Stupas

Rinpoche read your email and looked at your photos of the stupa last night. Rinpoche asked that I send you some pictures of the stupas at his house in USA, to give you more of an example of how they should look, especially the base and also how to utilize the base to display many more tsa-tsas, so that people can circumambulate and generate merit. [See Stupas in Everyday Life and How to Make Talking on the Phone Beneficial.]

Rinpoche said also you can have a stupa anywhere where it can be used, so you can go around it even when you are on the telephone, at the office, so you are not wasting time and at least with your body you are collecting merit, because the action of the body is going around the stupa when you are talking. This is an unbelievable way to purify negative karma and create the cause of enlightenment and bodhicitta, at least with your body.

Rinpoche said please see the very easy examples of how to make the stupa very beautiful and inspiring. Rinpoche said please continue to make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta and he sends you his love and prayers.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling Jenny,
Thank you very, very much for your kind letter. A billion, zillion, trillion, numberless thanks from my heart and bones that you circumambulated Boudha Stupa 1,000 times. This is unbelievable, unbelievable. I wish I could do that. Dagri Rinpoche tries to circumambulate when he goes to Nepal, even to the extent of getting wounds on his feet, until blood comes.

The monk who is the leader of pujas at Kopan monastery, his mother lives at Boudha and circumambulates the stupa 100 times each day. Of course she is reciting mantras and going around the stupa with a mind having renounced this life, so that is the purest Dharma. Then you die with no problems; you die with the greatest happiness in the life.

Thank you very, very, very much. Also, a billion, zillion, trillion thanks to you for being the most beneficial, most practical clown at the center, to make the center beneficial for sentient beings.

And especially—wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, amazing, amazing, amazing—you and four other people becoming vegetarian. Thank you very much. I want to offer skies filled with wish-granting jewels to these four people, to thank them. Now the animals have less suffering as there are less people eating meat, so that means less animals are being killed. If there are no people eating meat, then there is no killing. Even though there is so much to say about the benefits, this is a simple thing that you can see.

Please continue to live your life with the thought of bodhicitta in every action that you do.

With much love and prayers...

Dear Maria,
This advice is for your son. I checked in Nepal, probably weeks ago now, but forgot to inform you.

The observation came out to save, or liberate, the lives of animals; not only liberating them from the suffering of being killed, but more importantly, liberating them from being reborn in the lower realms—as a hell being, hungry ghost or animal. You are liberating them from samsara; and liberating them from the lower nirvana, the blissful state of peace; then bringing them to enlightenment. You can help the animals in an unbelievable way, not only liberating them but bringing them to enlightenment.

P__ should liberate 10 animals. It might be difficult for you to buy sheep or chickens. Chickens are difficult because they live by eating worms, unless you can keep them in a house with a floor so that there are no worms and feed them with grain. However, you can liberate little animals like insects. Goats you would have to look after, but you can buy insects in Kathmandu or thousands of worms and different sizes of fish.

It’s most important to take them around Boudha Stupa or Swayambhunath Stupa and the mountain, which is Heruka’s mandala. It is so, so precious. Inside it is a crystal stupa that appeared when Kathmandu was a lake. Buddha came to Langru mountain and made a prediction, and Nagarjuna’s hair was sprinkled there and became trees.

Take the animals around as many times as possible. Each time you are giving enlightenment to those hundreds or thousands of insects and small fish. They get all the happiness. It purifies their negative karma, saves them from the lower realms and they get a higher rebirth. They are liberated from samsara, from the lower realms. They are liberated from the lower liberation and achieve enlightenment. You are giving them enlightenment according to how many times you go around the holy objects.

It is also helping you, because going around the holy objects purifies your negative karma accumulated during beginningless rebirths and enables you to accumulate inconceivable merit, the cause of all the happiness up to enlightenment. So, the animals are very kind, very precious.

This happens with one stupa, statue or scripture. Of course Boudha Stupa has an unimaginable number of holy objects, so many holy objects. There are many relics of different buddhas at Boudha Stupa. You can’t imagine how many holy objects are there, so you are circumambulating all those holy objects.

If there are 1,000 holy objects (statues, stupas, scriptures), by taking those 1,000 or 10,000 insects or worms around those holy objects, you are giving all of those animals enlightenment. You are causing them to create the cause of enlightenment 1,000 times.

