FPMT Service Training Programs

FPMT service training programs provide support and training to those offering service within FPMT centers, services, and projects. Training helps develop a shared understanding of the FPMT mission set out by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and a firm basis to serve effectively and joyfully within the organization.

We offer a variety of service training programs for center directors, study group coordinators, spiritual program coordinators, center staff, volunteers, teachers, and anyone interested in offering service to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT.

Foundation Training in Compassionate Service

The Foundation Training in Compassionate Service explores how to best offer our skills and qualities in service. We  investigate the purpose and mission of FPMT, what it means to be an FPMT center, and how that vision translates into action for centers, projects, and individuals.

We explore our relationship to resources - both material and human; communication skills and conflict resolution; teaching according to the level of the student; ways to maintain and develop our personal practice in the midst of service, and methods to prevent and cure burnout. We discuss service in terms of Guru devotion, karma, compassion, and emptiness, and how to draw strength, inspiration, wisdom, and guidance from these practices.

We use the Inner Job Description, a tool for developing what Lama Zopa Rinpoche calls the "inner professional" (read a teaching on the inner professional), and integrate the Dharma into our daily lives. The training includes group discussion and sharing of experiences, and includes daily meditations as well as group practice as advised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Foundation Training in Compassionate Service follows A Practical Guide of Skillful Means, available through the Foundation Store.

Inner Job Description Training

Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises us to develop the “inner professional” for greatest happiness and success. This two day training uses the Inner Job Description to develop our own inner professional and the essential mind of service to others.  (Read a teaching on the inner professional.)

This two-day training examines FPMT's unique methods for approaching "problems" and numerous ways of using Dharma at work and in our personal lives. In addition, through group interaction and exercises, we apply the Inner Job Description to experiences brought by participants. Through presentation and group work, participants experience the benefits of integrating Dharma practice with real life situations.

Foundation Training in Rituals

The week long Rituals Training provides in-depth instruction on Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s method of leading the pujas and practices that he most often recommends for FPMT centers and students. Encompassing Essential Buddhist Prayers, Vol. 2 and Lama Chopa, students learn how to set up the altar, lead motivations and meditations according to Rinpoche's style, and the specific tunes used by Rinpoche for these pujas.

At the first Foundation Training in Rituals held at Kopan Monastery, Khenrinpoche Lama Lhundrup said: "Every major tradition has its own unique way of doing the mudra, the chant, and so forth, and that is always established by the master. Similarly, within the FPMT centers, establishing the tradition of performing rituals according to the instructions of Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche would be the most significant thing we could do. This will help the center and the whole organization to become special.”

The Foundation Training in Rituals Manual and MP3 disc is available through the Foundation Store.

Spiritual Program Coordinator Training

Spiritual Program Coordinator Training assists SPCs in developing their skills in counseling, planning center programs, leading meditations and/or classes, and acting as a key player in the harmonious functioning of the center. Participants have both individual and group opportunities to practice the skill areas emphasized in this week-long training.

Education 16 Guidelines Training Programs

In March 2008, Lama Zopa Rinpoche commented that it is ‘very good’ to run 16 Guidelines courses in FPMT Centres. His advice is: ‘Wherever you start Essential Education, this (the 16 Guidelines) should be the practice.’

An international training program in Essential Education was launched earlier this year, focusing initially on the 16 Guidelines for Life. These courses promote a deeper understanding of the Guidelines and the philosophy that underlies them, provide hands-on experience with a range of tools and methods, and give participants the confidence and skills to lead 16 Guidelines programmes and activities in their own culture and language.

FPMT Service Training Trainers

Amy Cayton, Service Training Consultant/Trainer
Amy has been serving FPMT as a consultant since 1998 and has been integral to the development and facilitation of service trainings for the organization. She has a PhD in Sociology, a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology, and over twenty years of counseling experience. In 2001, she founded Skillful Strategies (now Balanced Mind), a business psychology and consulting firm that facilitates positive transformation in the workplace. Amy has been a serious Dharma student since 1997 and has attended a number of long retreats with Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche. Amy was also the partner and staff trainer for Gelatomania, a universal responsibility project for benefiting world peace in Santa Cruz, California.

