International Office News
March 2026

Welcome to this month’s e-newsletter!

We hope all of our dear friends and supporters enjoyed and took advantage of the recent multiplying days over the Fifteen Days of Miracles (February 18-March 3).

This month, we are delighted to share our 2025 Annual Review: Advancing Our Guru’s Vision of a World Guided by Compassion and Wisdom. We hope you will find many reasons to rejoice as you read the detailed reports and enjoy the photos included.

Below, in addition to news and stories from around the world, we share timely and essential advice from Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, including practices to generate peace in the world and the importance of death education for all of us.

Please note that the International Office has extended the deadline to April 15 to fill two key positions: Education Services Director and IT Manager. We encourage you to share these opportunities widely.

As always, we welcome submissions of news stories from within the FPMT community. This can be a story about something you have personally completed or accomplished, about someone else who has done so, or about the FPMT center, project, or service of which you are a part. Please see below for specific requests for stories and topics of interest.

Teachings and News Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Generating Peace in the World

Over the years, Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered various pieces of advice on prayers and practices to follow when the world is in crisis and to help pacify the threat of war. When the world is in trouble, it can feel very powerless and overwhelming to not know what we can do to actually help. We have compiled resources we hope will be useful and provide tangible actions to mitigate war and promote world peace.

“The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land” Oral Transmission

Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering the oral transmission of The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land, August 29, 2020.

We recently shared a most precious video of Lama Zopa Rinpoche offering the oral transmission (*lung) of The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra, a prayer that came from Buddha Amitabha. This is an incredibly powerful text to utilize when someone is passing away and in our care.

This month, we are also happy to share  Spanish, Italian, and Chinese translations of The Array of Sukhavati Pure Land: A Concise Mahayana Sutra.

Medicine Buddha is Important for Dharma Centers

Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised that Dharma centers should perform the Medicine Buddha puja to bring peace and happiness, as well as inner and outer prosperity.

Please read Rinpoche’s full advice, and find many Medicine Buddha practice resources available to you. 

Mitrugpa Mantra

Foundation Store has published Mitrugpa Mantra by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, which was restored digitally from a low-resolution original handwritten by Rinpoche. Lama Zopa Rinpoche said: “Mitrugpa is very powerful in degenerate times in purifying negative karma, particularly the negative karma of having broken vows, such as the eight Mahayana precepts, lay vows, or the vows of nuns and monks. Even if you believe in karma and reincarnation and do not generate heresy, you create the cause to be born in the animal realm as a naga if you break or degenerate your vows.” According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, seeing the Mitrugpa mantra can benefit a dying person; the mantra can be put next to a dying person’s bedside, where they can see it easily.

New Series Added to the Full-Length Teaching Podcast

We are happy to announce a new addition to the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Full-Length Teachings Podcast featuring teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche given at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) in 2004. New episodes of this series will be released every week.

This podcast is available on major apps, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer. Simply search for “Lama Zopa Rinpoche full-length teachings.” You can also listen via the RSS feed using browsers such as Chrome or Firefox (not Safari).

Valuable Resources for Students

We would like to draw your attention to some valuable resources for students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Compendium of Precious Instructions: A Catalog of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Works
is a collection of Rinpoche’s literary and graphic works which are available digitally and/or in print, with particular emphasis on key teachings that Rinpoche especially wanted his students to take note of and put into practice, as well as a guide on where to find the audio and video.

Life Practice Advice is a resource based on Rinpoche’s essential daily practice and lifetime practice advice. This is his essential advice and by following this advice, students can feel confident they are following and practicing according to Rinpoche’s heart advice.

FPMT.org offers a collection of practical advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Students can also find Rinpoche’s advice on a wide range of topics in the form of short talks and letters at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom

Cover of Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe

Adele Hulse, the author of Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, and a popular journalist, recounted how the news of her father’s death brought her to a clear awareness of impermanence. We recently shared this profound excerpt from Big Love (Volume 1, pp. 333-334), which gives insight into Lama Yeshe’s unique style of reaching students around the topic of death:

In early March [1974] the lamas returned to Nepal and met the Australian journalist Adele Hulse. She had been in Boudha, the area around the monumental stupa located a forty-minute walk from Kopan hill, since before Christmas. “Having spent eleven years in Catholic boarding schools in Australia,” Adele explained, “religion was the last thing on my mind. I wasn’t keen on Californian ‘Boodhists’ jangling their beads and mumbling about their ‘gooroo.’ Then a telegram arrived with the news of my father’s death. Standing outside the Kathmandu post office I suddenly realized I too was going to die one day. The words exploded in my brain: ‘He’s dead. You’re next.’ I looked around me at the people in the street and saw that they too would die.

