Lama Zopa Rinpoche composed, translated, and drew the mantra calligraphy on the Buddha’s Teachings on Our Lives card as a reminder about the central role karma plays in our lives and experience.

The card reads: “As the Founder, the Omniscient One, Shakyamuni Buddha said in the Hundreds of Actions Sutra: ‘One who always becomes habituated and familiar with nonvirtue will in the future depend on nonvirtue, engage in nonvirtue, and be reborn following nonvirtue again.’ We should relate what Buddha said to the future effect of the virtuous karma we create also. Therefore please enjoy Dharma happiness all the time.”

The mantra at the bottom of the card comes from the sutra Phagpa Chulung Rolpai Do, and which just by seeing, purifies 100,000 eons of negative karma and obscurations. At the specific request of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lhadri Gelek Sherpa designed the card’s frame using Rinpoche’s altar at Kopan Monastery in Nepal.

Find the Buddha’s Teachings on Our Lives card by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Buddhas-Teachings-on-Our-Lives-Card_p_1942.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Students can now find The One Hundred and Eight Names of Arya Kshitigarbha and the Dharani Mantra in PDF and ebook formats in the Foundation Store.

The recitation of the 108 names of Kshitigarbha and the associated dharani bestows good qualities, removes obstacles, and ultimately acts as a cause for the attainment of liberation.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended reciting this text in order to help pacify the wildfires in California in 2018.

Find The One Hundred and Eight Names of Arya Kshitigarbha and the Dharani Mantra by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/The-One-Hundred-and-Eight-Names-of-Arya-Kshitigarbha-and-the-Dharani-Mantra-eBook-PDF_p_3187.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche redesigned the Samantabhadra protection card in 2016. The card is available in PDF format through the Foundation Store. The 2010 design is still available in print.

“This Samantabhadra protection is from the great lama Thugyen Chokyi Nyima,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches. “It eliminates any bad things and creates both outer and inner success. The main deity is the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Above are the three types of deities: Chenrezig, Vajrapani, and Manjushri. On one side is Hayagriva and the other side is Lion-Faced Dakini. Below are two kinds of Garuda (Multicolored and Black Garuda).

“It is said by Vajradharma, who is the all knowing one, that this instruction can stop any kind of harm. By displaying this protection in the house those activities which have no meaning will become meaningful, and virtue will be created in the house. In this way, having this protection in the home becomes good feng shui, a way of creating an auspicious environment.”

Find the Samantabhadra protection card by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Samantabhadra-for-Protection-PDF_p_2705.html
https://shop.fpmt.org/Samantabhadra-Card-for-Protection_p_889.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Nuns take a pinch of chemar, a mixture of butter and roasted barley flour, in celebration of the new year, Kopan Nunnery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

The Fifteen Days of Miracles—from the first day of the Tibetan new year (Losar, February 5) until the fifteenth (February 19)—commemorate the special time when Guru Shakyamuni Buddha showed miraculous powers in order to subdue six Tirthika, or non-Buddhist teachers, who lacked faith in him, and to inspire more faith in his followers. It culminates on the full moon, the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, which is the actual day of Chotrul Duchen.

Losar is traditionally celebrated for three days, during which Tibetans spend time with friends and family, eat, play games, and relax. A number of rituals and customs have developed around it, such as the eating of a special soup called “guthug” on the 29th day of the last Tibetan month of the year, two days before Losar. In the monasteries, there is a Losar tradition to do the extensive Palden Lhamo puja before dawn.

The Fifteen Days of Miracles are also a time for pilgrimage and intensive Dharma practice. During this period, many Tibetan monasteries, including Kopan Monastery in Nepal, hold a Great Prayer Festival—Monlam Chenmo—for several days or even weeks during which the Sangha recite prayers from morning until evening.

This year, Losar falls on February 5. The Fifteen Days of Miracles continue through Chotrul Duchen on February 19.

All fifteen days are merit multiplying days, when the merit of virtuous actions performed on these days is multiplied by 100 million, as cited by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from the vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche presides over Lama Chopa after the Palden Lhamo puja on the first day of Losar, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

Advice Specifically for Losar

For FPMT, Losar is a special time as it commemorates the anniversary of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe’s parinirvana at dawn of Losar in 1984. Lama Zopa Rinpoche asks centers to offer students the opportunity to offer extensive Lama Chopa with tsog in honor of this anniversary. Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that one generates incredible merit by offering tsog on that occasion every year. This Losar marks thirty-five years since the passing of Lama.

