 Don’t forget that the Tara Institute gompa is always ready to accept your offerings of flowers, lights and incense! Please contact Ani Rigsal on 9596 7410 for more information.
Last Updated on Friday, 09 July 2010 16:31
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 Friday, 09 July 2010 16:29
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
On-line Resources
- Access to Insight is one of the best sites on the web for providing accurate, reliable, and useful information and texts related to the practice and study of Theravada Buddhism.
www.accesstoinsight.org
- Audio Guroo: providing audio teachings by some of the greatest masters of our time from all the major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and Bön.
audioguroo.com
- Buddhanet.net: Buddhist Information Network, including an online magazine, e-books, and numerous online Buddhist resources and links.
www.buddhanet.net
- The Buddhist Studies WWW Virtual Library includes links to resources for a variety of traditions, including Zen, Tibetan and Pure Land Buddhism.
Quiet Mountain is a directory of sites classified according to the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. (Not to be confused with the commercial site with the same name)
World Wide Web virtual library. A cyber encyclopedia of Buddhism if ever there was one! All the traditions and many resources online.
Online Tibetan Dictionary has a search facility in both Tibetan and English, and has 4 times as many words in it than the print version.
Tibetan Recipes and Asian cooking.
www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Buddhism.html
- The Dharma Friends in Israel is a group of people who are interested in the study and practice Tibetan Buddhism. They organize courses and retreats with Western and Tibetan teachers, as well as regular Dharma classes and meetings. The web-site is mostly in Hebrew.
http://www.dharma-friends.org.il
- E-Sangha is a virtual community that acts as a forum and discussion board for followers of Mahayana, Theravada, Nichiren, Tibetan and Zen Buddhism.
http://www.e-sangha.com/
- The Foundation of Buddhist Thought is a two-year correspondance course in Buddhism devised particularly for western students by Geshe Tashi Tsering.
www.buddhistthought.org
- Dharmanet International's Gateways to Buddhism is an online clearinghouse for Buddhist study and practice resources.
www.dharmanet.org
- Kopan Monastery is the home monastery of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and the location of a one-month Tibetan Buddhism meditation retreat.
www.kopan-monastery.com
- Langri Tangpa Centre library includes stories about Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
www.langritangpa.org.au/pages_html/ltc_library/lzr_stories.htm
- Library of Tibetan Works and Archives was founded by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and is a repository of Tibetan artifacts and manuscripts. They offer online Buddhist Philosophy classes and a variety of tibetan and non-tibetan publications.
www.ltwa.net
- Sutta Readings contains suttas selected and read aloud by teachers and senior Dhamma practitioners in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
www.suttareadings.net
- Tibet Sites contains links to numerous Tibet-related sites.
www.tibetsites.com
- Tibetan Buddhist Internet Radio
www.lamrim.com
- Translatum is a site that offers Buddhist texts translated into Greek.
www.translatum.gr/buddhism/index.htm
- Tricycle : The Buddhist Review
www.tricycle.com
- Teachings by Zazep Tulku Rinpoche.
community.palouse.net/lotus/teachings.htm
Publishers of Buddhist Texts
- Ediciones Dharma is a publisher of Spanish-language Buddhist titles.
www.edicionesdharma.com
- Editions Vajra Yogini is a publisher of French-language Buddhist titles.
www.vajra-yogini.com
- Mandala Books, Windsor QLD, distributor of Buddhist titles in Australia.
mandalabooks.com.au
- Snow Lion Publications, publisher of a quarterly newspaper and Buddhist titles in the USA.
www.snowlionpub.com
www.tdling.com
- Wisdom Books, London, distributor of Buddhist titles in England and around the world.
www.wisdom-books.com
- Wisdom Publications, member of the FPMT, and publisher of Buddhist titles in the USA.
