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Newsletter - December 2024 Progress in 2024 & Prospects for 2025
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Words from the director, Ugyen Shola
Dear friends and supporters of Root Institute,
It has now been just over a month since I arrived in Bodhgaya to assume the role of director of Root Institute.
While I'm still familiarising myself with the operations here, my background growing up in India has given me the language and cultural familiarity to communicate well with both the local community and our staff, and this has really helped streamline day-to-day operations.
Being in Bodhgaya, a sacred place where Buddha Shakyamuni attained Enlightenment, provides me with a constant source of inspiration. The devotion and faith of the pilgrims who gather around the Mahabodhi Stupa are deeply moving, and the positive energy here is palpable. Root Institute, situated in close proximity to the stupa, resonates with the powerful spiritual atmosphere that surrounds this blessed land.
Rejoicing in the Festival of Lights & Merit at Lhabab Düchen
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Last month, during the auspicious occasion of Lhabab Düchen, we had the privilege to offer robe of Lord Buddha statue at the Mahabodhi Stupa, and to place numerous prayer flags around the pond within the stupa compound.
In the early morning, we sponsored a Guru Puja Tsog offering, Protector Puja, and Tara puja by the Namgyal Monastery in Bodhgaya, during which we made cash offerings to 75 monks.
In the evening, we held a puja near the Bodhi Tree, where we read the names of all the generous donors whose support enabled us to organize these events on this merit-multiplying day at such a sacred site.
We also recited prayers dedicating all this positive energy for the swift reincarnation of our precious Guru Kyabje Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.
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Accommodation enhancements – 15 more rooms with attached bathroom
This past year, the centre's focus has been on expanding our facilities to better serve the growing number of Dharma practitioners who visit us from around the world.
We now have space at Root to accommodate about 165 guests, after all the staff have been accounted for.
This is the result of seven extra rooms, each with attached bathroom, being built in the last six months. In addition, we have added attached bathrooms to eight existing rooms.
Reinvigorating our Spiritual Programme
Due to our focus on facility development, our Spritual Programme for this season has quite a bit less to offer than is usual.
But we've now laid the groundwork (literally) for our focus in 2025 to be rebuilding of a flourishing programme of spiritual events, to fulfil the centre's most essential purpose – to be an oasis of Dharma.
We have fortunately just appointed a new Spiritual Programme Coordinator (SPC), Julia Ryan from Australia, to bring these aspirations to life.
As I have only recently started as director, and this newsletter is in some sense a report on the whole year's efforts, various sections below have been contributed by others.
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An unconditional apology to our longstanding kind sponsorsfrom Kabir Saxena, interim director in 2024 Sometimes, with the best of intentions, big mistakes can be made due to a lack of foresight, proper information, and planning. This happened to us this past few months, and has caused a lot of heartache and alarm amongst the kind students who have helped Root Institute the most. This is what transpired: In early October, the Centre Manager and I had the idea to create more space in the stupa area next to the gompa. It was to involve shifting many stupas to the sides to create an open area around the larger central stupa for people to sit and contemplate. Unfortunately the plan backfired, the results were chaotic, uneven and visually distressing, especially when photos of chipped bases and structures strewn around at ugly angles were shared on the media.
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We have now recognized our mistake and are restoring the site to its former status, with all the stupa bases to be repaired, repainted, and the whole area beautified aesthetically with flowers and shrubs. |
After that, the stupas with their precious contents – ashes, mantras and other ingredients – will be reconsecrated by a high lama, along with the Namgyal monks based in Bodhgaya. |
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Meanwhile, we regret the huge distress that this has caused our longstanding kind and generous sponsors from around the world, but largely from Singapore, who are the main sponsors of the stupas, ever since ABC Director Hup Cheng initiated the idea of sponsoring them at Root Institute way back at least 25 years ago. Therefore, I personally wish to make a heartfelt and unconditional apology to all our friends in Singapore and elsewhere, and promise to do whatever can be done to restore the stupa area and relieve the distress that has been ignorantly caused in our unskilful haste.
Thank you very much for your patient understanding.
We look forward to sharing the progress with you in the coming weeks. |
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Spiritual Programme – January & February 2025 Our esteemed teachers & course leader this season
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Geshe Tenzin Zopa: Maitreya's Tathagata Essence3 afternoon Dharma teachings29–31 December 2024, 2:00 – 4:00 pmGeshe Tenzin Zopa will teach on this seminal text, The Tathagata Essence, conveyed to the great Indian pandit and yogi, Asanga, by Buddha Maitreya. These three afternoon teachings are open to everyone, without registration. See more information on our website.Geshe Tenzin Zopa: Pilgrimage to Rajgir2 December 2024This wonderful pilgrimage day with Geshe Tenzin Zopa will be to to Rajgir – to Vulture's Peak, where the Buddha taught The Heart Sutra and also to the ruins of the great Nalanda University.
