Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition
The FPMT is an organization devoted to preserving and spreading Mahayana Buddhism worldwide by creating opportunities to listen, reflect, meditate, practice and actualize the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha and based on that experience spreading the Dharma to sentient beings. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility and service. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founders Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
Die Stiftung zur Erhaltung der Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) ist eine Organisation, die sich weltweit für die Erhaltung und Verbreitung des Mahayana-Buddhismus einsetzt, indem sie Möglichkeiten schafft, den makellosen Lehren des Buddha zuzuhören, über sie zur reflektieren und zu meditieren und auf der Grundlage dieser Erfahrung das Dharma unter den Lebewesen zu verbreiten.
Wir bieten integrierte Schulungswege an, durch denen der Geist und das Herz der Menschen in ihr höchstes Potential verwandelt werden zum Wohl der anderen – inspiriert durch eine Haltung der universellen Verantwortung und dem Wunsch zu dienen. Wir haben uns verpflichtet, harmonische Umgebungen zu schaffen und allen Wesen zu helfen, ihr volles Potenzial unendlicher Weisheit und grenzenlosen Mitgefühls zu verwirklichen.
Unsere Organisation basiert auf der buddhistischen Tradition von Lama Tsongkhapa von Tibet, so wie sie uns von unseren Gründern Lama Thubten Yeshe und Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche gelehrt wird.
La Fundación para la preservación de la tradición Mahayana (FPMT) es una organización que se dedica a preservar y difundir el budismo Mahayana en todo el mundo, creando oportunidades para escuchar, reflexionar, meditar, practicar y actualizar las enseñanzas inconfundibles de Buda y en base a esa experiencia difundir el Dharma a los seres.
Proporcionamos una educación integrada a través de la cual las mentes y los corazones de las personas se pueden transformar en su mayor potencial para el beneficio de los demás, inspirados por una actitud de responsabilidad y servicio universales. Estamos comprometidos a crear ambientes armoniosos y ayudar a todos los seres a desarrollar todo su potencial de infinita sabiduría y compasión.
Nuestra organización se basa en la tradición budista de Lama Tsongkhapa del Tíbet como nos lo enseñaron nuestros fundadores Lama Thubten Yeshe y Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
A continuación puede ver una lista de los centros y sus páginas web en su lengua preferida.
L’organisation de la FPMT a pour vocation la préservation et la diffusion du bouddhisme du mahayana dans le monde entier. Elle offre l’opportunité d’écouter, de réfléchir, de méditer, de pratiquer et de réaliser les enseignements excellents du Bouddha, pour ensuite transmettre le Dharma à tous les êtres. Nous proposons une formation intégrée grâce à laquelle le cœur et l’esprit de chacun peuvent accomplir leur potentiel le plus élevé pour le bien d’autrui, inspirés par le sens du service et une responsabilité universelle. Nous nous engageons à créer un environnement harmonieux et à aider tous les êtres à épanouir leur potentiel illimité de compassion et de sagesse. Notre organisation s’appuie sur la tradition guéloukpa de Lama Tsongkhapa du Tibet, telle qu’elle a été enseignée par nos fondateurs Lama Thoubtèn Yéshé et Lama Zopa Rinpoché.
L’FPMT è un organizzazione il cui scopo è preservare e diffondere il Buddhismo Mahayana nel mondo, creando occasioni di ascolto, riflessione, meditazione e pratica dei perfetti insegnamenti del Buddha, al fine di attualizzare e diffondere il Dharma fra tutti gli esseri senzienti.
Offriamo un’educazione integrata, che può trasformare la mente e i cuori delle persone nel loro massimo potenziale, per il beneficio di tutti gli esseri, ispirati da un’attitudine di responsabilità universale e di servizio.
Il nostro obiettivo è quello di creare contesti armoniosi e aiutare tutti gli esseri a sviluppare in modo completo le proprie potenzialità di infinita saggezza e compassione.
La nostra organizzazione si basa sulla tradizione buddhista di Lama Tsongkhapa del Tibet, così come ci è stata insegnata dai nostri fondatori Lama Thubten Yeshe e Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Di seguito potete trovare un elenco dei centri e dei loro siti nella lingua da voi prescelta.
