The FPMT Inc. Board of Directors with the Kopan Board of Directors, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, September 2023.

Our intention with the board updates is to offer you a more comprehensive view of what the board has been thinking and where we are planning to go – so that we, the FPMT family, can travel together. In this update, our aim is to inform you of some of the things that we worked on during our face-to-face meeting at Kopan from September 8 -15, 2023.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss what needs to be done so that the FPMT organization can evolve in a healthy and robust way while adhering to Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche’s and Lama Thubten Yeshe’s mission and vision for the organization. The agenda was long and full, and we worked hard to make our days together worth the time, effort, expense and CO2 emissions.

We are acutely aware that this is a time of transition. Although there are things that will inevitably change as we develop, we feel very fortunate that there is a solid foundation to the FPMT.  This solid foundation has been created by our lamas and their visions and, of course, by the dedicated people who have worked at the centers, projects, and services for the last five decades. It is this continuity that preserves and develops Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s lineage and forms a firm basis for future developments.

Advisors to the Board | New Board Members | Succession and Spiritual Leadership | Importance of Kopan Monastery and Nunnery | Meeting with the Kopan Board | Geshe Conference | CPMT Meeting |
Meetings with the EC (Executive Committee) of International Office | Conclusion

Advisors to the Board

 We went into the meeting with the help of Robyn Brentano who is an experienced Institutional Advancement Consultant. Not only is she a long-time student of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, but she has also worked for many years with NGOs and other organizations in the field of organizational development, fundraising, and strategic planning. Robyn has kindly accepted our request to be an advisor to the board. Additionally, we have a team of legal advisors – Alan Marsh and Dave Andrews from Australia and Dean Alper from the US – who are also helping FPMT Inc. (the board and the International Office). These three lawyers are also long-time students of Lama and Rinpoche and have worked in various capacities with FPMT centers. Needless to say, we are most grateful to these advisors for their assistance, especially in this time of transition. With both Robyn and the Legal Team, we are reviewing and updating the FPMT Inc. bylaws.  These were written many years ago and are in need of change to correctly reflect the current situation. We also plan to expand this role of advisors to the board in the coming year. 

Robyn helped us to look at the situation of FPMT Inc., the roles and responsibilities of the officers and members of the board, how the relationship with the International Office functions now, and things we could improve. She was able to show us new possibilities, and some of her suggestions accorded with ideas the board was already considering, for instance, taking on an ombudsperson. This person works with an organization but is independent of it and is objective. S/he receives, investigates, and attempts to resolve complaints or reports of situations that are possibly in need of improvement. We expect to take on an ombudsperson to work with, but not under, the FPMT International Office within the coming year and hope that this will lessen the burden on the International Office and expect the position to provide a welcome service to affiliates, students, and the organization as a whole.

New Board Members

 As mentioned in the past, the present board will expand to include others from different cultural backgrounds and age groups. Presently, we are considering adding one new member from Southeast Asia. Candidates are presently being vetted. Over the next two years we expect to build the board to, perhaps, nine members with different ages, backgrounds, and genders to be representative of our large global family. Younger board members are on our “wish list.”

 Additionally, we have begun to evaluate different approaches of choosing board members. We will update you on this as the process becomes clearer.

Succession and Spiritual Leadership

As has been mentioned, Lama  Zopa Rinpoche clearly expressed that there would not be one spiritual leader of the FPMT organization to succeed him. With respect to the spiritual leadership of the organization we are continuing to consider and formulate various options. We presently have many resources for spiritual guidance and will continue to formalize their roles in the near future. 

For very specific essential matters we can consult H.H. the Dalai Lama. His Holiness clearly stated that he will not only help in the matter of finding and educating Rinpoche’s reincarnation, but that he would play a central role in that endeavor. 

Additionally, there are high lamas named by Rinpoche, many of whom were his teachers, and on whom we can rely for help in spiritual matters and to give teachings and initiations. And, of course, there are our qualified resident geshes and teachers, visiting teachers and so on who will continue the spiritual teachings and guidance for the students of the organization.

