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FPMT International Office News
June 2013
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Lama Zopa Rinpoche offers a silver Dharmachakra via video to His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Kopan, Nepal in May 2013. Rinpoche later offered it in person to His Holiness in Dharamsala, India on June 10, 2013.
Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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- Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s News:
- Practices for Rinpoche’s Health and Long Life
- New Advice: Qualities of a Leader
- Rinpoche’s Schedule
- International Office News:
- Check Out Our Redesigned Website!
- 2012 Merit Box Grants Awarded!
- News from Education Services
- Extensive Pujas Offered to Benefit the Entire FPMT Organization
- News from Mandala Publications
- For Center, Project and Service Directors, SPCs, Teachers and Board Members:
- FPMT World:
- Rejoice!
- Opportunities to Offer Service in FPMT
- Impermanence at Work
Students at Longku Centre in Bern, Switzerland liberated worms for Rinpoche’s health and long life, May 2013.
Photo courtesy of Longku Centre.
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Lama Zopa
Rinpoche’s News:
Practices for Rinpoche’s Health and Long Life
Thanks to all who have done and are continuing to do the practices recommended for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and long life. Please continue to do these practices, and send Claire your totals at the end of each month.
The Tendil Nyersel prayer flags will be ready soon.
New Advice:
Qualities of a Leader
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing dogs on Saka Dawa at Tushita Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, May 2013.
Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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“I heard of the difficulties you are facing in the center. It is very important for a leader to have humility, kindness, be humble in manner, always express appreciation: we are serving others, so always be generous in attitude towards others, this is so important. As a leader and director, this way we create a lot of merit as well. And we shouldn’t see/do this as ‘black politics’ – for something in return for self. This is naturally what we should do to be in harmony.
With much love and prayer,
Lama Zopa”
Find a full range of advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on Rinpoche’s Advice page. Go to the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive for lots more advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Rinpoche’s Schedule
Please contact the hosts directly for any questions regarding the event.
Subscribe to our RSS feed on Rinpoche’s Schedule to receive updates automatically as soon as they are available!
2013
August1 – 30 100 Million Mani Retreat, FPMT Mongolia
November/December Teaching during the one-month course (Nov. 9 – Dec. 9), Kopan Monastery, Nepal
December 17 – 22 Continuation of the Most Secret Hayagriva transmission and long life puja, Drati Khangtsen, Sera Je Monastery, Bylakuppe, India
2014
May 11 – 25 Light of the Path retreat, Kadampa Center, USA
Sept 13 – 19 CPMT meeting, Bendigo, Australia
Sept 25 – Oct 23Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat, The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia
International Office News:
Check Out Our Redesigned Website!
We have redesigned fpmt.org with the aim of making it easier for you to discover FPMT news and connect with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, FPMT International Office (and its extensive collection of resources for students, centers, projects and services), and the broader FPMT organization. We hope you like it and find it more user-friendly.
Thakpa Kachoe’s retreat chalet in the French Alps, under final construction, was awarded a 2012 Merit Box grant.
Photo courtesy of
Thakpa Kachoe Retreat Land. |
2012 Merit Box
Grants Awarded!
Congratulations to the recipients of US$53,000 in Merit Box grants from the 2012 International Merit Box Project campaign. Thanks and rejoicing is due for all the practitioners who gave to the Merit Box last year and to our kind Merit Box coordinators who managed the project in their communities. Your generosity is going to support the construction of a new retreat chalet in France; a new stupa in
Canada; repairs to a study group’s gompa with flood damage in Argentina; a soup kitchen and health clinic in Mongolia; propane for long-term retreaters in California, and more. We invite you to enjoy this full list of all Merit Box grants this year and rejoice!
Turn your spare coins into stupas, retreat cabins and translations of sacred texts! Join the International Merit Box practice by ordering a FREE Merit Box through the Foundation Store or become a Merit Box coordinator for your center, project, service or study group. As you can see by the grants above, our loose change brings a lot of merit!
