Stupa takes form at Vimaladhatu retreat centre

Jnanacandra writes from Germany with news of the Stupa now rapidly taking its final form at Triratna’s Vimaladhatu retreat centre near Essen. She says -

“I'd like to update you on a wonderful project that has been happening at our retreat centre Vimaladhatu (in Germany) over the last 18 months. You might remember that we are building a Stupa that will contain a portion of Dhardo Rimpoche's relics. He was one of Sangharakshita's eight principle teachers and we're delighted to be able to remember him in this way.  It's an ambitious project and has - as those things do in Triratna - continuously grown in size while evolving. It's happening simultaneously in three locations - England, Essen and Vimaladhatu itself...

“Rupadarshin - the creator of the Stupas in Padmaloka, Tiratanaloka and Windhorse - is our most wonderful stone-mason who has been working away in a Buddhafield-style tent-workshop in his garden in Devon/England. The stone he's working on comes from a quarry near Vimaladhatu - Bhante had recommended that we build the Stupa from local stone. This Anröchter Stone has proved very hard and tricky to work. It contains a lot of fossils that look beautiful but have caused Rupadarshin some stress as they make the stone pretty unpredictable.

“At present Rupadarshin is working on the very last stone, the conical top section representing the element fire. It's a labour of love and Rupadarshin is incredibly generous (he's working on a basic support level) and devoted to the project. It's been a joy remaining in contact with him throughout the year via email and following the developments in Devon through the photos he keeps posting on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=644543669&aid=67312 . I have only met him once but feel quite a connection can build up through sharing in a common project of devotion.

“Meanwhile in Vimaladhatu Bodhimitra has been working wonders. In order to create a dignified setting for the Stupa we embarked on a major landscaping venture. The wonderful Sanghadeva came over from Madhyamaloka twice to help us create a vision for this land in cooperation with Amritavacha who finalized the plans and the Essen centre-team who were invited to formulate their dreams in the first place. Vimaladhatu lies on a steep hillside in the woods and the lower part of our land had been unused, overgrown with a slightly sombre feel to it. Now the land has been terraced and partly cleared which creates wide views into the valley and a sense of space and openness. Two diggers spent a week moving great quantities of earth and solid rock last August. Since then Bodhimitra (who lives at Vimaladhatu) and helpers from the Sangha have transformed the hillside into something stunningly different - a sacred space.

“In Essen (2 hours drive from Vimaladhatu) the Sangha has been following the creation of the Stupa and its sacred space attentively. Vimaladhatu belongs to the Essen Sangha and it looks like almost the full costs of the Stupa will be covered by donations from the Sangha. It's inspiring to let energies and funds (crystallized energy) flow freely towards an object of devotion - creating a symbol of Awakening that will last for generations after us...

“Claudia Krüger, a Mitra, created a beautiful full-size Light Stupa for Essen to keep the project present in everybody's minds. Rupadarshin commented that he had seen such things made from bamboo/willow and rice paper before - but never one welded in metal and covered with fabric. We celebrated full-moon Pujas around this Light Stupa in the Centre courtyard in Essen under the starlit sky when it was still warm enough which I found very moving indeed.

“Meanwhile most of the Stupa-stones have arrived in Vimaladhatu and the Stupa has been built up to the water-element-section. This is how it will remain until the inauguration ceremony on 22. May, when Dhardo’s relics will be placed in the relic chamber and then the last stone topped by Chintamani’s beautiful finial will be put in place.

"Take a look at our photos of the project at vimaladhatu.de or visit our Vimaladhatu group on Facebook!

With metta,
Jnanacandra

Vimaladhatu Stupa - the story continues...

On Wednesday we carried a story about the new Stupa Rupadarshin is carving for Vimaladhatu, the FWBO’s German Retreat Centre. We were reporting from the Buddhafield perspective - Rupadarshin is working in a bender in their garden! Now Sanghadarsini from Essen writes with their side of the story - and some background to the project. She says -

“Here is some information about our planned Stupa for our Retreat Center Vimaladhatu. Could you please post the information on the FWBO news website?

A stupa for Vimaladhatu
Some years ago the idea was born to build a Stupa in the Grounds of the German Retreat Center, Vimaladhatu. Bodhimitra took up the idea again in March 2009, and planned to build the Stupa himself with the help of friends from the Sangha. The site was chosen and quite quickly Bodhimitra had constructed the foundation for the Stupa. Around this time Sangharakshita visited Essen for FWBO day and Bodhimitra told Bhante about his plans to build a Stupa at Vimaladhatu.

“Bhante was very pleased and spontaneously offered some of Dhardo Rimpoche's ashes for the Stupa. He also suggested that we could put Dhardo's Motto ("cherish the doctrine, live united, radiate love") on the Stupa and that we could use a stone from the local area. The Essen Sangha was delighted by Bhante's offer, but we also realized that we needed a stone mason to do the work. All of us thought of Rupadarshin, who had built the Stupas in Padmaloka, Tiratanaloka and at Windhorse Trading. When we asked Rupadarshin, he felt really inspired by the project, but said that he wouldn't be able to start right away because of his responsibilities to Buddhafield in the Summer.