See more information.His Eminence Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche: Transforming the Mind3–6 January 2025 – 3-day courseThe highly renowned and popular Seven-Point Mind Training text written by the 12th Century Tibetan Buddhist master, Geshe Chekhawa, shows us how to transform the uptight mind of caring only for oneself into a mind authentically cherishing others. We are so delighted that Rinpoche has once again accepted our request to teach at Root Institute. We trust people will avail this opportunity to receive instructions from a teacher from whom late Lama Zopa Rinpoche has also received transmissions at Root Institute a decade or so ago.
See full course information.Ondy Willson: An Unusual Attitude: Taking Suffering onto the Path8–18 January 2025 – 10-day retreatThe Seven-Point Mind Training text written by the 12th Century Tibetan Buddhist master, Geshe Chekhawa, is as relevant for us today as it always has been, and not just for the ordained Buddhist community: succinct advice to generate the attitude suitable for traversing the challenging road to awakening. During this 10-day retreat we will have the time to examine in more detail its profundity, based partly on Serkong Tsenshap Rinpoche’s special three days of teachings that precede it. See full course information.
Geshe Dorji Damdul: Bodhicitta Retreat with Emphasis on Bodhicitta and Wisdom of Emptiness (in Tibetan)
21–30 January 2025 – 10-day retreat (check-in 20th; check-out 31st)
A first-time opportunity at Root Institute for Tibetan speakers to receive teachings on the Stages of the Path in Tibetan language from a renowned and well-loved teacher of the highest calibre.
See full course information.
Ondy Willson: Change Your Mind to Change Your Life
22–27 January 2025 – 5-day course
We can change our partners, change our looks and change our homes to give us a sense of starting afresh and welcoming new experiences into our lives. Unfortunately, because these changes are external, they often lead to boredom and discontent somewhere down the line, and renewed exhausting efforts to find something else to satisfy our never-ending desires. In this 5-day course, we will consider how changing mental and emotional habits and tendencies can transform our lives and fulfil us in a way that does not rely on the volatile and uncertain circumstances of our lives, and which continues to deepen and fulfil us as we draw on our inner strength and unique personal reservoirs of wellbeing, compassion and intelligence. See full course information.
Finding Happiness (in an Uncertain World) – With Ondy Willson2–7 February 2025From our earliest memories of life, we are taught to seek happiness through looking outwards in the world – for status, achievements and the feeling of self-worth that comes through romantic relationships. We all know that these can indeed be rewarding, but do also bring their fair share of problems. If we continue to try to fix broken dreams and disappointments with more external goals, it is likely that we'll repeat a self-defeating and disheartening pattern that doesn’t stop. In this course we will also consider what we mean by that loaded word, "love," and how Buddhist teachings can help us find a more authentic and reliable source of happiness that cannot be hijacked by the vicissitudes of life. See full course information.
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Maitreya School newsTo reiterate our mid-year newsletter, in 2024 the school has: - 11 teachers
- 275 enrolled students
- classes from Lower Kindergarten (LKG) up to Class 8 (14-15 years).
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Message from the School Principal from Shri Sanjeev Kumar Ours is a special and unusual school whose purpose is not just a mundane one of helping students to find jobs when they leave, but to awaken their innermost talents, and to provide an integrated education based on the 16 Guidelines for Life as advised by the late Lama Zopa Rinpoche. We very much need good human beings with ethical values such as loving kindness and compassion. The students need to be happy and relaxed as well, so we are providing the opportunity to practice arts and crafts, yoga, singing, dance and drama, which also provide a medium to go deeply into the Guidelines (for example, the last time I translated for Rinpoche at the school the recommendation was to utilise drama to reveal the dynamics of self-cherishing and self-grasping), and this helps to reduce the suffering of the students. It also helps them therefore to not waste their life and their studies. We also incorporate teacher training to help the teachers get closer to their students and, through discussion and various activities, give them the inner skills to work with their emotions. May our students be like lamps making society, the country, and the whole world sparkle with their light, spreading wisdom throughout all four quarters of space. |
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School Breakfast Programme – launching a new appeal
Many students from low-resource backgrounds arrive at school hungry, impacting their ability to concentrate, learn, and thrive.
To address this, we plan to provide a nourishing, protein-rich breakfast to students, aiming to improve their health, focus, and overall educational outcomes.
US $1 per day is enough to cover breakfast costs for approximately four students and supporting staff.
Please give generously!