News from Education Services
New Materials:
- Medicine Buddha – The Wish-Granting Sovereign
Composed in 1673 by the Fifth Dalai Lama, this text is an extensive rite for the practice of the Seven Medicine Buddhas, Buddha Shakyamuni, and an assembly of bodhisattvas and guardian deities. Previously available only in hardcopy, this practice is now available in eBook format.
- Gyalwa Gyatso Requesting and Dedication Prayers
This collection of prayers by Gung-thang Konchog Tanpai Dronme and Changkya Rolpai Dorje is meant to be read in conjunction with the sadhanas of Gyalwa Gyatso. For those with the initiation of Gyalwa Gyatso who wish to strengthen their practice, this collection is essential. In eBook, booklet letter and A4 formats.
Materials in Spanish:
In addition to all the material available in the members area of the FPMT-Hispana website, nine essential books are currently available through Ediciones Mahayana, with plans for many more to be published soon. FPMT Spanish Translation Services is currently finishing the modules of Living in the Path and all the auxiliary materials of the Basic Program.
Extensive Pujas Offered to Benefit the Entire FPMT Organization
Sera Je Monastery monks performing pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund.
Photo courtesy of fpmt.org.
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The range of pujas and practices that are sponsored in India, Nepal and elsewhere around the world through the Puja Fund is astounding. Offered on auspicious days when virtuous karma is increased by as much as 100 million times, Sangha read extensive dedications prepared by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and offer the merit to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and to the removal of obstacles to FPMT’s Dharma activities. Merit is also dedicated to FPMT students, benefactors of centers, projects and services and their families, to all who have passed away, and especially to the benefactors of the Puja Fund.
Recently, Lama Zopa Rinpoche reviewed all the ongoing pujas – and quintupled the pujas offered! The annual cost of pujas offered is now approximately US$80,000! This is something amazing to rejoice in and for you to mentally offer and dedicate. Also you can participate in this by donating any amount. How wonderful! By contributing to the Puja Fund you become part of the incredible continuous practice of pujas offered by thousands of monks and nuns around the world for the benefit of all.
This year in May, on Saka Dawa, the Puja Fund sponsored the following offerings on advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Ven. Roger Kunsang, FPMT’s CEO, recently commented, “It is really quite an inspiring list [of pujas offered] and thousands of monks are involved. They are all disciples of the one Guru, so the merit is vast. You can’t get enough zeros on the biggest calculator [to show how much merit]!”
News from Mandala Publications
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Mandala July-September 2013 is on its way to Friends of FPMT. The magazine features full coverage of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent tour of centers in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Also in this issue, Maitripa College and FPMT International Office host His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness the Sakya Trizin during their respective visits to Portland, Oregon, USA. Plus a rich collection of teachings, news and personal stories to inspire practice and support a vibrant FPMT international community.
By signing up now to become a Friend of FPMT at the Basic level or higher, we will send you this issue of Mandala as well as an email with a link to the electronic version, which you can read right away. For more, visit us online at fpmt.org/mandala – and we hope you like our website’s new look.
For Center, Project and Service Directors,
SPCs, Teachers and Board Members:
(This advice is specifically for those offering service in the roles listed above.)
Rinpoche Addresses Regional Meeting via Video
Lama Zopa Rinpoche had planned but was then unable to attend the recent North American Regional Meeting in May, so Rinpoche sent a video message instead! It is highly recommended for all offering service in centers, projects and services to enjoy Rinpoche’s thanks and wishes for us to achieve realizations.
An excerpt from the edited transcript follows:
“My most dear directors, SPCs, teachers, friends, supporters, benefactors, so everybody, most precious and most kind and most dear and wish-fulfilling; to everyone, thank you very, very, very much. Thank you so much, billions and zillions and trillions for your long-time dedication, sacrificing your life, body, speech and mind, to the organization – preserving Mahayana teachings and spreading – not so much converting as enlightening – bringing in the sun in the minds of the sentient beings of the six realms. The sun of the teachings of the Buddha in the minds of sentient beings of the six realms, particularly human beings, devas, animals in this world, dispelling the darkness of ignorance from where all samsaric suffering comes, global problems come, country problems come, society problems come, all the family problems come, individual problems come. [All these problems come] from ignorance, from beginningless rebirth, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable suffering, beginningless, beginningless samsara.
