FEATUREDPROJECT A Turning Point for Sera By Ven. Sarah Thresher Mandala recognizes Sera Je Food Fund as the featured FPMT project for this issue. The food fund provides three meals a day to all of the monks at Sera Je Monastery. From left: IMI Director Ven. Monlam and Ven. Sarah in front of Sera Je Monastery; A lunch prayer at Sera Je; Preparing tugpa – a traditional Tibetan soup; Clean up after a meal; Photos courtesy of Ven. Losang Monlam s I entered the courtyard I found myself dodging Sera. When the monastery was first built in the 1970s on quickly to avoid a small truck piled full of bananas land given by the Indian Government, there was enough Aspeeding toward me in the opposite direction. No, I revenue from the fields that belonged to the monastery to am not on a plantation in Fiji or even in my local super- provide meager sustenance for the small number of monks market. This is the debate courtyard of Sera Je Monastic who worked them. But as the number of monks swelled University where the daily banana delivery is being dropped with a huge influx of Tibetan refugees, and laborers replaced off. As part of their three simple, yet nutritious vegetarian them in the fields, the burden of providing food was given meals a day, the monks of Sera Je receive one banana every back to the monks themselves and to their teachers or day for lunch. And that adds up to some 2,400-2,600 guardians. As a refugee community, even the little cost to bananas a day! provide barely sufficient food for each monk was beyond Many FPMT students and disciples of Lama Zopa reach. Though some monks were fortunate to have sponsors, Rinpoche are aware of the extraordinary commitment made many simply went hungry or left to find work, while others by Rinpoche when the six-year-old Lama Osel, reincarnation were put off from joining the monastery because they knew of Lama Thubten Yeshe, formally entered Sera Monastery as they could not manage the conditions – malnutrition, sickness a monk and tulku in 1991. It’s customary on such occasions and disease were common. Even those who did find enough for an offering to be made to the monastery and food to be money lost precious study time due to the need to shop for distributed to the monks on that day – but Rinpoche took the and prepare food. matter to a whole new level, making a personal commitment In 1991 Lama Zopa Rinpoche began the Sera Je Food to offer food to all the Sera Je monks from that point onward. Fund, which initially simply gave money to each monk for That one decision was a major turning point both for food but gradually began to fund the kitchen to make meals. Sera Je and the FPMT. Up to then, finding enough food to Over time, the Fund was able to provide not just lunch but fill their stomachs was a constant struggle for the monks of also breakfast and dinner for all the monks; and more 50 MANDALA April/June 2009 recently efforts have been made to monitor the quality and taste of the food as well as the budgeting to ensure the food is nutritious, a good value and delicious. recipe Sera has only seven full-time cooks. Most of the work is ______________________________________________________________CURRY RECIPE FOR 2,400-2,600 MONKS done by the monks themselves. Those enrolled in the geshe- ______________________________________________________________ study program help to peel, cook, wash and serve on a two-day ______________________________________________________________100kg (220 lbs) lentils 1kg (2.2 lbs) seasoning ______________________________________________________________50kg (110 lbs) onion 1kg (2.2 lbs) coconut powder rotation basis. At lunch and dinner an army of monks serve the ______________________________________________________________50kg (110 lbs) tomatoes 3kg (6.6 lbs) salt food: steaming buckets of delicious dahl and baskets piled high ______________________________________________________________ Wash______________________________________________________________ and boil lentils. Fry it with the onions and tomatoes. with huge chapatis. The menu is simple, the ingredients sparse, Season______________________________________________________________ it with mixed spices, coconut powder and salt. Mix but the food is hot, tasty, nourishing and plentiful – cooked by properly______________________________________________________________ and add palak (boiled greens). monks for monks. Why did Rinpoche’s commitment help Sera so much? Finally the monks were free to focus on their studies single- pointedly without need to shop for, cook and prepare food, and the teachers were free to focus on their teaching single- pointedly without needing to raise money to provide for the SAMPLE MENUMenu FOR THE MONKS OF SERA JE students. The monks were well-nourished and healthier. Money previously channeled into survival