Lama Zopa Rinpoche and attendees during the long life puja offered to Rinpoche on September 11, 2022. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

On September 11, 2022, Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, offered a moving long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche who has been teaching at the center since August 1. The proceedings involved the traditional five dakini dance, a procession bearing an array of the traditional offerings, long life prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Rinpoche by ABC’s choir, Mudita, with musical accompaniment, and also a composition of praise written by long-time student Cecilia Tsong. 

Rinpoche offered a powerful teaching on emptiness at the end of the puja. “You have to know how to meditate on emptiness to deal with your problems,” Rinpoche said. We invite you to enjoy, and rejoice in, this beautiful praise by Cecilia Tsong which was offered to Rinpoche. 

Cecilia Tsong offering her beautifully composed praise to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the September 11 long life puja. Photo courtesy of ABC Facebook page.

Long Life Praise of Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Composed by Cecilia Tsong

This is a miracle.  Having the privilege once again of offering a long life puja to our most precious Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche even as the world is imploding with wars, famines, natural disasters and rampant violence. Still rocked to its very core by a virus invisible to the naked eye. So, this is a miracle.  

Your presence here now makes us realize how much we have taken for granted over the years: The annual visits, the sessions that often go into early hours of the morning. Rinpoche has no concept of time, we would mutter to ourselves! But of course Rinpoche has the keenest, clearest realization of the value of time. How every single millisecond not spent practicing the Dharma is time lost and wasted, time gone forever!

And now, Rinpoche uses his skillful means to show us the value of time in a different way. Rinpoche is now meticulous in his time keeping, constantly checking if time is up. Reminding us that there will be a time when time is up for all of us, a time when the Dharma – an unbearable thought – will no longer be heard. So every word, every syllable is ever more precious than before.

Rinpoche, in composing this praise, we recognize that no matter how effusive our words may be, there is so much of Rinpoche’s qualities we are still too obscured to see. So, we rely on scriptural authority.

In the Vajra Cutter Sutra, when Subhuti asked the Buddha if that Sutra can ever be taught in the future, the Buddha reassured him there will be teachers who are “bodhisattva mahasattvas, endowed with morality, endowed with qualities, endowed with wisdom,” who will have made homage and roots of virtue to not just a single buddha but to many hundred thousands of buddhas.”  The Buddha must have been referring to one such as you, Rinpoche.

From the Golden Light Sutra, hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas praised the Tathagata Suvarnaratnakarachhatrakuta with these words. But surely, they were talking about you too, Rinpoche?

O Conqueror, through revealing the nectar of the Dharma
You usher in the deathless city;
An abode of peace,
You are the source of everything serene.

O Conqueror, you free migrating beings from suffering
And liberate creatures from the ocean of misery
You place them well upon the path to peace
And give happiness to every being.

Nothing can be found that is comparable
To the sage’s ocean of virtue and wisdom
Possessing compassion for beings laden with life,
You have the powers of love, perseverance and skill.

There is none among beings, even among gods,
Who in many thousands of millions of eons
Can fully explain merely one drop of virtue
From the ocean of your supreme qualities.

So, what can we see?

We should be reminded Rinpoche was originally here for a medical procedure and recuperation. At the airport, with no consideration whatsoever for his own safety, Rinpoche greeted each of us, fully unmasked, so that we can all see that wonderful smile, hear that joyful laughter. Even as Ven. Roger tried vainly to mask up Rinpoche time and again!

Within two days of the procedure, Rinpoche attended our celebration of His Holiness’ 87^th birthday. The only concessions Rinpoche made to his condition were to do a standing prostration and sit in a chair. Rinpoche then graced Khen Rinpoche’s 60^th birthday celebrations and Guru Puja on Wheel Turning Day where Rinpoche, like an indulgent father, treated us to Magnum ice cream.

Within days, an intense series of lojong teachings started, Zoomed around the world and the extremely rare and precious Heruka Five-Deity and Body Mandala initiations were conferred. And for the very first time at ABC, Rinpoche officiated at the extensive Most Secret Hayagriva Puja that lasted for over 10 hours!

