FPMT News Around the World

His Holiness the Sakya Trizin with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, April 2012. Photo courtesy of Sakya Drolma Phodrang.

During April, FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche, along with Dhakpa Rinpoche and Dagri Rinpoche, were in Dehradun, India, receiving initiations from His Holiness the Sakya Trizin. Many others from the Sakya tradition, including Sangha from the Sakya Monastery and Nunnery, also took part in the ongoing Wangya Norbu Tangwa (Garlands of Jewels of Hundreds of Initiations) transmission. This is the fifth year the Sakya Trizin has been giving this very long series of initiations.

Dhakpa Rinpoche (far left) and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Dehradun, India, April 2012. Photo courtesy of Sakya Drolma Phodrang.

Several years ago, Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested to receive this transmission as the lineage of some of the initiations had already died out in the Gelug tradition. Rinpoche and FPMT’s Preserving the Lineage Fund have been the main sponsors of the initiation series and long life puja for His Holiness the Sakya Trizin. The Preserving the Lineage Fund supports the transmission of rare Mahayana teachings through initiations and oral transmissions, thereby allowing future lamas and students the benefits of receiving the Buddhadharma through an unbroken lineage.

With 160 centers, projects, and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Dagri Rinpoche, Dehradun, India, April 2012. Photo courtesy of Sakya Drolma Phodrang.

Mandala‘s April-June 2012 issue is on its way to mailboxes worldwide!

While you wait to receive your print copy, please enjoy our newest online content featuring a new Retreat Resources page, highlighting archival Mandala articles and interviews on retreat from the past 15 years. If you aren’t receiving Mandala and would like to, please consider joining our Friends program.

If you would like to start your New Year purifying the negativities of this past year, Vajrasattva practice can help! “Giving Negativity a Body Blow” includes advice about Vajrasattva practice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Heruka Vajrasattva practice from Lama Yeshe. From Mandala February-March 2008.

Long-time student, Jane Seidlitz, treated Milarepa Center to her artistic Tibetan calligraphy by painting special mantras on panels around its stupa. Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised the center to have these mantras put on the back side of boards around the stupa. The boards already had the eight auspicious symbols painted on the front side. Rinpoche instructed Jane last year which mantras to include and said these mantras would be a huge blessing for all those driving by the stupa (as its positioned near a major highway) as well as for the entire region.

We’re pleased to announce that the newest print magazine is in the mail. While you wait, please enjoy our newest online content featuring twenty topical new articles. 

Mandala’s January-March 2012 online content is now live. In addition to supplemental articles to this issue’s main stories: The Passing of Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup Rigsel and Preserving the Foundations: Merry Colony and FPMT Education, there are several topical articles, including Jacie Keeley’s Road to Kopan story, not to be missed!

Please enjoy the second of five videos from Maitripa College’s Enlighten Me! project. This one is entitled, “Our Lineage.”

In the latest issue of the Mandala eZine, we visit again Mandala’s incredible archive of stories, bringing you another “Best of Mandala.” Highlights include a rare piece from the 1983 issue of Wisdom Magazine, Mandala’s predecessor, which tells the story of Lama Yeshe’s return to Tibet in 1982 after 23 years of living in exile. In addition to our “Best of Mandala” stories, we offer an audio recording of Ven. René Feusi teaching at the June 2011 shiné retreat at Vajrapani Institute and a video excerpt from FPMT’s Discovering Buddhism program, featuring Ven. Karin Valham and Jan Willis discussing the nature of samsara.



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