"A Place to Expect Miracles" by Sylvia Somervile

Amitabha Stupa Park
Sedona, Arizona

A Place to Expect the Miraculous
By Sylvia Somerville

"If you want to multiply your virtue endlessly, connect with a stupa." -- Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche.

At the base of a great turtle-shaped mountain in Sedona sit 14 pristine acres. Marked by all the auspicious signs of geomancy, the land has been waiting to fulfill its sacred purpose. The time has come. As the summer of 2003 draws to a close, it will cradle a radiating presence of enlightenment--the Sedona Stupa Park.

After months of preparation, the small Buddhist community of Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) Sedona, under the direction of its spiritual director Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, will break ground this June for a 36-foot structure that has been a beacon of hope and blessings for thousands of years. Already the land on Andante and Pueblo has been consecrated by a Tibetan master and stupa builder. Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, a sublime incarnation who left imprints in stone at the age of three, came out of seclusion to lead ceremonies that will create the most propitious conditions for the building and empowerment of one of the world’s most revered forms of sacred architecture. "I couldn’t help myself," he said. "Whenever there is a stupa to be built, I’m always available…. And I am completely committed to building this stupa."

Expecting the miraculous
Stupas are symbols of enlightened mind. They are catalysts for spiritual awakening, wish-fulfilling jewels, that transmit blessings to all who see them, hear of them or bring them to mind. In the East stupas are viewed as spiritual treasures, visited by people from near and far who are looking for healing for themselves and loved ones, solace from sorrows, good fortune, long life, help for the dying or deceased and most especially for the ultimate goal of enlightenment.

Indeed, by their very presence stupas bring benefit to individuals, communities and the land itself. They are a spiritual oasis, a place to refresh the spirit, gather strength and hope and connect with a deeper truth. "Here in America there is simply no place to expect the miraculous. There is no place to go and really know that great benefit will come, " lamented Jetsunma some years ago. And so this great Buddhist saint, a reincarnate lama who has vowed to forestall her own enlightenment to benefit others, asked her teachers to help her build and empower stupas to create places of pilgrimage where it is possible to touch the sacred and become transformed. So far, Jetsunma has built nearly three dozen stupas all with the heartfelt prayer of benefiting sentient beings.

As the embodiment of enlightened mind, stupas are the ultimate remedy for the problems of the world. Some have been built to engender harmony; others to bring prosperity or foster longevity. KPC’s Migyur Dorje Stupa in Maryland was dedicated as a healing stupa for the sake of those suffering from diseases of body and mind. Over the years people have found solace in the countryside of rural Poolesville without knowing anything about the stupa’s function and purpose. One of the nuns once stumbled upon an elderly woman on a cane who stood in the shadow of the stupa. She struck up a conversation and found that the woman came often with friends. "I don’t know what this is and I don’t care what it is, but it makes me feel better—my arthritis stops hurting—and that’s why I come," she said.

Stories of healing
Other visitors, aware of the stupa’s intention, visit the Migyur Dorje Stupa to offer heartfelt prayers for health and well-being, often not only for themselves but also for others stricken with their same affliction. Sometimes this has led to astonishing reversals or changes of fortune. There was Gene, a young physician diagnosed with AIDS. His T cells were in the single digits. For six years, Gene had been fighting for his life. "When the Migyur Dorje Stupa was consecrated on December 2, 1995, I sat in the front row with tears in my eyes as the entire congregation gathered for this miraculous occasion and celebrated the existence of a place where all with no hope could find meaning and new hope for an end to their suffering and to the suffering of all beings," Gene recalled. A few months after devotedly praying around the stupa, his T-cells were over 100. Gene continued to gain strength and today is alive in California living his vow to be of benefit to others.

Virginia also experienced a miracle. She made a long trip from Australia to visit Jetsunma and the Poolesville temple. She came with no thought of healing herself although she had begun to lose her battle with cancer. A third recurrence of undifferentiated cells left her leg hot and throbbing with pain. The medical prognosis was amputation. To create the causes for a teaching for the entire congregation, she joined a small group of people and prayed throughout the night around the Migyur Dorje Stupa. When she went home, her cancer was contained and defined and the doctors decided not to amputate. Three years later, her cancer continues to be under control. Then there was Charlie, a golden retriever with only six months to live. His devoted owner took him around the stupa to prepare him for a peaceful death. Charlie got healthier and lived another three years. These are not isolated instances. Stories abound about the healing properties of stupas.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche in his book Ultimate Healing: The Power of Compassion offers some insight. Disease is not something inflicted upon us from the outside, says Rinpoche. The causes for disease are internal, coming from mental afflictions, such as self-cherishing, ignorance, anger and attachment. These negative attitudes and actions leave imprints on the mind that express themselves as problems and diseases. Outer agents, such as bacteria and viruses, are simply the conditions for the disease. Thus true healing comes from purifying the mind, and a stupa is a sublime object of purification. "A stupa [rich in symbolism, filled with relics and consecrated according to sacred texts] is such a powerful holy object that even an unintentional circumambulation purifies negativities and accumulates merit or virtue," explains Lama Zopa, recalling how animals and insects that inadvertently circumambulated a stupa created powerful causes for auspicious rebirths and eventual enlightenment. Indeed, during the Heart Shrine Relic Tour, which made its way across the Southwest last year, normally unseen holy objects were on display, most of them similar to the ones enshrined in stupas. When the relics came to the Sedona Cultural Park, 400 animals came, including wolves, cats, dogs, birds, iguanas and a caterpillar. They circumambulated the relics, sometimes four deep, without incident. Even normally anxious or aggressive animals completely relaxed. "These are natural enemies. Normally, they have hatred for each other. Yet they did not bark. They did not fight. They were relaxed and completely at peace, " notes Ani Miranda Coates, one of the event organizers.

