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International Office News
August 2017
Schedule: Preparing for Light of the Path 2017 and New Addition
News from FPMT Education Services
News from Our Social Services Fund
Two New Feature Stories from Mandala!
Purify with Foundation Store Incense
Affiliate Area Highlight: FPMT Policy en Español!
Recitations Accumulating for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Health!
New Book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche!
Have this translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page. French and Spanish speakers will find the FPMT International Office News translated each month in the “Bienvenue” and “Bienvenidos” tabs on the FPMT homepage!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche News:
Schedule: Light of the Path 2017 and New Addition
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is in North Carolina, USA, to lead the Light of the Path Retreat — August 20 to September 17. Participants attending this year’s retreat can prepare by accessing the modules of Living in the Path. Alternatively, participants can watch the videos of the entire Light of the Path 2016 retreat, listen to the MP3 recordings, or read the unedited transcript. Those unable to attend can watch the teachings livestreamed or recordings later.
A new addition to Rinpoche’s schedule: Lama Zopa Rinpoche will continue the transmission of the Sutra of Golden Light at Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre, New Delhi, India: November 25–26, 2017.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s schedule for 2017 and 2018.
Enjoy livestreams of many of the teachings above and recordings of Rinpoche’s most recent teachings via Rinpoche Available Now!
Advice
Highlights from our blogs:
Rinpoche gave this advice to one student and said it is applicable to anyone: “If you are my student, then you must do the morning motivation, The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment). Do not just read the words, but relate them to your life. You must recite these words and if after reciting the words your mind doesn’t change, then you are not doing it [correctly].” Read in full …
‘The Friend Who Is Angry Can Be the Most Kind Person in Your Life’
A student wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche asking how to deal with a situation in which an individual behaved in ways that were angry and unkind. Rinpoche typed out the following reply himself. Read in full …
Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Shopping
Can shopping go along with Dharma? Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave some advice on how to make shopping a virtuous activity. Read in full …
Find a wide range of advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Rinpoche’s Advice page. Subscribe to our FPMT news blog to get updates as soon as they are announced.
International Office News:
News from FPMT Education Services
Two new modules of Living in the Path:
- In “Are You Sitting on Your I?” Lama Zopa Rinpoche speaks about how the real I that appears to us is a total hallucination, how believing in a real I is the root of samsara, and how it is necessary to become free from this hallucination in order to achieve freedom from samsara and reach enlightenment.
- In “Transforming Kaka into Gold,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains a particular type of lojong, or thought transformation, practice that makes use of problems in the path to enlightenment, thereby enabling us to transform kaka (suffering, including cancer and impending death) into gold (developing bodhichitta and attaining full enlightenment).
All of the modules of the online program Living in the Path are available on the FPMT Online Learning Center. Please keep an eye out for new modules being added regularly to this important program.
News from Our Social Services Fund
We invite you to rejoice in the very beneficial grants recently offered from the Social Services Fund to support social projects in Mongolia, India, and Nepal. These benefit by providing:
- Essential education, medical care, aid to mothers and children, animal care, and various forms of charitable service to the destitute in Bodhgaya, India.
- Care for HIV-affected orphaned children; allopathic and homeopathic medicine, health promotion and education, and patient care for those with no resources; and free education for impoverished children in Bodhgaya, India.
- Free meals and a regular free health clinic to the poor and homeless living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
- Shelter and care for animals who have been rescued from being killed in Nepal, so that they may live out their natural lives in peace and attain a higher rebirth through exposure to the Dharma.
Two New Feature Stories from Mandala!
- After twenty years of study at Sera Je Monastic University, Ven. Tenzin Namdak, a Dutch FPMT registered teacher, was formally awarded his geshe degree. Geshe Namdak is the first Westerner to complete the full course of studies at Sera Je and also to sit for the final geshe examination there, a tremendous achievement. You can read an interview with Geshe Namdak in “’Something to Rejoice In’: Geshe Tenzin Namdak in His Own Words.”
- In “Buddhist Conduct: A New Resource from Old Tibet” find out about a Buddhist text that addresses the question of what constitutes good moral conduct. The article explores the nineteenth-century monk Jamgön Mipham’s treatise The Just King, translated by José Cabezón and recently published by Wisdom Publications.
Welcome to Andrew Shaw
Please join us in welcoming Andrew Shaw to the International Office team. Andrew has joined us as a Mandala assistant editor. We also say thank you and goodbye to Donna Lynn Brown for her work as associate editor.
Purify with Foundation Store Incense
The Nolsang Incense Ritual PDF is used to purify contaminations that arise from ignorance, broken commitments, disturbing thoughts and emotions, as well as a variety of other negativities, which cause obstacles, illness, and misfortunes to oneself, others, and the environment. Find fragrant incense for this and other rituals in the FPMT Foundation Store. All Tibetan incense is handcrafted and completely natural, with no artificial colors or fragrance added. FPMT centers, projects, and services get a special discount!
For Center, Project and Service Directors, SPCs, Board Members, Registered Teachers and Coordinators:
(This advice is specifically for those offering service in these roles.)
Affiliate Area Highlight: FPMT Policy en Español!
All FPMT policy is captured in one section for your convenience. Y ahora el reglemento, también en español!
FPMT World:
Rejoice!
Recitations Accumulating for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Health!
Many thanks to the many doing the practices recommended for Rinpoche’s good health and long life (reciting the Vajracutter Sutra and Dependent Arising: A Praise to the Buddha). Please keep reciting, and we will ask for your total count of recitations before Tibetan New Year (Losar) 2018.
New Book from Lama Zopa Rinpoche!
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive is proud to announce the publication of Abiding in the Retreat: A Nyung Nä Commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who introduces the practice thus:
“I want to inspire you, and I want to request you to do nyung nä. It’s such an incredible practice—so yum yum. To keep it very short, that’s the conclusion: yum yum! Nyung nä is a practice that is very easy to do and yet has unbelievable power. Everybody should definitely attempt to do nyung nä practice, this powerful method of purification. Doing that is a most powerful way to develop realizations, especially compassion for sentient beings.”
Congratulations to Lama Yeshe House, USA, which has successfully made the transition from study group to center!
New Opportunities to Offer Service in FPMT
Would you like to spend your days in a really meaningful way? Have a look at the regularly updated meritorious opportunities to offer service as a volunteer or as paid staff in FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world. Newly added: Buddha House, Australia, needs a new director; Land of Medicine Buddha, USA, is looking for a full-time spiritual program coordinator.
Impermanence at Work
Maitreya Instituut Amsterdam, The Netherlands
We welcome new resident teacher – Ven. Losang Gendun
With grateful thanks to retired resident teacher – Ven. Kaye Miner
Sera IMI House, India
We welcome new director – Ven. Tenzin Legtsok
With grateful thanks to outgoing director – Geshe Tenzin Namdak
Thubten Norbu Ling, USA
We welcome new spiritual program coordinator – Bonnie Povolny
Closed FPMT study group: Jamyang Mindrol-Ling, UK – we rejoice in their efforts to serve sentient beings.
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