First Basic Program at Kopan 2007 - 2011

FPMT Basic Program – Year 1 at Kopan Monastery – July to October 2007 (3 months)

Focus:  “Lam rim – the Graded Path to Enlightenment – 3 Scopes”

Graduation Day.  Basic Program Class of 2007 with our precious course teachers = Late Great Abbot Khensur Lama Lhudrup Rigsel + Venerable Fedor Stracke, Kopan Monastery .

Lama Tsong Khapa:  Middle Length Lam-Rim.  Additional Outlines by Trijang Rinpcoche.  Translated by Philip Quarcoo.

•   Outline:  Up to the Calm Abiding Section of the Great Scope (February 2006)

•   Up to the Calm Abiding Section of the Great Scope (February 2006

•   Calm Abiding Section (FPMT March 2007)

•   Special Insight and Concluding Sections (FPMT April 2007)

Middle Length Lam-Rim:  Flowcharts.  Lama Tsong Khapa.  Edited by Olga Planken.  (FPMT Basic Program at ILTK June 2007)

 “Discovering Buddhism at Home, 9:  Samsara and Nirvana”.  Transcipt by Venerable Tenzin Fedor (FPMT Introductory Program)

“A Drop of Dharma” (Venerable Fedor Stracke 2006)

“A Short Introduction into Mind and Mental Factors” – based on Ga-chen Yeshe Gyaltsen’s Commentary (Venerable Fedor Stracke 2007)

A Necklace for Those of Clear Awareness Clearly Revealing the Modes of Minds and Mental Factors.  Yeshe Gyeltsen.  Translated by Toh Sze Gee (FPMT Masters Program 2006)

“A Drop from the Ocean of Consciousness:  Part One” (Venerable Fedor Stracke 2007)

Explanation of the Presentation of Objects and Object Possessors as well as Awarenesses and Knowers.  The Supreme Tutor Purchok Jampa Tsultrim Gyatso. Translated by Elizabeth Napper.  Edited by Joan Nicell and Fedor Stracke (FPMT Basic Program 2007)

Graduation Day:  Classmates offering gifts + katas to Venerable Course Teacher

Graduation Presents from Khensur Lama Lhundrup

Graduation Day Basic Program Class of 2007

Best Debater Luis Ortez playing Questioner (riklampa) raising “lo-rig” syllogisms to 2 Defenders (damchawa).  Debate Court in the Clinic Building:  “Debating + doing the gestures” in a demo for Khensur Lama Lhundrup on Graduation Day.

Kopan Co-founder Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Altar

FPMT Basic Program – Year 2 at Kopan Monastery – May to July 2008 (2 months)

Focus:  “Introduction to the Bodhisattva Way + Tenets”

Guarding the Mind with Introspection:  A Commentary on the 5^th Chapter of Shantideva’s Introduction to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.  Venerable Geshe Doga.  Translated by Tenzin Dongak (Tara Institute 2006)

A Precious Garland:  A Commentary on [Shantideva’s] Engaging in the Deeds of a Bodhisattva.   Abbot Dragpa Gyaltshen.  Translated by Toh Sze Gee (FPMT Basic Program at Instituto Lmaa Tzong Khapa 2006)

Presentation of Tenets.  Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen (1469 -1546).  Translated by Glen Svensson, April 2005.

The Sun that Illuminates the Profound Meaning of Emptiness.  Translated by Venerable Fedor Stracke, 2008

Basic Program Class of 2008 Graduation Day with Venerable Course Teacher Fedor Stracke.

FPMT Basic Program – Year 3 at Kopan Monastery – August  to September 2009 (2 months)

Focus:  “70 Topics (don mdun cu) + Mahayana Mind Training (lojong)”

70 Topics

Jetsun Chogyi Gyaltsen’s The Eight Categories and Seventy Topics.  Translated by Jampa Gendun (FPMT Masters Program 2002).

Jetsun-pa presents the topics one by one by means of a definition, divisions and relationship to the five paths, thereby providing a neat overview of a complex scripture.

Seventy Topics is an important study of the entire sutra path to enlightenment

As presented in Maitreya’s Ornament of Clear Realizations, including all the fundamental features of the basis, path and goal in the Mahayana.  The Topics are listed and each is defined and explained in turn.  The Ornament of Clear Realizations is the main source for explanation of the path structure in the Perfection of Wisdom sutras.

