The FPMT Inc. Board of Directors would like to extend our very best wishes for you and yours in the new year! May 2025 bring you happiness, health, prosperity, inspiration and, perhaps most important of all, peace.

We are just a few weeks into this new year, and we have already experienced so much! Around us the world seems to be moving very fast, and it can feel as if we have little control over what is happening. At such moments we can be truly grateful that we can go inside, look into our minds and hearts, and understand the benefits of taking refuge in the Buddha, his teachings, and those who work to realize them.  Through the Buddhadharma we can learn about the potential in ourselves and all sentient beings and as this becomes clearer it can bring ease to our minds.

Rejoice with us!

We would like to invite you to join us in rejoicing in the good and positive things that are taking place all over the world in FPMT centers, services, and projects. Rinpoche gave the Board the task of caring for the organization as a whole, and we take this task seriously. So, we do try to be aware of what is going on, and that is a lot! Amazing things are being done and have been accomplished – too much to mention all now but we can look at some events that took place in the past year and appreciate that we are part of the FPMT family that is helping to bring them about!

Just to give you a sample and mention a few of the highlights from the past year:

• January 2024 started off auspiciously with the Geshe Conference at Kopan, the first in many years. Beginning with Zoom messages from Gaden Tri Rinpoche and H.E. Ling Rinpoche, 35 geshes and geshemas from 14 countries, together with some FPMT Inc. Board members and International Office (IOF) staff, spent the following days in intensive discussions, dialogue, pujas, prayers, pilgrimages, being updated on what is happening in the organization, and what plans are being made for the future—as well as appreciating being together. All participants found the gathering both relevant and enjoyable and expressed the wish to make it a recurring event. (for more information, see the update of February 28, 2024)
• Then there was the first Gelug Monlam (Great Prayer Festival) held in Nalanda Monastery in Lavaur, France, in February. Lama Zopa Rinpoche had expressed the wish to bring this special tradition to the West and the geshes and monks at Nalanda made that wish a reality! A group of Western monks had studied hard in Kopan and then senior umzes, or chant leaders, came from Sera Je Monastery in South India to Nalanda to further teach them and help with the ceremonies. For the three days of the Monlam the gompa was full and some people followed on screen in the zen garden outside while others in various countries joined and prayed along online. On the last day, an impressive procession was made with an offering bath to Maitreya, circumambulating the main temple. You can watch a short beautiful video of these proceedings on Nalanda’s website. It was an historic occasion, a great success, and one that was especially joyful because Nalanda Monastery was able to fulfil Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche’s strong wish to initiate the Gelug Monlam in the West.

• Rinpoche’s compassion continues to flow through all the work being done by the FPMT Charitable Projects department. For decades, thousands of teachers, monks, nuns, schoolchildren, elderly Tibetans, indigent lay people and animals in India, Nepal, and Mongolia have been aided through your generosity and the hard work of a small International Office team headed by Ven. Holly Ansett and aided by Ven. Roger Kunsang and a few others. Offering grants for food funds in monasteries, the establishment of clinics, school operations, releasing animals, and helping the elderly live with dignity and adequate support have made an enormous difference in the lives of so many!

• In September there was the celebration of the fiftieth (!) anniversary of Chenrezig Institute in Australia, which was the first FPMT center. It was a three-day and joyous event, the Big Love Festival, attended by many teachers and special guests from Australia and all over the world. There were official ceremonies and much more, like the beautiful Medicine Buddha and Chenrezig sand mandalas that were constructed by monks who had come from Sera Je Monastery, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s holy relics were placed in a very beautiful crystal stupa that arrived that very day, special pujas were held by geshes and monks, Dharma kids’ activities were enjoyed, and much more. It was a fitting celebration of 50 years of offering the Dharma to the people of Australia, which is still being continued today.

• Australia is also the location of the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, which is not only amazing to see and visit but which also hosts teaching and cultural events. Beautiful images of the stupa and gardens can be viewed on the Great Stupa website.