“护持大乘法脉基金会”( 英文简称：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) 是一个致力于护持和弘扬大乘佛法的国际佛教组织。我们提供听闻，思维，禅修，修行和实证佛陀无误教法的机会，以便让一切众生都能够享受佛法的指引和滋润。
護持大乘法脈基金會”（ 英文簡稱：FPMT。全名：Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition ）是一個致力於護持和弘揚大乘佛法的國際佛教組織。我們提供聽聞，思維，禪修，修行和實證佛陀無誤教法的機會，以便讓一切眾生都能夠享受佛法的指引和滋潤。
However the very bottom line is to do all ones actions with bodhichitta. That is the best, the most meaningful way to think during your break time. This makes your life most beneficial. As much as possible with awareness keep ones attitude and thoughts in bodhichitta, the thought of benefiting others, try to do all the activities with that mind, including doing your job and throughout the day. This way even in your break time whatever you do becomes the cause of happiness.
The Foundation Store is FPMT’s online shop and features a vast selection of Buddhist study and practice materials written or recommended by our lineage gurus. These items include homestudy programs, prayers and practices in PDF or eBook format, materials for children, and other resources to support practitioners.
Items displayed in the shop are made available for Dharma practice and educational purposes, and never for the purpose of profiting from their sale. Please read FPMT Foundation Store Policy Regarding Dharma Items for more information.
The Protecting the Environment and Living Beings Project sponsors pujas, practices, and prayers to pacify the elements and protect those harmed by disasters of earth, wind, fire, and water.
If the inner enemy, delusion, is subdued It is like having destroyed all the external enemies.
—Shantideva
One can feel powerless in the face of disasters of the elements such as earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, hurricanes, typhoons, etc. Lama Zopa Rinpoche discussed this in a letter to a student who lived in an area prone to hurricanes:
“Whatever problems there are can be made less, and even completely stopped, if someone takes strong refuge and prays to even just one buddha. The weather can change in that very hour by the power of one person making prayers. There is no question that if the person who makes the prayers has realizations, such as the realization of bodhicitta, which is actually the best realization, then every single prayer has incredible power. There are stories of many bodhisattvas and great saints in the past who were able to prevent floods, change the direction of rivers, stop them altogether, and walk across them to the other side.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche led prayers and gave oral transmissions to young monks and Western visitors after the earthquake, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2015. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.
What are Natural Disasters?
Natural disasters are one way that living beings can experience dangerous external conditions. One could mistakenly understand the term “natural” to mean disasters that exist in nature without a karmic cause. From the Buddhist point of view, disasters do not occur from their own side without a cause and while they manifest as forces in nature they are the result of the actions of body, speech, and mind of sentient beings.
“As far as what the scientists say about the disasters of the elements they never mention the mind, the creator who experiences the disaster. They explain purely the external evolution of how it happens. Even if this is correct, it is only the short-term explanation. It doesn’t really explain why the whole evolution happened in the first place. In the simplest teachings of Buddhism, you can understand where [disasters of the elements such as] hurricanes and earthquakes come from. They arise as a result of the ten non-virtuous actions.
These karmas come from actions such as committing the ten non-virtues or the result of committing one or several of the ten non-virtues. The mind which experiences the earthquake or hurricane comes from the result of the self-cherishing thought, from either attachment or anger. But the real root is ignorance, the unknowing mind, that does not know the ultimate nature of mind, I, or the aggregates.”
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Rinpoche’s Recent Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has recently advised specific practices and pujas to be offered monthly in order to benefit any being that is harmed from potential disasters and also to purify the karma that creates these dangers in USA and throughout the world.
Arranging and sponsoring these pujas is one of the unique ways that FPMT can benefit sentient beings. This is also an aspect of social service to others that helps address the karmic conditions contributing to seemingly “natural” occurring disasters, and those harmed by them.