We have been helping sentient beings, from whom all of our happiness from beginningless rebirth, present, future, even future lives, comes. In the world, generally people think only of the happiness of this life, just only this life, can be a few years, some months, some weeks, days. So just this is very temporary, completely nothing, just suffering. Can never get satisfaction. Nothing. It’s very, very sad; it’s very, very, very, very, ignorant.
What happiness we receive, in particular happiness in future lives, and then ultimate happiness, liberation from oceans of samsaric suffering, then ultimate happiness, full enlightenment, omniscient mind, peerless happiness [is from] sentient beings. So, [we have been helping] awakening, freeing, enlightening sentient beings. Unbelievable, unbelievable, can you imagine? What we do is wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, wow, wow.”
Dates for CPMT 2014!
CPMT 2014 will run from September 13-19, 2014 in a unique venue – The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia! It will be hosted by the Great Stupa, Atisha Centre and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery. Please mark your diaries and plan to attend!
Further information will follow regarding the agenda and how to book.
July 12: FPMT International Sangha Day
Every year we celebrate our ordained Dharma brothers and sisters on the day marking the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, which this year falls on July 12, 2013. Please plan your International Sangha Day event now! Also this is the day for your center, project or service to make its annual donation to the Lama Yeshe Sangha Fund.
Foundation Store Promotion to Support Practices for Rinpoche
To support those doing prayers to remove obstacles for Rinpoche’s health and long life, the Foundation Store happily offers the following promotions to FPMT centers, projects, services and study groups:
- Purchase the Liberating Animals (book) and get Recitations for Animals (CD) for free.
- Purchase the Long Life Lama Chöpa with Request to the Dakinis (book) and get Lama Chöpa Tunes and Audio Guide (MP3 download) for free.
Promotion valid while supplies last.
FPMT World:
Rejoice!
From Claire Barde, director of Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Programme:
“LRZTP 6 is now more than halfway through the first year. Our 14 students are studying very hard and have made amazing progress since they enrolled. They can all talk, read, write and even discuss Dharma! They all seem very committed and enthusiastic, and they are a very good team.
Here is a photo so centers can already get acquainted with their future interpreters!”
Opportunities to Offer Service in FPMT
Please check out the regularly updated exciting opportunities to offer service as a volunteer or as paid staff in FPMT centers, projects and services around the world!
The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace (a project of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion) is looking for a tour manager; Vajrapani Institute, USA is looking for a full-time land manager; and Root Institute, India needs various volunteers.
Impermanence at Work
Two closed study groups – with thanks for their great efforts and the benefit they brought:
- Gonpo Chakduk Ling, Greece
“As far as I am concerned, the FPMT family is the best and more profound I could have in all my lives, and our Most Precious Lama Zopa the best, the kindest, the most compassionate lama I could ever find in the whole Universe.” – Angeliki, ex-study group coordinator.
- Tse Pag Me, USA
Gendun Drupa Centre, Switzerland
We welcome new SPC – Séverine Gondouin
With grateful thanks to outgoing SPC – Sophie Lacroix
Heruka Center, Taiwan
We welcome new SPC – Su-Nu Chang
Land of Calm Abiding, USA
New mailing address: PO Box 1778, Cambria, CA 93428, USA
Losang Dragpa Centre, Malaysia
We welcome new SPC – Candy Tan
With grateful thanks to outgoing SPC – Yeo Puay Huei
Nalanda Monastery, France
We welcome new director – Ven. Gyaltsen
With grateful thanks to outgoing director – Ven. Tendar
With love,
FPMT International Office