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Sera Je Food Fund News
For over 14 years, Yeshe Norbu Association has benefited Tibetan refugees and children struggling to survive.
Yeshe Norbu Association is an Italian FPMT non-profit association which supports important projects benefiting Tibetan refugees and children. One project that Yeshe Norbu has benefited immensely is the Sera Je Food Fund. Over the past ten years, Yeshe Norbu has contributed funds to cover over 3 million meals provided by the Sera Je Food Fund.
This is something amazing to rejoice in. Please watch this video which outlines all of the charitable work undertaken by Yeshe Norbu Association for the benefit of Tibetan refugees and children who need the support so desperately.
All of the monks of Sera Je Monastery are offered three nutritious meals daily through the Sera Je Food Fund.
Every day, the Sera Je Food Fund offers three vegetarian meals to all of the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery (with an additional 800 monks from the Sera Je School joining for breakfast). The fund currently offers 8,300 meals every single day.
The amount of food required for this offering is astounding. For example, a typical month’s worth of meals requires, among many other ingredients:
- 98 gallons of cooking oil
- 2,601 pounds of flour
- 2,280 pounds of rice
- 36 bottles of soy sauce
- 5,300 bananas
- 510 bundles of green vegetables
Monks helping prepare one of the daily meals offered through the Sera Je Food Fund.
It costs approximately US$280,000 to offer three meals every day to all of the monks.
If you would like to contribute to the Sera Je Food Fund, you may offer any amount you are able.
- US$10: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to one monk for one month
- US$120: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to one monk for one year
- US$780: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks for one day
- US$5,460: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks for one week
- US$280,000: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to all the 2,500 monks for one year
We are pleased to announce that now you can subscribe to get the latest news about the Sera Je Food Fund delivered to your email inbox!
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Lama Zopa Rinpoche making offerings for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life at the conclusion of this year’s Jangchub Lam-Rim teaching event at Sera Je Monastery.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche had a private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Sera Je Monastery on January 2, 2014. Ven. Roger Kunsang shares that during the interview, His Holiness highly praised the three great monasteries (Sera, Ganden and Drepung) for their learning and for preserving the teachings of the Buddha in their entirety. Then His Holiness said that even the Buddha had to eat so that he could teach, and it was the same with the great Indian pandits – they needed to eat in order to be able to teach others. The monks need to rely on food in order to be educated in these great establishments of learning and His Holiness said that this is why the food fund that Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT has established and offered for many years[the Sera Je Food Fund] is so very important.
What is Offered?
Every month an incredible amount of food is bought, prepared and offered through the Sera Je Food Fund in order to provide food for the 2,500 monks of the monastery.
For example, over three recent months US$11,458 (712,243 rs) was spent on food purchases for breakfast. Food is offered to 3,300 monks for breakfast. This included:
- 8,631 pounds of flour
- 6,831 liters of milk
You can see more details about what is offered daily for breakfast.
For lunch, US$16,111.26 (1,001,502 rs) was spent on food purchases over three recent months.
This included:
- 51,380 bananas
- 4,432 bundles of green vegetables
You can see more details about what is offered daily for lunch.
US$11,287 (701,620 rs) was spent on dinner over three recent months. This included:
- 97 bottles of soy sauce
- 5,260 pounds of rice
You can see more details about what is offered daily for dinner.
The Sera Je Food Fund provides three nutritious meals to all of the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
During His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Jangchub Lam-Rim teaching event at Sera Je Monastery
The Sera Je Food Fund Kitchen offered dry food to all of the monks as the kitchen was not able to prepare food due to some restraints associated with this massive event. However, during that period the kitchen made sure all the monks had the food to prepare themselves.
Thank you
This ongoing offering is possible due to the incredible kindness of so many who supported the Sera Food Fund over the last twenty-two years, as well as the team at Sera Je Monastery: Ven. Ngawang Sangye, Ven. Rabten, Ven. Kelden; the amazing cooks and monastery staff and administration including the monastery manager, Geshe Thubten Monlam. On behalf of all the monks: Thank you for your incredible support and please rejoice in this amazing offering that we are able to make every day of the last twenty-two years to over 2,500 monks.
