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Don’t Let This Miracle Slip Away

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Time has run out.

We have reached the moment when we either need to secure the Amitabha Sacred Land in Sedona, Arizona or it will be lost if one of or a combination of the things listed below do not happen immediately. Procedures to redraw the boundaries on the land will commence Monday, July 9th and access to the Stupa will become very limited for everyone. The majority of the land will go back to the lender and be open for development.

The Situation

We have, since December, raised $100,000 toward securing this land through generous donations and compassionate activity.  The outpouring has been extraordinary. What we need right now

  1. A friendly loan for $600,000, which – through the great generosity of our donors – we can document that we can pay through our monthly Friends of Amitabha Stupa Campaign and daily donations from thousands of visitors to the Stupa.
  2. A solid sale of the 4.6 acres which would substantially reduce the amount of the friendly loan needed.
  3. Cash donations to reduce the amount of the friendly loan needed

Webathon – On Thursday July 5th, starting at 7P.M., we will be talking about the tremendous blessings available because of this most extraordinary Stupa and how you can keep it from being lost! Please tune in here

This situation requires spiritual heros – people who have a sense of their own destiny and see that there is an extraordinary moment of decision at hand. History can be made in support of preserving the sacred, on behalf of the hopeless, for those in need of healing, for the millions who will visit this place in the decades and centuries to come; long after today’s institutions and enterprises have gone.  Once secured, the Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park, this place of peace, will endure. It will continue to pour out blessings and virtue all day and all night, bringing countless blessings to the world.

So the question is who will see this and in one moment of open-hearted compassion and courage, act unselfishly for the greater good and the benefit of all sentient beings. If you are that hero please come forth now. You can make a donation online. If you would like to speak with someone about your charitable contribution, please contact Claire Waggoner via kpc”at”tara.org.

 

Recent Activity and Efforts to secure the Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park

Campaigns

Friends of Amitabha Stupa campaign: debited monthly donations

The purpose to ensure that strong cash flow exists in order to service a new “friendly loan,” at a lower interest rate, if needed.

• Started in February with 12 Friends at about $200 per month

• Current number of Friends: 95 donating $2,250 per month and increasing steadily

• Goal is 108 friends bringing in $3,000

Path to Peace Brick Campaign: sponsoring bricks with messages at the Amitabha Stupa ($500, $250 or $100)

• Since April, 2012: 33 new brick sponsors bringing in just under $5,000 in donations

Offerings at the Stupa

• Fluctuates seasonally. Averaging $2,000 plus per month and increasing.

CURRENT CASH FLOW: $4,000 PER MONTH AND INCREASING

Visitors to the Stupa

• Estimated at 20,000 plus visitors annually and increasing

Local Business Support through Sponsored Events: (headlines from news articles in bold)

December 2, 2011

AZADI Fine Rugs Event Help Secure Sacred Land: The Amitabha Stupa, Jewel of Sedona Azadi Rugs held 2 fundraising events: wine reception, music and a % of sales going to the Amitabha Stupa and a $1,000 gift certificate donated to the Heartline Restaurant fundraising event in February.

December 31, 2011

Celebrate the New Year with Prayerful Intentions!

Over 500 people attended and many offered flowers wrote their intensions for the New Year on blank colored prayer flags. Heart of Sedona, Heartline, Mountain High Flowers all came through with in-kind donations. Intended as a celebration it brought in $2,800

February 11, 2012

The HeartLine Café Hosts a Benefit for the Amitabha Stupa Fabulous Buffet, Music and Silent Auction! 

• Over 175 in attendance

• Owner Phyllis Cline sponsored everything: the space, delicious buffet, beverages

• Over 150 silent auction items were donated

• $9,000 raised

June 10 2012

Celebrating the Amitabha Stupa & Peace Park with Fine Art, Music, and Food June 10

• Deborah Leatherwood, owner of Rene Restaurant sponsored event

• Light fare, wine and refreshments, music

• Over 65 artists, many well known and collected internationally as well as local emerging artists participated.

• Ballroom space was donated by Wendy Lippman, General Manager of Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village.

• Over $9,000 raised.

Online Webathon from the main temple in Poolesville Maryland, June 12, 2012

• Two hour streamed, live webathon brought in $18,000

Pet Blessing at the Amitabha Stupa June 17, 2012

Dozens of people and their pets came for a blessing from the Heart Shrine Relic Tour that took place at 7 Centers Yoga. Pets were blessed with actual relics from the Buddha, similar to the Buddha relics contained within the Amitabha Stupa.