Rinpoche also recommends that centers host annual events to introduce new students to Lama Yeshe. These events might include students who knew Lama Yeshe sharing their favorite stories, watching videos of Lama teaching, or reading stories about Lama.

Lama Yeshe, Lake Arrowhead, California, United States, 1975. Photo by Carol Royce-Wilder, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Advice for the Fifteen Days of Miracles

Students can find Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for the Fifteen Days of Miracles collected here. Advice for merit multiplying days in general can be found here. (Advice for merit multiplying days can also be found in French.)

If the members of your community decide to recite the Sutra of Golden Light on these special days, we invite them to report their recitations on the Sutra of Golden Light reporting page.

Losar Tashi Delek! Happy Tibetan New Year!

Please keep in mind: According to the late Ven. Choden Rinpoche, one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachers, observation of auspicious days should be according to the date in India, not the date in one’s home country. Therefore, when Lama Zopa Rinpoche is not in India, Rinpoche celebrates merit multiplying days and other auspicious dates according to the time in India.

Special thanks to the Liberation Prison Project for preparing this year’s Tibetan calendar. A limited view of the calendar is always available on “Dharma Practice Dates” as a courtesy to FPMT students around the world.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

The Liberation Card for a Dying Person includes images and mantras that by merely seeing them help a dying person to purify negative karma and be led to enlightenment. The front of the card features ten mantras and ten images especially chosen to benefit someone at the time of death.

On the back of the card is a moving letter by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to assist the dying person at this most critical time. It reads:

My most dear kindest brother and sister,

Please look at these mantras quite often; especially, look at these mantras when you are leaving from this old body. Dear one, please don’t cling to anything and let yourself become completely free. In this most important moment of life, you don’t need to be afraid at all of being born in the lower realms and so forth. I give all my merits of the past, present, and future to you, to have a happy journey and a happy, wonderful, sunshining future. I give my big love to you. All the buddhas and bodhisattvas love you, and you are in their care. May anyone who sees these mantras be immediately reborn in the pure land where one can become enlightened or receive a perfect human body by quickly actualizing the causal vehicle, the three principles of the path, and the result vehicle, the secret mantra Vajrayana, based on correctly devoting and only pleasing one’s own holy guru.

You can also pray in this way: “May I take rebirth in whatever place is most beneficial for sentient beings, no matter where it is.”

To think this thought again and again is extremely good.

The other choice is to think: “May I be born in Amitabha’s blissful field to quickly benefit all sentient beings.”

Thank you.
With much love and prayers,
Lama Zopa

Find the Liberation Card for a Dying Person in English, Chinese, French, and Spanish by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberation-Card-for-Dying-Person–English_p_409.html
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberation-Card-for-Dying-Person–Chinese_p_445.html
https://shop.fpmt.org/Carte-de-libration-pour-les-mourants_p_781.html
https://shop.fpmt.org/Tarjeta-de-Liberacin-para-Moribundos_p_612.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Composed and arranged by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Kopan Monastery, Verses to Inspire Offerings is a frameable one-page offering prayer card that Lama Zopa Rinpoche suggests can be displayed in one’s gompa or home.

It reads in English and Tibetan:

While there is the Guru who is like a wish-granting jewel and the unimaginable wish-fulfilling tree,
And the ever-undeceiving Rare Sublime Ones who effortlessly fulfill all wishes,
Still to be dissatisfied and spend your body and wealth on what is non-virtuous and without meaning is so very foolish.

Dear Friends,
Once you have understood that wealth is like dew on the tip of a blade of grass
And that your friends, body and life are like a bubble,
Then you must engage in virtues such as making offerings to the Rare Sublime Ones while looking at them as the Guru
And extract the essence from your essenceless body and wealth.

Due to this merit may I and all others
Be able to make offerings to the Guru and the Three Jewels since they are our crown ornament.
By keeping my prayers and commitments,
And by means of listening, reflection and contemplation,
With Guru devotion and supreme bodhichitta,
May my life become fortunate, something meaningful and worthy of rejoicing,
And in this way, may I fulfill all the wishes of sentient beings.

Just as flies gather around dirty things,
Due to seeing samsara as pleasure,
So far I have accomplished only meaningless suffering,
Lacking any freedom to practice Dharma.
Now, with my body, speech and mind
I will engage in great meaningful actions for the welfare of others.
May the Guru please bless me to be able to do this.

Find the Verses to Inspire Offerings card by donation in the Foundation Store
https://shop.fpmt.org/Verses-to-Inspire-Offerings-Card-English-and-Tibetan_p_1737.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche designed the Purifying the Cause of Samsara door card as an easy way for students to regularly purify negative karma.

To use the card, place it above your door in order to benefit from the two main mantras it features. The mantra “OM HANU PAHASHA BHARA HE YE SVAHA,” when seen, purifies 100,000 eons of negative karma and obscurations. The Wish-Granting Wheel mantra, “OM PADMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT,” when passed under, purifies 1,000 eons of negative karma and obscurations.

Rinpoche teaches that beings only receive the benefit of these door blessing mantras if they walk directly underneath them. With this in mind, Rinpoche recommends that students acquire a sufficient number of mantra cards to take up the width of the door frame.

Find the Purifying the Cause of Samsara door card by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Purifying-the-Cause-of-Samsara–Above-the-Door-Mantra-Card_p_1752.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

In the complimentary Living in the Path module “Bodhichitta Mindfulness,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche shows students how to take the essence of our precious human life by transforming our normal daily activities—walking, washing, dressing, etc.—into a cause of enlightenment by doing them with a bodhichitta motivation to benefit all sentient beings.

“The sutra explains that in the morning when one wakes up, the very first thing to do when one wakes up from sleep is to think, ‘May all sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya.’ Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches. “The minute you wake up, you should think that. Maybe the eyes are still closed, the mind woke up but the eyes are still closed—I’m joking—remember that.”

“Then when you get dressed, think, ‘May all sentient beings wear the dress of shyness and shame.’ …

“When you put on a belt, think, ‘May sentient beings’ minds be bound by the three higher trainings.’ These are the higher trainings of morality, concentration, and special insight. Because that is what is said in sutra, when you release a belt, think, ‘May sentient beings be freed from the bondage of karma and delusions.’

“When you lay down to go to bed, ‘May sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya.’ Then the same thing when you see a stupa. When you see a stupa or other holy object, think, ‘May all sentient beings achieve the dharmakaya.’ When you see a holy object such as a Buddha statue, ‘May all sentient beings achieve enlightenment quickly.’ You can dedicate like that.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche cooking with Ven. Tharchin, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, June 2018. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.

“Bodhichitta Mindfulness” is available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/view.php?id=120

Living in the Path is an online lamrim program taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche available through the FPMT Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/index.php?categoryid=5

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Students can now find Recognizing the False I in PDF and ebook formats in the Foundation Store.

Recognizing the False I, written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, is a commentary on and set of simple meditation techniques for identifying the object to be refuted—what Rinpoche calls “the false I”—during reflections on emptiness.

The text was specifically composed for students engaging in the self-generation portion—often called “the ultimate deity”—of kriya yoga tantric practices, such as nyung nas. The meditations can also be used by students during retreats on the Heart Sutra or any other retreat focused on emptiness.

Additionally, Rinpoche offers these techniques to all students in general to help them meditate on emptiness correctly during their daily practices.

Find Recognizing the False I by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Recognizing-the-False-I-eBook-PDF-_p_3196.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Martigny, Switzerland, 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.

Find lamrim resources—including teachings, commentaries, prayers, audio programs, comprehensive study programs, and year-long meditation schedules—on FPMT.org to assist your study and practice.

“The most unbelievably important thing in our life is lamrim,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche stresses in “Advice for Realizing Lamrim,” an online module within FPMT’s essential lamrim study program Living in the Path. “The practice of the three principal aspects of the path is the most important thing. This is the most important, more important than a job, money, or anything else in our life. It is the most important thing.”

In March 2013, Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice suggesting that students follow a lamrim outline and meditate on each subject for two weeks or one month until all subjects have been completed. “The amount of time for meditation is up to the individual, but the general advice is to finish the lamrim in one year,” Rinpoche said. “To meditate like this each year—wow, wow, wow! That would be great.”

To follow this advice, consider using FPMT Education Service’s lamrim schedule template—available as an Excel spreadsheet and PDF—to help you plan daily lamrim meditation over the course of a calendar year. The template was created on the basis of the book The Essential Nectar, a commentary by Geshe Rabten on The Essential Nectar of Holy Doctrine, an 18th-century lamrim text by Yeshe Tsöndru.