You are welcome to offer any amount at any point to this incredible daily offering of food to Sere Je Monastery’s most precious Sangha.
Rinpoche thanking benefactors for their very kind and generous donations to the Sera Je Food Fund, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2014. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
The Sera Je Food Fund, which was started by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1991, currently offers more than 3 million meals each year to the monks of Sera Je Monastery, allowing the monks there to focus on their studies.
“I just want to explain some things about the Sera Je Food Fund, just for your education and also maybe you can pass some of this on,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised in 2011 while at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India. “[To paraphrase,] Buddha said in the Arya Sanghata Sutra: the result of making charity, even the size of a single strand of hair, is happiness that you will experience for 80,000 eons. You will enjoy great wealth. …
“This quote means if you make charity of anything, even just a tiny amount, the result of this is happiness for an unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable length of time. Just from making charity one time,” Rinpoche continued.
“Regarding the Sera Je Food Fund, this is making offerings to Sangha … wow … wow! Can you imagine the merit of that? Even making small charity the size of a single strand of hair? Can you imagine? In the monastery there are Sangha living in the five vows, but the majority of the Sangha are living in higher vows such as getsül (36 vows) and gelong, a fully ordained bhikkshu (253 vows). Most of the Sangha are gelongs and living in highest number of vows … wow … wow … wow! One creates so much merit by making offerings to Sangha due to the power of the object. …”
For more, you can read Rinpoche’s complete advice, “Benefits of the Sera Je Food Fund.”
Learn more about the Sera Je Food Fund, including its history, and watch videos of the fund’s work by visiting the Sera Je Food Fund website.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an organization dedicated to preserving Mahayana Buddhism through offering the Buddha’s authentic teachings and to facilitating reflection, meditation, practice and the opportunity to actualize and directly experience the Buddha’s teachings. Sign up to receive news and updates.
Each month, approximately 250,000 meals are offered to the monks studying at Sera Je Monastery.
In order for the Sera Je Food Fund to offer three meals per day to all 2,500 monks studying at Sera Je Monastery (3,300 monks join for breakfast), the Sera Je Kitchen must acquire, prep, cook, and clean-up after an enormous amount of food.
In one month alone, the Sera Je Kitchen utilized 17,403 pounds of flour and 21,528.14 pounds of rice.
This is 38,931.14 pounds of rice and flour utilized and offered!
Also in one month, 14,300 bananas were offered and 1,523 bundles of green vegetables were offered.
This, of course, is in addition to the other vegetables, fruits, spices, oil, baking powder, tea, milk and butter needed to offer approximately 250,000 meals per month.
This offering of three nutritious meals a day is something amazing to rejoice in!
You are welcome to contribute anytime to the Sera Je Food Fund.
The Sera Je Food Fund continues to offer three nutritious meals daily for all 2,500 monks living at Sera Je Monastery in southern India. We currently offer 3,029,500 meals every year, that is 8,300 every day!
This project is only possible due to a massive and collective effort of many volunteers at the monastery (who shop for, prepare, and clean up after each meal) as well as many kind donors who contribute to this fund.
Here are a few recent photos which illustrate the many aspects of this incredibly beneficial project.
Ngawang Rigdol shops for aluminum pots needed for the Sera Je Food Fund kitchen.
Many hands are needed for clean up.
Cooked noodles for 2,500 need tossing just like cooked noodles for 1 would!
If you would like to contribute to the Sera Je Food Fund, you may offer any amount you are able.
- US$10: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to one monk for one month
- US$120: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to one monk for one year
- US$780: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks for one day
- US$5,460: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to all 2,500 monks for one week
- US$280,000: Provides three vegetarian meals a day to all the 2,500 monks for one year
Monks of Sera Je Monastery who benefit from the Sera Je Food Fund
Tremendous thanks to everyone who participated in the recent Sera Je Food Fund Campaign!
Please Rejoice!
Due to the kindness and generosity of many, we raised just over a quarter of the food fund’s annual budget. That’s more than 750,000 meals provided to monks studying at Sera Je Monastery!
