My very dear Patricia,
I'm sorry for the long delay in replying. I have received your letter and information. What a great success, that you got approval from the city for the peace park, through it being cultural and not religious. That is a great thing. I very much like the universal peace wheel. Actually, this title is even better because it fits with all the traditions in the world.

Regarding the offer of help that you received, it is great he offered to help, but I would prefer it to be made of copper. The prayer wheel should be extremely nicely designed. The mantras and design on the outside should be gold leaf or gilded with gold. The top part of the prayer wheel should have the painted animals holding jewels (see most prayer wheel designs to see what I am referring to. I can also send you photos).

Regarding the mantra on the outside of the prayer wheel, this should be in English, as well in Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, and Vietnamese. Then, it’s up to you; it doesn't have to be in every language, otherwise the letters would become very small. All the letters should be done extremely well.

I will send you some advice regarding different mantras and texts to go inside prayer wheels. If you can please make yours like this as well. The largest amount of mantras should be “mani” mantras. It would be great to be able to have 1000 billion mani mantras inside.

This is my advice regarding the art: at the bottom of each of the steps in the four directions, leading to the prayer wheel, have two snow lions (Chinese Fu dogs), like the ones they have outside monasteries. I don’t mean African lions, I mean snow lions. Make sure they are facing out.

On the different roofs you can have garlands of different colored Christmas lights hanging, bright, nice ones in the shape of a garland. I can send you a photo if you are not sure. On the tips of the corners of the roofs have different colored lights, a bit pointed at the end, but round in the middle.

It would be good to have a canopy of five colors around the top of the first roof, made from Chinese silk (not a thick material). It can be hanging up so it does not distract from the view of the prayer wheel. Also you can have five different wide scarves, each a different one of the five colors, so they hang down from the prayer wheel (my attendant can send photos or explain if any of this is not clear).

On top of the canopy can be a garland of fake (or real) pearls, that have two hanging strings at the end of each garland (this is traditional on most prayer wheels).

It is good to have more “mani” mantras, because it is wish-fulfilling, especially for developing compassion for all sentient beings, to bring peace and happiness, temporal and ultimate happiness, for all sentient beings in the whole world.

You could have different statues in the park, like:

• St. Francis—to inspire contentment (the opposite of desire), and to inspire loving kindness for others
• Mahatma Gandhi—to inspire patience, how to solve problems with patience in a peaceful way, and how to solve global problems
• Mother Mary and baby Jesus—to inspire loving kindness
• Jesus on the cross (you could include the words of compassion he was saying when he was being crucified)
• White Tara—an extremely beautiful one, for long life, so people can come and make prayers for a long life
• Green Tara—for success
• Medicine Buddha—for healing
• Maitreya Buddha—for loving kindness, a smiling one
• Mother Teresa

You can think of other people who inspire patience, etc.

You can have different messages in the park from the Dharma, from Jesus, and other traditions, such as quotes from A Guid to the Bodhisattva Way of Life and sayings of the Buddha. In this way, people who come to the park can find solutions to their problems: relationship problems, business problems, all sorts of problems, and find peace and happiness. Also, you could have the picture of the Buddha giving his body to the tigress, offering charity.

These are just ideas, so you can think about them. It is important to think how the weather will affect things and try to do it all in the best way. 

It would be very good before you build the prayer wheel to bless the ground first, so maybe I can do this. I could go there and perform the puja.

It is great. I am very happy with your success. See what happens, and if there are things that you need help with or want to discuss, then contact me.

With much love and prayers...