Flower offering, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, August 2018. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

Find lamrim resources on FPMT.org:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/texts/lam-rim/

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Students can now find two texts—Meditations on White Tara and A Meditation on Orange Manjushri—in ebook and PDF formats.

Meditations on White Tara contains practices to strengthen and restore health and life-force energy. By relying on White Tara, students are able to accumulate merit and purify negative karma in order accomplish their aims. If one has experienced many health problems, accidents, depression, or a loss of vitality, the practices of White Tara might be helpful.

These White Tara meditations can also be done on behalf of oneself or others, and are frequently done to remove obstacles to the long lives and health of one’s gurus.

A Meditation on Orange Manjushri includes “A Meditation on Orange Manjushri,” a short sadhana written by the Fifth Dalai Lama as well as “Practice to Receive the Seven Types of Wisdom.” These practices are considered excellent for developing wisdom and clarity, improving one’s memory, and for understanding and explaining Dharma to others.

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche created the Flower Offering Card as a welcoming and explanatory sign for anyone visiting the gardens of his house in Aptos, California, United States. Rinpoche said that any student is welcome to use the same sign in front of their own offerings.

The card reads:

Every single flower here is offered to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, on behalf of every single sentient being in each realm, numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals in the numberless universes, every single fish in the ocean size as large as a mountain and ones who are so small that you can only see through a machine, numberless pitiful ants, numberless pitiful mosquitos, numberless pitiful maggots, slugs, tiny crabs at the beach and so forth, every animal, numberless human beings in different universes, numberless suras and asuras to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and the causes and to achieve peerless happiness, the cessation of all the obstacles and completion of all the realizations.

This means every single flower is every sentient being’s offering and this is similar with the water offerings, it is offered from every sentient being and is every sentient being’s water offering.

Thank you very much.

Find the Flower Offering Card in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Flower-Offering-Card_p_2532.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Students can now find two images—Wheel of Life and Guru Shakyamuni Buddha with the Seventeen Pandits—in PDF format.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommended in early 2019 that it would be good for FPMT centers, projects, and services to have access to a particular image of the Wheel of Life. Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked that a translated verse be included with the image.

The verse reads:

Energetically undertake THIS and renounce THAT. The one who engages in this Dharma that subdues the mind VINAYA. Like an elephant in a mud hut, destroys the domain of the Lord of Death. The one who is extremely conscientious and careful engages in this Dharma that subdues, thoroughly abandoning the wheel of birth and bringing suffering to an end.

This image of the Wheel of Life was painted at Tushita Meditation Centre, India, at Rinpoche’s request. The creation of the painting was overseen by Jhado Rinpoche.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche considers this particular image of the Wheel of Life to be correct.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche also recommended that it would be good for FPMT centers, projects, and services to have access to an image of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha with the Seventeen Pandits.

The Seventeen Pandits, according to “The Seventeen Pandits of Nalanda Monastery” by the late FPMT student and Buddhist scholar Dr. James Blumenthal, “refers to a grouping of seventeen of the most important and influential Mahayana Buddhist masters from India’s past.”

Find the downloadable images of Wheel of Life and Guru Shakyamuni Buddha with the Seventeen Pandits by donation in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Wheel-of-Life–PDF-_p_3203.html
https://shop.fpmt.org/Guru-Shakyamuni-Buddha-with-the-Seventeen-Pandits–PDF_p_3202.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Namgyalma Mantra Card

The Namgyalma mantra is extremely powerful and is the main mantra to purify and liberate beings from the lower realms, purify negative karma, and help those who are dying or have died either by chanting it in their ear or placing it on their body.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has discussed many times its power and use to benefit sentient beings. The FPMT Foundation Store currently makes available several items featuring the Namgyalma mantra, including amulets, cards, and stickers. 

• The Namgyalma and Lama Atisha Protection Amulet is a printed mantra packet that contains the Namgyalma Mantra Wheel and the Lama Atisha Protection Mantra. In addition to the benefits taught by Lama Zopa Rinpoche for each mantra, keeping this amulet close to one’s body protects one from harm and mental pollution.