Please continue to read the full excerpt including Lama’s advice.

Subscribe to the LYWA monthly e-letter and keep up with the latest news and publication information.

What We’re Rejoicing About

Collage of Photos from our 2025 Annual Review

2025 Annual Review is Now Available!

We are happy to share this year’s Annual Review, “Advancing Our Guru’s Vision of a World Guided by Compassion and Wisdom.” As you will read in the many summaries included in the review, we continued to offer access to our lamas’ teachings; kept the international community connected and informed about news and advice; offered guidance and structure to FPMT centers, projects, and services; facilitated charitable giving to many beneficial initiatives dedicated to helping others and based on the wishes of Lama Zopa Rinpoche; and disseminated the Dharma to all who wish to receive it. Please read FPMT International Office’s 2025 Annual Review and enjoy our extensive photo gallery.

Kopan Geshes Tour Sri Lanka and Bless the Country’s First Medicine Buddha Statue

Lama Namgyal Rinpoche and five Kopan geshes were welcomed to Sri Lanka for the first extended tour by Tibetan Buddhist monks in the country to fully consecrate Sri Lanka’s first Medicine Buddha statue. The tour was organized by the Tara Lanka Study Group, led by Ven. Tenzin Lekdron and carries profound historical and interfaith significance. This marks an important step towards fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wish to build a five-story (approximately 50 feet/ 15 meters) Medicine Buddha statue in Sri Lanka. Please continue to read the full inspiring story.

50 Years of FPMT: Ven. Thubten Gyatso’s Story

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Ven. Thubten Gyatso at Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Bendigo, Australia, 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

As FPMT has reached 50 years as an organization, we are taking the opportunity to celebrate the stories and contributions of all who have helped Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche establish centers, projects, services, and study groups around the world, reaching far beyond the Western scope.

In a video filmed during Nalanda’s 40th Anniversary in a series of talks called “Honoring our Former Generations,” Ven. Thubten Gyatso shares a remarkable journey: from his medical school years in Melbourne in the 1960s, through a restless spiritual search that led him across Asia, to his ordination at Kopan Monastery in November 1975. He then joined the community of monks and nuns at Kopan for the next three to four years. Later, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested that he serve as the SPC in Melbourne, where he worked for more than a year. Please continue to watch this video and hear Ven. Gyatso’s story.

New Film About Chenrezig Institute

This inspiring story of Chenrezig Institute has now been brought to the screen with the documentary The Origin of Tibetan Buddhism in Australia, made by independent filmmaker Małgorzata Ola Dobrowolska — known as Malgo.

For Malgo, the film was a way of giving back what she had received during her four years at the Institute. Originally from Poland, she arrived in Australia in 2019 to travel and make documentary films. When she landed at Chenrezig Institute, what was meant to be a few-month stay became a four-year journey that deeply transformed both her life and her work. Please read more to learn about this film and find information on how to have it screened at your center.

Preserving 50 Years of History: Chenrezig Institute’s Living Photo Archive

When Chenrezig Institute began preparing for its 50th Anniversary celebrations in September 2024, Ven. Pende Hawter saw an opportunity. Tucked away in boxes and shelves in the library were decades of photographs — some more than 50 years old — documenting the full sweep of the Institute’s history. He began the patient work of scanning, editing, and cataloguing them, with the simple wish to make them accessible and easy to share. You can glimpse the collection here.

If your FPMT center has a library of old photos waiting to be brought back to life, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Ven. Pende directly — he is genuinely happy to share what he has learned and support you in getting started.

Littlest Scholars Thriving at Maitreya Universal Education School, Bodhgaya

Maitreya Universal Education School, operated by Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, is implementing child-focused, trauma-informed methods. That process is proceeding well. Its main leaders, volunteers Kabir and Duffer, staff member Neelashi, and Principal Sanjeev Kumar, continue to train teachers, upgrade curricula, and oversee improvements in interactions with children, lesson plans, and the use of hands-on activities that boost academic learning and integration of the 16 Guidelines. Donna Lynn Brown spoke with Kabir and Duffer in February, and they emphasized the positive effects of these methods, particularly on the younger children. Children in the primary grades—lower and upper kindergarten through Grade Three—make up about half the school, which now has a total of 285 students, mostly from very poor families. Please continue to read the full story. 