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Exciting news! Maitreya School currently has two literacy and library consultants, Neelashi Mangal and Duffer Kinney working with teachers and students to craft books for the library, and on December 4th, the library received our first completed student-authored book in Hindi. This was a simple accordion style book made from re-used paper. When students author books, this increases overall literacy, reading comprehension, and a lifelong love of reading. This also gives students from our local Bihar community a voice and a way to express themselves. The first writing workshop began on November 30th, when half of the 6th grade class came in on their own time curious to participate in a library event. First, students listened to Duffer and Neelashi read a library book in English and Hindi. Then, inspired by the book, students related stories from their own life. They were instructed in the writing process and in how to make their own simple books. For the rest of that Saturday, students wrote and revised their stories. We’re hoping one day to have many books written by our students, waiting to be read by all in the library and perhaps inspirational for students and teachers from far and wide. Class 8 Excursion to Rajgir, Nalanda and Pawapuri (the nirvana site of Lord Mahavir, the founder of the Jain religion)from Kabir Saxena
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I knew it was not going to be a Lama Zopa Rinpoche-style pilgrimage! 20-plus 13-to-15-year-olds, unleashed from the confines of school, for many of them going 85 kms from home for the first time in their lives, (yes it’s true!), plus 11 teachers, none of them Buddhist, and three teacher-trainers including myself. No way!
So, amongst the hustle and bustle, the breakfast and lunch, and not very tuneful singing on the bus, we did walk up to Vulture’s Peak and there transpired one of the most encouraging episodes of my 24-year association with the school. Some of the children, the vast majority girls, recited the Heart sutra in Sanskrit, while a few feet away Thais, Vietnamese and other nationalities shared the sacred space and recited their own versions. Some Tibetan monks then chanted the Heart Sutra in Tibetan, and we joined them for some repetitions of the Great Mantra.
It was a sublime moment, full of good portents, I felt, for the future lasting happiness of these fortunate students.
Also, while wandering amongst the ruins of the monastic ruins at Nalanda where I was doing my best to explain a few things, one of the boys became serious and we sat down and I answered his question as to how and why I became a Buddhist. It was as if the quiet setting amongst the ruins of a building vibrant with sacred historicity had galvanized the sort of question that I’d never been asked on the school premises.
Soon, a few other students who had finished gambolling on an ancient teacher’s dais also congregated and a discussion ensued.
On the way back in the school bus there was an altercation between some of the students. A few tears flowed. A good teaching indeed! No lasting satisfaction in samsara!
Overall though, a beneficial day. Highly beneficial!
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Meditation Class starts in earnestfrom Kabir Saxena The decision to commence meditation sessions for Class 8 students in earnest on the 4th of December (fortuitously Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s birthday), was prompted by my recognizing that the week's topic of generosity (from the 16 Guidelines that the school follows according to Rinpoche’s instructions), was not being adequately presented to the children via the standard model of teacher talk and traditional student stand up and comment. I decided that Class 8 students urgently needed saving from what had become a routine and uninspiring process. I found the students to be thirsty for some quiet reflective time together. They sat still (bar one or two fidgety ones), and it was clear that the few words I spoke in guiding them helped. I stressed how a great act of generosity would be to calm and relax their minds as a first step in making friends with themselves, so that a tranquil and clear inner environment could then lead them to making friends more easily with others. My hope is that this quiet contemplative space we're creating will benefit more and more students, so that we can begin to at least mimic at our school the profound threefold “listening, reflecting and meditating.”
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Shakyamuni Buddha Clinic newsThe clinic continues to serve the local community's health care needs: - 3,000 patients treated each month on average (in the cold weather, the numbers are somewhat
reduced)
- November on-premises – 1,743 patients treated (430 new)
- November mobile clinic – 1,002 patients treated (225 new).
Patients being treated in Shakyamuni Buddha Clinic
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The clinic has benefitted a great deal in the last few months from an injection of new energy in the form of a new doctor, promotion of Dr Deepak to head doctor, a new compounder, additional physiotherapist, and an increase in the number of mobile clinic runs each week from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Thus, more villagers are reached who otherwise are unable to make the trip to us. We said goodbye to Dr Khan, who had been the longest-serving member of the clinic and to whom we owe a lot of the continuity of service to the community. We are fortunate that the younger generation of doctors and other staff have very capably handled the transition. We currently also have a French acupuncturist, Thomas, who has recently been joined by another from Russia, Evgeny. Hypertension and diabetes make up a lot of the cases, showing that the modern scourges of faulty eating and stressful lives are infiltrating the land of the Buddha. Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vision for the clinic was to have a lot of spiritual input in the form not only of holy images throughout the clinic facility, but also meditation and pujas for interested patients. We are also working on the idea of re-introducing in-patient care, since so many cases actually require constant attention in order for proper treatment and recovery to occur. Our mobile clinic bringing health care to nearby villages |
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We look forward to keeping in touch in the coming year, and hope to see you again at Root Institute very soon!
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Ugyen Shola
DirectorRoot Institute for Wisdom Culture
Saxena Road, Bodhgaya, Gaya District, Bihar, 824231, India
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