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OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2012

Khadro-la: If We Use Our Wisdom Carefully, Everything Is Possible

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Free video of Lama Yeshe How to Practice Dharma: and Lama Zopa Rinpoche Teachings on the Eight Worldly Dharmas on our newYouTube channel: youtube.com/ By Lama Zopa Rinpoche lamayeshewisdom Edited by Gordon McDougall $10 “Buddhism is a house full of treasures—practices Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive contains recordings and tran- for gaining the happiness of future lives, the scripts of Lama Thubten Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s bliss of liberation and the supreme happiness of teachings dating back to the early 1970s—and we’re still growing! enlightenment— but knowing the difference between Our website offers thousands of pages of teachings by some of Dharma and non-Dharma is the key that opens the the greatest lamas of our time. Hundreds of audio recordings, door to all those treasures. No matter how much we our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely know about emptiness, the chakras or controlling our accessible at lamayeshe.com. vital energy through kundalini yoga, it’s all pointless without this crucial understanding of how to practice Dharma, how to correct our actions. There are vast numbers of people who delude themselves and waste their entire life studying the most esoteric aspects of Buddhism but never understand the most fundamental point, the distinction between Dharma and non- Dharma.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

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Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive po box 636, lincoln, ma 01773 • [email protected] • www.lamayeshe.com fpmt Mandala CONTENTS 6 FROM THE EDITOR 30 EDUCATION

8 GRATITUDE FOR OUR 34 DHARMA AND FPMT PATRONS THE MODERN WORLD

10 TEACHINGS AND ADVICE 40 TAKING CARE OF OTHERS

11 16 PRACTICING DHARMA IN 46 YOUR COMMUNITY DAILY LIFE 54 FPMT NEWS AROUND COVER FEATURE THE WORLD 23 An Interview with Khadro-la: If We Use Our Wisdom Carefully, 59 FPMT DIRECTORY Everything Is Possible

22 ONLINE HIGHLIGHTS Mandala publishes EXCLUSIVE ONLINE articles, photos and audio each issue to supplement our print publication. Visit mandalamagazine.org.

The October - December 2012 issue includes …

DHARMA REALITIES MANDALA TALK

“Leaves in the Wind: An audio podcast featuring 34 People Who Wish for Death” Tibetan translator and By Ven. Chönyi Taylor teacher Craig Preston

BUDDHIST IN THE TRENCHES … complete interviews, “Loneliness” advice, personal stories By Sarah Shifferd and more at mandalamagazine.org! BIG LOVE An excerpt from Adele Hulse’s biography of Lama Yeshe 49

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2012 ISSUE 57 MANDALA (ISSN10754113) is published quarterly by FPMT, Inc., 1632 SE 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97214-4702, USA. Printed by Journal Graphics, Portland, Oregon, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Portland OR. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Mandala, 1632 SE 11th Ave, Portland OR 97214-4702 COVER: Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la) at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia, Italy, July 2012. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

www.mandalamagazine.org www.fpmt.org

October - December 2012 MANDALA 5 From the EDITOR

DEAR READER,

n June, FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche moment of his life, always working for the benefit of others. and Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma Even the act of going up and down stairs became, for me, (Khadro-la) visited Mandala’s home base, also known a lesson in joyful effort. as FPMT International Office in Portland, Oregon. I On Rinpoche and Khardo-la’s final day in the Portland find myself not having adequate words to describe the area, I had the opportunity to interview Khadro-la. I went to experience,I but I’ll throw out a few anyway: expansive, the interview full of nerves, not sure how I came to have this ebullient, incandescent and inspiring. It was Rinpoche’s kind of amazing opportunity and anxious to not mess it up. first time in the office since manifesting a stroke in April During the interview, I was struck by how often Khadro-la 2011. emphasized wisdom and this has stuck with me. As I sit One of the most moving sights for me during the visit writing this, I ask myself: How would a deeper understanding was watching Rinpoche go up and down the steps to our of dependent arising and emptiness change my experience second floor office. Yes, we have an elevator, but Rinpoche and actions? And do I firmly believe, as Khadro-la says, that decided to ascend and descend the very public steps instead. “if we use our wisdom carefully, everything is possible”? These He had assistance, but as I watched him, I saw that it was are powerful ideas that I believe can change us. I feel inspired his determination getting him to the top and back down to integrate them into my life. I hope you do too. again. Upon reflection, I’m amazed by his kindness and by Love, how Rinpoche brings that level of determination to every Laura ABOUT MANDALA Mandala is the official publica- Friends of FPMT is a donor program composed of Friends working tion of the Foundation for the together to support FPMT’s global activities. Preservation of the Mahayana To learn about Friends of FPMT levels and benefits, contact us or visit: Tradition (FPMT), an interna- www.fpmt.org/friends tional charitable organization Mandala is published in January, April, July and October. founded more than thirty years ago by two Tibetan Buddhist Managing Editor and Publisher FPMT Board of Directors Laura Miller Spiritual Director masters: Lama Thubten Yeshe [email protected] Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1935-1984) and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. FPMT is now a vibrant international community with a Assistant Editor, Board Members network of over 150 affiliate centers, projects, services and study groups in Advertising & Sales Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi more than thirty countries. Michael Jolliffe Ven. Roger Kunsang [email protected] Ven. Pemba Sherpa Editorial Policy Art Director Osel Hita Recurring topics include: Buddhist philosophy; Education; Ordination and Cowgirls Design Karuna Cayton Andrew Haynes the Sangha; Buddhism and Modern Life; Youth Issues; FPMT Activities [email protected] Peter Kedge Worldwide; Lama Yeshe and his teachings; Lama Zopa Rinpoche and his Friends of FPMT Program Tim McNeill teachings; His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his teachings, among many other Trevor Fenwick Tara Melwani topics. [email protected] Alison Murdoch Writers, photographers and artists, both amateur and professional, are FPMT, Inc. Paula de Wijs-Koolkin encouraged to submit material for consideration. Mandala currently does not 1632 SE 11th Ave. www.mandalamagazine.org pay for publishable content; we credit all photos and other work as requested. Portland, OR 97214-4702 www.fpmt.org Mandala is published quarterly and is available via the Friends of FPMT Tel: 1 503 808 1588 program. Additionally, the publication is supplemented by online stories Fax: 1 503 232 0557 published exclusively at: www.mandalamagazine.org Toll free USA only 1 866 241 9886

6MANDALA October - December 2012

IN GRATITUDE Gratitude for Our FPMT Patrons The Friends of FPMT program wants to extend its heartfelt gratitude to our FPMT Patrons listed below. FPMT Patrons generously offer US$100 or more each month to sustain FPMT’s global activities, which directly support the preser- vation of the Mahayana tradition and the loving-kindness it engenders. In addition to being included in a yearly patron puja, FPMT Patrons receive Mandala magazine and complete A puja at Kopan Monastery, June 2012. Photo courtesy of access to FPMT’s Online Learning Center, which offers Kopan Monastery. dozens of online educational programs. The Friends of FPMT program provides necessary George Michael Cuesta funding for Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s International Office. Nicholas Tan Ram Sistla Funds go toward developing and publishing educational Sandra Sharpe materials in several languages, sharing Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Valerie Bennett latest advice, providing support for FPMT’s 158 centers, Michael Fujii projects and services around the world, and communicating Mun Kong Loke news of Rinpoche’s compassionate activities and updates Amala Chew Soo Chuah from the entire FPMT international community. Joerg Eberhardt Plus, several anonymous Patrons To learn more, please visit www.fpmt.org/friends.

8MANDALA October - December 2012 October - December 2012 MANDALA 9 Teachings and ADVICE LAMA YESHE’S WISDOM TRUE DHARMA PRACTITIONERS WELCOME TROUBLE By Lama Yeshe ometimes when people first hear Dharma teachings on happiness and suffering they think that happi- Sness depends upon suffering and that if they were to be completely free of suffering there would be no way to experience happiness. I can see where the idea comes from. In a way, it’s quite logical: if there’s no misery, there’s no happiness; mis- ery and happiness are interdependent phenomena. This is human experience. It’s my experience too. When I was studying at Sera [Je Monastery] in Tibet from the ages of nine to twenty-four, I took many teach- ings and received many commentaries from excellent teachers. I was well looked after by my uncle, who made sure I never went hungry or thirsty and took care of me in general. It was a typical monastic life and it was really good. And from my side, I tried my best to study and practice Dharma. But still, in 1959, the Chinese kicked us out. Well, not exactly, but they did not allow people to practice Dharma, so I thought that if I want to keep practicing there was no reason to stay in Tibet. So I escaped to India. Not only were the Chinese preventing us from practicing, they were shooting people dead. And even though I had been studying and practicing, I didn’t feel ready to die. Lama Yeshe, Grizzly Lodge, Portola, California, U.S., 1980. So in that painful situation of uncertainty, I had to Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. look deeply into myself to see if all those teachings I had been studying works or not, a chance to transform suffering taken would allow me to cope with my new reality. I into happiness. Otherwise, you just go blithely along, found that they helped a great deal, and that gave me the completely out of touch with reality, thinking you’re OK confidence I needed to deal with the changing environ- when you’re not, because you haven’t actually been practicing ment in which we found ourselves. Dharma at all. If you’re not tested, you take teaching after teaching To put this another way, painful situations are a source and think you’re OK, but when you’re confronted with a of wisdom. How so? First of all, painful situations arise as a

You need to realize that Dharma teachings are talking about you, your personal reality. You need to take them personally and integrate them with your life.

difficult situation, it’s possible that you’ll find you’re not result of non-virtuous karma. When we experience pain we OK at all. So that’s why true Dharma practitioners wel- should ask, “Why is this happening to me? How has this come trouble. It gives them a chance to see if what they’ve come about?” That sort of inquiry leads us to understand

10 MANDALA October - December 2012 that it’s the ripening of negative karma we created in the easily have led me to give it up, thinking that Dharma past. That basic understanding can grow into wisdom; the doesn’t work. painful experience helps us develop a deeper understanding Dharma practice is very difficult if you don’t under- that is beyond the merely intellectual. stand what it is. You need to realize that Dharma teachings Of course, if you’re completely ignorant, it doesn’t matter are talking about you, your personal reality. You need to how much suffering you experience, there’s no way for that take them personally and integrate them with your life. It’s to lead to happiness. All you do is go from misery to more no good if your Dharma understanding is like soup – many misery. If, on the other hand, you have at least a modicum of different ideas all mixed up – and you never make Dharma Dharma wisdom, when you’re in difficulty you know how a part of your life. Then it can’t really help you. to use that experience to lead yourself into happiness. If you understand your own attitude and level and One lama said, “When things go well, you’re a great know what you need at any particular moment in time, you Dharma practitioner; when things go badly, your Dharma can fulfill your needs appropriately and will see yourself disappears. When your stomach is full and sunshine is making real progress. Simply collecting information that’s pouring into your room, it’s easy to look religious; but when disconnected from your own reality doesn’t make sense. By difficulties arise, you come up empty.” understanding Dharma from your own point of view, from It’s like when I was a young boy in Tibet and every- the way you live your life, you have a much better chance thing was going well, I pretty much took it for granted of developing yourself. So that’s what you should try to do. that I was practicing Dharma. It could easily have Base your practice on your own experience. happened that when it came to the crunch, I could have Lama Yeshe gave this teaching at Grizzly Lodge, Portola, found my Dharma practice wanting – that I’d never California, U.S., in 1980. Edited for Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive practiced or even understood Dharma – and that could (www.lamayeshe.com) by Nicholas Ribush. ADVICE FROM A SPIRITUAL FRIEND SAMSARIC METHODS CAN NEVER SATISFY By Lama Zopa Rinpoche

he Buddha explained in a sutra that we can never achieve satisfaction as long as we follow desire. TFurthermore, Lama Tsongkhapa said in the Lam- rim Chen-mo that following desire opens the door to many problems. Just as many branches grow from the root of a plant, most of the disturbing emotions and problems we face in life grow out of desire. The great yogi Sharawa said that with clinging comes dissatisfaction. Even though we might have more than enough material possessions, clothes, money and so forth to last our whole life, we still feel we don’t have enough, we still crave more. But following desire

Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Maitripa College, Portland, Oregon, U.S., June 2012. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.

October - December 2012 MANDALA 11 Teachings and ADVICE doesn’t fill the empty heart. No matter how many objects of full of problems, all caused by the evil thought of eight desire we manage to obtain, we still don’t experience satis- worldly dharmas. There are many people like this, totally faction, and that is our major suffering. There’s never an end. out of control, blindly following attachment. Some end Whether we experience a little pleasure or a lot, we never find up going crazy or killing themselves because they can’t real satisfaction so we just want it again and again and again control their lives. They’re always searching for happiness and again and again. We’re always craving for better and more but finding only suffering. but it just doesn’t happen. Desire is by nature hungry; it can … Life becomes so heavy and difficult, bringing never be satiated. depression, worry, fear. Chasing satisfaction in things, we Desire is like a chronic disease. There are chronic have no chance to enjoy what life can offer. Even if we’re diseases of the body; this is a chronic disease of the mind. living in a jeweled palace full of luxuries, even if we have Following the dissatisfied mind is like drinking salt water … billions of cars – Bentleys, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Rolls – or eating Indian popcorn. The popcorn in India is very even if we have billions of swimming pools, we still can’t salty. Because of that you have to drink tea with it. After a really enjoy life. We might have an army of servants glass of tea you crave more popcorn, which makes you working for us but we’re still completely miserable. Look thirsty, which makes you drink more tea, which makes you at the very rich beyond their glossy exteriors and ask your- want more popcorn, and so forth, on and on. Until you self whether they’re truly happy. Many of them look actively determine to stop, you just keep on eating and thoroughly worn down and miserable. drinking endlessly. When we don’t get what our attachment wants, we feel What the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger sang is very true: hopeless. This is one of the fundamental sufferings in our “I can’t get no satisfaction.” In his heart, no matter how life. This is what makes people crazy. Whatever we’re many friends he has, no matter how many people say they attached to that we lose – our business, our friend, whatever

No matter how many objects of desire we manage to obtain, we still don’t experience satisfaction and that is our major suffering. There’s never an end. love him, no matter how famous he has become, no matter – makes us think that our life has no meaning. This then how much wealth he has, he’s still not satisfied. The song makes us create negative karma out of anger, jealousy, expresses what’s in his heart – he has all these external things stealing, killing and so forth. We cause so much harm to but his heart, his inner life, is empty. In singing this he ourselves and others. It brings much unhappiness not only shows us the shortcomings of desire and proves what the to ourselves but also to many others and is the cause of Buddha said: samsaric pleasure never gives satisfaction. No rebirth in the lower realms. matter how much we get, no matter how much we experi- We need to let go by practicing mindfulness, by ence, we’re never satisfied. watching the mind. Then, when attachment to the eight … We can travel around the world for months or even worldly dharmas arises, like the missiles America used on years trying to find a desirable object, trying to find a Iraq that travel hundreds of miles and go right to the target, friend. Our mind is so upset, so lonely, so worried we won’t we need to see attachment for what it is and launch our get what we want. One country doesn’t give us what we nuclear missile of mindfulness right at it to destroy it. need and so we go to another. Maybe we spend some time Excerpted from How to Practice Dharma: Teachings on the hanging around in Greece, but not finding the object to Eight Worldly Dharmas by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, edited satisfy our desires there, we go to California. by Gordon McDougall. How to Practice Dharma is the second We spend all our money like this. We cling to the in Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s FPMT Lineage Series (www.lamayeshe.com). dream of finding the perfect partner but, unable to meet him or her in one place, our attachment takes us to See page 37 to read more about the FPMT Lineage Series and the founding of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive in our interview another part of the world. We experience a difficult life, with Archive director Nicholas Ribush.

12 MANDALA October - December 2012 A TEACHER TELLS US WHY TRUTH AND HONESTY ARE WITHOUT LIMIT

Khadro-la offering advice to FPMT International Office staff, Portland, Oregon, U.S., June 2012. Photos by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

QUESTION: How can I best use my human rebirth? ANSWERED BY RANGJUNG NELJORMA KHADRO NAMSEL DROLMA (KHADRO-LA) e need to understand that our present happiness fulness in your activities is something that should be and suffering isn’t something that comes without without limit. Truth and honesty are things that are Wcauses and conditions, nor does it come as a result limitless. You may call it “bodhichitta,” you may call it of discordant causes and conditions. Everything good or “emptiness,” but reality is that truth and that honesty bad in life occurs in accordance with causes and conditions. brought forth to their ultimate level. When we amass karmic actions that are non-virtuous, then For our basic sustenance and our basic means of living there is suffering. As we amass karmic actions that are we depend on various jobs, but these are all dependent virtuous, then there is happiness. That is the natural flow, conditions. They’re not something you can ultimately trust which is the natural dependent arising of life. because they are conditions that are dependent on other You should think about dependent arising – subtle dependent arising and gross dependent arising – and how because of dependent arising liberation is possible for us. Right now we are blessed with a perfect human rebirth. things. However, if we have that basic honesty and truth in Not only that, we have encountered the teachings of the us, we naturally become good people. When we know what Buddha, have met with teachers and are blessed with an in actuality is bodhichitta and what in actuality is empti- intellect that allows us to make discernments. We all have ness, and when we have trust in that reality of bodhichitta the wish to do good. The feeling to do good, to do some- and emptiness, we can see that this is the real goodness thing right, it’s always there. But in the actual application, within ourselves. When we lack that honesty and truth and in the actual practice, we don’t employ that wish we have. work to enhance our own reputation, well-being and What we are focusing on is just the immediate temporary comfort, that is the way in which we deceive ourselves. And situation, and we are totally deceived by that. Therefore, it although we wish for or seek out those things, they’re not is important to be honest and truthful. Honesty and truth- going to work out anyway.