It must be abundantly clear by now that to rest, to look after his own health and recovery is a concept that is not only alien but completely repugnant to Rinpoche. It is totally unbearable to Rinpoche not to teach and not to benefit when there is the opportunity to do so. 

Astoundingly, Rinpoche genuinely sees himself only as a Mickey Mouse lama, the Lawudo comedian, who knows nothing about the Dharma, who describes his own extraordinary teachings as “garbage talk,” who constantly asks himself whether he is truly benefitting sentient beings, bemoaning that he is “so lazy” and “not doing enough!”

Let us have a look at what this “not doing enough” looks like.

Rinpoche has made supporting the sangha a key priority of the FPMT organization.

• The Supporting Ordained Sangha Fund regularly offers grants for food for sangha in monasteries in India, Nepal, and Mongolia and has most recently offered US$900,000 to the newly created Food Fund of Gyumed Monastery, an extremely important monastery that provides the highest education to top Buddhist scholars and teachers, including our very own Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi.
• Over US$400,000 has been offered to Tashi Lhunpo Monastery to help build a new 27,000 sq. feet debate courtyard that will enable its monks to debate uninterrupted throughout the year.
• Monthly stipends are offered to all senior teachers of the Gelug lineage and travel and food expenses are sponsored for hundreds of monks attending the winter debates and the annual Gelugpa exam.

Part of Rinpoche’s Vast Vision is to populate the world with holy objects for world peace.   

• The Holy Objects Fund supports this vision with the aim of creating 100,000 stupas and prayer wheels, 1,000 Maitreya statues, and many, many huge Guru Rinpoche statues.
• The FPMT family are all encouraged to commission giant thangkas to be displayed on special occasions. Prior to the pandemic, ABC has been displaying its own magnificent 50 feet high Amitabha Buddha thangka at the Vesak Day celebrations.

No one teaches the vital importance of generating the good heart, compassion, and bodhicitta quite like Rinpoche. Rinpoche also frequently reminds us of the suffering of animals.

• Put into action, the FPMT Social Services Fund offers grants to projects in India, Nepal, and Mongolia targeted at disadvantaged children, the elderly, the sick, and very poor and supports schools, hospices, health clinics, soup kitchens, and elderly homes.
• The Animal Liberation Sanctuary at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, soon to be further expanded, houses animals such as goats and cows, many saved by Rinpoche himself from the butcher’s shop.

These are only the tip of the tip of the iceberg of Rinpoche’s projects. So when it says in Rinpoche’s long life prayer, “Sustaining, preserving, and spreading the Manjunath’s victorious doctrine;/ Who masterfully accomplish magnificent prayers honoring the Three Rare Sublime Ones,” these are not empty words of praise but actually describes Rinpoche’s enlightened activities.

There are many new students gathered here today but new or old, we are truly the most fortunate of the fortunate, for during these troubled times, when there are so many wayward but charismatic teachers leading their students astray, Rinpoche is the guru who truly possesses and surpasses all the ten qualities of the valid guru. Rinpoche is the real deal!

So, Rinpoche, this is our heartfelt commitment to you:

You are our guru, you are our yidam,
You are our dakini and Dharma protector.
From now until enlightenment,
We shall seek no other refuge than you.

For the sake of your students, old and new, Rinpoche, please, please live long. 

And for countless others, desperately seeking but yet to meet the fully qualified guru, you who are that perfect guru, let them quickly, quickly find you. For their sake, Rinpoche, please, please live long. 

Our collective prayers have tremendous power and even if you were unable to attend the long life puja in person or online, we invite you to generate your own prayers for Rinpoche’s health and long life.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

You can learn more about the various charitable activities of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the many funds which support Rinpoche’s vision. 

Some of the monks of Sera Je Monastery. Photo courtesy of Sera Je Monastery Facebook page.

