FPMT Service

My most dear, most precious, most kind, wish-fulfilling ones,

Billions of thanks for your kindness, for working for, volunteering at, and supporting in various ways FPMT centers, projects, and services. The main benefit of the centers is to offer Dharma teachings, teaching compassion; teaching from where suffering comes and from where happiness comes; teaching about karma, about how to stop negative karma and how to practice virtuous actions, which cause all the happiness up to enlightenment: the happiness of this life, the happiness of future lives, the ultimate happiness of liberation from samsara, and then the peerless happiness of enlightenment, which is everlasting happiness, with total cessation of the obscurations and completion of the realizations (sang gye). Achieving enlightenment is especially to liberate all the sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever and lead them to peerless happiness, with cessation of the gross and subtle defilements and completion of the realizations. This is most important. This is what sentient beings need; this is their most important need.

So, now you understand how important it is to have a Dharma center, an FPMT center, which allows even one sentient being to achieve all this happiness up to enlightenment because of your help. You can see how that is most important.

Now you can see how that is of the utmost need for them. Now you can see how the benefits are limitless like the sky. Now you can feel that.

So, now, how do you run a center? It should be the same for any FPMT center, from the beginning up to now, from the beginning up to the end, until sentient beings achieve enlightenment.

It’s opened for the basic lamrim. It’s opened for those who want to abandon the causes of suffering and be free from the lower realms and who want to achieve higher happiness. And it is opened for those who want to be free from samsara and achieve the everlasting, ultimate happiness of liberation and for those who want to be free from the lower nirvana and achieve great liberation, or enlightenment. It is opened for everyone.

The other thing, of course, is to practice Mahayana thought transformation. You have to feel that the people coming to the center are so precious. You have to feel that, from each person coming to the center, you receive all your happiness from beginningless rebirths up to now and all your future happiness, including liberation and enlightenment. You have to think like that, feel like that, about everybody who comes to the center. You have to feel that each one is most kind, most precious, most dear, wish-fulfilling to you.

Then, of course, there are more things to think. Think about the evolution of your food, of how numberless sentient beings suffered and were killed for this food and of how many human beings created negative karma for this food. So, the comfort of your food, your survival, comes from the kindness of others. It is the same with the comfort of your shelter. Your survival also comes from the many sentient beings who were killed and the many sentient beings who underwent much hardship and created much negative karma to provide your shelter. It is the same again with clothing, especially if it comes from animal skins. Many animals suffered and died and many human beings created so much negative karma to provide your clothing. From that you got your pleasure and comfort; your pleasure and survival came from that, from the kindness of sentient beings.

Then, third, each sentient being has been your mother numberless times from beginningless rebirths and showed you kindness from beginningless rebirths. They gave you your body, particularly your human body, and then saved your life from hundreds of dangers every day. They bore so much hardship for you for so many years, from your conception and from beginningless rebirths. They also gave you an education. So, all this is the kindness of being a mother. You have to feel that, at least the first one: how they are precious. Then, when you know all that, they are now so precious to you; they are most kind, most dear, most wish-fulfilling. Then, you see, your mind is so happy. You then have a smiling, happy face, and that makes them so happy. And then, also, rather than putting others down, you use respectful words when you talk to them. A respectful manner naturally comes. Then the mind. Respectful words are very much needed; you should talk very humbly. You should bring others up, not put them down.

So, this is how to run a center. That’s Dharma practice, Mahayana practice; that’s lojong. That makes people so happy, so delighted, that they want to come again and again to the center.

With much love and prayers,

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling ones, those who want to make their life meaningful and beneficial for every sentient being—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, suras, asuras and intermediate state beings,

Here is just a short message. The FPMT centers, projects and services have been growing due to your kindness and help. Now there are more than 161 such activities around the world and more are happening all the time. This benefits all the six-realm sentient beings, from whom you receive all your past, present and future happiness—even the comfort you experience in a dream—and who have been your mother numberless times from beginningless rebirths. As your mother, all these sentient beings have been so kind, giving you your body, protecting your life from danger countless times, bearing many hardships for you and giving you an education. Even Buddha, Dharma and Sangha come from all sentient beings, and by taking refuge in and relying on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, you become free from the lower realms, free from samsara, free from lower nirvana and achieve enlightenment—and you do this for the sake of numberless sentient beings. Since Buddha, Dharma and Sangha come from the kindness of every single sentient being, sentient beings are most precious, as I just mentioned.

