With great joy we announce the completion of the Sangha Unifying Stupa at Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute in Melbourne, Australia. Khentrul Rinpoche selected the Stupa of Reconciliation as our first stupa to create as a global community. This stupa represents the time when the Buddha unified the sangha. Our community across the world has come together to make this happen, we thank you all for your effort, generosity and joy which has enabled us to complete the project. This is a tremendous step in us creating the Golden Age of Dzokden dharma together.
Reaching our fundraising goal
We were able to exceed our initial fundraising goal of $25,000, coming to a grand total of $28,953 raised in generous donations through our community across the globe. The $25,000 estimate was the minimum amount estimated to complete the project and did not include the countless hours that Rinpoche and our local Australian community spent on completing the project.
The Making of the Stupa
The Stupa was built by one of our full time volunteers who spent a solid two months full time making the it at Land of Shambhala in Thornton, Victoria.
Khentrul Rinpoche did Pujas everyday for a month to bless the sacred objects that go inside the Stupa.
10 local volunteers many of whom are tradesman helped us level the ground, build the foundation, landscape and paint the stupa. This enabled us to keep the costs to supplies as we did not pay for external labor.
Many other stupa projects from around the world end up costing significantly more than this project. We extend our utmost gratitude to you and all of our volunteers.
The Precious and Priceless Items enclosed in the Stupa
The stupa is filled with countless precious relics, holy texts and statues from around the world which included;
Statues from Rinpoche’s personal collection which included 1. 24 armed Kalachakra statue 2. A yab yum primordial buddha 3. An Amitabha statue
Relics from the 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi
Ashes from Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, master in the Gelug tradition and also known for Kalachakra teachings
Blessed pills from the 17th Karmapa
Blessed pills from the Jonang linage in Zhamthang
Blessed pills from His Holiness the Dalai Lama including vajrakilaya pills and pills from his monastery in Dharamsala
Blessed pills from Kathog monastery
Blessed pills from the Swayambhunath stupa in Kathmandu valley.
Fragment from the Mahabodhi stupa
Also included were an abundance of items containing the wealth of the world including, many crystals, precious and semi-precious stones, texts, weapons for the dharma protectors, many tsa tsas that represent 100 stupas each, 100’s of thangkas of the Shambhala dharma kings and the Rime Linage Masters to unify the global sangha.
The 21 Taras Garden of Abundance Project Continues
This stupa is the 2nd successfully completed item in the 21 Tara’s garden of abundance project. We have remodelled the garden and installed the prayer wheels in the front and back of the temple.
Our Vietnamese sangha have donated the statue for the Tara statue and completed the initial design specs. The statue will be created once Covid restrictions ease in Vietnam.
We have successfully raised all the funds for the project so far, however there are still opportunities to for you to contribute to. We will have the landscaping to complete, our external temple fence to paint and lighting for the garden to install.
Stay tuned for upcoming volunteer days once current Victorian restrictions ease.
Over two days, Khentrul Rinpoche commenced the important ceremony of consecrating the land at the site of our future Kalachakra Retreat Centre – Land of Shambhala. When are consecrating the land, by asking permission from all classes of beings and spirits to use the Land. For beings that may not be friendly to the project we use wrathful methods to clear them away. Then all the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, Deities are invited to the Land to make it Holy. This is an important part step before building a Temple, Stupa, Statues or Prayer wheels on the land.
Day one commenced with the Drolmi Kazug Puja and Oral Transmission. Rinpoche and some Gelugpa Geshe’s and Monks chanted the detailed and extensive offering puja to create causes and conditions to ripen good luck and fortune. The Drolmi Kazug Puja works with every aspect of our natal astrological chart. In it, we make offerings to an incredible number of classes of beings that we usually ignore in our day-to-day life to affect these karma areas determined at the moment of your birth. For everyone present on the day and those joining online, Drolmi Kazug works to purify the participant’s unfixed karmas, which create obstacles such as diseases, spirit or demon harm, and bad fortune so that we may experience fame, good fortune, prosperity, vitality, long life and good health to practice the dharma to benefit all sentient beings. This works on everything on the unseen level.
