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International Office News
May 2014
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Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Portland, USA, April 2014.
Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
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New Advice: Trillions of Dollars for Learning about Dharma
Large Thangkas and Festival Days
New Level for Friends of FPMT!
Will Your Center Need an Interpreter?
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s News:
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the Light of the Path retreat, North Carolina, USA, May 2014.
Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
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New Advice:
Trillions of Dollars for
Learning about Dharma
“If it was possible, I should offer you each trillions of dollars for learning about Buddhism. This means your mind is open for real happiness, to be free from the gross suffering in the three lower realms and even not to be satisfied with the temporary happiness of the three upper realms. Most importantly, once you can meet and practice Dharma, this frees you from samsaric happiness, which is only suffering; and Dharma can give you full enlightenment, peerless happiness. Learning Dharma and practicing it is so important for yourself as well as others, countless others, as once you can achieve enlightenment, you can free countless living beings – all living beings – from the oceans of suffering. So you can see there is nothing more important than this: to learn Dharma and practice.” …
Read the full advice.
Find a wide 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
Newsflash: Rinpoche’s teachings during the Light of the Path retreat are available in English, French and Spanish!
Please contact the hosts directly with any questions regarding the event. Subscribe to our RSS feed on Rinpoche’s Schedule to receive updates automatically as soon as they are available.
June 28 Teaching on the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy
June 29 Amitayus (Tse Pagme) long life initiation, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy
July 5 – 6 Making Life Meaningful: Teachings on the Stages of the Path, Jamyang Buddhist Centre Leeds, UK
July 10 Enlightened Courage: The Buddha’s Path of Wise Compassion, Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK
July 11 – 13 Heruka 5 Deities initiation, Jamyang Buddhist Centre, UK
July 16 Long life puja, Jamyang Buddhist Centre, UK
September 13 – 19 CPMT meeting, Bendigo, Australia
September 25 – October 23 Bodhicaryavatara and Rinjung Gyatsa retreat, The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Bendigo, Australia
November/December Teachings during the one month lam-rim course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal
Enjoy daily news about Lama Zopa Rinpoche on the FPMT homepage!
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during a meeting with the staff of Rinpoche’s office, FPMT International Office, Portland, USA, April 2014.
Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
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International Office News:
Work a Day for Rinpoche
Saka Dawa is less than a month away and the Work a Day for Rinpoche campaign is about to begin! Students from all over the world offer a day (or part of a day) of wages from work each year during Saka Dawa to support Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s work and vision. Join in early!
Large Thangkas and Festival Days
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions is for FPMT centers to display large thangkas and host festival days where these thangkas can be enjoyed. Please rejoice that quite a few large thangkas have been completed and utilized in this way.
We have created a page dedicated to documenting the progress of this vision. If your center has a large thankga not listed, or if you have plans to commission a large thangka in the future, we’d love to hear from you!
Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, share their video of their recent raising of their large Amitabha thangka (31 feet x 50 feet [9.5 meters x 15 meters])!
New from Education Services
Incense Ritual – a translation of Padmasambhava’s The Divine Blue Water Clearing Away Contamination. The ritual is used to purify contaminations that arise from ignorance, broken commitments, disturbing thoughts and emotions, as well as a variety of other negativities which cause obstacles, illness and misfortunes to oneself, others and the environment. Available in eBook, a4 and letter booklet.
Medicine Buddha Jangwa – Freeing the Wretched from the Chasm, a tantric practice to be performed by Sangha or those with Medicine Buddha empowerment, on behalf of those who have recently passed away. Available in eBook, a4 and letter booklet.
Buddha Shakyamuni Refuge Field Card – a depiction in tree-form of the Three Jewels and the Lama to aid with visualization.
New Level for Friends of FPMT!
Friends of FPMT has a new e-Friends level, which offers a year’s subscription to Mandala magazine online for your e-reader or as a PDF, for a smaller, one-time contribution. Join here today.
If You Shop at Amazon …
If you shop at Amazon.com, we encourage you to use their “Smile” program to have 0.5% of your purchase price automatically donated to FPMT International Office. Your purchases can then, at no additional cost to you, support the mission and charitable projects of FPMT International Office!
For Center, Project and Service Directors, SPCs, Board Members, Registered Teachers and Coordinators:
(This advice is specifically for those offering service in the roles listed above.)
Will Your Center Need an Interpreter?
NOW is the time to let Sally know if your center needs an interpreter late this year/early 2015; OR whether your center hopes to host a resident geshe in the future and thus has a need for an interpreter trained in a future LRZTP.
Sally Dudgeon, director of LRZTP, recently wrote:
“In mid-October (only a little over five months away), Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Programme Number 6 (LRZTP6) will finish. We will have several NEW INTERPRETERS ready to take up apprenticeships with the resident geshe at your center at the end of 2014! So please consider your interpreter requirements carefully now so that you will not miss out on the incredible opportunity to have a skilled (apprentice) interpreter working in your Dharma center.
We currently anticipate that at least FIVE apprentice interpreters will be available for placement in an FPMT center at the end of the course! They all offer English, as well as Dutch, Russian and Hebrew. Three further students are already committed to centers. Contact me now to discuss the possibility of your center booking one of these students now.
Also, if your center is thinking it will need an interpreter in three years’ time, please let me know now. At this stage, we really need your input as to whether we need more interpreters and thus another LRZTP interpreter-training program to start next year!”
Foundation Store Offer
New arrival! Get a 40% discount on our new colorful Namgyälma mantra, printed on smooth pearlized paper whose unique shimmer accentuates the beauty of the mantra’s original design.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kadampa Center, USA, May 2014.
Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
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FPMT World:
CPMT 2014: Update
So far, 56 people have booked to participate in CPMT 2014, FPMT’s international meeting, including directors, SPCs, registered teachers, and board members. This year’s meeting takes place at the awe-inspiring Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. Don’t miss this special opportunity – book now! Find further information and the draft agenda.
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!
Tushita Meditation Centre, India is looking for a new director; Land of Joy, UK is looking for a spiritual program coordinator; Root Institute, India is urgently looking for a school administrator, a health projects administrator and a maintenance manager.
Impermanence at Work
Ganden Yiga Chozin, Nepal
We welcome new director – Drolkar Court
With grateful thanks to outgoing director – Sonam Tamang
Khachoe Ghakyil Ling, Nepal
We welcome Geshe Dondrup as the headmaster
Kopan Monastery, Nepal
We welcome Geshe Lozang Zopa as a resident geshe
Ksitigarbha Center, USA
P.O. Box 1434, Taos, NM 87571
We welcome new spiritual program coordinator – Ven. Nyikhil
With grateful thanks to outgoing SPC – Jana Bailey
With love,
FPMT International Office
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