FPMT News Around the World

Pots filled with soil and worms were circumambulated around a table of holy objects at Longku Center, Bern, Switzerland, 2013. Photo courtesy of Longku Center.

On April 30 and May 1, Longku Center in Bern, Switzerland, performed some of the special practices recommended by Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la) and other high lamas to support Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health and long life. The center arranged the practices in accordance with FPMT CEO Ven. Roger’s April 24 request.

Spiritual program coordinator Regula Burri shared that students at the center “liberated 350 worms, recited the Golden Light Sutra nine times and recited the prayer of the Twenty-One Taras 108 times.”

For the animal liberation, students filled up pots with soil to make a comfy home for hundreds of worms. In the center’s gompa, trays were circumambulated around a table heaped with holy objects, mantras and texts collected by center members while students did practices for the worms.

Students and supporters of Rinpoche are encouraged to complete as many of the recommended practices as possible and report at the end of each month what has been done to director of Center Services Claire Isitt at International Office. These combined efforts will be offered to Rinpoche directly.

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FPMT News Around the World

His Holiness the Sakya Trizin, head of the Sakya lineage, visited FPMT International Office and Maitripa College on Sunday, May 12. His Holiness toured International Office, blessing holy objects, including a Red Tara statue in the office reception area. His Holiness was offered a body, speech, mind mandala by FPMT and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s greetings were conveyed. 

His Holiness the Sakya Trizin then went to Maitripa College where he offered a teaching on “Parting from the Four Attachments,” four lines spoken by Manjushri to the Sakya patriarch Sachen Kunga Nyingpo. Maitripa College president Yangsi Rinpoche offered a body, speech, mind mandala to His Holiness as well. His Holiness taught to a full house. Even after three days of teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, audience members were enthusiastic and most grateful for the visit by His Holiness the Sakya Trizin.

Video of Red Tara blessing by His Holiness the Sakya Trizin

His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited FPMT International Office on Friday, May 10, prior to speaking at Maitripa College’s graduation ceremony. During the visit to International Office, His Holiness had a tour of the offices and was offered a body, speech, mind mandala by Tenzin Osel Hita. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who was unable to be in Portland, sent His Holiness a letter and a video offering. 

Video of offering

International Office shares a building with Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon. His Holiness is in Portland for three days as part of Maitripa College’s His Holiness the Dalai Lama Environmental Summit. 

You can find all the news and coverage of the 3-day event online, including links to live webcasts. Visit His Holiness’ website for news on all of His Holiness’ events and travels.

Mandala will continue to cover the events of the summit on our blog, Twitter and in the next issue of Mandala.  

If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Basic level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, University of Portland, May 9, 2013

His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke to a sold-out crowd at the University of Portland on the first of his 3-day visit to the state of Oregon on the U.S. West Coast. As part of Maitripa College’s His Holiness the Dalai Lama Environmental Summit, His Holiness took part in a morning interfaith panel discussion on Thursday, May 9, about the environment. In the afternoon, His Holiness spoke on the importance of having a healthy mind as both a way of having a healthier body and also a way of creating a healthy environment.

Maitripa College is the first Buddhist college in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and is affiliated with FPMT. At the end of the day, Maitripa president Yangsi Rinpoche thanked His Holiness for returning for his second visit to Portland, Oregon, and requested His Holiness have a long life.

His Holiness visits Maitripa College and FPMT International Office on Friday, May 10, as the Environmental Summit continues. His Holiness takes part in Maitripa’s graduation program “Life after Life.” 

The Oregonian had extensive coverage of Maitripa College prior to the event. You can find all the news and coverage of the 3-day event online, including links to live webcasts. Visit His Holiness’ website for news on all of His Holiness’ events and travels.

Mandala will continue to cover the events of the summit on our blog, Twitter and in the next issue of Mandala.  

If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Basic level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.

FPMT News Around the World

Ven. Freeman Trebilcock on “Harmony in Diversity,” December 2012

In early December 2012, Ven. Freeman Trebilcock, a 25-year-old Australian FPMT monk and director of Loving Kindness Peaceful Youth, was interviewed on “Harmony in Diversity,” a community television program focused on the issues and activities of Melbourne’s faith communities.

In this two-part interview, Ven. Freeman speaks candidly on being young and Buddhist in Australia:

It can be quite challenging in our society to be someone from a faith such as Buddhism. I think Buddhism has a pretty good brand, generally speaking. I didn’t cop a lot of flak directly for being a Buddhist. I think for most people my age, faith doesn’t really play a big part of their life. To have someone who’s really trying to embody their spirituality as the central focus of their life is quite strange for a lot of people of my generation. For a lot of my friends, I guess I was a bit different than others.