October - December 2012 MANDALA 13 Teachings and ADVICE

Because of dependent arising, you have liberation. of the present and in terms of the future. Because of dependent arising, you have the means to If you put your effort into being honest and truthful, extinguish suffering. And because of dependent arising, you remember that when you are concerned for yourself, you need to cultivate compassion and you need to it’s just for one person, but when you are concerned for develop bodhichitta. You need to meditate on these others, it’s limitless. Out of that understanding comes things that are very, very precious. Because of dependent altruism. Whatever activities you engage in with that attitude arising, thinking about the kindness of others becomes become very pervasive and extensive. Even at the time of very important. You should think about dependent death, if you happen to be dying due to some ailment, arising – subtle dependent arising and gross dependent make dedications for the benefit of sentient being so that if arising – and how because of dependent arising liberation you have to think of the possibility of your body getting is possible for us. If we need to use our intellect in any cremated or buried, there is no feeling of anxiety over it. way, it should be to reflect on dependent arising and what We say that our mind by nature is luminous and that that means for us. all our defilements are adventitious. When you extinguish If you see bodhichitta and emptiness as really precious, these adventitious defilements, you actualize the luminous you are able to counter difficulties or problems – outer and nature of your mind. This is how we actualize the buddha- inner – much better. When in the face of difficulties, you nature in us. The key thing is being good and kind – night are not depressed by them or set back by them. If you see and day, no matter where – constantly checking to see the preciousness of bodhichitta and emptiness, you are not whether one is upholding that attitude or not. ◆ quick to anger and aggression, and you become more Excerpted from a talk given to FPMT International Office staff, compassionate and more tolerant. If one is able to think Portland, Oregon, U.S., June 22, 2012. Interpreted by Ven. Tsen-la. “until the enlightenment of all sentient beings, I dedicate Edited for publication in Mandala. my mind and body for the benefit of sentient beings’ Khadro-la offers more advice to FPMT students in our cover enlightenment” – if one is able to have an attitude like that feature, “If We Use Our Wisdom Carefully, Everything Is Possible" – one fulfills one’s own well-being and happiness in terms on page 22.

14 MANDALA October - December 2012 F R I E N D S O F fpmt

fpmt relies on the generosity of Friends and donors like you to achieve its mission – the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values world- wide through teaching, meditation and community services. A gift membership to Friends of FPMT is another way to practice generosity and may be made by going online to www.fpmt.org/friends/giftmembership.

We appreciate having you as a Friend and thank you for your ongoing support of our programs. Practicing Dharma in DAILY LIFE FEATURED PRACTICE PRAYER OF CHENREZIG, THE COMPASSIONATE BUDDHA

Statue of Songtsen Gampo in Maitripa College’s Jokhang, Portland, Oregon, U.S. Photo by Marc Sakamoto.

“Prayer of Chenrezig, the Compassionate Buddha” comes out of the Mani Kabum, a collection of teachings attributed to the first Dharma King of Tibet, Songtsen Gampo. Songtsen Gampo himself was considered an embodiment of Chenrezig, sometimes referred to as “the Compassionate Buddha” and “Compassionate Eye Looking One.” “If you keep the Compassionate Buddha who is enriched with supreme power in your mind, you will be protected from all dangers,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche instructs. “First you request these things to happen to yourself, and then you cause the same things to happen to all other sentient beings. This is extremely effective to generate bodhichitta and the good heart, to cherish others.”

Mandala offers this prayer as this issue’s Featured Practice.

Buddha Days Full and New Moons October 29 – Lord Buddha’s acceptance to descend from (Tibetan 15th and 30th days) God Realm of Thirty-three October 15, 29 November 13, 28 November 6 – Lord Buddha’s actual descent from God December 13, 28 Realm of Thirty-three

The FPMT Foundation Store offers for sale the LIBERATION calendar, a traditional Tibetan lunar calendar including auspicious days and more, produced by Liberation Prison Project: shop.fpmt.org.

16 MANDALA October - December 2012 Prayer of Chenrezig, the Compassionate Buddha NAMO GURU LOKESHVARAYA You who are the universal being enriched with supreme power, please look at me with compassion. Pure Lord, treasure of compassion, please be my guide and save me. I request the transcendental sublime Compassionate Eye Looking One, Please be my captain And liberate me from the great oceans of beginningless samsara. When I am obscured by the darkness of ignorance, please be my illuminating light, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When, like a blazing fire, I become angry at my enemy, please be like a waterfall, extinguishing my anger, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When, like violent waves, I become attached to my friends, please help me realize the ultimate nature, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I am bound to my possessions by the knot of miserliness, please be the governor of my generosity, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I am intoxicated by the five poisonous delusions, please be my King of Medicine (Medicine Buddha), Compassionate Eye Looking One. At the time of death, when I am disturbed and frightened, please show your face, which introduces self-nature, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I am surrounded by karma, the messenger of Yama, please be my refuge and guide, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I am on the journey of the unknown and dangerous path of the intermediate stage, please be like my close relative, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I am seeking and wandering without end, please take me to the pure land, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I am experiencing the suffering of karma in the womb, please build a pavilion of light for me, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I have taken the body of an unknowing baby, please be my virtuous friend, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I always meditate that you are on my crown, make offerings and pray, please be my root Guru, Compassionate Eye Looking One.

When I meditate and praise you, please be my mind-sealed assembly deity (yidam), Compassionate Eye Looking One. When I experience bad conditions, outer and inner obstacles, please be my Dharma protector and pacify these obstacles, Compassionate Eye Looking One. When my mind is tormented by poor health, hunger, thirst, and poverty, please grant all attainments of all my wishes, Compassionate Eye Looking One.

When I request with the six syllables, OM MANI PADME HUM, with continual sound close to your ears, please always look at me with compassion, Compassionate Eye Looking One.

Translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Hong Kong, January 1999. Draft prepared and edited by Sarah Shifferd, FPMT Education Services, April 2009, for the 100 Million Mani Retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini.

October - December 2012 MANDALA 17 Practicing Dharma in DAILY LIFE REJOICE! Every year, practitioners quietly complete retreats and commitments and engage in acts of great devotion. REJOICE! is where we recognize the amazing practice of FPMT students around the world. “MANI” THANKS TO MALAYSIA AND AUSTRALIA s part of his vast vision for FPMT and its students, Lama Zopa Rinpoche encourages AFPMT centers to host mani retreats, a practice found in Tibetan Buddhism in which practitioners gather together in order to collectively accumu- late 100 million repetitions of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM (“mani” for short), the mantra of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion. Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches that reciting this mantra supports the development of compassion and bod- hichitta in one’s mind, among other in- credible benefits. Two centers – Rinchen Jangsem Ling in Triang, Malaysia, and Chenrezig Insti- tute in Eudlo, Australia – have taken up the challenge of regularly organizing and Participants at an onsite session of Rinchen Jangsem Ling’s 2012 mani retreat, hosting these retreats, garnering a cumu- Malaysia. Photo courtesy of Ven. Sonam Yeshe. lative 17 years of experience since 2000. Rinchen Jangsem Ling finished its fifth annual mani we did not know before have come to be great friends. For retreat July 1, 2012. Retreat leader Ven. Sonam Yeshe some who have never before recited a mantra, taking part reports that 189 participants from Malaysia, Singapore, in this retreat and chanting their first OM MANI PADME HUM Mexico, Australia and Vietnam collected over 25 million has opened up new paths in their lives….” recitations over the course of a month. Chenrezig Institute begins their annual mani retreat on Rinchen Jangsem Ling honors those who recite the holiday marking Buddha’s descent from Tushita (usually 110,000 mantras by forwarding their names to Lama in November) and ends on Saka Dawa (in May or June). Zopa Rinpoche and allowing them to choose one name Over the 12 years the retreat has taken place, participants (for each set of 110,000 they personally accumulate) to have accumulated over 558 million mantra recitations. This be inscribed on a gold plaque on the platform of the year, 90 people from around the world participated. center’s Tara statue. On average, participants in the 2012 Although the count for this year is not final, veteran coor- retreat recited just over 138,000 mantras each, but there dinator Caroline Crossman reports that with the help of was one person, Carolyn Chan, who recited an impressive major contributions from the students of Do Ngak Sung 1,520,888! Juk Centre in Tokyo, the count is already nearing 16 “I have heard much positive feedback and praise from million and is still growing! participants pertaining to [the retreat],” shares participant and coordinator Sand Lee, who herself offered over 1.2 Both centers offer onsite and at-home options for contributing to the mani retreats, opening the way for anyone to partici- million mantras to the total count. “This great retreat has pate. Contact the centers directly (see FPMT Directory, p. 59) brought many people together in Dharma; people whom for more information.

18 MANDALA October - December 2012

Practicing Dharma in DAILY LIFE I,000,000 PROSTRATIONS!

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently received the following letter from a student in the United States. After Rinpoche read the letter, he requested that it be published in Mandala for people to rejoice in, as this is an incredible accomplishment. To respect this student’s privacy, we have not included her name.

Tomorrow, I will have completed one million prostrations while reciting the 35 Buddha names. I dedicate this merit to the success of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s projects and his long, happy, healthy life.

I plan to do another set of 100,000 during the next 12 months and possibly finish them in India.

I feel so very lucky...

If not for Rinpoche, I would never have had a place to study Dharma or meet Geshe-la and learn to do prostra- tions. It was only Dharma that held me together during the hardest years of caring for my mother as she suffered from dementia, and I have no doubt that my mother meeting Rinpoche is what helped her have a peaceful death. So, I wholeheartedly dedicate my merit to the success of his projects. ◆

The FPMT Foundation Store offers both a practice book and a CD of the Prostrations to the 35 Buddhas. Visit shop.fpmt.org.

THE INTERNATIONAL MERIT BOX PROJECT

WE ALL HAVE A WORD FOR GENEROSITY:

慷慨 generøsitet vrijgevigheid suuremeelsus kagandahang-loob hào phóng 寛大な générosité generosità Großzügigkeit щедрость generosidade kemurahan generositet gavmildhet Generozitatea Practice generosity with your own International Merit Box kit, now available in eleven languages. Email [email protected] for more information and to obtain your own Merit Box kit, or visit www.fpmt.org/meritbox If you are already an International Merit Box participant, thank you for practicing generosity today, and throughout the year, in support of FPMT projects worldwide.

20 MANDALA October - December 2012 October - December 2012 MANDALA 21 An Interview with Khadro-la

22 MANDALA October - December 2012 An Interview with Khadro-la: If We Use Our Wisdom Carefully, Everything Is Possible

On a cool, summer evening in Portland, shared stories of the incredible hardships she met with when Oregon, an enthusiastic crowd of nearly leaving Tibet and becoming a refugee and the obstacles that 200 gathered at Maitripa College to blocked many of her initial attempts to see His Holiness the hear Khadro-la offer her first public Dalai Lama once she arrived in Dharamsala, India. Since teaching in the United States. The the 2009 interview appeared, FPMT students have seen packed room vibrated with curiosity and Khadro-la in pictures with Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Dagri anticipation at hearing a female lama teach – Rinpoche performing pujas and visiting sacred sites in India such a rare opportunity in Tibetan Buddhism. She sat on and Nepal. She’s become known through the assistance she a low throne surrounded by flowers and with Lama Zopa has been offering Lama Zopa Rinpoche since he manifested Rinpoche and Yangsi Rinpoche sitting on either side of her. a stroke in 2011 and also through serving as an oracle at the Even before she began, her visible humbleness and bubbling Kalachakra initiation given by His Holiness in Bodhgaya, youthful laughter relaxed and lightened the mood. As India, in January. Khadro-la said at the start of her talk, for most people in Until recently, only a very few FPMT centers had attendance, this was the first time meeting with her in this hosted public teachings with Khadro-la, such as Losang lifetime. By the end of the evening, Khadro-la’s smile and Dragpa Centre in Malaysia and Nalanda Monastery in warmth had spread through the crowd; after she had left, the France. Fortunately for FPMT students, Khadro-la has audience lingered in the bliss, hoping to meet her again soon. been traveling from her home in Dharamsala, stopping by “His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the originator of all several FPMT centers on the West Coast of the United sentient beings’ happiness,” FPMT Spiritual Director Lama States in June 2012 with Lama Zopa Rinpoche (see page Zopa Rinpoche said during his teaching at Maitripa College 54). Then in July, Khadro-la visited Spain, Italy and the previous evening. “Khadro-la’s responsibility is to serve Switzerland, offering public teachings in centers there. In His Holiness. She came from Tibet to serve His Holiness. August, she led her second retreat at Nalanda Monastery. You know, without her I think we would probably have a Many more FPMT centers have invited her to teach and very difficult time.” are hoping to host her in the future. Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma is Khadro- While Khadro-la was visiting the FPMT International la’s formal title – “Rangjung Neljorma” being the name that Office in Portland in June, she agreed to a second interview His Holiness gave her meaning “self-arising, natural yogini.” with Mandala magazine. Managing editor Laura Miller The international FPMT community was introduced to asked Khadro-la to talk about her connection with and Khadro-la through an interview with Ven. Roger Kunsang, service to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, offer advice to female who serves as Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s attendant and FPMT practitioners and share her thoughts for the development CEO, called “Interview with a Dakini,” published in of FPMT. We share this interview with the hope that Mandala January-March 2009. In the interview, Khadro-la many will be inspired by Khadro-la’s sincere and profound

Left page: Khadro-la teaching at Maitripa College, Oregon, commitment to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to U.S., June 2012. Photo by Marc Sakamoto. spreading the Dharma.

October - December 2012 MANDALA 23 An Interview with Khadro-la

Mandala: How did you meet Lama Zopa Rinpoche? And can you talk about your connection and service to Rinpoche?

Khadro-la: I don’t remember the year exactly, but it was around 1996 or ’97 that I was going on pilgrimage. I met a woman called Maria, and through her, I came to know of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Later on, I met Dagri Rinpoche. Through him and others I became more connected. I had an audience with His Holiness the Dalia Lama. During that time, I think Rinpoche was working on the project of the Maitreya statue [known as the Maitreya Project]. His Holiness mentioned to me that if there was anything I could do for Rinpoche and the project, then I should help with that. So then I met with Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the first time. I immediately felt that Rinpoche was a person who practices real bodhisattva actions and I developed a great sense of devotion. In addition, I had heard that Rinpoche was sponsoring the meals for the monks at Sera Je Monastery [through the Sera Je Food Fund]. Then I came to know that this was not just hearsay, but real action. It’s quite a big monastery. The monks there are upholding the Dharma and the lineage, and I am really moved by such actions. Through my acquain- tance with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, I’ve also come to know that Rinpoche is someone who firmly believes in, supports and has one-hundred-percent faith in His Holiness the Dalai Lama. These things also have brought me much closer to Rinpoche. At one point, Lama Zopa Rinpoche mentioned to me that he would like me to visit some centers in Asia. I checked with His Holiness if it was alright for me to visit, and His Holiness said, “Yes, go ahead.” After that, I started visiting some centers here and there. Seeing these centers, I came to realize that Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche really were so kind and helpful to all Buddhists. Not only that, they had established so many centers all around the world. I realized that FPMT was one of the organizations that had the most centers of Tibetan Buddhism around the world. When people come in contact with FPMT centers, it gives them the opportunity to purify and to do practice. It gives a lot benefit. For Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the purpose

Top: Khadro-la at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, July 2012. Photo by Piero Sirianni.

Bottom: Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khadro-la circumambulating Lama Yeshe's Great Enlightenment Stupa at Vajrapani Institute, California, U.S., June 2012. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

24 MANDALA October - December 2012 of having all the centers and projects is so that people can awkward to push Rinpoche too much to do physical have contact with Dharma. Due to Rinpoche’s bodhichitta, exercise. even if people cannot practice, they can have an introduc- tion to or some kind of experience of Dharma. In order to Mandala: Would you speak about the teachings you fulfill the ultimate goal of enlightenment of all beings, offer to female practitioners? For example, teachings having Rinpoche is working tirelessly, creating opportunities for to do with self-confidence. all people by building holy objects here and there and by establishing centers. All this so that students and others can Khadro-la: Generally speaking, whatever you practice accumulate merit through contact with holy objects and or whatever actions you do, there will not be much the Buddha’s teachings. difference between males and females. When you talk about The vastness of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s bodhisattva courage and self-confidence there are many levels, but what mind cannot be fathomed by a person like me. These are is most important is to see reality for what it is. Through just some of the surface qualities of that mind that I can that experience [of recognizing the ultimate reality of see. Due to all these vast actions that Lama Zopa Rinpoche situations], then one can experience self-confidence.

