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Holy Objects
Completed stupa for Geshe Gendun Choephel.
Earlier this year we announced that a new stupa was being built at Sera Je Monastery for Tenzin Ösel Hita’s teacher, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Gendun Choephel, who passed away on July 31, 2016. Ösel requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to assist with this precious stupa, and Rinpoche, through the Stupa Fund, offered US$20,000 toward its completion.
We are delighted to report that this special stupa is now complete.
Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained. “As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace – for the beings who see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated “Padmasambhava’s Instructions on Offering to Stupas,” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. Also available is, “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Circumambulation.”
Please rejoice in the completion of this stupa for Geshe Gendun Choephel which brings so much benefit to his students, the world, and all sentient beings.
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
A puja was offered on the site of the new large stupa in Thame, Solo Khumbu.
A large stupa is being built in Thame in the Solo Khumbu district of Nepal to replace one that was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake. The new stupa, which will stand nearly 44 feet tall with a base measuring 56 feet across, will be larger than the one which previously stood on the site.
The site of the destroyed stupa in Thame, Solo Khumbu.
About the benefits of building stupas, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said:
“By building a stupa, without words we are continually liberating so many sentient beings. Every day, the stupa plants the seed of enlightenment and purifies anybody who sees, touches, remembers, talks or dreams about the stupa. This includes insects that touch the stupa. The stupa is meaningful to behold, and it liberates many sentient beings, insects and humans, every day.
“When the wind touches a stupa—especially if it has the four dharmakaya relics inside—the wind becomes blessed. Then, wherever the wind goes and whoever it touches, it liberates them from the lower realms, by purifying their negative karma. When rain falls on the stupa, that water liberates any being it touches—all the worms in the ground etc, are liberated from the lower realms. It is similar with dust.”
This stupa will be filled and consecrated according to instruction with holy objects and precious materials such as Dharma texts.
The stupa will be filled with holy images and objects, mantras and the relics of holy beings.
This new stupa project is being managed by Tenpa Choden from Kopan Monastery. The Holy Objects Fund was very pleased to offer US$100,000 toward this stupa which will have a final cost of approximately $US400,000. This very large and impressive stupa will bring ongoing benefit to all sentient beings who make contact with it.
We look forward to providing more updates and details on this project as it progresses.
You can watch a short video of a puja being offered on the site of this new stupa:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mts44pLHVc8&feature=youtu.be
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
The extensive offerings at Rinpoche’s residences consist of hundreds of saffron-filled water bowls that are offered daily, thousands of light offerings as well as an extensive flower garden. Photo by Chris Majors.
Resident Sangha at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residences in Washington State and California, USA, offer weekly animal liberation practice and charity for ants, extensive daily offering practices, make tsa-tsas and stupas daily, and engage in nightly Dharma protector practices and sur offering. All of this is done with extensive dedications and prayers for the entire FPMT organization and all beings, as requested by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Sangha blessing Lake Omak, Washington, USA, November 2016. Photo by Ven. Holly Ansett.
Last November Rinpoche blessed several lakes located near his Washington State residence, Buddha Amitabha Pure Land (BAPL), using a variety of methods to bring the most benefit. Rinpoche asked the Sangha, in his absence, to keep going out on the lakes regularly, in order to continue to benefit all of the fish and other living beings. They were unable to do this over the winter months, but have picked up these practices again now that the ice and snow has thawed.
Approximately 70,400 animals were liberated at Rinpoche’s houses in 2016. Not only were the animals saved from untimely death by Sangha, but they were also taken around an incredible amount of holy objects, mantras were recited and blown on them, and they were carefully placed where they could live out the rest of their lives. When Sangha finish these liberations, they make strong prayers for all those who are sick, have recently died, or who have requested prayers. This is one of the most beneficial aspects of this practice as the merit is shared among so many.
Buddha statue with extensive lights at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land. Photo by Chris Majors.