The FPMT exists to help others and the FPMT exists to help you, providing education to all through books and teachers, showing you and others how to benefit sentient beings and attain enlightenment.

From the depths of my heart, I want to thank you numberless times for all the help you have given the organization with your body, speech and mind. This is what has allowed the organization to continue and become stronger and stronger in order to help and benefit sentient beings as infinite as the sky, more and more and deeper and deeper.

Also, I have really seen that many people in the FPMT have become increasingly compassionate, which also benefits other sentient beings more and more. So that is one benefit. The second thing is that we’re providing more and more Dharma education so that students can understand and learn the base—the two truths and the path of method and wisdom—and the result, dharmakaya and rupakaya, Buddha’s holy mind and holy body. By receiving more and more education in topics such as the four noble truths and so forth, this is what you achieve. Without such education there is no way to be free from samsara.

So these are the deep benefits that students receive and although Dharma education is the general essence of the FPMT, we also provide many social services.

Thank you very much again,

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

PS. I would like everyone to practice The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness and to read this advice I gave recently on How to Make Your Life Most Beneficial, Even with Your Speech.

My most dear, most kind, most precious wish-fulfilling ones,

From Lama Tsongkhapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path

Even if renunciation has been developed,
If it is not possessed by the mind of enlightenment
It does not become the cause of the perfect bliss of unsurpassed enlightenment.
Therefore the wise generate the supreme mind of enlightenment.

Swept away by the current of the four powerful rivers,
Tied by the tight bonds of karma, so hard to undo,
Caught in the iron net of self-grasping,
Completely enveloped by the total darkness of ignorance,

Endlessly reborn in cyclic existence,
Ceaselessly tormented by the three sufferings –
Thinking that all mothers are in such a condition,
Generate the supreme mind of enlightenment.

First of all, we have all experienced this numberless times. Numberless times we have suffered like this, from beginningless time and will continue to unless one realizes the true suffering, the true cause of suffering, the true cessation of suffering and the true path. If one doesn’t get to actualize the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness, then one will have to experience these sufferings of samsara numberless times and endlessly. So that means being in the ocean of suffering of the six realms. Already we have experienced it numberless times from beginningless lives, and we will have to experience this numberless times without end.

This is so terrifying, most terrifying, most terrifying! To have to be reborn in samsara again, even one more time, it is most terrifying. To be in samsara even for one more day, even one hour, even one millisecond, it is most horrible, most terrifying. If you realize that samsara is only in the nature of suffering and that being in samsara is like being in the midst of molten iron—the very hot, red, iron fire.

We have been hallucinating in samsara, looking at it as pleasurable. The suffering we experience now in samsara is nothing compared to the suffering of numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless suras, numberless asuras and numberless intermediate state beings, not only what they are suffering right now but also what they have suffered numberless times from beginningless rebirths.

Swept away by the current of the four powerful rivers,
Tied by the tight bonds of karma, so hard to undo,
Caught in the iron net of self-grasping,
Completely enveloped by the total darkness of ignorance,

Endlessly reborn in cyclic existence,
Ceaselessly tormented by the three sufferings –
Thinking that all mothers are in such a condition,
Generate the supreme mind of enlightenment.

Similarly sentient beings have experienced this suffering numberless times, the oceans of suffering of the six realms. They haven’t received a perfect human rebirth and haven’t met a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru. Some have, but their number is nothing compared to numberless sentient beings who haven’t received a perfect human rebirth, met the Buddhadharma and met a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru who reveals the unmistaken path. So like this, they will have to suffer again in the ocean of suffering of the six realms, again and again, numberless times, endlessly in samsara.

It is said by great yogi Heruka Kyabje Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo in Calling the Guru from Afar:

Thinking of the plight of my pitiful old mothers, pervasive as space,
Fallen amidst the fearful ocean of samsara and tormented there—reminds me of you, Lama.
Therefore, Lama, please bless me to generate in my mental continuum
Effortless experience of the profound three principles of the path and the two stages.

Here you can understand what to do, what is the best way to help sentient beings, who are numberless, even to help just one sentient being; so this is the best thing. Here the FPMT organization’s main effort is to create the causes for sentient beings to have realizations of the gradual path to enlightenment and to actualize the gradual path to enlightenment, the gradual method and the gradual wisdom and to achieve dharmakaya and rupakaya, for numberless sentient beings, for every maggot, for every tick, for every mosquito and for every single slug. So that comes from practice, and to practice, first you have to learn the Buddhadharma. So for those who can, then you learn the most extensive philosophy, sutra and tantra, lamrim and then tantric subjects of your own deity and then the essence of what the guru has taught from the holy mouth.

So like the Kadampa Geshes teach according to the different level of intelligence, the different capacities, so there are three ways of studying. Similarly we offer that, different levels according to different levels of intelligence and capacity, in order to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings, to be able to work perfectly without the slightest mistake for sentient beings. This is why we offer the Masters Program, the Basic Program, Discovering Buddhism, Buddhism in a Nutshell, Living in the Path and so on, this is besides Universal Education for Compassion and Wisdom. Then also we offer social services, such as hospices and many other social services. Here it is not only to help the body, but mainly to help the mind. Then in all the centers since they have started, there have been lamrim teachings continually, offering the essence of the path to enlightenment.

The whole point of FPMT is to bring sentient beings to full enlightenment, to the peerless happiness—the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations. So this is what FPMT has been trying to do and this is the function of FPMT International Office, to help in that, and also the function of all the centers, services and projects, to be able to benefit in this way to the numberless sentient beings.

When a person has cancer, diabetes or leprosy, but then the person’s nose is crooked, so they try to fix it with plastic surgery, but that doesn't help cure the cancer, diabetes or leprosy. Or they try to make the wrinkles on their face disappear by spending lots of money, but this doesn't do anything for the life-threatening diseases. People spend so much money and time on something really unimportant, such small things, and have no idea at all, no knowledge at all about the suffering of death, sickness and old age. They don't know where this suffering comes from, which is karma and delusions, nothing is done for that, nothing is known about that. The root of samsara is the ignorance holding the I as truly existent, as real from its own side, while it is not, while it is totally empty from its own side, from beginningless time. Even having tantra realizations and bodhicitta realizations is not enough, but it is only with wisdom realizing emptiness directly that can directly eliminate the root of samsara—ignorance.

Similarly you don't have a rhinoceros horn growing from your head or a white-faced monkey’s long tail growing behind you.

So the purpose of the FPMT organization’s existence, it is NOT like that.

Thank you very, very, very much, from the bottom of my heart numberless thanks, by joining my two palms together—numberless thanks and I pray for the success of all the students, all the benefactors, all the volunteers, all the staffs, everybody. Thank you to all the directors of the centers and to every student. We are all here to liberate the numberless sentient beings, our pitiful mother sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and to bring them to peerless happiness—buddhahood: the total cessation of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations.

With much love and prayers

My very dear precious and kind brothers, sisters, benefactors and students,

How the FPMT has been able to benefit the six realm beings and the people of this world , the many different ways it benefits others—I am so happy with this. I really am so happy about the benefits that we bring to others. All this benefit is due to your kindness and prayers in the past and the present and because of that it will also be beneficial in the future. This is like a wish-fulfilling jewel removing the darkness of the world, benefiting those that need help.

From my heart I thank all of you for what you have done in the past and present and for what you will do in the future. Please continue in the future, if possible even better, with your wisdom and compassion.

With much love and prayers...