As for the ability to eliminate suffering and to practice Dharma, I feel and think that there is no difference between men and women. The main reason for this is the very nature of our minds, which is clear and pure. has done, I felt a special connection with Rinpoche and Developing the ability to see reality may be most help- decided that whatever I can do to serve Rinpoche, in what- ful for female practitioners, who are more sensitive to ever capacity, I’m happy to do it. Even though from my experiences – good or bad – and more able to recognize side, I don’t know much and might not be able to help a lot. feelings in themselves and others. I think that women more easily have a sense of compassion and closeness and are Mandala: How do you think Rinpoche’s recovery more comfortable with emotions. Also, women experience from manifesting a stroke is going and what is helping with different difficulties in life and maybe their nervous system that recovery? is set up a little differently. But as for the ability to eliminate suffering and to practice Dharma, I feel and think that there Khadro-la: Lama Zopa Rinpoche took this manifes- is no difference between men and women. The main reason tation of having a stroke, but on the inside, Rinpoche doesn’t for this is the very nature of our minds, which is clear and worry about being cured and getting over this stroke. His pure. It’s the same for males and females; there is no mental state is very calm and very vast. The actions he’s difference. Therefore, the self-cherishing thought rooted in thinking about don’t concern his own immediate recovery. ignorance is exactly the same for males and females. In order When I heard of Rinpoche’s stroke, I had a sense or to eliminate temporary and permanent suffering, we all need vision that somewhere around Rinpoche’s neck [Khadro-la to use our wisdom. I think that in terms of wisdom, women gestures towards the area where the neck meets the back of need to have a sharper and clearer vision of how things really the head] there was some kind of blockage of the passage of exist. blood. It’s like the wind [subtle energy] stops and then the It is a cultural thing that woman have been looked flow of blood stops. down upon in the past. Particularly in some rural and It seems that modern medicine cannot immediately smaller [or economically less developed] countries, there is benefit Rinpoche right now. Whenever there is an impedi- a lot of discrimination. In these kinds of cultures where ment to Rinpoche’s own physical strength or ability to do women are looked upon as inferior, it is a huge mistake and exercise, someone can help with massage and with his a wrong way of thinking. The person who can think in the movement and that can be very beneficial. Rinpoche doesn’t short term as well as the long term – keeping in mind the do much physical exercise! [Khadro-la laughs.] It’s kind of goal of perceiving exactly how things are in reality –

October - December 2012 MANDALA 25 An Interview with Khadro-la

centers experience benefit for themselves. But centers also benefit others by creating the possibility for them to come into contact with Buddhism so that they may eventually become enlightened. If we see the centers in this context, undoubtedly they are helping sentient beings have more happiness. In most cases, people think of themselves as good and as trying to benefit or help others, and never think that they’re bad or trying to harm someone. People want to see themselves as good. In order to actually be a good human being, the first quality necessary is that a person has to be honest. In order to be honest, one shouldn’t have to be so close or dependent on someone or try to keep others distant. You have to have equanimity. Then you must look at reality and see it as it is. Through this, we become more honest and reliable. There is no limit to how much we can develop the qual- ities of a good human being within ourselves. We always can improve. After all, as Mahayana Buddhists our ultimate aim and goal is to get enlightened in order to benefit all other sentient beings. For those in Buddhist centers especially, that should be our main goal. If we get too involved in seeking temporary benefits – just for this life or for the benefit of this life – it won’t be very good. If you think just about personal benefit when you are at a Buddhist center, then it’s an incorrect motivation. It won’t help. Instead of helping, it Khadro-la laughing during teaching, Nalanda Monastery, France, August 2011. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery. might harm us in the long term. In addition, we have to remember the kindness of our understands there is no difference between men or women teachers. If someone gives you tons of money – millions of or anything else. We shouldn’t feel discouraged as females; dollars – or if someone gives you a transmission of, for ex- we shouldn’t feel that we can’t do anything. Whether you ample, the mani mantra, as Buddhists the mantra transmis- can do or cannot do something is up to your wisdom – sion is more beneficial and more kind. Students, everyone, one’s own wisdom. If we can use the wisdom correctly, then need to remember this. The organization also recognizes very we can do anything. thoroughly what refuge is and that there are various kinds of refuge – outer, inner and secret. If you understand this very Mandala: Do you have any advice for FPMT or ideas thoroughly, then it will be very beneficial for all. on how FPMT can grow in the future? For anyone who has a bad experience of suffering, this is because of the negative actions of body, speech and mind Khadro-la: Most of the people who run FPMT are very that have occurred in the past. Because of a particular knowledgeable and well-educated people. Unlike someone action, one experiences the result. If we have accumulated like me, they have had access to all kinds of opportunities. As positive actions through our body, speech and mind in our a simple female Tibetan who hasn’t had much education and past life, we experience positive experiences in this life. has studied less than others, it doesn’t seem too appropriate Moreover, through the doors of body, speech and mind, we for me to give advice to FPMT. At the same time, I really feel will attain the ultimate enlightenment through our positive like saying what I think honestly, since you asked. actions. In order to understand the Dharma, it’s quite deep. First of all, the existence of FPMT and its centers is The Buddhism that comes from Tibet, and originally from very, very important. The people associated with FPMT India, is like a jewel – a wish-fulfilling jewel – which can

26 MANDALA October - December 2012 benefit everyone in the world. So look at your own mind and look at reality, then through that you practice accord- ingly. This is particularly true for Buddhism and uncommon to other practices. When we receive a teaching at a center, it shouldn’t be like reading the newspaper. Our self-cherishing thoughts, which we all have, are not very easy to tame. The whole reason that we are receiving teachings and that teachers are giving teachings is to tame the wild mind. Even if you understand the whole path in general, the main thing is that you must integrate whatever teachings you have received with your practice every day so that the teachings become one with your mind. When you don’t do that, you become intellectually one-sided and your practice lacks. You have to respect the person giving you Dharma instruction and follow his or her advice. This helps to tame our minds. Of course, there are sometimes instances when some teachers may be giving you teachings, but they are more like worldly teachings. Or the teachers don’t practice what they teach or they are all about materialistic things. In these cases, maybe it’s better not to follow such teachers at that time. If what is taught is for the benefit of others always, then you can follow with faith. Otherwise, if it’s just to benefit some individuals, then maybe it’s not too helpful. All FPMT students should remember the kindness of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche for establishing FPMT. Through FPMT centers [projects and services], it’s Khadro-la during retreat, Nalanda Monastery, France, August 2011. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery. not only benefiting individual Dharma students, but it’s also benefiting a lot of other people through medical regularly having dialogues with many modern scientists on programs, hospices and different charitable projects that Buddhism and science. This is amazing work that His FPMT is bringing to the world. Also, the main reason we Holiness is doing. Because of the actions and kindness of His are getting all of this benefit is because of the kindness of Holiness, this is the first time that the scientists are paying His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Through him, we are able to attention to Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhist psychology offers experience all of this. Although we [Tibetans] don’t have an in-depth understanding of the nature of mind and how If someone gives you tons of money – millions of dollars – or if someone gives you a transmission of, for example, the mani mantra, as Buddhists the mantra transmission is more beneficial and more kind. our own country, because of His Holiness’ amazing actions the mind functions. For the modern scientists doing this and his teachings, it seems like we have conquered the work, they are like small babies in their understanding of the world. [Khadro-la laughs.] mind. It’s really amazing how deep Tibetan Buddhism goes The ultimate wish of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is to with the study of the subtle mind. The scientists aren’t even benefit everyone and to bring everyone to ultimate enlight- close to that right now. So it seems like as long as science enment. That is his main wish. In Buddha Shakyamuni’s remains important, there will be Buddhist science and time, there wasn’t this much attention on Buddhism. Maybe Buddhist philosophy engaging with it. This is all part of the there were no scientists at that time, but now His Holiness is big vision of His Holiness.

October - December 2012 MANDALA 27 An Interview with Khadro-la

When we say chom dän dä [Skrt. bhagavan], that’s a Instead, always work to correct your own mistakes, and Tibetan Buddhist word for Buddha, which means one who then you can be looking for good things in others. The nature has eliminated all the faults and who has already accumu- of the mind is always pure and clear. We should understand lated all the good qualities. His Holiness the Dalai Lama that our ignorance, anger, attachment – everything – is really represents this. All around the world, wherever His temporary. If you understand that well, then you’re able to Holiness travels, he gives teaching or talks on many experience compassion for other sentient beings. Through important subjects. It’s really hard to find such a teacher. understanding the impermanence of things, we are able to So feel very fortunate to meet with His Holiness at this time achieve renunciation, bodhichitta and emptiness. If we see and also know that there are other holy beings as well. things as permanent, we have no chance. In terms of practice, when I was in Tibet, I had some FPMT students see how very valuable and important it experience of hearing negative things like “this is my sect,” is to take care of other sentient beings. Because of this, they “I do it like this” or “this is not my sect.” Even within have very big goals and take on big jobs and projects, which Buddhism in earlier times, there were instances like this. can come with a lot of problems. This is the nature of But I practice a view of relying on dependent arising as the things. However, we can use our wisdom and see that it is ultimate view and that one’s actions should not harm possible to solve these problems. It is important when facing Through not harming anyone, our actions become more like those of a bodhisattva. When we develop like this, we don’t see the differences among the different traditions. anyone. Through not harming anyone, our actions become problems to try our very best to never think, “This is more like those of a bodhisattva. When we develop like this, impossible.” If we use our wisdom carefully, everything is we don’t see the differences among the different traditions. possible; we can solve the problems. The best practice or best sect for you is whatever benefits Whatever I’m saying here and whatever this looks like, you the best, helps you tame your mind the most and I’m not giving advice. It’s just my opinion. I have answered makes you happy. That’s the best-suited practice for you – what I could of your questions, but it’s mixed up and may whatever is the most helpful for you. not be of benefit. From my side, it has all been said That’s also why we have to try to not have attachment honestly. Maybe there are some extreme words or mistakes. for one and keep another at a distance. We need equa- I want to say I’m sorry if I made any mistakes. ◆ nimity. If we don’t, it’s not following Tsongkhapa. When Ven. Zamling and Ugyen Shola provided translation. we are looking very carefully at the other sects and traditions, all are equal if practitioners are gaining enlightenment from doing their practice. The differences There’s more online! have to do with the history of their development. The main goal is all the same: for all practitioners to get to You can find our archive story “Interview with a enlightenment. That’s why we do not think “this one is Dakini” from Mandala January-March 2009 as well best” or “this one is worst.” We never think like that. And as read Khadro-la talking about the stupas being built if you do, you are not a real follower of Tsongkhapa. We on the U.S. West Coast to minimize the damage from always have to try our best at whatever practice we do. potential earthquakes at mandalamagazine.org. The main goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate self- cherishing and the self-grasping “I.” If you are really doing To learn about the Maitreya Project, go to the practice, you are able to reduce the ignorance and www.maitreyaproject.org. grasping. Then the ultimate result will be to achieve For more information on Sera Je Food Fund, visit bodhichitta and a direct realization of emptiness. www.fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/seraje.

It is important to always check your own mistakes and For more on the stupas being built, or to donate to to work to end the accumulation of negative karma. Also, these efforts, visit www.fpmt.org and search, "Stupas to do not spend time looking for what others are doing wrong. Minimize Harm from the Elements." Many people do that saying, “Oh, he’s doing this and that.”

28 MANDALA October - December 2012 FPMT Education Services Providing Programs and Practice Materials For All FPMT Prayers and Practices iPod, iPad, and Kindle Ready! MP3 downloads for just $8.00 each!! E-Books 50% off book cost

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Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga Chod Prostrations to the 35 Buddhas Essential Buddhist Prayers Vol 1 Essential Buddhist Prayers Vol 2 FPMT Retreat Prayer Book

October - December 2012 MANDALA 29 EDUCATION FPMT EDUCATION SERVICES

FPMT Education Services is the education department of FPMT International Office and develops study programs, practice materials, translations and trainings designed to foster an integration of four broad education areas: study, practice, service and behavior. These programs and materials are available through the FPMT Foundation Store, the FPMT Online Learning Center and FPMT centers worldwide.

Perfecting the Means of Attainment By Kendall Magnussen Education Services Offers the New 2012 Edition of Initial Practices of Vajrayogini

any of us have had the files. Some of these were direct trans- unique cherry-on-top-of- lations from the Tibetan by scholars Ma-precious-human-rebirth such as Alexander Berzin. Others were experience of receiving empowerment translations or oral instructions given into the highest yoga tantric practice by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and other of Vajrayogini. In conjunction with lamas to their students directly or such an empowerment, one receives a through an interpreter. In the early daily practice commitment and, usu- years of this oral transmission, the ally, a retreat commitment of 100,000 chances of getting things written down or more mantras. These retreats are in a completely accurate manner were known as lä rung in Tibetan, often minimal, at best. translated as “nearing the deity” or Our job was to sort through the “approaching the deity” retreats. By closeto100filesthatcametousfrom doing a retreat of a certain number of various sources, establish which were mantras while engaging in the various direct translations of known Tibetan meditations and prayers related to that New 2012 edition of Initial Practices of Vajrayogini texts, which were oral instructions practice, you come closer to attaining dictated to a student, and figure out the enlightened state of Vajrayogini. which works belonged to whom as well as which root texts In order to do such a retreat, you need the relevant prac- were used as the basis for any particular written work or tice materials. At FPMT Education Services, one of our translation. The materials we received were often photo- primary tasks in helping to preserve the Mahayana tradition copies of older typewritten materials or handwritten notes is to locate relevant texts, assure their accurate translation and sometimes had no colophons to indicate original au- from the Tibetan into English and publish them. These thors, texts or translators, so locating the root Tibetan texts precious texts have been developed over centuries. At first, proved exceptionally challenging. these practices were given only as oral instructions from Because our mission is to accurately preserve the Maha- teacher to disciple. Later, they were written down by realized yana tradition, this kind of detective work was absolutely practitioners together with commentaries on how to engage necessary. Still, with our best efforts made, not all quandaries in the practices. Then, to be able to print copies for distri- could be solved. Rather than waiting for years, decades or bution, monks carved woodblocks of these texts – letter by longer to meet demand, we did our best to make things letter (and Tibetan letters can be complex) and in mirror available in a timely manner. When we first envisioned image, no less! putting together a “Vajrayogini pack” in early 2000, the Leading up to our first edition of Initial Practices of aim was to produce all of the practice texts, the ritual for Vajrayogini in 2005, FPMT Education Services had entering into retreat, the pacifying burning offering ritual, numerous Vajrayogini “means of attainment” or sadhanas the self-initiation rite and a commentary on how to do the (step-by-step instructions for practicing the meditations great Vajrayogini retreat in one neat volume. However, as related to a particular deity) and other practice texts in our our research continued, our Vajrayogini materials grew into

30 MANDALA October - December 2012 a four-volume set, with some volumes being 300 pages long! were many more inconsistencies between the long sadhana Our first volume, Initial Practices of Vajrayogini, contained within the self-initiation text and Pabongkha contains the short, middle-length and long retreat sadhanas, Rinpoche’s stand-alone version than had earlier been brought to a long and abbreviated tsog practice, the ritual for entering our attention. In addition, when comparing the long sadhana into retreat, a tea offering practice, a hand offering practice with Pabongkha Rinpoche’s own Tibetan compositions, we and two commentaries by Pabongkha Rinpoche on how to found discrepancies between the long sadhana contained in engage in a Vajrayogini retreat. We first published this his Collected Works and the one found in his contributions to volume in 2005 with English translations and included the Vajrayogini Collected Activities, a compilation of works from Tibetan phonetics for the long sadhana and tsog. In 2010, various Gelug lamas. There were even differences in the we put out a revised version. For each of these editions, Tibetan rendering of Vajrayogini’s mantra! To avoid further soon after they were published, further clarifications came confusion and increase practitioner confidence in our to our attention or were requested. So, for the 2012 edition, materials, our new 2012 edition includes extensive endnotes we relied on the assistance of three different translators, the to clarify and source all adjustments made to the text. entire FPMT Education Services editorial team and feed- Tantric practitioners know that to practice the “means back from numerous seasoned practitioners to make sure of attainment” and achieve the enlightened state of the that this edition reflects the quality and accuracy needed to deity is an impressive undertaking that can take many life- last for many years! Two new features of the 2012 edition are times. What FPMT Education Services now appreciates is chantable English versions of select prayers to accompany the that perfecting the means to accomplish that feat – in other dakini-inspired Tibetan tunes and careful reformatting to words, developing accurate practice materials – is also an make it more user-friendly for practice and retreat. elaborate and complicated undertaking. We pray that all Ah, the discoveries that were made in this latest process who engage in the practice of Vajrayogini will appreciate of revisions! For example, we had originally extracted the long our latest publication and, as a result, more easily reach sadhana from a self-initiation text by Pabongkha Rinpoche, their enlightened goals.

based on advice from a very skilled translator. As we went The new 2012 edition of Initial Practices of Vajrayogni can be through the practice more carefully, we discovered that there purchased from the FPMT Foundation Store, shop.fpmt.org.

FOUNDATION FOR DEVELOPING COMPASSION AND WISDOM

The Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW) is an international FPMT project advancing Universal Education for Compassion and Wisdom secular education programs for people of all ages and cultures.