Sponsored Monthly Practices Advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
If you wonder what to do, what prayers to make when there are disasters caused by the elements (fire, water, wind, and earth) such as tornados, hurricanes, heavy rain, storms, floods, earthquakes, fires; as well as disasters that destroy crops; disasters that destroy entire towns and cities within one hour; disasters that cause so many billions of dollars of damage and so much money has to be spent to rebuild the towns; disasters where so many hundreds and thousands of people die or lose their homes, have no food or clean water; disasters where so many animals and insects are killed and harmed – Here I am offering some suggestions on what to do so that you can help a country at risk, save so many lives, and prevent the destruction of houses, villages, and cities.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche, July 2018
According to Rinpoche, every month the following practices will be sponsored and completed every month. Rinpoche checked extensively on the exact practices to be done, how many times they should be completed, and by whom:
Extensive Medicine Buddha Puja offered five times by Shu Cho Khangtsen of Drepung Gomang Monastery, Kopan Monastery, and Gyuto Tantric College
Guhyasamaja root text recited four times by Kopan Lama Gyupas
Kshitigarbha Sutra recited one time by the nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery
Sutra of Golden Light recited eight times by Sangha in the USA
Arya Sanghata Sutra recited five times by Sangha in the USA
Vajra Cutter Sutra recited four times by Yangsi Rinpoche
Rinpoche has initiated this fund with an offering of US$24,000 to help sponsor the current recommended pujas, prayers, and practices and all are welcome to participate in these monthly practices by offering any amount you are able.
The annual budget is US$14,000. You can offer your support for these practices below.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche doing an incense puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
What to Think When Offering or Sponsoring Pujas
When offering any puja, think: I am doing this for any sentient being who needs it. Motivate for everyone, not working for yourself, not for money, offering puja becomes pure Dharma motivation because of the thought to benefit others. Then, when people are dying and sick and in need, if you think of those people, so many need helpful prayers. “Whatever you do, try to benefit sentient beings, not just recite prayer.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
For making offerings Rinpoche has this advice:
After generating a motivation of bodhichitta, remember, all these people doing the practices are disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. If you have received teachings from His Holiness, you are disciples of the same guru as they are, they are the pores of the guru. So think: ‘I am making offerings to the same guru’s pores.’ Then, no matter how many monks there are, no matter how much money, tea, bread, or lunch you offer, you will receive the same merit as actually having offered to numberless Buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha. “[This is the greatest way to purify [negative karma] and the quickest way to achieve enlightenment. Thinking like this helps sometimes when we hear how much a puja costs.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s personal Kshitigarbha image that he travels with and keeps with him always
Previous Efforts to Protect the Environment and Living Beings
In 2012 Lama Zopa Rinpoche observed that the West Coast of the United States was in danger of suffering earthquakes and tsunamis. Rinpoche consulted with Khadro-la and a Stupa to Minimize Harm was recommended to be built as soon as possible. Khadro-la identified the exact place the stupa needed to be built to have the most effect.
There were insurmountable obstacles to securing the exact land and in 2015 Rinpoche offered advice on practices that needed to be completed to mitigate dangers from the elements on the West Coast. Incredibly, Rinpoche’s entire request was completed: 1,840,962 recitations of the Kshitigarbha long mantra were accumulated from 912 groups and individuals, four recitations of the Tengyur were sponsored; the Eight Mahayana Precepts were observed 2,591 times; and six extensive Medicine Buddha Pujas were completed.
Due to the completion of these practices and mantra recitations Rinpoche has advised that the Stupa to Minimize Harm is no longer needed. Instead, Rinpoche is now requesting these pujas and practices be done as continual protection for the environment and living beings.
In 2018 we announced a new fund, the Protecting the Environment and Living Beings Project. This project began as a way to fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for specific pujas and practices to be recited regularly in order to pacify … Read more »
Dedication
The general dedication for all these monthly pujas and practices is for whole world, and in particular for United States of America (at this time):
To not have disasters of fire, water, air, and earth including great dangers such as earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, fires, and also global problems; to prevent any great danger for the people and animals of the area, and if it does for those who die to not be reborn in the lower realms and to actualize bodhichitta and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible.
The Protecting Environment and Living Beings Project is a project of FPMT Inc. All donations made to the fund are tax-deductible
within the United States in accordance with IRS Code article 501(C)(3) to the extent allowed by law.
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