Shakyamuni Buddha with offerings, Kachoe Dechen Ling, California, USA. Photo by Chris Majors.

Each year on Saka Dawa—the celebration of Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and parinirvana—Buddhist practitioners around the world engage in many auspicious and merit-making activities such as personally devoting oneself to the path; sponsoring beneficial pujas, practices, and prayers; and making extensive offerings to our teachers, holy objects, and auspicious charitable activities. This year, Saka Dawa takes place on June 9. 

We would like to invite you to participate and rejoice in this holy day of incredible virtuous activity. 

Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Bhutan, May 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Long Life Prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Each year Ven. Roger Kunsang, on behalf of the FPMT organization, checks with one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus or Khadro-la (Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme) to determine what practices should be done to help create the conditions for Lama Zopa Rinpoche to have good health for the coming year. Khadro-la has recently advised that the Vajra Cutter Sutra and the Dependent Arising: A Praise of the Buddha (Tendrel Topa) need to be recited, together with the completion of a number of pujas. 

Additionally, Khadro-la personally composed a moving long life prayer for Rinpoche, now available in several languages. 

Saka Dawa is an excellent opportunity to offer recitations of these prayers for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Sangha at Kopan Monastery offering puja

Activities of the FPMT Pua Fund

Every year on Saka Dawa the Puja Fund offers US$10,000 toward an extensive array of pujas and practices. This is a very auspicious way for FPMT to support the Sangha at various monasteries and nunneries in Nepal and India. Providing prayer services such as these allow the ordained Sangha to benefit others while also helping to support themselves.

Pujas Offered by Over 15,650 Ordained Sangha

• Recitation of the Prajnaparamita (three versions) are read by the 650 monks of Gyurme Tantric College.
• Recitation of the 100,000 Praises to 21 Taras are offered by 400 nuns of Kopan Nunnery.
• Druk Chu Ma, Namgyal Tong Cho, and Zangcho are offered by 6,000 monks of Sera Je and Sera Mey Monasteries.
• Druk Chu Ma, Medicine Buddha Puja, and Zangcho are offered by 3,400 monks of Gaden Jangtse and Shartse Monasteries.
• Druk Chu Ma, Namgyäl Tsechog and Zangcho are offered by 4,200 monks of Drepung Gomang, Loseling, and Deyang Monasteries.
• Namgyal Tong Cho and Zangcho are offered by 600 monks of Gyuto Tantric Colleges.
• Druk Ch Ma, Medicine Buddha Puja, and Zangcho are offered by the 370 monks of Kopan Monastery.
• Tea, bread, and money offerings are given to all 15,650 participating Sangha in the above pujas. 
• Sangha at Chenrezig Institute, Australia, are sponsored to fill stupas, and lunch is offered to all who participate. 

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, June 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Offerings to Gurus and Sangha

Offerings are made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus:

• His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• His Holiness the Sakya Trizin
• Jhado Rinpoche
• Khongla Rato Rinpoche

Offerings are made to over 15,650 Sangha:

• Sera Je and Sera Mey Monasteries
• Gaden Jangtse and Shartse Monasteries
• Drepung Gomang, Loseling, and Deyang Monasteries
• Gyurme and Gyuto Tantric College
• Kopan Monastery and Kopan Nunnery

Offerings are made to Sangha at International Mahayana Institute (IMI) communities:

• Nalanda Monastery, France
• Thubten Shedrup Ling, Australia
• Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy
• Chenrezig Institute, Australia

Offerings Made to Holy Objects in Nepal, India, and Tibet

• Bouddhanath and Swayambunath Stupas: Offering white wash and four giant saffron flower petals and new umbrellas to the stupas’ pinnacles
• Buddha inside the Bodhgaya Mahabodhi temple: Offering a new set of robes of the most precious material
• Jowo Buddha in Lhasa’s Jokhang: Offering gold to the holy face of the Jowo Buddha

Prayers and Practices for FPMT Students

Thirty-five Confessional Buddhas thangka.

On Buddha Multiplying Days, such as Saka Dawa, karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Lama Zopa Rinoche advises that any beneficial practices can be done. In particular, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recommended: 

• Recitation of the names of the Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas
• Vajrasattva mantras

Practices specifically recommended by Rinpoche for Buddha Multiplying Days include:

• Taking the eight Mahayana precepts
• Doing nyung nä retreats
• Performing the Guru Shakyamuni Buddha puja
• Reciting the Sutra for Remembering the Three Jewels

Of course, any other meritorious activities often advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche are also good to do on these days, such as recitation of the Sanghata Sutra, the Sutra of Golden Light, etc., with extensive dedications. These texts are available on our sutras page.

In addition, you might consider including children in your Buddha Multiplying Day celebrations and reading Eight Plays for Children. This book of charming and easily produced plays for children contains tales of wisdom and kindness from Buddha’s past lives as animals as well as his life as Prince Siddhartha.

The ceremony for taking the eight Mahayana precepts can be found in the “Morning Prayers” section of Essential Buddhist Prayers, Vol. 1 or in the text The Direct and Unmistaken Method. We have a beautiful color cover glossy booklet for nyung nä, complete with instructions for how to do the practice.

Rejoice!

All are welcome to participate in all of this beneficial activity by imagining all of these practices and offerings happening around the world and then mentally offering everything oneself and/or rejoicing. Students can also make a financial contribution to the many prayers, practices, and offerings sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund. 

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for continuous pujas dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way.

Learn more about the Puja Fund or FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity.

Nyung nä participants in front of the altar at IVY, France.

Seven dedicated individuals are in the process of finishing 108 nyung nä retreats at Institute Vajra Yogini (IVY), France. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is to sponsor others to complete 1,000 nyung nä retreats. Upon hearing of this incredible vision of Rinpoche’s, IVY immediately started hosting 108 nyung nä retreats a year.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Practice and Retreat Fund, is very pleased to be able to sponsor ten people with food and accommodation each time there is a 108 nyung nä retreat at IVY. Support is also provided by IVY and kind private donors. 

At the mid-way point of this round of nyung näs, IVY reported: “If we add up everybody so far we count that eighty-five different participants in total have participated in one or more nyung näs from mid-November to the beginning of March and 664 individual nyung näs have already been accumulated. On average, we have between seven to twenty people participating in each single session of the nyung näs.”

About this retreat practice Rinpoche commented, “Nyung näs take such a short time, but bring strong purification. So many eons can be purified in this life; it makes it so easy to have attainments.” 

The nyung na merit field.

Nyung nä practice is an intensive two-day purification retreat that includes fasting, precepts, prostrations, prayers, mantra recitation, and offerings. Nyung nä is a practice based on the deity, 1,000 armed Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion, and is extremely powerful for healing illness, purifying negative karma, and opening the heart to compassion.

Incredibly, this is the seventh round of 108 nyung näs to be completed at IVY with the compassionate and dedicated guidance of retreat leader Ven. Charles Trebaol. 

Ven. Charles has had a strong and beneficial impact on those who have engaged in the nyung nä retreat at IVY.  It is difficult to comprehend the service Ven. Charles is offering to the IVY community, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and all sentient beings by leading these difficult retreats every year with such commitment. 

Retreatant Ven. Tenzin Sangpo said:

“In my eyes, Ven. Charles is the embodiment of love and compassion. I feel sometime that we in the west are are always looking for a spiritual masters very far from us in exotic places while, actually, we have one, here, under our noses.” 

Another participant, Valentino Giacomin shared this experience with Ven. Charles:

“One day, during the prostration session, I turned to see if there were any tissues on a shelf for my cold. An action of a few seconds. There were not. I continued my prostrations. After a minute, someone touches my shoulder. I turn. Ven. Charles is there with the tissues I was looking for! Regularly I forget something while in my “prostration zone” (glasses, pens, etc.) and promptly Ven. Charles returns my “lost things.” I do not know how he can perceive everything and be so careful despite the commitments he has and the responsibility to guide the (difficult) retreat which is almost nine hours a day.” 

Jean-Yves Barralis, acting director of IVY had the following to say about the retreats:

“As the acting director, I must say that each time I am amazed at how people who come for one or two sessions are so thankful about doing this practice. How they feel so welcomed by the long-term retreatants who take care of them by explaining the practice, giving advice, and offering love….

