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...

Padmasambhava said:

Listen, beautiful one having the form of a goddess,
Those sentient beings who have not met me,
Then statues of me in the future,
Will become the light, eliminating the darkness of ignorance.

Whoever builds such statues of me,
That becomes an object of offering.
All their future lives will become meaningful,
And they will establish the banner of the teachings.

Whoever generates the wish of devotional respect,
All their wishes will come true, like piles of jewels.
There is no increasing or decreasing, unchangeable, filled with bliss.

One who daily recites the heart mantra,
Exactly all goodness will flow,
How wonderful, Em Ah !