Many auspicious signs were witnessed on this day, including the rainbow over the building where the Puja was taking place at the Land of Shambhala. This puja assists in creating the best possible conditions to manifest the Golden Age of Peace and Harmony for all of humanity. The event also coincided with the auspicious month of Saka Dawa, so the merit was multiplied by 100,000 times.
What was consecrated during the ceremony were 108 treasure vases for wealth and prosperity. These vases were filled over a couple of weeks at the Tibetan Buddhist Rime Institute with various precious substances worldwide. The vases are available for anyone who wishes to donate and have one for their homes via our Dzokden store at this link – https://store.dzokden.org/blogs/treasure-vases
On Day two, we commenced with the Land of Shambhala Blessing, Treasure Vase Burial at the 3-meter tall Fortune Pillars. The blessing consisted of the extensive smoke offering ceremony where we placed the 5th Drolmi Kazug fortune pillar with a treasure vase into the ground. This will be the site of our future Large Fortune Palace, constructed as part of the Kalachakra Retreat Centre project.
Five additional treasure vases were buried around the property, in each of the four directions of North, South, East, and West, and one in the center to seal the prosperity for the Land of Shambhala Project and all of humanity. Below are the images of the treasure vase burials.
To conclude the weekend, Rinpoche gave a Yellow Zhambhala empowerment for the prosperity of all. Through our practice of generosity and this practice, we can create the conditions for spiritual and material wealth and abundance in our lives.
To learn more about this project, please visit our website at Landofshambhala.com
We’ve had an extraordinary busy couple of weeks on the 21 Taras Garden of Abundance project with so much achieved. The sangha rallied together to focus on getting some of the core elements of the garden near completion. The sangha worked tirelessly digging a lush pond for the garden, complete with two waterfalls, river rocks and a variety of colourful plants.
We have selected 4 new prayer wheels each containing 20 million Mani Mantras to place at the entrance Gate to the Temple Garden. People who walk by on the public footpath will be able to spin them creating the seeds for liberation and benefiting all beings. Thanks to the your generosity, we are glad to say they have all been sponsored!
The space for the Sangha unifying stupa has been cleared, leveled and the foundations of the stupa set. This stupa represents the time when the Buddha unified the sangha. We need a strong global community to bring about Dzokden, the Golden Age.
There were also many other surrounding areas that were also tended to. Mulch was laid around the grounds with carefully selected plants to adorn. The circle and square window were shaped. The circle is called the Window of Enlightenment or Moon Gate and the square is called Window of Delusion in Japanese zen. The circle is to create thoughtful and meditative moments in the garden. We have chosen white rocks that require the visitor to slow down and move along the paths in a meditative state and contemplate the holy objects and environment.
Next to the pond we have also added the fire pit for Sang offerings
3D Engineers have started the process of designing the marble Tara statue to Rinpoche’s specifications. He wants to match the lotus of the innate Kalachakra so they are scanning the statue to fulfill Rinpoche’s wishes.
Stay tuned for further updates in the coming weeks.
We have had a magnificent long weekend of volunteer activities at the Land of Shambhala accomplishing many tasks that coincided with Saka Dawa.
We completed the prayer flag raising at the top of the hill whilst listening to prayers from Zhamtang for the local deities and dharma protectors.
Beside the entrance driveway, we raised 16 vertical prayer flag poles in the ground which flicker with brilliance in the wind.
Also lining the entrance driveway behind the prayer flag poles we planted, mulched and protected eight of our red maple feature trees which will have a vibrant red hue in the spring and summer months.
We finished off the weekend with many prayers, a smoke offering and sealed the merit with a dedication prayers to conclude the auspicious weekend.
A big thank our fabulous volunteer sangha who worked tirelessly to make this all happen.
Want to get involved? Our upcoming Land of Shambhala volunteer days are scheduled every two weeks from June through to September with the next one being on Saturday 20th June 2020. Please check out our event calendar for further details and to register your interest in joining us.