An inspiring interview with Ven. Charles about his years in retreat, “The Hermit of the Pyrenees,” was published in Mandala magazine, March 1998. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with the large light offering to Guru Rinpoche statue in Chailsa, Nepal.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche often explains the benefits of offering to holy objects and encourages extensive offerings around the world. “We are not aware of the limitless skies of benefits we achieve from the practice of offering, what we can achieve and enjoy from life to life,” Rinpoche explains in Extensive Offering Practice to Accumulate the Most Extensive Merit. “Even while you are in samsara, you enjoy good rebirths, wealth, and every happiness. Even just the samsaric perfections are amazing, without adding all those incredible realizations that allow us to offer deep benefit to sentient beings, liberating them from oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusion and karma.”

We’d like to invite you to rejoice in just some of the extensive light offerings which Lama Zopa Rinpoche sponsors through the FPMT Puja Fund. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche making offerings to the Hayagriva statue on the altar at Idgaa Choizinling College in Mongolia.

Bodhgaya, India: Recently while in Bodhgaya, Lama Zopa Rinpoche was pleased with the extensive light offerings arranged on the roof of the apartment he occupies when there. The electricity for the offerings has now been sponsored for the entire year so they can remain on at all times. 

Chailsa, Nepal: The cost of butter for one year was recently sponsored to a light offering in front of a very special Guru Rinpoche statue in Chailsa, Nepal. 

Mongolia: The electricity for lotus light offerings is offered to all the holy objects on the altar at Idgaa Choizinling College in Mongolia. The lights are offered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Among the holy objects on this altar is an incredible Most Secret Hayagriva statue.

Garsha, India: All the butter is offered to keep alight a brass butter lamp in front of a holy self-emanating image of Chenrezig in a cave in Garsha, India.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residences in USA: Extensive light offerings are made daily by the Sangha at Rinpoche’s residences in California and Washington State. Additionally, many other daily practices are offered at Rinpoche’s residences including animal liberation practice, flower and water bowl offerings, and protector practices.

Please rejoice in these offerings and also feel very free to use them in your own practice by mentally offering these light offerings. 

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for pujas and offerings dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund, or FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Some of the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery (also known as Bigu Nuns).

In 2014 a grant was offered to Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery for new accommodation needed for the resident nuns. The nunnery recently sent an update that three rows of rooms are nearly finished and some nuns have already begun moving in. They are anticipating the entire project to be finished by the year’s end. 

The nuns are very pleased with their new accommodations and offered, “Our sincere prayers and dedication to the long life of our gurus and good health of all friends, benefactors, donors, and well wishers.”

The new accommodations for the nuns.

Since 2009 sponsorship has been offered to the nuns to complete one and now two 100 million mani retreats (100 million recitations of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM). In addition to the 100 million mani retreats, funds are offered to cover the cost of food to all the nuns for this period as well as the cost of a very qualified geshe to stay during the retreat in order to give lamrim teachings. With the help of donors, we will offer this again in 2017. 

Rinpoche has said about 100 million mani retreats: “The benefits of reciting the Compassion Buddha mantra are infinite, like the limitless sky. Even if you don’t have much intellectual understanding of Dharma, even if the only thing you know is OM MANI PADME HUM, still the happiest life is one lived with an attitude free of the eight worldly concerns. If you live your life with the pure attitude free of attachment clinging to this life and simply spend your life chanting OM MANI PADME HUM—this six-syllable mantra that is the essence of all Dharma—that’s the purest Dharma. Whoever attends a mani retreat is unbelievably fortunate. This retreat also blesses the country where it is held and brings so much peace, happiness and prosperity. Without bodhichitta, you cannot cause all the happiness for all sentient beings. You cannot do perfect work for all sentient beings, and you cannot achieve the complete qualities of the realizations and cessation, even for yourself. “

Please rejoice in the progress of these new rooms for the sincere nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery. 

You can learn more about the Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund and the ways it supports monasteries and nunneries.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Yarpel outside Heruka Pure Land Retreat Cabin.

Out of control wildfires ravaged many parts of the United States’ Pacific Northwest during the Summer of 2015. Several fires occurred in Okanogan County, Washington, where Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL) is located. Among the damage done, a retreat cabin on BAPL land was partly destroyed, making it unusable. In addition, all of the contents of the kitchen, bathroom, and sitting area were destroyed.

