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How are the residents of this Home transformed? Most of the elders enter the Home in failing health, lonely and desperate. As they receive sufficient food and medical care they recover their physical strength. Their loneliness is replaced by the friendships they develop with each other and the care they receive dispels their desperation. This restores their health and helps them live longer, fuller lives. Moreover, the joy of interacting with the children living at the Home revitalizes them, lifts their spirits and helps them develop purposeful lives.

Similarly, the children come to the Home in frail health and emotionally depleted. After a few months of care, their health improves. The emotional support, encouragement and affection they receive from the elders brightens their outlook. They are enrolled in school, make new friends and the elders, who take on the role of affectionate grandparents, provide them with guidance, approval and reassurance. This creates a loving environment for the children and adds to their sense of stability.

Neither the children nor the elders could have ever imagined living in such a nurturing, safe and uplifting Home that enhances the quality of life for young and old alike. The elders live out the remainder of their years with dignity and grace. The children develop social skills, together with an education and resourcefulness they can use throughout their lives. For all of them, the Home represents life. They no longer live at the edge of survival. Now they thrive.

Today there are 55 children and 50 elders living in the Home enjoying the natural ups and downs of a big family. They are supported by sponsorships of $20 a month which provide basic necessities for a child or elder. Sponsors from all over the country are the strength of the program. Their support adds years of life to each individual in the Home. We welcome you to join us in this wonderful endeavor.

The Home is the vision and blessing of H.E. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, III. Rigpe Dorje Foundation USA deeply appreciates Rinpoche’s compassion and wisdom. RDF continues to provide sponsorship care in support of Rinpoche’s wishes for the benefit of all beings.

For more information contact Jacqueline Nalli at
Rigpe Dorje Foundation USA
9461 Charleville Blvd., #268 Beverly Hills, California 90212
(213) 247-8226 or rigpe@aol.com

Dear Chemed Choegyal,

Happy Losar! Chödrön Foundation sends all best wishes for everything good in 2012 to His Holiness Karmapa, yourself and the Sangha.

In accordance with His Holiness Karmapa’s wishes, Chödrön Foundation humbly and joyfully makes the offering below for the long life ceremony of His Holiness Karmapa and his three Heart Sons on March 8th, 2012. We would greatly appreciate it if you could share this letter of offering below directly with His Holiness when you get an opportunity to do so.

Also attached is a Tibetan version translated by Virginia Blum. Basia Coulter of Kunzang Palchen Ling helped to edit the English letter of offering and to create the LifeRelease website.

With Gratitude and Rejoicing in the Dharma,

President
Chödrön Foundation

Read the Tibetan translation of the letter to His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa.

Letter to His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

March 8, 2012

Dear Your Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa,

Chödrön Foundation joyfully offers the merit of all the virtuous Dharma projects sponsored and accomplished since its inception in 1999 to Your Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and your Heart Sons – H.E. Gyaltsab Rinpoche, H.E. Situ Rinpoche and H.E. Jamgon Rinpoche. May you live long and may your enlightened activities unceasingly flourish! We fervently pray for your good health, longevity and success in upholding and teaching the Holy Dharma for the liberation of all beings.

Although Chödrön Foundation’s activities do not easily fit into the classifications of meritorious activities being collected by the Kagyu Monlam Organizing Committee, we hope that any little virtue and benefit coming from Chödrön Foundation’s activities be included in the dedication of merit for Your Holiness Karmapa and your three Heart Sons. Chödrön Foundation and its activities have arisen only due to the great kindness, compassion and blessings of Your Holiness Karmapa and other kind lineage masters. Thus, of course, all the merit is yours already.

Some of the Dharma projects that Chödrön Foundation has contributed towards include Pullahari Monastery and the Rigpe Dorje Institute (Nepal), Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (US), Kunzang Palchen Ling (US), Thrangu Tara Abbey (Nepal), Tek Chok Ling (Nepal), Nalanda West and affiliates (US), Karme Ling Retreat Center (US), Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (US) among many others. In addition, we wish to dedicate the merit of Chödrön Foundation’s many Buddhist-affiliated compassionate activities, including healing support, environmental preservation, human rights, education (e.g. Tibetan Children’s Village College Project) and most relevantly life-release.

“LifeRelease” is a website dedicated towards the preservation, education, inspiration and supportof the traditional Buddhist practice of life-release applied in today’s modern setting. Chödrön Foundation set the intention in the beginning of 2011 to dedicate the merit of “LifeRelease”’s activities towards the long life of Your Holiness and your three Heart Sons. It was our intention to offer the merit of “LifeRelease” to Your Holiness and your three Heart Sons during Losar 2012 for yo long lives and teaching of the Dharma.

During 2011 “LifeRelease” was created out of the natural evolution of life-saving activities organized and sponsored by Chödrön Foundation. Chödrön Foundation began its lifeprotecting activities together with Tara Shedrup in 2003 in response to Your Holiness’s instructions to dispel obstacles for the flourishing of the Dharma and specifically the Karma Kagyu lineage. We enthusiastically offer all the virtue of Chödrön Foundation and all the many other individuals and organizations who have joined us in engaging in activities to protect life and the environment under the “LifeRelease” umbrella.

We invite you to review the countless acts of life-saving collected in the website
“LifeRelease” (www.chodron.org/liferelease), including:
1) Chödrön Foundation’s healing mission to Pullahari Monastery, Tek Cho Ling Nunnery and
Thrangu Tara Abbey in Nepal (465 monastics served)
2) Raktrul Foundation’s medical and solar mission in Tibet,
3) Rigpe Dorje Foundation’s eye camp at Pullahari Monastery Nepal, and
4) Karma Triyana Dharmachakra’s release of over 100,000 fish in Taiwan.

In summary, we humbly offer all virtue from the Dharma projects and compassionate activities of Chödrön Foundation, especially the merit from the creation of the website “LifeRelease” and all the countless life-protecting acts it has and will continue to support, towards the long life of Your Holiness, H.E. Situ Rinpoche, H.E. Gyaltsab Rinpoche and H.E. Jamgon Rinpoche.

May all obstacles to the preservation and flourishing of the Dharma be dispelled,
May His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa and His Heart Sons – H.E. Gyaltsab Rinpoche,
H.E. Situ Rinpoche and H.E. Jamgon Rinpoche – enjoy long lives dedicated to the
teaching of the Dharma and the enlightened benefit of beings,
May the brilliance of these great Bodhisattvas’ wisdom and great compassion bring enlightenment to this world and her many beings.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your unimaginable, tireless and vast benefit to beings!

With Gratitude, Rejoicing and Joy in the Culmination of the 900 Years of the Karmapa,

Humbly,
Chödrön Foundation

Dedicated to the enlightenment of all beings, three spheres empty, Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha!

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In September 2011, Dr. Ara Bagdassarian (Gaurish), along with photographer Haik Kocharian, spent 8 days in Nepal providing chiropractic service within the confines of Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries and Nunneries. This trip was a geographically new venture into a conceptually older project: Mission Yatra. Once a year, Gaurish organizes these chiropractic mission trips across the world so that individuals may benefit from uniquely combined physical and spiritual aspects of his healing techniques. Spiritual, mental and physical well-being, according to Gaurish, are “all interconnected and so by affecting one, all are affected.” He urges people to conceive of chiropractic this way, rather than the prevalent contemporary understanding of the practice as mere relief for physical aches and pains.

After a 2000 healing trip to Brazil, Gaurish felt a flame ignited within him and he was compelled to perform seva (selfless service) and use his skills to help others. It was with this selfless attitude that Gaurish (as well as Kocharian) donated his time and skills to the monks and nuns in Nepal, often working to heal 5 or more people at a time for up to 12 hours daily. On this trip, Gaurish had the great honor to serve Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche at Tek Chok Ling, and his free healing services had profoundly beneficial effects on the monastics. Healing benefits Gaurish as well: “Having the ability to serve people in a way that allows them to shine just a little brighter is by far the greatest grace that Supreme (God) has given me.  Each person, shining a little brighter, reflects their brilliance into my heart.” Indeed, his mission statement includes the goal of “allowing beings of the world to shine brighter.” For Gaurish, serving as the medium through which the Supreme heals others is a sacred act, his own personal form of sadhana (spiritual worship), and a project he plans to continue for many years to come.

Interview quotes from SENSA Magazine and Inspiration Sun (April 2012) will be published at a later time.

Visit the Evolution page for more information.

For more information please contact Dr. Ara at:
Seed of Life Chiropractic Center
www.sol-center.com
solchiro@yahoo.com or (718)784-4941

In 2011, during the Karmapa’s second visit to the United States, Chödrön Foundation met with His Holiness the 17th Karmapa to offer the LifeRelease website and ask for guidance in further undertakings. His Holiness expressed appreciation, offered a blessing and emphasized the importance of encouraging vegetarianism as a way to save lives. He asked if the topic of vegetarianism was discussed on the LifeRelease website and Chödrön was happy to let him know that it is listed among suggested ways to practice life release.

Raktrul Foundation
37 Pinewood Lane
Red Hook, NY 12571
www.raktrul.org

Under the direction of Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, teams of volunteers assemble from all over the world and come together for missions to benefit villages in impoverished and remote areas of Eastern Tibet. We focus on the area around Rinpoche’s monastery, near the city of Nangchen in the county of Yushu.