• 2024 also saw the launching of Buddhist Mind Science: Activating Your Potential”, an exciting new introductory course being offered by the FPMT Education Department. Developed by Marina Brucet Vinyals and Hans Burghardt, the series is one of the latest FPMT courses, with the aim of encouraging an exploration of the Buddha’s ancient teachings alongside ideas and findings from a modern scientific perspective. Participants are very enthusiastic about the subject matter and presentation! Find more information here.

• There is the graduation of six new Kopan geshemas and 20 geshes recently, the amazing commemoration of Rinpoche’s life in Taiwan, the Climate Crisis Summit held at Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, the help given by students to the village of Thame after the landslides in Solu Khumbu, Nepal, and the building of a stunning 42-foot high Stupa of Complete Victory for Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan—definitely one of the major achievements of the past year.  The stupa is still under construction.

There is so much happening in the organization, and that we can rejoice in, that it is impossible to name all here!

 CPMT Summit 2025

As mentioned above, this Board feels the responsibility to care for and help preserve the foundation that was created through the Bodhicitta motivation of our enlightened teachers. At the same time, we are aware that we are all working in the twenty-first century and must also prepare for the future. For some time, and especially since the passing of Rinpoche, almost two years ago, the Board has felt that the only way to do so is to develop more inclusivity in the FPMT organization. To attain our goals, it is necessary to take the next steps with open eyes and minds—and together.

Therefore, we decided to be proactive and organize a CPMT Summit after doing some thorough preparation. We started by working on one of the most exciting initiatives in the last year: the holding of four Regional Consultations. First, a survey was sent out to hundreds of center directors and others in the FPMT organization. Based on the responses, four ‘Focus Areas’ were identified as being considered of the most importance to the participants. Then these four Focus Areas were presented for discussion to each of the Regions during a Regional Meeting. The International Office staff also ran this exercise, as their perspective was valued as adding further elaborations from their unique viewpoint.

The four Focus Areas are:

• Enhancing Education, including Universal Education
• Applied Compassion: Community Service/Social Engagement/Interreligious Dialogue
• Support for Individuals and Centers Embracing Modern Approaches, Technologies and Communications
• Building Leadership throughout the Organization 

Board members travelled to all four regions to listen and join at these Regional Consultations. FPMT Inc. Board members Dale Davis, Karuna Cayton, and Paula de Wys and François Lecointre (COO and Center Services Director at the IOF) served as facilitators and collaborators and the response from the participants was almost overwhelming! There was such enthusiasm and creativity at each consultation that it was evident how much dedication and experience is present in the FPMT—just waiting to be tapped into!

These consultations were not initiated just to be discussions, but to be a basis for forming an agenda for the coming CPMT Summit to be held in April at Kopan Monastery. This meeting will be the coming together of the FPMT family to shape our future together; co-creating how we intend to grow and develop over the next few  years.

Planning for the CPMT Summit is therefore crucial, and all the material and input from the consultations is very important. First, all was collated and transcribed, then AI helped to produce meta-documents and cross-over summaries for each field. This has enabled small working groups on each of the four themes to be formed, and these in turn will work with participants at the CPMT Summit. The goal will then be to further our understanding of how we can make realistic plans and move toward the next stage in our foundational development. Our Lamas had ambitious plans in their determination to bring all beings to the path of liberation and together we can take steps to achieve that goal.

At the CPMT meeting in 2004, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said:

“I am very very happy that everyone is united together, in unity working for sentient beings and the teaching of Buddha, so I’m very, very happy, I want to express that. That’s very important for success. So the success of the organization, the cause, establishing happiness, peace for sentient beings, spreading Dharma, has come from many people’s effort; has come from all of your effort, your will, your compassion, your devotion.”

So the coming CPMT Summit will be the first of its kind but hopefully, with your help, not the last. It will be a step that we can take together to help fulfill our Lamas’ holy wishes for all beings.

Once again, the FPMT Inc. Board would like to wish you the very best in 2025.

Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi
Ven. Thubten Pemba
Ven. Roger Kunsang
Karuna Cayton
Dale Davis
Paula de Wys