We are very happy to report that the retreat cabin has now been fully rebuilt. Parts of the cabin that were not destroyed were utilized in the rebuild, contents of the previous cabin were replaced, burnt trees cleared, and repairs were made to the deer fence.

The new cabin is now 561 square feet with 433 square feet of living space. The new building was designed, partly built, and fully supervised by Ven. Yarpel (who is a retired builder and also long-term retreatant).

With the new building some essential upgrades were added, such as bringing a larger water storage tank up to the cabin (the previous one required pumping each day) and also joining the kitchen and bathroom to the existing cabin. Before there were separate buildings and this meant that a retreatant would have to go out in the snow to use the kitchen and bathroom. These upgrades have made the retreat cabin safer and more useful.

The finished cabin is 561 square feet with 433 square feet of living space.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently visited the cabin and was very happy with the additions, blessed the new retreat cabin, and gave it the name: Heruka Pure Land Retreat Cabin.

It has been the ongoing wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche for retreat places to be established around the world where senior Sangha and longtime senior students of the FPMT can live in retreat or retirement. In order for this wish to become a reality in the United States, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the FPMT have made available a great majority of the land at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land for the purpose of establishing such a place. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche with some of the Land of Joy community on the retreat center’s grounds, July 2014. Photo courtesy of Land of Joy website.

Land of Joy is an FPMT-affiliated Buddhist retreat center located in the Northumberland National Park in the north of England. We are pleased to report that due to the kindness of a generous benefactor, the Practice and Retreat Fund was recently able to invest in the current operations and growth of this retreat center. 

Land of Joy enables individuals and groups at all levels of experience to undertake retreats and find support for their Dharma studies and practice. All are welcome to visit, share their spiritual practice, volunteer to provide for the needs of the retreatants, and participate in other activities such as working in the garden and woodlands.

In the future Land of Joy  will develop Tara Hospice Care, providing compassionate support for terminally ill individuals and their families. Initially, hospice service will be provided to individuals in their own homes but in time the team will develop to include on-site care for patients who wish to end their lives in the quiet, contemplative environment of Land of Joy.

The lush and beautiful view from the Land of Joy property. Photo courtesy of Land of Joy website. 

About the importance of retreat centers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said:

“A retreat place is not for gaining power like black magic, it’s not for a honeymoon or holiday. Also it is not a place to be spaced out. The whole purpose is to subdue the mind and to actualize lam-rim up to enlightenment. It is a place for a holiday from negative karma, a holiday from the three poisonous minds and the self-cherishing thought, a holiday from the self-grasping of the person and phenomena, a holiday from the wrong concepts: non-devotional thought toward guru up to the subtle dual view of white, increasing, attainment.”

Please rejoice that Land of Joy has received some generous support it needs to actualize its vision long into the future.  You can read more about this unique center including testimonials from those involved in the establishment and operation of Land of Joy. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. Creating opportunities for and sponsoring students to engage in retreats is an essential component of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization.  

Ven. Tsering, a Kopan monk, spends eight hours every day writing out the Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold on archival quality paper.

According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, one of the main ways to create the cause needed to build the large Maitreya Buddha statue in India, is to write out the Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold. One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast visions for FPMT is to build 1,000 large Maitreya statues around the world.

To complete this project, Rinpoche has arranged the writing of the 8,000 verse Prajnaparamita in pure gold for fifteen years. Under Rinpoche’s guidance Jane Seidlitz and Ven. Tsering are writing out this sutra in gold ink on archival quality rainbow paper. The completed sutra will eventually go into the heart of the Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, India. 

Ven. Tsering has dedicated 15 years, eight hours a day, to this project. He is currently working on the fourth volume of twelve.

Every year, the Prajnaparamita Project disburses approximately US$25,000 to cover the costs associated with this project. The majority of the money is used to sponsor the real gold used in the calligraphy ink. Tremendous thanks to all who contribute to this fund, making it possible to continue until the final verse is completed. 