Sharing the Dharma with Children and Families By the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom team

s many Mandala readers will know, one of Lama Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been equally clear and direct Yeshe’s primary aims for Universal Education [now in his advice to the Foundation for Developing Compassion Acalled Universal Education for Compassion and and Wisdom, the organization set up in 2005 to take forward Wisdom] was to provide children and young people with this work. In this extract from a July 2000 talk given at Deer the inspiration and tools that they need to lead a happy, Park Buddhist Center in Wisconsin, U.S., Rinpoche explains peaceful and meaningful life. how social transformation begins with children and families:

October - December 2012 MANDALA 31 EDUCATION

How much peace and suffering there will be in the We would like to highlight some inspiring stories of world depends on the present generation of children and how how FPMT centers are finding innovative, contemporary they are brought up. The purpose of Universal Education is and authentic ways to communicate the essence of the to raise children to be more kind to others, more loving and Dharma teachings to children and young people. We rejoice compassionate, and for them to grow up with more that they have found our educational initiative 16 Guide- universal responsibility. In this way, they bring great peace lines for a Happy Life of assistance in this work. We share a piece on Kadampa Center’s Children and Youth Program in into their family and later also to their own children. They the United States below. In Mandala’s online content at become good examples as parents and as teachers to their mandalamagazine.org, you can read about programs at children, and then their children can become good examples Centro Yamantaka in Colombia and Losang Dragpa Centre and meaningful parents to their own children, and the in Malaysia that are also using the 16 Guidelines. generation is educated to grow up with a good heart, having For more information on FDCW and its programs, or to sign up for universal responsibility. newsletters and updates, visit www.compassionandwisdom.org. Never Give Up! Development of the Children and Youth Program at Kadampa Center By Erin Sloan, Children and Youth Program coordinator, Kadampa Center

Participants of the Children and Youth Program, Kadampa Center, North Carolina, U.S. Photo by Denise Flora.

evelopment of the Children and Youth Program and the exceptional support of center director Robbie (CYP) at Kadampa Center in Raleigh, North Watkins and resident teacher Geshe Gelek Chodha. DCarolina, U.S., started over a dozen years ago, when A key factor in CYP’s development was finding a volunteers worked to find space and create materials to curriculum that fit with our program, which is offered once a introduce children to the Dharma. Today, the program serves week on Sundays. The curriculum needed to be self-contained more than 30 children and youth per week. It continues to and flexible for new students or those attending on an rely on the kindness of volunteers, the generosity of the irregular basis and friendly to families with mixed religious center to provide space, a foundation of inspired materials, backgrounds and those new to Buddhism. Many approaches

32 MANDALA October - December 2012 were reviewed and tried. Then Geshe Gelek handed an early focused on adults, change takes time. version of the 16 Guidelines to Denise Flora, a regular CYP • Find support in key leadership. volunteer, suggesting, “This may be useful for the children’s • Develop a committed core of volunteers. Accept program.” Denise began working on posters and chants to people for the gifts they offer. illustrate each guideline. This simple task evolved into a • Establish a nursery. Young families will come. complete resource for working with 7- to 11-year-olds called • State what you need. Pray for what you need. Ready, Set, Happy, which is now an indispensable part of our • Remember karma. program for toddlers through teens. And what about the program’s effect on the center? Over the years, we’ve discovered many benefits of “[CYP] is really the catalyst for the tremendous amount of teaching the 16 Guidelines, including familiar terminology growth that’s going on here at the center,” shares director and teaching materials that are accessible to kids, parents Robbie Watkins. “It’s really become a center for families in and those new to Buddhism and of other faiths. The 16 a way it wasn’t before.” ◆ Guidelines also easily connect to Dharma practice as they Learn more about the Kadampa Center in Raleigh, North are based on Buddha’s teachings. Carolina, U.S., by visiting them online, www.kadampa- For any center considering the development of a center.org. children’s program, based on our experience at Kadampa For more information on Ready, Set, Happy, visit Center, we offer this advice: www.16guidelines.org/publications/29-ready-set-happy. • Hold the vision. You may have to start many times. Go online to mandalamagazine.org to read about youth Keep trying. programs in Colombia at Centro Yamantaka and in Malaysia • Make the program visible. If the center has been at Losang Dragpa Centre.

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Continuing Education & Distance Learning (Online) Classes Available Venerable Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche (r), Spiritual Director of FPMT, with Yangsi Rinpoche (l), Geshe Lharampa & President of Maitripa College; ~ Photo by Marc Sakamoto

October - December 2012 MANDALA 33 Dharma and the MODERN WORLD THE JOY OF STUDY Geshe Kelsang Wangmo’s Path to Becoming the World’s First Female Geshe

In April 2011, Geshe Kelsang Wangmo made his- tory by becoming the first female geshe, signaling a new era for nuns to excel scholastically and to take on important teaching roles that had traditionally been the domain of monks. “It has been a great pleasure to see that Ven. Kelsang Wangmo has been awarded with the Geshe degree and I hope that many nuns, some having finished their study for years already, will follow very soon,” Ven. Kunphen, spiritual program coordinator at Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, told Mandala. “It’s quite a big step, which will heighten the esteem and value nuns are given considerably.” Geshe Wangmo, who is German by birth, arrived in McLeod Ganj in 1990 as a confused and lost recent high school graduate who had already been traveling around Europe and Asia for several months. She told Mandala in an email interview in July that she remembers waking up on her first morning in McLeod Ganj and feeling “happy and peaceful.” Because of this, she decided to stay and within a few months ended up attending teachings at Tushita Meditation Centre with Tibetan lamas like Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche and Lati Rinpoche. From there, she went to Kopan Monastery in Nepal, where she attended a course with Ven. Karin Valham, and following that, attended the one-month November course taught by Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. “By that time, I had developed great faith in Tibetan Buddhism and wanted to become a nun,” she said. In spring 1991 while living back at Tushita, she took rabjung ordination from Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. “During all these months I was burning to meet Lama Zopa Rinpoche, having heard so much about him. Unfor- tunately, he was too busy at the time to be able to come to Tushita,” Geshe Wangmo recalled. “Then I heard a rumor that Rinpoche might be teaching at the Kopan November course. Thus in autumn 1991, I traveled to Nepal and after some time finally met Rinpoche. He taught part of the November course and had an impact on me that no other lama, except His Holiness the Dalai Lama, has ever had. I Geshe Kelsang Wangmo, Manali, India, 2011. Photo courtesy of find it impossible to express the way Lama Zopa Rinpoche Geshe Kelsang Wangmo.

34 MANDALA October - December 2012 Left: His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Geshe Kelsang Wangmo and her mother, Dharamsala, India, April 2011. Photo courtesy of Geshe Kelsang Wangmo; Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching at Tushita Meditation Centre with Geshe Kelsang Wangmo in attendance, McLeod Ganj, India, May 2012. Photo courtesy of Tushita Meditation Centre. makes me feel, but just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. He is one of the most amazing beings I have ever met and has truly changed my life through his profoundly inspiring example and his peerless teachings.” After the 1991 November course, Geshe Wangmo took getsul ordination from Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. She even- tually returned to McLeod Ganj and decided to learn Tibetan, which is how she ended up entering a geshe program. “I found the technique of debate so helpful [to learning Tibetan] that in 1993 I signed up for the new class of the geshe study program at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics (IBD),” Geshe Wangmo told Mandala. “At the time, I did not know exactly what the program involved and how long it would take. I actually thought that because it was described as very demanding and difficult, I probably Geshe Kelsang Wangmo with her classmates after their graduation ceremony, April 2011, Dharamsala, India. Photo would not last long. I therefore decided to study for about courtesy of Geshe Kelsang Wangmo. two years, hoping to be able to learn enough to be able to read the scriptures and receive direct instructions from Whenever I had a problem, I could go to see him. He Tibetan teachers.” would help me with my studies, explain difficult points, But instead of leaving, Geshe Wangmo continued with give me advice and encourage me to continue,” Geshe the program. At times, she experienced incredible difficulty Wangmo said. “On top of that, it was also the joy of doing due to the rigorous curriculum and not being a native the studies that kept me going. Studying and debating the speaker of Tibetan. She also struggled with the isolation and sacred Buddhist scriptures has given me a deep sense of loneliness she felt as the only female student and as one of happiness and satisfaction. It has made my life so much a very few Westerners that stayed with the program. more meaningful and set my mind in the direction of the “I think it is primarily due to the kindness of my Dharma. This is why, despite the hardships, I do not regret amazing teacher Geshe Gyatso-la that I did not give up. even a single day of the last 18 years.”

October - December 2012 MANDALA 35 Dharma and the MODERN WORLD

Over the past decade, Geshe Wangmo has taught and experience of both worlds and how to bring them Buddhist philosophy to Westerners at the IBD. “I have together.” attended Geshe-la’s class for a few years and found her an Due to her teaching obligations at IBD, Geshe amazing and inspiring teacher,” Ven. Kunphen said. “It’s Wangmo doesn’t have much free time to teach at other quite rare to have a Western teacher, not to mention a places, but according to Ven. Kunphen, Tushita is hoping woman, who has studied in the Tibetan system, and her to welcome her to teach an intermediate-level course or two students benefit very much from her vast knowledge next year. The Emergence of the Female Geshe

Traditionally, Geshe degrees are awarded to monks and receive the degree. But in 2011, His Holiness and the who have completed extensive studies on the five major Department of Religion and Culture authorized the treatises of Buddhist philosophy. For centuries, Tibetan Institute of Buddhist Dialectics (IBD) to award Rime Buddhist nuns were discouraged from engaging in any Geshe degrees for the first time. This allowed Geshe philosophical study and debate and denied the ability to Wangmo, who had been a student at IBD since 1993, and take full ordination vows, which prevented them from several of her male monastic classmates to receive the degree even hoping to obtain Geshe degrees. This institutional- without having to join a monastery. In addition to studying ized disadvantage for nuns continued even after the the standard Gelug geshe curriculum, taking exams and Chinese takeover of Tibet in the 1950s and the reestab- debating, a Rime Geshe has also spent time studying lishment of the main monasteries in India, but not Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu presentations of philosophy. without question. It wasn’t until March 2012, however, that the door Over the years, His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to began to open for all qualified nuns to receive a Geshe voice concern about the situation for nuns and supported degree. During the annual Monlam celebration in Dharam- efforts to improve educational opportunities and living sala, His Holiness “categorically advised the Department of conditions for nuns. In the mid-1990s, the Dalai Lama Religion and Culture to set up a committee consisting of began advocating for the awarding of Geshe degrees to members from the Tibetan Nuns Project, the Institute of nuns. According to Tenzin Lungtok from the Central Buddhist Dialectics and the nunneries in the vicinity of Tibetan Administration’s Department of Religion and Dharamsala to discuss and formulate a procedure to award Culture, “Since then, the matter [of female geshes] was Geshe degrees to nuns,” Tenzin Lungtok told Mandala. discussed on several occasions, including the religious The meeting took place in May 2012 and concluded with conference of the spiritual heads and representatives of the the announcement that the group had framed rules and four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and the indigenous regulations for granting degrees. This means that all nuns Bön religion, but a conclusive decision was not reached due who have completed or are in the process of completing to its complexities and divergence of views.” geshe study programs now have the opportunity to take His Holiness, however, continued to discuss the exams and be awarded Geshe degrees. situation for nuns. “The important thing is that now, for The FPMT-affiliated Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery (also the past 30 years, we have worked to change [the lower known as the Kopan Nunnery) in Kathmandu has several status of nuns]. Many nuns are very sincere, but they have nuns currently studying for Geshe degrees. Khensur had no chance to ascend to the highest ordination level. Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup, former abbot at Kopan This has made me somewhat uncomfortable, especially Monastery, was instrumental in establishing the study since the Buddha gave equal opportunities to women,” His program for nuns. While he was alive, he taught on a Holiness told The Progressive magazine in a 2006 interview. regular basis at the nunnery. Khachoe Ghakyil reports that On a practical level, only monasteries had been two of their top nuns should be able to take their final exam authorized to award Geshe degrees, so even though a in two years’ time. Tibetan nun may have completed studying in a geshe You can read a complete interview with Geshe Kelsang program, she would be unable to be a part of a monastery Wangmo and Mandala online at mandalamagazine.org.

36 MANDALA October - December 2012 PUBLISHING THE FPMT LINEAGE: Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Lam-Rim Teachings

In 1972, Dr. Nicholas Ribush arrived at Kopan Monastery in Nepal. After attending the Third Kopan Course, he offered to help Lama Zopa Rinpoche revise Rinpoche’s The Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun of the Mahayana Thought Training, which served as the teaching text for the course. Rinpoche accepted the offer, and for several years Nick lived at Kopan, attending the month-long courses, working on revisions to The Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun, and editing notes and transcriptions from Rinpoche’s teachings into course commentaries.

Top: Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaching during the Fifth Meditation Course, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 1973. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Right: Cover for How to Practice Dharma: Teachings on the Eight Worldly Dharmas by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, published by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

October - December 2012 MANDALA 37 Dharma and the MODERN WORLD

After many years of offering service to a variety of and set it up as a separate FPMT entity and focus on that.” FPMT activities, including Wisdom Publications, Nick He never said “focus on my teachings.” He always couched founded the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, which is it in terms of focusing on Lama Yeshe’s teachings, but responsible for the collection and dissemination of Lama obviously it included Rinpoche’s teachings. So we set up Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings and advice. the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive as a separate FPMT en- How to Practice Dharma: Teachings on the Eight Worldly tity. Dharmas is the Archive’s most recent publication and the second in their FPMT Lineage Series. In July 2012, Mandala: How was the Archive finally able to begin Mandala spoke with Nick, who currently serves as the publishing a series based on Lama Zopa Ripoche’s lam- Archive’s director, about the evolution of the FPMT Lineage rim teachings? Series and how its roots stretch all the way back to The Wish- Fulfilling Golden Sun. Nick: In 2007, after about five years of trying to raise enough money to hire editors and publish more of the Mandala: How are the early Kopan courses connected Lamas’ teachings, I got a letter from Rinpoche saying we to the Archive and the FPMT Lineage Series? weren’t doing things well enough or fast enough – you know, our operations were rusty. So, I came up with this Nick: Both Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teach- new plan called Publishing the FPMT Lineage, which was ings are important, but Rinpoche gave by far the most a million-dollar-plus plan. What it involved was paying teachings. During my time at Kopan, I saw what would be someone to travel with Lama Zopa Rinpoche to record useful would be to produce a series of topic-based everything he taught because we weren’t getting recordings commentaries on the nature of the mind, on the perfect in a timely fashion from the centers and what we got was human rebirth, on impermanence and death, on the three often of poor quality – basically untranscribable – and lower realms, refuge and karma – the main lam-rim topics sometimes we didn’t get anything at all. It also included that were really the heart of Rinpoche’s teachings. So, this paying transcribers and people to edit. Jen Barlow, our was an idea that has been in my mind for 35-40 years. finance manager, and I flew to Portland and presented the Creating books from teachings is so much editorial plan to FPMT International Office, but they were unable work. For a person to be able to edit the Lamas’ [Lama to offer financial support to it. Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s] teachings, you needed A month later, I got an email from one of Rinpoche’s to meet basically five criteria: a good understanding of Asian students, who I didn’t know even existed, saying that Dharma; a familiarity with the Lamas’ language; the ability she was looking on the website and saw an older fundraising to create a coherent manuscript with a beginning, middle plan and was wondering how it was coming together – and end; the time to do it; and essentially, the ability to do maybe she could help us with that. I said, “Well, that plan it for nothing or for little money. Who can do all that? Also, didn’t work, but have I got a plan for you!” I sent her the what tends to happen in FPMT is that the people who do US$1,045,000 plan. She said, “Ok, look, I’ll send you want to put their life into it full-time already have so much $45,000 right away, and I’ll give you half a million as a else to do. Editing books takes time; you really need to work matching grant. You raise money to match it, and there is full-time at it. Even when we established Wisdom Publica- your million dollars. But I won’t wait for you to get the tions, obviously, a large part of our mission would have funds. I will give you the half million right away so that been to publish the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama you can start immediately, but over five years you have to Zopa Rinpoche. But somehow, the way the company de- raise $100,000 a year.” I said, “Ok. I’ll take the money,” veloped, there was never enough money to pay people to which I did, and we’ve been able to raise the money each edit the Lamas’ teachings. year to match it. In 1995 and ’96, when circumstances came about that That immediately allowed us to hire Ven. [Thubten] I should leave Wisdom and when I wasn’t sure what I would Kunsang to start traveling with Rinpoche and record him. do, Rinpoche said, “Well, take the Archive out of Wisdom, As for transcribers, we ended up hiring one person, Ven.

