International Office News
June 2022

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

Lama Zopa Rinpoche:

Lama Zopa Rinpoche attending the oral transmissions offered by Geshe Thubten Rinchen, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Reminder: Continued Prayers

We would like to remind all that Khandro Kunga Bhuma has advised refuge and bodhicitta prayers be recited and dedicated for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life and good health at this time. “Taking Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta” can be found in FPMT Education Services’ Daily Prayers.

The Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive recently published this 2012 teaching from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, “How to Meditate on the Refuge and Bodhicitta Prayer.” Rinpoche has also offered some recent teachings on refuge from Kopan Monastery that will be shared publicly soon!

Rinpoche Teaching at the Kopan November Course

Lama Zopa Rinpoche will teach during the one-month lamrim course (known as the November Course), November 20–December 20, 2022, at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. Registration for the course will open in August.

Teachings and Advice from Rinpoche

• Rinpoche offered a short series of teachings to students attending the three-month Vajrasattva retreat at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in April. We were pleased to share two of these teachings recently: By Doing Vajrasattva, You Are Doing Exactly What You Need to Do and Abandoning Nonvirtue Is a Source of Happiness for You.
• In There Are No Limits to the Benefits of Bodhicitta, which is a teaching recorded in April 2018 at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia, Rinpoche reminds us of the benefits of making even a tiny offering to a holy object. But, Rinpoche explains, those benefits are far exceeded by the mere thought of benefiting sentient beings.
• A new free book, The Nectar of Bochicitta, is available from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

We’re Rejoicing About:

Rejoicing in the Pujas, Practices, and Offerings on Saka Dawa Duchen

Monks offering puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.

On Saka Dawa Duchen, this year on June 14, when the merit was multiplied 300 million times, an incredible amount of pujas, practices, and offerings were undertaken on behalf of the entire FPMT organization, including the students, benefactors, volunteers, and all beings. They included the following:

• 100,000 Praises to Twenty-one Taras was recited twice (for the thirty-second consecutive year).
• 1,000 sets of offerings were made to Buddha Namgyalma.
• Medicine Buddha Puja and Namgyalma long life ritual were offered.
• Offerings were made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to an incredible 13,500 ordained Sangha.
• Offerings of robes were made to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in Bodhgaya, India; and saffron and umbrellas were offered to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal.
• The printing of sutras, creation of stupas and Buddha tsa-tsas, and liberation of animals were completed.

Thank you to all who made these offerings possible and to the Sangha actualizing the prayers and pujas. We invite you to rejoice in this vast creation of merit on Saka Dawa Duchen. May all the prayers be actualized according to the Dharma.

First Foundation Service Seminar in Australia

Participants of the FSS posing outside of Tara Institute, Melbourne, Australia, May 2022. Photo courtesy of Tara Institute.

We’re rejoicing that Tara Institute hosted the first Foundation Service Seminar (FSS) in Australia last month, with twenty-nine participants from around the country. Feedback from graduates was overwhelmingly positive, and all appreciated that the FSS registered facilitator, François Lecointre, managed to lead the FSS despite the second facilitator dropping out at the last minute due to COVID! Graduates commented:

“It was information-rich and very practically focused.”

“It was most helpful to have the information, room, and time to do small group discussions, ask questions, and share experience—brings it alive and into our hearts.”

“Real human connection and learning.”

Next month we’ll bring you news from the first pilot of the Online FSS in Mexico! You can read more about this transformative retreat.

Become a Friend of FPMT

Publications to Support Your Dharma Study and Practice

Searching for the Self

Searching for the Self is the seventh volume of the Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, which presents the lamrim teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, collected and coauthored by Ven. Thubten Chodron. In Searching for the Self the Dalai Lama leads us to delve deeply into the topic of the emptiness of inherent existence, presenting it from a variety of approaches while focusing on identifying our erroneous views and directing us to the actual mode of existence of all persons and phenomena.

You may order Searching for the Self as an ebook and PDF from the Foundation Store. The print edition of the book may be ordered directly from Wisdom Publications.

Foundation Store Highlights

• The Exalted Zung Called “Thoroughly Pacifying Hatred” can be recited as a practice when you have conflicts within your home or work environments. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says of the mantra, “You can use this anytime you encounter problems, to make others change their minds toward you and have affection and love for you.”
• Shakyamuni Buddha Puja is a beautiful and deeply inspirational puja. This text was recently reformatted, with hyperlinks for smooth navigation, so that individuals can easily do the core practice and any additional ones as their time allows. (This puja was recently performed with Khandro Kunga Bhuma on Vesak Day at Losang Dragpa Centre in Malaysia with its resident teacher, Geshe Jampa Tsondu, as chant master. You can watch this online, starting at 6:10 in the video.)
• The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra – MP3 Download has been updated with a new slow chant tune composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

You can find more new audio recordings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche reciting mantras and prayers, including the following MP3 downloads:

• Holy Name Mantra That Fulfills Wishes
• Lama Tsongkhapa Migtsema Prayer
• Mantra from the Sutra of Great Liberation

Other recently updated audio MP3 downloads:

• Chenrezig Praise and Mantras
• Praises to the Twenty-One Taras

Additional practice materials newly available in other languages:

• The Foundation of All Good Qualities PDF (Polish)
• The King of Glorious Sutras called the Exalted Sublime Golden Light PDF (Ukrainian)

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 translated materials in our Foundation Store (shop.fpmt.org).

Obituaries

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Khyongla Rato Rinpoche Passes Away

We were saddened to receive the news that Khyongla Rato Rinpoche passed away in Dharamsala, India, on May 24, 2022. You can read more about this remarkable lama and join us in offering prayers for the continuation of his teachings, far into the future.

We invite you to read all our recently published obituaries. More advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche on death and dying is available, see Death and Dying: Practices and Resources (fpmt.org/death/).

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 as a volunteer or as paid staff in FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world.

Newly added: FPMT International Office needs an experienced PHP developer for a 3–6-month project; FDCW is looking for a Communications and Marketing Manager; Choe Khor Sum Ling, India is looking for a new director; and Milarepa Center, US, has a general staff position open.

Impermanence at Work

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

Centro Yamantaka, Colombia
We welcome new spiritual program coordinator, David Duran.
With grateful thanks to outgoing SPC, Doris Julio.

Nagarjuna C.E.T. Alicante, Spain
We welcome Ven. Fabio Poza as resident teacher.
With thanks to Ven. Fabio for his years as resident teacher at Nagarjuna C.E.T. Granada.

New Zealand National Office
We welcome Bengu Korkmaz as national coordinator.
With grateful thanks to outgoing coordinator, Ven. Thubten Khadro.

Tushita Centre, Spain has a new address:
C/Pla de Montfalcó, 3, 17406 Viladrau (Girona)

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FPMT International Office is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office.