You can learn more about the Prajnaparamita Project as well as the other Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Monks of Sera Me Monastery offering Medicine Buddha puja

On Chotrul Duchen (the Day of Miracles), which is the fifteenth day of the Tibetan New Year (Losar) and falls on March 12 this year, the Puja Fund will sponsor offerings to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and Sangha around the world; make offerings of robes and gold to holy objects in India, Nepal, and Tibet; and sponsor extensive prayers and pujas offered by up 15,650 Sangha. One of the many pujas happening on Chotrul Duchen is the recitation of the Prajñaparamita.

The Puja Fund makes offerings on the four Buddha Multiplying Days, when karmic results are multiplied by one hundred million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that the karma of group practice is more powerful than individual practice. “The karma of one ordained Sangha reciting a sutra in a temple or room alone, compared to reciting a sutra with all the assembly of Sangha present, the latter one—reciting a sutra with all the Sangha—is much more powerful…. The more people there are supporting the practice, the more powerful it becomes…. When the karma is more powerful, the result comes more quickly.”

These auspicious activities cost approximately US$8,000 on Buddha Multiplying Days, including Chotrul Duchen on March 12. All are welcome to join in the merit of these prayers, practices, and offerings by rejoicing or contributing any amount to the Puja Fund.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given advice about what practices can be done on Buddha Multiplying Days such as Chotrul Duchen.  

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for continuous pujas dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors, and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund and FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity online.

Light offerings at Boudhanath Stupa at night, with Khen Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, December 2016. Photo by Ven. Sherab.

One of the regular activities of the FPMT Puja Fund is offering white wash, four giant saffron flower petals and the best quality cloth (shambu) to the umbrellas at the pinnacles of Bouddhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal on the full moon and also on Buddha Days when merit is multiplied 100 million times.

Highest quality shambu for the top of Boudhanath Stupa.

Due to damage from the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the Puja Fund has been unable to make these regular offerings. Please rejoice that the Boudhanath Stupa has undergone extensive restoration and repairs since the earthquake. In November a grand blessing occurred, where lamas of the four traditions came to re-consecrate the stupa. After the ceremony FPMT was able to continue with these most precious offerings. Lama Zopa Rinpoche wanted to be sure that this first offering since the earthquake was made with the highest possible quality materials and Kopan Monastery very kindly sourced the shambu. 

Stupas, one of the most ancient icons in Buddhist art, are powerful symbols of the mind’s limitless potential. In other words, they represent the mind of enlightenment. The Boudhanath Stupa is one of the largest stupa in the world and dominates the Kathmandu skyline. 

From the Sutra of the Mudra of Developing the Power of Devotion:

     The minute you see a holy object you create infinite merits,
     So no question, if you actually make prostrations,
     Offerings and so forth, you create far greater merit. 

We are very happy to be able to continue this offering to Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas. Offering these to holy objects on behalf of all FPMT centers, projects and services, is one way of creating an incredible amount of merit and in this way helps the FPMT organization achieve its goals which stretch far into the future for the benefit of all.

If you would like to be part of this monthly offering, please consider offering any amount to the Puja Fund. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated, “Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. 

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for pujas and offerings dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund, or FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Monks of Sera Je Monastery performing puja together.

Every year on Lhabab Duchen (Buddha’s Descent from Tushita) the Puja Fund sponsors prayers, pujas, offerings to Sangha  all over the world, as well as offerings to holy objects in India, Nepal, and Tibet. This year, Lhabab Duchen, one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, takes place on Sunday, November 20.

Lhabab Duchen celebrates when Lord Buddha actually descended from the God Realm of Thirty-three after teaching his mother and the gods living there Dharma for several months. As a Buddha Multiplying Day, karmic results of actions on this day are multiplied 100 million times. This amazing result is sourced by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

On holy days, offerings are made to holy objects in India, Nepal, and Tibet including the Swayambunath Stupa in Nepal.

These activities are advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way, as well as all beings.  

Group practice is far more powerful than individual practice. 15,650 Sangha participate in the Lhabab Duchen offerings.

