Statues

The compassion of all the buddhas in self-form, the actual Arya Compassionate Eye Looking One, manifested in this stone statue under the control of great compassion for us sentient beings. The reason for this is because we sentient beings are hallucinating samsaric suffering as pleasure and therefore give rise to the three poisonous minds and so forth.

The I, the aggregates and all phenomena do exist, but don’t truly exist. The wrong concept, the ignorance holding the I and the aggregates to be truly existent is the root of samsara, and also the self-cherishing thought, because of this we sentient beings always suffer.

The Compassionate Buddha loves us sentient beings much more than parents extremely love their child and therefore specially guides us from suffering and leads us to the omniscient state of buddhahood, the peerless happiness, the state of the fully knowing mind.

Therefore, this statue is extremely precious and we should make prostrations, offerings and prayers to it as much as possible.

Pray, for example, not just to be liberated yourself from the oceans of samsaric suffering but to immediately achieve the state of the highly transcended Compassionate Eye Looking One, who is enriched with complete control over the three worlds, three realms and samsara to liberate the sentient beings of the six realms right now, quicker and quicker, from the oceans of suffering of samsara and bring them to the fully completed purified and realized state, (full enlightenment), the peerless happiness.

Arya Nagarjuna said:

Like a wish-granting jewel
May I fulfill all the desires of all sentient beings,
And like a wish-granting tree
May I fulfil all the hopes of sentient beings.

It is said that any prayer made in the presence of this statue of the Arya Compassionate Eye Looking Buddha and the one who brought the Arya Compassionate Eye Looking One from the mountain lakes, the great holy being who has shown the aspect of a shepherd and absorbed to the stone, will succeed.

[Read more and see images of the statue in this FPMT post. See also Rinpoche's letter to a Buddhist organization about building a monastery at the site.]

I am explaining what I did there in your shop, by prostrating to the statues, by putting my palms together.

When we see any statue, we should prostrate, thinking, “These are all my root gurus manifesting according to my karma, to benefit me and to bring me to enlightenment.”

It is said by the great yogi Buddhajnana, in the text Yeshe Gyatso, Oceans of Transcendental Wisdom, (there are longer verses but the essence is this):

Before the guru there is not even the name buddha.

That shows that all the buddhas come from the guru, but of course you have to understand the meaning of guru, which is all the buddhas’ holy mind, the dharmakaya. It doesn’t mean whoever is called guru in the world, but the one you have a Dharma connection with.

By prostrating, we purify so much negative karma and accumulate so much merit and the causes to become enlightened.

This is much better for business and creates much more benefit than the ordinary business of selling. By putting our palms together and prostrating, we accumulate much more merit and this guides us to enlightenment.

My most dear one,

This is how to pray in front of the Chenrezig temple, in front of Chenrezig, and how to pray in front of the real Buddha Chenrezig, His Holiness the Dalai Lama:

May His Holiness the Dalai Lama have a long and stable life until we become free from samsara. May all his holy wishes succeed immediately.

May FPMT enlighten sentient beings quickly.

May all the service to the guru and the teachings of Buddha and sentient beings be most beneficial and succeed quickly.

May I complete Dharma practice in this life for sentient beings. May I be able to enlighten all sentient beings quickly. May every second of my life be most beneficial for sentient beings.

May I be able to only please most the guru’s holy mind, in all my lifetimes.

May the two Maitreya Projects in Bodhgaya and Kushinagar be able to succeed quickly and enlighten sentient beings quickly, by fulfilling the wishes of all sentient beings. May they enable sentient beings to generate loving kindness, compassion, bodhicitta and may they bring perfect peace and happiness in this world.

May we be able to build many holy objects in the world, which give the same effect as above, including the rebuilding of 108 stupas in Ladakh, that were built by the great holy being Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo so many years ago, and may they have the same effect.

May we also build the Padmasambhava statues, including the big one in Maratika.

May we be able to build many destitute homes and animal sanctuaries in the world, and may they be able to enlighten all beings quickly.