Resident Sangha make thousands of light and water offerings daily. Gorgeous flowers adorn Rinpoche’s garden. About the benefits of offering to holy objects, Rinpoche has said, “We are not aware of the limitless skies of benefits we achieve from the practice of offering, what we can achieve and enjoy from life to life,” in Extensive Offering Practice to Accumulate the Most Extensive Merit. “Even while you are in samsara, you enjoy good rebirths, wealth, and every happiness. Even just the samsaric perfections are amazing, without adding all those incredible realizations that allow us to offer deep benefit to sentient beings, liberating them from oceans of samsaric suffering and its cause, delusion and karma.” Rinpoche encourages extensive offerings around the world.
Please rejoice in the ongoing beneficial activity of the Sangha at Rinpoche’s residences. This is an incredible offering on behalf of the entire FPMT organization enthusiastically maintained by the resident Sangha.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche Bodhichitta Fund enables Rinpoche’s compassionate service to others to flourish. All the offerings from the fund are used toward the creation of holy objects and extensive offerings around the world; sponsoring young tulkus, high lamas and Sangha in India, Nepal, Tibet and the West; supporting FPMT centers, projects and services; sponsoring Dharma retreats and events; funding animal liberations and blessings, and much more.
Beautiful hand-painted houses for the prayer wheels. Photo by Laura Miller.
Last year, the Holy Objects Fund offered a substantial grant to the Mani Chungyur, Stupa, and Water Park, a project being built in Namche Bazaar, Nepal, located in the Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (SNPBZ). The grant is being used for five prayer wheels which will be turned by flowing water, thus blessing all of the water used throughout the entire park. This project is also a restoration of original prayer wheels and artwork and will become a tourist attraction that is beneficial for the visitors.
Mandala Publication’s managing editor Laura Miller recently visited the park and reports that all appeared to be finished except for the actual prayer wheel installation. She also commented, “It was beautiful and amazing to see. The fresh water rushing down the hill, through the houses for the prayer wheels and the fountain shooting a spray of water up.”
The park is attending to practical as well as spiritual needs of the community. The water from the water park runs under a small bridge to a laundry area. In this way, locals can bring their washing to be cleaned in the blessed water!
The water from the water park runs under a small bridge to the laundry area. Photo by Laura Miller.
Five restored prayer wheels are being installed in the new park. Photo by Laura Miller.
The prayer wheels will be turned by flowing water. Photo by Laura Miller.
Please rejoice in the progress of the new Mani Chungyur, Stupa, and Water Park which will bring so much benefit to residents of Namche Bazaar and tourists alike due to the incredible power of the prayer wheels.
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
Enthronement ceremony of Khen Rinpoche Geshe Gendun Choephel, Sera Je Monastery, Bylakuppe, South India, July 2016. Photo via http://www.serajeymonastery.org
A new stupa is being built at Sera Je Monastery for Khen Rinpoche Geshe Gendun Choephel who passed away on July 31, 2016. Among Khen Rinpoche’s many students is Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe.
“My dearest and most precious Teacher, Friend, Mother, Father and Khen Rinpoche, Geshe Gendun Choephel, just passed away in a very sudden way,” Ösel wrote on his Facebook page on July 31. “He was the closest person in my life, he raised me and gave me everything, taught me and loved me like no one else. It is devastating and so hard to accept, but I feel joy for having known him and it has been such an honor to grow up under his guidance. Thank you so much Gen-la, you are always in my heart.”
Ösel requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to assist with this precious stupa, and Rinpoche, through the Stupa Fund, offered US$20,000 toward its completion.
Young Osel with Geshe Gendun Choephel (left) and Lama Zopa Rinpoche (right) at Sera Je Monastery.
“Building stupas helps develop so much peace and happiness for numberless sentient beings. As a result, wars, disease, and desire will all be pacified. Instead of feeling hopeless, people will gain courage. This is about peace – for the beings who see it, for the whole country, for the entire world, for all sentient beings.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Tenzin Osel Hita with Geshe Gendun Choephel and brother Kunkyen.
Geshe Gendun Choephel was born in 1941 in Karze in eastern Tibet. He later joined Sera Je Monastery in 1955 and went into exile in India in 1959, joining the Buxa Duar community to study and practice. He was among the foremost group who re-established Sera Je in Bylakuppe, South India. After earning his Lharampa Geshe degree, Khen Rinpoche began teaching at the monastery and did so for the rest of his life. He was enthroned as the 75th abbot of Sera Je Monastery on July 18, 2016.