Incredibly, 15,600 ordained Sangha join in for these practices over a 24 hour period. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that the karma of group practice is more powerful than individual practice. “The karma of one ordained Sangha reciting a sutra in a temple or room alone, compared to reciting a sutra with all the assembly of Sangha present, the latter one—reciting a sutra with all the Sangha—is much more powerful….The more people there are supporting the practice, the more powerful it becomes…. When the karma is more powerful, the result comes more quickly.” It is amazing to consider the power of 15,600 monks engaging in group practice on a holy day when the karma is already multiplied. Additionally, as they are dedicating to His Holiness and FPMT in this way… the benefit is almost unimaginable!  As Rinpoche reminds us, “Sangha are living in a high number of vows and are unbelievably powerful objects.”

These activities offered cost approximately US$8,000 on each holy day. All are welcome to join in the merit of these prayers, practices, and offerings by contributing to the Puja Fund. 

You can read more about the individual activities sponsored on Lhabab Duchen and please rejoice in the massive merit generated by 15,600 Sangha on this holy multiplying day.

If you would like to make a donation toward the meritorious activities being sponsored by the Puja Fund on Chokor Duchen, you can do so by offering any amount you are able. 

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for continuous pujas dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund, or FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

The nuns rooms at Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery had to be completely rebuilt following earthquake destruction.

Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery (also known as Bigu Nunnery), located in a remote area of Nepal, is still rebuilding following devastation from the April 2015 earthquake. All of the buildings at the nunnery were destroyed and there was no safe housing for the seventy-five nuns. Additionally, there was no accessible health care facility or place for the nuns to study as all roads were blocked due earthquake destruction. The Nepal Earthquake Support Fund offered immediate aid to the nunnery following this destruction, to help with food and health care needs while the nuns occupied their temporary shelter in Khatmandu. 

Some of the nuns of Tashi Chime Gatsal who were displaced following earthquake destruction.

These nuns have been offering two 100 million mani retreats every year. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been supporting this through the Practice and Retreat Fund for over seven years and a very kind benefactor has sponsored one of their retreats this year as well. 

The sponsorship of 100 million mani retreats is one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization. The nuns completed the first 100 million mani recitations while in temporary housing in Khatmandu, but they have now returned to the nunnery and will complete the second part of the retreat there. Sixty-five nuns are engaged in the mani retreat approximately six hours per day. They dedicate their practice to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, for all of Rinpoche’s Dharma wishes to be successful, and for the entire FPMT organization and projects to bring the most benefit to all sentient being. 

The damage to Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery was severe and the entire nunnery needs to be rebuilt.

By sponsoring the retreat, FPMT directly supports the nuns through funding the cost of their daily meals. The nunnery is further supported by this grant because any funds not used directly for the cost of the retreat can be used for the overall development of the nunnery. Additionally, the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund has offered another grant for the rebuilding of a new kitchen for the nuns. This is an immediate need as the nuns need a proper kitchen facility to support the nuns who are in retreat as well as those who are not. 

The nunnery has a long way to go before it is rebuilt in proper condition. In addition to the kitchen, they are now building the nuns rooms and a puja hall for group practice. This work will be essential for reestablishing a safe and conducive environment in which the nuns can live, study, and practice Dharma. 

The Practice and Retreat Fund provides grants and sponsorships for students engaged in retreats such as 108 nyung nä retreats, 100 million mani retreats, recitations of sutras and long term retreat. 

Sera Je Monastery monks performing pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund.

Each year on Chokhor Duchen (commemorating Lord Buddha’s first teaching) the Puja Fund sponsors pujas and offerings all over the world dedicated to success of the entire FPMT organization. The practices are offered by up to 15,650 monks and nuns. This year Chokhor Duchen was celebrated on August 6. 

The Prajnaparamita (short, medium and long versions) was recited by the monks of Gyurme Tantric College, the entire Kangyur was recited by Kopan Nunnery, extensive offerings were presented to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and holy objects in India and Tibet, among many other virtuous activities, prayers and pujas which were advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. 

You are welcome to participate in these offerings which take place every holy Buddha day, and rejoice that 15,650 monks and nuns will be doing these prayers, remembering that they are all “pores of the guru” and thus extensions of our teachers.

If you would like to make a donation toward the meritorious activities being sponsored by the Puja Fund on Chokor Duchen, you can do so by offering any amount you are able. 

The Puja Fund was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to provide resources for continuous pujas dedicated to the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the success of all the FPMT centers, projects, services, students, benefactors and those serving the organization in any way. You can learn more about the Puja Fund, or FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity.