Stupas

My most dear, most precious, most kind wish-fulfilling one one,
How are you? I heard your two dogs are very old and sick. I was thinking if you can build something like these stupas that I have at my front door. [See Stupas in Everyday Life for advice and photos.]

The dogs can go around and even your husband can go around, but maybe you don’t need to mention the benefits of going around, you can just mention that it is for his health. In reality by just walking around a stupa even one time, so many eons of heavy negative karma collected from beginningless rebirth gets purified and we collect extensive merits every time we go around it. That makes it possible to achieve enlightenment.

Inside the stupas can be many tsa tsas, many small pictures of Buddha printed on clay or made from plaster. Inside the stupas there can be so many tsa tsas, and outside also. Every stupa is not empty inside; it is filled with many mantras, with the most precious mantras, the four dharmakaya relic mantras, which have unbelievable, unbelievable benefits explained by Buddha. Even going around a holy object one time with these mantras inside, we don’t get reborn in the lower realms and there are many more extensive benefits.

Your husband can go around and you can tell him a story to distract his mind so he can go around, as there is so much benefit. Maybe you have better ideas how to take him around. Each time we go around a stupa it really definitely brings us to enlightenment. Then it is also so important for your dogs.

The stupas don’t need to be expensive and you don’t need much space. This way of making stupas is very simple. You just have a box and fill it with tsa tsas and other stupas, and ten of these can have one stupa on top and many around. If you look at the pictures you will see how I have done it. Also there is a picture of the stupa with a rainbow roof at the back of my house. We built that stupa many years ago.

The story of this stupa is that Roger thought we should have a dog. I said if Buddhists keep a dog then after it dies it should not go to the lower realms, it should have higher rebirth, so if that is the case then it’s good to have a dog. So then I suggested that we build a stupa at the back of the house, so that the dog can circumambulate the stupa. One monk called Brian built the stupa, which is a little bit like the Borobudur stupa in Indonesia. It’s a little like that, but it has a Kadampa stupa on the top. The base design is not like the regular eight kinds of stupas, but more like the Borobudur stupa. Every two weeks the stupa is cleaned very well, all the dust is taken off and the statues and smaller stupas on it are taken off and cleaned well.

If you can, first make a small one, that would be very good for the dogs, to bring the dogs around, then they get a higher rebirth when they die. This is the best thing to do for them. If you do want to build something like this, then we can try to send you tsa tsas from here. We can prepare the tsa tsas and send them. You can communicate with one nun here, she makes tsa tsas and stupas every day for sick people and for people who have passed away. I send her the names and she makes the tsa tsas to purify those who have died, to get a higher rebirth and to achieve enlightenment, and to help those who are sick. So we try to dedicate and offer this for people.

I am sending you some photos, please enjoy them. Now I am going to Italy to receive His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to take teachings, then I will give long-life initiation for the center people and at the end I will go to the United Kingdom and give Heruka initiation, and then come back to USA. Then I will go to Australia, then maybe go to Nepal for the November course and then maybe India for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings, something like that.

With much love and prayers...

Rinpoche read your email and looked at your photos of the stupa last night. Rinpoche asked that I send you some pictures of the stupas at his house in USA, to give you more of an example of how they should look, especially the base and also how to utilize the base to display many more tsa-tsas, so that people can circumambulate and generate merit. [See Stupas in Everyday Life and How to Make Talking on the Phone Beneficial.]

Rinpoche said also you can have a stupa anywhere where it can be used, so you can go around it even when you are on the telephone, at the office, so you are not wasting time and at least with your body you are collecting merit, because the action of the body is going around the stupa when you are talking. This is an unbelievable way to purify negative karma and create the cause of enlightenment and bodhicitta, at least with your body.

Rinpoche said please see the very easy examples of how to make the stupa very beautiful and inspiring. Rinpoche said please continue to make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta and he sends you his love and prayers.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you very, very much for your kind letter. A billion, zillion, trillion, numberless thanks from my heart and bones that you circumambulated Boudha Stupa 1,000 times. This is unbelievable, unbelievable. I wish I could do that. Dagri Rinpoche tries to circumambulate when he goes to Nepal, even to the extent of getting wounds on his feet, until blood comes.

The monk who is the leader of pujas at Kopan monastery, his mother lives at Boudha and circumambulates the stupa one hundred times each day. Of course she is reciting mantras and going around the stupa with a mind having renounced this life, so that is the purest Dharma. Then you die with no problems; you die with the greatest happiness in the life.

Thank you very, very, very much. Also, a billion, zillion, trillion thanks to you for being the most beneficial, most practical clown at the center, to make the center beneficial for sentient beings.

And especially—wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, amazing, amazing, amazing—you and four other people becoming vegetarian. Thank you very much. I want to offer skies filled with wish-granting jewels to these four people, to thank them. Now the animals have less suffering as there are less people eating meat, so that means less animals are being killed. If there are no people eating meat, then there is no killing. Even though there is so much to say about the benefits, this is a simple thing that you can see.

Please continue to live your life with the thought of bodhicitta in every action that you do.

With much love and prayers...

Dear one,
This advice is for your son. I checked in Nepal, probably weeks ago now, but forgot to inform you.

The observation came out to save, or liberate, the lives of animals; not only liberating them from the suffering of being killed, but more importantly, liberating them from being reborn in the lower realms—as a hell being, hungry ghost or animal. You are liberating them from samsara; and liberating them from the lower nirvana, the blissful state of peace; then bringing them to enlightenment. You can help the animals in an unbelievable way, not only liberating them but bringing them to enlightenment.

P__ should liberate 10 animals. It might be difficult for you to buy sheep or chickens. Chickens are difficult because they live by eating worms, unless you can keep them in a house with a floor so that there are no worms and feed them with grain. However, you can liberate little animals like insects. Goats you would have to look after, but you can buy insects in Kathmandu or thousands of worms and different sizes of fish.

It’s most important to take them around Boudha Stupa or Swayambhunath Stupa and the mountain, which is Heruka’s mandala. It is so, so precious. Inside it is a crystal stupa that appeared when Kathmandu was a lake. Buddha came to Langru mountain and made a prediction, and Nagarjuna’s hair was sprinkled there and became trees.

Take the animals around as many times as possible. Each time you are giving enlightenment to those hundreds or thousands of insects and small fish. They get all the happiness. It purifies their negative karma, saves them from the lower realms and they get a higher rebirth. They are liberated from samsara, from the lower realms. They are liberated from the lower liberation and achieve enlightenment. You are giving them enlightenment according to how many times you go around the holy objects.

It is also helping you, because going around the holy objects purifies your negative karma accumulated during beginningless rebirths and enables you to accumulate inconceivable merit, the cause of all the happiness up to enlightenment. So, the animals are very kind, very precious.

This happens with one stupa, statue or scripture. Of course Boudha Stupa has an unimaginable number of holy objects, so many holy objects. There are many relics of different buddhas at Boudha Stupa. You can’t imagine how many holy objects are there, so you are circumambulating all those holy objects.

If there are 1,000 holy objects (statues, stupas, scriptures), by taking those 1,000 or 10,000 insects or worms around those holy objects, you are giving all of those animals enlightenment. You are causing them to create the cause of enlightenment 1,000 times.

If there are 100,000 holy objects, such as tsa tsas and so forth, by circumambulating one time, you are causing them to create the cause of enlightenment 100,000 times. This is by going around even one time. This is most amazing.

Boudha Stupa has many, many unbelievable holy objects, including Buddhas’ relics, and it has been blessed by so many holy beings. Swayambhunath Stupa, which is the most precious object in Nepal, has many big stupas around it, with many tsa tsas and mantras, and many large prayer wheels. It is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. It creates so many causes of enlightenment, and so many causes of happiness by the way, up to enlightenment.

So the people in Nepal who circumambulate these stupas are most fortunate, and anyone from outside Nepal who circumambulates the stupas is also most fortunate.

So, that’s it. Thank you very much. I want to speak to your son when he has time, when he is free. A private talk. When I hear from him, I will write down answers and he can read them from time to time.

With much love and prayer to P__. Please give my regards to everybody in the family.

