International Office News
December 2023

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in front of a Christmas tree, Boudhanath, Nepal, December 19, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab

Warmest wishes to you from all of us at FPMT International Office. May 2024 usher in a new year full of peace and compassion for yourself and others. We send our heartfelt thanks to each of you supporting the FPMT mission as students, staff, benefactors, and friends.

We rejoice in the great beneficial efforts of the entire FPMT community, this year and in all years to come.

May all the holy wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Thubten Yeshe, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche be fulfilled perfectly immediately.

We dedicate all merits created, including merits of the three-time buddhas and sentient beings, to the swift return of our precious guru,
Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche.

May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all sentient beings never be separated from the happiness that knows no suffering.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of attachment and hatred for those held close and distant.

Teachings and News About Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Commemoration of Rinpoche’s Birthday, December 3

Altar at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa on December 3, 2023 to commemorate Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday.

On December 3 we observed the birth date of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT International Office sponsored Heruka Lama Chopa and recitation of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri at Kopan Monastery. Additionally, Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi and Kopan Lama Gyupas recited the Guhyasamaja Root Tantra in front of Rinpoche’s holy body. FPMT centers and individual students around the world, as well as other groups and communities including Sagarmatha Secondary School in Chailsa, Nepal also engaged in these and other auspicious practices in observation of Rinpoche’s date of birth.  

New Photo Gallery: January-April 2023

Since 2001 we have been publishing photo galleries of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teaching tours and travels around the world. We have now completed a gallery of Rinpoche’s final months among us. We believe students will be deeply touched by this moving album which shows Rinpoche’s compassionate, beneficial, and often humorous and playful activities until the time of his passing. View the gallery.

Swift Return Prayers

We are happy to share that the English translations for the swift return prayers composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other distinguished lamas with whom Rinpoche had a connection in this lifetime, including Khenzur Jhado Rinpoche, Rangjung Neljorma Khandro Tseringma, and Lelung Rinpoche, have now been updated and are available at the Foundation Store. The PDF file is available for a quick one-click download.

The Merit of Offering to the Guru

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Netherlands, July 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

In a short and intimate teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which was recorded over lunch at Maitreya Instituut, the Netherlands, in July 2015, Rinpoche explains the incredible merit that is collected by offering to the guru. Watch the video.

Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom

Lama Yeshe in Stockholm, Sweden, September 1983. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

An Explanation of the Shunyata Mantra and a Meditation on Emptiness

Universal Love is a collection of Lama Yeshe’s teachings on the yoga method of Maitreya, which he taught at Maitreya Institute, Holland, in 1981. Also included are some introductory lectures on Buddhism from Lama’s 1975 teachings in the USA.

In Appendix 1 of this collection, “An Explanation of the Shunyata Mantra and a Meditation on Emptiness” Lama Yeshe discusses the mantra OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHO SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HAM and provides a powerful meditation on emptiness. Read this teaching.

From the FPMT Inc. Board of Directors

November/December Update

We recently shared a update from the FPMT Inc. Board of Directors outlining details about the planned 2024 Geshe Conference and the 2025 CPMT meeting, participation in Regional and National meetings, and expression of their great appreciation to Claire Isitt for her years of dedication as Center Services Director. Please read the full update. 

What We’re Rejoicing About

International Mahayana Institute is 50!

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with IMI Sangha at Light of the Path Retreat, 2017. Photo by Kalleen Mortensen.

We congratulate the International Mahayana Institute (IMI) on its 50 years of existence helping FPMT Sangha! The IMI is an FPMT project, established to serve the community of FPMT students who are living in the monk’s or nun’s ordination vows. With much rejoicing, please read a recent inspiring report from IMI Director Ven. Tendar as well as details about an online celebration taking place today, December 15.

FPMT East South East Asia Regional Meeting

Participants of the FPMT ESEA regional meeting.

Selina Foong, our FPMT ESEA regional coordinator, organized a fruitful regional meeting last month with eighteen participants and four FPMT Inc. Board members – every FPMT entity in the region was represented! Selina sent us this screenshot showing the meeting in progress!

Rejoicing in FPMT’s Charitable Projects

We invite you to rejoice in recent updates on the activities in 2023 of two of FPMT’s Charitable Projects.

The nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Gumba in their new gompa with Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 2022.

The Supporting the Ordained Sangha Fund offers comprehensive support to nunneries, monasteries, and individual monks and nuns across the globe and this year has contributed a total of US$330,468 toward various projects aimed at benefiting sangha. Please read about twelve grants that were offered in support of Sangha in India, Nepal, and Mongolia.

Goats being blessed at Animal Liberation Sanctuary, Nepal.

And we are delighted to share that through the Animal Liberation Fund we were able to offer US$18,821 to support remarkable initiatives serving animals in a variety of ways, not just by saving them from untimely death and caring for them for the rest of their lives, but also by blessing them with mantras, prayers, and holy objects in order to create merit and purify negative karma. Please read about how these grants were utilized this year.

Opportunities and Resources for Your Study and Practice

Heart Sutra Retreat Offered at Kopan Monastery

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the abbot of Kopan, Pokhara, Nepal, December 2021. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Save the date: From April 15-20, 2024, Kopan Monastery is hosting a Heart Sutra Retreat. This retreat will be led by by Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, abbot of Kopan; and participants will be guided to meditate on the meaning of the Heart Sutra by Ven. Steve Carlier, a long-time student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many other important teachers in the Gelug tradition.

This retreat will follow a commemoration, on April 13, 2024, of one year since Rinpoche showed the aspect of passing away. In July 2022 Rinpoche expressed his wish to lead a Heart Sutra Retreat, so this is quite significant that this retreat is being offered within the FPMT organization, as it was one of Rinpoche’s wishes. Please read more details about this very precious retreat event.

Newly Available and Revised Materials

In April 2022, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a Milarepa initiation and teachings to a small group of senior Kopan monks, senior Khachoe Ghakyil Ling nuns, Western sangha, and some lay students. On that occasion, Rinpoche translated the Verse to Put at the Base of Paintings and Statues of Milarepa by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye. We are delighted to share the card which Rinpoche designed and wanted displayed next to any Milarepa statue, or thangka.

For FPMT affiliates, we’ve added the sign for you to download, print, and display – to the section Rinpoche’s Advice for the Center Altar and Gompa in the Affiliates Area, specifically under Further Recommendations.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised to display this quote card, “Making Offerings to the Actual Buddha and to a Buddha Image Are the Same,” with statues or images of Buddha.

A Tea Offering Prayer: The Incomparable Guide was composed by His Holiness the Second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso (1486–1576), a distinguished scholar, poet and mystic, and translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. This concise, evocative prayer, which invites the principal deities and gurus of the vast and profound lineages, and in particular, Lama Tsongkhapa-Manjusri, as the guests of the offering, is underlined by a meditative engagement with divine pride and the nature of ultimate reality.

We are happy to share an updated version of The Innermost Essence of the Arya Manjushri Tantra.

Opportunities and Changes within the Organization

Give Where Most Needed Year-end Campaign

As the year comes to an end, we’re inviting support to the FPMT Give Where Most Needed Fund – a way to support the Foundation’s work and any projects or activities in need that fulfill our mission. An offering of any amount makes a real impact as we welcome a new fiscal year ahead. With big thanks and rejoicing to all those who have kindly given to the fund in the past!

Changes in the FPMT Organization

Atisha Centre, Australia
We welcome Ven Chodak and Jan Stewart as new co-directors
With grateful thanks to outgoing director, Ven Dondrub

Detong Ling Retreat Centre, Australia
We welcome Patrick Moran as new director
With grateful thanks to outgoing director, Rebecca Geisler

FPMT International Office
We welcome Francois Lecointre as new director of Center Services
With grateful thanks to outgoing director, Claire Isitt

Nalanda Monastery, France
We welcome Ven. Sherab as new director
With grateful thanks to outgoing director, Ven Tharchin

Sera IMI House, India
We welcome Ven. Gache as new director
With grateful thanks to outgoing director, Ven Namjong

Opportunities to Offer Service

Read about the amazing benefits and importance of offering service in the FPMT organization, and have a look below at these meritorious opportunities to offer service as paid staff or as a volunteer in FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world. 

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.