You are still welcome to donate any amount to this campaign.
The Sera Je Food Fund Kitchen crew work together to provide thousands of daily meals.
Mandala magazine recently published the October-December 2013 issue which featured the Sera Je Food Fund in their Cooking with Bodhichitta section. The piece, written by Ven. Ngawang Sangye is a fantastic overview of the daily kitchen schedule for the Sera Je Food Fund, complete with some recipes of the healthy vegetarian meals offered to the monks and many photos.
“The Sera Je Kitchen serves food to a large resident monastic population of 2,500. Various people are involved with feeding the monks in different organizational aspects. For all of them it is a very satisfying, and at times, very challenging experience.” More….
“Kitchen work begins at 4:00 a.m. every day. The on-duty cooks initiate all the preparatory work like pre-heating the hot plate used to make bread. All resident monks enrolled in the geshe studies program, with the exception of those in the very senior classes, have to take turns to help with kitchen work for two days every month. Every day, between 50 and 70 monks are assigned to kitchen work.” More….
Some of the 2,500 monks of Sera Je Monastery.
Each month, the Sera Je Food Fund offers an incredible amount of food to the monks of Sera Je Monastery. In July, 1,308,787 Rs. (approximately US$20,872) were spent on food for meals offered at breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. The expenses this month were lower than usual because some unused food was sold back to markets. Additionally, some of the pujas where food was offered were sponsored, therefore, there was no cost to the Sera Je Food Fund for those meals.
Foods and supplies offered this July included:
- Nearly 17,150 bananas were offered
- 4,931 pounds of rice and 2,866 pounds of dahl were prepared
- 7,619 pounds of baking powder and flour were incorporated into recipes
- 2,002 bundles of green vegetables and 4,362 pounds of combined other vegetables were served
- 63 bottles of soy sauce were utilized
- 2,785 cups of cooking oil and 56 gas cylinders were needed
Cooking with Bodhchitta
The October-December 2013 issue of Mandala published several recipes from the Sera Je Food Fund kitchen in their Cooking with Bodhichitta online blog. Here we include a recipe for a traditional and satisfying Tibetan dish, Vegetable Noodle Soup (Thukpa). NOTE: This recipe is meant to feed 2,500 people, so adjust accordingly!
Vegetable Noodle Soup (Thukpa)
Food is prepared in large pots and equipment able to fold food for 2,500.
Ingredients:
- diced mushrooms
- sliced radish
- spinach and other green leafy vegetables
- a freshly prepared mixture of ground turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and star anise (about 1 kilogram [2.2 pounds])
- sliced onions
- tomatoes
- refined sunflower oil (about 15 liters [4 gallons])
- salt
- dark soy sauce
- desiccated coconut
- noodles (made in our kitchen)
Preparation:
The noodles used in the Vegetable Noodle Soup are made in our kitchen. Refined white flour is kneaded with a consistency that is slightly firmer than what we have for the bread. This dough is then run through a noodle-making machine. First the dough is run through the machine to press it into flat layers. These are then rerun through the machine until the required thickness is achieved. Once it reaches the desired thickness and firmness, the flat layers are run through a cutting machine that cuts out thin long strands of noodles. These are then dried for a day.
For the thukpa the noodles are boiled separately and then mixed with the vegetable soup and cooked together until done.
First, boil some water. Add the dry noodle strands to the boiling water and cook until nice and soft. Drain the water and keep aside.
In a separate vessel, heat some oil. Add the sliced onions. Cook until they turn slightly brown. Add the mixture of spices, salt and the dark soy sauce. Add a little water to prevent the spices from burning. Cook for about 3 minutes. Then add the cut tomatoes. Mix well and cook for another 5 minutes. Then add the vegetables. Then add the pre-boiled noodles. Cook together with the vegetables for another 30 minutes.
The annual cost to offer three delicious and nutritious meals every day to the 2,500 monks of Sera Je Monastery is US$280,000. Through the Sera Je Food Fund, you can easily set up monthly secure donations in order to support this project in an ongoing way.