This amulet also contains these powerful mantras: the Phagpa Chulung Rolpai Do Mantra, which upon seeing, purifies 100,000 eons of negative karma and obscurations; the Wish-Granting Wheel Mantra, which purifies one thousand eons of negative karma for anyone that passes beneath it; and the Six Syllables of Clairvoyance Mantra, which after fifteen days upon seeing, purifies any heavy negative karma created in the past. 

• The Namgyalma Mantra Card (seen above) is a colorful modern take on the Namgyalma mantra and comes in two sizes.

• The Namgyalma Mantra Car Sticker is meant to be put on your car so that when insects inevitably die as you drive, the Namgyalma mantra helps to purify their negative karma and support their good rebirth.

In addition, the Foundation Store offers a Vairochana Mantra card. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said, “Just by reciting this mantra one receives success, and one does not get harmed by weapons, fire, water, poisons, substances mixed with poisons, black magic, one cannot be harmed by kings, thieves, robbers, and so forth. Wherever this mantra is written and left, people do not receive sicknesses, harm and contagious diseases and will achieve the concentration called stainless light.”

The Foundation Store also offers Mantra Stickers—Protection From Negative Energies. There are three stickers available: the mani mantra, the Shakyamuni Buddha mantra, and also Kalachakra yantra.

Since all of these mantras are to be seen as holy objects, students are reminded to take care when placing the stickers, cards, and amulets, and demonstrate proper respect for them.

For more on mantras, visit FPMT Education’s “Mantra” resource page:
https://fpmt.org/education/teachings/texts/mantras/

Find more protection and practice items at the FPMT Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Saviese, Switzerland, November 2018. Photo by Olivier Adam.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave advice regarding merit multiplying days such as the Fifteen Days of Miracles, Saka Dawa, Chokhor Duchen, and Lhabab Duchen. The next merit multiplying day is Saka Dawa on June 17, 2019.

On the day of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s turning the Wheel of Dharma, if you do one prostration while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas, it becomes equal to having done 100 million prostrations while reciting the names of the Thirty-Five Buddhas. If you recite one Vajrasattva mantra, it becomes the same as having done the Vajrasattva mantra 100 million times. If you recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra (Vajra Cutter Sutra) one time, it becomes the same as having recited the Diamond Cutter Sutra 100 million times—so that much purification and you collect that many merits to quickly be free from samsara, and if the practices are done with bodhichitta, then to quickly achieve enlightenment.

Reading the Golden Light Sutra (Sutra of Golden Light), besides the personal benefits that creates, also brings so much peace in the world, for the Buddhadharma to last a long time, which means more sentient beings being able to meet the Dharma and to achieve enlightenment. Then, also reciting the Arya Sanghata Sutra, which brings success, including enlightenment. Each recitation becomes 100 million recitations—so please tell your parents and friends this.

This is the best way to help your parents and this really helps your parents. You can tell others this also and their friends. This really helps the world, to make a better world.

Please read my notes well. Don’t rush. Think about each word.

Also on these days, you can do tonglen—taking others sufferings and giving away one’s own happiness—then, also rejoicing. You can meditate on dependent arising (meaning, emptiness only) and develop bodhichitta. Of course, you can do self-initiation during this very special time according to the time in India.

If you want to know which lama and which text mentioned this, it was His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s and His Eminence Sakya Trizin’s guru—Chobgye Trichen Rinpoche. Rinpoche referred to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching Dulwa Lung (‘dul ba lung) as saying that the number the merit multiplies by is 100 million. It is a great advantage to practice during these times; like for myself, who is the most extremely laziest person in this world.

Another very important practice to do on these days is taking the eight Mahayana precepts for one day until the next day at sunrise. That doesn’t mean necessarily until sunrise Indian time. It means sunrise at the place where you are; up until dawn, when the sun rises in your part of the world.

In case there are difficulties to keeping all eight precepts, perhaps due to work, for example, you can take the rest of the vows well. Taking the eight Mahayana precepts is so beneficial for world peace, for crops to grow well, to receive timely rains—all this is needed to make the world better. Then, there are incredible benefits for yourself. This is explained in the book of the eight Mahayana precepts. This is so important for your own life to be better and to make the world better, to bring benefit.

Written by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, August 2017, United States. Edited by Michael D. Jolliffe for publication on FPMT.org.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation, and community service.

