September-December 1998

By Alison Murdoch, FPMT International Board of Directors

“When we started establishing centers there was no overall plan – they just popped up randomly all over the world like mushrooms … Now that all these centers do exist, we have to facilitate their development in a constructive, clean-clear way, otherwise everything will just get confused. We have to develop properly both internally and in accordance with our 20th century environment.”

These were Lama Yeshe’s reflections in 1983 on the development of the FPMT. Fifteen years later there are now more than 90 centers in 21 countries around the world, and the mushrooms seem to be popping up faster than ever.

The culture of these centers, like the culture of seeking enlightenment itself, has been an extremely independent and individual one. There was never any central bureaucracy deciding where to locate them, how to finance them or even providing education materials for them to use. Instead it was like the historical settlement of unpopulated territory: determined individuals met up with fellow-travelers, sweated to acquire some land and turned their lives upside down to set something up for future generations.

Founding settlers often grumble or smile wryly at the next generation who can never understand the sweat and magic of creating something from nothing. Instead they face different challenges, as government regulations get tighter, communities become more set in their ways and volunteer support waxes and wanes. However, with endless wilderness out there, there are still no limits for anyone with energy and initiative.

The financial wealth and people-strength of the FPMT has for the most part remained with the centers that these founder-settlers set up. And this is appropriate, because that is mostly where our shared mission of making Dharma available and transforming our minds actually takes place. However it is also becoming apparent that centralized back-up can make an enormous difference to both new and established centers, and that the growth of information technology will make it increasingly easy to function at a global level.

Over the past few years the same issues seemed to be coming up at regional meetings and CPMTs: education materials, additional networks for communicating and providing mutual support, training for new center directors, specialist advice during difficult times, personal contact with the people at the center of the organization. International Office was receiving a daunting 500 to 1,000 e-mails per week, in addition to telephone calls and faxes, and Ven. Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa’s attendant, was finding himself in a permanent state of overload.

By April 1997 it was completely clear that Lama Yeshe’s advice to find a “constructive clean-clear way” to develop now needed urgent attention, and so a five-person task force was set up by the FPMT board of directors. The task force decided on a three-pronged approach: developing a possible model, identifying ways to finance change, and establishing exactly what services and support the centers wanted from the organization. Australia’s George Farley was specifically asked by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to work on the model; and the education department began work on a Universal Education-style set of course materials that could be used all over the world, both to provide a service for the general public and to finance the structural development of the FPMT.

My particular role was the investigative one of finding out what the centers wanted. After much drafting, consulting and re-drafting, in March of this year an inevitably imperfect questionnaire was sent out in Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, French and English to over 200 FPMT workers around the world. It asked for both general feedback about the organization and specific information on what services and support would be most helpful for each center.

By the end of April, 124 questionnaires had been returned, representing 76 FPMT centers and an incredible total of 1,726 years of experience of involvement with the organization. Reading them voraciously, any time of day or night as they arrived by e-mail, fax and post, was an incredibly inspiring experience for me. They were full of moving and memorable examples of how personal Dharma practice was being interwoven with the work of making the teachings available to others. They also demonstrated extraordinary similarities between individuals who, despite being scattered all across the globe, were nevertheless united by sharing the same teachers and the same dream of making this life meaningful and beneficial for others.

The questionnaire responses were also full of specific advice and input, which should make sure that International Office and the board stay on track for many years to come. The top overall priority for the organization was identified as improved structure and support, followed by looking after our teachers and developing education programs and services. The leading obstacle was seen as poor personal practice and disharmony among the students, followed by a shortage of money and a lack of structure and support within the organization.

At the CPMT meeting in May, the 70 participants spent a further two days digesting the responses to the questionnaire, giving more feedback and giving input into the model that George had been developing. We decided to take the four noble truths as a well-proven, if not incomparable model, and carried out a four-stage analysis: suffering (identifying occasions when the organization had failed to support us), the cause of suffering (analyzing strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement), cessation of suffering (presenting and discussing a set of principles, and a model based on them) and the path (practical next steps).

At the time it was a practical test of the six perfections that we all strive to develop in our everyday lives. Generosity in forgiving each other for past mistakes and hurts; patience in listening to each other (especially in such a range of languages), morality in trying to be accurate and fair, joyful perseverance (11 p.m. meetings, 6 a.m. meetings, intensive workshops trying to make sure that everyone had a voice), single-pointed concentration (now and then) and hopefully some baby-wisdom.

There were both tears and laughter. In one of the most memorable role plays a group of students passed a dollar note (the buck) from person to person until it finally reached Rinpoche, who then cut it into paper hearts and redistributed it. In another, a precariously-balanced four-person Chenrezig appeared with the perfect center start-up kit in answer to the desperate prayers of a newly-appointed center director.

Kopan magic was doubtless at work in helping these 70 sentient beings work together so harmoniously and productively. The marathon pilgrimages that punctuated this unique meeting also played a special role, giving it the atmosphere of a retreat and balancing all our talking/listening with reflection and meditation. During the visit to Swayambunath, which Lama Zopa described as the most holy site in the Kathmandu Valley, I was pondering how to draw together the vision that was emerging from all our shared words, and suddenly realized that the perfect image was all around us. Ven. Connie Miller worked through that night creating the Three Stupas drawing.

At the board meeting the following week both the Three Stupas drawing and the principles that accompanied it were discussed, refined and then unanimously endorsed, along with the model that George had presented to the CPMT.

The long-term plan for the development of the FPMT “in accordance with out 20th century environment” is to set up a national office in each country, which will provide training and back-up for center directors, develop links and support networks between centers and take responsibility for securing assets. National offices will also develop their own sources of income, so that they do not need to ask money from the centers that they serve.

“Solitary centers” (where there is only one in the country) will receive support via the International Office or from regional networks, which will continue to exist as long as people want them. Each national office will be guided by a board of long-term FPMT members from that country, and the current international board will concentrate on guiding and working with the International Office.

Putting flesh onto this skeletal plan will be a gradual, reflective and challenging task. Each country will need to develop its own individual appropriate version and move at its own speed. Some countries already have national offices, for example, but all of these differ to some degree from the model discussed at the CPMT and board meetings. There is also the question of how international centers such as the Maitreya Project or the FPMT’s growing social services sector fit into the overall vision.

The fact that about 150 people have already made time in extremely busy lives to give input into the development plan is an incredible testimony to the strength and devotion of our FPMT family and its willingness to find new ways of growing up together. However I hope that an even larger number of people from around the world will be able to take a part in this evolutionary process. At Kopan in June, Lama Zopa Rinpoche manifested great pleasure and satisfaction with all the work that has been done so far, but also remarked that “this is just the beginning.”

As we stated in the questionnaire, “May the development plan create a harmonious and effective organization able to effortlessly fulfill the wishes of our precious teachers in the service of sentient beings and the Three Jewels.”