This year on August 1 we celebrate Chokhor Duchen, one of the four annual holy days of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha which commemorates Buddha’s first turning of the wheel of Dharma and on which merit generated is multiplied one hundred million times. An amazing array of prayers will be happening simultaneously around the world, dedicated to all beings, particularly the entire FPMT mandala—centers, projects, services, students, benefactors, volunteers and all connected to the organization—and all beings who are sick or who have passed away.

The prayers and practices happening will be:

• Recitation of the Kangyur
• Recitation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra
• One Thousand Offerings to Namgyalma
• Namgyalma long life ritual
• Sixty-Four Offerings to Kalarupa
• Recitation of the King of Prayers
• Medicine Buddha Puja

These prayers are being offered by thousands of ordained Sangha in Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Kopan Monastery, Gyudmed Tantric College, Gyuto Tantric College, Sera Lachi Monastery, Gaden Lachi Monastery, and Drepung Lachi Monastery.

Nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Nepal. Photo courtesy of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.

During the prayers, offerings will be made on behalf of FPMT to the nearly ten thousand Sangha, including the IMI Sangha residing in monasteries and nunneries around the world. Offerings will also be presented to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus.

Sangha will also be making offerings of robes to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India; saffron color and umbrellas to the most precious Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal; printing sutras; creating stupas and Buddha tsa-tsas; and liberating animals.

Please rejoice in these incredible prayers and offerings that are being made on behalf of all within the FPMT organization. The Puja Fund is honored to sponsor these activities and if you would like to be part of these offerings at any time, you can donate any amount to the Puja Fund.

This is an incredible opportunity on August 1 to remember these activities and offerings, to rejoice that they are happening, and to dedicate the merits.

Thank you to all who make this possible and especially the Sangha who undertake these prayers and practices on behalf of us all. 

Please find collected practice advice for this merit multiplying buddha day, as well as other information about Chokhor Duchen. 

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery, Nepal. Photo by Ven. Thubten Choying.

This year on Saka Dawa, June 14, when merit is multiplied 300 million times, the Puja Fund, on behalf of the entire organization, will be arranging the following pujas and practices for the benefit of all beings:

• • 100,000 Praises to Twenty-one Taras offered two times by Gaden Lachi Monastery and Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.
  • Recitation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra by Gyudmed Tantric College.
  • 1,000 sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyalma by Sera Lachi Monastery and Gyuto Tantric College.
  • Medicine Buddha Puja by Gaden Lachi and Kopan monasteries.
  • Namgyalma long life ritual  by Drepung Lachi Monastery.
  • Offerings to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus, to an incredible 13,500 Sangha who are performing these pujas and practices, and in IMI communities.
  • Offerings of robes to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, and saffron and umbrellas to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal.
  • Printing sutras, making stupas, and Buddha tsa-tsas, and liberating animals.

You can be part of these incredible collective prayers, which support the Sangha, as well as the offerings to holy objects, by contributing to the Puja Fund. All donors are included in the dedication prayers.

You can also join by rejoicing in the practices, remembering they are happening on the actual day, and joining in with your own collective prayers.

Thanks to all who make these offerings possible. This is a truly meaningful way to offer support that benefits the entire FPMT organization and all who serve it in any way, to ensure the organization’s success in helping others far in the future, to help fulfill Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes for these activities to occur according to his instructions, and to create extensive merit for every living being through dedication. 

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Ven. Roger Kunsang offering a mandala to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the April 19, 2021 long life puja at Kopan Monastery

Every year Ven. Roger Kunsang, on behalf of the FPMT organization, checks with Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and/or Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la), to determine what practices should be done to help create the conditions for Lama Zopa Rinpoche to have a long life and good health for the coming year. 

The first offering to Rinpoche arranged this year will be a White Tara long life puja on March 11, 2022, at Kopan Monastery. This special long life puja will involve seven days of preparation led by Khadro-la with the Kopan monks. At a later date there will be a Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong and a Guru Rinpoche bum tsog also offered according to the advice received. 