The total cost for this stupa is US$27,000 and the remaining US$7,000 will be raised by Sera Je monks. Please rejoice in the creation of this holy object dedicated to a most kind teacher, Geshe Gendun Choephel.
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues. The Stupa Fund is a sub fund of the Holy Objects Fund.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated “Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas,” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. Also available is, “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Circumambulation.”
Lama Zopa Rinpoche at the Root Institute next to the large prayer wheel. Photo by Bill Kane.
In May 2015 Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised Mahamudra Centre in New Zealand to build a large prayer wheel similar in design and size as the one constructed at Root Institute in Bodhgaya.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the Holy Object Fund, offered US$30,000 toward the construction of this new prayer wheel. The Mahamudra team estimates completing this project in approximately one year.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has explained that he would like to sponsor the building of 100,000 prayer wheels for world peace. Wherever a large prayer wheel is built, it becomes a great blessing for that country.
A prayer wheel is a cylindrical wheel on a spindle made from metal. Inside the prayer wheel are many million or billions of the mantras, printed on paper or microfilm. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has commented that the presence of a prayer wheel creates peace and harmony in the area. You can read more from Rinpoche about the benefits of making prayer wheels.
“Even for the person who turns this precious wheel, any sentient being who sees, hears, remembers, or touches him or her completes the merits, purifies defilements, and achieves enlightenment.” — The Tantra of the Circle of Six Thousand
The inconceivable merit of building a prayer wheel is not limited to those who physically build it. Those who support the project financially, materially, or through prayer also receive the merit of its creation.
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
Land of Medicine Buddha community filing the ninth and final structural chamber of the Mahabodhi stupa.
Progress continues on Land of Medicine Buddha’s 39-foot-tall Mahabodhi stupa project in California.
Earlier this year the community filled the final structural chamber of this stupa and celebrated by enjoying a picnic in the meadow after the work of the day was complete. The filling of this final structural level was the culmination of over two years of effort on the part of staff members and volunteers. A lot of details go into the filling of a stupa of this size. The first level holds four complete sets of the Kangyur which needed to be organized, labeled, and wrapped. A team of volunteers called the Stupa Work Party gathered often to create a collage of holy images, paint tsa-tsas, and wrap texts and reams of over one billion mantras that would fill all the subsequent levels. All the contents were then packaged in boxes for the journey from the LMB gompa up to the stupa site. The weight of each level had to be carefully monitored from the second level upward, finding a balance between the benefit of having as many holy objects as possible and structural limitations and considerations.
Crown of the 39-foot-tall Mahabodhi stupa.
At the stupa site each of the ten chambers was cleaned, painted, and lined with yellow cloth and the sog shing (life tree) was painted and wrapped with the four dharmakaya relic mantras. For the first leg of the journey to the site, the holy objects were passed from hand-to-hand from the gompa, loaded into a truck, and then driven up the hill to the stupa. The precious load of holy objects was again passed hand-to-hand up to the uppermost level via ladders and scaffoldings and finally placed inside the stupa, filling the empty places with fragrant wood shavings and incense.
Earlier in the year, LMB friend and resident artist, Gelek Sherpa began work on the outer details of the stupa. He created and mounted the Kadampa stupas at the four corners and created the crown Kadampa stupa and some of the various molds needed for the exterior.
The Mahabodhi stupa grounds at Land of Medicine Buddha.
While Gelek Sherpa worked on artistic elements, another team worked on the layout of the stupa grounds. They rerouted a road that previously ran in front of the stupa, creating terraces where memorial stupas may be sponsored and built in the future. They also built a wheelchair accessible parking space and walkway, so those who are challenged by the terrain of the land will have an opportunity to circumambulate the stupa. In addition, the team installed electrical and water lines, so that light and water offerings can be made.
The crown Kadampa stupa was recently filled with mantras and Gelek Sherpa is now preparing the next structure which will support the pinnacle of the stupa. He will continue the decoration of the exterior throughout the coming year.
The LMB Stupa Team would like to share grateful thanks to FPMT Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche for guiding the center community in this amazingly beneficial project. “Without Rinpoche’s kind advice about the benefits of building a stupa, we wouldn’t have had the wisdom to take on such a large project. Geshe Ngawang Dakpa and Geshe Lobsang Wangdu gave indispensable advice, encouragement, and blessings. We are thankful to kind benefactors who stepped in to offer the financial support that created the causes for the stupa to become a reality. We have a lot of work left, and happily rejoice that great progress has been made in 2016!”
You can learn more about this project, watch videos of the progress, and read more about the long-term plans and benefits of this stupa.
The Stupa Fund was very pleased to offer US$50,000 toward this magnificent stupa at Land of Medicine Buddha.
“My wish is for FPMT to build many holy objects everywhere, as many as possible. Making it so easy for sentient beings to purify their heavy negative karma and making it so easy for sentient beings to create extensive merit. Which makes it so easy to achieve the realizations of the path and so easy to achieve liberation and enlightenment.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s uncle, sister, and others welcoming the large Guru Rinpoche statues to Lawudo.
This 13.5-foot-tall Guru Rinpoche statue had to be airlifted to Lawudo.
Lawudo Retreat Centre is situated in the highest area of Solu Khumbu (altitude of 13,000 feet) , the northeastern region of Nepal bordering Upper Tsang in Southern Tibet. Getting a human body up to Lawudo is no simple matter. The quickest and (relatively) easiest way is to fly from Kathmandu to Lukla and then walk for two days from Lukla to Namche Bazaar. Lawudo is a further 4-5 hours walk up a very steep path from Namche Bazaar. The other way is to first travel by bus from Kathmandu to Jiri which takes ten hours. The trek from Jiri to Namche Bazaar takes nine days.
What about getting eleven large Guru Rinpoche statues—one 13.5-foot-tall and the others over 2-foot-tall—up to Lawudo? Amazingly, this was accomplished and it was no simple matter! The large statue had to be airlifted (by the largest helicopter in Nepal) but there were delays due to bad weather. A special permit was required to even operate this immense aircraft. A test flight had to be arranged before the run with the large statue could be initiated to make sure the mission would be successful. After twelve days of delays due to bad weather the large statue was finally airlifted to Lawudo in good condition. The smaller statues will be airlifted in the same way.
Large Guru Rinpoche statue being transported to Lawudo.
The Guru Rinpoche statue making the trek up to Lawudo.
The Padmasambhava Project for Peace was able to offer the costs for this incredible effort getting these most precious holy objects to their new home at Lawudo Retreat Centre. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has expressed, time and again, the unimaginable power of holy objects to purify negative karma and create extensive merit for all who come in contact with them. About Guru Rinpoche statues, Rinpoche has said, “Building Guru Rinpoche statues will bring immeasurable benefit, peace, happiness, and freedom to the world. They will have immeasurable impact.”
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
Each of the five prayer wheels will live in these beautiful painted houses. The prayer wheels will turn from downward flowing water, blessing all the water with mantras as it passes.
Last month we reported that a grant was issued from the Prayer Wheel Fund to the Mani Chungyur, Stupa and Water Park, a project being built in Namche Bazaar, Nepal to be used for five prayer wheels which are turned by flowing water, thus blessing all of the water used throughout the entire park.
We are pleased to report that, due to this grant, all of the prayer wheels houses, mechanical turbines, and paintings have been completed. Once all of the parts are assembled, the prayer wheels can be fixed in the housing units and repainted to original form. This next step may take few more months but we are pleased to report so much progress has already been made due to the grant issued by the Prayer Wheel Fund.
Locals gather for a puja at the site of the new water park.
“The benefit of turning the Dharma wheel is that negative karma and disturbing thought obscurations accumulated over beginningless rebirths are purified without effort. Even other mantras are without doubt completed.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche quoting Lord Buddha in “The Benefits of Prayer Wheels”
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
Artist rendition of the Mani Chungyur, Stupa and Water Park in Namche Bazar.
The Holy Objects Fund recently offered a US$50,000 grant to the Mani Chungyur, Stupa and Water Park, a project being built in Namche Bazaar, Nepal, located in the Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (SNPBZ). The grant will be used for five prayer wheels which are turned by flowing water, thus blessing all of the water used throughout the entire park. This project is also a restoration of original prayer wheels and artwork and will become a tourist attraction that is beneficial for the visitors.
Five prayer wheels will be restored and installed in the new park.
