H.E. Ling Rinpoche teaching in Munich, April 25, 2026, hosted by Aryatara Institute. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

We are happy to share the upcoming European teaching tours of His Eminence Ling Rinpoche, His Eminence Khensur Jhado Rinpoche and Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche. Students are warmly invited to join these precious opportunities for study and practice across FPMT centers and other organizations.

His Eminence Ling Rinpoche

His Eminence Ling Rinpoche’s tour began in April. Below are the remaining dates.

HE Ling Rinpoche, European Tour 2026

In Germany, May 2-3 Rinpoche will offer a teaching at Dharma Mati – RIGPA, Berlin.

In Austria, May 8 at the FPMT center Panchen Losang Chogyen, Vienna offering a Buddha Amitayus Long Life Initiation (Tsewang).

On May 9-10 he will offer teachings on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, available also online.

In Czech Republic, May 13 at the Tibetan Open House.

In Latvia, May 16-17 at Ganden Buddhist Meditation Center (FPMT), Riga, teaching on the Heart Sutra, available also online.

In Sweden, May 21 at Yeshin Norbu Meditation Center (FPMT), Stockholm, offering a public talk, Importance of Cultivating a Loving Heart for Inner Peace and Happiness; and on May 23-24 he will teach on The Four Immeasurable Thoughts. Both events will be available also online.

In the Netherlands, May 28 he will offer a public talk at Jewel Heart. On 30 May at Kadam Chöling, in collaboration with other centers, including Maitreya Instituut (FPMT) He is teaching on A Song Based on Experience by Lama Tsongkhapa. On May 31 he will give a Saraswati (Yangchenma) initiation.

In Italy, on June 5, at  Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (FPMT), Pomaia, he will consecrate the Stupa of Enlightenment for Lama Zopa Rinpoche and offer teachings on The Songs of Experience by Lama Tsongkhapa on June 5-6, available also online. On June 7 he will give a Buddha Amitayus Long Life Initiation.

In France, on June 13-14, at Nalanda Monastery (FPMT), teaching on The Three Principal Aspects of the Path, available also online, and on June 14 he will give a White Tara Long Life Initiation. On June 20-21 he will teach at Institut Ganden Ling and on June 24 he will meet the Tibetan community at L’institut de Services à la Culture Tibétaine.

In Switzerland, on June 27, he will meet the Tibetan community in Basel.

You can view the full schedule of His Eminence Ling Rinpoche on the poster or on his website.

His Eminence Khensur Jhado Rinpoche

His Eminence Jhado Rinpoche will be offering teachings in Europe from September to November, including many FPMT centers. Below is the schedule of the European tour.

His Eminence Jhado Rinpoche, 2023. Photo by Harald Weichhart.

In the UK, His Eminence Jhado Rinpoche will teach September 9-13, in collaboration between centers hosted at the FPMT center Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London.

In Italy, Rinpoche will be teaching from September 16-23 at the FPMT center Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia; on September 26-27 at Jonang Shambhala Tibetan Buddhism Centre; and on September 30–October 6 at the FPMT center Centro Muni Gyana, Palermo.

In Spain, October 9-11, Rinpoche will be teaching at the FPMT center Nagarjuna C.E.T., Barcelona.

His Eminence Khensur Jhado Rinpoche – European Tour 2026

In France, he will be teaching October 15-23 at Nalanda Monastery (FPMT), Lavaur. At Institut Vajra Yogini (FPMT), Lavaur on October 26-27, H.E. Jhado Rinpoche will be giving a Vajrayogini initiation; and on October 28–November 3: Vajrayogini commentary. 

On November 6 he will meet with the Tibetan community in Paris. On November 7-8, he will be teaching at the FPMT center Kalachakra Center, Paris.

In Switzerland, Rinpoche will be teaching on November 13-15, in collaboration between Swiss centers at Sorens.

In Romania, Rinpoche will be teaching on November 18 at White Mahakala Center (FPMT), Cluj-Napoca.

In the Netherlands, he will be teaching on November 21-23 at the FPMT center Maitreya Instituut, Loenen.

You can see the schedule on the poster or visit each individual center’s website for full schedule details.

Serkong Rinpoche at his home in McLeod Ganj, northern India, 2018. Photo from Study Buddhism website.

Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche

Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche – European Tour 2026

Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche will offer a teaching tour in Europe from March to July, including FPMT centers. Please see the full schedule and save the dates for any opportunities you can attend.

In Italy, May 29-June 2 at Manjushri Lotsawa, Orvieto — Kamalashila’s Stages of Meditation, available also online. On June 6-8 at the FPMT center Centro Muni Gyana, teachings on The Key to the Middle Way + Q&A, and on June 9, a conference.

On June 15-26 at Centro Studi Bhaktivedanta, Ponsacco, Advanced Program in Mind Science in collaboration with the University of Pisa and Manjushri Lotsawa.

On July 27–August 2 Rinpoche will teach at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (FPMT), Pomaia.

In France, Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche will be teaching on June 29 at Nalanda Monastery (FPMT), Lavaur. On July 1-5 at Institut Vajra Yogini (FPMT), Lavaur, focusing on a text from the lojong: Taking Suffering on the Path by Lama Tsongkhapa, with commentary by Dr. Alexander Berzin, available also online upon registration. On July 8-13 at Kalachakra Retreat Center (FPMT), St-Cosme-en-Vairais, he will teach Compassion and Emptiness according to Entering the Middle Way by Chandrakirti.

You can see the schedule on the poster or visit Serkong Rinpoche’s website for full schedule details.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Director of the Maitri Charitable Trust Adriana Ferranti receiving blessings and appreciation for her work from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, January 2023.

Maitri Charitable Trust has been serving, since 1989, some of India’s poorest people and continues to be guided by its founder and longtime director, Adriana Ferranti. Adriana has spent decades at the helm of Maitri. Now 81, she carries on with unwavering commitment. She has spoken with Donna Lynn Brown many times in recent years, including in February 2026. 

By Donna Lynn Brown

What is Maitri Charitable Trust? And what led Adriana Ferranti to establish it? Maitri is an FPMT charitable project located in India, managed by Adriana and overseen by an Indian board of trustees. It has a main site about five kilometers from Bodhgaya and provides services throughout the surrounding Gaya District in several areas, mainly basic health care, leprosy, tuberculosis, mother / child / young women care, education, and animal care.

At its main site, Maitri treats leprosy and tuberculosis, which persist in that part of India, by operating a free hospital and clinic. Leprosy in the area is often under-diagnosed and under-treated by the government, giving Maitri an important role. Homeless patients also sometimes live there. At both its main site and through mobile clinics, Maitri distributes free leprosy and TB relief medications and materials to people living in their homes, and provides vaccines, such as for tetanus and rabies. It also offers other basic medical care along with supplemental nourishment—vitamins, milk, staple foods, formula—for expectant mothers, newborns, and young children, provides information on HIV and other issues, educates girls about their bodies and supplies menstrual products, and provides supports for some kinds of disabilities. Examples include eyewear and special footwear for people with deformities from leprosy. Its mobile clinics reach poor areas lacking primary health cents; they sometimes offer ambulance services as well as direct care. Maitri also helps poverty-stricken families survive Bodhgaya’s cold winters, distributing food, supplements, and blankets to hundreds of people every year, and giving warm clothes and blankets to students at its school. It is also well-known in the area for taking in stray, abandoned, and injured animals, some of whom are dropped off anonymously while others are rescued when staff are informed an animal is in need. Maitri sterilizes animals, gives them veterinary care, and cares for them at its site. Dozens live there at any given time, mainly dogs but also other animals like goats.

