International Office News
July 2024

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nepal, 2011. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Teachings and News About Lama Zopa Rinpoche

24 Hour Prayer Marathon for Rinpoche’s Swift Return

IMI Sangha with H.E. Ling Rinpoche at Nalandala Monastery, July 9, 2024.

On July 9 the IMI celebrated Chokor Duchen and International Sangha Day with a prayer marathon in which Chanting the Names of Manjushri was recited, or protector prayers offered, as recommended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. 

As director of IMI, Ven. Tendar explains, “This is important as it is a bit more than one year since Rinpoche passed away. Often a reincarnation will be identified (not enthroned) within 2-4 years. So this is a critical time to do the prayers. It is not that we have to do them forever, but now is the time we need to make prayers because once the incarnation comes, it is too late.” 

They also dedicated all the merit for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all of our teachers. IMI monks and nuns took turns all day leading the Zoom sessions and a few kind lay volunteers helped out greatly by supporting the registration.

At the request of Ven. Roger Kunsang, the prayers recommended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Rinpoche’s swift return continue to be recited on a daily basis in Lawudo Cave and live-streamed for all to join in.  

Also, ordained and lay students will continue to do prayers this year. If you do recitations as a group or individually, and you want to feel part of a worldwide community, you can sign up on the IMI website.

Foundation for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Stupa of Complete Victory has Begun

We are very happy to share an update on the building of the stupa of Complete Victory being built at Kopan Monastery, for the swift return of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche and actualization of all his wishes. The foundations for the actual stupa are taking shape on top of the two-story building (gompa and retreat rooms). The building is going so fast with many of the Kopan monks regularly helping with the physical hard work and later the Kopan nuns will help with mantra rolling.

Teachings from Langri Tangpa Center 2006

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave four sessions of profound teaching on the “Eight Verses of Mind Training,” a classic Tibetan Buddhist text that offers deep insights into Buddhist philosophy and practice. Rinpoche covers a wide range of topics. We are so happy to make these four videos available on our Rinpoche Available Now page along with MP3 audio and a combined transcript.

How Red and Green Traffic Lights Exist

Last month we shared ten videos of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on emptiness which were shown during the 2024 Heart Sutra Retreat at Kopan Monastery. We hope that students have taken time to explore these teachings, which contain so much wisdom on a variety of topics related to dependent arising. 

One of these videos, “How Red and Green Traffic Lights Exist” is excerpted from a teaching given at Panchen Losang Chogyen Gelug-Zentrum in Vienna, Austria in September 2017.

In this 18 minute extract, Rinpoche uses the example of traffic lights to show how our perception is formed through labeling. He extends this to all phenomena, explaining that everything is merely labeled by the mind but appears inherently existent. Believing in inherent existence is a hallucination, while understanding mere labeling is the essence of the teaching.

News about His Holiness the Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama enjoying the morning sun on the veranda of his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India on January 24, 2024. Photo by Ven. Tenzin Jamphel.

The World Celebrates His Holiness’s 89th Birthday

On July 6, 2024 students around the world celebrated the 89th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and also rejoiced to hear the news that his recent knee replacement surgery in New York was a success, and that His Holiness is expected to make a full recovery.

Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom

Lama Yeshe At Chenrezig Institute, Australia, 1975. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Buddhism: Something for Everybody

The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind is one of the most beloved free books from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. The six teachings contained in this volume come from Lama Yeshe’s 1975 visit to Australia. They are all filled with love, insight, wisdom and compassion, and accessible question-and-answer sessions.

Chapter 1 of Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind, “Buddhism: Something For Everybody” is excerpted from a talk given by Lama Yeshe at Prince Phillip Theatre, Melbourne University, April 4, 1975. Edited by Nicholas Ribush.

Obituaries

Geshe Thubten Rinchen

We were sorry to hear the news that the great Kadam scholar, Geshe Thubten Rinchen of Sera Mey Monastery, passed away on July 17, 2024. Many within the FPMT community may know him as he gave extensive teachings and transmissions in Kopan Monastery in 2022, and some may have received teachings or initiations from him at Sera as well.

Geshe Rinchen was born in 1937 and became a monk at age thirteen at Sera Mey Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. He fled in the aftermath of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the Chinese army. Like many other Tibetan monks, he ended up at Buxa Chogar, the camp established for 1,500 exiled Tibetan monastics in Buxa Duar, West Bengal, India. This is where he met Lama Zopa Rinpoche and first started teaching. Geshe Rinchen was both a learned scholar and a true practitioner, who consistently demonstrated great humility.