For some organizational decisions, a Resident and Visiting Teachers Committee has been constituted, including Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Kopan abbot, resident teacher in Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, and FPMT inc. board member; Ven. Roger Kunsang, FPMT Inc. CEO; Ven. Pemba, FPMT Inc. board member and resident teacher in Cham Tse Ling, Hong Kong; Geshe Ngawang Sangye, FPMT Geshe Coordinator; and Geshe Thubten Sherab, resident teacher in Thubten Norbu Ling, US. The committee is looking to include additional members soon.

It will be assisting with the appointment of new resident teachers and with regard to visiting teachers, will decide on updates of the Tibetan Teacher List.

For students who need spiritual advice on, for instance, retreats and practices, and who do not have an experienced advisor or teacher to whom they are close, we are looking to create a Spiritual Resources Group.  This group would be comprised of experienced people, monastic and lay, who could give useful advice to those seeking it. Additionally, there is an enormous and well-documented database of advice, instructions, and teachings of Lama Zopa Rinpoche that he gave to students over the past forty years. The availability of all this content continues to be developed so that students will be able to have access to it.

Importance of Kopan Monastery and Nunnery

Lama Yeshe founded Kopan Gompa in the 1970s. From Kopan, as well as Lama’s travels to the West, he began to conceive of a global organization which became the FPMT (1975). Lama’s vision for a global organization was further developed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the forty years since Lama’s passing.  Under Rinpoche’s guidance and leadership, the organization developed naturally with the support and hard work of thousands of people. Lama Yeshe had a plan, Rinpoche manifested it. However, at the very core of our organization sits Kopan Monastery and Nunnery.

In the 18 months prior to Rinpoche manifesting his passing away he conveyed several times, to the FPMT Inc. board, as well as senior monks of Kopan, that he felt Kopan has a bigger role to play in the organization. Now with Rinpoche’s passing it is not difficult to conceive of Kopan’s importance and it seems evident that through Kopan’s monastery and nunnery our family of lamas, geshes, geshemas and others will play a central role in the preservation and sharing of our lamas’ lineage, a lineage descended from Lama Tsong Khapa and personified by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We expect Kopan’s role to be more pivotal both through the courses they will offer on site as well as helping to provide teachers and interpreters for centers worldwide.

The FPMT Inc. board is working closely with the Kopan board and nunnery to make this happen. The Kopan board will be engaging in a formal planning process in the next half year.

Meeting with the Kopan Board

 One of the important sessions for the board was an official meeting with the Kopan Board of Directors which is led by abbot Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi and made up of the senior monks of Kopan. Two nuns from the Kopan nunnery, Director Ani Jangsem and Ven Anila Lhundub (Gegu la), were also present. While close family members, Kopan and the larger FPMT organization have developed somewhat along their own tracks, coexisting side by side. But in this new era of FPMT, with Kopan destined to play a more central role in the spiritual development of the organization, we are excited about integrating further the two sides of the FPMT coin. We are clearly one family and have always been working to fulfill our lamas’ wishes in our various capacities. We are looking at the role that Kopan can play in the future and at how to possibly integrate Lama Yeshe and Rinpoche’s teachings into the curriculum there, in order to preserve the lamas’ unique styles of teaching and presentation. Kopan has played a vital role in the creation and forming of the FPMT organization and will continue to play an important role in the future.

Geshe Conference

 One of the important meetings next year that will take place at Kopan in January 2024 is the FPMT Geshe Conference. Lama Zopa Rinpoche emphasized how important it is for the resident geshes to meet regularly. This meeting will be the first Geshe Conference to be held in more than 10 years.  At the time of this writing, 16 geshes have registered to come and we’re optimistic that this number will increase in the weeks to come. This will be an essential meeting with the geshes sharing their experiences and challenges of teaching in different countries. Additionally, they will share their ideas on how teachings may evolve into the future and give input based on their experience for our educational programs.  Eight to ten Kopan geshes and geshemas will also join the meeting. We are pleased and honored that H.E. Ling Rinpoche will be attending the meeting to give advice to the participants.

CPMT Meeting

There have been quite a few CPMT meetings in the past five decades. They were informative and certainly promoted understanding of the organization and a “family feeling.” In the coming CPMT meeting, we intend that the sessions will be initiated and informed by the topics chosen by the meeting participants. It will be collaborative and visionary. We will work on co-creating the meeting and the action points arising from the meeting, so as to work together to form – to be – the FPMT organization that will continue to reflect the lamas’ visions and help those visions become a reality.  We will be sending out some tentative dates and options shortly and to begin the process we will be sharing a range of questions for your inputs and ideas. These will help us build a strategic framework that will form the basis for our national and regional consultations prior to the CPMT meeting. We will continue to keep you informed as we formulate the timeline and the process to take us forward.

Meetings with the EC (Executive Committee) of the International Office

The FPMT organization would not be able to do what it does without the hard work and dedication of those at the International Office (IOF). These days “the Office” is not located in one place and the different departments and those working in them are spread out all over the world. The IOF holds the experience of decades and provides the continuity we need as an organization and at the same time supports the board in its leadership role of the FPMT. It works to preserve and implement the vision of our teachers so that we can confidently work on future developments.

The board spent a full day reviewing reports sent by the members of the EC and meeting most of them in person or via Zoom. François Lecointre, Ven. Holly Ansett, Claire Isitt and Eamon Walsh shared extensive reports on their respective areas of responsibility: Education, Teacher Services, Communication, Charitable Projects, Center Services, Finance and Administration. In a few months you will be able to read in detail about the extensive work being carried out by the various departments of the International Office in the FPMT 2023 Annual Review.

We were impressed by the newest developments in the educational programs, with two new programs being rolled out in the coming months and the existing ones doing well. We discussed how the development of on-line courses has been a game-changer for many centers, for some a blessing, for others a challenge, and options on how to work with the centers more to adapt to this new era.

As to communications, we discussed, among other things, the wish to ensure that we are utilizing and keeping current with all available communication tools.

We were also extremely impressed by the amount of benefit that the Charitable Projects bring to the poor, sick, and elderly, and Ven. Holly’s dedication to make these manifest as Rinpoche wished over the last more than twenty years.

The work of the Center Services Department is vital to the organization, even more so as we are having to update several of our policies. At the same time this department has the task of continuing to ensure the implementation of many of them. It was good to read about the work of the regional and national entities, and about the success of the Foundation Service Seminars, one of which was going to start at Kopan within a few days of our meetings. In the FPMT News of October 12 you can read about how much it was appreciated by all the participants, which included board members Ven. Roger Kunsang, Dale Davis, and  Karuna Cayton. Many of the things we take for granted in the FPMT are due to the work of the Center Services Department working with the others at the IOF (for example: geshes, translators, educational programs, teachers, and so much more).

We reviewed the status of the organization’s finances under the very clear and thorough guidance of Eamon, our Chief Financial Officer.  The situation is stable, and spending and investing are closely monitored and controlled.

Another topic we discussed with Eamon is the impending sale of Kachoe Dechen Ling (Aptos House) in California. Rinpoche lived there when he was in California and in order to create further merit for the FPMT organization a team of dedicated nuns was able to fulfill his wish for an amazing number of offerings to be made every day to the many holy objects on site.  For students living in the area, it was a special place and some of them have been saddened by the decision to sell the house. However, the choice to do so had been made earlier by Rinpoche himself, who spoke of it many times in the last ten years. This fact and the challenges encountered to run the house and do the offerings, along with high maintenance/repair costs and the age of the house, made the decision to sell it in the near future a logical one. The board therefore ratified this decision. Most of the holy objects will be moved to the retreat house used by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in the state of Washington.

Conclusion

It is impossible to report extensively on all the topics we covered in seven days of meetings. Hopefully, though, this report will give you a sense of how the board is working during this transitional period to stabilize that which is positive and work on that which needs to be improved. It is a process, one that cannot be hurried, so we request your patience and understanding.  We also hope that you will continue to send us your ideas and concerns so that moving into the future the FPMT organization becomes more and more of a collective undertaking, as we are all working to realize the wishes of our holy gurus.

It should be noted that the task for the board, as well as for all of the affiliates and students, is enormous. At times it can seem overwhelming. But when taken one step at a time and with the wish to fulfill Rinpoche’s and Lama’s wishes, particularly by using this work to generate bodhicitta, everything becomes lighter. The board itself has developed a fresh, collaborative, and friendly relationship and we are excited (even awed at times) about the future ahead. We are glad that you are a part of it and wish for success in bringing benefit to all beings.

Best wishes to all,

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi
Venerable Pemba Sherpa
Venerable Roger Kunsang
Paula de Wys – chair
Dale Davis
Karuna Cayton

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