Director Adriana Ferranti with women receiving support from MAITRI.

Maitri operates a school is in the village of Fulchatar, about 15 kilometers from Bodhgaya. It is a collaboration with villagers; they built and maintain the building, and Maitri provides teachers, books, and supplies. The school has about 125 students in grades one through four, most from so-called “untouchable” castes. Other schools are too far for these young children to walk to; after grade four, they are able to attend government schools. Maitri’s school teaches the government curriculum as well as moral values. The teachers report that when students later attend other schools, they are ahead of their peers, and young adults who have attended the school as children have found good jobs, such as in the police. Villagers support the school because of its success.

Adriana oversees all this from the porch of her aging mud-brick home at Maitri’s site. Armed with two phones and backed by Kanchan, her trusted second in command, she takes care of the hospital and clinics, 24 staff (many of whom travel around villages providing health care), 70 or 80 mostly disabled dogs, and various other animals. She also raises funds to pay Maitri’s expenses and battles India’s complex bureaucracy. The work never stops—but it seems to keep her healthy. Her reward is seeing young children receiving an education who otherwise would not, sick and disabled people benefiting from treatments and supports that governments do not provide, undernourished mothers and babies getting supplements and care, girls receiving hygiene information and supplies, remote villages getting basic and emergency medical care, poor families being helped with food and blankets, information being disseminated on HIV, TB, leprosy, women’s health, and immunization, and injured and abandoned animals getting food, veterinary care, blessings, and a home.

Blanket distribution at MAITRI Charitable Trust, Bihar, India, January 2018. Photo by Phil Hunt.

What brought Adriana to this life? She grew up amid the scarcities of post-war Italy, shaped by her family’s values of duty and hard work. By the 1960s and 1970s, though, Italy’s new-found wealth offered abundant consumption and enjoyments. She indulged, but soon realized that these pleasures gave little true happiness. She became, from age 30, a seeker. Mystical experiences followed, but these did not answer her questions, particularly a crucial one: why things happen. One day, she came across a booklet called “Reincarnation and Karma” by Yogananda. “Finding out about karma was an incredible liberation,” Adriana says. “Karma explains why. And makes clear that it all depends on me. My difficulties are caused by my own actions. To get out, I had to act.” Yet when she visited Italy’s emerging Hindu centers, none called out to her—and then she encountered Tibetan Buddhism. In 1979, she went to Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (ILTK) in Pomaia where she met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. She knew she was home. “Rinpoche revealed himself to me—it was incredible,” she smiles. But she still hadn’t found a role in life that expressed who she felt she was.

Lama Zopa with Adriana Ferranti and MAITRI staff, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, India, February 2019. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

In 1980, she happened to see a documentary on Africa that showed a priest dressing the sores of a leprosy patient. “I knew,” she reports. “I knew instantly, like a lightning bolt. A revelation. This was my role, my path, who I was.” She took a course in leprosy management, but to serve leprosy patients in any area of India, she needed a visa and government authorization. Rinpoche suggested working in the Gaya/ Bodh Gaya region. In 1989, newly equipped with authorization, she began offering leprosy services from Kathmandu while waiting for an Indian visa; she set up in Gaya in 1990 once her visa came through. By 1998, she had procured her current site. Land and buildings were soon blessed by Rinpoche, and a forest planted to improve the environment. “The work came naturally to me,” she recounts, “so I was happy, but it was incredibly difficult…I was on my own, doing everything, even driving the jeep for mobile clinics. It was a hard life, but I had a sense of purpose.” 

Since then, Adriana has overseen Maitri’s health and education programs and services while caring for dozens of abandoned and injured animals, and, at Rinpoche’s request, putting in place nine stupas along with other elements that provide blessings and imprints to patients, staff, animals, and the surrounding area. Money has come from various sources, including, at times, Rinpoche, although fundraising has always been challenging. She reports. “Just by sheer faith is how I carried on. There was never any security. But I thought that as long as I was doing what I had to do, the funds would be provided. That’s what seems to have happened, since I am still here!” 

Adriana is one of a handful of people in FPMT who devote their lives to social engagement. She has been working in this difficult part of India for almost four decades. It is her Dharma practice—often a practice of patience in the face of problems: legal issues concerning Maitri’s land; troubles with officials, permits, and visas; money shortages; challenges training and retaining staff; the headache of service provision during the pandemic; theft and corruption; and hazards specific to being a woman running an NGO in India. And each death of a rescued animal breaks her heart. Now, her priority is to ensure that Maitri is in good shape for the present and future. As well as overseeing its services and expanding them where feasible, she is renovating and upgrading some existing buildings (including a multi-faith temple) and constructing a new house to replace the one that is crumbling. As Bodhgaya’s urban expansion begins to surround Maitri’s oasis of shade and greenery, she is determined to keep it a refuge for humans and animals.

Adriana Ferranti, MAITRI Charitable Trust Director, 2026. Photo Credit Donna Brown

And she is committed. Like a mother with a child, she reports, “walking away is not an option.” She doesn’t feel her age, and with a visa good until 2030, she has no plans to retire. As for later, she says firmly, “If Maitri is meant to continue, someone will come.” Asked who might suit the role, she responds, “They should be able to live in India without visa problems. One of the biggest problems is visas. So an Indian citizen or OCI (Overseas citizen of India) would be ideal. But the main thing is that they can’t see it as just a job where you go home at five o’clock. It’s a vocation. Living on the site, overseeing everything, being patient with difficulties, showing love and concern for the staff, the patients, the animals… Maitri is a service to all beings, so the bodhisattva aspiration is at its heart.”

Written by Donna Lynn Brown. Donna is a former Associate Editor of Mandala magazine. She first encountered Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT at a November course at Kopan Monastery in 1996. Donna completed a Ph.D in which she researched and wrote about FPMT’s social engagement and its intersection with traditional Buddhist teachings.

We welcome the submission of news stories from those within the FPMT community. This can be a story about something you have personally completed or accomplished, about someone else who has done so, or about the FPMT center, project, or service of which you are a part. Ideal submissions will give readers reasons to rejoice, share ideas, and create connections between those in the international community. Have something to share? Please let us know!

For more information about Maitri Charitable Trust and to donate directly to their work, please visit their website.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization was to hold 100 Million Mani retreats.

“This is one of my dreams, to have 100 Million Mani Retreats each year and for it to continue forever, even after I die, even after the people living now die. Those who are working, offering service now—to continue even after they die; to continue for as long as the country exists.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The 2026 GLOBAL MANI RETREAT is scheduled to commence on the first day of Saka Dawa month (Sunday, May 17, 2026), and conclude on the final Buddha Day for this year, Lhabab Duchen (Sunday, November 1, 2026). This retreat will be something unprecedented for our global FPMT family.  By coming together in fellowship and harmony, we pray to extract the very essence of this precious human rebirth, and dedicate all our efforts for the happiness of all dear sentient beings and for all our holy gurus to remain until the state of enlightenment is achieved.

Please join our Facebook Group to keep up on all updates and opportunities related to this retreat and check back often to the Global MANI Retreat webpage for the latest information. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa with students. Photo courtesy of FPMT Mexico.

 Geshe Tenzin Zopa’s first-ever visit to Mexico — and to Latin America— from March 6-14, 2026, was organized by the Mexican centers and study groups. Ramón Lara, FPMT Mexico National Coordinator and FPMT Latin America Regional Coordinator, shares about this inspiring visit. 

In the weeks leading up to Geshe Tenzin Zopa’s arrival in Mexico, the country was experiencing a series of violent events that had generated widespread concern and uncertainty across different regions. In response, the various FPMT Mexico centers and study groups came together to reflect on the situation and assess the circumstances. As a collective decision, they shared openly with Geshe Zopa what was happening and made clear that, should he choose to continue with his visit, all necessary measures would be implemented to ensure his safety. 

His response was immediate and deeply moving. With characteristic humility and determination, Geshe Zopa expressed: “I felt more than ever before the importance of my humble support through Dharma teachings, prayers, and merit dedication to the country and its people.” 

The visit was made possible through the joint effort of the entire FPMT Mexico family. Even centers and groups that were not direct hosts played an active role, contributing to the coordination between all FPMT Mexico centers and study groups — including the Rinchen Zangpo Center and the Bengungyal Study Group. 

Geshe Zopa’s arrival coincided with Chotrul Duchen, the “Day of Miracles,” one of the most auspicious days in the Tibetan calendar — making this not only his first visit to Mexico, but his first visit to all of Latin America. During his first weekend at Khamlungpa Center in Guadalajara, in one of his opening meetings with Mexican students, Geshe Zopa shared that it was Lama Zopa Rinpoche who had repeatedly expressed how fond he was of the Mexican people, assuring Geshe Zopa that he would find a warmth here that would remind him of the people of Tibet. 

Geshe Tenzin Zopa welcomed on his arrival in Mexico. Photo from FPMT Mexico Facebook

Over those first days, Geshe Zopa offered the Refuge Ceremony and the Vajrasattva Initiation, bringing together students from various regions of Mexico and abroad. Around 60 participants attended. 

Throughout the week, a series of public teachings were co-organized with Nying Je Kunkya Study Group, on topics including How to Be Your Own Therapist, Mental Training in Difficult Times, and How to Develop Compassion and Infinite Love. These gatherings drew large numbers of participants, filling Khamlungpa Center’s space and reflecting the deep interest in Dharma within the local community. The teachings offered practical tools for integrating the Dharma into everyday life — particularly in times of uncertainty — with a consistent emphasis on working with the mind, cultivating compassion, and maintaining a steady daily practice. 

The tour continued in Mexico City, where the Thubten Kunkyab Study Group welcomed Geshe Zopa on March 14, 2026. On this occasion, he offered the teaching of CorrectDevotion to the Guru in Daily Life, exploring the teacher-student relationship from a practical and contemporary perspective. Approximately 100 people attended. Geshe Zopa highlighted the importance of integrating the Dharma into all aspects of life — beginning with the cultivation of self-love grounded in understanding, extending to compassion for others, and leading to a genuine responsibility to transform our everyday actions. His warm, accessible, and heartfelt style deeply inspired those present, motivating many to share and embody the Dharma more actively in their daily interactions, challenges, and service to others. 

Geshe Tenzin Zopa’s visit left a meaningful and lasting imprint on the FPMT Mexico community. Participants expressed deep gratitude for the rare opportunity to receive teachings directly from one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s close disciples. Beyond the events themselves, his presence strengthened the bonds within Mexico’s Dharma family and renewed many practitioners’ commitment to living with compassion, wisdom, and conscious intention. 

We are delighted to share that recordings of select teachings from this precious visit are now available on the FPMT Mexico YouTube channel. It is our heartfelt wish that these teachings continue to reach far and wide, so that more and more people may find inspiration, and benefit from Geshe Zopa’s wisdom and compassion.  

With grateful thanks to Ramón Lara for this story! We welcome the submission of news stories from those within the FPMT community. This can be a story about something you have personally completed or accomplished, about someone else who has done so, or about the FPMT center, project, or service of which you are a part. Ideal submissions will give readers reasons to rejoice, share ideas, and create connections between those in the international community. Have something to share? Please let us know!

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Offerings in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s room, Kopan Monastery, April 13, 2026. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

This month’s newsletter brings you news, opportunities, and reasons to rejoice.

Around the world, on April 13, activities were organized in centers, monastic institutions, and in the homes of individual students in observation of the third-year anniversary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche showing the aspect of passing away.

In addition to news and stories from around the world, as well as opportunities and resources for your practice, we also share timely and essential advice from Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. We are also delighted to share news of the upcoming launch of a Global MANI Retreat bringing together our FPMT community on a scale we have not attempted before, promoting even greater harmony, cohesion, and understanding between us all. 

Please continue to read the full newsletter. 

Have the e-News translated into your native language by using our convenient translation facility located on the right-hand side of the page.

Visit our subscribe page to receive the FPMT International Office News directly in your email inbox.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

Harvey Horrocks and Peter Kedge with Lama Yeshe at the Pisa airport, Italy, 1983.

We recently received the news that long-time student and FPMT pioneer, Harvey Horrocks, has suffered a stroke and is recovering. As inspiration and with prayers for Harvey’s full recovery, we thought to highlight his extraordinary contribution to FPMT including his Road to Kopan story and details of his fifty years of service. 

Harvey Horrocks, an English engineer whose life became an unlikely thread connecting Rolls-Royce aircraft workshops and the founding of one of Britain’s first Tibetan Buddhist centers, has dedicated his life to spreading the Dharma and serving the wishes of our Lamas. It was Lama Yeshe himself who called him “an English bodhisattva” — a description that captures, in three words, the spirit of an extraordinary life of service. 

Born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, into a prosperous Midlands family — his father, a senior engineer, and later, Director, at Rolls-Royce Aero Engine Division, his mother a steadfast and loving presence throughout his life — Harvey grew up in a spacious house and grounds including tennis court, in Radcliffe-on-Trent, near Nottingham, with his parents and sister. 

From an early age he was drawn to making things. Sent away at age seven to board at Oundle, one of the UK’s elite Public Schools. Alongside his success in squash, where he played for the First Team, Harvey found his greatest satisfaction in the workshop. That instinct followed him home and into a lifelong love of cars, which he would modify and tune for performance including his beloved Lotus 7. It was the disposition of an engineer: precise, practical, and quietly exhilarated by the physical world. 

He read engineering at the University of Sheffield and trained under the Rolls-Royce University Apprenticeship scheme — a year in industry, three years at university, a final year back on the shop floor. But seated at his desk in Rolls-Royce’s vast engineering offices, watching the tea trolley make its rounds and tracing the trajectory his career was expected to follow, Harvey understood, with unusual clarity for a young man, that this was not a ladder he had any interest in climbing. 

Harvey Horrocks, Nepal, nr. Everest Base Camp, 1972 Photo: Peter Kedge

In his mid-twenties, Harvey and three fellow apprentices — among them his dear friend Peter Kedge — drove a Land Rover from England to Nepal taking six months and covering many miles and adventures. Originally intending to make it to Australia, the four spent six months with the United Mission to Nepal helping build a boarding school north of Pokhara. The Land Rover itself never made it to Australia but by that time, the team had made a connection with Kopan – a connection which has endured to the present day. What began as an adventure, quietly became the opening of a spiritual journey. 

Harvey eventually reached Australia via Singapore, crossed the Nullarbor Desert to Sydney, and stayed two years working as an engineer. During this time, he also gained his pilot’s licence. 

It was through Peter that Harvey really encountered the Dharma. Peter was by then helping Lama Yeshe establish Tushita Retreat Center in McLeodganj, India, and urged Harvey to come to Nepal. 

In 1974, Harvey attended the sixth course at Kopan Monastery, outside Kathmandu, and was moved in ways he had not anticipated by the teachings of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. At the course’s end, hearing there was to be a high-altitude retreat, he volunteered to serve as attendant to those who would go — certain he could not endure four months alone in the mountains. Then Lama Yeshe asked him, simply and in passing, whether he was going to do the retreat. The question was sufficient. Harvey knew he had to go. 

He completed four and a half months of Vajrasattva practice — enduring a broken tooth managed only with oil of cloves — without a single moment of boredom, and with a deepened understanding of the mind’s stubborn, circling power, even when one can see exactly what it is doing.  

Harvey returned to England in December 1974. Before leaving, Harvey with Peter asked Lama Yeshe for his blessing to establish a Dharma center there, and Lama Yeshe arranged for the pair to meet and take advice from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  

In London working from a flat, then lodging with two British Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Bromley, Harvey organized Geshe Rabten’s first teaching visit to England — a ten-day residential course attended by over a hundred people, with Gonsar Rinpoche translating and Alan Wallace leading discussion groups.  

In 1975, Harvey searched with Peter for a suitable property all over the UK. On their list of possible properties was Conishead Priory in Cumbria, vacant for four and a half years. They sent photographs to Lama Yeshe. Lama sent back a postcard: “Proceed immediately to buy.” Three or four weeks before Lama Yeshe was due to arrive in England to give a course, negotiations were underway when the owner of Conishead Priory called Harvey on a Friday and said: “Take it now, or not at all.” By Monday it was purchased for £70,000 (seventy thousand pounds): seventy acres, a mile of beach, mature woodlands, and a large 200 room Victorian building that had stood silent since 1971. Harvey and his colleagues had ten days to make it habitable before the Lamas arrived. Twelve people stayed on through the winter. Manjushri Institute was open, and Harvey was to serve as its director.   

Harvey managed the practical and administrative life of the community, establishing a daily rhythm of teachings, pujas, and work practice, and ensuring that every resident — however long the working day — had access to the Dharma. A journalist from the Daily Express visited the Priory and was so struck by what he found that the story ran on the front page. 

In 1978, Lama Yeshe unveiled the revolutionary Geshe Studies Program at Manjushri Institute with the help of Geshe Jampa Gyatso. As FPMT activity began to spread around the world and the demand for quality teachers became apparent, Lama Yeshe hoped to ensure that his own students could obtain an excellent education, qualifying them as legitimate sources for Buddhist teachings.  

In 1979, Geshe Tegchock gave his first talk at Manjushri Institute, with Lama Zopa Rinpoche conferring a Chenrezig empowerment, followed by Lama Yeshe’s Tara Cittamani empowerment and six days of commentary reviewed by Jon Landaw. Of 120 people attending, 105 stayed on for the retreat. Students who had completed the first Geshe Studies Program examinations received congratulations and gifts from the Lamas in recognition of their hard work and dedication. 

Lama Yeshe with Ondy Willson, Brenda, Harvey Horrocks and kids, at the Chapel Cafè of Manjushri Institute, 1980. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Big Love p. 845

After another demanding year at Manjushri Institute, Harvey returned to Kopan for the Tara Cittamani initiation. He later recalled that the intensity of activity at Manjushri Institute had left him completely exhausted. Lama Yeshe called him in and asked for a full account of what had been happening, listening as Harvey described the situation in detail. As the conversation went on, Harvey found himself overwhelmed and began to cry. At that point, Lama responded with great kindness, reaching out, taking his hand, and gently explaining that it was not possible to support so many people without a proper financial structure in place. He later addressed this issue directly with the residents at the Institute. Over time, Lama continued to speak with Harvey on several occasions, including during his stay in the Lake District, helping him to understand the full responsibility of leading such a vast undertaking and how to grow into his role as director. Lama recognized how busy the Institute had become and how difficult it was for Harvey to come to terms with the scale of what he had taken on. 

Some of Manjushri’s students had become increasingly frustrated with the way the center was being run under Harvey’s direction, and a brainstorming weekend was organized, bringing together many of the stakeholders. During that time, Lama Yeshe was teaching in the chapel. At one point, his tone grew unexpectedly firm as he addressed the situation directly. He challenged the group’s reliance on collective decision-making, pointing out the difficulties it had led to, and urged them to reflect on its consequences. He then made it clear that, if they truly wished to support Manjushri Institute, they should go to Harvey and ask how they could be of help. Lama reminded everyone that he had appointed Harvey as director, and that this decision should be respected, with the community offering him their full support in that role. 

Harvey was then appointed to lead the Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Pomaia, Italy, at a moment of urgent need. Pulled out of retreat by a telegram from Lama Yeshe — “Urgent. Harvey Horrocks: Emergency stop please come immediately ILTK to be director stop…” — he arrived in 1981.  Lama assured the community: “I send you an English bodhisattva”, Massimo Andreazzo, who was at ILTK at the time, simply remembered Harvey as “the perfect person.” 

Lama Yeshe with Jon, Harvey, Pende, George at the Lama Tzong Khapa Institute, 1982. Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Big Love p.1092

At ILTK, Harvey hosted the European Regional meeting, for which Lama Yeshe sent a detailed letter crystallizing the respective responsibilities of the CPMT and of individual centers. High on the agenda was organizing His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s European tour. In 1982, while Harvey was director, His Holiness made his first visit to ILTK — a landmark occasion that also included the historic first meeting between the Dalai Lama and Pope John Paul II. In 1983, Lama Yeshe appointed Harvey to serve on the first FPMT Board of Directors. 

Later Harvey settled in San Jose, California. His father, facing financial difficulty, illness, and the loss of medications he had relied on for decades, took his own life on Harvey’s birthday in 1984— a few weeks before Lama Yeshe also passed. Harvey believed the choice of date was not made in anger, but to ensure that he would be with his mother when it happened. His father had, in his final months, told Harvey’s mother that he thought Harvey had become a nice young man. Harvey always considered this significant praise, given the rather austere man his father was. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Lhundrup, Paul Bourke, Yeshe Khadro, Nick Ribush, Harvey Horrocks, Marcel Bertels, Jeff Nye, Jacie Keeley, Doren Harper. First FPMT board created by Lama Yeshe (including not in the photo Massimo Corona, Trisha Donnelly, Shan Tate). Kopan 1984 . Photo courtesy Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Big Love p.1121

In 1987, Harvey was appointed director of the FPMT International Office, and in that same year, he launched the newsletter The Blissful Rays of the Mandala, precursor to Mandala magazine (established in 1995 by Ven. Robina Courtin). He served the International Office in an exemplary way. Through his extraordinary merit, Harvey was also able to raise substantial funds for the International Office: a single benefactor offered $100,000 a year for five years, enabling the office to expand, offer healthcare benefits to staff, and establish an education fund providing scholarships to students of the Master’s Program in Italy.

