International Office News
July 2022

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, May 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering a teaching to Russian students via Zoom from Kopan Monastery in June 2022. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Continued Prayers

Due to a small medical procedure Lama Zopa Rinpoche had in Singapore last week—which Rinpoche is recovering from very nicely—Khandro Kunga Bhuma advised prayers and practices to be done for Rinpoche’s health at this time. We are delighted to share an update on totals of practices completed by individuals and centers, dedicated strongly for Rinpoche’s good health, long life, and fulfilment of all wishes. Please rejoice that:

• More than 60,328 living beings were saved from death
• 2,934,089 Tara Mantras were recited
• 265,046 Tara Praises were offered
• 1,184,097 Vajrasattva Mantras were recited
• 12,230 Recitations of Guru Rinpoche prayers (Sampa Lhundrupma and Barchey Lamsel) were completed

Plus many, many more meritorious practices were completed and dedicated to Rinpoche’s good health and long life. We rejoice strongly!

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Recent Activities

Please rejoice with a roundup of the auspicious and beneficial activities in which Rinpoche has been engaging recently, as well as a new photo album.

Teachings and Advice from Rinpoche

• Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave four teachings to students attending Kopan Monastery’s 2022 Vajrasattva retreat: an introductory teaching on March 30 and three subsequent teachings on April 26–28, 2022. You can find all the videos and a combined transcript on our page “Teachings for 2022 Vajrasattva Retreatants at Kopan Monastery.”
• “The Real Refuge is Your Wisdom Realizing Ultimate Nature,” is a recent teaching Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave over Zoom about Buddhist refuge for the graduation ceremony of the first cohort of Human Spirit, an Israel-based Buddhist-psychoanalytic training program.
• “Having Taken Refuge, What to Abandon and What to Practice” is a recent teaching Rinpoche offered via Zoom to students in China and Malaysia.
• Recent episodes of the “Lama Zopa Rinpoche Essential Extracts Podcast” include, “Any Activity Can be a Mindfulness Meditation on Emptiness,” “The Real Meaning of Practicing Dharma is to Renounce this Life,” and “Disrespecting the Virtuous Friend Brings Eons of Suffering, Devotion to the Virtuous Friend Brings Enlightenment.” New episodes are released every other Monday and previously published episodes are available on the Essential Extracts Podcast page as well.

We’re Rejoicing About:

Celebrate Chokhor Duchen and International Sangha Day on August 1

Chokhor Duchen, one of the four annual holy days of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, takes place this year on August 1. Chokhor Duchen is also the day on which the FPMT organization celebrates International Sangha Day! International Sangha Day provides an opportunity for monastic and lay communities to come together in recognition of their interdependence and celebrate the ways in which they mutually rely on each other’s practice of the Dharma. We have compiled resources for your practice and opportunities to support the Sangha on this merit multiplying day

Offering Support to the Most Vulnerable Among Us

Some of the elders we are supporting this year in Hunsur, India.

FPMT Charitable Projects exist to benefit others as extensively as possible. Last year, US$3,798,254 was offered in grants to many worthy initiatives around the world. Please join us in rejoicing in recent grants offered in support to elderly Tibetans living in homes in India and Nepal, as well as grants given to projects supporting animals.

• For the seventh consecutive year, the FPMT Social Services Fund has continued to offer essential support to 320 elderly Tibetans living in nine homes throughout India and in Nepal. US$184,000 has been offered this year. You can read more about the homes and elders we support.
• Among the many animal liberations happening around the organization, as advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, we are also so happy to be offering US$22,000 to three beneficial animal-centered projects this year. Please read more about these projects and the incredible work they are doing.

First Pilot of the Online Foundation Service Seminar

Gilda Urbina and Martha Portillo recently facilitated the first Online Foundation Service Seminar (OFSS), from their homes in Mexico. Gilda commented, “The seminar was very enriching, despite the fact that we did it online, the warmth of participants and the family feeling was felt in an important way. We had a lot of learning.” A participant added, “It was a very rewarding and different experience; I learned things I took for granted. Thanks!”

We rejoice and hope that this new format will be a very beneficial addition to our range of resources and support for those serving, or wishing to serve, in the FPMT organization.

Lhagsam Now an FPMT Center!

Lhagsam, located in Switzerland, has successfully affiliated with FPMT Inc. and made the transition from FPMT study group/probationary center into an affiliated center, with Theres Tschanz as the new center’s first director, and Lars Lolk as its first spiritual program coordinator!

Become a Friend of FPMT

Publications to Support Your Dharma Study and Practice

Foundation Store Highlights

• The All-Encompassing Yoga Mind Meditation is a meditation practice on the two types of bodhicitta. This is a practice His Holiness the Dalai Lama does daily and urges students to do likewise.
• Sur Ritual: A Method to Make Meaningful the Freedoms and Richnesses that are Difficult to Find and are Acquired Only Once is a new practice compiled by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to help centers clear obstacles and create merit by making charity to the sentient beings of the six realms.
• Request to the Supreme Compassionate One is a powerful and inspiring prayer of request to Chenrezig translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The Chenrezig mantra is very powerful and can purify any heavy negative karma.
• Staircase to Potala Pure Land Guru Yoga, A Practice of Avalokiteshvara is a short Chenrezig guru yoga practice composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Centering on the inseparability of Chenrezig and our own guru, it includes “The Seven-Limb Prayer” and the Chenrezig mantra recitation.
• The Advice of Jangchub O explains concisely what a practitioner should put effort into. Jangchub O, famed for inviting the great Lama Atisha to re-establish the Dharma in Tibet, emphasizes abandoning self-cherishing and cultivating wisdom.
• Spontaneously Accomplishing Desired Aims: An Abbreviated Way to Perform the Meditation-Recitation of Eleven-Faced Chenrezig is a short practice of Eleven-Faced Chenrezig composed by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
• A Brief Long Life Prayer for His Holiness the Dalai Lama – MP3 Download contains a brief long life prayer for His Holiness the Dalai Lama chanted by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery’s Lama Gyupas, and FPMT registered teacher, Ven. Steve Carlier.

Updated Materials:

• Colorful Namgyalma Mantra PDF
• Namgyalma Mantra PDF
• Mantra de Namgyalma PDF (Spanish)

For a complete list of FPMT Education Services prayers and practices, please visit our catalogue page. You can also find all new arrivals, updated materials, and materials in translation in our Foundation Store (shop.fpmt.org).

Opportunities and Changes within the Organization:

Opportunities to Offer Service in the FPMT Organization

Would you like to spend your days making a meaningful contribution? Have a look at the various meritorious opportunities to offer service providing the opportunity to serve as a volunteer or as paid staff in FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world. Newly Added: Land of Calm Abiding, US, is looking for a director.

Impermanence at Work

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

Gendun Drupba, Canada, has reverted from being an FPMT center into a probationary center (study group).

FPMT New Zealand National Office
We welcome new national coordinator – Bengu Fetzer
With grateful thanks to outgoing national coordinator – Ven. Thubten Khadro

Thubten Kunga Center, US
We welcome new spiritual program coordinator – Jack Nadelman
With grateful thanks to outgoing SPC – Patti Hansen

Dharmarakshita, the FPMT study group (probationary center) in Mauritius, has closed.

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FPMT International Office is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office.