Monastery:
http://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses

Find complete videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent teachings:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

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.

Association of Himalayan Buddhists of South Australia (AHIMBSA) and Lyndy Abram at Buddha House, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.

Lyndy Abram, center director of Buddha House, an FPMT center located in a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, shares about the center’s friendship with the Himalayan Buddhist community of South Australia.

Last September we received a request from the Association of Himalayan Buddhists of South Australia (AHIMBSA) for a blessing from our then-resident teacher, Geshe Konchog Kyab. About forty people of all ages came to Buddha House for the visit. They were very excited to meet with a lama. I decided to follow up with the AHIMBSA representatives to see what we could do to help them.

It turned out there are 3,500 Himalayan refugees living in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. They have been coming here since 2008, and it is a growing community. They told us that they had lived most of their lives in refugee camps in Nepal and had previously been in Bhutan. They told stories of torture and having been in solitary confinement, chained, for years. Some of the people who directly experienced this were at the meeting. They told us they had not had access to any Buddhist teachings due to the circumstances of being a refugee.

The Board of Buddha House agreed we should partner with their community, offering teachings for the adults and the children, and whenever a visiting teacher comes to involve them in the visit.

Our friendship with them is growing. A large number of AHIMBSA members came to Buddha House in May 2018 for the opening of our new location, where they met Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Some of the children sang a national song as part of the ceremony.

Bahadur Gurung, AHIMBSA chairman, and Jogen, translator, having afternoon tea with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.

Rinpoche had afternoon tea with Bahadur Gurung, AHIMBSA’s chairman, and Jogen, translator, and they shared their stories with him. Rinpoche said to them it is much better for you to practice Dharma here than it was in Nepal, because in the refugee camps you did not have access to Dharma teachings.

Buddha House wants to ensure we help AHIMBSA as much as possible. We are so fortunate to have the Dharma, as well as the freedom to practice, attend teachings, and spend time with the Dharma community. Meeting them and hearing their stories has helped us understand our good fortune.

AHIMBSA youth and Buddha House Dharma Kids Club greet Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha House, South Australia, May 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.

They would particularly like help with the children, which we are able to do through providing a Dharma club. Ven. Dondrub and myself go to a hall AHIMBSA hires monthly. I run a Dharma club for kids class then Ven. Dondrub gives a Dharma talk to the adults. Since many community members do not speak English, they provide a Nepali translator for him.

AHIMBSA really wants help with their young adults. I asked Geshe Tenzin Zopa, who has met with them twice now for teachings and blessings, what they might do. He suggested doing activities teenagers want to do—outings, camps—and then introduce Dharma topics in a setting they feel comfortable in.

AHIMBSA youth performance at AHIMBSA’s second anniversary celebration, Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury, South Australia, July 2018. Photo courtesy of Buddha House.

In July 2018 AHIMBSA celebrated its second anniversary by throwing a celebration held at the Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury. They invited Buddha House representatives to a joyous day of entertainment, and to honor the lives of their elders. Three women in their nineties were given certificates of honor and were covered in blessing scarves and shawls by the local members of parliament.

They honored people from organizations who help their community which included myself, representing Buddha House. The children were given blessing strings and mantra cards which were a gift from Rinpoche.

Lyndy Abram with AHIMBSA youth at AHIMBSA’s second anniversary celebration, Cambodian Buddhist Hall of Salisbury, South Australia, July 2018. Photo by Janne Graham.

The young people performed cultural, Bollywood, and modern-style dances. There were also music performances, and a meal and chai were given to the more than 1,000 people in attendance. It was a wonderful day.

We are so fortunate to have met with this vibrant, happy community we can now call our friends.

For more information about Buddha House visit their website:
http://buddhahouse.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.

Mother and child served by MAITRI, Bihar, India, January 2018. Photo by Phil Hunt.

Phil Hunt, coordinator of FPMT probationary project Enlightenment for the Dear Animals, writes about his visit in early 2018 to FPMT project MAITRI Charitable Trust in Bodhgaya, India. These organizations are examples of one of FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service, Social or Community Service. This is a short excerpt from Phil’s recently published online story, “MAITRI Charitable Trust: Service in the Land of Noble Truths.”

Heading out at dawn through the outskirts of Bodhgaya on one of MAITRI Charitable Trust’s regular Mother & Child mobile clinics, I could quietly witness the pollution and poverty all too apparent at the edges of towns and the main roads.

It’s not the romantic image one would like to have of the place where the Buddha walked and taught all those years ago. Bodhgaya is in Bihar, and Bihar has one of the highest incidences of leprosy, TB, and infant mortality, and one of the lowest literacy rates in India.

The work that MAITRI does is not romantic either. Identifying people with leprosy, cleaning and dressing ulcers in flesh damaged due to localized deadening of the nerves, identifying people with tuberculosis (TB), collecting and analyzing sputum samples, assisting undernourished TB patients, or prenatal mothers, or newborn babies, and treating injured, maimed, and sick animals that have nowhere else to go. …

MAITRI director Adriana Ferranti reviewing a new leprosy case, MAITRI Charitable Trust, Bihar, India, January 2018. Photo by Phil Hunt.

Looking around Bodhgaya and surrounding districts at the poverty and ignorance, how could you possibly think you could make any impact? Yet these are the sentient beings Buddhists have pledged to bring to enlightenment, that Christians go to serve following the example of Jesus, that the left side of politics works to uplift, that the right side of politics promises to benefit through a ‘trickle down’ economy. They are the global neighbors with whom we have responsibility to share the riches of the world fairly. Indeed, these are the beings that might have been our direct neighbors if our karma had been very slightly different. …

Read Phil’s full story, “MAITRI Charitable Trust: Service in the Land of Noble Truths,” and view more of his photos online:
https://fpmt.org/mandala/online-features/maitri-charitable-trust-service-in-the-land-f-noble-truths/

For more information about MAITRI Charitable Trust, visit their website:
http://www.maitri-bodhgaya.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.

Visiting the nursing home, Dmitrovskiy Pogost village, Russia, July 2018. Photo by Anastasia Alekseevna.

Social or Community Service is one of FPMT’s Five Pillars of Service. 

Five years ago a group of volunteers from FPMT center Ganden Tendar Ling Center in Moscow, Russia, asked what they could do for Old and Happy, a nonprofit that helps Russian nursing homes. As a result Ganden Tendar Ling Center volunteers began traveling 150 km (93 miles) to Dmitrovskiy Pogost village once per month to spend a day visiting friends in a nursing home. Anastasia Alekseevna, the center’s spiritual program coordinator, shares this about their July 2018 visit.

Our friends who live in the nursing home in Dmitrovskiy Pogost village don’t have any relatives or live in the nursing home because they need to be taken care of permanently. Some have children, but the children either live in other cities, have died, or can’t take care of their parents.

All of our friends in the nursing home have had a very hard life. Some are very sick and some feel alone or depressed.

Visiting the nursing home, Dmitrovskiy Pogost village, Russia, July 2018. Photo by Anastasia Alekseevna.

We go to Dmitrovskiy Pogost village each month to meet our friends there and to bring them gifts. We buy all sorts of useful things such as shampoo, shower gel, soap, adult diapers, wet wipes, shaving accessories, and alcohol wipes for injections. We also bring magazines, books, crossword puzzles, and many sweets and fruits. We also celebrate our friends’ birthdays by wishing them “happy birthday” and bringing them gifts.

Visiting the nursing home, Dmitrovskiy Pogost village, Russia, December 2018. Photo by Anastasia Alekseevna.

But the most important thing is that we share kindness and compassion. With some of our friends we have a conversation and with others we cry or just hold hands. Our love and kindness are the medicine for these people.

Visiting the nursing home, Dmitrovskiy Pogost village, Russia, December 2018. Photo by Anastasia Alekseevna.

Before every visit to Dmitrovskiy Pogost village, we meditate or do Buddha Medicine practice. After our visit we dedicate the merits. These visits are very useful and effective for our practice. We try to do it with open heart and mind.

For more information about Ganden Tendar Ling Center visit their website:
http://fpmt.ru

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 Sangha arranging flower offerings for the Amitabha Buddha statue, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, July 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Before traveling to India at the end of August and then Singapore in September, Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent nearly three months in the United States. Rinpoche stayed for two months at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) in a remote part of Washington State.

A Just By Seeing Mantra that Rinpoche had made into a sign at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

During Rinpoche’s time at BAPL, the decorations on the throne of the large Amitabha Buddha statue were completed. Rinpoche and Sangha made extensive flower offerings. Rinpoche also had many signs made for animal statues on the land.

While in Washington State, Rinpoche visited Pamtingpa Center, in Tonasket, Washington. Rinpoche and Sangha also took a boat out onto a lake to bless all the sentient beings in the water.

Blessing the sentient beings in the lake, Washington, US, July 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

In August, Rinpoche visited Maitripa College and FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon, for a week. Then Rinpoche spent a week in Boston, Massachusetts, giving teachings and initiations at Kurukulla Center.

Rinpoche then flew to California for a brief visit to his home, Kachoe Dechen Ling, in Aptos, and for annual medical checkups. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and H.E. Ling Rinpoche, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

While in Aptos, Rinpoche invited H.E. Ling Rinpoche, who was on a West Coast tour, to stay one night at Kachoe Dechen Ling. Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave H.E. Ling Rinpoche a tour of the holy objects and showed H.E. Ling Rinpoche the collection of precious relics there. Dinner was offered to H.E. Ling Rinpoche and after dinner both Rinpoches did protector prayers together.

