| The following article is from the Spring, 2001 issue of the Snow Lion Newsletter and is for historical reference only. You can see this in context of the original newsletter here. |
New-look Mandala magazine hits the newsstands
BY NANCY PATTON
Imagine being asked to exchange the semi-tropical paradise of a seaside home, a network of loving family and friends and an absorbing job in the Australian magazine world for a tiny adobe house in Taos, New Mexico (7000 feet above sea level) and a modest salary.
My karma had ripened. A prognostic "mo" thrown by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), indicated that it would be very beneficial for me to take over the editorship of Mandala magazine from the redoubtable Ven. Robina Courtin.
FPMT, founded 30 years ago by the late Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, is today an international organization with more than 130 centers worldwide. It was time for Mandala. to go out to a much wider audience.
The first issue of Mandalain its new guise full color, perfect bound and with a March dateline came out in February to much acclaim. The credit for its content goes mostly to the long-time staff, Julia Hengst and Jaffa Elias, and the ghost of Ven. Robina, who has left behind a strong and Dharma-rich heritage.
The job of editor is one continuous Dharma teaching. The product, Mandala, is a tangible way of showing general and already-Buddhist readers how we really are experiencing Buddhism in our Time (the magazine's slogan). It's full of real-life stories of the profound impact that Tibetan Buddhism is having on the lives of Westerners and Tibetans living in the West.
To succeed in the marketplace, we have to stay lively, relevant and faithful to the tradition of the great yogi, Lama Tsong Khapa (1357-1419). Our first issue, emblazoned with the extraordinary smile of Ven. Robina, walked off the shelves because people who saw the cover must have said, If that's what Buddhism does for you, I want some of it.
Find out more about Mandala, at: www.mandalamagazine.org or: Mandala magazine, 125B La Posta Road, Taos, NM 87571, 505-758-7766.