Any sentient being seeing me, touching me, remembering me, hearing me, hearing my name, talking about me, seeing a photo of me or dreaming of me, just by that, may all their physical and mental problems immediately be healed in that second. May they have perfect peace and happiness. May all their wishes succeed according to the holy Dharma. May their actions become the cause of enlightenment and may they achieve full enlightenment quickly.

Any sentient being that I see, remember, touch, see a photo of or dream about, may all their physical and mental problems immediately be healed in that second, and may they have perfect peace and happiness. May all their wishes succeed according to the holy Dharma. May their actions become the cause of enlightenment and all other future lives. May they achieve full enlightenment quickly. May this happen in this life and until enlightenment is achieved.

This is the prayer for you to make there at the temple. If possible, say this prayer each week when you are here. Your prayers have power for success, because of good samaya. The guru is very happy with you. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, yes, me too, the slothful one.

Numberless thanks for all these prayers which I have asked you to do.

With much love and prayers ...

Firstly, congratulations on the new center.

Then I wanted to say that I saw a Japanese buddha that was outside on the ground or close to the ground. It needs a throne, a much higher throne, also it needs a begging bowl filled up with fruits. The fruit can be plastic or ceramic. This is very important, then you also need to paint the robes and open the eyes properly, and the buddha also needs a gold ushnisha [the crown protrusion of a buddha].

Khadro-la, who is the same as Tara, came from Tibet to protect His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s life and to fulfill His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s wishes. One time she was at Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Italy and they had put a buddha statue on the ground outside. Khadro-la thought even this center doesn’t know about karma, even basic Buddhism, and she cried and cried and cried because the buddha was on the ground.

Later, the next time she came to the center, the director told her they had just put the buddha statue on the ground temporally as they were moving things, but still you can’t do that.

The director of one center had a Japanese-style buddha statue and they had it outside, very low, without a throne. What happened is that some local Muslim neighbors came and put something under the buddha statue to make it higher. Even though they didn’t know about karma, they understood that the statue needed to be up higher and respected more; even though they didn’t know lamrim and basic Buddhist subjects, but still they knew this.

So please put the statue on a throne, higher, and paint the robes, open the eyes and put a gold ushnisha on the crown. This is very important.

My dear one,
I just want to inform you of the good side, the positive side, the benefit that people get from you by your selling statues. First I want to explain the benefits, and to thank you for selling statues that have the best art, special statues of the Buddha, so I’m giving you some pictures of buddhas here.

I know it’s not easy to make Shakyamuni Buddha with the best art. I know one artist group in Kathmandu that made a big buddha statue but the art was not good. In their view it might have been good, but in my view it wasn’t good art.

You have some buddhas of which the art of the face is very good. However, many are different and are not very good art. Of course, the Buddha’s holy body has no mistakes and has all the beauty, but the art of a statue can be bad and good.

Anyway, by buying a statue from you, first of all the buyer, just by seeing one statue of  the Buddha in your shop, even though most of them might not know this, they collect numberless, greatest merit. I’m talking about merit because it is very important. Without merit, there’s no happiness or success in this life or in future lives, which could be billions, trillions, until we realize the four noble truths. These are true suffering, true cause of suffering, true cessation of suffering and true path—developing the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness only, shunyata, and ceasing the sea of delusions and karma, which are the cause of the suffering, not material but mental, what we have in the mind.

By ceasing delusions and karma with wisdom, then we become free forever from the oceans of suffering of samsara. That only comes from Dharma practice, not from an operation in a hospital to take delusions and karma out, because it’s not material but [comes from] the mind. It comes only through Dharma practice and especially through realizing emptiness only, shunyata.

Then, of course, by collecting the merits of wisdom and merits of virtue, we achieve Buddha’s holy mind and holy body, called dharmakaya and rupakaya. Then we’re able to do perfect work without the slightest mistake for numberless sentient beings—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings. Then we’re able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Not only that, we’re able to bring everyone to the peerless happiness, the total cessation of the mistakes of the mind and the completion of all realizations. That is from collecting merit, therefore you can see that it is most important.

All our wishes for happiness get fulfilled from that. Without that, most happiness and success is temporary. Even when we are tired or hot, and cold air passes over our head so that we feel good, even such a small pleasure like that is dependent on merit, having collected merit.

Just by coming to buy a statue in your shop, just by seeing the statue, people collect numberless great merit. How unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably great that is. For somebody who is a solitary realizer arhat (called rang sangye in Tibetan), there is no continuation of rebirth and death; it is stopped or ceased by actualizing the remedy path in their mind.

[Just by seeing a statue of the Buddha ] we collect unbelievable merit. How much merit? Equaling the number of atoms of dust of the universe, that many number of arhats. So an arhat is a great human being who is totally free from rebirth, sickness, old age and death. In Buddhism we can be free but for that we have to listen to teachings from a qualified teacher, then reflect and meditate and actualize the path.

For that many arhats, if we were to make offerings of incredible jewels—gold, diamonds and so forth. If we were to offer to them for how long? One hundred eons, which is beyond what we can understand. In ancient times in India, one man who had nothing offered a medicinal drink to four ordinary monks, not arhats, but ordinary monks living in 253 vows. Only one time he offered that, but after he died he was reborn as the richest and most powerful king in India. That’s a simple example to understand the unbelievable, unbelievable benefit. So like that.

Now, seeing the statues, just seeing one statue gets that much merit. Offering jewels to solitary realizer arhats equaling the atoms of dust of this universe becomes very small compared to seeing a buddha. So seeing a buddha is unbelievably, unbelievably more merit. However many statues a person looks at—one hundred or one thousand—imagine how much merit that person gets. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! It’s really mind-blowing. That is your gift to the sentient beings.

Now by making offerings and prostrating and so forth, we collect even greater numberless merits than by seeing a buddha. The pictures, statues, stupas and scriptures of the Buddha are representing the Buddha’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind, so what we ordinary sentient beings can see are really wonderful holy objects, priceless. From that merit all the happiness comes—the temporary happiness of this life and future lives and the ultimate happiness of liberation and enlightenment. Therefore statues, stupas and pictures are really wish-fulfilling; they are so, so precious. Money is nothing compared to that value.

My suggestion is that it’s good to have statues in your shop as much as possible, so that’s why I’m giving you these pictures. By having better art it’s easier to arise devotion to the Buddha, so negative thoughts don’t arise to the Buddha. Negative thoughts to the Buddha create negative karma. Buddha has no mistakes and only good qualities. As best as possible, art makes it easy to arise devotion in us ordinary beings. Wherever they are, it’s easy to arise devotion. It arises more and it’s easier to achieve [the state of a] buddha, with the total cessation of all mistakes and the completion of realizations.

So with devotion, it’s the root. It’s very important. It’s like the root of a tree. If there’s the root, a tree can grow; if not, it can’t grow.

It is said in a teaching by Buddha that devotion is like the mother who can produce many babies, all the time. They come from the mother; many animals come from the mother. The realizations come from devotion, so it’s like the mother. All qualities are produced and increased by devotion.

Devotion eliminates doubts and those who have no devotion in their mind become very skeptical, finding it hard to believe something. Even if it’s worthwhile, if it’s not wrong but right, they find it hard to believe. For example, even real gold, they do not believe. It’s hard to believe that brass is gold, but with real gold, if they find that hard to believe, it’s different.

Buddha, Dharma and Sangha have the perfect power to free us from samsara and to liberate us from the great rivers—the river of ignorance, the river of craving and grasping, the river of becoming. Basically that is the cause of samsara, of being reborn again in samsara and experiencing all the sufferings.

Devotion is like the city from where all the collections of happiness and goodness come. Devotion signifies that. From devotion comes unbelievable qualities, all the qualities up to enlightenment— the five paths to arhatship, the unbelievable qualities the arhats have; for the bodhisattvas, the five Mahayana paths and ten bhumis; and for those who are on the tantric path, the quick path to achieve enlightenment.

A quotation from Konchog Talai Do [Precious Tala Sutra] says that devotion is not like murky water, but is like very calm water. With strong devotion, the nature of the mind is like that, so it helps very much to bring that. With devotion to Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and karma, there is so much happiness and success in this life and in future lives. There is no attraction to this life or future lives’ samsara, thus we are freed from the oceans of samsaric suffering forever. Devotion makes us to achieve that and makes us to achieve buddhahood, the total cessation of all obscurations and completion of all realizations.

Anybody who has strong devotion, every day so much vast good karma is collected by the way—eating, talking, sleeping, so many things are virtue. It helps to achieve enlightenment oneself and causes happiness and enlightenment to the sentient beings in daily life.

I want to explain one more thing to you, so you know how statues, stupas and pictures of the Buddha are very precious things, amazing.

If we offer one grain of rice or one tiny flower to a statue of the Buddha, it creates virtue and causes us to not be born in the lower realms as a result of negative karmas collected in the past. We get higher rebirth as a human being or deva, we also meet the Dharma in our next life, and we connect with the Buddhadharma, which is so fortunate.

The most surprising thing, the happiness that we experienced during beginningless rebirths in the past, that much we will experience in the future by offering one grain of rice to a statue or picture of the Buddha, no matter how big or small. This is mentioned in the Heaps of Flowers Sutra. After that it causes ultimate happiness, everlasting happiness, with cessation of the oceans of samsaric sufferings. Amazing, amazing!

Not only that, it causes us to achieve buddhahood, ultimate happiness, the total cessation of obscurations—not only gross but also subtle—and the completion of all realizations. And not only do we achieve that but we become the perfect guide, a buddha, so we’re able to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering. Not only that, we’re able to bring everyone—the numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, human beings, asuras, suras and intermediate state beings—to the peerless happiness of buddhahood. So when everyone is brought there to buddhahood, the benefit of offering that one grain of rice is completed at that time.

I want to explain this to you, about the people who come into your shop to buy statues. It’s very important to have good art. Therefore, for that, [I am giving you] these pictures of statues. The hands of the large buddha statue are well-made. The face of your statue [in the shop] is well-made but the hands are not. Well-made statues cause devotion in other people’s minds.

Thank you very much.

To the World Buddhist Organization, to the World Compassionate, Kind, Full of Wisdom, Awakening the Living Beings From the Darkness of Ignorance, From So Much Suffering, From the Unbelievable Sufferings, Organization,

I’m very happy that the organization has come into existence. It came into existence, however, still at the right time. Still it’s not too late.

Most people in the world don’t know about Buddhism and don’t know about Dharma. That means they don’t know about the mind and that even though the body disintegrates, the mind continues, as it has no beginning. Also, in Mahayana Buddhism, the mind has no end. Also most people don’t know about karma—cause and effect. The actions of the mind are the intention, thus from virtuous actions the result is happiness and from nonvirtuous actions the result is suffering. The result of virtue or nonvirtue will be experienced in this life, another life or in a million, zillion, numberless zillion eons and eons. These things people don’t know.

They have no idea of past and future lives; they have no idea of a future life, so of course no idea of a past life. They are either completely ignorant or even if it is explained, they do not believe it. By practicing morality, which is the main cause, we can achieve a human or deva existence or be reborn in a pure land. Also through charity and the dedication of merits, we can receive a human or deva body, also buddhahood, ultimate happiness.

Most people have no idea that such a state of total freedom from the oceans of samsaric suffering is possible, and they don’t know that peace, nirvana, can be achieved. Freedom from suffering and the cause of suffering is possible because the cause of suffering, karma and delusion, and the seed of suffering can be totally ceased. It is not possible for it to arise again because there is no cause. When that happens, no suffering comes again. We never fall back into suffering. There’s no such thing. The cessation of suffering is achieved by actualizing the true path, which is the remedy.

