The Rimé Institute developed Khentrul Rinpoche’s book series Unveiling Your Sacred Truth and the commentary the Hidden Treasure of the Profound Path over many years. As time went on, we have improved the editions. We had some early editions in our storage unit that would be of more benefit to sentient beings, so we sent out these early English language editions of Khentrul Rinpoche’s books to libraries and prisons throughout the English and Chinese speaking world
Why include prison libraries
The Kalachakra Tantra says that even those who have committed the 5 heinous crimes can learn to practice Kalachakra and take the initiation. Everyone has Buddha-nature and therefore has the potential to realize their own nature. We want to make sure that as many people as possible have access to these teachings either through a public library system or prison library system. Everyone who has interest and potential should be able to come into contact with the Dharma. Research also shows that people who come into contact with spirituality and religious training in prison are less likely to commit crimes once released and therefore less likely to return to prison.
How the public helped make this happen?
We offered these books for free, however we relied on the generosity of our donors to cover the shipping costs of the books. We have raised enough money to successfully sent out up to 300 books for this project with the majority of books being received in Australia, Canada, US, UK & New Zealand. Through Dzokden we are some of the first backers of a Compassion in Prison project in the USA working to connect both inmates and correctional officers to Dharma.
We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the project to make this possible. Because of your generosity, so many sentient beings are able to benefit from the Dharma.
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 normally ignore in our day to day life to affect these karma areas determined at the moment of your birth. For everyone who was present on the day and those joining online Drolmi Kazug works to purify the participants 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 witness on this day including the rainbow over the building where the Puja was taking place at 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 time so that the merit is 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 from around the world. 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 an extensive smoke offering ceremony where we placed the 5th Drolmi Kazug fortune pillar into the ground with a treasure vase. This will be the site of our future Large Fortune Palace which will be 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 centre 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.
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 are in the process of creating a garden of abundance at TBRI in Belgrave, Melbourne named after the 21 Taras. Khentrul Rinpoche wishes to pay homage to Arya Tara by not only naming the garden in the swift protectresses honour, but by also constructing a life sized statue of the enlightened goddess of Buddhism.
The opulent space will also feature a grand stupa, prayer wheel and a Japanese garden beds for the community to enjoy.
Here is what has been accomplished so far….
The project commenced with a sangha discussion on how we could improve the surrounding temple grounds to make it more inviting for the community. To accomplish this firstly, we needed to be seen as a public not private space, which meant we had a lot of surrounding trees and shrubs had to be cleared.
From the roadside the temple was quite hidden by large trees and shrubs. Most people who lived immediately in the area where unaware there is a Temple here.
Temple street view (Feb 2021)
Front of the Rimé Institute Temple view (Feb 2021)
The local community guided by Khentrul Rinpoche started clearing some of the dense tree coverage on the roadside and also near the front entrance to the temple.
It was a huge effort accomplished over a many days thanks to our community members of skilled tradesmen.
The back car park and surrounding garden areas also got a facelift.
Once the dense tree coverage was cleared, it really opened up the space.
The trees and shrubs from the front of the temple were also cleared so we have a blank canvas to work with to create the lush abundance garden for everyone to enjoy.
An additional storage area added to the front will clean up the the buildings front door appearance.
The front corner of the garden was cleared and levelled to make was for our Stupa and new plants.
Of course, Rinpoche has been there every step of the way – leading, guiding and also working very hard!
I would like to say thank you, thank you, thank you so, so much all of you, whoever is participating Rime Institute’s activities, classes, translations, and even donators and everybody.
This is very, very meaningful. So please be aware this is incredible meaningful and beneficial for everybody. Why? Because the Dzokden International’s, the goal is perfect peace and harmony of Golden Age. So that is whether people are aware or not, it is everybody’s heart desire in the most absolute, the goal, you know. So this is incredible profound, yet very, very practical. Each human being really needs that. The whole world need that. And also eventually this is benefit all sentient beings.
So no matter how we are small, or we are not incredible wealthy yet, or your donations, or your participate, no matter how small and you are contributing these oceans of profound activity. So please be aware of this and rejoice. And I say again, Happy New Year, and we’re going to have great year 2021 because we done incredible merit. So this is going to be source of perfect, each individual’s life, and our goal of the Golden Age for the world.