DONATE
2,918 monks received 10 days worth of dried food from the Sera Je Food Fund this year in an effort to supply them with food during the Summer Rain Retreat.
Each year, the monks in Sera Je Monastery observe the Yarney or “Summer Rain Retreat” for 45 days according to the Monastic Rules and Practices. This year’s Summer Rain Retreat ended on September 4, followed by about 10 days of break or holiday from the monastery’s routine philosophical studies or school programs. During this period, the Sera Je Food Fund‘s main kitchen will be closed but monks will still be given about 10 days’ worth of dried food for them to cook either on their own or with their respective house groups or khamtsens.
Dried food offered by the Sera Je Food Fund to 2,918 monks.
A total of 2,918 monks received the dried food. Each monk has received about 4.5 pounds of rice, 6.6 pounds of flour and 2 cups of cooking oil: all fully sponsored by the Sera Je Food Fund! Rejoice!
You can see more photos of this distribution and keep up with life at Sera Je on the Sera Je Monastery’s Facebook page.
To read more about the daily activities of the Sera Je Food Fund kitchen, and also to enjoy some recipes of this delicious food, please read Mandala magazine’s “Cooking with Bodhichitta: The Sera Je Food Fund.“
Sera Je Food Fund’s Dramatic Impact on the Monks of
Sera Je Monastery
By Geshe Thubten Jinpa
Geshe Thubten Jinpa
A 78-year-old monk walks back and forth two times every day for the meal being served in the main prayer hall of Sera Je Monastic University, situated in South India. After each meal, he comes back with a half-loaf of bread that he did not finish. I thought the leftover bread would go in the garbage bin, but I was wrong. He puts the bread in the sun and lets it dry. Later in the day when his young disciples come back hungry from class, he offers the dry piece of bread as a snack with a cup of black tea.
This old monk has been doing this for decades. Now it is just a habit, but 30 years ago he started this ritual out of helplessness and responsibility. In those days, senior monks who had young disciples had to save half of their food so that their young pupils could eat and be able to continue their studies in the evening without an empty stomach.
Young monks enjoying the daily breakfast provided by the Sera Je Food Fund.
Some of the young monks who studied with him and received his dry bread each day are the most brilliant geshes today. They are now the main teachers for the young monks in the monastery and some are teaching in FPMT centers around the world and benefiting many people.
It was not an easy job to accept any new monks before the 1990s because when you accepted a new monk, you took full responsibility for his well-being, meaning you had to take care of his lodging, food, study and other material needs. It is as if you had become a parent to the new monk.
Geshe Wangchen, one of the oldest monks at Sera Je, remembers how stressful it was when he was receiving many new monks from Tibet and the Himalayas. Although he was joyful to have new monks come from far and wide to learn the Dharma, he understood the reality that they were now his complete responsibility. This was very challenging at that time, as every monk had to pay for their meals themselves. In the early ‘90s Geshe Wangchen could not afford to offer meals to his students, and so he had no choice but to share each of his own meals with three or four other monks in addition to organizing food – a heartbreaking porridge made out of just 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of flour – for as many as 20 young disciples. Today, he appreciates so sincerely the Sera Je Food Fund that was established by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1991. Suddenly, the responsibility of providing for all the monks was lifted from him.
Geshe Nyima, a lharampa geshe (equivalent to a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy), is now teaching hundreds of monks more than six sessions every single day, despite his poor health. He suffers from gastric ulcers and is very weak, exemplifying the dangers of malnurishment at a young age. Geshe Nyima escaped Tibet in 1982, together with 15 other young monks, and arrived in India to study at Sera Je Monastery. Most of the friends with whom he escaped from Tibet became very ill due to the lack of nutrition and hygiene. Most of them gave up and either returned to Tibet or left for somewhere else. Geshe Nyima stayed on, but he struggled. All those who survived the early times are now in poor health, like Geshe Nyima.