Ven. Robina shares: “I’ll never forget when we got a big donation at International Office when it was at Land of Medicine Buddha in the mid-1990s, when I worked for Mandala, and Harvey Horrocks was the CEO: Rinpoche told us that ‘this is the result of Harvey’s mandala offerings.’ Wow.” 

In his editorial in the first issue of Mandala, October 1987, Harvey set out a vision whose clarity and scope remain remarkable: 

The work of the Foundation is to preserve the Mahayana tradition. It is all the people, in the different centers, who do this work. The method is to take the living seed, the inspiration of the pure lineage received from our teachers, and to give these seeds the right conditions for germination and growth. So, this in turn creates the need for the city centers where people can come to have personal contact with the teachings. 

We need publishing activities to reach those other people who are unable to come to the centers as well as to produce support material for study. Then we need the residential centers where there is the chance for serious study to be undertaken over a long period of time in a suitable environment. 

We need monasteries for both monks and nuns to enable even deeper studies to be made, supported by the monastic discipline. (The measure of when the Dharma has been established in a country is dependent upon the presence of the Sangha community.) 

We need retreat centers to provide perfect conditions for making serious meditational retreats, which allows the real flowering. 

Finally, we need universal education as the product of all our study, contemplation and meditation. In this way, our teachers begin to present the Dharma to the people of all ages, from our own, contemporary cultures, in a manner which is “psychologically feasible.” Schools for Buddhist children, as well as for those looking for improved education, are obviously an essential element. School education ready for reincarnate lamas is something we can no longer see as just a theoretical aspect of the responsibility of the Foundation… . In the future, with the aim of representing all the different aspects of the work of the Foundation, we clearly and definitely need news and participation from you in order to have a balanced representation of the FPMT. If you think about it, it is easy to see how the goal of the Foundation cannot be met by just operating one center alone. The different parts of our mandala are all vital for us to have success. 

Trisha Donnelly (seated left) with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche , Pierro Cerri, Heil Huston, Marcel Bertels, Claudio Cipullo, Yeshe Khadro, Robina Courtin, Harvey Horrocks, Massimo Corona and Jeff Nye, at His Holiness’ residence India, 1984 or 85. Photo courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Harvey stands for his sincerity, professionalism, and a life completely devoted to the Dharma and offered in service to benefit all sentient beings. He has dedicated himself to helping realize the vast vision of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. His life continues to be a source of inspiration and gratitude for those whose lives he touched—the communities he helped bring into being, and the present and future generations of students who benefit from what he helped to create. 

Details compiled by Fabiana Lotito from an excellent two-part interview Judy Weitzner conducted in 2017, as well as from Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, and from archived articles from Mandala magazine and Blissful Rays of the Mandala. Input and details on the history were also shared by Peter Kedge and Nicholas Ribush. 

Read more about Harvey’s mandala offerings and his philosophy of service, in his own words, in the article “Patience Rewarded” (p. 30), Mandala, August–September 2006.

Are you an early student of FPMT who was there at the beginning? Do you have a story to share about how you met Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche or the impact they have had on your life? Have you personally achieved or actualized a request, advice, practice accomplishment, or project given to you by Lama Yeshe or Lama Zopa Rinpoche? We want to hear from you!

Please explore all of the resources we have compiled related to FPMT history. We look forward to all of your creative ideas on how to bring this year-long celebration to your own local activities and personal practices! Please use the hashtag #50YearsFPMT in your social media posts so we can all be connected in this way. 

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service. 

Lama Yeshe teaching at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, 1979. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Yeshe gave this teaching as part of a commentary on the yoga method of Divine Wisdom Manjushri at Manjushri Institute, England, August 5, 1977. What Lama says about Manjushri is applicable to any deity you practice: 

Making our practice of tantric yoga a transcendent experience depends upon our recognizing that phenomena are nondual, non-self-existent and like magicians’ illusions. Even our visualization of ourselves as Manjushri is an interdependent, relative phenomenon, the cooperative cause being our consciousness manifesting in that way.

Similarly, the emanations that we call Lord Buddha, Manjushri or any other aspect of the enlightened mind are interdependent phenomena. Their cooperative cause is the Dharmakaya; they are transformations, or reflections, of divine wisdom, the everlasting blissful consciousness of all enlightened beings.

Why are there all these different manifestations? Two cooperative causes—Buddha’s wisdom and compassion—see, understand and manifest according to sentient beings’ needs. The moment these things come together, the Dharmakaya spontaneously manifests in the appropriate way—for example, as Manjushri. It’s effortless. The Buddha doesn’t have to force himself in any way to manifest for the benefit of others.

Also, there’s no distinction that our transformation into Manjushri is not real, whereas Buddha’s manifestation as Manjushri is. One’s as real as the other. Both are nondual in nature; they come from the space of nonduality and disappear back into the space of nonduality.

It is very important to understand that Manjushri is a transformation, an emanation. We should not interpret Manjushri as a concrete self-entity. To help us avoid this, therefore, the entire evolutionary process of becoming Manjushri starts from the nonduality of shunyata. In due course, through the power of the experience of meditating on the rainbow body of Manjushri as an illusion, we’ll be able to see all the energy of the entire sense world in the same way. And, if we meditate strongly enough, we might eventually be able to see the actual divine wisdom manifestation of Manjushri. But even if we can’t, we can still see it as an illusion. Actually, that’s enough. Even seeing it in its non-dual nature as an illusion is extremely worthwhile.

Our qualm, of course, is that we think these visualizations are not real. Then I’ll ask you, what’s real? What is real? As long as something functions, has an effect, does that make it real? No, it does not. Everything we do in our daily lives—waking waking up, eating, talking, listening, coming, going—is like a dream. In many ways, there’s no distinction between your experiences and feelings of doing these things while awake and your doing them in a dream.

Every time you come and go, your experience is different. This shows that your coming and going is an entirely dream consciousness experience rather than your physically walking here and there being some kind of reality. In other words, what’s more important is: what is reality for you? The reality of the sky; the reality of matter; vague, abstract questions as to the nature of reality…these things are irrelevant. What is a human being? What are the limitations on your conscious experience? These are the things that are real for you.

Now, because of your negative mind, more questions can arise. You doubt what I’m saying because, “It’s not my experience.” Then I’m going to ask you, “Is your experience limited or not?” You have to agree that it is. Then I’m going to come back with, “Can you put limitations on reality?” Absolutely not. You can’t say that reality is limited. You can’t presume to know reality; you can’t say that your experience covers universal experience, that what’s not your experience can’t possibly exist.

I’m not criticizing your asking questions. What I’m criticizing is your rationalization, your rejection of reality for illogical reasons, your assumptions based on your own limited experience. It’s much better to question things than to accept them blindly.

So, transforming your consciousness into the radiant light body is very important in order to have a transcendent experience. You do have a psychic body. It doesn’t matter whether you believe it or not. The reality is that it’s there. Whether or not you believe you have a nose, there it is, on your face. Similarly, your psychic body is always there. It is your psychic, or conscious, body that you transform into the radiant light body. It is important to practice this at this time.

In order to help them with this visualization, some lamas make a reflection of Manjushri in a mirror. They think that the reflection is somewhere between them and the mirror and contemplate on that point. Then, when their contemplation is good, that Manjushri form sinks into them and they then transform themselves into Manjushri and contemplate on that.

We have such concrete conceptions. One is always one; two is always two; three is always three. Our ideas are fixed in that way. We meditate that two Manjushris manifest from the one; four from the two; hundreds from the four; billions from those. This type of skillful training makes our minds flexible. Then those billions all absorb back into one. This is mind training. It helps eradicate narrow, fixed, limited ideas. You, too, can train in this way. You can use the same methods that Tibetan lamas use.

Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. A book of all of Lama Yeshe’s teachings on Manjushri is forthcoming in 2027.

Subscribe to the LYWA monthly e-letter and keep up with the latest news and publication information.

Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), is a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.

Students at Gaden Jangtse School.

We wanted to highlight from this year’s Annual Review, the extensive work undertaken in 2025 through FPMT’s Charitable Projects continued to bring compassion into action by benefiting beings in profoundly meaningful ways.

In 2025, US$2,708,905 was offered to a wide range of initiatives, including care for monks and nuns, education for children and young monastics, healthcare and essential aid for the elderly and disadvantaged, animal liberation, the creation of holy objects, and the sponsorship of prayers and practices for the peace and happiness of all beings.

Guided by the compassionate vision of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, these projects transform generosity into tangible benefits: alleviating suffering, preserving the Buddhadharma, and creating vast merit for sentient beings worldwide.

Please take a moment to rejoice in what we have accomplished together in 2025:

• Support was offered to eight schools across Nepal and India, reaching over 1,400 children and young monastics in some of the most remote and underserved communities in the world. By covering nutritious meals, teacher salaries, learning materials, boarding facilities, and values-based education rooted in Buddhist principles. Of the eight schools supported, four are directly connected to FPMT, either situated at an FPMT center or linked to Kopan Monastery, so these grants also shoulder expenses that would otherwise fall to Kopan.
• Nine elderly care homes received grants helping 273 elders with food, accommodation, medical care, and facility improvements for some of the most vulnerable members in the community. This work continues to reflect the compassion of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and this year’s support was offered in honor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, who has been a lifelong source of refuge for all these Tibetan elders.

Phuntsokling elderly home resident with local children.

• Essential support was offered to seven essential health initiatives in India, Nepal, and Mongolia, reaching nearly 44,000 individuals — children, the elderly, the sick, and the extremely poor. From mobile clinics in remote villages to soup kitchens in Mongolia. This work embodied the Buddhist commitment to alleviating suffering wherever it is found. Two of them were based at FPMT centers, allowing the Social Services Fund to support these vital projects.
• The Community Support Fund awarded grants to nine FPMT Dharma projects worldwide. From retreat centers in Vermont and California to study groups in Romania and Spain, these grants reflect our commitment to keeping Dharma accessible within our FPMT family around the world, offering direct and tangible support.
• Supporting monks and nuns is at the heart of FPMT’s mission — without the Sangha, the Buddhadharma cannot be preserved and passed on and in 2025 twelve grants were offered reaching over 1,500 monastics across different traditions and regions, ensuring that Sangha could live, study, and practice with stability and dignity. Four of the twelve grants went directly to FPMT Sangha communities, reflecting the organization’s commitment to caring for our own monastics. The year’s most extraordinary milestone was the completion of the Gyudmed Food Fund endowment a US$2.1 million endowment for Gyudmed Tantric Monastery, that ensures sustainable food support for over 600 monks in perpetuity.
• Throughout the year prayers and practices were performed by ordained Sangha on the most powerful days of the Buddhist calendar, when merits are magnified, for the healing, success, and removal of obstacles for all beings — especially those within the FPMT organization and our kind donors.
• Lama Zopa Rinpoche held a profound wish for FPMT to build as many holy objects as possible around the world — so that countless beings can purify negative karma and generate merit, reflecting this supported ten projects supporting holy objects. Five of these projects were at FPMT centers, directly supporting the wider FPMT community.

Stupa of Complete Victory at Kopan Monastery progress, chaSeptember 2025. Photo by Tenzin Tsultrim.

• Supporting our lamas is a core priority for FPMT, through contributions to Long life Pujas for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, fulfilling the offerings that Lama Zopa Rinpoche wished to make to all his Gurus and for the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche we supported pujas and sacred objects dedicated to Rinpoche’s swift return.
• We offered direct support to preserve and share the profound teachings of the Mahayana tradition – nearly all the grants went directly to FPMT projects and centers. These contributions supported scholarships, translation, publication, teacher development, and multimedia initiatives, making the Dharma accessible for people of all cultures and generations.
• Reflecting Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision of loving-kindness and compassion for all living beings, animals were rescued from suffering and offered the opportunity to receive imprints of the Dharma through blessings, hearing mantras or going around holy objects. In 2025, we supported four FPMT center initiatives spanning Washington State, Mongolia, Nepal, and France.

Please take a moment to rejoice in these meaningful activities benefitting all beings and thank you to all the support enabling these meaningful activities.

Please read FPMT International Office’s 2025 Annual Review and enjoy our extensive photo gallery.

Please learn more about all of our FPMT Charitable Projects that are working to build a more compassionate world.

His Eminence Ling Rinpoche 

His Eminence Ling Rinpoche will offer a teaching tour in Europe from April to June, including many FPMT centers. Please review the full schedule and save the dates to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche 

Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche will offer a teaching tour in Europe from March to July, including FPMT centers. Please see the full schedule and save the dates for any opportunities you can attend. 

His Eminence Khensur Jhado Rinpoche 

His Eminence Jhado Rinpoche will be offering teachings in Europe from September to November, including at many FPMT centers. You can see the schedule on the poster to the right. Please visit each individual center’s website for full schedule details. 

For questions on the teachings being offered, kindly contact the center hosting at the particular date you are interested. 

We hope students will be able to take advantage of these precious opportunities being offered in FPMT centers in the coming months. 

International Office News
April 2026

Offerings in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s room, Kopan Monastery, April 13, 2026. Photo by Ven. Sarah Thresher.

Teachings and News Regarding Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Third Anniversary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche Showing the Aspect of Passing Away

Portrait of Lama Zopa Rinpoche taken by Ven. Lobsang Sherab in 2018.

April 13, 2026, marked the three-year anniversary of Lama Zopa Rinpoche showing the aspect of passing away.

Around the world, activities were organized in centers, monastic institutions, and in the homes of individual students to commemorate Rinpoche’s life, remember and celebrate his unbelievable kindness, pray for his return, and dedicate themselves to fulfilling Rinpoche’s wishes on this occasion.

We will share details of these powerful events so thoughtfully organized by devoted students of Rinpoche soon. 

How to Arrange a Home for Someone Who Is Dying

Helping someone pass away in the most auspicious way possible is one of the greatest gifts we can offer at the most critical time of a person’s life. The FPMT Death and Dying Heart Practices and Advice webpage is a compilation of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice and materials on death and dying, available for all to use. We recently shared some essential advice Lama Zopa Rinpoche offered to an FPMT center considering starting a hospice.

Valuable Resources for Students

We would like to draw your attention to some valuable resources for students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Compendium of Precious Instructions: A Catalog of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Works is a collection of Rinpoche’s literary and graphic works which are available digitally and/or in print, with particular emphasis on key teachings that Rinpoche especially wanted his students to take note of and put into practice, as well as a guide on where to find the audio and video.

Life Practice Advice is a resource based on Rinpoche’s essential daily practice and lifetime practice advice. This is his essential advice and by following this advice, students can feel confident they are following and practicing according to Rinpoche’s heart advice.

FPMT.org offers a collection of practical advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Students can also find Rinpoche’s advice on a wide range of topics in the form of short talks and letters at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Lama Yeshe’s Wisdom

Lama Yeshe teaching at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, 1979. Photo courtesy of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

What is Real?

Lama Yeshe gave this teaching as part of a commentary on the yoga method of Divine Wisdom Manjushri at Manjushri Institute, England, August 5, 1977. 

What is real? As long as something functions, has an effect, does that make it real? No, it does not. Everything we do in our daily lives–waking up, eating, talking, listening, coming, going–is like a dream. In many ways, there’s no distinction between your experiences and feelings of doing these things while awake and your doing them in a dream.

Every time you come and go, your experience is different. This shows that your coming and going is an entirely dream consciousness experience rather than your physically walking here and there being some kind of reality. In other words, what’s more important is: what is reality for you? The reality of the sky; the reality of matter; vague, abstract questions as to the nature of reality…these things are irrelevant. What is a human being? What are the limitations on your conscious experience? These are the things that are real for you.

Continue to read this full teaching. 

Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. A book of all of Lama Yeshe’s teachings on Manjushri is forthcoming in 2027.

Subscribe to the LYWA monthly e-letter and keep up with the latest news and publication information.

What We’re Rejoicing About

2026 FPMT Global MANI Retreat

One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization was to hold 100 Million Mani retreats.

“This is one of my dreams, to have 100 Million Mani Retreats each year and for it to continue forever, even after I die, even after the people living now die. Those who are working, offering service now—to continue even after they die; to continue for as long as the country exists.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The regional and national coordinators of FPMT are working with FPMT International Office to support a GLOBAL MANI RETREAT. This retreat will bring together our FPMT community on a scale we have not attempted before which is a hugely exciting collective effort, promoting even greater harmony, cohesion, and understanding between us all. How timely then, that it was FPMT’s 50th anniversary last December! Surely after 50 years, it is now opportune for all of us to come together, as the global organization that FPMT has become, to devote our collective time and effort to Dharma practice and dedicate ourselves to the swift return of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s unmistaken reincarnation. 

The 2026 GLOBAL MANI RETREAT is scheduled to commence on the first day of Saka Dawa month (Sunday, May 17, 2026), and conclude on the final Buddha Day for this year, Lhabab Duchen (Sunday, November 1, 2026). This retreat will be something unprecedented for our global FPMT family. 

Please learn all about what to expect starting in May and find the most meaningful ways to participate, wherever you are in the world!

2025 Grants Offered through FPMT Charitable Projects

Students at Gaden Jangtse School.

The extensive work undertaken in 2025 through the FPMT’s Charitable Projects continued to bring compassion into action by benefiting beings in profoundly meaningful ways. In 2025, US$2,708,905 was offered to a wide range of beneficial initiatives.

Guided by the compassionate vision of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, these projects transform generosity into tangible benefits: alleviating suffering, preserving the Buddhadharma, and creating vast merit for sentient beings worldwide.
Please take a moment to rejoice in just some of what we have accomplished together in 2025:

• Support was offered to eight schools across Nepal and India, reaching over 1,400 children and young monastics in some of the most remote and underserved communities in the world. Of the eight schools supported, four are directly connected to FPMT, either situated at an FPMT center or linked to Kopan Monastery, so these grants also shoulder expenses that would otherwise fall to Kopan.
• Nine elderly care homes received grants, helping 273 elders with food, accommodation, medical care, and facility improvements for some of the most vulnerable members in the community.
• Essential support was offered to seven essential health initiatives in India, Nepal, and Mongolia, reaching nearly 44,000 individuals — children, the elderly, the sick, and the extremely poor. From mobile clinics in remote villages to soup kitchens in Mongolia, two of these were based at FPMT centers, allowing the Social Services Fund to support these vital projects.
• The Community Support Fund awarded grants to nine FPMT Dharma projects worldwide. From retreat centers in Vermont and California to study groups in Romania and Spain, these grants reflect our commitment to keeping Dharma accessible within our FPMT family worldwide, offering direct, tangible support.
• Twelve grants were offered in support of ordained Sangha, reaching over 1,500 monastics across different traditions and regions, ensuring that Sangha could live, study, and practice with stability and dignity. Four of the twelve grants went directly to FPMT Sangha communities. The year’s most extraordinary milestone was the completion of the Gyudmed Food Fund endowment, a US$2.1 million endowment for Gyudmed Tantric Monastery, that ensures sustainable food support for over 600 monks in perpetuity.

Please take a moment to rejoice in these meaningful activities which are benefiting all beings. Tremendous thanks to all who support this work!

Third Gelug Monlam at Nalanda Monastery

Sangha at the Third Gelug Monlam, 2026, at Nalanda Monastery. Photo courtesy of Nalanda Monastery.

The Third Gelug Monlam Festival was held at Nalanda Monastery in France from February 28 to March 4, 2026. Lama Zopa Rinpoche had expressed the wish to bring this special tradition to the West, and the first festival was held at Nalanda in 2024.

Thirty-six monks and nuns from across the globe came together in unity to celebrate the Third Gelug Monlam Festival at Nalanda Monastery, including His Eminence Kyabje Sharpa Choeje Rinpoche Jetsun Ngawang Jorden Pal Sangpo from Sera Mey Monastery, with his attendants Geshe Ngawang Nyima and Ven. Lobang Tenphe; Geshe Tsultrim Sherab, chanting leader (umze) from Kopan Monastery. Please continue to read the details of this important event.

FPMT Centers Offer Opportunities to Pray for Peace

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s recent peace appeal.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche strongly encouraged his students to pray for world peace as widely as possible. All are welcome to explore the collection of resources we recently shared, which offers advice on prayers and practices to follow when the world is in crisis and to help mitigate the threat of war.

We recently shared a blog post that included a statement by His Holiness the Dalai Lama endorsing peace as the response to conflict, along with opportunities to gather in person and online to pray for peace, organized by FPMT centers worldwide.

FPMT Community

50 Years of FPMT: Michelle Le Dimna’s Story

Michelle Le Dimna arrived in Kopan for the 1978 November Course and stayed in Nepal and India, following teachings and doing retreat, until February 1985.