For me, my Buddhist practice and understanding was kind of like a grounding; it really kept me on track. I think, more than anything else, I leaned on my Buddhist-ness in times of crisis, when I was struggling. All teenagers go through a lot of difficulties; it’s just a part of growing up. At those times, I was really, really glad to have this frame of reference, this amazing storehouse of Buddhist wisdom to go to, to find some useful tools to deal with things.

Ven. Freeman also spoke about Buddhist ideas on vegetarianism; the practices and texts with which he engages; Loving Kindness Peaceful Youth, the FPMT international peace organization for young people; Buddhism’s compatibility with secular society; and monasticism, among other topics.

As part of his interfaith work, Ven. Freeman participated in ABC1’s Holy Switch, a three-part television series in which six young people take up the challenge to swap religions and “live a totally different life for two weeks and in the process discover who [they] are.” The series premiers May 12.

If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Basic level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Bodhgaya, 1974. Image courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

“In January 1974 His Holiness the Dalai Lama bestowed the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) initiation for the fifth time in his life, and the third since leaving Tibet,” writes Adele Hulse, author of Big Love, the forthcoming biography of FPMT founder Lama Thubten Yeshe. Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive will publish Big Love later this year and has been sharing excerpts from the book on their Big Love blog. The following is from a recent post:

The profound Kalachakra Tantra, a pathway to full enlightenment, contains elements of astrology, medicine, and mathematics. Over 100,000 Tibetans descended on Bodhgaya. They came by train, bus, rickshaw, and on foot from many places inside and outside India: Dharamsala, Darjeeling, Dalhousie, Mysore, and Bangalore; from Ladakh, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, and Tibet, many of them wearing local costumes and jewelry. Tent cities sprang up with bustling restaurants serving all types of Tibetan and Indian food — momos (Tibetan meat dumplings), thukpa (Tibetan meat stew), samosas, chai, and the like — alongside market stalls selling clothes, religious objects, and antiques. It was a scene out of National Geographic magazine.

Several hundred Westerners also poured into Bodhgaya for the initiation. Many of them stayed in the Tibetan tent-restaurants, which allowed people to sleep on the wide benches at night. The hippies in their motley garb mixed easily with the wild folk from the mountains, the men in sheepskin trousers, their long plaits woven with red ribbon. For many Tibetans it was their first sight of the Dalai Lama. They prostrated and cried loudly. All day and all night pilgrims circumambulated the Mahabodhi stupa on its three different walkways, many prostrating all the way around.

Everybody at Kopan who could get to Bodhgaya went there. When asked to explain the Kalachakra initiation, Lama Yeshe became very serious, telling the students this was not something they should take lightly. …

Read the entire post by Adele Hulse — which includes Lama Yeshe’s teaching to Westerners in preparation for the initiation — on the Big Love blog.

FMPT News Around the World

Dzambala. Photo courtesy of Animal Liberation Sanctuary.

The Animal Liberation Sanctuary near Kopan Monastery in Nepal cares for animals rescued from slaughter by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Mandala was sad to learn of the death of one of the sanctuary’s resident goats, Dzambala, who we have come to know through reports from the sanctuary. Dzambala’s story is an inspiring example of how much we can do for beings in the animal realm.

By Tania Duratovic and Phil Hunt 

Dzambala died in March. He was one of the first goats at the Animal Liberation Sanctuary, Nepal. He was also perhaps the first goat in Nepal with an artificial limb (and not just a lump of bamboo, but a proper prosthesis.) He was one of the familiar faces that you could pick out in the crowd. 

Dzambala was rescued before Lama Zopa Rinpoche announced the Animal Liberation Sanctuary project. He was there when the new land was first purchased in 2006. He was there throughout the years as the search for a larger piece of land went on and the planning for the new shelters and facilities continued. He survived the deadly peste des petits ruminants (PPR) outbreak in 2010 where half our goat population died (indeed, initially due to some confusion, Dzambala was considered to have been one of the victims!)

Dzambala with Rigzin and Tsering. Photo courtesy of Animal Liberation Sanctuary.

As a young goat, Dzambala was as cheeky as any kid. He would have mock battles with other sanctuary residents, and also more serious battles to establish the hierarchy. He was one of the more senior ranked goats.

Initially, the rescued goats only consisted of males. This is because male animals are sent to slaughter more often as they don’t produce kids or milk. One day, three female goats arrived: Tsering, Sangmo and Jampa. We were not quite sure where they came from, and by the time we found out, they were pregnant. Dzambala and Tsering became close friends. Rigzin, who is the “boss” goat, was also after Tsering. But Tsering preferred Dzambala’s company most of the time. The three of them were often found sitting together enjoying the sunshine.

When taking the goats around Geshe Lama Konchog’s stupa at Kopan, we knew that if we took Tsering up, Rigzin would follow, and hence the others too. And if Dzambala was there, Tsering would go too. But Dzambala would often just take himself around. He obviously realized the importance of holy objects! 

In October 2011, we noticed a wound on the side of Dzambala’s hoof. After several months it still hadn’t healed. We then realized it was a tumor. The tumor had grown to the size of a golf ball with quite a bit of dead tissue and would bleed profusely. The options presented were to cut off his entire leg or use a chemotherapy drug that was not certain to work. Rather than take this drastic action, we wanted to get a biopsy done first so we could ascertain just what type of tumor we were dealing with. We were hoping that we could just cut off the affected part of his hoof. When we finally had the sample, we were told that no one in Nepal would accept a tissue sample from a goat. So the sample was hastily preserved in formalin and carried to Australia.

Tests confirmed that it was cancer and that the drug initially suggested would not work on this type of tumor. The only course of action was to cut out the tumor. Unfortunately, by this time, many months had passed (things take time in Nepal) and by then the cancer had spread further. He had to have his leg from just below the knee joint amputated. It was now June 2012.

Life in the animal realm is tough, and not only did Dzambala lose part of his leg, he also lost his “girl.” Tsering spent less and less time with Dzambala, and as Dzambala’s mobility decreased, his health was not picking back up particularly well. Dzambala did, of course, try to keep up with the rest of the herd. He could get around reasonably well on three legs, but it was obviously taking up a lot of energy. (He still insisted in joining the others to circumambulate the stupa even though we tried to rest him.) We decided we would get an artificial limb made for him.

We were told that there was no one who would do it. We weren’t going to give up so easily. If no one in Nepal working with animals could help, we would try those who help people with missing limbs. Fortunately, we were put in touch with a New Zealand organization, MEND NZ, who straight away offered to help.

Shortly after making the connection on our next visit in October, Roshan Thapa from MEND NZ in Nepal came out to examine his new patient. Most Nepalis are familiar with goats as a form of food and objects of sacrifice. “I have seen many goat legs in my life,” Roshan admitted, “but I never thought I would be making an artificial one.” 

Dzamabala with new leg. Photo courtesy of Animal Liberation Sanctuary.

After making a cast of the stump and measuring the other leg, obviously a standard procedure for him (but on quite different looking legs), he left to make up a new leg. A week later, he was back with a remarkably life-like design. After some adjustments, it was on and you could see how it immediately made it so much easier for Dzambala to stand. While he wasn’t particularly happy with it, and was not at all comfortable with walking, he soon started to adapt to its benefits while standing, especially as we gave him extra food and eating time away from the “competition” so he could get used to the leg.

Unfortunately, several months later, cancer reappeared, this time in his mouth. Despite several operations, nothing could be done. He rapidly lost weight and increasingly found it difficult, and then impossible, to eat. Several students who were doing Vajrasattva retreat would regularly sit with him and do prayers. Pujas were performed for him by the Kopan monks. After a short decline, he died peacefully on March 15. We will miss him but are happy in the knowledge that he was one heck of a lucky goat to have been rescued by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, to have lived at the sanctuary at Kopan, and to have been exposed to the Dharma. 

To get the latest updates, or to help continue work for the animals at the Animal Liberation Sanctuary (ALS), visit www.enlightenmentforanimals.org or, in Australia, www.treeofcompassion.org.au. You can also visit the Facebook pages for Enlightenment for the Dear Animals and Tree of Compassion. 

You can read more stories from Mandala on animal liberation activities going on throughout the FPMT world.

FPMT News Around the World 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche during long life puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 29, 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Khadro-la makes offerings during long life puja, April 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Senior monks and nuns of Kopan Monastery in Nepal recently requested FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche to accept a special long life puja, out of concern for Rinpoche’s health and in support of other pujas that are being organized. The special long life puja was offered the morning of Monday, April 29. Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la) attended the puja and made offerings to Rinpoche.