Khadro-la making an offering during a long life puja to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, April 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Our prayers have tremendous power and we invite you to join us by rejoicing in the puja being offered, generating your own prayers for Rinpoche’s health and long life, or making an offering toward the expenses associated with the pujas and practices for Rinpoche’s health and long life.

For additional recent advice from Khadro-la on mantra recitations to do for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the entire FPMT organization see: fpmt.org/lama-zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/mantra-recitations-for-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-lama-zopa-rinpoche-and-fpmt

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

The Long Life Puja Fund always contributes to long life pujas offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche. You can also learn about the many Charitable Projects of FPMT and discover how the various funds and projects are benefiting others.

Monks of Sera Mey Monastery offering a puja sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund, prior to local restrictions.

The Puja Fund was established in 1995 as an expansive way for the organization to clear obstacles and generate the merit needed to be of most benefit in the world.

Incredible Opportunity This Lhabab Duchen

On the auspicious day of Lhabab Duchen (October 27), when the merit is magnified one hundred million times, the Puja Fund will be making and extensive monetary offering to 10,000 ordained sangha in India and Nepal. The sangha will be engaged in the recitations of the Prajnaparamita, Golden Light, Arya Sanghata, Vajra Cutter, and Amitayus Long Life sutras and will dedicate the merit of reciting these incredible sutras to all beings and in particular for the FPMT family, for all of the Dharma activities to succeed, and for all the kind donors of the Puja Fund. 

In addition there will be robes offered  to the Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, and saffron and umbrellas offered to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas. These offerings happen monthly throughout the year and always on merit-multiplying days.

If you would like to join in this vast offering, please offer any amount to the

Puja Fund

The monks of Sera Je Monastery.

An Increase of Offerings Due to Pandemic Difficulties

Current pandemic regulations prohibiting large gatherings have impacted monks and nuns in monasteries and nunneries all over India and Nepal who rely on support from offering the service of pujas and other prayers for individuals who request this from around the world. Due to this, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has increased the offerings we make to each sangha member eight-fold this year. We are honored to directly support sangha in this way. With this increase the amount being offered this Lhabab Duchen is US$40,000. 

The Buddha described the vast benefits that arise from making offerings to ordained sangha, the Sangha Jewel, who are living in pure morality. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that the sangha are the “real heroes” among us because they are working to defeat the delusions and thus living the best lives as human beings. Also, offering to those who are disciples of the same guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, becomes offering to the most powerful object of devotion, one’s own guru.

Making Merit Wisely

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has encouraged students to create merit wisely in order to generate the greatest success and fulfill our wishes. The upcoming Buddha multiplying day offers us one of those wise opportunities because merit is multiplied by 100 million times. And if one generates a bodhichitta motivation—the thought to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings—while making an offering, this becomes the cause to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings and is the most powerful way to purify all the defilements you have accumulated since beginningless rebirths. This is very smart business and the best way to create the most extensive merit for yourself and others.

If you  would like to make an offering to the Puja Fund for this purpose, please remember on the actual day (October 27) to rejoice in the offering you have made, to rejoice in the activities of the sangha who are engaged in the recitations, and to dedicate all the merit generated. 

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity.

It takes Sangha many hours each day to offer water bowls as part of the extensive offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling.

Since 1999, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has arranged to have continual extensive offerings of water bowls and lights offered twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year to create merit for the FPMT organization. Since this began over two decades ago, these offerings have been increasing and are now happening in various parts of the world. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained, “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. 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.”

Rinpoche personally incorporates all of these actual physically made offerings in his daily practices and when doing food offerings he sometimes leads an extensive practice where all of the offerings are visualized and multiplied and then mentally offered to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and all the holy objects around the world.  

Rinpoche advises students, whenever making offerings in our practice, that we can also remember all the other arranged offerings in Kachoe Dechen Ling, CA, US; Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, WA, US; and also in all the FPMT centers around the world, by using these actual offerings as a basis and then visualizing and multiplying them. In this way, we can join in the merit from those having made these extensive offerings every day.

Extensive offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling, CA, US.

