International Office News
July 2023

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, March 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Recently Shared Teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

Teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche from 2006, Australia

FPMT International Office has begun to process archived teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche that were not previously available on our Rinpoche Available Now page or on our YouTube channel.

We started this project with teachings from June 2—3, 2006 at Tara Institute, Australia. Those teachings, previously available on DVD only, were entitled, “The Need For Wisdom And Compassion” and “Why We Need a Spiritual Path.” These teachings were part of a longer tour through Australia including a month-long retreat in Adelaide.

In September we shared four of the seven videos from this teaching, and now we are pleased to share the remaining three.

We also remind you to please visit the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive for many more videos of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche dating back to the 1970s!

Whatever You Are Doing, It Should Become Meditation on Emptiness

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered a teaching on October 30, 2020 from Kopan Monastery as the 80th teaching from his Thought Transformation teaching series entitled, “Whatever You Are Doing, It Should Become Meditation on Emptiness.” We invite you to revisit this teaching and access a summary of Rinpoche’s main points along with a full transcript and video.

New Free Audio Book from LYWA

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive announced a new free audiobook, How to Practice Dharma: Teachings on the Eight Worldly Dharmas by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. This book deals with the eight worldly dharmas, essentially how desire and attachment cause us to create problems and suffering and how to abandon these negative minds in order to find perfect peace and happiness. This book joins a long list of audiobooks now freely available from LYWA, plus a few more from Audible.com.

Life on the Road with Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

Thubten Thapkye and Jangsem – Two Fortunate Snakes!

Over the years, while traveling continuously with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Roger Kunsang, CEO of FPMT and Rinpoche’s long-time attendant, would share stories of what it was like to be on the road with Rinpoche, and to witness and participate in Rinpoche’s enlightened activity. Here we share two stories, from 2011 and 2016, of Rinpoche taking care of two snake friends and share resources for one’s own animal liberation practice.

From the FPMT Board of Directors

An Update from the FPMT Inc. Board

FPMT Inc. Board of Directors, Kopan Monastery, June 2023. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The FPMT Inc. Board of Directors recently shared an update and video introducing themselves. Please read their full message and get to know each of them through this 12 minute video.

What We’re Rejoicing About

Geshe Tenzin Legtsok Receives Geshe Degree

Geshe Tenzin Legtsok receiving his geshe diploma from Abbot Geshe Tashi Tsethar, at Sera Je Monastery, July 12, 2023.

Sera Je Monastic University has conferred upon Geshe Tenzin Legtsok the geshe degree on successful completion of his studies of classic Indian Buddhist treatise and their Tibetan commentaries in the tradition of ancient Nalanda University.  Geshe Legtsok is the first US citizen and first Western monk from Kopan Monastery to receive the geshe degree from Sera Je Monastery; joining several other Westerners and non-Tibetan/Himalayan monks to receive geshe degrees before him. This demonstrates an increased interaction between distinct cultures that didn’t have much interface before. Please read more from a recent interview we conducted with Geshe Legtsok. 

Offering to Ten Thousand Sangha and Pujas Sponsored on Chokhor Duchen

This year on July 21, 2023 the special day of Chokhor Duchen (which commemorates Buddha’s first turning of the wheel of Dharma) was observed. Based on the wishes and advice of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, on that day we made a monetary offering to over ten thousand ordained sangha, while they were engaged in offering pujas and prayers for the entire FPMT organization.

The pujas arranged on Chokhor Duchen were:

• Recitation of the Kangyur (108 volumes of the sutras taught by Shakyamuni Buddha) by Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.
• Recitation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra by Gyudmed Tantric College.
• One Thousand Offerings to Namgyalma and Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa by Sera Lachi Monastery and Gyuto Tantric College
• Medicine Buddha puja and Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa by Gaden Lachi Monastery
• Namgyalma long life ritual and Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa by Drepung Lachi Monastery
• Offerings were made to the ten thousand sangha who are undertaking these pujas, to all the IMI sangha communities, and to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.
• The stupas of Boudhanath and Swambyunath in Nepal were freshly painted, and the umbrellas at the pinnacle of each stupa were replaced with the best quality cloth.
• A new set of robes were offered to the Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya.
• Sangha printed various sutras, making stupas and Buddha tsa-tsas, and liberated animals.

All these practices are dedicated to the swift return of our most precious Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, for the success of the whole FPMT organization, and to all the kind donors.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this advice during a FPMT Board meeting in September 1990:

“There is nothing compared to making offerings to the sangha in these monasteries, because all these sangha are disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other gurus. Offering tea to one disciple is better than making offering to all the Buddhas.

“Since these pujas are to be performed for as long as the monasteries exist, somebody can, if they want to participate, put in one dollar in the fund. The fund is then used to benefit all the monasteries and nunneries engaged in the pujas, including Kopan Monastery and Nunnery. I thought that setting up these things might help to create good karma for success.”

All are welcome to make an offering to the FPMT Puja Fund, which sponsors these incredible activities performed by up to ten thousand ordained sangha on the most powerful days when merit is magnified.

First Course in Hindi Taught at Tushita Meditation Centre

Participants of the first course offered in Hindi at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India. Photo courtesy of Tushita Meditation Centre.

For the first time, Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, offered a course in Hindi, “Introduction to Buddhism,” led by Kabir Saxena. This course was held from June 7—15 with 120 students from twelve different Indian states plus one Swiss Hindi-speaker in attendance. Tushita reports the course was a huge success and participants were treated to a wonderful opportunity to have an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on June 13. After the most precious meeting, they visited the Tibetan Museum and the Tibetan Library. The course ended with traditional light offerings and a picnic lunch.

Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program Begins its Ninth Two-Year Course

Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Program (LRZTP), an FPMT project in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India, had not been able to start a two-year Tibetan language and interpreters training course since the COVID pandemic . We are pleased to report that the new course, LRZTP 9, successfully began on April 24, 2023, with twelve new students. LRZTP has produced many gifted Dharma interpreters-translators for FPMT Dharma centers since its conception over twenty-two years ago. In addition to the two-year intensive training program, LRZTP also runs short Tibetan language courses and offers private online Tibetan language lessons. Please read a report from LRZTP about the first two months of the course, and how new students can still join if they have an interest.

ABC, Singapore, Completes Twenty-one Tara Project

A replica of one of the Twenty-one Tara statues from Rinpoche’s room in Kopan, June 28, 2023, Photo by Ven. Tenzin Tsultrim.

Recently, Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC) in Singapore completed an ambitious holy object project advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The project added statues of all the Twenty-one Taras, each standing twenty-four inches high, to the altar in ABC’s beautiful gompa. This was completed in August 2021 and Rinpoche offered a teaching via Zoom during the consecration ceremony in October of that year. This project was recently further enhanced with the completion of an exquisite golden aura adorning each of the statues. ABC director Tan Hup Cheng shared the story.

You can keep up on all of our latest blogs, featured stories, community news, and teachings by checking in regularly to the What’s New page on FPMT.org.

Events, Opportunities, and Resources for Your Study and Practice:

Last Chance to Register: Two FPMT Basic Programs Starting this September

The FPMT Basic Programs at Nalanda Monastery, France (in English, French, and Spanish), and at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy (in English and Italian), combine teachings by the resident geshes with meditation, retreat, and discussion. With the final review and three-month lamrim retreat included as part of the program, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s design and advice is followed in detail. This is a rare and wonderful opportunity to seriously deepen one’s study and practice! Both programs begin September 2023.

New Materials from FPMT Education Services

Sutra of Great Liberation, new English translation: Lama Zopa Rinpoche is reported to have spoken of the Sutra of Great Liberation as early as 2006, though it was especially in the later years of his teachings that Rinpoche gave prominence to the inconceivable benefits of engaging with this sutra. In 2020, Rinpoche asked Ven. Lekden at Sera Je Monastery to translate this important sutra so that many people can read it in English, explaining, “It is great to translate this, unbelievable. So many people can read it. Because most people can’t read Tibetan, they have to read English. Then they liberate so many sentient beings from lower realms, lower nirvana, and samsara, and they achieve enlightenment. It has unbelievable benefits if we translate it.”

The Sutra of Great Liberation is formally entitled, The Arya Mahayana Sutra Called “Arya All-Expansive Great Liberation, Purifying Negative Deeds through Cleansing Remorse, Perfectly Arranged Accomplishment of Buddhahood.” The Tibetan text, found in the Kangyur, is a translation of the Chinese rendition, the Sanskrit source text having been lost over the course of time. We are so pleased to now make this English translation available.

Song Possessing the Four Mindfulnesses, by the Seventh Dalai Lama: Pithy and profound, this poem by the Seventh Dalai Lama called, Song Possessing the Four Mindfulnesses: Instructions on the View of the Middle Way Causing a Rain of Siddhis to Fall, captures four key points from Manjushri’s teachings to Lama Tsongkhapa for the student of “the middle way” to hold in mind and practice. Popularly known as “The Song of the Four Mindfulnesses,” here it is translated by Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche himself.

Realizing the Profound View: A New eBook by Wisdom Publications

Realizing the Profound View is the second of three volumes devoted to emptiness and the wisdom that realizes the ultimate nature of reality. With attention to Nagarjuna’s five-point analysis, Candrakirti’s seven-point examination, and Pali sutras, His Holiness the Dalai Lama leads us to investigate who or what is the “person.”

2023 Liberation Tibetan Calendar on Sale at a Discount

The Liberation Tibetan Calendar for 2023, the year of the Water Rabbit 2150, is now available as a PDF from the Foundation Store at a discount.

It includes lunar dates, dates for merit multiplying days, and information about more than thirty kinds of practice days as well as the auspicious and inauspicious days for each month. Every year since 1999, Liberation Prison Project has produced and sold thousands of Liberation Tibetan lunar calendars to support their work, helping people in prison with their Buddhist practice.

Find the 2023 Liberation Tibetan Calendar PDF at the Foundation Store at a discounted price.

Opportunities and Changes within the Organization:

New 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. Newly added: Atisha Center, Australia, is looking for a center director.

Those Newly Offering Service in the FPMT Organization

Cittamani Hospice Service, Australia
We welcome new director – Melanie Bruhn
With grateful thanks to retiring director – Alex Moore

Lama Yeshe Ling, Canada
We welcome new co-directors – Dave Gould and Abhilash Menon
We also welcome new spiritual program coordinator – Manoshi Ghosh

Land of Medicine Buddha, USA
We welcome new director – Jerek Lovey

Maitreya Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
We welcome new spiritual program coordinator – Lisette Reek
With grateful thanks to retired SPC – Leonie de Vree

Thubten Norbu Ling, USA
We welcome new director – Nina Highfill

Gonpo Ludup Study Group, CA, USA, has closed.

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.