The main truth is the direct perception of emptiness, shunyata. That’s actually what ceases the seeds of the delusions. Therefore, one of the endeavors of utmost importance is to be able to realize emptiness in this life. It is possible in this life.

As Maitreya Buddha said in his teaching:

The disease needs to be known; the cause of the disease needs to be abandoned; the abiding or living in a healthy life is what is to be achieved, and the medicine is to be taken. True suffering, true cause, true cessation and true path are like that.

Buddha said that the way he liberates us, the sentient beings, from the ocean of samsaric sufferings is not by washing with water, not by taking suffering out like taking a thorn by the hand, nor by transferring his realizations into the hearts of sentient beings. How then does the Buddha liberate us? By revealing the ultimate truth or ultimate nature to sentient beings. Thus sentient beings can be liberated from the oceans of samsaric sufferings.

The actual verse says,

The Mighty One does not wash away negative karma with water. The suffering of sentient beings does not get eliminated by his hand, nor does he transfer his realizations to others.

By revealing the ultimate truth or nature, sentient beings get liberated from the ocean of samsaric sufferings, then they can achieve full enlightenment, peerless happiness, which is the cessation of not only the gross disturbing-thought obscurations but also the subtle obscurations—those that mainly obscure the achievement of omniscience. After the achievement of omniscience there is nothing more to gain or learn.

Numberless beings besides the Buddha himself—many great yogis, such as Saraha, Tilopa, the greats Naropa and Marpa from Tibet, Milarepa, Gampopa—achieved omniscience. Also, those Indian yogis and pandits, like Nagarjuna and many others, became fully enlightened, just like the Buddha. They achieved omniscient mind. As well, many yogis from Nepal, from China and many from Tibet, those main countries and also from other places, numberless beings became enlightened. They achieved omniscient mind by practicing the Paramitayana path based on the four noble truths, the Lesser Vehicle or Hinayana path, the five Greater Vehicle paths and the ten bhumis. Through practicing the Paramitayana path to achieve full enlightenment for sentient beings, Gyalwa Longchenpa, the five Sakya pandits and Lama Tsongkhapa, along with many others, attained enlightenment in Tibet.

Even these days, there are many who have experienced the path to liberation and enlightenment. There are people who have actualized perfect renunciation, bodhicitta and the correct realization of emptiness, by following the sutra teachings as well as the tantric teachings taught by the Buddha, not the Hindu teachings. For example, in Amravati, a city in the state of Maharashtra, India, the Kalachakra initiation happened, by the Buddha manifesting as Kalachakra. In 2006, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave the Kalachakra initiation there, where the Buddha manifested as Vajradhara. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, by manifesting in the form of the tantric deity Yamantaka, gave this initiation in Orgyen, Pakistan. Then also, by manifesting as the tantric deity Heruka, he gave that initiation on Mount Kailash in Tibet. As the manifestation of Guhyasamaja, Buddha gave the initiation to King Indrabhuti of Oddiyana.

This is my appeal to the organization, to everyone who is compassionate, full of wisdom and dedicated to benefiting the world through relieving the world of suffering by means of the Buddha’s teachings:

There is a place, called Garsha Khandroling in the Kullu, Lahaul-Spiti region in India. A great holy being from Tibet came to this area, and acted as a herder for goats and sheep for about twenty years. One family there was milking their goats but no milk was forthcoming. The holy man asked what happened and advised them to look the next day. Meanwhile, he went to a lake and on the land near the lake, he explained this situation to Chenrezig.

Chenrezig replied, "Carry me and go quickly. There’ll be a huge noise but don’t look back."

People there at that time, the ordinary beings, asked to see the statue and when the big noise happened, the herder looked back and saw seven white beings following Chenrezig, the Compassionate Buddha. The seven were enlightened beings, and when he looked at them, they absorbed into the lake. At that time in Garsha, the people were disharmonious. They were in two groups and when the statue arrived there, the herder couldn’t carry it anymore, so then it manifested as a marble stone for us ordinary beings. The herder also dissolved into the stone.

These days, ordinary people can pray there and get their wishes fulfilled. People who can’t get pregnant come there. The statue’s right hand is in the mudra of sublime realization while the left hand holds a lotus. It can be seen very clearly. After visiting, those who wish to can become pregnant.

In the beginning and for many years the Chenrezig statue was in a family house, then the government took over the care of it. The statue was taken from the family so that everyone could come to see it. Now it is in a temple and there are some guest houses built nearby.

In the past several Hindu sadhus and pandits took care of the statue, but somehow it didn’t fit to them. Then a Tibetan took care of it for three years but he left for Dharamsala where His Holiness gave him another job of looking after a temple. One Ladakhi Buddhist monk who was very good with people has been there for three years. His Holiness the Dalai Lama came once and stayed for five days.

The houses there are very, very poor and simple. That’s how they live, both now and in the old times. When His Holiness asked the caretaker to please take care of all the holy objects, he cried. He has now been there for sixteen years, but if he becomes sick or passes away, the holy place will be taken over by Hindu groups. Then after some time, if Hindu things are put there, the story of the place will be lost and people will think it is only a Hindu place.

Actually, there are books written about the place, explaining the Heruka mountain and the Palden Lhamo statue which is so ancient, and was made by the same artist, Sri Gyalpo Vishugarma [?] who made the first Guru Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the Bodhgaya stupa—not the present one, but the previous one. In another place in Garsha, there is a thousand-year-old Tara statue. There are other holy objects, other holy places.

Before the present caretaker came, the Hindus took care of the statue. They believed in Shiva, so they wrote that name outside and brought many incongruous things inside, making it messy and outside they made a small house with linga inside. They took away the prayer flags and installed the small house with linga and a cow in their place.

When I was there, people were still making the festival of coming from the lake, they keep that day. But also, they sacrifice sheep outside. Inside it is not allowed. So it is very bad. In my view, they can have a Hindu place separate, as it makes their people happy to have their gods. However, Hindus taking over a Buddhist place is very bad, even from the worldly point of view. Similarly, it would be bad if Buddhists took over a Hindu place, but we never hear of that.

The caretaker explained that before, the Hindus put many things inside and also painted it. Nowadays there’s just one picture of Shiva and the linga outside. Before, there were many OM MANI PADME HUM carvings but these were replaced by the Hindu trident and other similar things.

Many ancient holy places are incredibly precious. Here, this was the place of a living Chenrezig who manifested as actual marble. One can’t find anything like this in the West or in other places. It’s unbelievably precious.

In Garsha, I was in retreat for one month. During that time, many people came every day to see the statue. Just by coming there, they collected unbelievable skies of merit and purification.

Similarly, in ancient Buddhist holy places where people don’t know much or where not many Buddhists come, then Hindus turn the place into a Hindu place with many implements. Also then, Buddhists who don’t know better think it is a Hindu place and they don’t come. This obstacle happens and blocks the accumulation of so much positive karma and purifies negative karma. The also happens in Nepal.

Now in Garsha, this is the danger. I told the caretaker to build a monastery. Then the senior monks can teach the younger ones and if the caretaker dies, there will be others who can take care. In the monastery, the sadhana of Chenrezig can be done, also other Dharma practice and study can be done, if not extensive philosophy then at least essential study. Vinaya can be followed, then the reviving and confession ceremony can be performed twice monthly along with the rains retreat and releasing from the retreat. Doing this would be highly meaningful for the world and also for that area.

I am begging you from my heart to have a monastery in Garsha to take care of this holy place in order to benefit many people in the world, so that they may purify negativities, accumulate a lot of merit, generate bodhicitta and achieve nirvana and enlightenment quickly.

This is the total of my appeal.

Thank you very much,

Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

[Editor's note: Read more about the statue in this FPMT news article and on Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Facebook page.]