Resources and Opportunities for Study and Practice

Ling Rinpoche Tours FPMT Centers in Europe in 2026: Save the Dates!

We are delighted to share that His Eminence Ling Rinpoche will offer a teaching tour in Europe this Spring from April-June, including many FPMT centers. Please review the full schedule and save the dates to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche Tours FPMT Centers in Europe in 2026: Save the Dates!

Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche will offer a teaching tour in Europe this Spring, including FPMT centers. Please see the full schedule and save the dates on any opportunities you can attend. 

FPMT Basic Program: Three-Year Residential Opportunity Available

Consider spending three years in Italy’s beautiful Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa! Offered in English and Italian. Centers, please inform your students of this rare and precious opportunity beginning February 2027. 

Introductory Self-Paced Course Available Online

Buddhist Mind Science: Activating Your Potential is an introductory FPMT course that blends Buddhist wisdom with modern science to uncover the roots of suffering and happiness, build a practical meditation toolkit, and activate your inner potential for warmheartedness and wisdom. Across seven self-paced modules, you will journey from understanding what leads to lasting happiness, through the workings of the mind and emotions, to embodying compassion and wisdom in everyday life — reflecting and discovering for yourself along the way. The online course is now available at our Online Learning Center, and you can purchase the enrolment keys at the Foundation Store.

This course was previously available only at FPMT centers. Please read more about this new opportunity for self-paced, at-home learning.

Foundation Store Resources

You can order printed copies of a selection of Foundation Store titles through Amazon’s print-on-demand service in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. In the item description click on the Amazon market that is closest to you. Foundation Store also offers a selection of prayers and practices available for 1-click download.

Retreat Opportunities

Please check our retreat schedule page for group retreat opportunities upcoming in your area.

Call for Stories, Interviews, and Submissions!

Early Students: Your Stories Are Needed!

This year, FPMT celebrates 50 years since its formation in 1975 — a living legacy shaped by the vision of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and carried forward by so many devoted students, teachers, and communities across the world.
Your memories and experiences are part of this living history.

We have already begun gathering some of these precious stories, but there are so many more voices we would love to hear. We would love to collect as much of this history as possible: short videos, presentations, written stories, and group shots from your centre, projects, and services. We warmly invite you to please be in touch!

Join us in celebrating this remarkable journey at your local community, and share your anniversary celebrations on social media using #50YearsFPMT — a way for our whole community to rejoice together

FPMT Community News Stories

The FPMT family is full of inspiring activity — at centres, projects, services, study groups, and among registered teachers and individuals who bring our communities to life. We would love to hear about it.
Whether it’s a recent accomplishment or an activity that gave your community reason to rejoice, your story can spark ideas and create connections across the FPMT family.

Please review our submission guidelines and reach out if you have something to share— we’d love to hear from you.

Announcements, Opportunities, and Changes

Changes in the FPMT Organization

Hayagriva Buddhist Centre, Australia
Grateful thanks to outgoing spiritual program coordinator Fiona Robbins

Nalanda Monastery, France
We welcome Geshe Tenzin Norbu as the new spiritual program coordinator

Land of Medicine Buddha, USA
We welcome Diane Sturgeon as the new spiritual program coordinator

FPMT International Office, Communications Department
We welcome Fabiana Lotito as the new associate editor

FPMT Mongolia
We welcome Khatanbaatar Choidogsuren as the new director

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 Australia, France, India, Italy, Mongolia, North American Region, Nepal, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, UK and the USA.

Newly added: Buddha House (Australia) and Land of Medicine Buddha (California) are seeking a new director; Mahamudra Centre is looking for a centre manager; the North American Region is seeking a regional coordinator and a teacher tour coordinator; Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive is seeking a web editor.

Two Positions Available in the FPMT International Office: Last Chance to Apply

The deadline to apply for the remote positions of Education Services Director and IT Manager for the International Office of the FPMT has been extended to April 15, 2026. Please read more about these very special opportunities to serve the FPMT organization in meaningful positions.

Foundation Service Seminar in Italy June 2026

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.

Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, is organizing an FSS on June 10-14, 2026. Reservations are now open.

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.