38 MANDALA October - December 2012 [Thubten] Munsel as our chief transcriber. She doesn’t work needed five editors. But then as Gordon started working on full-time because to do 40 hours a week is just too hard, it, it became fairly apparent that, actually, one full-time but she does a lot. We could probably do with another editor was probably enough. person, because there is still a huge backlog from the ’80s The first book I thought we should do is Rinpoche’s and ’90s that has not been transcribed. But transcribers are teachings on the eight worldly dharmas, which is something hard to find. We have had so many come and go. They that I have wanted to do since 1974, when during the Sixth try it; they can’t do it. Either they can’t hear Rinpoche Kopan Course Rinpoche gave his most extensive teaching or they get too much lung doing it. There are a lot of on the eight worldly dharmas. That is partly the backbone obstacles to that job for some reason. But, anyway, a lot is of the new book How to Practice Dharma. Following this, getting transcribed. teachings on the perfect human rebirth and impermanence In terms of hiring editors, we tried a few people. Then and death have been sponsored. The matching grant for Gordon McDougall, who is a long-time student of the Lamas Publishing the FPMT Lineage project pays for the editing, and had been involved with the Hong Kong center, got but it doesn’t pay for the printing. We find sponsors to cover involved. When he was in London, he worked with Geshe the printing costs. How to Practice Dharma was covered by Tashi Tsering to develop and edit the six books in Geshe sponsors in Singapore. ◆ Tashi’s Foundation of Buddhist Thought series published by Read the complete interview with Nicholas Ribush online at Wisdom. mandalamagazine.org. We also were able to hire Ven. (as she was then) Namdrol To learn more about Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive and the new [Miranda Adams] part-time. She edited Yangsi Rinpoche’s book How to Practice Dharma, visit www.lamayeshe.com. Lamrim Chenmo commentary called Practicing the Path for Wisdom, and we hired her to start going through all Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s lam-rim teachings and “basketing” them. Every issue Mandala publishes As you read through a Kopan course transcript, you cut and paste the teaching into a topic basket: perfect human additional original stories on our rebirth, refuge, karma, yada, yada, yada. There are so website not found in print. many things that Rinpoche covered from one course to another. In this issue: The idea was we would collect everything Rinpoche has ever said on perfect human rebirth into the perfect • “The Practice of Writing,” an interview with Dinty human rebirth basket and so forth. When everything is W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer, a recent chopped up like that and basketed, then you go back, sort book from Wisdom Publications. out all the teachings and you make a coherent whole on the • An excerpt from Journeys on the Silk Road: A Desert topic out of it. We decided some years ago that we would Explorer, Buddha’s Secret Library, and the Unearthing use the outline from Pabongka Rinpoche’s Liberation in the of the World’s Oldest Printed Book by Joyce Morgan Palm of Your Hand to organize these teachings as that was and Conrad Walters, which tells the story of the probably the main lam-rim text that Rinpoche used to refer discovery of tens of thousands of ancient Buddhist to when he was giving his “lam-rim commentaries.” texts hidden away at the Caves of the Thousand Then Maitripa College started, and Namdrol had to Buddhas near Dunhuang, China. work for that, so she couldn’t do the basketing anymore. Ven.Trisha Donnelly took over; I think she was between • Reflections on cooking, mindfulness and a recipe her stints as Root Institute director. So between Namdrol for quiche from Maarten de Vries, director of and Trisha, we had a lot of the teachings basketed. By the Maitreya Instituut Loenen. time Gordon came on board, he had a lot of material to work with, and the system was kind of established, so he For these stories and more, visit mandalamagazine.org went through and did the rest. Still we had this idea we

October - December 2012 MANDALA 39 Taking Care of OTHERS

Meet the Liberation Prison Project letter from Arturo Esquer, a young Mexican-American Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, New Zealand and Spain, which Aex-gangster serving three life sentences at Pelican Bay, manage the local, center-based FPMT programs within one of California’s maximum-security prisons, to Ven. their countries. Activities to support prisoners at FPMT Robina Courtin sparked an international organization – the centers vary as each center provides services within its own Liberation Prison Project (LPP). “I’m writing in hope to be means, capabilities and interest. Centers have offered able to receive [FPMT]’s journal on a regular basis,” Arturo meditation and Buddhist practice sessions through regular wrote in 1996, having recently read Lama Yeshe’s Introduc- prison visits; correspondence to prisoners to support their tion to Tantra. “If possible, I would like to personally get Dharma practice; Dharma materials to prison libraries or involved in the Buddhist way of life.” Ven. Robina, who at chaplains; regular volunteer meetings to exchange ideas and the time was Mandala’s editor, replied to the letter, sending share resources for writing to prisoners and/or coordinating along some Dharma books and copies of Mandala, and local prison visits; refuge ceremonies in prison; visits to planting the seeds for a project that has supported the prisons by qualified lamas and geshes; and talks to univer- spiritual practice of over 20,000 incarcerated men and sity students about prison work. women around the world. “Writing letters to inmates who wish to practice In 16 years, LPP has offered over 200,000 Buddhist meditation or study Buddhism is the most precious service books, magazines, CDs, DVDs and practice materials free we offer,” shares Ven. Chokyi. “The vast majority of inmates to LPP students, their families, and prison chaplains and who write us are male, poor, estranged from their families libraries. Countless letters have been exchanged between and have histories of drug and alcohol abuse; their lives are LPP students and volunteers. Up until 2009, LPP’s central dominated by violence and suffering and many have been office was under the directorship of Ven. Robina Courtin involved in street and prison gangs. Most are desperately in San Francisco, California. Today, Ven. Thubten Chokyi seeking to transform their minds, to make their lives holds the position of director and LPP Australia near meaningful, or simply to deal with the harsh reality of the Sydney serves as LPP’s central office, coordinating interna- situation they find themselves in.” tional operations in addition to Australian programs. Kevin The majority of prisoners who write to LPP are based in Ison, LPP’s resources coordinator, provides administrative the United States. However, there are prisoners writing from assistance in Australia. Timothy Powell covers adminis- all the countries with a local LPP coordinator, plus many trative work in the United States from his base in Raleigh, others, such as Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Thailand and North Carolina. Together, they handle requests from the Zambia. At any one time, LPP has around 800 students, 1,500 inmates, prison chaplains and families of inmates both in prison and in post-release, in correspondence. This worldwide, who write to LPP each year. makes for one very large virtual Dharma center! The project has regional offices in the United States, For many Buddhists busy with the demands of modern

40 MANDALA October - December 2012 ImagebyE.F. Stiner, colored pencil on front and back of envelope, Texas, U.S., 2001 life, it can be easy to overlook people who have been is an international community that includes hundreds of sentenced to prison. But volunteers involved with prison students serving out sentences in prison and many others projects can attest to the fact that, prisoner or not, we as offering them support.

Buddhists all share things in common, including an interest To learn more, visit www.liberationprisonproject.org, in authentic Dharma and finding personal liberation. In or write to: this issue of Mandala, we’ve included reports from three International Office, Liberation Prison Project FPMT centers with LPP projects as well as several examples PO Box 340, Blackheath, NSW 2785, Australia of prisoner artwork and a recent essay from an American USA Office, Liberation Prison Project LPP student. In this way, we are reminded that the FPMT PO Box 33036, Raleigh, NC 27636, USA Progetto Liberazione Nella Prigione (LPP Italy) By Alessandro Venuto, regional coordinator

he recidivism rate in Italian prisons is 80 percent and overcrowding makes surviving Tincarceration even more difficult. Normal life there is marked by violence, pain and suicide, and those on the outside of prisons tend to look down upon the inhabitants.

14th Dalai Lama – Tenzin Gyatso by Kenneth Gingerich, pencil on paper, Centennial Correctional Facility, Colorado, U.S., 2007

Grazia Sacchi, a volunteer who visits prisons, once asked way of seeing prisoners. After a prison visit, they tell me a class of children to describe a “prisoner” and they answered: that they were just talking to simple human beings, men somebody dirty, tattooed, bad, ugly and alone! Who taught and women like anyone else. them all this? I believe we as a society give them this idea. LPP Italy is now turning the Wheel of Dharma in 10 Prisons, and by extension, prisoners serve as a symbol of what institutions, with more than 20 volunteers teaching in we as a society don’t like and what we fear. This view creates groups or one-on-one, and others that teach by correspon- a lot of division inside and outside us, which is a problem. dence. We also support the collection of essential goods, But another way to look at it is as Ven. Khenrab Rin- hosts concerts, organize soccer tournaments and offer the poche once told me, “Prisoners are like us, the difference is prison libraries books. In May 2012, Geshe Sonam taught that nobody sees us do what we usually do, so we are still for two days in San Vittore and Milano Bollate Prisons to free.” Our LPP volunteers have also arrived at a different more than 90 prisoners.

October - December 2012 MANDALA 41 Taking Care of OTHERS

Volunteers definitely are able to see how our presence the student thought about meditation and what he had changes people. One volunteer shared a story from an LPP learned in LPP class. Instead of getting upset, he controlled student about a time when he had to make an important himself, saying to the corrections officers, “OK, non c’è call home, but the corrections officers wouldn’t allow him problema, no problem,” and they were shocked. We heard to because the officers wanted to see the student’s reaction. many stories like that, demonstrating the validity of our It was very important to the student to make the call, he wish to create a new way to think about prison as a chance told the volunteer, and normally he would, in his own for a new life. words, “lose his mind” if he was denied. This time, however, http://plpiltk.altervista.org Proyecto Liberación en la Prisión

(LPP Aguascalientes) By Rogelio Pallares Valdés, local coordinator n the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico, Centro Bengungyal Ihas worked for almost seven years in women’s and men’s prisons, both in the city of Aguascalientes and in a facility in a little town called El Llano. In September, Centro Bengungyal makes its first attempt at working in a prison for young people, ranging from 12 to 22 years old. In total, we’ll have 76 new young inmates – four women and 72 men – with whom we are working. Over the years, we have gradually received permission from prison authorities to offer courses as well as books Two LPP Aguascalientes volunteers, Laura Lugo and Rodrigo and videos to inmates. Currently, we offer “Working with Jácome Afflictive Emotions,” a secular meditation program based Prison work requires patience and tenacity from in Buddhist principles designed to help people work with volunteers, as well as confidence. Over time, we’ve seen that potentially destructive emotions, twice a year in Aguas- attendee participation in our courses depends on the leaders’ calientes’ prisons. The group ranges between 20 and 30 dynamism. When an instructor presents the course principles participants. Also this year, the director of the men’s social well and involves the prisoners, the attendance grows. rehabilitation center asked us to teach the course to Inmates comment, “You put us in our place and make us administrative and custodial staff. This required us to share think.” the program a little bit differently from usual because we are working with a group of more than 200 people. www.fpmt-mexico.org/html/proyecto.html#dos

I have been receiving Mandala as a gift through my teachers and Dharma friends at the Liberation Prison Project. I want to say that each issue is a joy to read and study, and I thank everyone who contributes to Mandala in any way. – Patrick Sluyter, Martin Correctional Institution, Florida, U.S.

ver the years, LPP has offered thousands of free subscriptions of Mandala to prisoners, due to Othe kindness of LPP,benefactors and an International Merit Box grant. However, these funds are limited and many more devoted prisoners would like to receive Mandala. To continue to offer Mandala to prisoners and expand this beneficial program, we have established the Mandala Magazine for Prisoners Fund. Your generous donations to this fund make a tangible difference in the lives of LPP students. In addition, current Friends of FPMT have the option of donating their Mandala subscriptions directly to an LPP student.

To learn more, visit www.mandalamagazine.org/support-prisoners/.

“Double Dorje” offered by Robert Page, a Liberation Prison Project student who served a ten-year prison sentence and received a free subscription to Mandala during that time. Robert passed away in April 2011.

42 MANDALA October - December 2012 LPP New Zealand By Kate Bukowski, regional coordinator PP New Zealand has been in operation for four years, sending Dharma Lbooks to prison libraries, corresponding with prisoners and visiting prisons. In 2010, we were able to set up some meetings with inmates at Paremoremo, a large prison complex north of Auckland and invited Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi, who’s been in New Zealand for the last five years, to teach. Ven. Chogkyi began the first session by telling the story of Shakya- muni Buddha’s life. About 10 minutes into Chogkyi's talk, one of the inmates interrupted. “Hey,” he said, “I can’t listen to a word you’re saying – I don’t know who you are, where you came from, why you’re here. I don’t know your story.” “Fair enough,” Ven. Chogkyi said, and then started telling her own personal spiritual story, the struggles she had experienced, her search for some meaning in life, the promise that the Dharma had given her. As she was talking, this inmate periodically inter- jected, “Kia ora, kia ora, I hear you, I understand what you’re saying.” Ven. Chogkyi learned that in Maori culture, there is a certain way of introducing yourself at the beginning of a gathering, explaining about your lineage and family background, setting the context for who you are. It is done out of respect. Protocol is of utmost importance, and to estab- lish who you are, you set yourself in context. And this is what the inmates White Tara by LPP New Zealand student were asking for – without that, they literally couldn’t hear what Ven. Gareth, water color on paper Chogkyi was saying. For her next visit, Ven. Chogkyi arrived at the prison having prepared a pepeha (introduction) in Maori, which she recited to the group by heart. After this, the energy shifted a lot and we had a great discussion. Rather than trying to find faults with Buddhism, the inmates were trying to find common ground with their beliefs and worldview. At the end, they offered a waiata (song), which is the traditional way of thanking a visitor. In our second session within the complex’s medium security yard, the inmates there also offered a beautiful waiata that they accompanied with guitar with beautiful harmonies. One of the inmates translated for us and said that it was all about building a bridge between people. They also offered the traditional koha (offering). They had organized ahead of time to collect their fruit and cookies from their lunch, and we were offered two bulging paper bags full of apples and oatmeal cookies. This felt like a really significant offering, as they don’t get much to eat in prison. [email protected] One Breath By Mario Easevoli Mandala recently received this essay from an LPP student incarcerated at the Federal Correc- tions Complex in Coleman, Florida, U.S. We have edited it for length. here I sit… breathing deeply, caught inside walls that do not vanish before half- Tclosed eyes. My breath finds its way out, over the barbed-wire fences. Freedom of breath cannot be measured, contained, or punished – as I breathe, my aliveness asserts itself. Even laughs at its constraints. Yes, in this place it is an elusive joy; but I feel it now, as surely as I feel the suffering all around me. Prison is typically an extremely negative environment. The average prisoner usually has serious emotional and behavioral problems, problems which have often Buddha by David Lightsey, lead to his or her incarceration. Prisons, even the “sweetest,” are terrible places to live. pencil on paper, Louisiana State Many of the things that make it so bad are beyond the prisoners’ control. Larger issues, Penitentiary, Louisiana, U.S., 2007

October - December 2012 MANDALA 43 Taking Care of OTHERS such as prison conditions, overcrowding, staff abuse, exces- What one can learn here is that these demons exist sive sentencing and the like, should be addressed. The problem within us and are creations of our own minds, born of our for us on the inside, however, is that usually these things delusions. Through meditation and mindfulness practice are all we focus on, and, even then, what we do most is we can see the true nature of ourselves and reality. It was complain, doing little to correct the situation. The one area when I first decided to try meditation at the very beginning which we are usually loath to examine is the same one over of my sentence that I really began to breathe. My heart be- which we have the most control, and which can impact our came less constricted, the Dharma path opened. I grew less lives the most: ourselves. afraid of what could happen to me. This unwillingness to look within for the source of, and As I meditate, deepening my breath, feeling my length- solution to, our problems is not limited to prisons. Prisoners ened spine, I learn to discard my preconceptions and and “free-world” people alike all share the same conditions: expectations – all of the many hopes and fears and attach- being subject to illness, old age, death and suffering. ments that have given shape to my life. I learned to lay aside Whether we are in prison or not, we are all caught up in anxiety about what I am missing and what I don’t have. delusion of some sort. Besides establishing a regular sitting practice, I practice Some say that prison is a monastery of sorts, and I mindfulness perpetually, including when gripped by anger, believe certain parallels do exist, but a better comparison anxiety or any other strong emotion. might be the Buddhist practice in which aspirants medi- Each day presents a new confrontation with reality. tated in the charnel grounds, experiencing the terror of Instead of wanting to run, I breathe. Each breath brings death and demons. In this parallel – where there are with it the freedom to choose my response in that (prison) demons of fear, hatred, anger, despair and other moment. I know that through this practice I can arrive at myriad negative states – we have an advantage, or perhaps, a place of genuine peace. The path is before me. It is my an opportunity, that isn’t as available on the outside. choice to follow. ◆ 108 Yaks: A Journey of Love and Freedom

Liberated yaks after arriving in Rolwaling, Nepal, wearing cords blessed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, September 2011 n 2011, more than 108 yaks’ lives were saved in the foot prints of Guru Rinpoche are said to be. INepal through the efforts of Lama Zopa Rinpoche Lama Zopa Rinpoche arranged for the yaks to be and Geshe Thubten Jinpa and with support from rescued when he heard they were to be butchered for FPMT’s Animal Liberation Fund and Amitabha Bud- meat. With Geshe Jinpa’s assistance, 115 yaks were dhist Centre in Singapore. Geshe Jinpa has released bought and given into the care of villagers living in an exciting new video called 108 Yaks: A Journey of Rolwaling. The video takes us along on the stunning trek Love and Freedom that tells the story of the 19-day as a team of 22 herders and porters guides the gentle and journey made by the rescued yaks from Dhudkunda, peaceful animals over treacherous mountain terrain. Nepal, to their new home in the lush pastures of the You can order 108 Yaks from the Foundation Store sacred Rolwaling Valley in northeastern Nepal, where (shop.fpmt.org).

44 MANDALA October - December 2012 fpmt The Foundation Store

FPMT Foundation Store off ers a vast selection of Buddhist study materials, high quality thangkas, statues, prayer fl ags, and meditation supplies including cushions, khatas, malas and incense.

Books Meditation supplies Study programs Videos Practice books Ritual objects

Visit our website for information about special promotions. http://shop.fpmt.org/ Your COMMUNITY FEATURED CENTER By Ven. Losang Tendar, center director, Nalanda Monastery: and Ven. Irene Turner A Growing Haven for Buddhist Study in the West

Above: Nalana Monastery’s ever-growing monastic community, June 2011. Right: Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Nalanda Monastery, October 2011. Photo by Philippe Garric.

ucked amongst farm fields Beginning in September along France’s Agout River, Nalanda Monastery 2013, Nalanda will offer for Toffers serious Western Dharma students a place to the first time a residential study and live in a peaceful and quite environment. Lama Masters Program, an intensive Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche founded Nalanda in 1981 program consisting of six as FPMT’s first Western monastery. Located about 25 years of in-depth Dharma miles (40 kilometers) from Toulouse, Nalanda is currently study and a total of one year home to around 23 monks and 10 lay people. In addition, of retreat. We will become Institut Vajra Yogini, only a few miles away, contributes to the second FPMT center to creating a rich community of Dharma practice in south- offer the Masters Program after western France. Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa As part of Nalanda’s growing education program, we will (ILTK) in Italy. Nalanda offer for the second time FPMT’s Basic Program,a abbot Geshe Losang Jamphel comprehensive course of study, discussion and meditation will teach the Masters Program, assisted by Sze Gee, a highly based upon sutra and tantra texts traditionally studied in the skilled translator and tutor. She is an ILTK Master Program Tibetan Buddhist Gelug tradition. Students from the first graduate and is renowned for the clarity of her explanations five-year residential Basic Program at Nalanda, which began of the philosophical texts. in 2008, have recently completed their final exam. The Over the last few years, Nalanda has also been honored second Basic Program is scheduled to begin in February to host many special teachers. Since 2010, we have 2013. Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently appointed Geshe welcomed Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Jangtse Chöje Lobsang Jamphel Gyaltsen, from Sera Monastery, to be the teacher Tenzin Rinpoche, Dagri Rinpoche and Khadro-la, who led for the course. her second retreat at Nalanda in August 2012.

46 MANDALA October - December 2012 From left: Sketch of south facade of new monks building; Geshe Losang Jamphel, Khadro-la and Dagri Rinpoche discussing Nalanda’s 15-year Master Plan BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

ama Zopa Rinpoche, our spiritual important to think about where to put the new rooms. director, has expressed the importance of continually Make a plan. Then think of what other things you will L developing Nalanda’s facilities as well as our study and need; make a plan for landscaping. A little bit like Japanese retreat programs in order to create a major seat of monastic [landscaping]: well organized, neat, nice, so that when learning in the West. Over the years, we have seen growth people come, they like to stay here. You need a good archi- in our community at the monastery in correspondence with tect, and then in the future it will be easy.” the opportunities we offer. Inspired by this advice, Nalanda now has a 15-year In 2008, we completed a new building for monks, and Master Plan, which has been reviewed by Lama Zopa with the start of our first Basic Program, the new rooms Rinpoche, Dagri Rinpoche and Khadro-la. Martijn Prins, filled up quickly. As our abbot, Geshe Jamphel, likes to a young Dutch architect familiar with Tibetan culture and encourage participation by both male and female students, art, worked with Geshe Jamphel and Nalanda monks to we rented a house nearby for the student nuns and female draw up a skillful plan for the development of Nalanda with lay practitioners. As a monastery, we are unable to provide an eye toward its medium- and long-term growth. We have accommodations for women on site. We are hoping that alreadybegunPhaseIoftheplan,whichhastodowith the nuns will be able to start a nunnery located close to infrastructure and landscaping. nearby Institut Vajra Yogini and continue to be part of “Before starting a new building we needed to improve Nalanda’s study programs. the infrastructure,” Martijn explained, “including a lake Even though housing for monks is adequate now, we (required by the fire brigade), a reed bed for waste water, a know once we have two different study programs running meandering driveway laid out in accordance with feng shui at the same time, more students will come and need principles, an underground rain water catchment, a drive- accommodation. Our experience has also been that some way for the fire brigade and a pipe infrastructure (for of the students ordain once they are in a study program. electricity, water and heating) for the extensions in the For these reasons, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised us in 2009 future.” to plan and construct a new monks accommodation block In September 2012, we start work on the foundation of that will be ready for the start of the next Basic Program and the new monks accommodation block. The building design our first Masters Programs in 2013. is influenced by the layout of large monastic universities in “Many people want to come and study,” Rinpoche India and will have 21 rooms, including four double-rooms said, “so we need more rooms. I told Geshe Jamphel it is and one for physically disabled people. The second floor will important to make a very good plan. If there is no plan, be reserved for two teachers and an attendant. How quickly you might regret it later. Avoid having regret. It is very we progress on the building depends on how our fundraising

October - December 2012 MANDALA 47 Your COMMUNITY

From left: Preparing the foundation for the 10-foot (3-meter) Padmasambhava statue in Nalanda Monastery’s newly dug lake, July 2012; Preparing the infrastructure for future development up to the year 2025, which will limit overall cost and save time, July 2012. for it goes. We maintain the hope to have it ready for the of natural light and heat. start of the Masters Program in September 2013. “I am always trying to remind the monks and students, Nalanda’s Master Plan seeks to be environmentally again and again, that this is a very good place,” Geshe responsible, seeing this as an essential aspect of the Bud- Jamphel said. “The community and companions here are dhist path. As a result, we aim to achieve as much self-suf- good people, and all the conditions conducive for good ficiency as possible while trying to have a minimal impact studies are gathered here. The Dharma here is good because on the natural surroundings. Building materials like wood, it aims at bringing the benefit of both oneself and others. clay, plaster and natural fibers will be used for the new So, [Nalanda] has a purpose to stay here for a long time.” monks accommodations. Hot water and heating will be You can learn more about educational opportunities at provided through wood burners and solar panels. And Nalanda and the monastery’s building plans by visiting building designs are created to take maximum advantage Nalanda Monastery online at www.nalanda-monastery.eu.

Support the continuing activities of LAMA YESHE and LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE over many lifetimes to come by requesting your legal advisor to include a bequest to FPMT in your will or trust.

SAMPLE BEQUEST LANGUAGE: I give, devise, and bequeath to the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, Inc., a California Non Profit Corporation, with offices at 1632 SE 11th Avenue, Portland, Oregon, 97214, USA ____ percent (_____%) of my residuary estate; and/or the sum of _____ dollars ($_____).

Gifts of stocks, bonds, life insurance proceeds, real estate and other assets may also be donated in your will or trust.

For more information, contact Chuck Latimer at FPMT International Office: Tel. +1 (503) 808-1586; Email: [email protected]. Or visit: www.fpmt.org/projects/office/planned-giving.html

“Within our organization, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, there are numberless projects through which you can make your belongings most beneficial for sentient beings and the teachings of the Buddha. . . . The aim of the projects is to illuminate the world from darkness, ignorance and suffering.” –LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE

FPMT, INC. 1632 SE 11TH AVE. PORTLAND OR 97214 WWW.FPMT.ORG

48 MANDALA October - December 2012 Road to Kopan:Where I Needed to Be By Paula de Wijs For many long-time students of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, is where they first met the teachings of Buddha and where they saw the courses of their lives changed profoundly. Mandala has been collecting the stories of how early students came to Kopan in our ongoing “Road to Kopan” series. Paula de Wijs arrived at Kopan in 1972. Since then, she has been involved with supporting the development of Buddhism in the West as well as working with organizations providing aide to Tibetan refugees. She currently serves as center director at Maitreya Instituut Amsterdam and also is an FPMT board member. We’re happy to share an extract from her “Road to Kopan” story, which can be read in its entirety at mandalamagazine.org.

hen I left San Francisco in 1970, I was 22 years old. I had lived in Haight WAshbury, in a cabin at Muir Beach and in an old Victorian house for five intense years, full of music, dancing and all kinds of experiences and friendships. I had no qualms about saying that I was a San Francisco hippie, but even then, I wondered how much of what I thought and did was a result of my own thinking or of the strong culture around me. So when a friend invited me to visit him in Afghanistan, I stored or sold everything I owned and, armed with two hundred dollars, a Eurail pass and some addresses, left for Europe where I hoped to get a ride to Kabul. I was lucky to be able to earn a little more money by being an extra in the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans and working in a hotel in Switzerland, but at the end of the summer, I realized that I needed to find a home or a lift to Afghanistan before winter set in. Amsterdam seemed to be a good choice since an American acquaintance who had traveled with my friend in Afghanistan was there and plan- ning to buy a car and drive there once again. He brought me to visit Matti de Wijs, who had also been with them in Kabul, and I had a very strange experience when we rang Matti’s doorbell – a strong premonition that this person was going to be extremely significant in my life. Of course, I thought that this meant that I would fall head-over-heels in Paula de Wijs with Michael Lobsang Yeshe at Bouddanath love with him. I was disappointed at the time, when that did Stupa in Kathmandhu, Nepal, May 1972. Photo courtesy of Paula de Wijs. not immediately happen. Little did I know that he would in- troduce me to my future teachers and later, that I would Rachevsky, who lived in Nepal with two Tibetan lamas – marry him and we would spend the next 42 years together! Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa – at a place called Kopan. My American friend ended up deciding not to travel to There were plans to start a school in Lawudo for Sherpa and Asia, but Matti was already planning his next trip and when Tibetan refugee children called the Mount Everest Centre he offered me a ride, I accepted gladly. On his first trip, he for Buddhist Studies. When Matti returned to Amsterdam had gone overland with Olivia de Haulleville and her then on his own, he worked to raise funds for it. three-year-old son, Michael. The three of them drove out in We left Amsterdam during summer 1971, driving a a Land Rover to visit Olivia’s friend from Greece, Zina Citroën van through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and on

October - December 2012 MANDALA 49 Your COMMUNITY

to Afghanistan, from where our mutual friend had long expressed a wish to return to Nepal and stay with them. since departed. We were stuck there during the next winter Olivia asked whether we would be willing to take her son due to the Indo-Pakistani War after which the borders with us to Kopan, and a day later Michael* moved in and between Pakistan and India were closed and we could not came with us from Delhi to Varanasi and then on to Kath- travel any further. We were there in Kabul together with mandu. Matti wanted to go to Kopan immediately to give others like Barbara and Chris Vautier, who attended the Lama Zopa Rinpoche the funds he had raised for the December 1972 Kopan course with me (and later were school, so our taxi drove from the airport directly up the connected with Land of Medicine Buddha and Vajrapani heavily rutted road to Kopan. We were greeted by a smiling Institute in California). Many years later when I read the Lama Yeshe and Anila Ann, and were immediately invited autobiography ALeafintheWindby Thubten Gyatso (now to stay for lunch – and also stay on at Kopan. We accepted at Thubten Shedrup Ling in Australia), I realized that we both invitations with pleasure! had been caught in an historic snowstorm in Kandahar at That day in 1972, I was quite surprised to find that I the same time as him, eating dinner together in the same felt that I had come home. It was such a strong feeling that restaurant, but only meeting one another some years later. I sat on top of the hill and cried with a kind of gratitude and When it was finally possible to travel to India, we flew relief. I had not consciously been looking for anything, but from Lahore in Pakistan to Delhi. Once there, I went to visit knew right away that I had found where I needed to be.… the Tibet House, where I discovered that Olivia and Michael You can read the rest of Paula’s story, including a few of her were living in Delhi, and at an address I would pass on the memories of Lama Yeshe, as well as other early student’s way back to our hotel. So I asked my rickshaw to stop there, “Road to Kopan” stories at mandalamagazine.org.

and while I looked for the right building, a Western lady *Six-year-old Michael became a monk a year later with a new approached, asking if she could help – it was, of course, Olivia! name – Lobsang Yeshe. He went on to do geshe studies in Sera We talked for hours, sweltering in the pre-monsoon heat. Je Monastery and has worked as a translator and teacher at Land of Medicine Buddha in California, at Maitreya Instituut in Not long before, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche the Netherlands, and in Singapore and has been at Tara had passed through Delhi, and six-year-old Michael had Institute in Australia since 2007. OBITUARIES

Geshe Tsering, 85, died in on at Tushita doing pujas, retreats and his own daily Kopan Monastery, Nepal, practices. “He was very kind to Tushita,” Ven. Thubten August 16, 2012, Dorjee, Tushita’s longest serving Sangha member, recalls. of natural causes “He always tried to advise directors regarding the work to By Linda Gyatso, Tushita enable Tushita to progress.” In his trips away, Geshe-la Meditation Centre director would always bring back useful things for the center, such Geshe Tsering was Lama as the red bowls and cups that it still uses today. Yeshe’s older half-brother, Geshe-la had a gentle, caring heart that at the same having the same father, Pema time could be firm and strict when the situation required. Wangyel. Geshe-la was born Geshe-la loved to talk to Westerners and encourage them in 1927 near Tolung Dechen in Central Tibet close to in their Dharma practice. His simple English made the Lhasa. After leaving Tibet, Geshe-la studied at Sera Je advice he gave clear and memorable. Just a few days Monastery in South India, until he was invited to Kopan before Geshe-la’s passing, I came across some advice he Monastery to teach the young monks Tibetan language. had given me on leaving Tushita for Kopan in March In 1980, he came to Tushita Meditation Centre in 2010: “You are young and strong, you MUST make the Dharamsala to serve as co-director for one year. Geshe-la’s most of time NOW, before old age comes.” heartfelt service to Tushita spanned 30 years. Even as his health was deteriorating, Geshe-la was Following Geshe-la’s service as co-director, he stayed a constant example to all of how to live the Dharma.

50 MANDALA October - December 2012 Lama Zopa Rinpoche requests that “students who read Mandala pray that the students whose obituaries follow find a perfect human body, meet a Mahayana guru and become enlightened quickly, or be born in a pure land where the teachings exist and they can become enlightened.” Reading these obituaries also helps us reflect upon our own death and rebirth, prompting us to live our lives in the most meaningful way.

Advice and practices for death and dying from Lama Zopa Rinpoche are available in the Foundation Store (shop.fpmt.org).

Jeanne “Yeshe Gawa” Allen, 73, Jeanne’s life was not always easy, 1975 to 1978. In 1979, she lived died in Houston, Texas, United but she had the capacity to see the and studied at Manjushri Institute States, June 11, 2012, from acute silver lining where personal storm in England. She again took up trav- respiratory failure clouds may have gathered. For much eling between India and Nepal to By Molly Highley of her life, Jeanne suffered with triple retreat and study from 1983 to scoliosis, but declined corrective 1986. Over time, her back condition surgery. In a 2008 email she wrote worsened, and she required the that she had never regretted her choice support of crutches after returning to not have surgery and, in fact, had to her home in the United States. In always “given thanks for the free- 2008 she wrote, “I still use crutches dom” as a young girl to make it. She but am pain-free unless I overdo it. spent most of her life “pretending her ... I keep telling myself to wait five back was normal or straight,” even years before I get a wheelchair, but though she never could walk very far, I’ve been telling myself that about even less as she got older. five years. I’m afraid once I get in Married at 17, she went on to one, I’ll never get out ... still, I’ve raise twins as a single mother in the never regretted I chose NOT to have late 1950s. She worked nights and the surgery. ... I am content with excelled by day in her university how things are.” studies. At the age of 35, she quit her In the years leading up to her Jeanne, a long-time student of Lama job and flew from San Francisco passing, Jeanne lived alone on the Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, was toward India by way of Taiwan, ninth floor – which she jokingly born to Wayne and Betty (Hurley) Hong Kong, Bali, Java, Singapore, called “the ninth bhumi” – of a Eaton in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on Malaysia, Thailand and Burma. After Houston apartment building. From April 18, 1939. She leaves behind twin landing in Calcutta, she boarded a there she continued to express her sons, Kelly and Kerry Allen, her plane for Kathmandu and eventually intellectual curiosity and interest in daughter-in-law, Susan Allen, and her attended her first meditation course the greater world. She was an avid granddaughter, Jessica Wintel, as well at Kopan Monastery. reader as well as intelligent, imagi- as many Dharma brothers and sisters Jeanne lived in India, traveling native, creative, unpretentious, gentle worldwide. between Nepal and Sri Lanka, from and kind. If she loved you, she

October - December 2012 MANDALA 51 Your COMMUNITY

would let you know it in no uncertain North Carolina, in the 1990s. As a packaging for cosmetics and phar- terms, yet she seemed to expect little real estate and land developer, she maceuticals. Prior to that she was a in return. “She was the best mom,” provided invaluable advice to the vice president and later a joint Kerry Allen expressed. “She’ll never center when it began the search for a venture partner of Heartland Group, be forgotten.” property to purchase. Later, during the Inc. Embracing her heritage and love Kerry shares that his mother center’s capital campaign to purchase of all things Italian, she lived for “died in the sitting position with an and renovate a former retail store, she many years near Florence, Italy, arm on each knee.” Two days before became the largest single contributor. cooking, bringing in the olive harvest she passed from this world, Jeanne In typical fashion, when asked to and extending her inimitable hospi- continued to express a sincere interest contribute a specific (and very large) tality to family, friends and travelers in the happiness of others as well as an sum, she offered more than twice that from around the world. She returned unwavering faith in the immeasurable amount. to Durham in 2011. blessings of the Triple Gem. When she came to see the new center under renovation, she noticed Kevin “Doc” McNeill, 54, died in Eileen “Lee” Carol Ventura, 51, that the floor of the gompa was Sterling, Colorado, United States, died in Durham, North Carolina, still the poured concrete with no July 2012, of unknown causes United States, June 13, 2012, additional floor covering. She then By Kate Drews unexpectedly spontaneously offered to pay for Kevin first wrote to Liberation Prison By Julie LaValle Jones flooring and beautiful sustainable cork flooring was delivered to Kadampa Center for our volunteers to install. She sponsored monks at Sera Je Monastery, orphans in Africa and summer camp experiences for indigent children in North Carolina. Her generosity was effusive, sponta- neous and heartfelt. She truly was joyful when able to give. Lee took refuge in the Karma Kagyü tradition in the early 1990s. Lee was an exuberant lover of life and She also studied and practiced Zen Project (LPP) in 2006 and took refuge beauty. An inventor, creator, real Buddhist meditation. Beginning in vows in prison in 2007. There, he estate developer, gifted cook and an the mid-’90s, Lee practiced at and started the Discovering Buddhism ardent friend, she touched a vast supported Kadampa Center. She course in 2007, which he studied community of people whom she attended several significant teachings throughout 2009 with visiting LPP loved and who deeply loved her. Lee by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, chaplain John Scorsine. He continued was expansively generous, giving to including in Tucson, Arizona; Cali- the course with me, and I found him friends, family, nonprofit causes and fornia; and Bloomington, Indiana. to be a keen knowledge seeker with spiritual groups. She gave with an Lee was born and raised in an intelligent mind. He remarked that open, joyful heart not only her Rochester, New York, and lived when he started the Discovering financial support, but also her atten- many years in Durham. She was the Buddhism course it had felt like tion, effort, creativity and love. owner and founder of Indra Group, coming home. Lee’s generosity included Bud- LLC, a commercial real estate devel- Kevin was always concerned for dhist centers. She was a regular practi- opment firm and Elix, LLC, a the welfare of others despite his own tioner at Kadampa Center in Raleigh, venture to create innovative green serious medical problems. When he

52 MANDALA October - December 2012 saw a friend beaten to death in prison death is a great loss to the LPP com- motivated by her use of sandplay in 2009, he sought our help to develop munity and he will be dearly therapy in her classroom. The chil- compassion for the officers who, he missed. dren’s transformation inspired her to said, “knowingly placed him in that record their progress in photos that situation.” Cherie Poe Glasse, 81, died in Mill showed how the sandplay trays During Saka Dawa 2010, Kevin Valley, California, United States, correlated with changes in children’s pledged to continue reciting OM MANI July 13, 2012, from a stroke cognitive development. The benefit PADME HUM every day, planning to By Ven. Paula Chichester to children from unhappy families complete 25 million recitations by his Like her husband, prayer-wheel was especially remarkable, and she anticipated release date in 2028. He eventually wrote a booklet called offered his mantra recitations to holy Sandplay in the Classroom. beings and all sentient beings and Cherie received Chenrezig initi- rejoiced in having the Dharma in his ation from His Holiness the Dalai life. He loved to cook and could often Lama at the conference. Cherie also be found preparing meals for others. received teachings at Vajrapani Insti- He was positive in his outlook despite tute from Lama Yeshe, Zong Rin- being consigned to a wheelchair at poche, Choden Rinpoche, Lama the start of 2011. Even then, he com- Zopa Rinpoche and Sogyal Rin- mitted to memorizing as many poche. Her calligraphy adorns Lama mantras as he could and practicing as Yeshe’s stupa and she painted two much as possible. very good portraits of Lama. Earlier this year, inquiring after I was doing practice on the Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s health, he morning of my mother’s death. mentioned that he made daily prayers When Cherie stopped breathing, I for Rinpoche’s good health and maker Jim Glasse, my mother, Cherie, was meditating on dharmakaya [a offered blessings, despite the great combined her Christian faith with subtle mind characterized by bliss pain he himself was living with. In the practicalities of Buddhism. Cherie and wisdom], and so we both went the last few months, Kevin had been embraced Brother David Steindl- into the dharmakaya together. It was moved to a facility much further Rast’s teaching to be grateful for a most profound experience, and we away from his family and not well everything; she most enjoyed her stayed there for about 20 minutes. suited to a person with his complex four children and five grandchildren. What an amazing gift! For the next medical issues. In 1959, Cherie moved from 36 hours, she remained in clear light In his last letter to me, dated Georgia to Berkeley, California, with with the mind not yet separated from May 25, 2012, Kevin informed me her first husband, Helon Chichester, the body. When I got a chance to sit that his health was poor, but that he where she deepened her lifelong with her, my mind immediately was practicing Medicine Buddha commitment to prayer and to the stopped racing about and dropped daily. He noted that all his practices Episcopal Church. She was a skilled into the dharmakaya. Lama Zopa were not for himself but for the painter and sculptor, and a mentor for Rinpoche said about Cherie’s death, sake of others. His greatest concern Berkeley elementary school teachers. “Looks very positive, possibly Vajra- was for his brother Kenneth who Her love for teaching children began yogini’s pure land.” Cherie lived a had recently been sentenced to when she was a civil rights activist in full and wonderful life; her parting prison. As usual, he signed off his Georgia. teaching is “Hallelujah, anyway!” ◆ letter “with love and light.” To the In 1982, she attended the first very end he was someone that had Universal Education conference at To obtain a copy of Sandplay in the Classroom, contact director@ deep concern for others. Kevin’s Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, partially landofcalmabiding.org

October - December 2012 MANDALA 53 FPMT News Around the WORLD

From left: Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Jhado Rinpoche, joined by Khadro-la, consecrating Land of Medicine Buddha’s newly filled prayer wheel, California, U.S., June 2012. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang; Lama Zopa Rinpoche with members of Pamtingpa Center at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, U.S., July 2012. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche News

Lama Zopa Rinpoche returned to the United States, arriving in California on June 9, 2012. Students in California had not seen Rinpoche since early 2011, before Rinpoche manifested a stroke. Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la) joined Rinpoche touring several California centers including Land of Calm Abiding, Vajrapani Institute and Land of Medicine Buddha (LMB). Rinpoche and Khadro-la’s visit to LMB overlapped with Jhado Rinpoche’s stay there. The three of them took a boat ride out into the Pacific Ocean to bless the marine life joined by Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, resident teacher at Tse Chen Ling, and several students. Rinpoche and Khadro-la next visited FPMT International Office and Maitripa College in Oregon, June 22- 25. Rinpoche offered a teaching and oral transmission on June 23, which was webcast live and viewed by more than 360 people around the world. You can watch the video on FPMT’s YouTube channel. Rinpoche spent the end of June, July and part of August at his retreat house at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in remote northeastern Washington state. Khadro-la joined Rinpoche for part of his time there before she traveled to Europe. In mid-August, Rinpoche returned to Kachoe Dechen Ling, his house in California.

To learn the latest from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT, visit www.fpmt.org/enews or “Like” Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT on Facebook.

You can find the FPMT YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/fpmtinc.

Advice from Rinpoche: What to Do with Dead Insects Found at Home and on the Windowsills From Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Dead insects can be gathered together and put into a container and, at the very least, one can recite OM MANI PADME HUM and blow on the insects. This mantra alone has incredible benefit: by reciting the mantra and blowing on the dead bodies of the insects,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Vajrapani Institute, California, U.S., June 2012. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.

54 MANDALA October - December 2012 the negative karmic obscurations of the insects – even though nectar flowing from one’s hand, or from the hands of the consciousness has already left the body – are purified. Thousand-Arm Chenrezig in front of one, purifying all the If one has more time, one can also recite the Five insects’ delusions and negative karma created since begin- Powerful Mantras for Liberating Sentient Beings from the ningless time. Lower Realms: 1) the mantra of Kunrig (Vairochana); 2) Rinpoche was asked if there was still benefit to the insects if the the mantra of Mitrugpa (Akshobya); 3) the mantra of person reciting the mantra has no realizations and is just an ordinary being. Rinpoche replied that it doesn’t matter whether Namgyälma (Ushnishavijaya); 4) the Stainless Pinnacle the person reciting the mantra has realizations or not. Even if Heart mantra; and 5) the Wish-granting Wheel mantra, the person has no realizations, it still benefits the insects because and blow on the insects. [You can find these on fpmt.org by the benefit comes from the power of the mantra. typing “five powerful mantras” into the search engine.] Scribed by Ven. Tenzin Tharchin, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, U.S., July 26, 2012. Edited for publication in Mandala. On top of this, one should also purify the insects’ negative karma by pouring blessed water over them. (You More of Rinpoche’s advice can be found online at www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice.html and also at can use water blessed by Rinpoche himself, if you have it.) Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, www.lamayeshe.com, under One can bless water oneself by reciting mantras and then "Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche.” blowing on the water. One can recite the mantras mentioned Khadro-la Travels to Europe above, but in general, one can also just keep a container of Several European centers welcomed Khadro-la in July and water handy, and after reciting the mantras in one’s daily August. In Spain, Khadro-la visited Centro Nagarjuna practice – OM MANI PADME HUM, Vajrasattva’s mantra, etc. Valencia, Nagarjuna C.E.T. Barcelona and O.Sel.Ling – just blowing on the water blesses it. One should make the Centro de Retiros. In Italy, Khadro-la was at Centro Tara prayer: “May this water purify all the negative karmic Cittamani, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa and Kushi Ling obscurations of every sentient being that it touches!” Retreat Centre. Longku Center in Switzerland and Institut In order to purify the insects with blessed water, one Vajra Yogini in France also hosted her. Khadro-la offered can either generate oneself as Thousand-Arm Chenrezig or her second retreat at Nalanda Monastery in France in August. visualize Thousand-Arm Chenrezig in front of oneself. As one pours the water over the insects, visualize streams of http://fpmt-europe.org/

New Faces at FPMT International Office FPMT International Office has welcomed three new staff members over the last six months. In March, Trevor Fenwick stepped into the position of donor services coordinator, taking over the position from Heather Drollinger. Trevor is a long-time Buddhist practitioner and has spent several years in retreat or working at Shasta Abbey, Sravasti Abbey and other retreat centers in the United States doing kitchen management, administration and fundraising. Carl Jensen joined the International Office as office manager in Khadro-la and Lama Zopa Rinpoche visiting FPMT Inter- national Office, Oregon, U.S., June 2012. Photo by Marc June. Carl will be filling the very large shoes of Ugyen Shola whose Sakamoto. involvement with FPMT stretches over decades. Carl’s educational background is in political science and law. He’s taught English in China and Japan and is currently working on completing his Master of Divinity degree at Maitripa College. In July, Aruna Prakash began work as the new finance controller, filling the vacancy left by Sarah Pool. Aruna holds a Bachelors in Accounting from the University of South Pacific, Fiji Islands, and a Diploma in Business Adminis- tration from the Fiji Institute of Technology, Fiji Islands. She has more than 20 years of experience in her field. International Office thanks Heather, Ugyen and Sarah for all their hard work and wishes Ugyen and Sarah the best of luck with their new company, Pacific Northwest Kale Chips. www.fpmt.org

October - December 2012 MANDALA 55 FPMT News Around the WORLD

Attention FPMT Centers, Projects and Services! Mandala Wants to Hear Your Latest News!

We’ve moved most of our FPMT News Around the World centers, coordinated in part by FPMT Australia. section online. News highlights from FPMT centers, • Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore celebrated projects and services are now part of Mandala’s daily blog Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi's 50th birthday with a long at mandalamagazina.org/posts. life puja. ◆ All centers, projects and services are encouraged to send in news at any time! Guidelines are posted online at Check out Mandala’s mandalamagazine.org/news-guidelines. Or simply email your news, photos, updates and/or thoughts to us at Multimedia Stories Online! [email protected]. You can also find Mandala on Facebook as “Mandala Publications.” • Watch a video interview with Geshe Ngawang Sonam, the new resident teacher at Hayagriva RECENT ONLINE NEWS STORIES: Buddhist Centre in Perth, Australia. • Geshe Tashi Tsering, resident teacher at Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, served as a chaplain in the • See photos from the first-ever fire prevention and Olympic Village and the Olympic Park. safety trainings at Kopan Monastery and Khachoe • Kurukulla Center in the United States celebrated Ghakyil Nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal, offered by a with their resident teacher Geshe Tenley, who received his concerned Australian volunteer firefighter instructor. U.S. citizenship. Visit mandalamagazine.org. • Geshe Thubten Sherab is currently touring Australian

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Himalayan High Treks CST 2085690-40 I was pleased with how easy the traveling was. PROFITS GO TO 241 Dolores Street Super good organization helped a lot. MILAREPA CENTER. San Francisco, CA 94103, USA A TIBETAN BUDDHIST CENTER I’d do it again in a minute! Phone (in US): (800) 455 8735 SUPPORTING WISE PRACTICE THROUGH STUDY, MEDITATION +1 (415) 551 1005 SUSAN FARRAR, 2011 India Pilgrimage AND SERVICE. Fax: +1 (415) 861 2391 www.MilarepaCenter.org effi[email protected] Visit www.dharma-journeys.org for full details, itinerary and photos! +1 (802) 633 4136

58 MANDALA October - December 2012 FPMT DIRECTORY This directory is a listing of centers, projects and services worldwide which are under the spiritual direction of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). You can find a complete listing with address and director/coordinator information on the FPMT website: http://www.fpmt.org/centers/directory.html Please contact [email protected] with any updates to your listing.

Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche London, United Kingdom AUSTRALIA (Tel Code 61) Karuna Hospice Service Tara Institute c/o FPMT International Office www.essential-education.org Windsor Brighton East Tel: +44 (0) 20 7820 9010 New South Wales www.karuna.org.au www.tarainstitute.org.au FPMT International Office Tel: (07) 3632 8300 Tel: (03) 9596 8900 1632 SE 11th Avenue FPMT REGIONAL AND Enlightenment for the Resident Geshe: NATIONAL OFFICES Dear Animals Portland, OR USA A project of Karuna Hospice: Geshe Lobsang Doga Denistone East www.fpmt.org Karuna Books Australian National Office www.enlightenmentfor Tel: (1) (503) 808 1588 www.karunabooks.com.au www.fpmta.org.au animals.org Thubten Shedrup Ling Tel: +61 (2) 4782 2095 Tel: +61 (2) 9808 1045 Eaglehawk Projects of FPMT Langri Tangpa Centre www.tslmonastery.org International Office include: Brazilian National Office Kadam Sharawa Camp Hill Tel: (03) 5446 3691 Amdo Eye Center [email protected] Buddhist Institute www.langritangpa.org.au FPMT Puja Fund Tel: +55 (47) 9127 3314 Copacabana Tel: (07) 3398 3310 Western Australia Lama Tsongkhapa Teachers www.kadamsharawa.org Fund European Regional Office Tel: (0402) 688 620 South Australia Hayagriva Buddhist Centre www.fpmt-europe.org Sera Je Food Fund Kensington Tel: +31 (0) 20 627 3227 Kunsang Yeshe Retreat Centre Stupa Fund Buddha House www.hayagriva.org.au www.fpmt.org/projects Katoomba Tusmore Tel: (08) 9367 4817 Italian National Office www.kunsangyeshe.com.au www.buddhahouse.org Resident Geshe: INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS [email protected] Tel: (02) 4788 1407 Tel: (08) 8333 2824 Geshe Ngawang Sonam Mexico National Office Vajrayana Institute Resident Teacher: International Mahayana De-Tong Ling Retreat Centre www.fpmt-mexico.org Ashfield Ven. Thubten Dondrub Institute Kingscote Tel: +52 (987) 869 2222 www.vajrayana.com.au San Francisco, CA USA www.detongling.org Tel: (02) 9798 9644 Hospice of Mother Tara www.imisangha.org Tel: (08) 8559 3276 Nepal National Office Resident Geshe: Bunbury [email protected] Geshe Ngawang Samten www.hmt.org.au Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive Tel: +977 (1) 442 4091 Resident Teacher: Tasmania Tel: (08) 9791 9798 Lincoln, MA USA Wai Cheong Kok www.LamaYeshe.com North American (USA and Chag-tong Chen-tong Centre AUSTRIA (Tel Code 43) Tel: +1 (781) 259 4466 Canada) Regional Office Queensland Snug [email protected] www.chagtong.org Liberation Prison Project Tel: +1 (831) 334 2777 Chenrezig Institute Tel: (03) 6267 9203 Panchen Losang Chogyen Ashfield, Australia Eudlo Gelugzentrum www.liberationprison South Asian Regional Office www.chenrezig.com.au Victoria Vienna [email protected] Tel: (07) 5453 2108 project.org www.fpmt-plc.at Resident Geshe: Atisha Centre Tel: (1) 479 24 22 Spanish National Office Geshe Lobsang Jamyang Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Eaglehawk www.fpmt-hispana.org Resident Teacher: BELGIUM (Tel Code 32) Translator Programme Tel/Fax: +34 (91) 445 6514 Ven. Tenzin Tsepal www.atishacentre.org.au Dharamsala, India Tel: (03) 5446 3336 http://lrztp.blogspot.com/ Taiwan National Office Projects of Chenrezig Institute: Shedrup Zungdel Study www.fpmt.tw The Enlightenment Project The Great Stupa of Group LKPY: Loving Kindness Tel: +886 (2) 2523 0727 for Purification and Merit Universal Compassion Burg Reuland Peaceful Youth [email protected] Maiden Gully [email protected] Unley, SA Australia FPMT CENTERS, PROJECTS www.stupa.org.au www.lkpy.org AND SERVICES The Garden of Enlightenment Tel: (03) 5446 7568 BRAZIL (Tel Code 55) www.chenrezig.com.au/ Maitreya Project International ARGENTINA (Tel Code 54) content/view/42/146 Shen Phen Ling Study Group Centro Shiwa Lha www.maitreyaproject.org Wodonga Rio de Janeiro Yogi Saraha Study Group Cittamani Hospice Service [email protected] www.shiwalha.org.br Buenos Aires Palmwoods Universal Education for Tel: (02) 6027 1335 Tel: (21) 9322 0476 [email protected] www.cittamanihospice.com.au Compassion and Wisdom Tel: (11) 4541 7112 Tel: (07) 5445 0822

