Vajrapani Institute
P.O. Box 2130
Boulder Creek, CA 95006
(831) 338-6654 

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FPMT History

What is the FPMT?
The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) is an international organization of centers, study groups, and other projects. Currently there are one hundred and thirty centers and study groups in nearly thirty countries worldwide.  

The FPMT was officially established around 1975 by Lama Yeshe. Now, an ever widening mandala serves the various needs of many thousands of people throughout the world. Individuals within the FPMT are dedicated to the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism as a practiced and living tradition. On the basis of the understanding that every being is continually involved in trying to avoid the painful and unpleasant, and to find satisfaction or happiness, the teachings are offered as a pure and ultimate medicine for the illnesses of life.

One of the most notable aspects of Lama’s advice was that while continually inspiring his students to undertake more and bigger projects, he never gave them a concrete plan of what was to be done. He never set down a five-year plan, or even a one-year plan, limiting the potential of a person or a center by implying it should be “this” as opposed to “that.” Everything was “dependent on time and space, dear!” Although this is not in keeping with modern management ideas, it does, however, fit with the Dharma principles of impermanence and dependent arising. Lama’s advice inspired enthusiasm and enabled the next stage of development to evolve naturally, addressing current needs and using available resources.

The FPMT Mission Statement
The FPMT is an organization devoted to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. We provide integrated education through which people’s minds and hearts can be transformed into their highest potential for the benefit of others, inspired by an attitude of universal responsibility. We are committed to creating harmonious environments and helping all beings develop their full potential of infinite wisdom and compassion. Our organization is based on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsong Khapa of Tibet as taught to us by our founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe and our spiritual director, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

Why an FPMT Organization?
“The organization consists of many people, so it can protect a center so that it doesn't get misused by others, and also so that it is beneficial for a long time. Even if the first monks and nuns (the founders) die, the center can still last for a long time because it is part of the organization.”
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche, October 2000

Professor Jeffrey Hopkins, during his visit to Melbourne in 1983, made the following comments on the importance of organizations like the FPMT and its affiliated centers: “Having worked in the Buddhist field for some twenty years, being involved with various centers back in the stone-age of 1963, it’s a tremendous pleasure to me to see this Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. “Three of my teachers have died. They were very important teachers. I can no longer go to ask questions of them, and the senior people (who hold the Mahayana tradition) are dying off every year. We’re at a time of a sunset, a very beautiful sunset, but it’s the sunset of a tradition and unless some group of people takes it upon themselves to transmit that teaching it will not survive.

“You may think, ‘How could it be up to a lowly person such as me?’ Well it is. I know how much work it takes. We went out and built a temple in New Jersey. It’s a tremendous pleasure to me to see so much happening.

“The really important thing is that we not feel that there are some other people to do these things. There is not some unlimited supply of people to carry this on. Buddhism is something that is very helpful for the world so that we can actually have some impact on it. Its survival is up to us.”

Spiritual Guides

The FPMT is founded on the Buddhist tradition of Lama Tsong Khapa of Tibet as taught by our founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe, and our spiritual director, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama  

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the greatest source of inspiration for the Foundation and therefore service to His Holiness must be one of our primary activities. Lama Zopa Rinpoche said:

“His Holiness’ Office is very happy with the organization. He has compassion you see, gives advice on things we request. Doesn’t have time but, out of compassion He does the Dharma activities, creates the centers, gives teachings, like that, actually there is not time, but kindly He accepts.

“Always giving. Giving advice, looking after, much concerned. So I think we must also offer much service from time to time to His Holiness. I think this makes a connection life to life for all the students, members, directors. Those who make connection with His Holiness in this life, make connection in other, future lives, to meet His Holiness again, to be able to offer service, to be closer and closer. Through actions such as these one reaches enlightenment. It can then be achieved. It comes.

“It’s a great thing to be able to offer service to His Holiness. To fulfill His wishes. As the organization gets developed more and more I think we will be able to offer more and more service. In this way all the centers are being beneficial for sentient beings. This is a way of creating the cause. By pleasing the guru.”

History of the FPMT

Beginnings of the Organization

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact time, but we generally mark the beginning of the FPMT with Lama Yeshe and Zopa Rinpoche’s first contact with Western Dharma students in 1965.

It was in that year, during a visit to the Ghoom Monastery in Darjeeling, that they met Zina Rachevsky, and developed a strong friendship with her. The lamas spent nearly a year teaching her at her home before Zina had to leave Darjeeling for Ceylon. She then wrote many letters to His Holiness the Dalai Lama entreating him to permit the lamas to join her. When permission was granted she returned to India and the three of them visited His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. There Zina was ordained as a novice nun. In 1967 the two lamas and their newly ordained disciple left India, not for Ceylon as originally planned, but for Nepal, where Zina purchased land at the top of a hill called Kopan. There they founded the Nepal Mahayana Centre Gompa in 1969. The main building was constructed in 1971-2. The first meditation course at Kopan in April 1971 was attended by about six students. By the time of the seventh course, held in late 1974, interest was so great that attendance had to be restricted to 200 students, the limit of the local facilities.