The Liberation Box: Protection Tool for a Fortunate Rebirth

Of the thousands of items offered by the FPMT Foundation Store, the Liberation Box: Tools for a Fortunate Rebirth is one of the most unique and special. It is a collection of materials to assist students at the time of death. Assembled according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s specific advice on what a person should hear, see, and have placed on their body, the Liberation Box contains powerful methods for ensuring a fortunate rebirth for those who have died or are in the process of dying.

The box includes a Kadampa stupa filled with the four dharmakaya relic mantras, a powa pill, a cord blessed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, plus various mantras and a copy of Shetor to place on the dying person’s body. The Liberation Card for a Dying Person, a Namgyälma mantra card, and the CDs Recitations to Alleviate Pain and Recitations for the Time of Death are also included to be seen and heard by the dying person. In addition, the books Heart Practices for Death and Dying and Heart Advice for Death and Dying, and a booklet with instruction on how to use all the items and additional mantras are all part of the Liberation Box. 

“So much went into creating the Liberation Box. So many people have put work into it. And it was requested by Rinpoche. The Sangha at Rinpoche’s house in Aptos, California, are involved, creating and consecrating the stupas. Volunteers bring them up to Oregon and they are painted in the Foundation Store. Every little thing has a story,” Foundation Store manager Diana Ospina said.

Foundation Store manager Diana Ospina looking over the book inventory in the FPMT Foundation Store, Portland, Oregon, US

The powa pill included in the box was made by either Geshe Lama Konchog or Khensur Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup at Kopan Monastery and was blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in his home in Dharamsala, India, and also blessed in the FPMT International Office by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness Sakya Trichen.

The stupa and smaller items come packed in a specially designed golden paper box from Nepal.  The FPMT Foundation Store, which assembles the Liberation Box, has been making the boxes available since May 2010. To date, 745 Liberation Boxes have been distributed around the world. 

“When we hear ‘Please, please, I need the Liberation Box,’ I tell you, we run to send it out,” Diana said. “And then we hear back from the customer, ‘I never will forget this box.’ There are so many stories. It is so special how it takes on meaning for each individual.”

Find the Liberation Box: Protection Tool for a Fortunate Rebirth exclusively in the FPMT Foundation Store. The Liberation Box is being offered now at a special discount while inventory lasts:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberation-Box-Protection-Tool-for-a-Fortunate-Rebirth-_p_872.html

A digital version of the Liberation Box is also available. Please note, the digital version does not contain the stupa, powa pill, and blessing string:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Liberation-Box-Tools-For-a-Fortunate-Rebirth–Digital-Edition_p_2416.html

Find advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about how to help those who are sick and dying on FPMT.org’s “Death and Dying: Heart Practices and Advice”:
https://fpmt.org/death/

Read about the FPMT Foundation Store in “The Foundation Store: Sending Dharma to Every Corner of the World” from Mandala eZine May 2011:
https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/18/ensuring-a-fortunate-rebirth-the-liberation-box/The-Foundation-Store-Mandala-ezine-May-2011.pdf

The book Buddhism in a Nutshell: Essentials for Practice and Study combines short teachings of the precious gurus Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche with short teachings by the much-loved American nun, Ven. Amy Miller. It comes with an MP3 CD containing eleven hours of clear and accessible teachings and guided meditations by Ven. Amy Miller intended for beginners who would like a structured approach to learning about Buddhism in the Tibetan tradition.

The teachings by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche contained in the book consist of well-chosen essential teachings on the lamrim subjects and are supplemented by Ven. Amy’s teachings on the same topics. The recordings of Ven. Amy’s teachings cover the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, the four noble truths, and the stages of the path to enlightenment (lamrim) based on the short text Foundation of All Good Qualities by Lama Tsongkhapa. Together they provide a wonderful and comprehensive overview of Buddhism as taught and practiced in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa. The teachings are supplemented by recordings of five guided meditations as well as instructions for meditations on the lamrim topics found in the book itself.

Find Buddhism in a Nutshell: Essentials for Practice and Study in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/Buddhism-in-a-Nutshell-_p_866.html

Buddhism in a Nutshell is also available as an introductory course through the Online Learning Center:
https://onlinelearning.fpmt.org/course/view.php?id=21

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

FPMT.org makes available a variety of White Umbrella Deity (Sitatapatra) resource to interested students, including a pre-printed devotional card and White Umbrella Deity practices in PDF format. Students can also find a White Umbrella Deity text than can be worn as a protection amulet. Lama Zopa Rinpoche teaches that White Umbrella Deity practices protect from fear.

