Migyur Dorje Stupa | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The following is an excerpt from a teaching given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo during a “Good Heart Retreat“

There are some that may criticize the building of the Migyur Dorje stupa. I understand that it cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars. You might say, ‘Well, gee, if you’re going to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars, why don’t you feed the poor?’ Well, I feel like I am. I feel like that’s the point of the stupa. I begged and begged His Holiness for these relics and the ability to build the stupa because in this country there’s no place to go when you have no hope. There’s simply no place to go when all the doctors have told you they can’t help you. There’s no place to go when you’re at your last moments and maybe even the karma for this life has run out and you know that you haven’t really attended to your spiritual life. You know that you haven’t practiced very much. Or when your life is such that you got the ‘can’t fix-its’; don’t know how to put it back together again.

I know that in other places, in other lands, there are deeply inspiring religious pilgrimage places. I know that in Tibet almost all of the Tibetans, at one time or another, take some sort of major pilgrimage; and it’s a life changer. There are so many stories of pilgrimages turning out to be major healings. Where people will go to these holy places in which they have tremendous faith, where there are extraordinary relics there that are left by extraordinary Lamas, and healings take place that are miraculous.

I also knew that in this country there is AIDS which has been growing incrementally, cancer which is killing so many, and people constantly dying from all sorts of diseases that seem to be the afflictions of this day and time. There are so many diseases that we haven’t found any cures for, including simple mental unhappiness. Because of all this, I really wanted to offer this stupa to our community. What we have built here is, yes, at great expense, yes, at great effort; but also done with great joy. We have been able to gather together enough money, enough energy, and enough time to make this dream a reality. And now we have something here which over time, hopefully by word of mouth, hopefully by your good works and your good faith, the word will spread out that we have this amazing stupa here. Now anyone at any time, no matter what they have experienced as their spiritual path, if they’re ever down and out and without hope, can come here and make prayers. There is a potency to that pilgrimage. I’m hoping that it will become known that these same relics from Terton Migyur Dorje, these relics, of which there are pieces in different places of the world, not too many, but particularly in Tibet, have brought about amazing cures. I want people to know about this. I want them to come and feel better. To me, it’s like the ultimate soup kitchen, you know? You can offer this nourishment, this food, to your community.

So we went through the effort of building this thing, and thank you all for everything that you’ve done to make it possible—the work and the money, all of it—and now we have this tremendous gift to offer the community. To my way of thinking, this is one such group or community effort that we have made together in order to provide for and to nourish the community and make our hopes for the world more visible and more heard. That’s one way to do it. But I think at this point it’s time to move even beyond that.

The following is a story submitted by a student of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, John Pelletier expressing his experience with Ven. Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche on Thursday April 25th:

I want to share with you something very special that happened this past Thursday morning. As Rinpoche was getting ready to leave for New York, he spontaneously asked to visit our stupas, both the Enlightenment Stupa in the parking lot and the various stupas in the peace park.

As many of you already know, we have had numerous obstacles keeping full access to the stupas on the land across the street due to various seemingly external causes, such as floods and storms taking out bridges and making roads impassable.

We have had difficulty maintaining the stupas, and, as a matter of fact, we all know that we had allowed many to just fall into disrepair. Even after a great effort this past summer, some of the repairs have come to a standstill, again, because of seemingly external causes like the weather or lack of personnel.

Needless to say, this is distressing not only to Jetsunma, but to any being with the clarity to see reality as it is – anyone who can see the true internal reflection of what the external obstacle really is.

I didn’t witness the visit to the Enlightenment Stupa, but something very magical happened at the Migyur Dorje Stupa that is worth sharing. It’s hard to explain in words the profundity of what happened there Thursday morning, so I’ll just say what happened so you can contemplate this remarkable blessing that Rinpoche’s visit brought to us.

Rinpoche performed a blessing ceremony at the Migyur Dorje Stupa that included many prayers and mandala offerings, represented by the throwing of blessed rice in the traditional manner we have seen many times before, and circumabulations. Jetsunma later told us that he was praying to purify and apologize for the negativity caused by allowing the stupas, and the land in general, to have arrived at such a state.

The whole ceremony was very impromptu yet incredibly graceful and beautiful. At the end, to seal the blessing, a khatag was thrown into the air. I have never seen anything quite like this before in my life and this is the part, truly, that I wanted to share with everyone.

I would imagine that if you or I threw a khatag into the air at the Stupa, it may just kind of look like it was being thrown and ultimately land somewhere pretty low, maybe where the level where offerings are generally made. This wasn’t the case here at all.

What we saw was the khatag literally unfurling and taking flight through the air, waving as if it had wings, approaching and landing perfectly on the harmika, the square structure that rests under the spire. It was as if the Stupa itself had bent over to receive the khatag from Rinpoche.

As it landed, the air was still and everyone, including Rinpoche and his entourage, audibly gasped and rejoiced. This was indeed an uncommon event even for those who have seen this type of thing many times, again and again. My heart is filled with joy and my eyes filled with tears to relate the rarity of this type of purity in the world.

May we never forget the Buddhafield this land truly is and the inconceivably rare blessings it holds. May we do nothing but share and uphold this gift from our precious Guru, Jetsunma, and may we achieve the result of understanding the nature of the precious jewels we have in our midst. May we never let this blessing be forgotten. May none of these efforts be wasted.

Offering the Miraculous

Miraculous Blessings: Ven. Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche