International Office News
April 2026

Offerings in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s room, Kopan Monastery, April 13, 2026. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

Teachings and News Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Third Anniversary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche Showing the Aspect of Passing Away

Portrait of Lama Zopa Rinpoche taken by Ven. Lobsang Sherab in 2018.

April 13, 2026, marked the three-year anniversary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche showing the aspect of passing away.

Around the world, activities were organized in centers, monastic institutions, and in the homes of individual students to commemorate Rinpoche’s life, remember and celebrate his unbelievable kindness, pray for his return, and dedicate themselves to fulfilling Rinpoche’s wishes on this occasion.

We will share details of these powerful events so thoughtfully organized by devoted students of Rinpoche soon. 

How to Arrange a Home for Someone Who Is Dying

Helping someone pass away in the most auspicious way possible is one of the greatest gifts we can offer at the most critical time of a person’s life. The FPMT Death and Dying Heart Practices and Advice webpage is a compilation of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice and materials on death and dying, available for all to use. We recently shared some essential advice Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered to an FPMT center considering starting a hospice.

Valuable Resources for Students

We would like to draw your attention to some valuable resources for students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Compendium of Precious Instructions: A Catalog of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Works is a collection of Rinpoche’s literary and graphic works which are available digitally and/or in print, with particular emphasis on key teachings that Rinpoche especially wanted his students to take note of and put into practice, as well as a guide on where to find the audio and video.

Life Practice Advice is a resource based on Rinpoche’s essential daily practice and lifetime practice advice. This is his essential advice and by following this advice, students can feel confident they are following and practicing according to Rinpoche’s heart advice.

FPMT.org offers a collection of practical advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Students can also find Rinpoche’s advice on a wide range of topics in the form of short talks and letters at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom

Lama Yeshe teaching at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, 1979. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

What is Real?

Lama Yeshe gave this teaching as part of a commentary on the yoga method of Divine Wisdom Manjushri at Manjushri Institute, England, August 5, 1977. 

What is real? As long as something functions, has an effect, does that make it real? No, it does not. Everything we do in our daily lives–waking up, eating, talking, listening, coming, going–is like a dream. In many ways, there’s no distinction between your experiences and feelings of doing these things while awake and your doing them in a dream.

Every time you come and go, your experience is different. This shows that your coming and going is an entirely dream consciousness experience rather than your physically walking here and there being some kind of reality. In other words, what’s more important is: what is reality for you? The reality of the sky; the reality of matter; vague, abstract questions as to the nature of reality…these things are irrelevant. What is a human being? What are the limitations on your conscious experience? These are the things that are real for you.

Continue to read this full teaching. 

Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. A book of all of Lama Yeshe’s teachings on Manjushri is forthcoming in 2027.

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What We’re Rejoicing About

2026 FPMT Global MANI Retreat

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization was to hold 100 Million Mani retreats.

“This is one of my dreams, to have 100 Million Mani Retreats each year and for it to continue forever, even after I die, even after the people living now die. Those who are working, offering service now—to continue even after they die; to continue for as long as the country exists.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The regional and national coordinators of FPMT are working with FPMT International Office to support a GLOBAL MANI RETREAT. This retreat will bring together our FPMT community on a scale we have not attempted before which is a hugely exciting collective effort, promoting even greater harmony, cohesion, and understanding between us all. How timely then, that it was FPMT’s 50th anniversary last December! Surely after 50 years, it is now opportune for all of us to come together, as the global organization that FPMT has become, to devote our collective time and effort to Dharma practice and dedicate ourselves to the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s unmistaken reincarnation. 

The 2026 GLOBAL MANI RETREAT is scheduled to commence on the first day of Saka Dawa month (Sunday, May 17, 2026), and conclude on the final Buddha Day for this year, Lhabab Duchen (Sunday, November 1, 2026). This retreat will be something unprecedented for our global FPMT family. 

Please learn all about what to expect starting in May and find the most meaningful ways to participate, wherever you are in the world!

2025 Grants Offered through FPMT Charitable Projects

Students at Gaden Jangtse School.

The extensive work undertaken in 2025 through the FPMT’s Charitable Projects continued to bring compassion into action by benefiting beings in profoundly meaningful ways. In 2025, US$2,708,905 was offered to a wide range of beneficial initiatives.

Guided by the compassionate vision of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, these projects transform generosity into tangible benefits: alleviating suffering, preserving the Buddhadharma, and creating vast merit for sentient beings worldwide.
Please take a moment to rejoice in just some of what we have accomplished together in 2025:

• Support was offered to eight schools across Nepal and India, reaching over 1,400 children and young monastics in some of the most remote and underserved communities in the world. Of the eight schools supported, four are directly connected to FPMT, either situated at an FPMT center or linked to Kopan Monastery, so these grants also shoulder expenses that would otherwise fall to Kopan.
• Nine elderly care homes received grants, helping 273 elders with food, accommodation, medical care, and facility improvements for some of the most vulnerable members in the community.
• Essential support was offered to seven essential health initiatives in India, Nepal, and Mongolia, reaching nearly 44,000 individuals — children, the elderly, the sick, and the extremely poor. From mobile clinics in remote villages to soup kitchens in Mongolia, two of these were based at FPMT centers, allowing the Social Services Fund to support these vital projects.
• The Community Support Fund awarded grants to nine FPMT Dharma projects worldwide. From retreat centers in Vermont and California to study groups in Romania and Spain, these grants reflect our commitment to keeping Dharma accessible within our FPMT family worldwide, offering direct, tangible support.
• Twelve grants were offered in support of ordained Sangha, reaching over 1,500 monastics across different traditions and regions, ensuring that Sangha could live, study, and practice with stability and dignity. Four of the twelve grants went directly to FPMT Sangha communities. The year’s most extraordinary milestone was the completion of the Gyudmed Food Fund endowment, a US$2.1 million endowment for Gyudmed Tantric Monastery, that ensures sustainable food support for over 600 monks in perpetuity.

Please take a moment to rejoice in these meaningful activities which are benefiting all beings. Tremendous thanks to all who support this work!

Third Gelug Monlam at Nalanda Monastery

Sangha at the Third Gelug Monlam, 2026, at Nalanda Monastery. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

The Third Gelug Monlam Festival was held at Nalanda Monastery in France from February 28 to March 4, 2026. Lama Zopa Rinpoche had expressed the wish to bring this special tradition to the West, and the first festival was held at Nalanda in 2024.

Thirty-six monks and nuns from across the globe came together in unity to celebrate the Third Gelug Monlam Festival at Nalanda Monastery, including His Eminence Kyabje Sharpa Choeje Rinpoche Jetsun Ngawang Jorden Pal Sangpo from Sera Mey Monastery, with his attendants Geshe Ngawang Nyima and Ven. Lobang Tenphe; Geshe Tsultrim Sherab, chanting leader (umze) from Kopan Monastery. Please continue to read the details of this important event.

FPMT Centers Offer Opportunities to Pray for Peace

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s recent peace appeal.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche strongly encouraged his students to pray for world peace as widely as possible. All are welcome to explore the collection of resources we recently shared, which offers advice on prayers and practices to follow when the world is in crisis and to help mitigate the threat of war.

We recently shared a blog post that included a statement by His Holiness the Dalai Lama endorsing peace as the response to conflict, along with opportunities to gather in person and online to pray for peace, organized by FPMT centers worldwide.

FPMT Community

50 Years of FPMT: Michelle Le Dimna’s Story

Michelle Le Dimna arrived in Kopan for the 1978 November Course and stayed in Nepal and India, following teachings and doing retreat, until February 1985.

Michelle has spent about 40 years translating Dharma books into French and is an FPMT registered teacher. She was instrumental in organizing relic tours in France and Belgium and helped with fundraising for the Maitreya Project. We are delighted to share Michelle’s story as one of the early students of FPMT!

FPMT Community Stories

The FPMT family is full of inspiring activities at centers, projects, services, and study groups, as well as among registered teachers and individuals who bring our communities to life. We would love to hear about it.

Whether it’s a recent accomplishment or an activity that gives your community reason to rejoice, your story can spark ideas and create connections across the FPMT family.

Please review our submission guidelines and reach out if you have something to share— we’d love to hear from you.

This year, FPMT celebrates 50 years since its formation in 1975 — a living legacy shaped by the vision of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and carried forward by so many devoted students, teachers, and communities across the world.

Your memories and experiences are part of this living history. We have already begun gathering some of these precious stories, but there are so many more voices we would love to hear. We would love to collect as much of this history as possible: short videos, presentations, written stories, and group shots from your center, projects, and services. We warmly invite you to please be in touch!

Resources and Opportunities for Study and Practice

Newly Available from the FPMT Foundation Store

This month we are happy to share Offering the Body to Others, a card with a beautiful poem composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in July 2010 to be displayed in the office of Karuna Hospice in Australia.

We also made available the Vietnamese translation of Precious Garland of Tenets by Konchog Jigme Wangpo. It is a translation of Establishing the True Meaning (grub mtha) by Konchog Jigme Wangpo, a condensed treatise rewritten in 1733 from Jamyang Shepa’s Detailed Explanation of the Solemn Buddhist Teachings, Defining and Establishing the Ultimate Meaning. Translated by Nhan Vo.

The Staircase Proceeding to Liberation: An Uncommon Guru Yoga Based on Chittamani Tara is now available in Mongolian. Composed by Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, this uncommon guru yoga based on Chittamani Tara is a method that includes the seven-limb prayer, mantra recitation, receiving the four initiations, and visualization of the guru entering the heart.

Foundation Store Resources

You can order printed copies of a selection of Foundation Store titles through Amazon’s print-on-demand service in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. In the item description click on the Amazon market that is closest to you. Foundation Store also offers a selection of prayers and practices available for 1-click download.

Opportunities to Connect with High Lamas at FPMT Centers

FPMT centers around the world provide students with truly precious opportunities to connect with qualified high lamas. We want to share some upcoming opportunities to attend teachings and initiations in FPMT centers from His Eminence Ling Rinpoche and Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche. Many of these opportunities are available online, or with hybrid opportunities, so please do check details. 

FDCW Facilitation Skills Training

On May 18 and 19, 2026, FDCW is offering the online Facilitation Skills Training – Module 2. Open to all, including those who did not attend Module 1.

This practice-focused training supports FPMT centers and projects in developing effective facilitators who can manage group dynamics and hold inclusive, well-supported sessions. It offers practical tools for common challenges and helps participants strengthen facilitation from embodiment, respond wisely to unpredictability and conflict, practice ethical decision-making, develop confidence in difficult moments, and recognize and support group momentum for both the group and themselves.

The training is offered at two different times:

May 18, 2026 at 17:00 to 19:00 BST.
May 19, 2026 at 08:00 to 10:00 BST.

You can learn more about this opportunity and register here. 

Retreat Opportunities

Please check our retreat schedule page for group retreat opportunities upcoming in your area.

Announcements, Opportunities, and Changes

Changes in the FPMT Organization

Chenrezig Institute
Grateful thanks to outgoing director Emanuelle Jones

FPMT International Office, IT Department
We welcome Ross Bennets as the new IT manager.
Alfredo Pineiro is kindly staying on the team until the handover is complete.

Tushita Meditation Centre
We welcome Shanti Yajnik as new co-director

Opportunities to Offer Service

Read about the amazing benefits and importance of offering service in the FPMT organization, and have a look at these meritorious opportunities to offer service as paid staff or as a volunteer in FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world, including opportunities in Australia, France, India, Italy, North American Region, Nepal, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, UK and the USA. Newly added: Buddha House (Australia), Land of Medicine Buddha (California), and Thubten Norbu Ling (New Mexico) are looking for new directors; the North American Region is looking for a regional coordinator, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive is looking for a web editor; Root Institute is looking for a volunteer teacher.

Education Services Director Position Available in the FPMT International Office: Last Chance to Apply

The deadline to apply for the remote Education Services Director position at the FPMT International Office has been extended to April 23, 2026. Please read more about this very special opportunity to serve the FPMT organization in a meaningful position.

Teacher Development Service Seminar in France this September

The Teacher Development Service Seminar (TDSS) supports the lifelong growth of current and aspiring FPMT teachers, facilitators, and meditation leaders. Returning in a hybrid format, TDSS now features updated pedagogy and a flexible delivery to meet the needs of our global community. Rooted in the FPMT lineage, the TDSS introduces the principles of contemporary Dharma pedagogy–practical, effective methods for teaching and guiding others with wisdom and compassion.

Kalachakra Retreat Centre, France, is organizing a TDSS on September 24-26, 2026 and places are still available. Reservations are now open.

Foundation Service Seminar in Italy, 10-14 June 2026

The Foundation Service Seminar (FSS) is the “FPMT immersion retreat,” providing essential information and nourishment for all serving, or wishing to serve, in the FPMT organization. This is a wonderful opportunity for centers, projects, and services to invest in the future by training the next generation of directors, SPCs, volunteers, board members, etc.

Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, is organizing an FSS on June 10-14, 2026. Reservations are now open.

Please watch an inspiring video about the FSS.

Become a Friend of FPMT

Contact information for the centers mentioned, and all FPMT centers, projects, and services can be found in the FPMT Directory.

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FPMT International Office is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office.