If there are 100,000 holy objects, such as tsa-tsas and so forth, by circumambulating one time, you are causing them to create the cause of enlightenment 100,000 times. This is by going around even one time. This is most amazing.

Boudha Stupa has many, many unbelievable holy objects, including Buddhas’ relics, and it has been blessed by so many holy beings. Swayambhunath Stupa, which is the most precious object in Nepal, has many big stupas around it, with many tsa-tsas and mantras, and many large prayer wheels. It is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. It creates so many causes of enlightenment, and so many causes of happiness by the way, up to enlightenment.

So the people in Nepal who circumambulate these stupas are most fortunate, and anyone from outside Nepal who circumambulates the stupas is also most fortunate.

So, that’s it. Thank you very much. I want to speak to your son when he has time, when he is free. A private talk. When I hear from him, I will write down answers and he can read them from time to time.

With much love and prayer to P__. Please give my regards to everybody in the family.

Questions 

1. Can the base (ie cremation box) be filled with the four dharmakaya relic mantras? The reason for this is the stupa will not have very much space inside for mantras. Can the whole base and the throne the stupa rests on be filled with these mantras, or should some tsa-tsas be used, or should the cremation part be like a wealth vase?
2. To confirm: the plan is to fill the stupa only with the four dharmakaya relic mantras, not the 27 normal mantras that are often in stupas.

Rinpoche's response

Fill the throne (the cremation base) as usual, like a wealth vase. On the basis of filling the throne like a wealth vase, also include a naga vase and deva vase inside that, if possible.

The other things that you put inside the throne (cremation box base) need to be of very good quality. Include precious materials, not secondhand things—include new things that are symbolic, like a new dress, the best quality brocades, five-colored cloths; anything new and symbolic of wealth, and things that people wear and use.

In relation to protection, include toy guns, knives and weapons that are used for protection. In terms of wealth, you can include toy cars, airplanes, etc, or anything that symbolizes wealth.

If you can, include lots of globes of the world, as well as pictures of world leaders, famous people, wealthy people, etc, but not dictators, negative people, or people who are against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. You should also include medicines.

Don’t put things in the throne that have belonged to anyone who could have a bad relationship with either His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe or me (Lama Zopa), otherwise this can create pollution.

Of course, you can put in many holy objects, like tsa-tsas, but they must not be damaged. Do not put anything in that could be considered Dharma rubbish, like old texts, missing text pages, broken tsa-tsas, broken holy objects, etc.

Everything has to be blessed before it is put inside the stupa. Also, you have to do gegtor (torma offering to spirits) to make sure any gegs (obstructing forces) are removed.

In regards to the mantras, put in as many of the four dharmakaya relic mantras as you can, mainly around the life tree and inside the stupa. In particular, if you are able to put in 100,000 of the Completely Pure Stainless Light Mantra, these should be mainly stacked around the life tree. Make sure you keep the mantras the right way up.

Put in as much as you can; whatever you can manage. You only need to have these mantras, not the other normal mantras that are inside stupas. Do not put these mantras in the base (throne), instead put them above, in the stupa itself. You must do it well. It is very important to place the mantras neatly and the right way up.

In the vase part of the stupa (this means the face of the vase), if possible, put a statue of Lama Yeshe. You mentioned you had a mala. It came out best to have the crystal mala nicely draped around the Lama Yeshe statue in the vase, in the new stupa.

My dear friends, brother and sisters,
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.

We can build stupas to inspire people without even teaching Dharma. However many hundreds and billions of years the holy object lasts, it continues to liberate many sentient beings every day, freeing them from the lower realms, causing them to actualize the path, liberating them from samsara and bringing them to enlightenment. After we die, even if we are in another universe, in the hell realms or a pure land, wherever we are, the stupa that we built or helped to build, is continually benefiting sentient beings. It is incredible how we can continually benefit sentient beings by building a stupa.

From the Flower Garland Sutra:

Whatever one offers [to a stupa], whether it is tiny or big, it causes happiness from beginningless rebirth up to now.

This refers to temporary happiness and on top of that the cause of ultimate happiness—liberation from suffering and causes of suffering, and full enlightenment, for the sake of all sentient beings. Then we are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from suffering and bring them to enlightenment, so of course this includes achieving worldly people's small happiness; it is all contained here.

These are some of the benefits we get by helping to build this stupa.

With much love and prayers...

Especially important is the benefit to others from these holy objects. Because we can't see the Buddha now directly, this is something substantial that we can see, a manifestation of Buddha's holy mind. It becomes so easy for us to purify and create merit with such holy objects. Even insects are able to purify negative karma and collect merit and create the cause to achieve enlightenment.

The dust, rain, anything that touches the stupa and then touches others is the cause of purification, and helps us achieve a higher rebirth. Anyone who sees, touches, dreams of, or thinks of this stupa plants the seed of enlightenment and becomes meaningful to behold.

In the Buddha’s teachings, it says that the benefits of making holy objects are like the limitless sky. The very essence of this is the benefits that Buddha explained to King Indrabodhi, which is: however many atoms there are inside the stupa or statue of Buddha, that many lifetimes will you be reborn as a king, human, or in the deva realms. You also create that many causes of perfect concentration, including shamatha and different levels of meditative states of the form and formless realms, as there are atoms in the statue or stupa. Also, you create that many causes to achieve the Aryan path and that many causes to achieve enlightenment.

Building statues is like creating Buddha’s holy body, and building stupas is like creating Buddha’s holy mind. In one spoon of earth, there are so many atoms, so you can imagine how many atoms there are in a stupa. That is how many causes you create to achieve enlightenment.

Every day, those sentient beings who see the stupas and statues plant the seed of enlightenment. It is said that even if you dream of a stupa, it plants the seed of enlightenment. This is mainly due to the power of the holy object. It is said in the King of the Concentration Sutra that even if one sees a drawing of a stupa (even out of anger), it causes you to see ten million buddhas in the future. That means it is purifying the mind and causing you to see numberless buddhas and create numberless causes to actualize the path, become enlightened, and lead all sentient beings to enlightenment. Of course, those who prostrate, bow down, and pay respect, even with one hand, to a holy object are brought to enlightenment (and have many future good rebirths), because each of those actions creates inconceivable merit, as much as they are performed. Because one has created inconceivable merit, it takes care even of this life, without clinging to it.

It is said even a person who remembers a stupa is purified. These are such amazing things. When you come to know these benefits, then you know how this stupa makes it so easy to liberate sentient beings, to bring them to enlightenment, and save them from the lower realms of samsara. It is the best thing for healing cancer and sicknesses, for healing in general.

Holy objects, in complete silence, not involving talking, liberate 100,000 sentient beings every day from samsara, saving them from the lower realms. Holy objects purify karma just by seeing them. They purify the mind and plant the seed of the path to liberation. That’s how stupas liberate beings each day. Every day, holy objects bring sentient beings to enlightenment. Enlightenment doesn’t happen like a click of the fingers, but by seeing holy objects, it plants the imprint to actualize the path and achieve enlightenment. Every day they bring sentient beings to enlightenment. They work for sentient beings naturally, all the time, including animals and insects who touch the stupa with the mantras inside; even touching its shadow purifies killing your father or mother.

When water (rain) touches the stupa it becomes holy water. It is the same with the wind that touches the stupa and then touches sentient beings; it purifies the karma of the ten non-virtuous actions. It is the same with dust, even without the being it touches having a virtuous thought.

Even if the holy object is destroyed, during the days, months, years, or 100,000 years of its existence, so many sentient beings get so much benefit from that positive imprint. These positive imprints, still working on them, cause them to meet the guru, actualize the path, etc, until they achieve enlightenment. Even if the holy object doesn’t exist any more, the effect is still working on the being. Then, that being helps bring other sentient beings to enlightenment.

Holy objects make it so easy for sentient beings to achieve realizations and enlightenment, no matter how much negative karma they collect, and how many negative deeds they do. They give hope in life. We can see very clearly what an incredible opportunity and hope we have in our life. Through holy objects, the resulting benefit of every single action is inconceivable and immeasurable, creating the cause of happiness, because the object has inconceivable qualities, like the limitless sky. Because of that, everything you do regarding a holy object, such as prostrations, has benefits as vast as the sky.