Ven. Roger Kunsang, FPMT CEO and assistant to Rinpoche, shared more about what happened at the monastery: “Kopan Monastery and Nunnery have taken on to do a lot of the pujas throughout the year for Rinpoche’s good health and long life, [and they are also] regularly saving each month a few goats from the butchers and fish. Some of the pujas, like Tugchuma, will be done daily for the rest of the year.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche will be traveling to the United States where next week he will welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama in FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la having lunch after puja, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, April 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Basic level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.

FPMT News Around the World

Tashi Lhunpo Heath Care Centre. Photo courtesy of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

Two FPMT charitable projects – the Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund and the Tibetan Health Services Project – donated US$5,677 (300,000 Rs) towards the Tashi Lhunpo Health Care Centre in Bylakuppe Tibetan Settlement in South India in February. Founded by Ven. Guge Kachen Lobsang Dhondup with the help of generous Taiwanese donors, the healthcare center has been working to provide quality healthcare to resident monks, visitors, and local Tibetans and Indians since 1992. Lama Zopa Rinpoche was inspired by their work and asked for this donation to be made.

Allopathic doctor giving check-up at Tashi Lhunpo Health Care Centre. Photo courtesy of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

Currently, Tashi Lhunpo Health Care Centre has one doctor in residence and organizes a doctor of Tibetan medicine and an allopathic doctor to visit weekly. In addition to the services provided by staff, the center organizes and covers the costs of visits to outside hospitals during emergencies and for medical conditions requiring intensive treatment, an expenditure which is sometimes over 30 percent of their annual income.

In the future, the center hopes to build consultation rooms and dispensaries for both Tibetan and Western medicine; increase incentives and compensation for visiting doctors and staff; provide medical aid to monks with physical and mental challenges; and continue to cover the costs associated with outside hospital visits.

Young monks wait in line to be seen by Tashi Lhunpo Health Care Centre staff. Photo courtesy of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

Tashi Lhunpo Monstery is the seat of the Panchen Lama and was reestablished in 1972 in South India after the Chinese occupation by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, His Holiness the 10th Panchen Lama and His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche. The current 11th Panchen Lama, as recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is Gedun Choekyi Nyima, who in 1995 was taken into custody by the Chinese government at age 6 and has not been seen publically since. 

FPMT students and supporters can support health-related projects through the Tibetan Health Services Project, managed by FPMT Charitable Projects.

If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work. Friends of FPMT at the Basic level and higher receive the print magazine Mandala, delivered quarterly to their homes.

FPMT News Around the World

Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la made special prayers for world peace at Boudhanath Stupa, April 2013. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

On April 18, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la) and others visited Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu to make special prayers for world peace. For the event, Rinpoche assembled a collection of prayers specifically to stop wars, prevent natural disasters, and to reduce self-cherishing.

While Rinpoche and Khadro-la were making prayers for living beings everywhere, Rinpoche’s assistant and FPMT International Office CEO Ven. Roger Kusang was busy gathering and organizing the extensive details of the prayers and practices students and supporters could engage in to contribute to Rinpoche’s long and healthy life. Ven. Roger writes:

Khadro-la and Lama Zopa Rinpoche meeting at Kopan Monastery, April 2013. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

At the beginning of every year I usually check with one or two high lamas if there are any prayers or pujas we need to do to remove obstacles for Rinpoche’s health and long life. This year I have received the advice to do many prayers and pujas … Khadro-la is advising FPMT centers, projects, services and students to also help. I would like to support Khadro-la’s request for students and centers to do the following as much as you can so that we can continue to have Rinpoche with us for a very long time to come.

Khadro-la specifically mentioned the following: “as much as possible if FPMT centers and students can please do”: liberate many animals; hang Tendil Nyersel prayer flags in all FPMT centers, projects and services; recite Most Secret Hayagriva mantra; and offer long life pujas to Rinpoche with the five dakinis.

Khadro-la [also] said that “the most important is good samaya from the students’ side. Whoever is doing the puja, prayers or practice, it should be done well, with good motivation and meditation.”

The full list pujas and practices to do can be found on Rinpoche’s Health – Official Updates and Practices. Also, students can find a complete list of extensive practices being done by Kopan Monastery, Sera Je Monastery, Ganden Shartse Monastery, Jangchup Choling Nunnery, Kopan Nunnery and Ganden Jangtse Samlo Kamtsen.

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