Ven. Ngawang Yonten, “Ashang”

Ven. Ngawang Yonten, “Ashang,” 2023. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s uncle, Ven. Ngawang Yönten (affectionately known as Ashang, which means, “maternal uncle”) passed away peacefully at Lawudo, Nepal, on the morning of July 7, 2024. He was 98 years old and most likely one of the last of the local Sherpas to have known both Lawudo Lamas. Please read this beautiful account of Ashang’s life. 

Jeffrey Hopkins

Beloved Buddhist scholar Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins passed away on July 1, 2024 in Vancouver, Canada, aged 83. He published dozens of books, acted as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s translator, and had a long academic career during which he trained many prominent Tibetan Buddhist scholars and translators. He was remarkably open in public about a wide range of matters, such as his initial lack of faith in His Holiness, past-life memories, a near-death experience, his youthful delinquency, his sexuality, and so on. Dr. Hopkins was known for his frank and honest style of discussing all matters, even those considered controversial or taboo. He was also an FPMT Registered Teacher in the category “Senior Teachers of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition.” Please read a 2014 interview with Dr. Hopkins from Mandala magazine.

From the FPMT Inc. Board of Directors

June 2024 Update from our Board of Directors

The FPMT Inc. Board of directors recently shared an update on their activities and developments in the organization over the past couple of months. Please read their full report.

What We’re Rejoicing About

Recitation of the Entire Kangyur and Prajnaparamita during Chokhor Duchen

The FPMT Puja Fund arranged the recitation of the 100 volumes of Kangyur teachings and 100,000 verses of the Prajnaparamita Sutras in honor of Buddha’s first teaching (Chokhor Duchen, July 9, 2024) as well as a vast array of other practices. Please join us in rejoicing that this is the twenty-ninth consecutive year that we have arranged these pujas, on each of the four Buddha days following the advice of our most kind Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who explained how important these continual prayers are for the success of the FPMT organization.

Charok Lama Praises Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Sister, Anila Ngawang Samten

Anila Ngawang Samten with two year sold Charok Lama, December 1995, in Lawudo. Photo by Frances Howland.

Last month we shared a moving report about the recent pilgrimage to Lawudo, marking the first anniversary of the passing of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, where 38 students from around the world visited and made heartfelt prayers at the holy places of the Lawudo Lamas—Rinpoche and his previous life as Lawudo Lama Kunsang Yeshe. During the pilgrimage, which occurred from April 24-May 8, 2024, Charok Lama and the pilgrims offered Lama Chopa puja in the Lawudo gompa with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s sister, Anila Ngawang Samten on May 3. This day also commemorated Anila’s eighty-third birthday and Charok Lama took the opportunity to offer some words about her and sharing his own personal history with her.

We are happy to share a video of this talk given by Charok Lama and also a lightly edited transcript.

Resources for Study and Practice

Newly Available and Revised Materials

We are pleased to share the translation of An Abbreviated Consecration Ritual for consecrating statues, paintings and other representations of the body, speech, and mind of the Three Jewels, which most students will be able to use.

The Kopan Prayer Book in Tibetan is now available at the Foundation Store. This Tibetan-language publication contains many prayers and practices commonly recited at Kopan Monastery and FPMT centers. It will be of special interest to students of the language, and particularly useful for centers with Tibetan geshes and sangha in residence and ethnic Tibetan-language users in their community. 

The following texts are available in ebook formats suitable for tablets and phones: Dharani Which Accomplishes All Aims, Praise to Manjushri, and The Very Nature of Refuge and Compassion.

Liberation Calendar on Sale

The Liberation Tibetan Calendar for 2024, the year of the Wood Dragon 2151, 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 2024 Liberation Tibetan Calendar PDF at the Foundation Store at a discounted price.

Retreat Schedule

Please find here some of the retreats scheduled by FPMT centers in the coming months. 

Opportunities and Changes within the Organization

Foundation Service Seminar in California, Australia and New Zealand

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.

Vajrapani Institute, California, is organizing an FSS on September 9-14, 2024. Read more information and reserve your place.

Tara Institute, Australia, is hosting an FSS from October 28 to November 2.

Chandrakirti Centre is hosting an FSS from November 6-10.

Reservations are not open yet for either of these but do save the dates!

The FSS which was previously announced in Maitreya Institute, Holland, from August 16-21, 2024 has been cancelled.

Changes in the FPMT Organization

Atisha Centre, Australia
We welcome new SPC Ruby Karmay
Grateful thanks to outgoing co-director Ven. Chodak

Mahamudra Centre, New Zealand
Grateful thanks to outgoing director Katrina Robertson

Root Institute, India
We welcome new director Ugyen Shola 

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 in France, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK. Newly added: Sera Je Monastery IMI House, in India, is looking for a volunteer cook; Vajrapani Institute, in California, US, is looking for a caretaker and a lead cook. 

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.