This came as no surprise to Coates and others who are aware that relics, pearl-like remains of accomplished meditation masters, exude positive, transformative energy because they are the distilled essence of spiritual realization. But the behavior did offer some insight into the potency of holy objects. "Of course, animals don’t even have a thought about relics or stupas or being Buddhist," says Ani Miranda. "Their behavior displays how Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike receive the blessings of connecting with a holy object, which include harmony, joy and wellbeing." Laboratory studies also support the efficacy of Buddhist practice. In

"The Monk in the Laboratory, an article that appeared in the April 26, 2003 edition of the New York Times. the Dalai Lama discussed laboratory studies that were designed to test how successful Buddhist practices are for cultivating compassion, equanimity and mindfulness. According to the findings, Buddhist practices calm a part of the brain that triggers fear and anger, resulting in a state of deep inner peace that is unshakeable even in the face of extremely disturbing circumstances.

The Sedona stupa
Like meditation and other spiritual practices, holy objects help trigger positive mental states. Certainly that is the intention of the stupa under construction in Sedona. It is called a bodhi or enlightenment stupa, and it is designed to (1) to awaken beings to the truth of their nature and (2) to tame negative forces that can cause obstacles for individuals, the community and the land in the Southwest. Thus, its numerous blessings will include peace and harmony.

"We are living in very uncertain times. Humanity and all living things are constantly under threat and there is an urgent need to create the cause of harmony throughout the world," notes Lama Zopa Rinpoche. "All of the world’s major religions and humanitarian traditions teach the ethical values of tolerance, patience, loving kindness and compassion. As these universal values are embraced and take root in the minds and hearts of more and more people, world peace will become an attainable dream."

Graced by the image of Amitabha, the very embodiment of compassion (see sidebar), the Sedona Stupa is dedicated to amplifying loving kindness and an open heart. "This stupa is for everyone," says Alyce Louise Bertsche, KPC’s chairman of the board.

Even now, one can feel the sacredness of the land. There is a feeling of anticipation that seems to whisper in the trees and waft through the air. There is a sense of purity, promise and possibility. During a recent visit, Lillian Too, one of the world’s leading Feng Shui experts, remarked how the land couldn’t be more perfect. It has the most auspicious configuration of mountains that embrace it on all sides, of sloping ground and water pathways. It is a place where the earth rises up to meet the spirit.

An invitation to the community
"Whatever we have we want to share it, " says Ani Miranda, who is overseeing the development of the Sedona Stupa. "We are making every effort to involved the community in each step of the process so they can claim the stupa as their own. It belongs to everyone, regardless of religion or philosophy." A stupa is all about virtue—from the very beginning to the end. When building a stupa, there are no grey areas, no politics, no possibility of differing points of view. The historic Buddha Shakyamuni personally gave instructions on how to build stupas in a teaching called Drimed Namnyly or "The Sutra of the Two Purities." These instructions are followed to this day.

The blessings of being involved in a project that brings benefit to so many are indescribable, especially if the motivation is to be of benefit to others. "When you build a stupa, you are giving rise to the body of the Buddha as though had given birth to it or given rise to it within your own mind…The virtue of that is immeasurable," says Jetsunma.

Stupa building is a potent spiritual technology that can alter the karmic fabric of one’s destiny so that it becomes inextricably linked with the mind of enlightenment. Jetsunma explains: "If you are able to make a stupa, every time a life is saved, every time a person is deepened in their practice, every time a being benefits in any way, you will share in that merit. This project is as lofty as it gets. It is about saving lives."

Being part of the stupa construction team
Making some of the thousands of tsa-tsas (miniature stupas out of clay) that
go inside a stupa
Creating artistic elements on the stupa and in the surrounding areas
Working behind the scenes in administration, fund-raising, public relations and
marketing
Gardening and cooking special meals for the stupa crew who must follow a strict diet when building the stupa.

No effort is too small. "When erecting a stupa, if you simply offer a handful of sand and place it in the mortar, that handful of sand is equivalent to offering many thousands of ounces of gold to the enlightened ones," says Tulku Sang-ngag. Individuals who have been involved in past stupa projects, talk about how their lives were "changed to the core."

If active involvement is not possible, the project welcomes in-kind donations, such as cement, rebar or plants, donations of some of the elements that go inside the stupa [such as precious metals, semiprecious stones, coins, natural fiber, Tibetan incense, minerals, crystals, saffron, rice, candles, perfume, honey, molasses and other items] or financial sponsorship of the stupa itself or its exquisite artistic elements—from sections of railing and benches to prayer wheels, elements of the arched gateway and the surrounding meditation gardens. In appreciation, donors can make a special dedication, which will be engraved on a metal plaque and place on or near the item sponsored.

A spiritual legacy
Whether one assists with the building or not, the Sedona Stupa Park will be a place to pray, meditate, reflect and deepen in one’s own spiritual path or tradition. "We feel the timing couldn’t be more perfect to express these qualities in this powerful place," says Ani Miranda. "It is a spiritual legacy for many generations."

*Sylvia Somerville is a freelance writer and editor living in Sedona
(somervillesylvia@hotmail.com). This is her second piece on stupas for Four Corners Magazine. Sylvia dedicates this article to the long life of her teacher Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and to the swift completion of the Sedona stupa so that it may bring benefit to all sentient beings.