Teachings from the Medicine Buddha Retreat (Audio and Unedited Transcripts)

By Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Soquel, CA 2001 (Archive #1331)

The audio recordings offered here are of the teachings which form the basis of the book Teachings From the Medicine Buddha Retreat.

The teachings which form Chapters 8 through 10 are included. Rinpoche gives teachings on a variety of topics such as making offerings and meditating on emptiness.

Chapter 9: Bendigo Stupa Project Presentation

Wednesday October 31

I would like to introduce, from Australia, from Bendigo Center, maybe can you introduce just about the stupa, just the essence. Huh? Maybe just the, maybe you come up here. Maybe just.… [pause]

So this is Ian and Judy. So, from Lama Yeshe’s time, much, much before, so, well, just introduce, so Lama came to Bendigo and Ian offered the place to build a monastery and so Lama said to build a stupa, right? Then, anyway, so long time ago; then I didn’t know that Lama has told that so I came Bendigo those early, many years ago then I said it would be very good to build a large stupa there. Dr. Adrian he built the monastery that was done. So the next request that Ian has, last time that I was in Australia Ian has already laid the foundations? What do you call, fertilized? [RL] Anyway, we can say it now.

Ian Green: Thank you very much, Rinpoche. So, as Rinpoche mentioned, I am Ian and Judy is over there. So twenty years ago last August, which is just a couple of months ago, Lama Yeshe was in Australia and my family had just offered fifty acres of land to Lama Yeshe. And Lama walked around the site and he laid out this master plan there in August 1981 for a center, a Dharma center, and also for a large monastery and for a hospice and a lay community. And right in the middle of this was to be what Lama described as a big stupa. And he said inside this big stupa was to be a big gompa and also a library.

And so then we were looking, so since then, since that twenty years, we’ve been developing our center and also some three or four years ago Dr. Adrian, Thubten Gyatso, built the first stage of the monastery there in Bendigo and also the lay community is just starting to happen at the moment. And a small group is working on the hospice. So most of the plan that Lama laid out for us is happening.

Then some, I think maybe eight years ago or something, we hadn’t decided what this big stupa should look like and then Rinpoche said that this was his idea for the big stupa. This is the Gyangtse Kumbum and this was built in the fourteen hundred and, sorry, you can’t all see this, it was built in, oh, excuse me, it’s not very auspicious, in fourteen fifty something in Gyantse by Rabten Kunsing who was a prince of Gyantse. And so we are building that to exactly the same size and externally exactly the same appearance. It’s in feet, it’s about 150 feet high and approximately 150, 160 feet square or fifty meters for those of you who know meters, 50 meters square and almost 50 meters high. Inside the, ours will be a three-story high gompa and that gompa will seat 500 people and at the edge of the, at the end as you walk in will be a large three-story high Buddha with light coming down around.

This is the stage we’re at, at the moment, so this is the, it looks a bit from the distance and from the air, it looks like a spaceship has crashed into the bush. But it’s not. It’s actually, in the middle there are little dots up the top, you might be able to see three or four little dots, I’ll just hold my hand like there, where my fingers are pointing and they’re bulldozers, big earth moving equipment.

The inner circle is where the stupa will be located. The three rings around that are for circumambulation, a ling korwa. And around those circumambulation paths on the retaining walls are one hundred thousand small stupas [Rinpoche: Nothing unusual. Nothing unusual. Nothing new!] I am pleased there is no more. One hundred thousand, one hundred thousand small stupas and five thousand larger stupas and also many prayer wheels as well.

So that’s the essence of the… [Rinpoche: I thought 100,000 prayer wheels?] Yes, you did say that, but I, I was hoping that you might have forgotten. Yes, well, it’s very difficult to fit one hundred thousand prayer wheels. Unless they are very, very small, which I know Rinpoche doesn’t want.

The project is well under way in terms of construction. This, I will just hold it up, but it won’t mean anything except that it looks impressive. So this is the time line chart for the construction of the stupa. And what this shows is that construction will, actual concrete in the ground now in those, that earth works will happen next year. And then in two and half years the construction will commence with initially just building the gompa part as a functioning building and then from there the other, the rest of the building will be built in stages and so that with an ultimate completion of the building in 2010. So that’s the schedule and on paper it all seems to work very effectively, so, yes, so that’s what we’re doing and Judy and I have been travelling around India and around America telling people like yourselves about the project and we’ve also been offered some very fine, wonderful relics and holy objects for the stupa. And we’ve had many great offers of support. So this is part of a very much ongoing program and I’m just letting people know about the stupa and just gaining support for around, around the world. And here in America we’ve had absolutely fantastic support from the people we’ve met over in Colorado and in New Mexico, with their stupas and sharing information and also backing us as much as they possibly can as well. Rinpoche: What happened in India?

