Stupas

Palzang

Hi all!

I'd just like to invite everyone to visit our new website devoted to stupas, both our own and around the world. If you're not familiar with stupas, there is a good, brief introduction to them and what they mean. Be sure to watch the movie about building our Sedona Amitabha stupa! Just go to www.stupas.org.

Palzang

Brigid

Thanks Palzang.

Balder

Here's a link to a beautiful retreat center created by one of my teachers (with a stupa, temple, and other really beautiful structures):

http://www.odiyan.org/about.html

Palzang

Yes, it's truly a beautiful temple, Balder, but it's my understanding that it's not open to the public?

Palzang

P.S. What's a stuple? :winkc:

Balder

Ha! I didn't notice that typo. Obviously, a stuple is a stupa next to a temple. Or maybe a stupa with multiple dead people inside it....

Yes, Odiyan is currently closed to the public, though you can attend retreats there, or also volunteer there. Tarthang Tulku has also recently opened Ratna Ling, another smaller retreat center just up the mountain from Odiyan.

Palzang

I'd love to visit someday.

Palzang

buddhafoot

Balder wrote:

Ha! I didn't notice that typo. Obviously, a stuple is a stupa next to a temple. Or maybe a stupa with multiple dead people inside it....

Excellent save, my friend.

-bf

Iawa

Palzang

Thanks for the movie of your Stupas, sounds like a doable pilgrimage from Dallas.

Now the question is how? Take five steps and a prostration, repeat, ect.......:winkc:

Palzang

Well, that would be a good way to do it. Just don't come down through Oak Creek Canyon - it's on fire!

Palzang

Balder

Palzang, I just heard on the news about the fires around Sedona. I hope you are safe! My mother lives near uptown Sedona, so my prayers are with her and you right now.

Palzang

Actually I'm in Tulsa at the moment with another monk who's got cancer, so I'm safe (if one can actually be safe in Tulsa!).

Palzang

comicallyinsane

Stupas are cool. I pity the fools who hate stupas. SUCKA!!!!!

LatinaMermaid

This is timely, as I have been commenting to friends that I woiuld like to erect a personally created stupa for my father who passed away. Put in back of my place where I could see it and maintain it ...

Palzang

Let me tell you my stupa story, L.M. Last year after Hurricane Katrina we had some people down in New Orleans helping rescue dogs. They were looking for a place to stay near New Orleans and through a series of seemingly accidental contacts ended up talking to a woman who lived north of the city on the other side of the lake. She said, sure, c'mon out! When they got there, there was a stupa in the back yard! Apparently it had been the site of a Tibetan Buddhist group before this lady lived there. She said every year some Tibetan lamas came to visit and do practice there.

Oh, the lady's name was Katrina! Believe it or not...

Anyway, to build a stupa means tremendous merit, which you can dedicate to your father.

Palzang

Simonthepilgrim

As a result of the thread which touched on corruption by power, I turned again to Charles Keith Maisels useful book Early Civilizations of the Old World (1999. Routledge. London). I was interested to remind myself of his analysis of the "Indus" or "Harappan" civilisation which had no 'state' structure nor any evidence of armies or warfare.

I thought you might like to look at the Mohenjo-Daro stupa:

Stupa at Mohenjo-Daro

Stupa from a distance

LatinaMermaid

Ohh, I love that story. I like knowing about the benefit to my dad's memory. It would also be helpful for me and my emotions.
TY Palzang

LatinaMermaid

"Anyway, to build a stupa means tremendous merit, which you can dedicate to your father."

P- How does the merit work? I do not hear that talked about in zen. And how does it benefit a passed loved one. Or is it a matter orf respect more than anything else?

Palzang

LatinaMermaid wrote:

P- How does the merit work? I do not hear that talked about in zen. And how does it benefit a passed loved one. Or is it a matter orf respect more than anything else?

I'm not surprised you hear nothing about it in zen as I've never seen it mentioned in Zen writings either.

Merit, if you dedicate it to someone, can bring benefit to them. It's not a matter of respect; it's a matter of adding virtue to their karma. Merit is produced by virtuous activity, such as building a stupa, circumambulating a stupa, practice, studying the dharma, adhering to the precepts, donating to a temple, that sort of thing. Think of it as energy, and by dedicating it to someone else (or all sentient beings), that energy is also transferred to that person (or beings). It's not something you can figure with a physics formula.

Palzang

LatinaMermaid

That is comforting when I feel a void of loss around my loved ones who have passed or grief about others pain and suffering.