Please Rejoice in Some of the Extensive Offerings Around the World

• Thousands of light offerings, hundreds of water bowls, and a garden full of flower offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling, CA, US. 
• Thousands of light offerings, hundreds of water bowls, and a garden full of flower offerings at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, WA, US.  
• Thousands of light offerings, hundreds of water bowls, and gardens full of flowers offerings at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, India.
• Thousands of lights, hundreds of water bowls and gardens full of flower offering at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. 
•  100,000 lights continually offered at Amitabha Buddhist Centre (ABC), Singapore.
•  100,001 lights continually offered at Chokyi Gyaltsen Center, Malaysia.
• Thousands of water bowl offerings, extensive light offerings at Ganden Do Ngag Shedrub Ling Center, Mongolia. These offerings are made daily by a group of very dedicated elderly volunteers.
• Continually burning butter lamp in front of precious stupa with Trulshik Rinpoche’s holy body in Chailsa, Nepal.
• Continually burning butter lamp in front of Guru Lhakang, Thubten Choeling, Chailsa, Nepal

Please rejoice and remember all these extensive offerings that happen every moment of every day!

Water bowls and extensive offerings at Ganden Do Ngag Shedrub Ling Center, Mongolia, offered by a dedicated group of elderly volunteers.

The Actual Offering Prayer

Through the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund Rinpoche supports a number of Sangha to make many of these offerings daily, as well as covering the cost of electricity for the extensive light offerings at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Kopan Monastery in 2021, and Root Institute, as well as the butter for the continual light offerings in Nepal and also occasionally the meals to the kind volunteers of  Ganden Do Ngag Shedrub Ling Center, Mongolia.

Extensive offerings at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.

You can learn more about the many beneficial activities of the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund or other Charitable Projects of FPMT.

Through the FPMT Puja Fund we have arranged for an incredible vast array of pujas, practices, and offerings for Saka Dawa May 26 when any merit created is multiplied 100 million times.

The pujas and offerings are being undertaken with strong prayers by up to 10,000 Sangha and every practice is extensively dedicated to all the donors of the puja fund, and in particular for all those affected by the pandemic.  By contributing any amount to the Puja Fund, not only will you be a part of all these prayers and practices but also every single puja arranged throughout the year, will be dedicated to you.

“If you make offerings, please remember on the actual day that the pujas are happening, rejoice in them and dedicate the merit. This is the best business and the best way to create most extensive merit.”  – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Monks at Kopan Monastery engaging in puja.

Some of the prayers, pujas, and offerings happening on Saka Dawa*:

• Recitation of the Prajnaparamita.
• 100,000 Praises to Twenty-one Taras offered three times by over 9,000 ordained monks and nuns.
• One thousand sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyalma, Namgyalma long life ritual, Medicine Buddha puja and Sixty-four Offerings to Kalarupa.
• One Hundred Million Mani Retreat by Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery in Nepal.
• Offerings are made to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all of Rinpoche’s gurus and to over 10,000 ordained Sangha around the world.
• Offering paint, gold, and new robes to stupas in Nepal, and Buddha statue in BodhGaya and Jowo Buddha statue in Tibet.

• See the complete list  of all the pujas, practices and offerings that will be happening on Saka Dawa. 

The nuns of of Kachoe Gyakyil Nunnery, Nepal, offering puja.

Thank you to all the donors who make it possible to arrange these continual pujas, prayers, and offerings.

*We are closely monitoring the most current COVID-19 restrictions and will adjust the practices and pujas offered on Saka Dawa according to the safety of all.

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong puja that was offered for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life, the entire FPMT organization, and an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, October, 2020, Kopan Monastery. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The FPMT Puja Fund was established so that pujas and prayers, offered by as many as 15,650 ordained Sangha, would continuously be sponsored for the benefit of the entire FPMT organization. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, large groups of monks are not able to gather in South India monasteries, so over these months smaller groups of monks have offered the pujas.

Pujas and offerings are sponsored on all of the holy Buddha merit-multiplying days: Losar, Saka Dawa, Chokhor Duchen, and Lhabab Duchen.

This year on Lhabab Duchen (November 7, 2020) the following pujas were arranged:

• Recitation of the Prajnaparamita (three versions) by the monks of Gyurme Tantric College
• Namgyäl Tong Chö (One thousand sets of offerings to Buddha Namgyälma), and Zangcho offered by the monks of Gyuto Tantric College
• Druk Ch Ma (64 offerings to Kalarupa), Medicine Buddha Puja and King of Prayers offered by the 370 monks of Kopan Monastery
• Druk Chu Ma, Medicine Buddha Puja, and King of Prayers offered by the 400 nuns of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery (Kopan Nunnery)
• Printing of the Sutra of Golden Light six times, Arya Sangata Sutra ten times, Vajra Cutter Sutra two-hundred times, and Amitayus Long Life Sutra twenty times
• Offerings to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus and to all of the International Mahayana Institute sangha communities 

Sangha at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa enjoying dessert sponsored by the Puja Fund on Lama Tsong Khapa Day.

On Lama Tsong Khapa Day (December 10, 2020), Lama Zopa Rinpoche made offerings to all the monks and nuns of Kopan Monastery and Nunnery, and offered nice lunches and dessert to all the IMI sangha communities.

Rinpoche also recently sponsored 100,000 Buddha names recitation by the nuns of Kopan Nunnery. This puja was dedicated to all the animals killed during Darshain festival in Nepal, the tens of millions of turkeys killed during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, as well as the 17 million minks that were killed due to fears that they were spreading COVID-19 in Denmark.

Puja at Kopan Monastery, June 2020. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

After a pause in these offerings for a few months due to COVID-19, we are happy that the following Puja Fund activities have now resumed every month on the full moon:

• Offerings to the holy Boudhanath and Swayambunath Stupas in Nepal. Offerings of white wash, four giant saffron flower petals and the best quality cloth to the umbrellas at the pinnacles are made to the Boudhanath and Swayambunath stupas in Nepal every month on the full moon and also on Buddha Days when merit is multiplied 100 million times.
• Offerings of gold for the entire holy body and robes to the Jowo Buddha statue in Tibet and robes are offered to the Buddha statue in the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya.

Additionally, every month the Puja Fund sponsors: Medicine Buddha Puja and Most Secret Hayagriva Puja offered by the monks of Sera Je and Sera Mey Monastery. 

The Puja Fund is also now sponsoring a number of Hayagriva tsog kong pujas at Kopan Monastery, as advised by Khadro-la, for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life, the health and success of the entire FPMT organization, and an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These are just a few of the many activities sponsored by the FPMT Puja Fund. It is due to the kindness of so many that these ongoing prayers, pujas, and offerings can happen in this way, hopefully bringing more peace and happiness in the world. The annual expense for the pujas is over US$85,000 and all are welcome to contribute.

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Hayagriva tsog kong puja offered at Kopan Monastery on October 26, 2020, for the long life of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and all beings, Nepal

Following the advice of Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la), a Most Secret Hayagriva tsog kong puja was offered at Kopan Monastery in Nepal on October 26 for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life. In addition, this puja was dedicated for the health and success of the entire FPMT organization, an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for a number of individuals and geshes within the organization who were specifically advised to have this puja done for life obstacles.

Hayagriva tsog kong torma.

This is the third Hayagriva tsog kong offered at Kopan Monastery, following the advice of Khadro-la for pujas needed to remove obstacles to Rinpoche’s health in 2020. Hayagriva is the wrathful manifestation of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. This puja is very powerful as a means for removing obstacles and generating merit, and is very important for FPMT, due to the organization’s close connection with the deity as this is FPMT’s main protector.

Please enjoy this short video of various scenes from this powerful puja:
https://youtu.be/APW_NSlxn54

Lama Zopa Rinpoche attended this puja as well as Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, the Lama Gyupas, and senior monks of Kopan Monastery. The puja took many hours with extensive prayers and meditation, and elaborate tormas were made by the Kopan Lama Gyupas and offered within the puja.