My Very Dear Geshes, Sangha, Teachers, Center Directors and Staff, Students, Benefactors and Friends:

Shantideva said, “Merely thinking of benefiting others is considered much more beneficial than making offerings to all the buddhas.” So what need is there to say anything about those who actually attempt to bring happiness to others?

Even one person or one insect—every single sentient being—is most cherished by every bodhisattva; a sentient being that is against or dislikes you is still most cherished by all buddhas and bodhisattvas—that sentient being is most unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably precious. Slightly disrespecting even one sentient being is the same as disrespecting all buddhas and bodhisattvas. Similarly, showing even modest respect to one sentient being becomes the best offering to all buddhas and bodhisattvas. Thus you can see how supporting an organization like the FPMT, which exists only to benefit sentient beings, has incredible advantages.

Not only does our organization offer social services, which bring much happiness and joy to the world and individual sentient beings, but, most importantly, we have so many Dharma centers offering teachings, meditations, retreats and practices for taking the minds of sentient beings further from the lower realms and samsara and bringing them closer to liberation and enlightenment. When it comes to learning Dharma and philosophy, which help us achieve enlightenment, there’s no shortage of opportunity—this is amazing! It’s like the sun shining. The FPMT offers Dharma like the sun shining, awakening sentient being. So it’s really most fantastic.

Since the FPMT is a Dharma organization, it has to be run differently from other entities. Our main goal is to bring sentient beings happiness in all their future lives and to liberate them from the oceans of suffering and lead them to the highest enlightenment. If we can achieve enlightenment we are then able to do perfect work for all sentient beings. The way we can do this as an organization is through compassion—our main goal is the happiness of others.

The FPMT has to be run with compassion. This differs from the way normal companies are run, which is usually with self cherishing. Running a company with self cherishing always brings problems; running an organization with compassion brings good karma, peace and happiness.

As a Dharma organization, the FPMT must be run without negative, emotional problems. Even if we don't have much wisdom, if we at least have compassion, people will feel our sincerity and will want to help.

Normal companies are created to do business, not to take care of the mind. Companies are not built to practice Dharma, and as they have money they can kick out and replace people. Dharma centers are made to practice Dharma, to benefit the minds of sentient beings, from guru devotion up to enlightenment; in particular, they must lay the foundation for realization of renunciation, bodhichitta and right view. It is extremely important that this foundation be laid in students’ hearts, subduing or pacifying their ignorance, attachment and self-cherishing thought. Thus FPMT centers are for taking care of the mind and in this way are totally different from regular companies.

And it is especially important to practice compassion, because what distinguishes Buddhism from other religions is compassion—compassion not only for the sick and poor, but for all human beings, including the rich, and all animals: pigs, fish and so forth. The compassion we practice encompasses each and every sentient being, excluding not even one. No other religion embodies such all-embracing compassion for all sentient beings.

Externally, FPMT is doing quite well. We now need to put effort into gaining lamrim and other realizations. It is very important to at least try.

I send my heartfelt deep appreciation to all those who are helping and supporting the organization. This is really an incredibly amazing way of benefiting others and is the real way to create world peace. In essence, our centers and projects bring compassion into the world. That is what we do. Therefore, you can see how important your work and support is.

With love and prayers...

My very dear most precious, wish-fulfilling,dearest benefactors, students, staff of the FPMT organization, friends and everybody,

Because I had a stroke you can’t imagine all the pujas that have been done in Tibet, India and all over the world such as so many hundreds and thousands and millions of Padmasambhava mantras and OM MANI PADME HUM in Tibet and so on, in many different places by individuals, groups and centers, projects and services. Then especially the liberation of animals, so many in Tibet and other places, of course that is a very good thing as it helps the animals to not suffer and not be killed.

When I was in the hospital I saw a program about animals that were sold to be killed in Indonesia and other countries (live export). I don’t know how long this has been going on, must be already for a long time.

