Building at the Center

For the four harmonious brothers that you are going to build, the elephant should offer a few apples with a durian in the center, on the end of its upraised trunk.

The monkey should be taking an apple from the elephant with one hand and giving an apple to the rabbit with the other upraised hand.

The rabbit should be taking the apple from the monkey with one hand and giving smaller fruit, maybe grapes, to the bird with its other upraised hand.

The bird is holding grapes in its mouth.

In this way the animals are helping each other through giving and it shows harmony.

There should be a big sign with the benefits of having the four harmonious brothers. At the end of the benefits, it should say: "When there’s a lot of disharmony in a Dharma center, an office, a company or a family, then you should put pictures of the four harmonious brothers around. This helps to bring harmony and success."

The four brothers have to be happy, pleased, not sad animals. The bird should not be a chicken but a bird that flies. And it seems the animals don’t have to be in a particular order.

Having Rinpoche present there at that time is, of course, a great blessing, but from a practical point of view, what is also very important is choosing the correct day for initiating the construction and then also checking if there are going to be any obstacles in the construction phase and, if so, which pujas can be done to remove those obstacles.

The next thing that should be done is an earth-breaking ceremony on the land before the actual construction begins. This is an important ceremony for receiving permission from other beings who may inhabit that land, asking their permission to build so they will not cause obstacles in the future.

To choose the right day we have a very qualified geshe who is able to choose the right day astrologically very accurately, so if you give him the time reference he can choose the best day within that period of time.

These are the main things from a practical point of view, to ensure that we choose the most auspicious time and no obstacles will happen.

Do the naga torma offering and the landlord torma offering, asking for permission. However, according to the observation [Tib: mo] it seems there are still obstacles.

You will need to recite the Tengyur first, with half read by the Kopan nuns and half read by the monks.

My very dear one,
I want to thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for happily taking on the responsibility of the new center building—our new pure land!

It came out good for both you and __ to work together. The time when you are busy going to the pure land, bringing sentient beings there. You transform them in the pure land, then bring them back to the human realm to work for peace.

Each and every merit that sentient beings receive, that they create by coming to the temple—every cause of enlightenment, liberation, future lives’ happiness, every single purification, every single positive imprint of the path to enlightenment, listening to the Dharma, praying, circambulating, prostrating and making offerings at the temple—you should know that all this is also coming from your effort, your dedication and service.

In other words you should think you are giving numberless benefits to others throughout the years, for as long as the building exists. For that many years, benefits will come and spread to the world. It is similar for the other people working for the center. They should also think in the same way. You are offering incredible benefits to sentient beings!

I will pray for success.

With much love and prayer... 

My very dear Jim,
Thank you very much for completing the stupa. The prayer wheels are also a very good idea. All these activities continuously benefit sentient beings and bring them to enlightenment, so I thank you very, very much. It’s so good to have many different ways to benefit sentient beings.

Of course, Brian is a good help. He also helped with a very beautiful altar at another center. His talent is very good and he has a lot of experience.

A billion thanks to both of you and to all those people who have been helping there.

With much love and prayer...

PS: This also helps so much to quickly purify negative karma. The stupa looks so good.

There are quite a number of pujas that need to be done just prior to starting the renovations. In some cases, pujas need to be performed while the renovations are being done.

In general, for all this renovation work, you need to do the following practices on the land, in the area of the renovations and before the renovations begin:

• She nyin dü dog: three times
• Gyab shi: three times
• Read the eight thousand stanzas of the Prajnaparamita three times

Regarding expanding the gompa and dining room, it’s important to do:

• The four pujas of the four protectors: three times
• Drugchuma puja: eight times

While the renovations are actually being done, it’s important to do:

• Protector puja and tea offerings each day, in particular degyä, prior to the renovations, and daily while the renovations are being done.

For Zone B, you need to do:

• Four Mandala Offerings to Tara and also protector prayers, as well as degyä and the protector prayers. Degyä should be done on a daily basis while the renovations are being done

Prior to the renovations in Zone B, you need to do Drugchuma puja three times.