Questions 

1. Can the base (ie cremation box) be filled with the four dharmakaya relic mantras? The reason for this is the stupa will not have very much space inside for mantras. Can the whole base and the throne the stupa rests on be filled with these mantras, or should some tsa-tsas be used, or should the cremation part be like a wealth vase?
2. To confirm: the plan is to fill the stupa only with the four dharmakaya relic mantras, not the 27 normal mantras that are often in stupas.

Rinpoche's response

Fill the throne (the cremation base) as usual, like a wealth vase. On the basis of filling the throne like a wealth vase, also include a naga vase and deva vase inside that, if possible.

The other things that you put inside the throne (cremation box base) need to be of very good quality. Include precious materials, not secondhand things—include new things that are symbolic, like a new dress, the best quality brocades, five-colored cloths; anything new and symbolic of wealth, and things that people wear and use.

In relation to protection, include toy guns, knives and weapons that are used for protection. In terms of wealth, you can include toy cars, airplanes, etc, or anything that symbolizes wealth.

If you can, include lots of globes of the world, as well as pictures of world leaders, famous people, wealthy people, etc, but not dictators, negative people, or people who are against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. You should also include medicines.

Don’t put things in the throne that have belonged to anyone who could have a bad relationship with either His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe or me (Lama Zopa), otherwise this can create pollution.

Of course, you can put in many holy objects, like tsa-tsas, but they must not be damaged. Do not put anything in that could be considered Dharma rubbish, like old texts, missing text pages, broken tsa-tsas, broken holy objects, etc.

Everything has to be blessed before it is put inside the stupa. Also, you have to do gegtor (torma offering to spirits) to make sure any gegs (obstructing forces) are removed.

In regards to the mantras, put in as many of the four dharmakaya relic mantras as you can, mainly around the life tree and inside the stupa. In particular, if you are able to put in 100,000 of the Completely Pure Stainless Light Mantra, these should be mainly stacked around the life tree. Make sure you keep the mantras the right way up.

Put in as much as you can; whatever you can manage. You only need to have these mantras, not the other normal mantras that are inside stupas. Do not put these mantras in the base (throne), instead put them above, in the stupa itself. You must do it well. It is very important to place the mantras neatly and the right way up.

In the vase part of the stupa (this means the face of the vase), if possible, put a statue of Lama Yeshe. You mentioned you had a mala. It came out best to have the crystal mala nicely draped around the Lama Yeshe statue in the vase, in the new stupa.

My dear friends, brother and sisters,
By building a stupa, without words we are continually liberating so many sentient beings. Every day, the stupa plants the seed of enlightenment and purifies anybody who sees, touches, remembers, talks or dreams about the stupa. This includes insects that touch the stupa. The stupa is meaningful to behold, and it liberates many sentient beings, insects and humans, every day.

When the wind touches a stupa—especially if it has the four dharmakaya relics inside—the wind becomes blessed. Then, wherever the wind goes and whoever it touches, it liberates them from the lower realms, by purifying their negative karma. When rain falls on the stupa, that water liberates any being it touches—all the worms in the ground etc, are liberated from the lower realms. It is similar with dust.

We can build stupas to inspire people without even teaching Dharma. However many hundreds and billions of years the holy object lasts, it continues to liberate many sentient beings every day, freeing them from the lower realms, causing them to actualize the path, liberating them from samsara and bringing them to enlightenment. After we die, even if we are in another universe, in the hell realms or a pure land, wherever we are, the stupa that we built or helped to build, is continually benefiting sentient beings. It is incredible how we can continually benefit sentient beings by building a stupa.

From the Flower Garland Sutra:

Whatever one offers [to a stupa], whether it is tiny or big, it causes happiness from beginningless rebirth up to now.

This refers to temporary happiness and on top of that the cause of ultimate happiness—liberation from suffering and causes of suffering, and full enlightenment, for the sake of all sentient beings. Then we are able to liberate numberless sentient beings from suffering and bring them to enlightenment, so of course this includes achieving worldly people's small happiness; it is all contained here.

These are some of the benefits we get by helping to build this stupa.

With much love and prayers ...