Connecting at the Amitabha Stupa
Guess who was at the Amitabha Stupa yesterday when we started the Amitabha practice? Naomi Rose. Folks who work with kids may recognize the name. She is the author of “Tibetan Tales and Little Buddhas,” (check it out on Amazon.com: search for Naomi Rose, her book will come up first in your search).
Anyway, Namoi and her husband were visiting the Amitabha Stupa while on vacation and en route to Naomi’s teacher, Garchen Rinpoche, who has a center about 40 miles from ours in Sedona. Small world. Her interest is Dharma and children and teaching. She is a wonderful, kind and warm person. We swapped stories about some of the stupas in the Southwest, ones in Santa Fe where she and her husband live, and the great Dharmakaya Stupa built by the Shambala sangha and its supporters worlwide that is up in Red Feather Lakes (northern) Colorado.
When I got the okay a few years ago from my teacher to take robes, I was living in Denver, Colorado, and I went up the Dharmakaya Stupa, which was the closest to me, to make offerings. Without really thinking about it being January 6th (read: cold), I put on my robes and a jacket and hat and gloves and headed up to Red Feather Lakes, which is about 25 miles south of the border with Wyoming. I had been the that Great Stupa before, but always during a warmer part of the year. So there I was in early January, in my robes (that I was not used to wearing in public) at an altitude and latitude that I was not really used to. I don’t know when I had ever been colder! The hike up to the Stupa is close to a half-mile and in that part of the world the wind blows quite persistently. I really wasn’t all that familiar with wearing the bottom robe, essentially a tube of material that one friend said, “oh, it’s tea-length” meaning ankle length. So I was trudging up the hill, still reeling from the okay to pursue ordination, in an ankle length robe that I was trying to keep down as the cold wind blew around my ankles and up my legs. Whew! It was worth every inch of the effort because the Dharmakaya Stupa is a magnificent, remarkable structure: 108 feet high, prayer room on the ground floor and two floors of rooms for higher level practice. You see it up on the mountainside as you are walking that half-mile through the woods from the parking area. It is a perfect spot for meditation and aspirations to end suffering.
Naomi and her husband have their own connection with that Great Stupa. It is what happens to people that enter the field of merit that a Stupa creates. They connect, their hearts are affected by the power of the Stupa. Today, they enjoyed the Amitabha and Chenrezig practice at the Amitabha Stupa. Afterwards we took a little time to talk stupas and kids deciding that it would be great if the Dharma centers in the southwest could organize a weekend workshop to share ideas about Dharma programs for kids. There are several beautiful Stupa sites where this could take place if anything augers as a result of our chatting.
If you have a Stupa nearby where you live, you may want to go hang out there. You never know whom you will meet!
And yes, if you have been following this blog, Wiggleworm was there for the practice but this week there was also another dog and he seemed to be more focused on canine things than the chanting. He really is a dog afterall!
By this effort may all sentient beings be free of suffering!
Anyway, Namoi and her husband were visiting the Amitabha Stupa while on vacation and en route to Naomi’s teacher, Garchen Rinpoche, who has a center about 40 miles from ours in Sedona. Small world. Her interest is Dharma and children and teaching. She is a wonderful, kind and warm person. We swapped stories about some of the stupas in the Southwest, ones in Santa Fe where she and her husband live, and the great Dharmakaya Stupa built by the Shambala sangha and its supporters worlwide that is up in Red Feather Lakes (northern) Colorado.
When I got the okay a few years ago from my teacher to take robes, I was living in Denver, Colorado, and I went up the Dharmakaya Stupa, which was the closest to me, to make offerings. Without really thinking about it being January 6th (read: cold), I put on my robes and a jacket and hat and gloves and headed up to Red Feather Lakes, which is about 25 miles south of the border with Wyoming. I had been the that Great Stupa before, but always during a warmer part of the year. So there I was in early January, in my robes (that I was not used to wearing in public) at an altitude and latitude that I was not really used to. I don’t know when I had ever been colder! The hike up to the Stupa is close to a half-mile and in that part of the world the wind blows quite persistently. I really wasn’t all that familiar with wearing the bottom robe, essentially a tube of material that one friend said, “oh, it’s tea-length” meaning ankle length. So I was trudging up the hill, still reeling from the okay to pursue ordination, in an ankle length robe that I was trying to keep down as the cold wind blew around my ankles and up my legs. Whew! It was worth every inch of the effort because the Dharmakaya Stupa is a magnificent, remarkable structure: 108 feet high, prayer room on the ground floor and two floors of rooms for higher level practice. You see it up on the mountainside as you are walking that half-mile through the woods from the parking area. It is a perfect spot for meditation and aspirations to end suffering.
Naomi and her husband have their own connection with that Great Stupa. It is what happens to people that enter the field of merit that a Stupa creates. They connect, their hearts are affected by the power of the Stupa. Today, they enjoyed the Amitabha and Chenrezig practice at the Amitabha Stupa. Afterwards we took a little time to talk stupas and kids deciding that it would be great if the Dharma centers in the southwest could organize a weekend workshop to share ideas about Dharma programs for kids. There are several beautiful Stupa sites where this could take place if anything augers as a result of our chatting.
If you have a Stupa nearby where you live, you may want to go hang out there. You never know whom you will meet!
And yes, if you have been following this blog, Wiggleworm was there for the practice but this week there was also another dog and he seemed to be more focused on canine things than the chanting. He really is a dog afterall!
By this effort may all sentient beings be free of suffering!
posted by Gonpo Yeshe (David) Williams at 8:00 PM
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