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News & Newsletter

Monthly Newsletter

Tara Institute publishes a newsletter every month. The May 2013 newsletter is now available for viewing online.  Please see also April 2013 , March 2013, February 2013 and December 2012/January 2013.

 

 




Statement of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, on the Issue of His Reincarnation

For the full statement please see the website:

http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/746-statement-of-his-holiness-the-fourteenth-dalai-lama-tenzin-gyatso-on-the-issue-of-his-reincarnation

September 24th 2011

(Translated from the Tibetan)

The following is an excerpt from the full statement made by His Holiness.

The next incarnation of the Dalai Lama

As I mentioned earlier, reincarnation is a phenomenon which should take place either through the voluntary choice of the concerned person or at least on the strength of his or her karma, merit and prayers. Therefore, the person who reincarnates has sole legitimate authority over where and how he or she takes rebirth and how that reincarnation is to be recognized. It is a reality that no one else can force the person concerned, or manipulate him or her. It is particularly inappropriate for Chinese communists, who explicitly reject even the idea of past and future lives, let alone the concept of reincarnate Tulkus, to meddle in the system of reincarnation and especially the reincarnations of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas. Such brazen meddling contradicts their own political ideology and reveals their double standards. Should this situation continue in the future, it will be impossible for Tibetans and those who follow the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to acknowledge or accept it.

When I am about ninety I will consult the high Lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and re-evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not. On that basis we will take a decision. If it is decided that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should continue and there is a need for the Fifteenth Dalai Lama to be recognized, responsibility for doing so will primarily rest on the concerned officers of the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust. They should consult the various heads of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and the reliable oath-bound Dharma Protectors who are linked inseparably to the lineage of the Dalai Lamas. They should seek advice and direction from these concerned beings and carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition. I shall leave clear written instructions about this. Bear in mind that, apart from the reincarnation recognized through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China.

 

The Dalai Lama

Dharamsala

September 24, 2011

Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 March 2012 09:32
 

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive - new DVDs

Dear FPMT friends,

LYWA is delighted to announce two new DVD programs.

The first is Freedom Through Understanding, Lama's and Rinpoche's first teaching in Europe and the earliest video of the Lamas we have. In September 1975 they gave a weekend lam-rim seminar at Royal Holloway College, near London, and fortunately for us the organizers had the foresight to record it. These historic teachings are also available in our free book with the same title.

http://www.lamayeshe.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=144

The other is Life, Death and After Death, a September 1983 weekend seminar in Geneva, which is also available as a free book. These were the Lamas' last teachings in Europe together; six months later Lama Yeshe passed away.

http://www.lamayeshe.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=145

We are offering these fantastic teachings to FPMT centers at 50% off the retail price (plus shipping) and hope that you will help us share them with your students.

Much love,

n
--
Dr. Nicholas Ribush
Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
PO Box 636
Lincoln MA 01773
USA
Tel: (781) 259-4466
Cell/mobile: (617) 877-1610
www.LamaYeshe.com

 

help the Tara Pure Land Nunnery and Educational Centre, Sarnath, India

Sponsor pujas and help the Tara Pure Land Nunnery and Educational Centre, Sarnath, India.  A branch of Kopan’s  Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.

The Tara temple was created to provide a place for full time practice of the Mother Goddess Tara. It started out as a project of Valentino’s Universal Education school and in early 2010 Valentino offered the Tara Temple together with the property and service buildings to Kopan’s  Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery.

The Tara Temple features statues of the 21 Taras. Fifteen  nuns live there and  twenty four hours a day the praises to the 21 Tara are recited, the nuns take turns one hour at a time. Every  morning the  Four Mandala offering to Cittamani Tara and the  White Tara Puja are performed.

During the day the nuns attend classes that include English and Hindi.
The nuns stay for one year and are then replaced with other nuns from the nunnery. In this part of India it is very hot in the summer months and the nuns from Nepal are not used to this.  The accommodation is very simple; recently a new kitchen has been built to allow for hygienic food preparation. Other improvements are planned.

You can help the nuns to improve their living condition.
Participate in the daily Tara praises by sponsoring recitation for one year. You can also request White Tara Puja to remove obstacles to your long and healthy life.
Your personal dedication will be read every day during the pujas.

The cost of these pujas is 100 US$ per year.