Ian: Oh, okay. The reason we went to India was that we took a large model of the stupa, two meters square, which is six or seven feet, seven feet something like that square and from this space up to about this high. One of the monks in Bendigo worked on this for about four months and then four volunteers painted it beautifully. We then air freighted it to Delhi, which was far and away the most expensive part because everything else was volunteered. And then of course getting it out of Delhi airport was really another expensive, time-consuming.... And there was a lot of trouble getting it there and Judy and I had US$500 stolen and many other things. Then just sort of things like that happened.

But anyway we got it to Kushinagar where, which many of you will know is where the Buddha passed away in paranirvana. And there is a very large Indian, sorry, a Buddhist museum, and so they have a new international wing in the museum and our stupa is sitting there right in the middle on permanent display in the Indian museum. And, huh? At Kushinagar. So Kushinagar is one the four holiest places of Buddha, where Buddha said that it’s good for Buddhists to make pilgrimage. So and also it’s where he was cremated. And before he was cremated he gave instructions on how his, what was to be done with his ashes and which was of course to make stupas with them. So the whole birth of the Buddhist stupa tradition began in Kushinagar.

And there were representatives from His Holiness’s the Dalai Lama’s Office there, and who were very supportive and also people from the U.P. government, Uttar Pradesh government and even people from the Australian High Commission came, so it was a big thing. And then afterwards we traveled to other places in India, including Dharamsala.

Okay? [Rinpoche: Great. It was great.] Thank you. [Round of applause.]

Ian and Judy both are, I mean beside their great task taking this Gyantse, this Gyantse in Tibet is very interesting. I don’t know much about but so much has been destroyed already. But there is a place, a Kalachakra temple, I think there is also Medicine Buddha, I’m not sure, there is also Gelug and there is also other traditions, just in that area, combination like that. It’s very interesting. A very, very interesting place, different college, monastery different deities practice. Very, very inspiring.

So then in the stupa you go round, there’s different lower tantra, anuttara tantra, maha-anuttara, different deities. I think, I’ not sure, there are about, I don’t know, about 60 or 37, right? Deities, do you know how many? Gyangtse? When you go round? I think 30 or 60. [Inaudible comments from Ian and Judy.] Different deities of the different levels of tantra. It’s very interesting. Now so much is destroyed, you see ruins like that. The main, the stupa is not destroyed fortunately but many _______ are destroyed.

So beside that, beside the stupas, the great task which, work, most amazing, not only general in the world but especially in Australia, so I think it’s.... Near Chenrezig Institute there is papaya, not papaya, pineapple, near Chenrezig Institute there is a pineapple, there is a huge pineapple, I think might be a size of a house? There is a huge pineapple and this pineapple, people come from all over the world to see this pineapple, right, Anila Ann? Thousands of people come each year. Thousands of people come each year to see this pineapple, this big pineapple. So, of course, then of course they come to pineapple, then I mean what do they get? I mean, it’s nothing.

But when they come to Bendigo, there are one hundred thousand stupas and prayer wheels and so many holy objects. So when they go round they go back with many hundred thousands of causes of enlightenment planted in their mind when they go back and so many negative karmas purified, so much negative karma is purified. So, so much preparation done even as tourist, even who doesn’t have any devotion just, so much preparation is done in the mind to achieve enlightenment.

So besides this, and besides this incredible inspiring this thing, they, very, Judy, I remember when I was in the past when I was coming to Bendigo working so hard for the center, Atisha Centre, it’s called Atisha Centre, for a long time, for many years. So I have that strong imprint in the mind [RL] their hard work, service.

So I think that’s it. So I want to thank, really from bottom of my heart, thank very, very much. For so many years of dedicating to the center as well as especially for this project, actualizing Lama’s original wishes.

Then, somebody has a question?

[Questions from audience and replies from Ian both inaudible.]

So, thank you so much. Good night, good morning.