Upcoming Fundraising events:

Stand For Peace: July 8, 2012 four hour, multi-band concert and compilation CD release by well- known local musicians. All musicians are donating their time with 60% of gate and the majority of CD sales going to support the Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park.

Land Sale: 

Current status: negotiating an offer

• 4.6 acres has been for sale for two plus years.

Focus Now:

• “Friendly Angel Loan,” to relieve the current private note holder and to have more time to completely secure the land through donor development/fundraising and continuing events. 

Tune in to the Webathon on Thursday, July 5 at 7p.m to support the Amitabha Stupa and Sacred Land. Together we can secure this treasure!


Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul to Offer Teaching on The Four Immeasurables at KPC

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The Four Immeasurables: The Key to a Meaningful Life

KPC  is honored that renowned Buddhist Master and Nyingma lineage-holder, Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche will be teaching at our Maryland Temple this Friday 29th June at 7pm.

Rinpoche defines what it means to be a spiritual person in modern times, always mixing practice and life. “Isn’t that the goal of the spiritual path?” Rinpoche often asks; to be flexible, courageous and exploratory in the face of life’s joys and paradoxes, while never parting from a connection to its deepest meaning.

Born into a Tibetan family in Northern India, when he was a boy Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche was recognized by His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as an emanation of Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye, also known as Jamgön Kongtrül the Great.  His Holiness the 16th Karmapa confirmed this. Jamgön Kongtrül the Great, was one of the most influential teachers of the Rimé movement of Tibetan Buddhism. His collected works total more than ninety volumes, which include The Treasury of Precious Termas (Rinchen Terdzod).

Rinpoche married an American woman, and moved to the United States with his family in 1989. In the early 1990’s he founded Mangala Shri Bhuti (link: http://mangalashribhuti.org/index.html), an organization established to further the study and practice of the Nyingma lineage in the West and particularly the Rimé tradition.

Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche is the author of three books and is also an avid painter in the abstract expressionist tradition, and a photographer – bearing witness to moments of life around him as he travels widely throughout the world teaching and furthering his own education.

On Friday, Rinpoche will guide us in a meditation on the Four Immeasurables, and will speak about how it can be applied to our contemporary lives. By practicing the Four Immeasurables, equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy, we develop the aspiration to devote our lives to attain enlightenment for others. The practice of altruism is the best form of kindness towards oneself and others; the ultimate altruism is Bodhicitta, the compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. For Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, the Four Immeasurables are the foundation of Buddhist practice and the key to leading a meaningful life.

Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche is a wonderfully accessible teacher whose fluent English and western manner allow the most profound teachings to be easily assimilated into the western mind. He is respected by Lamas of many traditions. Please join us for this precious opportunity to learn how to apply the extraordinary methods of the Buddhadharma in our daily lives.

Suggested donation is $35, but no-one will be turned away. For those not in the Maryland/D.C. area Rinpoche’s teaching will also be streamed live here. Please let your friends know – everyone is welcome!

 

“May all beings know happiness and the causes of happiness,

May they be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,

May they never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless,

And free from the knots of hope and fear, may they believe in the equality of all that lives.”

Recognizing the Miraculous

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The following post was contributed by Ani Kunzang Drolma:

Recognizing the Miraculous

Designed by the Buddha himself, Stupas are a display of enlightened mind in the world. Because of this they provide an opportunity for all beings to receive blessings by making offerings, circumambulating and taking care of them. These blessings occur whether we understand the nature of a Stupa or not; the seed of Buddahood or enlightened mind exists in all sentient beings and can be ripened by these blessings. It is like a call and response on an invisible, subtle level that can happen spontaneously without the process of ordinary, rational, thinking. A person who is not a Buddhist, perhaps not having any faith, may feel compelled to prostrate to a Stupa without comprehending why and may even be surprised at their own actions.  This is the miraculous nature of Bodhicitta, the compassionate wisdom nature of enlightened mind. In whatever shape or form it exists in the world – as a Stupa or as an enlightened pure Teacher – it constantly communicates with each of us, with that very same nature that exists within.