In 1972 Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche purchased property in Dharamsala, India previously inhabited by Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and there established their second center, Tushita Retreat Centre (now known as Tushita Meditation Centre). Western and Asian Dharma students are not the only ones who have benefited from the lamas’ compassion, concern and energy. Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche’s predecessor had been requested by the Tibetan and Sherpa people of Solu Khumbu to build a monastery near the site of his meditation cave. He declined, excusing himself because of old age but promised to do it in his next life. In 1971 Lama Zopa Rinpoche honored this commitment made by the previous Lawudo Lama by building a monastic school: Mount Everest Centre for Buddhist Studies.

The school has since been moved to Kopan Monastery in the Kathmandu valley, and the monks who live there receive a closely supervised monastic education that includes traditional Buddhist studies, classes in Nepali, English, Tibetan, mathematics, and art.

The Proliferation of the FPMT

By 1975, twelve centers had started, nine of them in countries outside of India and Nepal, so Lama Yeshe summoned together nine of his senior students present at the time to discuss the coordination of this rapidly growing Dharma network. He called this group the Council for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (CPMT). Although this title is admittedly a mouthful, Lama Yeshe always insisted that is was necessary to spell out exactly what his (and our) purpose was. Later this name was extended to denote the body that comprised the directors of the centers and other divisions of Lama’s worldwide organization, which itself became known as the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Now CPMT is the name for the international meetings held for center management.

As Lama Yeshe said during an interview in 1982:

“For many years students came to India and Nepal in search of satisfaction and meaning for their lives. And then they suggested that I come to their countries instead of them coming all the way to Nepal.

“At first I felt a little bit shaky and uneasy. I’m a simple monk, how can I go to such a supersamsaric world. But I accepted their invitation. This was in 1974. I went to America and gave several lectures and after that I went to Australia, to Queensland, and gave a fourweek course there.

“This visit to Australia was the cooperative cause for the first center in the West because the students decided that they needed a center to facilitate the teaching of Dharma in their country. As their dedication was very strong I agreed. I told them, 'If you want a center, you are welcome, but you must know, this will be your baby.' Some students donated land, 160 acres. A large group expressed the wish for a center, but four people were particularly involved and completely dedicated their lives, their body, speech and mind for the development of the center.

“They had just the land and there they built a meditation room, a room for the geshe and apartments for the students. In that way it developed naturally up to now.

“Each time I went to another country there were already some students who had previously been to Nepal and they expressed the wish for a center. There was no question about it as they had formed a group already and had put together some energy. Personally, I thought this wish was very reasonable and understandable. Those were sincere students and when they went back to their Western world with its heavy samsaric orientation, they lost their head. I could understand that, completely. The Western environment is exploding with superstition and mental pollution and their refuge and Lam-rim understanding was still so small that it often disappeared again.

“It was essential for them to ask for a center. They wanted to be greatly involved with Dharma and to carry on their practice continuously. I thought this is natural and so I let go.

“The Western environment is totally set up in a way contrary to the practice of Dharma or the practice of religion, even though the West does have religion. I understand now why the Western religion degenerated. Because the specific orientation of the environment is overwhelming, it leads to an explosion of dualistic thinking and of delusions.

“I not only accepted their wish for a center, I even told them that it is essential to have a correct environment in order to live a life of concentration, in order to develop concentration and intensive awareness, in order to train oneself and become ready to go and live in such polluted cities. I think to bring Dharma into the Western world is something which develops continuously over a long time. It is something which will involve many generations. It is not just a short trip.

“Therefore we try to establish communities, where we can live together and share the experience of bringing the universal Mahayana idea into our daily lives. I think that is very, very important.”

The End and a New Beginning

Lama Zopa Rinpoche described it as the end of the dream. On March 3, 1984, Lama Yeshe passed away in Los Angeles, USA, at the age of forty-nine. He had suffered from chronic rheumatic heart disease for many years but, despite this and against doctors’ recommendations, he spent the last years of his life working tirelessly and without interruption for the benefit of others.

Lama’s students had opened 30 centers in 12 different countries and Lama had united them under the umbrella of FPMT. Lama Yeshe was a living example of the path that he taught and he moved the hearts of thousands of people during the fifteen brief years that he lived among his Dharma students.