The 70 Topics of this intricate work are arranged into eight categories:

First Three – Exalted Knower of all Aspects, Knower of Paths, and Knower of Bases – are objects to be practiced and generated.  Next Four – Complete Aspects, Peak, Serial, and Momentary Applications – are the four practices to be engaged in.  Final – Clear Realization – Resultant Truth Body – is The Final Object of Attainment.

The entire bodhisattva path to buddhahood is thus clarified, not in a simple step-by-step description but by revealing the entire path to enlightenment within the presentation of each clear realization.  Seventy Topics provides an overview by briefly describing each of the categories and their topics, Traditionally functioning as a preparation for the Ornament.

Basic Program Class of 2009.  Graduation Day with Khensur Lama Lhudrup Rigsel + Venerable Course Teacher Fedor Stracke,  Kopan Monastery, September 2009

Mahayana Mind Training


“And thus bodhisattvas are likened to peacocks: they live on delusions – those poisonous plants.
 Transforming them into the essence of practice, they thrive in the jungle of everyday life.  Whatever is presented they always accept, while destroying the poison of clinging desire.”  – Dharmarakshita

The Mahayana Path is characterized by the bodhisattva’s aspiration to become a buddha for the sake of all beings.  The means to develop and enhance this extraordinary attitude are revealed in a genre of teachings.  At once practical and radical, known as “mind training”, or “thought transformation” (lojong).  Dharmarakshita’s Wheel of Sharp Weapons is one of the most esteemed mind training teachings, and a powerful weapon to cut through our true enemies – the self-grasping and self-cherishing which oppose altruistic intent and prevent lasting happiness and peace.

Peacock in the Poison Grove – root text and commentary.  Geshe Lundrub Sopa. (Wisdom Publications)

The Wheel of Sharp Weapons – root text only.  Geshe Ngawang Dargye (Snow Lion Publication)

Mind Training:  The Great Collection.  Translated by Thupten Jinpa (Wisdom Publications)

Advice from a Spiritual Friend.   Geshe Rabten (Wisdom Publications)

Transforming Problems into Happiness.  Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications)

FPMT Basic Program – Year 4 at Kopan – August to October 2010 (2 months)

Focus:   “Ornament of Clear Realizations + Perfection of Wisdom”

Basic Program Class of 2010 on pilgrimage to Tara Temple and Guru Rinpoche Cave.

Amplification by Mi-pam-gya-tso.  Translated by Paul Jeffrey Hopkins and Joe B. Wilson.  Maitreya’s The Tathagata Essence:  Great Vehicle Treatise on the Sublime Continuum Differentiating the Lineage of the Three Jewels – Chapter One (January 2007)

Ocean of Sport of the Fortunate Naga Lord:  a Good Explanation Clarifying the Difficult Points of Two Explanations of [Maitreya’s] Treatise of Quintessential Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom, “Ornament for Clear Realizations”.  By Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen.  Translated by Toh Sze Gee (FPMT)

+ Commentary, Chapter Four:  Explanation of the Application in Complete Aspects – Homework Quizzes & Exam with Answer Keys, pp 1 - 261 (Penultimate Edition October 2006)

Oral Commentary by Geshe Thubten Chonyi.  Translated by Venerable Tenzin Gyurme. 

Maitreya’s Ornament of Clear Realizations – Chapter Four.  Translated by Geshe Chonyi and Amitabha Buddhist Centre 2008)

Maitreya’s Ornament of Clear Realizations:  Week 1-4.  Oral Commentary by Geshe Tenzin Tenphel.  (FPMT Masters Program 2008)

Maitreya’s Ornament of Clear Realizations, Chapter Four – based on Gyaltasb Je’s Ornament of the Essence. Translated by Toh Sze Gee.  (FPMT Masters Program 2009) 

•   Definitions:  Basic Program Study Manual

•   Root Verses:  Basic Program Study Manual

Maitreya’s Ornament of Clear Realizations, Chapter Four:  Explanation of the Application in Complete Aspects – Homework Quizzes & Exam with Answer Keys.  Venerables Olivier Rossi and Birgit Schweiberer (FPMT May-July 2006)

FPMT Basic Program – Year 5 at Kopan – August to October 2011 (2 months)

Focus:  “Grounds and Paths of Sutra + Death, Bardo, Rebirth”

Necklace of Learned Explanations: Presentation of Grounds and Path.  Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen.  Translated by William Magee and Venerable Lozang Zopa. (July 2004)

The Three Basic Bodies: Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth.  Oral Commentary by Geshe Jampa Gyatso.   Root text from Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism.  By Lati Rinpoche and Jeffrey Hopkins (FPMT Instituto Lama Tzong Khapa November 2006)

The End.  For now.