On the TV I saw the goats waiting in line, between wooden fences. It didn’t show how they were killed, but it showed one cow that was on the platform, with the head tied, being pulled down to be killed. The cow didn’t want to go and the man was pulling it. I thought, “I don’t have power to stop all this killing,but what I can do is to try to inspire people to become vegetarian,” and since then whatever teaching I am giving, even if it is tantra, I am trying to talk to people about becoming vegetarian, to avoid eating meat or to eat less meat so that there are less animals getting killed. I am trying like that.

Then just to mention that one person in Vietnam became vegetarian because he heard I was sick and one student from Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore took lifetime Mahayana precepts after she heard I was sick and one prisoner in USA also stopped eating meat. So they are really, really amazing!

I am very, very sorry, even the abbots of the large monasteries and high officials in the Tibetan government, when they get sick or die, don’t have so many pujas done, but I who is nothing, has no education from this life and neither from past lives, just an old cow that couldn’t even chew the grass well, difficult to benefit others, so all over the world individuals and also centers did so many pujas and each monk at Nalanda Monastery recited 1,000 long Namgyälma mantras, so that is really amazing, this helps them so much, it is most unbelievable, most unbelievably powerful, after that they will have so much power to help others, it is such a rare thing to have done.

Really there are no words left to thank everyone, even to those who just did some prayers, with a positive heart, so with my palms together at the heart, really thank you. So now I will try to benefit, with two or three words of Dharma that I know, just like imitating, like a tape recorder, I will try like that as much as possible to help others.

For me this experience has been like learning the lamrim, which is the heart of the Dharma, the heart of Kangyur and Tengyur. To really understand that karma is definite—once virtue has been created and dedicated to enlightenment and sealed with emptiness and not destroyed by heresy or anger and once nonvirtue has been created and if it has not been purified then it is definite that one will have to experience the result.

Then karma is expandable—even if what is created is very small, the result is expandable. For example according to King Ashoka’s life story, when he was a child playing in the sand, he offered a handful of sand to the Buddha, but he visualized that it was gold and he actually received the merit of having actually offered gold in Buddha’s begging bowl. In his next life he was born as a Dharma King, he was very wealthy and was able to build ten million stupas in one day. So that is amazing, amazing, amazing, unbelievable merits he was able to collect. So this is the same in regards to negative karma.

This means it is very important to abandon even small negative karma as much as possible and to practice even small good karma as much as possible. To really make effort in this way.

Then if the cause has been created one will experience the result of that karma, the result will never get lost, no matter how many billions of years ago that it was created, one will still have to experience the result. For example we can see this in our lives, maybe somebody is so beautiful, so healthy, then suddenly their whole body totally changes, becomes so sick. They might wonder what happened, that they didn’t do anything bad in this life, so why now do they have to experience this pain. So this is the result of negative karma created either in this life or billions and billions of eons ago. One should not relate everything to just this life, that is silly. We must have created so much karma from beginningless rebirth, which we have not yet finished experiencing the results.

Then karma that is created never gets lost—no matter how small the karma is, the result never gets lost. This has been really a serious teaching for me.

Please everybody, dear ones, wish-fulfilling dears, most precious friends, please rejoice in the unbelievable, unbelievable merit that has been created, please rejoice in all the pujas that have been done by every single individual, or in groups, and also please rejoice for all those who have dedicated their lives to FPMT, all the directors and staff who have sacrificed their lives, for many years, completely sacrificed their most precious time, as well as those who have done practices, even simple good prayers, for the organization, everyone has taken on so many hardships, this is real bodhisattva actions and real guru yoga practice, by doing the work or practice, thinking of the guru, so in this way fulfilling His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s advice, fulfilling the wishes of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, by pleasing them through benefiting sentient beings with the teachings of Buddha, by studying and also by practicing.

On behalf of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe, every single sentient being and miniscule me – thank you from my heart, with my palms together (even the right hand which has stroke and doesn’t stay up so well but still putting both hands together), with all my ten fingers, thank you, thank you all every day, every hour, every minute and every second, thank you very much.

Please enjoy with bodhicitta, enjoy the happiness of Dharma with bodhicitta.

Lama Zopa