Immediately after Lama Yeshe passed away, Rinpoche asked several of his own gurus to assume Lama’s place as head of the Foundation. Finally His Holiness the Dalai Lama told Rinpoche that he should take this position himself. Since then Rinpoche has worked constantly not only guiding the students in their personal practice but helping them create the causes for the quick return and long life of Lama Yeshe’s incarnation.

The Future - Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche

     

At 7:40 p.m. on February 12, 1985, Lama’s incarnation, Ösel, was born in Granada, Spain to Maria Torres and Paco Hita. The incarnation was very quickly found and on May 3, 1986, His Holiness the Dalai Lama met Ösel Torres in Delhi and publicly confirmed that he was Lama Yeshe’s incarnation.

Lama Osel entered Sera Je Monastery in Bylakuppe, South India in 1991. Lama was six years old and already a monk at this time. He lived in his own house known as Osel Labrang, with his father and younger brother Kunkyen (who is also a monk), his attendants and a variety of pets. Lama is fluent in Spanish, English and Tibetan; his education is a carefully blended mixture of Tibetan Buddhist training for a young tulku and that of a western child. Lama Tenzin Osel is currently pursuing a western college degree.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche described, at the time of the CPMT meetings in Holland, 1986, the events that led to the finding of Lama’s incarnation:

“What I want to express very strongly is that in Spain, just before passing away, Lama left the will to do a one-year Vajrasattva retreat. Without going into detail on that matter which you already know about...so many, yes, all the centers tried very hard to do as much [retreat] as they could according to the time they had available. They tried their best. Starting at Kopan, some centers did one whole year of Vajrasattva retreat...also Spain and many other centers did sessions all the time...students living at the centers...even those who don’t live at the centers. Those who could not do the one year continual retreat day and night made Vajrasattva offerings and pujas and prayers and retreat. So, it created a great cause for returning...the great devotion, great purification. So they did all these things. All the students, with much effort and much perseverance.

“So, without taking much time, all the students were able to see Lama in the Lama aspect. I think very fortunate. This is why Lama is able to return. It’s the result of us—the directors of the centers and all the students—everybody, one-pointedly sacrificing, and receiving Lama’s blessing.

“So this is the result. To again meet Lama in the young form, like a flower blossoming. At the moment young, but I think you’ll see the qualities gradually grow and then, as he takes the aspect, more and more qualities. We’ll see more and more qualities. What I would like to say is thank you very much everybody. Thank you for all the hard work. You people did all the hard work, and I, just the words.

“After Lama passed away I felt how much devotion there was from the side of the students. Devotion and longing for Lama’s guidance. Because of that and following Lama’s wishes...giving up the life, keeping the wish at your heart, making it more important than one’s own life...like this. And from Lama’s side, the side of compassion he has towards the students ...compassion...how much Lama has. He sees our need for his guidance. And so because of that, those two things, it’s impossible: there was no choice, there was no way not to reincarnate. No choice. No way not to reincarnate. From Lama’s side, the bondage of the great compassion was based in us students. So I had strong faith that it was impossible for him not to reincarnate, and not to reincarnate soon.

“So, to remember day by day the exact date.... It was during the Heruka retreat at Kopan on top of the hill. That time that was special for this organization. Almost every night I made decisions...those times. I used to have dreams whether the decision was right or wrong. I couldn’t see Lama showing the different aspects then. During that time (I think it was not the first year but the second) I did retreat. I think it was quite a bit into the retreat. (In a dream) I was actually at the director of Vajrapani, John Jackson’s house. In the dream it seems like John Jackson’s house, but wasn’t. It looks more like a Mahamudra house...kind of bamboo...having bamboo beds or something. So Lama that time did unbelievably pure prayers, pure prayers sitting with robes like that...palms together. He did unbelievably pure, strong prayers. The prayer words were so unbelievable... not the normal prayers which come to mind, which you’re familiar with. Something very powerful, very effective. The whole holy body is completely filled with compassion. It’s so unbearable this compassion towards students. Only to benefit others. The feeling is emitted... seeing Lama’s holy body was only there purely to benefit others...completely. Just only concentrated on that...just incredible pure prayers with palms together.

“From our side, if we hadn’t accumulated enough merit and purified, it would have taken a long time to meet Lama’s incarnation. Stupas were being built, accumulating merit...like that. A little bit of this. Also the many prayers were accumulating merit. So I think, like that, by the power of the students’ good karma and power of their devotion, Lama reincarnated very quickly.

“The thing that is most clear, besides all the checking, all the predictions... when I was in Spain I listened to the tape on which Lama said, “I will be with you” to Francois and the mother Maria and Paco. I listened to the tape and it’s very clear. Nothing could make it more clear than that, there is not even a need for all the other checkings.

“In order for the life to actually benefit extensively, it needs not only the words of the teachings, but the holder of the whole teaching who is the living practice. There are many high lamas who did extensive works for sentient beings in past lives...we need them.”