Michelle has spent about 40 years translating Dharma books into French and is an FPMT registered teacher. She was instrumental in organizing relic tours in France and Belgium and helped with fundraising for the Maitreya Project. We are delighted to share Michelle’s story as one of the early students of FPMT!

FPMT Community Stories

The FPMT family is full of inspiring activities at centers, projects, services, and study groups, as well as among registered teachers and individuals who bring our communities to life. We would love to hear about it.

Whether it’s a recent accomplishment or an activity that gives your community reason to rejoice, your story can spark ideas and create connections across the FPMT family.

Please review our submission guidelines and reach out if you have something to share— we’d love to hear from you.

This year, FPMT celebrates 50 years since its formation in 1975 — a living legacy shaped by the vision of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and carried forward by so many devoted students, teachers, and communities across the world.

Your memories and experiences are part of this living history. We have already begun gathering some of these precious stories, but there are so many more voices we would love to hear. We would love to collect as much of this history as possible: short videos, presentations, written stories, and group shots from your center, projects, and services. We warmly invite you to please be in touch!

Resources and Opportunities for Study and Practice

Newly Available from the FPMT Foundation Store

This month we are happy to share Offering the Body to Others, a card with a beautiful poem composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in July 2010 to be displayed in the office of Karuna Hospice in Australia.

We also made available the Vietnamese translation of Precious Garland of Tenets by Konchog Jigme Wangpo. It is a translation of Establishing the True Meaning (grub mtha) by Konchog Jigme Wangpo, a condensed treatise rewritten in 1733 from Jamyang Shepa’s Detailed Explanation of the Solemn Buddhist Teachings, Defining and Establishing the Ultimate Meaning. Translated by Nhan Vo.

The Staircase Proceeding to Liberation: An Uncommon Guru Yoga Based on Chittamani Tara is now available in Mongolian. Composed by Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, this uncommon guru yoga based on Chittamani Tara is a method that includes the seven-limb prayer, mantra recitation, receiving the four initiations, and visualization of the guru entering the heart.

Foundation Store Resources

You can order printed copies of a selection of Foundation Store titles through Amazon’s print-on-demand service in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. In the item description click on the Amazon market that is closest to you. Foundation Store also offers a selection of prayers and practices available for 1-click download.

Opportunities to Connect with High Lamas at FPMT Centers

FPMT centers around the world provide students with truly precious opportunities to connect with qualified high lamas. We want to share some upcoming opportunities to attend teachings and initiations in FPMT centers from His Eminence Ling Rinpoche and Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche. Many of these opportunities are available online, or with hybrid opportunities, so please do check details. 

FDCW Facilitation Skills Training

On May 18 and 19, 2026, FDCW is offering the online Facilitation Skills Training – Module 2. Open to all, including those who did not attend Module 1.

This practice-focused training supports FPMT centers and projects in developing effective facilitators who can manage group dynamics and hold inclusive, well-supported sessions. It offers practical tools for common challenges and helps participants strengthen facilitation from embodiment, respond wisely to unpredictability and conflict, practice ethical decision-making, develop confidence in difficult moments, and recognize and support group momentum for both the group and themselves.

The training is offered at two different times:

May 18, 2026 at 17:00 to 19:00 BST.
May 19, 2026 at 08:00 to 10:00 BST.

You can learn more about this opportunity and register here. 

Retreat Opportunities

Please check our retreat schedule page for group retreat opportunities upcoming in your area.

Announcements, Opportunities, and Changes

Changes in the FPMT Organization

Chenrezig Institute
Grateful thanks to outgoing director Emanuelle Jones

FPMT International Office, IT Department
We welcome Ross Bennets as the new IT manager.
Alfredo Pineiro is kindly staying on the team until the handover is complete.

Tushita Meditation Centre
We welcome Shanti Yajnik as new co-director

Opportunities to Offer Service

Read about the amazing benefits and importance of offering service in the FPMT organization, and have a look at these meritorious opportunities to offer service as paid staff or as a volunteer in FPMT centers, projects, and services around the world, including opportunities in Australia, France, India, Italy, North American Region, Nepal, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, UK and the USA. Newly added: Buddha House (Australia), Land of Medicine Buddha (California), and Thubten Norbu Ling (New Mexico) are looking for new directors; the North American Region is looking for a regional coordinator, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive is looking for a web editor; Root Institute is looking for a volunteer teacher.

Education Services Director Position Available in the FPMT International Office: Last Chance to Apply

The deadline to apply for the remote Education Services Director position at the FPMT International Office has been extended to April 23, 2026. Please read more about this very special opportunity to serve the FPMT organization in a meaningful position.

Teacher Development Service Seminar in France this September

The Teacher Development Service Seminar (TDSS) supports the lifelong growth of current and aspiring FPMT teachers, facilitators, and meditation leaders. Returning in a hybrid format, TDSS now features updated pedagogy and a flexible delivery to meet the needs of our global community. Rooted in the FPMT lineage, the TDSS introduces the principles of contemporary Dharma pedagogy–practical, effective methods for teaching and guiding others with wisdom and compassion.

Kalachakra Retreat Centre, France, is organizing a TDSS on September 24-26, 2026 and places are still available. Reservations are now open.

Foundation Service Seminar in Italy, 10-14 June 2026

The Foundation Service Seminar (FSS) is the “FPMT immersion retreat,” providing essential information and nourishment for all serving, or wishing to serve, in the FPMT organization. This is a wonderful opportunity for centers, projects, and services to invest in the future by training the next generation of directors, SPCs, volunteers, board members, etc.

Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Italy, is organizing an FSS on June 10-14, 2026. Reservations are now open.

Please watch an inspiring video about the FSS.

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Contact information for the centers mentioned, and all FPMT centers, projects, and services can be found in the FPMT Directory.

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FPMT International Office is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s office.

Heruka Lama Chopa puja offered at Kopan Monastery, April 13, 2026. Photo courtesy of Kopan Monastery.

April 13, 2026, marks the third anniversary of Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s passing into parinirvana. Around the world, students, FPMT centers, and monastic institutions are gathering (or have already gathered, depending on time zones) for collective prayers and practice, and to sincerely remember with immense gratitude the great kindness of our most precious spiritual guide.  

At Kopan Monastery, the Kopan Lama Gyupas performed Yamantaka self-initiation in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s room in front of Rinpoche’s kudung (holy body relic); and in the evening they recited the Guhyasamaja root tantra, protector prayers, and tea offering. 

In the Kopan Gompa, Khenrinpoche Geshe Chonyi, Shelker Khenrinpoche. Lama Rigsel, Namgyal Rinpoche, Kopan monks and nuns, and other geshes and Sangha offered Heruka Lama Chopa together with devoted students, FPMT representatives, and relatives of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The puja was followed by group recitation of Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri.

Kopan kindly offered lunch to all who joined.

Please rejoice in this auspicious activity happening at Kopan and around the world today. We’ll collect and share it very soon.  May all the prayers being undertaken by sincere students of Lama Zopa Rinpoche be actualized immediately. 

On this occasion, we would also like to re-share the moving eulogy of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, written by Ven. Robina Courtin. 

Please learn more about practices one can do on the anniversary of the guru’s passing away. 

Lama Zopa Rinpoche (1945-2023) was the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.