October - December 2012 MANDALA 59 CANADA (Tel Code 1) Institut Vajra Yogini INDIA (Tel Code 91) ITALY (Tel Code 39) Sangye Choling Study Group Marzens Sondrio Gendun Drubpa Centre www.institutvajrayogini.fr Choe Khor Sum Casa del Buddha della www.sangye.it Williams Lake, B.C. Tel: (05) 6358 1722 Ling Study Group Medicina Tel: (39) 0342 513198 www.gendundrubpa.com Resident Geshes: Bangalore Livorno Tel: (250) 398 5681 Geshe Tengye and www.cksl.in www.associazionedare Shiné Jewelry Tel: (80) 4148 6497 Geshe Tenzin Loden protezione.it Pomaia (Pisa) Lama Yeshe Ling Centre www.shinegioielli.it Oakville, Ontario Maitreya Project Trust Kalachakra Centre Centro Lama Tzong Khapa Tel: (050) 685 033 www.lamayesheling.org Gorakhpur Paris Treviso Tel: (905) 296 3728 [email protected] www.centre-kalachakra.com [email protected] Tel: (551) 2342 012 Yeshe Norbu - Tel: (01) 4005 0222 Tel: (0422) 300 850 CHINA (Tel Code 852) Appello per il Tibet Resident Geshe: MAITRI Charitable Trust Pomaia (Pisa) Mahayana Buddhist Assoc. Geshe Drakpa Tsundue Bodhgaya Centro Muni Gyana www.AdozioniTibet.it (Cham-Tse-Ling) www.maitri-bodhgaya.org Palermo Tel: (050) 685 033 North Point, Hong Kong Nalanda Monastery Tel: (631) 2200 841 www.centromunigyana.it Labastide St. Georges Tel: (0327) 038 3805 www.fpmtmba.org.hk JAPAN (Tel Code 81) Tel: 2770 7239 www.nalanda-monastery.eu Root Institute Tel: (05) 6358 0225 Bodhgaya Centro Studi Cenresig Do Ngak Sung Juk Centre COLOMBIA (Tel Code 57) Resident Geshe: www.rootinstitute.com Bologna Tokyo Tel: (631) 2200 714 Geshe Losang Jamphel www.cenresig.org www.fpmt-japan.org Centro Yamantaka Tel: (347) 246 1157 Tel: (070) 5562 8812 Bogotá Thakpa Kachoe Retreat Land Projects of Root Institute: www.yamantakabogota.org Marseille Shakyamuni Buddha Centro Tara Cittamani LATVIA (Tel Code 371) Tel: (311) 251 0993 www.thakpakachoe.com Community Health Padova Tel: (612) 918 949 Care Centre www.taracittamani.it Ganden Buddhist DENMARK (Tel Code 45) Tel: (049) 864 7463 Maitreya School Meditation Centre FRENCH POLYNESIA (Tel Code 689) Tong-nyi Nying-je Ling Riga Centro Terra Copenhagen Sera IMI House www.ganden.lv Naropa Meditation Center di Unificazione Ewam www.fpmt.dk Bylakuppe Tel: 2949 0141 Tahiti Florence Tel: 33 13 11 08 [email protected] http://naropatahiti. www.ewam.it Resident Teacher: Yiga Chodzin Study Group over-blog.com Tel: (055) 454 308 Stephan Pende Wormland Tushita Mahayana Raunas novads Meditation Centre www.yigachodzin.lv Projects of Tong-nyi GERMANY (Tel Code 49) New Delhi Chiara Luce Edizioni Nying-je Ling: [email protected] Pomaia (Pisa) MALAYSIA (Tel Code 60) The Center for Conscious Aryatara Institut Tel: (11) 2651 3400 www.chiaraluce.it Living and Dying München Tel: (050) 685 690 Chokyi Gyaltsen Center www.cbld.dk www.aryatara.de Tushita Meditation Centre Tel: (89) 2781 7227 McLeod Ganj Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa Penang Dharma Wisdom Publishing Resident Teacher: www.tushita.info Pomaia (Pisa) www.fpmt-cgc.blogspot.com www.dharmavisdom.dk Ven. Fedor Stracke Tel: (1892) 221 866 www.iltk.it Tel: (4) 826 5089 Tel: (050) 685 654 Resident Geshe: FINLAND (Tel Code 358) Diamant Verlag INDONESIA (Tel Code 62) Resident Geshes: Geshe Deyang Kaltern, Italy Geshe Tenzin Tenphel and Tara Liberation Study Group www.diamant-verlag.info Lama Serlingpa Bodhicitta Geshe Jampa Gelek Rinchen Jangsem Ling Helsinki Tel: +39 (0471) 964 183 Study Group Retreat Centre [email protected] Jambi Projects of Istituto Triang Tel: (50) 353 2886 [email protected] Tara Mandala Center Lama Tzong Khapa: www.jangsemling.com Landau Shenpen Samten FRANCE (Tel Code 33) Potowa Center [email protected] Ling Nunnery Kasih Hospice Care Tangerang Tel: 9951 90235 Selangor Editions Vajra Yogini www.potowa.org www.kasih-hospice.org Marzens Resident Teacher: Dieter Kratzer Tel: (21) 9359 2181 Takden Shedrup Targye Ling Tel: (3) 7960 7424 www.vajra-yogini.com Monastery (Tel Code 30) Tel: (05) 6358 1722 GREECE ISRAEL (Tel Code 972) Kushi Ling Retreat Centre Losang Dragpa Centre Gyaltsab Je Study Group Gonpo Chakduk Shantideva Study Group Arco (TN) Selangor Ile de la Reunion Ling Study Group Ramat Gan www.kushi-ling.com www.fpmt-ldc.org association.gyeltsabje Athens http://shantideva.org.il Tel: (347) 2113471 Tel: (3) 7968 3278 @gmail.com [email protected] Tel: 3 736 6226 Resident Geshe: Resident Geshe: Tel: (210) 762 7189 Geshe Dondup Tsering Geshe Jampa Tsundu

60 MANDALA October - December 2012 MAURITIUS (Tel Code 230) Yeshe Gyaltsen Center Projects of Kopan Monastery: Resident Geshe: Nagarjuna C.E.T. Barcelona Cozumel Animal Liberation Sanctuary Geshe Jampa Tharchin Barcelona Dharmarakshita Study Group www.fpmtcozumel.org www.fpmt.org/projects/other Resident Teacher: www.nagarjunabcn.org Vacoas Tel: (987) 869 2222 /alp.html Alan Carter Tel: (93) 457 0788 [email protected] Resident Geshe: Tel: 258 3054 MONGOLIA (Tel Code 976) Mu Gompa Dorje Chang Institute Geshe Losang Jamphel Chhekampar Avondale MEXICO (Tel Code 52) All Mongolian centers, www.fpmt/projects/tsum www.dci.org.nz Nagarjuna C.E.T. Granada projects and services are Resident Geshe: Tel: (09) 828 3333 Granada accessible through: Bengungyal Center Geshe Tenzin Nyima Resident Geshe: www.nagaryunagr.org Aguascalientes www.fpmtmongolia.org Geshe Thubten Wangchen Tel: (95) 825 1629 www.bengungyal.org Rachen Nunnery Drolma Ling Nunnery Mahamudra Centre Nagarjuna C.E.T. Madrid Tel: (449) 973 5550 Chhekampar Ulaanbaatar Colville Madrid Resident Geshe: www.fpmt/projects/tsum Tel: (11) 480 741 www.mahamudra.org.nz www.nagarjunamadrid.org Geshe Losang Khedup Resident Geshe: Tel: (07) 866 6851 Tel: (91) 445 65 14 Enlightening Mind Geshe Tenzin Nyima Chekawa Study Group Resident Geshe: Ulaanbaatar Uruapan ROMANIA (Tel Code 402) Geshe Thubten Choden Tel: (11) 480 741 Thubten Shedrup Ling [email protected] Monastery Tel/Fax: (452) 523 5963 Grupul de Studiu Buddhist Centro Nagarjuna Valencia Ganden Do Ngag Solu Khumbu White Tara Valencia Shedrup Ling Resident Geshe: Judetul Arges www.nagarjunavalencia.com Khamlungpa Center Ulaanbaatar Geshe Thubten Yonden [email protected] Tel: (96) 395 1008 Zapopan Tel: (11) 321 580 Tel: 4829 4216 Resident Geshe: www.khamlungpa.org.mx Lawudo Retreat Centre Geshe Lamsang Tel: (33) 3122 1052 Golden Light Sutra Center Solu Khumbu RUSSIA (Tel Code 7) Resident Geshe: Darkhan www.lawudo.com O.Sel.Ling Centro de Retiros Geshe Losang Khedup Tel: (1372) 28856 Tel: (1) 221 875 Aryadeva Study Group Orgiva St. Petersburg www.oseling.com Khedrup Sangye Yeshe NEPAL (Tel Code 977) THE NETHERLANDS (Tel Code 31) www.aryadeva.spb.ru Tel: (95) 834 3134 Study Group Tel: (812) 710 0012 Resident Teacher: Morelia Ganden Yiga Chözin Buddhist Maitreya Instituut Amsterdam Ven. Champa Shenphen khedrup_sangye_yeshe@ Meditation Centre Amsterdam Ganden Tendar Ling Center yahoo.com.mx Pokhara www.maitreya.nl/adam Moscow Tekchen Chö Ling Tel: (443) 308 5707 www.pokharabuddhist Tel: (020) 428 0842 www.fpmt.ru Ontinyent centre.com Resident Teacher: Tel: (926) 204 3164 www.centrobudistaontinyent.es Padmasambhava Tel: (61) 522 923 Ven. Kaye Miner Tel: (96) 291 3231 Study Group SINGAPORE (Tel Code 65) Durango Himalayan Buddhist Tushita Retreat Center Maitreya Instituut Loenen [email protected] Meditation Centre Amitabha Buddhist Centre Arbúcies Kathmandu Loenen Tel: (6181) 711 102 Singapore www.budismotibetano.net/ www.fpmt-hbmc.org www.maitreya.nl/emst www.fpmtabc.org tushita Tel: (980) 325 4704 Tel: (0578) 661 450 Rinchen Zangpo Center Tel: 6745 8547 Tel: (97) 217 8262 Resident Geshe: Torreo´n Resident Geshe: Khenrinpoche Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen www.rinchenzangpo.org.mx Geshe Thubten Chonyi SWEDEN (Tel Code 46) Tel: (087) 1712 6873 Kathmandu www.kopannunnery.org A project of Maitreya SLOVENIA (Tel Code 386) Tsog Nyi Ling Study Group Tel: (1) 481 236 Serlingpa Retreat Center Instituut Loenen: Ransta Resident Geshes: Zitacuaro Maitreya Uitgeverij Chagna Pemo Study Group www.fpmt.se Geshe Lobsang Zopa, http://calendarioretiroserlingpa. (Maitreya Publications) Domzale Tel: (0224) 200 22 Geshe Tsering Norbu, blogspot.com Loenen [email protected] Geshe Konchog Nodrup, Tel: (715) 153 9942 Tel: (40) 573 571 Yeshe Norbu Study Group and Geshe Losang Chodak NEW ZEALAND (Tel Code 64) Stockholm Thubten Kunkyab Study SPAIN (Tel Code 34) http://fpmt-stockholm.se Kopan Monastery Group Amitabha Hospice Service Tel: (0707) 321 793 Kathmandu Coapa Avondale Ediciones Dharma www.kopanmonastery.com www.meditadf.blogspot.com www.amitabhahospice.org Novelda SWITZERLAND (Tel Code 41) Tel: (1) 482 1268 Tel: (552) 325 5861 Tel: (09) 828 3321 www.edicionesdharma.com Resident Geshes: Tel: (96) 560 3200 Gendun Drupa Centre Geshe Lobsang Sherab, Muraz/Sierre Vajrapani Tibetan Buddhist Geshe Lobsang Nyendrak, Chandrakirti Tibetan Nagarjuna C.E.T. Alicante www.gendundrupa.ch Study Group Geshe Jampa Gyaltsen, Buddhist Meditation Centre Alicante Tel: (27) 455 7924 Huatulco and Geshe Tashi Dhondup Richmond www.budismoalicante.com Resident Teacher: Sixte Vinçotte [email protected] Resident Teacher: www.chandrakirti.co.nz Tel: (66) 387 124 Tel: (958) 70989 Ven. Karin Valham Tel: (03) 543 2015

October - December 2012 MANDALA 61 Longku Center Saraswati Study Group Vajrapani Institute New Mexico Virginia Bern Drayton Boulder Creek www.fpmt.ch www.saraswati.org.uk www.vajrapani.org Thubten Norbu Ling Guhyasamaja Center Tel: (31) 332 5723 Tel: (01458) 252463 Tel: (831) 338 6654 Santa Fe Centreville www.tnlsf.org www.guhyasamaja.org TAIWAN (Tel Code 886) Togme Sangpo Study Group Colorado Tel: (505) 660 7056 Tel: (703) 774 9692 Findhorn Resident Teacher: Resident Geshe: All Taiwanese centers are www.togmesangpo.org.uk Lama Yeshe House Don Handrick Khensur Lobsang Jampa accessible through: Tel: (01309) 690926 Study Group Rinpoche www.fpmt.tw Boulder Ksitigarbha Tibetan Yeshe Study Group [email protected] Buddhist Center Washington Heruka Center Cumbria Tel: (831) 234 7963 Ranchos de Taos Ciaotou yeshebuddhistgroup [email protected] Buddha Amitabha Pure Land Tel: (7) 612 5599 @live.co.uk Florida Riverside Resident Geshe: www.buddha-amitabha- Tel: (01229) 885 329 New York Geshe Tsethar Land for Nagarjuna’s pure-land.org Sutra and Tantra UNITED STATES (Tel Code 1) Shantideva Meditation Center Jinsiu Farlin Dharma Study Group Pamtingpa Center New York Taipei Sarasota Tonasket California www.shantidevameditation.org Tel: (2) 2577 0333 [email protected] www.tonasketbuddhist.org Resident Geshe: Tel: (941) 745 1147 Tel: (509) 223 3003 Gyalwa Gyatso Geshe Gyurme North Carolina Buddhist Center Tse Pag Me Study Group Campbell Kadampa Center Shakyamuni Center Zephyrhills What does it mean www.gyalwagyatso.org Raleigh Taichung City tropical_moments@ to be an FPMT Center, Tel: (4) 2436 4123 Tel: (408) 866 5056 verizon.net www.kadampa-center.org Study Group, Resident Geshe: Resident Teacher: Tel: (813) 783 1888 Tel: (919) 859 3433 Project or Service? Geshe Ngawang Gyatso Ven. Losang Drimay Resident Geshe: Tubten Kunga Center Geshe Gelek Chodha If a center, project or service is UNITED KINGDOM (Tel Code 44) Land of Calm Abiding Deerfield Beach affiliated with FPMT, it means San Simeon www.tubtenkunga.org Ohio that it follows the spiritual Jamyang Bath Study Group http://landofcalmabiding.org Tel: (954) 421 6224 direction of Lama Zopa Rin- Bath Tel: (831) 475 6018 Resident Geshe: Manjushri Study Group poche. It means that centers www.jamyangbath.org.uk Geshe Konchog Kyab Youngstown and study groups use FPMT’s Land of Medicine Buddha http://manjushristudygroup. educational programs and Jamyang Buddhist Centre Soquel Massachusetts blogspot.com material, created in the unique London www.landofmedicine lineage of Lama Yeshe and www.jamyang.co.uk buddha.org Kurukulla Center Oregon Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Tel: (02078) 208 787 Tel: (831) 462 8383 Medford Each FPMT center, project Resident Geshe: www.kurukulla.org Maitripa College or service is incorporated indi- Geshe Tashi Tsering Tara Home Tel: (617) 624 0177 Portland vidually (is a separate legal Soquel Resident Geshe: www.maitripa.org entity) and is responsible for its Jamyang Buddhist www.tarahome.org Geshe Tenley Tel: (503) 235 2477 own governance and finance. Centre Leeds Tel: (831) 477 7750 Resident Geshe: All FPMT centers, projects, Leeds Wisdom Publications Inc. Yangsi Rinpoche services and study groups www.jamyangleeds.co.uk Tara Redwood School Somerville follow the FPMT Ethical Policy. Tel: (07866) 760 460 Soquel www.wisdompubs.org Texas FPMT study groups are www.tararedwoodschool.org Tel: (617) 776 7416 groups which are using this Jamyang Coventry Land of Compassion status as a probationary period Study Group Tsa Tsa Studio / Center for Montana and Wisdom before a group becomes a legal Coventry Tibetan Sacred Art Austin entity and a full FPMT center, www.coventry-buddhists.com Osel Shen Phen Ling Richmond www.austinfpmt.org project or service. Missoula FPMT study groups are not www.tsatsastudio.org Tel: (512) 280 8687 Khedrup Je Study Group www.fpmt-osel.org yet affiliated with the FPMT, and Tel: (415) 503 0409 Liverpool Tel: (406) 543-2207 therefore do not have the same Vermont khedrupjestudygroup responsibilities as a center or Tse Chen Ling @hotmail.co.uk Nevada project, financially or adminis- San Francisco Milarepa Center Tel: (07789) 327054 tratively. www.tsechenling.org Barnet Dharmakaya Study Group Tel: (415) 621 4215 www.milarepacenter.org Land of Joy Reno Resident Geshe: Tel: (802) 633 4136 www.landofjoy.co.uk http://dharmakayacenter.com/ Geshe Ngawang Dakpa Tel: (07949) 595691 Home_Page.html Tel: (775) 232 8067

62 MANDALA October - December 2012