Kopan Monastery is facilitating easy payment through its web site. Just click on this link to order your puja.
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/pujas_gift.html
Choose the option ‘pujas performed at the Tara Temple’.

You are also welcome to make a donation towards the nuns food, or for improving their living conditions.
http://www.kopanmonastery.com/forms/sponsor.html This links will be active for the Tara Temple from August 15 2011.

You can also send your special request to the Tara temple directly.

Contact the manager; Ven Thupten Dekiy at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it



Last Updated on Friday, 22 July 2011 13:25
 

Offerings in the Gompa

Don’t forget that the Tara Institute gompa is always ready to accept your offerings of flowers, lights and incense!  Please contact Ven. Lhamo on 9596 7410 for more information.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 15:47
 

Creating Merit for a Dharma Center

Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche made the following comments about how to improve conditions at Dharma centers.

Be careful - watch your behavior with other people - be kind.

Offering food to students at the center is a way of collecting unbelievable merit, because students are the pores of the guru. Disciples of the same guru collect more merit from offering food to fellow disciples than from offering to the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and numberless statues and stupas. People don’t think of this, they think only of offering food in monasteries, but you can collect merit this way, too.

Whenever you meet students with the same guru, if you offer things to them with the recognition that they are the guru’s pores, as they have the same guru, then even if you offer chocolate, water, money, anything, that is an unbelievable way to collect merit. If you offer to many Sanghas who have the same Guru, then you are making offerings to that many pores of the guru. This is the easiest way to collect skies of merit through offering. By offering even just one candy, flower, or grain of rice to a statue of Buddha or even a visualized Buddha, you collect skies of merit, but offering to students in this way is much more powerful than offering to the three jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha), as well as all the statues, stupas, and scriptures existing in all directions. These benefits should be understood, so that when you make offerings to the guru’s pores, you think correctly. This is the best business.

Sometimes centers don’t have much money, but if the director knows Dharma, he or she can very skillfully create merit without needing much money. When you meet people and support people, you also collect merit, which means that you can achieve enlightenment, and support one’s own and others’ happiness. If organizers at centers are not skillful and wise, knowing how to take care of people, then even having a geshe teaching Dharma may not be enough. Developing the center doesn’t only depend on the teacher, but on how you look after people. People can be made to feel welcome so they are attracted to come to the center, or not. So, we must pay attention to this.

The essential thing is to make people happy, and serve them well. This helps to build up the center, and to get material support very easily, without pushing. The purpose, of course, is to have more facilities, because then the center has more ability to spread the Dharma, and can offer more comfort, so more people can enjoy receiving the Dharma, and you can benefit them more, liberating them from oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to enlightenment.

You need to be aware of so many things. However, the key thing is to know how to take care of people. You must cherish every person who comes to the center, feel that they are so precious, and take care of them. Respect naturally comes from that, then caring, and the person is so delighted.

There are so many opportunities to collect merit for the center if you know the Dharma. Even just offering a bowl of water or cup of tea to a person who is a student or disciple of the same guru collects so much merit. This is one way to build up the center. Think big. This is a bodhisattva’s skillful means to benefit sentient beings.

The FPMT is a Dharma organization, not a factory; therefore, it should help people, help the students. It’s not a Coca-Cola or chocolate factory.

FPMT News (July 2009)

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 15:47
 

Links

Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.  Founded by Lama Yeshe, the FPMT is the parent organization for Tara Institute.

www.fpmt.org

  • FPMT Education Department.  Source of online courses and publisher of numerous practice books and DVDs.

www.fpmt.org/education

  • Mandala Magazine.  The official publication of the FPMT.

www.mandalamagazine.org/

  • Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. T he Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive (LYWA) is the collected works of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. The Archive was founded in 1996 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, its spiritual director, to make available in various ways the teachings it contains. Publication of books of edited teachings for free distribution is one of the ways.

http://www.lamayeshe.com

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:33 Read more...
 


Four-Armed Chenrezig Practice Night

Meditation Session 2 : Thursday 23 MAY at 8pm

Saka Dawa Puja & Brighton Benevolent Society

Everyone welcome

Saturday May 25 at 10.00am

 

Donations

practising generosity

Bequests

Dharma Quote

Why is it so important to know the nature of our own mind? Since we all want happiness, enjoyment, peace and satisfaction and these things do not come from ice-cream but from wisdom and the mind, we have to understand what our mind is and how it works.

 Lama Thubten Yeshe