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FPMT
History
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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.
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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.”
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