rations for the monks was freed up to be spent in other ways that would develop the monastery: construction, housing, health care, study and infrastructure. Monks and refugees who survived the long journey from Tibet would no longer be put off Breakfast bread Dahl for 2,400+ from entering the monastery due to fear of the conditions Breakfast if they could not support themselves. Everyone was now Bread and Tibetan tea free to study. Lunch How did the offering affect FPMT? Lama Zopa Rinpoche Dahl and Chapati or Rice with Banana has commented in the past that the huge merit of sponsoring these monks who are devoted to the study and practice of the five Dinner great treatises is immense and has raised up the organization. Rice and Vegetables This is the monastery from which most of our teachers and or their teachers have come, including our founding lamas, Noodle Soup or Lama Yeshe and Rinpoche and many of their teachers. What Curd and Tingmo (a big vegetarian momo) more practical way is there of helping them, repaying the or kindness of our teachers and ensuring the in-depth study and Vegetable biryani (Indian fried rice) propagation of Dharma be maintained for future generations than to provide the nourishment that sustains these monks over long years and full days of study and practice? What better contribution can we make to the world? Lunch at Sera Je Taking care of these monks is ultimately the best way of In 2008 FPMT sent US taking care of ourselves. As His Holiness the Dalia Lama has $264,396.61 to the Sera indicated: Monks and nuns don’t need much, but they do Je Food Fund. This need good, nourishing food so they can stay well enough to money covered the cost study and practice. By contributing in even a small way to of food for all 2,400- y offering such essential support, how could we ever regret it? 2,600 monks studying Text by Ven. Sarah with additional editorial help from Ven. Lobsang Monlam, at Sera Je Monastery for the entire year. Ven. Gyalten Rabten and Ven. Sonam Wangpo. For more details, updates, to see a short video or if Ven. Sarah is an English nun who attended her first Kopan course in 1982. She you would like to make an offering to the food fund, was ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama 23 years ago, and as a member of please visit: www.fpmt.org/projects/seraje/default.asp the International Mahayana Institute (IMI), is a touring teacher based in USA. April/June 2009 MANDALA 51 SERAJEMONASTERY Sera Je Monastery: ANINTIMATELINKTOFPMT By Ven. Sarah Thresher eing at Sera Je Monastery is, in itself, an immense Hayagriva is a wrathful aspect of the Buddha of experience. Even though I have spent time at other Compassion, Chenrezig, with a close connection to the Bmonasteries over the years, nothing quite prepares Dalai Lamas. It has a particular emphasis on controlling – you for being at one of these great seats of Gelug learning – bringing together all those conditions needed for successful Sera, Drepung, Ganden. At times, one feels transported back practice – and dispelling obstacles. The lineage of the practice to medieval Tibet: Here is a city of only monks, thousands of of Hayagriva comes from Buddha Amitabha and was them, a great sea of red robes from morning to night and the introduced to Tibet by the great Indian master constant vibration of Dharma, pujas, memorizing, debating, Padmasambhava, who was invited to Tibet by King Trisong in time-honored fashion. Even the cooks, the shopkeepers, Detsen to dispel the obstacles to the Dharma taking root in the telephone booth and internet café staff, the yoghurt sellers, Tibet. It was the heart practice of Sera Je’s founder, Kunkhen the taxi drivers, the tailors are monks. Lodrö Rinchen Senge, and hence became the very special At times one feels like a tourist in Los Angeles sightseeing protector deity of Sera Je. the khamtsen and houses of the great lamas and geshes we In 2006 I was in South India while the monks were hear so much about and know so well – like house-spotting doing the annual Hayagriva retreat. His Holiness the Dalai in Hollywood! Lama had just given the Hayagriva empowerment at Sera Je At other times one feels like one is living in a nuclear Temple and following that, special Hayagriva pujas were power station – a human-being-refinery – where all impurities being performed in the Hayagriva shrine. Lama Zopa are slowly but surely being extracted and the very purest Rinpoche sponsors this puja monthly in Sera Je for the essence of humanity is being exposed. For those who can success for all the FPMT centers, projects, students and endure the rigors and pace of monastic life with a pure benefactors; and on this occasion FPMT was the main sponsor motivation, there is no doubt that with every debate for a particularly elaborate series of rituals to the deity.