Sitatapatra, which can also be translated as “The White Parasol,” protects sentient beings from natural catastrophes, diseases, black magic, and so forth. She is white in color because the principal means by which she accomplishes protection is the enlightened energy of pacification.

Sitatapatra is a female counterpart of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Like Avalokiteshvara, she has a thousand eyes that watch over living beings and a thousand arms that protect and assist them.

Find White Umbrella Deity resources in the Foundation Store:
https://shop.fpmt.org/White-Umbrella-Deity-Card-Arya-Sitatapatra_p_2305.html

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

Basic Program students, Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, July 2018. Photo by Sylvia Mairs.

FPMT registered teacher and German monk Ven. Fedor Stracke has agreed to teach two Basic Program subjects—Ornament for Clear Realization and Seventy Topics and Grounds and Paths of Secret Mantra—during July and August of 2019 at Kopan Monastery, FPMT’s mother monastery, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

“Ven. Fedor Stracke is a highly qualified and committed teacher who has been teaching the FPMT Basic Program (BP) at Kopan Monastery for ten years,” said Ven. Fran Mohoupt, Kopan Monastery course coordinator. “These two subjects conclude the second round of Basic Program he has offered at Kopan. Ven. Fedor has studied extensively at Sera Je and also offers the Basic Program as the resident teacher of Aryatara Institut in Munich, Germany. He has contributed much treasured BP materials and translations, both in English and in German.”

Ven. Fedor Stracke, Munich, Germany, February 2017. Photo by Hermann Wittekopf.

“Students who attend these study retreats with Ven. Fedor are often very impressed. Basic Program graduates who studied at Kopan have become Discovering Buddhism teachers and Kopan meditation leaders, and the current teaching assistant for the residential Basic Program at Nalanda Monastery in France completed part of her BP at Kopan.”

Kopan offers the Basic Program in summer intensives over consecutive years. This unique format allows students who missed BP subjects in another center to complete the program while visiting Kopan and connecting with FPMT’s roots. The residential setting allows for daily meditation and group discussion in addition to receiving teachings from Ven. Fedor. A three-month lamrim retreat, which is necessary for graduation from the entire program, is scheduled for next year.

The view from Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2018. July 2018. Photo by Sylvia Mairs.

Learn more about how to register for Basic Program at Kopan Monastery:
https://kopanmonastery.com/courses-retreats/courses/fpmt-basic-program/2018-program

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.

FPMT Educations Services has recently released three new Vajrayogini practices texts—The Secreted Advanced Practices of Vajrayogini, The Quick Path to Great Bliss, and A Compilation of Tsog Offerings to Vajrayogini.

The Secreted Advanced Practices of Vajrayogini (in hardcopy and digital formats) is the fourth and final volume of the FPMT’s series of Vajrayogini practice manuals. As with the previous volumes—which include the sadhanas, the fire offering, and the self-initiation ritual—all of the works contained in this fourth volume were composed by the great Vajrayogini master, Kyabje Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo.

This volume is an important milestone in the modern-day transmission of this cycle of teachings in the Gelug tradition. For the first time, all of the indispensable materials needed to engage in the Vajrayogini great retreat and its subsequent practices have been translated into English. These materials include not only the retreat manual, which presents the instructions on the various practices, but also all the essential ritual texts.

The profound practices in this volume are intended for experienced practitioners of Vajrayogini Naro Khechari in the Gelug lineage and should be engaged in under the direct guidance of a qualified Vajrayana teacher.

The Quick Path to Great Bliss (PDF format) was composed by Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo and is the foundational long sadhana text for any Vajrayogini retreat. In the FPMT Vajrayogini series, this long sadhana is found in the first volume, The Initial Practices of Vajrayogini: An FPMT Manual for Initiates, under the title The Nearing Path to Great Bliss. This is FPMT’s most up-to-date version of the sadhana.

A Compilation of Tsog Offerings to Vajrayogini (PDF format) comprises tsog offering texts to Vajrayogini including the standard Vajrayogini Tsog Offering; an abbreviated tsog offering called A Pleasing Uncontaminated Feast; and a short tsog offering, all authored by Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo. It also includes an extremely abbreviated tsog offering authored by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

This practice is restricted to only those with the appropriate tantric empowerment. If you are unsure whether you are qualified or not, please email us at education@fpmt.org. By purchasing this text, you confirm you have received the appropriate empowerment. 

Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.