Today, the Sera Je Food Fund provides highly nutritious meals, hygienically prepared for thousands of monks every day. Since the food fund started in 1991, the health of all the monks improved dramatically. They are now able to devote their full time to their Dharma studies without worrying about their meals or if they will have enough food. The most significant impact of the Sera Je Food Fund can be seen by the increase of numbers of the monks, and that senior monks like Geshe Wangchen are now able to accept as many new students as they can without worry.
Approximately 2,500 monks study at Sera Je Monastery. The Sera Je Food Fund provides nutritious meals for all.
Sera Je Monastery now has the largest amount of monks studying Tibetan Buddhism and it is where most of the best scholars are produced. These scholars are, in turn, able to teach Dharma all over world and attract many new students, thus directly helping to preserve the Mahayana tradition.
Buddha’s teaching of love, compassion and interdependence is needed urgently, especially in today’s war-torn world. The complete teachings of Buddha consist of three vehicles including the Mahayana Vajrayana which is refined from the Nalanda tradition. This is alive only in Tibetan Buddhism and the survival of this invaluable wisdom depends solely on the sustainability of the great institutions such as Sera Je Monastic University. That’s why His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama says, “It is due to these great monastic colleges that the profound, invaluable Buddha’s teaching is preserved and passed on without any corruption. Otherwise, humankind would have lost its most sacred relic long ago.”
Unfortunately, we live in a world where billions of dollars spent on manufacturing weapons every year, but in comparison, a great deal of struggle is required just to get the basic needs for an altruistic purpose such as supporting Sangha communities.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Manali, India, July 2013.
Yet, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes and determination are far more powerful and effective than any nuclear missile. He works so hard in trying to find anything that benefits sentient beings. He say, “When I am requesting someone to support any Dharma project, I am not only aiming to benefit the receiver but also the donors as well.”
Dharma is not just about studying, meditating or praying. It can be practiced in every part of our life. We can make whatever we do Dharma practice. We can support the great work of eliminating the suffering of others by supporting Dharma projects. It is not possible for everyone to engage in the serious Dharma study and practice, but your single contribution to support those who live their life abiding in morality and engaging in three trainings can be so meaningful. Your support not only benefits them but also you receive equal benefit.
Whatever we possess today, whether it be life, health or wealth, this does not exist inherently, and it is in the nature of impermanence, at any time it can change. So while you have this incredible situation, use it wisely. Use it to benefit others most, for example, by supporting Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy project, the Sera Je Food Fund, which has a dramatic impact on the monks of Sera Je Monastery and the preservation of the Mahayana tradition.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche enjoying a meal offered through the Sera Je Food Fund.
When you are making a contribution through Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s projects, it is like you are selecting the best marketing agency to market your product to generate everlasting profitable revenue. Because Lama Zopa Rinpoche is someone who is living a life truly in accord solely with Dharma. In today’s Buddhist community he is known as the great yogi (practitioner) of this modern age, he knows and teaches how to make the best out of everything we do. Your single contribution and merit accumulated through that is rejoiced in and dedicated after every practice Lama Zopa Rinpoche does – whether it be the longest food offering, overnight teachings, after saving a drowning insect from the water or during hours of meditation.
Bodhisattva Maitreya states in the Uttaratantra: “Buddha’s doctrine is categorized into two parts: scriptural Dharma – studying and teaching scriptures – and Dharma of realization – attaining realization by living in morality.” By supporting the Sangha community at Sera Je Monastery you are playing the best role in the preservation of Buddha’s teachings and service to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and in this way contributing to happiness of all living beings.
Geshe Thubten Jinpa was ordained by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1990 and since then has studied and completed the geshe course at Kopan Monastery. He graduated as a rabjampa geshe from Kopan Monastery in 2010 and then after one year of intensive study and exams at Sera Je Monastery and University he was awarded with Special Geshe degree in 2012. Geshe Jinpa has also served as Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s second attendant.
You can read another moving piece by Geshe Jinpa, “Rejoice for the Wonderful Food Fund!”
Please check out photo galleries of daily breakfast, lunch and dinner options offered by the food fund.
The current cost to offer three meals a day, every day per year, to the 2,500 monks studying at Sera Je Monastery is US$280,000.