Please rejoice in the successful completion of this third Hayagriva tsog kong for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s long life, the removal of obstacles and creation of merit for the entire FPMT organization, the end of the coronavirus pandemic, and the benefit of all beings.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Every month, the Puja Fund sponsors about 40 of the most senior monks of Sera Je Monastery, who specialize in this practice, to offer the Extensive Most Secret Hayagriva Puja for the success and longevity of the entire FPMT organization. 

Geshe Sengye and the elaborate tormas for Most Secret Hayagriva puja.

For twenty-five years the Puja Fund has been sponsoring ongoing prayers and practices dedicated to the success and longevity of the entire FPMT organization. One puja that Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises as particularly important for FPMT, due to the organization’s close connection with the deity and also as this is FPMT’s main protector, is Most Secret Hayagriva Puja (Tamdin tsokkhong).

Every month, on the Tibetan 29^th day, the Puja Fund sponsors about 40 of the most senior monks of Sera Je Monastery, who specialize in this practice, to offer the Extensive Most Secret Hayagriva Puja. This is an all-day puja with an elaborate torma offering and extensive prayers and meditation. Even during the pandemic, this monthly puja has been happening with strong prayers for the organization and all beings.

Dagri Rinpoche, Bakula Rinpoche, Geshe Sengye, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Jhado Rinpoche, and the incarnation of Kwetsang Rinpoche in Tushita Meditation Center, 1985.

Most Secret Hayagriva is the wrathful manifestation of Chenrezig and is also the main protector deity of Sera Je Monastery. Lama Zopa Rinpoche received the lineage of Most Secret Hayagiva from Sera Je Abbott Geshe Sengye, and in 2006 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave this initiation at Sera Je Monastery.

The practice of Most Secret Hayagriva is extremely powerful to grant help and support and quickly pacify obstacles. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said that one of the reasons that Sera Je Monastery has been so successful and able to produce so many qualified teachers, who have very good understanding of Dharma, good hearts, and subdued minds, is due to the blessings—or holy actions—of the deity, Most Secret Hayagriva. Not only outwardly, but also inwardly having great success, this is due to this deity.

Geshes offering Most Secret Hayagriva Puja.

At this time of global crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and political unrest, these monthly powerful pujas are particularly important for the FPMT community, those serving the organization, the monks of Sera Je Monastery, and all beings. 

Thank you to all the donors who support the Puja Fund. This enables pujas and practices to be happening continually. The pujas and practices, including the monthly Extensive Most Secret Hayagriva puja, are always dedicated to all the donors of this fund, as well as for all the FPMT center, services, projects, and all beings. The annual cost for just this puja is approximately US$6,800 and for all the pujas offered each year by the Puja Fund totals US$85,000.

You can learn more about the beneficial prayers, practices, and pujas sponsored by the Puja Fund, or about FPMT’s other extensive charitable activity. 

Extremely precious Arya Lokeshvara statue offered gold in Potala Palace on behalf of the entire FPMT organization, Saka Dawa 2020.

Gold offered to the Jowo Buddha statue in Lhasa, Tibet on Saka Dawa 2020.

Please join us in rejoicing in a most precious offering that occurred on Saka Dawa (June 5, 2020): Gold was offered to two statues in Tibet! The offering was made on behalf of the entire FPMT organization—including all students; volunteers; benefactors; teachers; those working in all FPMT centers, projects, services; and those offering service in any way to the organization—and for all beings.

The extremely precious statue of Arya Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) located in the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, was offered gold. This statue is one of the Self-Arisen Arya Avalokiteshvara Brother statues dating back to the seventh century. Gold was also offered to the most precious Jowo Buddha in the Jokhang Temple, Tibet. 

While we may not be able to physically travel to Tibet and make these offerings ourselves, we are honored to be able to facilitate these offerings on everyone’s behalf on this powerful multiplying day of Saka Dawa (and this year Lunar Eclipse).