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We are very, very pleased to announce our 2011 Mission to Tibet was a great success. We were able to treat over 2,000 people providing a variety of heath care services. Villagers received acupuncture from team leader Kirk Moulton, medical exams and care from team doctor Illya Szilak, MD. Items many of us take for granted, such as aspirin and antibiotics, are now on hand!

Hannah Karlin, DMD, provided dental care, and taught some monks and nuns dental treatment techniques. Thanks to Dr. Karlin, a mobile dental clinic remains to benefit the villages! Children were provided school uniforms, and sunglasses were once again dispensed to those without.

The Foundation was able to provide 55 portable solar power generators to Tibetan nomads, enabling them to have electricity, light, and the ability to charge cell phone batteries – thus to stay in touch while in remote areas. A 1000-watt solar system was installed in retreat building at Raktrul monastery, and a second 500-watt system will be installed in a new community hall that Lama Tashi Topgyal (Lama Tratop) is building in Lindro, a village near Raktrul Monastery.

View photo albums from the Raktrul Foundation’s missions:

• 2009
• 2011
• 2012

Help us send a message to President Obama by signing our newest petition today. Ask him to take a strong stand for safe, sustainable, clean energy, not dangerous nuclear power. And if you want to take part in shutting down our most demonstrably dangerous reactors – the 23 US GE Mark Is identical to the Fukushima meltdowns – then please send a letter to the NRC to become a co-petitioner with Beyond Nuclear. We are asking the NRC to immediately suspend the operating licenses of the Mark Is as we move toward a 100% phase-out of nuclear power!

The intention for the practice was the wish that H.H. Karmapa, Kagyu lineage, and Dharma in general expand with no obstacles. The group expressed a wish for teachers’ long lives and for all beings to have good conditions in which to live and practice Dharma.

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Extend Life by Restoring Sight

Imagine the joy of preventing a blind person from dying an early death by offering to restore their sight. Impoverished people in Nepal and India who have cataract blindness can be treated with surgery that not only restores their sight but extends their life.

In rural Nepal, the life expectancy of a “functionally blind”* person is estimated at about 3 years according to the London Vision Clinic Foundation. This places a blind person in a desperate situation. They are eventually isolated, neglected and die a lonely death. To prevent this from happening, Rigpe Dorje Foundation developed its Gift of Sight program to fund mobile eye surgery camps and medical care expressly for them.

Photos from the Mobile Eye Surgery Camp, Rigpe Dorje Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal, November 2010

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The Gift Of Sight program screens potential patients in the remote villages of Nepal to determine what medical eye treatment is needed and arranges for eligible cataract surgery patients to be transported to a scheduled mobile eye surgery camp. The screening, surgery, medical treatment and transportation are provided free for these individuals through funding from Rigpe Dorje Foundation in collaboration with other charitable organizations and private donors.

In 2010 Rigpe Dorje Foundation contributed $10,000 to the mobile eye surgery camp held at the Rigpe Dorje Institute in Katmandu, Nepal. 188 cataract surgeries were performed over a two day period with 100% success. The Foundation continues to provide funding for these program services annually to save even more lives. Sponsoring the cataract surgery portion of the medical services only takes $40 per patient for one eye and $80 for both eyes. A donation to the general fund helps with screening, food, transportation and accommodations.

Rigpe Dorje Foundation is dedicated to the wishes of H.E. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and has the privilege of supporting Rinpoche’s projects through the devotion and excellence of Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche’s administration at Pullahari Monastery in Nepal. All donations for the Gift Of Sight program are offered in honor of Rinpoche’s aspirations to benefit all beings. We sincerely wish to preserve and extend life for all beings and to inspire others to regard all
life as precious.

*A person is “functionally blind” as defined by the World Health Organization, when he or she is unable to perform the tasks of daily living that are needed to survive.

Medicine Buddha mantras 106,942
Saved lives 325
Meatfree days 204
One year´s vitamins to one Lama to support his health during a challenging period

Thank you for organizing this project!

Below is the list of life-saving activities of different individuals who have a connection to Palpung Yeshe Gatshal Finland. We wish to continue these types of activities as a continuous ‘gift’ to His Holiness in the future.

1) We collected  a donation of 1,500 euro for a heart operation for a 6-year old monk, Kunga Wangjur (Damschosling Monastery). Unfortunately, despite  all the efforts made by the monastery, the doctors, and the sponsors, the little one passed away.

2 ) Several individuals have supported Helsinki Animal Protection Society (HESY) with the total sum of 420 euro and some promise to continue the support next year.

3 ) A donation of 150 euro was given to handicapped individuals in need. Some have helped elderly people and those with difficulties.

4) One individual took a class organized by  WWF to learn how to treat and clean the birds suffering from oil spill accident.

5) Last summer, we saved lives of baby frogs that were at risked of being stepped on and killed.

6) Some individuals avoided killing small animals such as small snails while doing work in the garden.