June 10th The Fourth Factor....

It is easy to forget, with all the activity, planning and plain hard work, what all this is about. Stupas are the appearance of the Enlightened Mind in form, they are the very presence of Enlightenment! You can see them, touch them, make offerings to them. When in New York last week, Khenpo Norgye began his instruction on statues and Stupas with the statement that these objects, because they are not ordinary, because they ARE Enlightenment in form, serve to help purify our perceptions! They do this without any effort on our part! Just by seeing them, even in the photos on this page! How extraordinary....

So to help us keep this in mind as we work to restore them, I've drawn a quote from another website. This is a quote from the venerable Thubten Rinpoche at Dhargye Buddhist Center. You can see the website, which is a transcript of a teaching he gave, here: http://dbc.dharmakara.net/trt2-963.html

Here's the quote that struck me the most:

"Another incident concerning the origin of stupas happened when the Buddha was at Rajgir. At this time he was addressing about five-hundred bhikkshus and seven thousand two hundred Bodhisattvas. At that congregation the Bodhisattva Maitreya put a question to the Buddha. Maitreya asked, "In the distant future there will come a time when it will be very hard for people to practise Dharma. Due to the enormous number of negative forces and many types of interference they will not be able to practise as they would like. What conducive factors will be needed to ward-off and pacify all these negative forces?"

The Buddha explained that five factors would be needed. If these five factors were present, people would be free of interference from negative forces and they would live long. As well, these five factors would gradually contribute to the practitioners' attainment of enlightenment.

The first factor is to give Dharma constantly with the intention of helping others.

The second factor is constantly to give sentient beings a sense of security, or freedom from fear. This means to constantly save beings whose lives are at risk, and provide them with security and peace of mind.

The third factor is constantly to reflect on the four types of immeasurables.

The fourth factor is constantly to repair old stupas or to commission or construct new stupas.

The fifth factor is constantly to maintain the mind of enlightenment, Bodhicitta, the universal altruism to want to achieve the state of enlight-enment for the sake of all sentient beings. One needs to maintain this in one's mind all the time.

Of the five factors the Buddha spelt out, one is repairing old stupas and making new ones. If one is able to do that it will bring a lot of benefit to oneself and others in the future."

When I first read this I was amazed and humbled. How astonishing, indeed, that we here in the west, have such a precious opportunity! How astonishing, that we have a teacher so profound that every element necessary to accomplish Enlightenment has been provided here, in Poolesville, Maryland! Though many who see this may not be Buddhists, know that all of our aspirations as practitioners are directed soley towards relieving the suffering of every being with no exceptions. Everyone is welcome, so please do come take advantage of this amazing opportunity, whether you just come look, or whether you want to help. No strings attached!