Esteemed Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Dzogchen follower Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche marked the festival celebrating the Buddha's return to the human realm after entering Tushita by leading the official inauguration of Pal Thubten Shedrub Ling (also known as the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas), in Lumbini, Nepal, the Buddha's birthplace, as part of a massive consecration program that will take place from November 19 to 23.
The new Shedrawhich is affiliated with Rinpoche's growing global mandala of Dharma activities, was founded to support a monastic community at the Buddha's birthplace and to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of international pilgrims who visit the sacred site each year.
The full program began on November 19, with three days of offerings and consecration bids leading to Lhabab Duchen on November 22. The main event included a final cleansing and consecration bidsShakyamuni Buddha meditationand prayers to Buddha Shakyamuni and the 16 arhatsOn November 23, Rinpoche led a thousand Buddha initiation followed by a teaching.
Lhabab Duchen is one of the four most important Buddhist festivals in the Tibetan lunar calendar, falling on the 22nd day of the ninth lunar month. The festival celebrates the return of Shakyamuni Buddha to Earth after teaching in Indra's realm, known in Sanskrit as Tushita, where, according to tradition, he taught the Dharma for three months.
The temple's vast main sanctuary houses magnificent 4,8-metre statues of the Buddhas of the three ages, Dipamkara Buddha (past), Shakyamuni Buddha (present) and Maitreya Buddha (future), surrounded by 1 000-centimetre Buddha statues, all cast in water in copper and gilded with gold.
According to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, simply seeing these images has the power to relieve the mind of worry and dispel unnecessary thoughts, thus bringing us to a state of peace and pleasure.
“(My teacher) Kunu Lama (Tenzin Gyaltsen) said a few words to me about the need to build statues of Shakyamuni Buddha that have remained important to me,” Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche explained in a text shared with BDG. “He said that if we build excellent statues of Shakyamuni Buddha from precious materials, adorned with the 32 major and 80 minor marks perfectly complete, and make a large number of them and large ones, and if these are installed as the central image in a temple, or used as a central support for one’s own practice, if one makes prostrations, offerings, and shows respect to such statues, and practices meditation before them, it will be an auspicious coincidence that will allow the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha to remain in our world for a long time. . . .
“At Rumtek Gompa, when I was about 18 or 19 years old, Karmapa Rangjung Rikpe Dorje said, ‘For the Buddha’s teaching to remain in the world for a long time, we must build Buddha statues.’ We must build a thousand Buddha statues. And we made these statues, didn’t we? This is an auspicious sign that the Buddha’s teachings will remain in the world for many thousands of years.
Rinpoche presided over the inauguration and opening ceremony of Pal Thubten Shedrub Ling on November 22-23, in the presence of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Phakchok Rinpoche, Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, as well as staff, students and alumni of Rinpoche's Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, along with a crowd of devotees and well-wishers from around the world.
“At Pal Thubten Shedrub Ling, we are surrounded by a thousand Buddha images,” Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche observed. “If we perform a single prostration, it is equivalent to prostrating to a thousand Buddhas at the same time. Even offering a single light or flower has the merit of being offered to a thousand Buddhas. This is why the Thousand Buddha Temple is an extremely important support for Dharma practitioners. It is a place where anyone can visit, pray, and accumulate great merit without much difficulty. I believe that if we all rejoice in the establishment of this temple, truly immense merit will be gathered. As the saying goes, ‘Accumulating great merit helps cultivate great wisdom.’”
“It was with this understanding that I was originally inspired to build a temple that would serve, today and for all future generations, as a sanctuary for Buddhist practitioners of all traditions. I sincerely wanted to open a source of joy and peace for all who visit Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, a World Heritage Site that belongs to all. My aspiration was for the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas to be an oasis of tranquility that would radiate peace, happiness and well-being to all sentient beings throughout all worlds.
Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche is considered one of the greatest living masters of the Dzogchen or “Great Perfection” tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism, a gentle yet imposing figure whose presence is imbued with warmth and compassion. The eldest son of the revered Dzogchen master Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and the devoted practitioner Kunsang Dechen, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1951. He was recognized as the seventh incarnation of the Drikung Kagyu lama Gar Drubchen, a Tibetan. mahasiddha and an offshoot of the second-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna.
After the invasion of Tibet, Rinpoche spent his youth in India, studying for 11 years under His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa at Rumtek Monastery. He also studied and practiced with the revered masters Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, and his own father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. In 1974, Rinpoche joined his parents in Kathmandu, where he helped them establish Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, a monastery on the outskirts of the city, within walking distance of the benevolent gaze of the venerable Boudhanath Stupa. Rinpoche became abbot of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling in 1976, at the age of only 25, and has since overseen the welfare and spiritual education of several hundred monks, both men and women.
Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, a shrine dedicated to the study and practice of Buddhadharma, lies at the heart of Rinpoche’s growing mandala of dharmic activities. Among his many initiatives and projects, Rinpoche, now 72, has authored several books and founded a network of meditation centers around the world. In 1997, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche established the Rangjung Yeshe Institute within the grounds of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling. The institute affiliated with Kathmandu University in 2002 to form the Center for Buddhist Studies. Today, the center offers a range of courses at various levels, including bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in Buddhist studies and Himalayan languages, with courses offered at the monastery’s monastic college.
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The article Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche inaugurates Pal Thubten Shedrub Ling, the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas, in Lumbini appeared first on Buddhadoor Global.
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