Recently at the Migyur Dorje Stupa in MD, which is currently being cleaned and repaired, a turtle walked up to the Stupa and laid a clutch of  eggs right in front. Normally a turtle would not go to an open public space to lay her eggs, but this turtle was responding to the presence of the extraordinary, the Stupa, and making an offering. This occurred while Jetsunma was engaged in prayer in her home on the Temple land. At about the same time the stillness of the air was transformed by a rising wind, as if the elements too were acknowledging the presence of  the sacred.

Some days later, cleaning and other upkeep was being undertaken at Jetsunma’s Long Life Stupa. A circular rainbow appeared around the Stupa, which could be seen from every angle. Those present knew they were witnessing the miraculous, and responded with devotion and joy.

In his extraordinary and lyrical book, “Magic Dance, The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis”, HE Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, who sadly recently passed from this world, speaks about miracles in the chapter on Personal and General Phenomena. Contemplating it helps unravel the confusion about miracles and the presence of enlightened mind in our world.

He says, “Until we become enlightened, personal and general phenomena communicate with each other. Because of this communication it is possible for the personal spiritual qualities of enlightened beings to become conspicuous through their history and to remain like echoes in the general spiritual system even though the source of their pure self-visible phenomena is invisible to us until enlightenment. For individuals as well as for groups, when the contributing circumstance, the sublime history of enlightened beings, joins with the root circumstance, our secrete essence enlightenment seed, the seed can awaken and grow. By the joining of these two circumstances, our spiritual qualities increase.

When we remember great sublime beings such as Milarepa, Jesus, Buddha Shakyamuni, and Padmasambhava, we think they performed miracles intentionally. Of course, it is good to feel this way because by trying to connect with their pure secret essence we accumulate merit. But the perception of this intention is only our general group phenomena agreement. Actually these miracles only appeared when sublime beings used the pure undivided secret essence of the elements, which exists from the beginning, in order to make truth conspicuous……The gross and subtle elements are always connected to their secret essence. People who saw Jesus walking on the water had a good karmic link with him, because with their gross and subtle elements’ phenomena, they could connect to the pure secret essence of what they perceived as a miracle.”

Pure enlightened mind is ever-present, whether we recognize it with our ordinary minds or not. As Rinpoche says, “the primordial secret essence of the elements, which is never divided, always vast, inseparable pervading everywhere.”  Miracles occur when, through the kindness of a pure Teacher, we glimpse the blessings of the primordial secret essence and know it to be extraordinary. This encourages us to increase our faith and devotion towards that which is truly holy. As we acknowledge and pay homage to the extraordinary nature of this essence in the form it has appeared in our lives – through our Teacher or Stupa or sacred statue – we move towards a state of recognition and the awakened state of enlightened mind, or Bodhicitta.

There is a beautiful prayer we say, to invoke the qualities of Bodhicitta:

“May all beings know happiness and the causes of happiness,
May they be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,
May they never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless,
And free from the knots of hope and fear may they believe in the equanimity of all that lives”

Recognizing miraculous events reminds us that we are never separate from that sacred happiness. It is through our devotion and the immeasurable kindness of our Teacher that such opportunities arise. It is helpful to contemplate and rejoice in this so that we can better discriminate that which is sacred, and deepen in our recognition.

Let Good Intention Fill Your Life: Full Length Video Teaching

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The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

 

Offer every minute of your experience to benefit others and you will train your mind to enlightenment.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

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Download the Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

With a longing to benefit beings who are sick and dying, Jetsunma created a song called “Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen.” This is a traditional prayer to Amitabha, the Buddha of Limitless Light, from the P’howa practice of the Longchen Nyigthig tradition. P’howa is the meditation practice for the time of death, and Amitabha is the deity to be visualized in that meditation.  “Dewachen” refers to the state of consciousness in which one experiences a pure land and the opportunity to accomplish liberation.

Jetsunma said,  “When I listened to this tune, I realized that it was like a mother singing her child to sleep, which really was my motivation when I sang that song.  I know that everyone that I love, I will be parted from someday.  Everyone that I meet will die some day.  I wish there was some way that they could be guided through the bardo individually.  And the best response that I know of is this prayer.”

Any being who listens to this prayer receives a blessing, whether Buddhist or non Buddhist, human or animal.  It is especially soothing for those who are chronically or acutely ill, or who are on the precipice of dying.  You can help beings by making this prayer heard by as many people and as many animals close to their death as possible.  It is available here:  Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

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