Statues

Rinpoche emphasized that welcoming Amitabha Buddha to the land is very important, and he asked that you please prepare for an auspicious arrival of Amitabha at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land retreat center.

Have a procession. Students can form a procession with incense and music, and invite Amitabha to the place. Do this as the truck is coming up the driveway.

Once the statue is installed, sit in front of it and do these prayers to Amitabha:

• Extensive seven-limb prayer with extensive offerings
• Mandala offering
• Praise to Amitabha, by Lama Tsongkhapa
• Foundation of all Good Qualities
• King of Prayers
• Final Lamrim Dedication

[Note: You can read more about the arrival of the Amitabha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land in FPMT Community News.]

My very dear, wish-fulfilling one,
By now you must have reached halfway to the enlightenment. The Twenty-one Taras statue in my room is made according to one artist who learned painting from a dream. The art is very nice, he definitely knew it well. The problem is that the statue looks down, which is regarded as dangerous. The statue was made a long time ago for the success of the Maitreya Project.

I had other statues made for success now at the nunnery, and they were for preparation for the success. But I forgot about them for so many years. The statues were lost temporarily, but I got them again. Now they are in my room on the altar until the Maitreya statue happens.

One very high lama in Tibet said the statue’s head should not be looking down, otherwise it’s very dangerous, for the center or the family that owns it—they can lose wealth etc, and even the artist can lose. So he advised that. The Tibetan man came to see me in my room and he told me how bad it is to have the head looking down.

I had never heard this before, so I asked the artist to make new one. He said it was expensive and suggested putting wood under the front of the statue so the head doesn’t look down. So we corrected it that way. The nun must know this. So the statue can be copied from these ones, but not with the head pointing down.

With much love and prayers...

Before climbing, you can ask permission from Guru Rinpoche and think that he has accepted. It’s okay to climb on the statue because of the purpose. When you climb on the statue visualize yourself as a deity, so not as ordinary. 

My very dear Adrianne,
So many people have visited the Jade Buddha, it is really amazing. It is really having an effect in the world. So many millions of people in Vietnam came to see it. It has brought so much benefit to the world.

Many people also go to see the holy Maitreya Buddha statue in Gum, Sikkim and receive so much benefit. Even though the tourists don’t have faith in Buddha, they plant the seed of seeing Maitreya, which is so beneficial.

The Jade Buddha has been so very, very, very, very, very beneficial. It also depends where it is seen. So many negative karmas are purified for so many people and so much merit is collected, just by seeing this buddha.

In the Sutra of the Mudra of Developing the Power of Devotion, Buddha said that if someone makes an offering of 100 devas’ food and nectar, and 100 devas’ dresses, which are unbelievably precious—there is not enough wealth in this world, even if all the human wealth is put together, to buy even one deva dress—if these are offered every day to solitary realizer arhats, the merit is equal to the number of sand grains in the universe.

It is so amazing! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow! Now, think about the universe, the sun and moon etc, to get an idea how much merit we collect. Wow! So now, just by seeing a statue or painting of the Buddha, we collect numberless greater merit than all the previous merit mentioned.

You helped all those people to collect so much merit, so rejoice. Please tell the students and Geshe-la—those who did the hard work—to enjoy and rejoice. Thank you for making this event manifest. Thank you very much.

My dearest John,
This is an example for the Buddha’s eyes. Of course, the actual “I” of the Buddha is beyond, not just this (eye).

You can put color in the two corners, more or less like this. It should be painted more round. I made a little mistake and it is not very neat. It is very important that the Buddha’s eye is not wide, but fine and narrow, half-opened and half-closed. This signifies that Buddha is in equipoise meditation on emptiness, while at the same time working for sentient beings. Only Buddha can do that because he is free from all the defilements: gross and subtle. Half-closed means in equipoise meditation, half-opened means working for sentient beings.

I have put gold between, assuming the color of the statue is gold. The first part still needs to be finer. This is just to give an idea, my dear.

I hope that drawing Buddha’s eyes will quickly bring you the omniscient “I,” causing all sentient beings to have the wisdom “I,” liberation from samsara, enlightenment, all the enjoyments, money and any material possession, wealth, liberation (realization of the path), and liberation (cessation of all suffering and its causes).

With much love and prayers...

My most kind wish-fulfilling benefactor,
I am extremely happy with your help and service. Thank you for very kindly taking this responsibility and taking such strong interest in building this most exciting, most glowing, most liberating, most powerful statue.

This statue not only brings peace, happiness, and freedom but also it will affect the whole world. Already His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives so much guidance and compassion to the world. He has an immeasurable impact on the rest of the world, especially through the education he gives about Buddhism, which has the complete path to enlightenment and offers complete wisdom, understanding, what brings happiness and what brings suffering, as well as understanding the ultimate nature of phenomena and the “I.” This wisdom relieves all sufferings, such as the suffering of birth and death, of never being satisfied, as well as all the fears that arise around desirable objects. When the mental continuum is free from delusion and karma and their seeds, then we are totally free from all suffering. This is what Buddha has shown in order to benefit all sentient beings, who are as many as the stars in the sky at night. So, it is right now that we can practice the path and attain enlightenment. Our own experience is that when we meditate correctly all the negative emotional thoughts are freed – this is the proof that we can be free of all suffering; it is not just blind faith.

Buddhism says you are the creator, you are the guide, you are your own enemy, in essence you are your own guide to enlightenment, you are also your own enemy creating problems and suffering. So, the need is to change one’s own mind. Sorry I am talking for a long time; this is a bit of a side talk on Buddhism. The main thing is that your help with this project makes it possible to accomplish this and be of unbelievable benefit. I would like to mention here how we could also create a Pure Land temple – this would be fantastic.

If you can accomplish this project it would be so, so, so pleasing to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Buddha of Compassion. For yourself, there would be incredible purification and in all your lives you would be guided by Chenrezig, you would be under the care of Chenrezig, so this is an unbelievable opportunity. What else is there to do in this life? This would be an incredible legacy that you would leave behind and that would exist for at least 1000 years. Over time, millions, perhaps billions, of people would come to this place, and there would be incredible benefit for them – so much negative karma and defilements would be purified. Millions of people would have the opportunity to create unbelievable merit. When you think about it, this is such a great thing. It is incredible!

Wherever you are in different lives in the future you would continue to receive the benefit and you would be continuously bringing peace and happiness to others.

My prayers to you and your family and my deepest heartfelt thanks and appreciation.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

PS: If there is going to be a restaurant, I would very much like it to be vegetarian. This is my request. I don’t want animals to suffer in this situation, and I do think the people who visit the park will understand and it will be suitable for them. They will respect this philosophy and we can, I am sure, offer the most delicious vegetarian food. Again, from my heart, I thank you.