Sagarmatha National Park (SNP) is one of the major tourist destinations for expedition and trekking in Nepal. Since the 1950s, and especially since the 1970s, highly skilled mountaineers and causal tourists have visited the “top of the world,” in order to summit or just get a glance of Mount Everest. To honor this special area, the government of Nepal created in Sagarmatha National Park in 1976. Later the SNP was extended by a buffer zone, and Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone was created.
This area will become Mani Chungyur, Stupa and Water Park.
The SNPBZ headquarters has many lodges, trekking and mountaineering equipment shops. The village also has three small museums, a stupa, monastery and many well stocked stores. This new development will bring tourist money into the area and help revitalize its history.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has advised the coordinators on the prayer wheels, stressing the importance of using high quality materials and filling them with the appropriate texts and mantras. Rinpoche also explained that there are “infinite, infinite benefits” to constructing holy objects correctly.
Five prayer wheels will turn from downward flowing water, blessing all the water with mantras as it passes.
Please rejoice in the development of the new Mani Chungyur, Stupa and Water Park which will bring so much benefit to residents of Namche Bazaar and tourists alike due to the incredible power of the prayer wheels.
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche making offerings to the Mahabodhi Stupa, Bodhgaya, India, February 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
At the end of the Medicine Buddha retreat at Rinchen Jangsem Ling in Malaysia in April, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, through the kindness of several benefactors, offered a US$10,000 grant to the center for a two storey Namgyälma stupa which will be built. This grant was issued through the FPMT Stupa Fund. This stupa will be dedicated to His Holiness the Dalai Lama all the holy beings who work for others in this world; all FPMT centers, projects, services, benefactors, volunteers, students and all the people in the world who do good things for others; and for those who do harm to meet the Dharma to understand karma in order to start to benefiting others.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche consecrating stupa at Mahamudra Centre, New Zealand, May 2015. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Stupas are powerful symbols of the mind’s limitless potential. In other words, they represent the mind of enlightenment. Building or sponsoring a stupa is a very powerful way to accumulate merit and purify negative karma.
One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization is for 100,000 large stupas to be built around the world. To date, over fifty have been built.
The large Namgyälma stupa project at Rinchen Jangsem Ling has not yet begun and we will keep all updated on its progress as it develops.
If you would like to contribute to the building of holy objects around the world, you are welcome to offer any amount to the Holy Objects Fund which contributes to the creation of stupas, prayer wheels and statues.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche translated “Padmasambhava’s Instruction on Offerings to Stupas,” which details the benefits of prostrating to, circumambulating, making offerings, and offering service to stupas. Also available is, “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Advice for Circumambulation.”
Kshitigarbha statue and large thangka with offerings during Kshitigarbha Day celebration at Land of Medicine Buddha in California, 2012.
After receiving news that scientists were forecasting a huge earthquake and possible tsunamis on the West Coast of the United States, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began offering advice about how to help mitigate the effects of karma that can result in this kind of suffering. Recently Rinpoche suggested that Bay Area students and centers, supported by others from around the world, should complete the following:
- 1,800,000 recitations of the long Kshitigarbha mantra done as part of a Kshitigarbha practice.
- Taking the Eight Mahayana precepts 300 times.
- Performing the extensive Medicine Buddha puja – ongoing.
- Reading of the Tengyur four times – to be done at Sera Je Monastery.
FPMT Bay Area centers have created a website with more information and ways to make pledges and report mantra recitations; contribute to the Tengyur recitations; and report the taking of the Eight Mahayana precepts. This website also has a weekly blog to help students keep up on how many accumulations have been reported.
As of Tuesday, January 5, the following has been completed:
Kshitigarbha Mantras: 389,782 out of 1,800,000; Tengyur Recitations: $23,810 out of $28,000 needed; 8 Mahayana Precepts: 1,677 out of 300.
All are welcome (and encouraged) to contribute to the global efforts to pacify and minimize harm due to an earthquake on the West Coast of the United States (including subsequent tsunami caused by the earthquake). With only three weeks remaining to reach the goals put forth by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a strong effort from many will be required.
To learn more about the recommended practices for pacifying earthquakes and to make pledges and report mantra recitations: www.pacifyearthquakes.org