H.E. Ling Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche looking at a relic, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On another day, Rinpoche invited Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, the resident geshe at Tse Chen Ling in San Francisco, for lunch. Rinpoche also visited the nearby Land of Medicine Buddha to check on the progress of the stupa being built. More than fifty students saw Rinpoche off at the airport for his flight to India.

Rinpoche and Denice Macy, former director of Land of Medicine Buddha, in front of stupa being built at Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, California, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

See a NEW photo album with more photos from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s three months in the United States: 
https://fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/gallery/united-states-june-august-2018/

Links and information to watch Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach live:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/lama-zopa-rinpoche-live/

Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Kurukulla Center, and Maitripa College:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.

Geshe Lobsang Jamphel with students at Centro Shiwa Lha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro Shiwa Lha.

FPMT center Centro Shiwa Lha in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosted Geshe Lobsang Jamphel, abbot of Nalanda Monastery in France, in July 2018. Ruth Saldanha, event production volunteer, shares the details of Geshe Jamphel’s visit.

Geshe Jamphel graciously accepted our invitation to teach Chapters 1 and 2 of Bodhicharyavatara (A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) over the course of two weekends in July.

Geshe Lobsang Jamphel with volunteers Marcio Saraiva, Nakedia Carvalho, and Ruth Saldanha at Centro Shiwa Lha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro Shiwa Lha.

This is a text that has been studied since the eighth century, when it was written by the Indian scholar Shantideva (Shiwa Lha in Tibetan). It’s a classic of Buddhist philosophy studied by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

We were expecting Geshe Jamphel to give teachings on the last two weekends of the school holiday, July 21-22, and July 28-29. These were Saturdays and Sundays. But luckily for us, he decided to teach on the Fridays, too.

Centro Shiwa Lha recently moved to a listed 19th-century house, which was renovated and recently opened as the new home of the center. The value of our new place is that activities can be accommodated more comfortably.

We have a new meditation room that holds about sixty people. We even have a small yard with trees and a lawn. Upstairs are guest accommodations. We hope to be able to host a resident teacher soon.

Geshe Lobsang Jamphel with Yuri Pinto at Centro Shiwa Lha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro Shiwa Lha.

We had a wonderful retreat with Geshe Jamphel, attended by twenty-five students. In addition to helping us absorb the meaning of the path to enlightenment, Geshe Jamphel told us the story of Shantideva.

His words were translated from Tibetan into Portuguese by Susana Montero. In this way we could hear the melodious sound of the Tibetan language. It had a special meaning to us since our center is named after Shantideva.

The lessons were given on Chapter 1 (Bodhichitta), and Chapter 2 (Confession). Geshe Jamphel also gave a talk on “Leading a Meaningful Life.” He offered refuge vows and a White Manjushri empowerment during the red moon eclipse.

We are so fortunate to have him come here for the second year in a row.

Geshe Lobsang Jamphel teaching students at Centro Shiwa Lha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2018. Photo courtesy of Centro Shiwa Lha.

For more information about Centro Shiwa Lha visit their website:
https://shiwalha.org.br/

To watch Geshe Jamphel’s teachings visit Centro Shiwa Lha’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOkh7XIVXcJX6jzIig3T4zg

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.

Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s care for animals is well known. What’s perhaps less well known is Rinpoche’s creative whimsy with animal statues and the signs he has created for them.

At Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, in a remote part of Washington State in the US, Rinpoche has many animal statues placed on the property with signs that share thoughts about practicing lamrim, or the graduated path to enlightenment.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A  parrot on a fence says, “I have been waiting to see you from beginningless rebirths and I never have. That means I won’t see you again, because there is nothing to see.”

A dove on a fuel tank says, “I have been in retreat from beginningingless rebirths, not only this life, but endlessly. I don’t see any people and I don’t speak except to hallucinations.”

And an owl says, “I have been meditating for many lifetimes. Nothing exists that you believe is real. Wow!”

Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Two ducks in rainboots have two signs that say the following:

“Why don’t you practice wisdom? Look at everything as empty, as they are empty in reality. Then you can liberate all sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment.”

“Why don’t you practice bodhichitta? To not only enlighten yourself, but enlighten all sentient beings.”

A dog, decorated with butterflies, says, “I want to achieve enlightenment quicker than you. Because I am offering myself to every single sentient being, for their enlightenment.”

And a raccoon near the Medicine Buddha statue says:

“I want to announce to all the sentient beings, whether I want to be living in this tree or to be out, to be free from this. It is in my hands. So like this, it is the same for you people, whether you want to be in samsara or to be free from samsara. To be in samsara means experiencing the oceans of samsaric suffering or to be free from that forever, not just for seven days’ vacation, not like that. So it is totally in your hands. It is up to you, what you do with your mind, how you use your mind. Thank you very much.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with animal statutes at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, September 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Watch recorded video teachings from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including recent teachings at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Kurukulla Center, and Maitripa College, online:
https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/

More information, photos, teaching schedule, and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.