Praise to Chenrezig

Incredibly precious Arya Lokeshvara statue dates back to the time of Songtsen Gampo, seventh century.

O Arya Avalokiteshvara, treasure of compassion, 
Together with your retinue, please pay attention to me.

Please quickly free me and all mother and father sentient beings of the six realms from the ocean of cyclic existence.
Please enable the profound and extensive peerless bodhichitta to quickly grow in our mindstreams.

Please quickly cleanse our delusions and actions accumulated since beginningless time, with the water of compassion.
And, with your compassionate hand, lead me and all migrators to the blissful pure land.

May Amitabha and Avalokiteshvara act as our spiritual friends in all lifetimes, show us the excellent unmistaken path, and quickly place us in the state of buddhahood.

You can read about all of the prayers and activities offered on Saka Dawa on behalf of the entire FPMT organization and you can join in all of these offerings by strongly rejoicing. 

All are welcome to offer any amount to the Puja Fund so that these beneficial activities can continue long into the future. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2020.

Saka Dawa falls on June 5 this year and is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar commemorating Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment and parinirvana. June 5 is also an eclipse day this year. 

The Puja Fund is sponsoring prayers and practices on behalf of FPMT for all students, volunteers and benefactors, and the entire world, on Saka Dawa. Normally we would be sponsoring a lot more pujas, but due to the current restrictions in South India, many of the monasteries are not able to offer the pujas at this time. We are so thankful that Kopan Monastery and Nunnery will still be doing pujas on Saka Dawa. These are the activities we are sponsoring this year:

PUJAS

• 100,000 recitations of Praises to the Twenty-One Taras 
• Druk Chu Ma (sixty-four offerings to Kalarupa)
• Medicine Buddha Puja and King of Prayers

SUTRA PRINTING

Golden Light Sutra (6 x), Arya Sangata Sutra (10 x), Vajra Cutter Sutra (200 x) and Amitayus Long Life Sutra (20 x): printing will be done during the actual eclipse time with specific prayers that Rinpoche has recommended.

OFFERING TO HOLY OBJECTS, GURUS, AND SANGHA COMMUNITIES

The precious Jowo Buddha statue in Lhasa, Tibet.

Offerings of gold, robes, saffron, and umbrellas are made to holy statues located in Lhasa, Tibet; and the Boudhanath and Swayambunath Stupas. Also offerings are made to all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s gurus, and to all the IMI Sangha communities. 

Using Saka Dawa to Create Merit in a Suffering World

Saka Dawa is such an incredibly auspicious and powerful time to practice and make prayers, especially right now with all the suffering in the world. This is a great opportunity to utilize this time in the best possible way, for the benefit of all beings. Anyone can mentally join in any of these pujas and offerings, by remembering them and rejoicing in them. Merely remembering what is happening and rejoicing in the offerings is so beneficial: the existence of the holy objects, the Sangha making prayers and students all over the world who are also are making prayers, as well as the activities and offerings happening in so many of the centers and online on Saka Dawa. By rejoicing in this you create so much merit and it is multiplied 100 million times. How fantastic! What an opportunity! 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently gave new advice on what practices to do on Saka Dawa, and also offered the lineage, commentary and tunes of the eight Mahayana precepts to students via video so it is very easy to receive the eight Mahayana precepts on Saka Dawa from Rinpoche directly, an incredibly precious opportunity. 

Thank you for your support to the Puja Fund. It is due to the kindness of so many that these ongoing prayers, pujas, and offerings can happen and in this way, hopefully bringing more peace and happiness in the world. 

All are welcome to offer any amount to the Puja Fund so that these beneficial activities can continue long into the future. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s recent advice for practice on Saka Dawa: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/recommended-practices-for-the-fifteenth-day-of-saka-dawa-june-5/

Advice for eclipse days and Buddha multiplying days: https://fpmt.org/edu-news/advice-for-eclipse-days-and-buddha-multiplying-days/