In October 2009 Rupadarshin visited Vimaladhatu and he and Bodhimitra visited a stone quarry, which is very close to Vimaladhatu. There they chose a local stone called Anröchter Kalkstein, a stone much liked by many stone masons.

A few weeks later the Center Team chose the form for the Stupa. It was clear, that we wanted a Tibetan style Chörten Form, and out of 8 different forms, we all chose the Enlightenment Form (funnily each one of us for different reasons.) We were very pleased that there was such consensus in this decision.

By the end of the year Rupadarshin had built a workshop tent in his garden. The stone was shipped over to Devon with the help of Windhorse Trading and on the 2nd of February Rupadarshin started to work on the foundation stone. To date: several stones are already finished.

Chintamani is working on the finial for the stupa (the top bit) which will be in bronze.

We hope to have the inauguration of the stupa in October this year and Bhante has offered to come and to place the ashes of Dhardo in the stupa - if his health will permit it.

If you want to find out more about the project and see more pictures you can have a look at our bilingual (German/English) Facebook site called "Stupa Vimaladhatu"

We will post more information soon ...

Liebe Grüße,

Sanghadarsini

A new stupa in Mexico

Following yesterday’s story from Australia, we zoom across the Pacific to the FWBO/AOBO Buddhist Sangha in Mexico, where they’re building a new stupa at Chintámani, their two-year-old retreat centre. Saddhajoti writes to say -

“Chintámani Retreat Centre, in Yautepec, Mexico, has now a new stupa. Two years after having been born, Chintámani is now up and running, housing retreats for our sangha (as well as for other groups) since October 2007.

“On the 9th of January, in the context of a women GFR retreat, Paramachitta, who is in charge of the women’s Ordination process in Mexico, conducted a moving ritual in which the stupa was dedicated to the Three Jewels.

“The symbolism behind the simple structure of a stupa is incredibly rich. Originally regarded as burial mounds, stupas became the first architectonic representations of the Buddha’s body sitting in the meditation. The base of the stupa represents the throne, his crossed legs the first step, his body the cubic structure in the middle, while his eyes are at the base of the cone over which rests the crown. A stupa also represents the correspondence between the five elements and the five spiritual qualities of the awakened mind. The cubic structure at the base represents the earth element, which symbolizes equanimity; the semi-sphere represents the element water which stands for the mirror-like wisdom; the cone represents the element fire which refers to compassion; above the cone lies a half moon representing the element air which symbolizes accomplished actions; and the little flame above the half moon is the element consciousness, which stands for the wisdom that sees Reality. In this way, the stupa is a tridimensional mandala.

“The inside of the stupa is still frequently used as “reliquary”. Its opening represents the Buddha’s heart, an open heart. Inside the Chintámani stupa we placed a beautiful Shakyamuni rupa, hand-made by our friend Juan Antonio. In addition, each of the women attending the retreat laid their offerings. During the dedication ceremony, we also placed a flower, a vajra, and a candle near the stupa’s door, to symbolize the surrounding lotuses, vajras and flames protecting mandalas referred to in our dedication ceremony. Paramachitta invoked the Buddhas in the four directions and ended the ritual chanting the traditional blessings.

“It is said that a stupa has the power to remove obstacles, promote peace and harmonize with the environment, which is why they were known as sacred mountains. From a Buddhist perspective, such sacred sites are not places to escape the world, but to enter it more deeply. The qualities they embody reveal the interconnectedness of all life and deepen awareness of hidden regions of mind and spirit. It was with this purpose in mind that the stupa at Chintámani was designed and constructed.

“Chintámani is run by Saddhajoti and Gisela, who started the project more than six years ago. At first it seemed a remote idea, but little by little the project took form and, with the generous participation of many members of our sangha, it has become a dream come true.

“It was recently the setting for the private ordination of Padmabandhu, and has housed several GFR retreats and Order weekends. We hope that Chintámani will keep on growing while offering people a quiet, relatively secluded, and inspiring spot in which to deepen their meditation and Dharma practice, as well as functioning as a context for sangha building.

“Thus, we hope that the blessing and dedication of the new stupa will help all who visit it to awaken within themselves its qualities and energies, which ultimately lie within our minds, and to discover the inner realms within which our own deepest nature lies hidden.

“If you look closely at the photos you will see that the stupa is not finished yet. It still needs it´s crown or pinnacle. But it already looks like a proper stupa, doesn´t it?”

Chintámani Retreat Centre is online at www.retirosenmexico.com

Sadhu Chintámani!

FWBO Stupas

Dharmacari Rupadarshin, well known for his stupa building work, attended a conference of Stupa builders in Italy in Nov 2006. The Stupa Rebuilding Project aims to restore crumbling stupas throughout Asia, with the idea that the enormous merit generated with help to make the world a better place. The project has been initiated by stupa builders in the Italian branch of the FPMT. Rupadarshin, who is a trained stone mason/carver, was the only Western stupa builder from a non Tibetan tradition to attend the conference. He was not sure how realistic their aims were, although there was a lot of enthusiasm for what seems a worthy project. Their website suggests that the first projects have been identified. Rupadarshin has created several stupas which hold relics of Dhardo Rinpoche (Padmaloka stupa, right) as well as a 7.1m high votive stupa for windhorse:evolution in Cambridge.