www.wisdompubs.org
Western Teachers
- The home page of Ven. Thubten Chodron, a student of the late Lama Yeshe, featuring audio talks & articles on lam-rim as well as Dharma in Daily Life, Prison Dharma, Buddhist Nuns/Monastic Life, Science and Buddhism among others.
www.thubtenchodron.org
- Dharma Friendship Foundation, a Dharma group in Seattle, Washington led by Ven. Thubten Chodron, a student of the late Lama Yeshe.
www.dharmafriendship.org
- Sravasti Abbey is a monastery in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition where men and women will train in the monastic way of life.
www.sravastiabbey.org
- Home page of B. Alan Wallace, lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
www.alanwallace.org
- The Berzin Archives, with contents deriving from the works of the American scholar and author Alexander Berzin, aims to provide a tool for learning about the four Tibetan Buddhist traditions and about Central Asian history and culture.
www.berzinarchives.com
- Teachings by Venerable Thubten Gyatso (previously Dr Adrian Feldmann), an Australian monk and one of the senior students of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
www.dharmaweb.org/index.php/The_Dharma_Teachings_Of_Venerable_Thubten_Gyatso
Architecture
Lost Treasures of Tibet is some fascinating and very sensitive restoration of Buddhist temples and frescos. Great before and after photos. All done in collaboration and with the unanimous support of the villagers. Maitreya Project is Lama Zopa Rinpoche's astonishing project - a unique statue that will be several times larger than the Statue of Liberty, and only half the cost of a suburban shopping centre!
Bendigo Stupa will be the size of a football field, the biggest Stupa in the Western World, and inside it will be a meditation hall and many shrine rooms.
Feng-Shui Lillian Too's practical feng-shui advice that you too can apply. A devoted student of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and a world-class Feng-shui expert.
Dharma for Children
Explorations These stories contain lessons about good and evil, often focusing on the importance of kindness, generosity and compassion.
Sutra Manga, Animations, e-cards, poetry, T-shirt designs, Buddhist peaceful activism and of course - cartoons!
Buddhist Cartoons, various teachings of the Buddha; animation and cartoons
 Dharma the Cat
Tibetan Screen Savers
Dear Friends, Lama Zopa Rinpoche receives many requests for prayers and help for people who are dying … the requests come every day. Very often people / students are not prepared for their own death or for that of those close to them - it comes even as a surprise or shock when it happens. It shouldn’t be, and Rinpoche is always trying to emphasize the need to be ready. Today an old student came to Rinpoche with a request about what to do because a relative is dying, so Rinpoche wanted to send this message out: My very dear Brothers and Sisters, There are so many unbelievable circumstances for death; it can happen at any time, especially as more diseases such as cancer seem to be increasing. Some people are very happy at the time of death because of their good heart: they experience even death for the benefit of numberless suffering sentient beings, thinking that even at this time this is the best thing that they can do in their life. Other people are not so happy at the time of death, but are OK. Most people, however, are very unhappy at the time of death. Irrespective of the conditions, such as cancer and so forth, the state of your mind is the actual cause of happiness and suffering, even at the time of death. With much love and prayer, Lama Zopa
Scribe: Ven.Roger Kunsang, edited by Dr.Nick Ribush. Indonesia 7 February 2010 P.S. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has given extensive advice on preparing for death and caring for others at the time of death. Heart Advice for Death and Dying contains all of Rinpoche’s most essential advice, while Caring for the Dying is a short brochure with information that may be needed on short notice. For more information, please go to http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/ and in particular, http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/death.asp
Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 05:42
Have you got Dharma books on your shelves that you would like to share? If so, please consider donating to the Tara Institute library via Ani Rigsal’s office or the main office. Please just call on 03 9596 8900 to make a time to drop off your books. Because we don't want to have too many duplicates of books stored at Tara Institute, please let us decide whether we are able to take your offered books or not. Thank you in anticipation.
P.S. You can always borrow them back!
Last Updated on Friday, 02 July 2010 15:55
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