 

Allys Andrews
Allys Andrews and her husband, Dave took refuge with and were married by Lama Yeshe in 1979 following the Kopan course. Over the last twenty-eight years, Allys has been of service to Tara Institute, an FPMT center in Melbourne, Australia where she coordinates the Schools’ Program; liaising with schools, developing program content and teaching secondary, primary, and tertiary students both at the centre and in schools, and universities. She also coordinated the schools events during His Holiness the Dalai Lama's tours in 2002 and 2007, and regularly teaches Introduction to Buddhist Meditation at Tara Institute. Allys completed the SPC traiing course in 2002, participated in the “Train the Trainer” program in conjunction with CPMT 2004, and took part in Foundation Trainings in Kathmandu, New-Zealand and Sydney.

 

Essential Education 16 Guideline Trainers

Rasmus Hougaard
Rasmus Hougaard, director of The Potential Project, is a trainer and facilitator of Work Life Happiness. He is training organisations and individuals in being more happy, kind and wise. He has been a researcher in the field of adult and organisational learning at Learning Lab Denmark and The Danish University of Education. He is amongst others working as project manager for the Sony Corporation. For many years he has been a teacher of mindfulness meditation. Rasmus is the chairman of Centre for Wisdom and Compassion in Denmark.

 

Alison Murdoch
has been working as a leader, manager and facilitator in the non-profit sector for over 17 years, originally for homelessness charities such as Crisis, Centrepoint and National Homeless Alliance, and then as Director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London, UK. In January 2005 she established the Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, an international education non-profit that helps people develop their capacity to be kind and wise, and for which she was given a Millennium Award by the charity UnLtd. Alison is the author of 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life, initially launched at the 1st International Conference on Happiness & its Causes in Sydney, Australia. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio and a Board member of the international Buddhist organisation FPMT Inc.

 

Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw
is co-author of 16 Guidelines for a Happy Life – Up Close and a board member of the Foundation for the Developing Compassion and Wisdom. She is one of the main trainers of the 16 Guidelines 4-day intensive and has developed 1 and 2 day retreats as well as mentored those who are prototyping the 16 Guidelines for teens and youth in drug rehabilitation.

She is also the director of Lamp On The Path, a transformative self-healing website and community that offers free healing exercises as well as training and support  - www.lamponthepath.org. and her Transformative Mindfulness courses and facilitation training are showcase programs of Essential Education in the health and wellness areas.

Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw has been presenting experiential programs that explore the power of the mind for 20 years. Her simple Transformative Mindfulness methods help to identify and change the underlying causes of challenging situations and illness. These have been used directly and for discussion and research by professionals in cardiac rehab, oncology, palliative care and the management of chronic pain in Italy, Australia, Malaysia and Canada. She has trained and certified facilitators worldwide who are using her methods in private practice, social services, health, education and the arts.

 

Denise Flora
and her youngest son, Caeman Toombs, thoroughly enjoyed creating Ready Set Happy (RSH), a collection of over 150 activities for children based on the 16 Guidelines.  Denise and Caeman were delighted to first present RSH at the Essential Education summer training in Italy in 2008 to delegates from a dozen countries.  Now Denise is happy to be supporting trials and adaptations of the material in several languages in public and private schools, homes, and spiritual centers in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.  

Since the 1980's Denise has taught and learned from diverse students on subjects related to the greater good -- from teaching nature programs for toddlers to energy-efficiency for industrial executives, as well as Sunday classes for children and adults in several faith traditions.   At present Denise teaches six days a week either running Let's Play Music (a studio for private and group music lessons) or using Ready Set Happy and the 16 Guidelines to develop, teach and support programs for toddlers through teens at Kadampa Center in North Carolina, USA and beyond.  Denise is grateful to be a founding member of the International 16 Guidelines Advisory Group.

 

For more information on FPMT Training Programs, write the Education Department