100 Million Mani Retreat
Mani Retreat 2017
The 5th 100 Million Mani Retreat was held at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar and hosted by FPMT Mongolian Centre – Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling, from 1st until June 30th 2017.
As it is the 5th major annual Retreat event for the Centre, staff and volunteers are now very familiar with what needs to be done thus enabling the event to unfold smoothly and harmoniously. We were extremely fortunate to receive the Great Chenrezig initiation bestowed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Idgaa Choizinling Monastery, the retreat venue, just two weeks prior to the commencement of the event. This brought so many rich blessings to the retreat and its participants. In any one session of a day, approximately two hundred people were in attendance appearing to be inspired by the knowledge of the incredible merits of doing the Chenrezig practice.
Notwithstanding that the schedule was quite full and demanding, people were happy to come, participate and make consistent efforts in order to achieve a grand total of mani mantras. GDNSL staff and volunteers offered tireless service daily to provide conducive conditions to all participants, starting at 7 am with a morning welcome, providing breakfast, vegetarian lunch and four servings of tea through to evening time, concluding with gompa cleaning at 8pm. Additional and essential daily tasks were the provision of information to all participants and visitors upon request, writing down dedications from a constant stream of people and receiving mani mantra contributions, counting and safely recording these.
This annual event is one of FPMT Mongolia’s significant contributions to the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia and it is interesting to note that apart from one Australian student and several casual tourist visitors lured to the Monastery by the loud and melodious chanting, the participants were Mongolian, with a large percentage of females, 40 years and older. We are delighted to report that a total of 108’548’100 mani mantras were recited in the 5th Mani Retreat.
For the first time, the Mani Retreat was held in June before the long national July Naadam holiday celebrations when people travel to the countryside for horse racing and camping. The weather was rather hot, up to 32 degrees Celsius and this presented some extra challenges to work to keep the mind focused on the prayers and long periods of mani recitation – the previous four Retreats were held in the cooler, August-September months.
The real heroes of the Mani Retreat are the Sangha for whom we are deeply grateful to – Lharampa Geshe Thubten Zopa – who oversaw the preparation and decoration of the beautiful tormas, supervised the entire altar set up and gave an inspirational public talk at both the opening and closing ceremonies. Also the nuns of FPMT’s Dolma Ling Nunnery who were leading the retreat and Idgaa Choizinling Monastery’s monks who were ever ready to help serve tea, food, clean the temple and offer assistance where needed.
Looking to the future and ever striving to improve what we can offer, we are discussing the possibility of next year, organising a strict retreat concluding with a fire puja for participants who can commit to full participation and recitation of the required number of mantras. Please watch this space!
In closing, we warmly invite everyone to join us and help in fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision for Mongolia.
The 6th 100 Million Mani Retreat 2018
The whole FPMT family has already rejoiced five times with FPMT Mongolia upon the completion of the Mongolian 100 Million Mani Retreat. Mandala blog kindly posted articles about 4 of the past retreats held in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
This year has not been an exception as we recently and successfully completed the retreat for the sixth time! It is our sincere hope that we will be able to continue this meritorious event until samsara ends. Our belief is that even when the current management steps down, the next generation will take it over continuing to bring happiness and peace to the Mongolian community.
We want to show you not only photos, but also to give all readers a sense what it means to run the Mani Retreat in Mongolia. Please enjoy our interactive poster of the 6th Mani Retreat 2018 in numbers.
Of course this is just a sneak peek to the whole picture as it is difficult to describe the endless human support and help, together with all the efforts made by the many participants, especially by very old ladies, who can barely walk but somehow managed to endure sitting for up to 11 (!) hours. Words are not enough to thank the Venerable Sangha for their kindness and patience. No one picture can truly show the devotion and faith… However, we are able to rejoice, rejoice in the merits of every sentient being, rejoice no matter what… At least in Mongolia you have 105,628,900 mani reasons for rejoicing!a
FPMT Mongolia’s 7th 100 Million Mani Retreat 2019
Ganden Do Ngag Shedrup Ling Centre completed its 7th 100 Million Mani Retreat in a row. This year, due to some logistical reasons, the Centre hosted this major annual event in the month of September. It was a surprisingly warm and pleasant month for Mongolia enabling participants to concentrate better on the practice and not experience the discomfort of either hot summer or cold winter. However, we observed that there was a reduction in the number of people who could join us in the Gompa of Idgaa Choinzinling Monastery due to the clash of the commencement of the new school year. Nevertheless, the average attendance of approximately 100-150 people yielded the excellent result of a collective recitation of 108’000’000 mani mantras which were offered to Lama Zopa Rinpoche during the first Mani Retreat in Elista, Kalmykia. GDNSL Centre Director, Ianzhina Bartanova paid a visit to Elista and offered congratulations to the Abbot of the Golden Abode of Buddha Shakyamuni temple upon the successful hosting of the retreat. Ven. Anja was pleased to know about the annual 100 Million Mani Retreat in Mongolia and expressed that people from Kalmykia might now be more interested in visiting Mongolia and participating in the Mani Retreat here.
Thirty days of retreat passed very fast and new lessons were learned. Despite having quite some familiarity of organizing this event, there is always room for improved service and for the further implementation of skillful ways to overcome obstacles. The second day of retreat was marked by the sudden declaration of a state holiday due to the visit of Russian President, Vladimir Putin. The announcement was made by the Mongolian government with the recommendation that citizens stay home in order to reduce the traffic congestion for the two Presidents! Fortunately, for our staff and retreat participants, our schedule was followed as per normal. The daily program was changed only once for special teachings from our Geshe Thubten Soepa explaining the meaning of the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM.
Every year the devoted retreatants touch our hearts with their seemingly magic stories, like immediate healing with blessed water or some miraculous event happening in their lives. However, we view these as further confirmation of the power of the Buddha of Compassion, the power of faith and the power of merits. We sincerely dedicate our collective merits for world peace and resolution of the climate crisis to significantly reduce the suffering on this planet.
Looking to the future and ever striving to improve what we can offer, we are discussing the possibility of organising a strict retreat next year concluding with a fire puja for participants who can commit to full participation and recitation of the required number of mantras. Please watch this space! We warmly invite everyone to join us and help in fulfilling Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast vision for Mongolia.