Buddhist Temple Consecrated in Zuni Mountains

By Diane Fowler, Cibola Beacon, September 10, 2009

Grants, NM (USA) -- The road is an unpaved track through Ponderosa pines leading to a mountain meadow where a magnificent new structure gleams in the sunlight. The building is the Zuni Mountain Stupa (temple), a sacred monument and reliquary that represents the Buddha's wisdom and compassion.

<< More than 300 people were on hand for the blessing and consecration of the Zuni Mountain Stupa on Sept. 5. The Buddhist temple was years in the making.BEACON / DONAHUE

In Tibet and all Buddhist countries, the sites of stupas are gathering places for Buddhist practitioners, who come to pray, meditate and make offerings to accumulate merit and to connect with their own innate purity, according to the program.

A pristine white cupola with a gold spire tops the stupa, which was consecrated last Saturday in a joyous ceremony filled with vivid sights and sounds. Color abounded in the décor of the building, the prayer flags strung from trees and the outfits of the participants. Bells, gongs and chanting provided an auditory background to the festivities.

A ceremonial fire burned outside a white circle on the ground, which encompassed dancers in ornate and colorful dresses, aprons and headdresses with flowers. Each dancer held a ceremonial object, such as ribbons, gongs and hand bells.

Following the dancing, musicians playing brass instruments led a procession into the stupa past an altar adorned with flowers. The altar is adjacent to a waterfall filled with rocks inscribed with Buddhist prayers.

Male dancers wearing bearded masks, long hair and belts festooned with pompoms then danced in front of the new temple. They carried staffs painted in multi-color stripes as they blessed the mountains surrounding them.

One dancer played an exquisite drum painted aqua and decorated with ornate gold designs.

Stanley and Shirley Giser, owners of the mountain property, and Tibetan monks from California greeted visitors, which included much of the Zuni Mountain population as well as out of town participants.

Local painter Jane Chilton was seen sitting at her easel, capturing the event on canvas as the festivities swirled around her.

In addition to the Giser home, the complex includes a prayer wheel house, which was built eight years ago, a cooking house and the new stupa.

The Zuni Mountain Stupa has been built in the monumental style called Duddul Chodten, which translates as “subduing negative forces.” To commemorate the Buddha's subduing of all outer negative forces and to continue the enlightened activity of overcoming negativity, Dudul Chodten style stupas have been built around the world

The dome, or bumpa, of the stupa is modeled after the Great Stupa of Boudhanath in Nepal, which is considered one of the great religious monuments in the world. Statues of enlightened beings in their various forms, ranging in size from a quarter of an inch to two feet tall, fill the bumpa.

A library of texts containing Buddha's own words, including more than 200 volumes of Tengyur texts and 100 volumes of Kagyur writings are stored in the bumpa. There are also texts from the major sects of Tibetan Buddhism.

A juniper long-life pole extends from the base of the bumpa to the uppermost spire of the stupa. The pole has four sides, each of which has been covered with sacred mantras and prayers of aspiration. The pole stands on two mandalas, one above the other.

Over the past five years, all stages of work on the monument were carried out in strict accordance with instructions for building an authentic stupa.

Buddhist leader Bhakha Rinpoche came to the U.S. in the 1980s, establishing various Buddhist centers under the auspices of his Vairotsana Foundation. For the past 20 years, he has been giving retreats and teachings on the Zuni Mountain land.

There are three major retreats each year between late May and early September and are announced three months prior to the date of the event.

To be included on the Zuni Mountain Stupa e-mail list, send a request to zunimtnstupa@gilanet.com. The group's website is: www.zunimountainstupa.org and the mailing address is 2062 Zuni Canyon Rd., Grants, NM 87020.

We Need Your Help to Train the
Buddhist AI Chat Bot
NORBU!
(Neural Operator for Responsible Buddhist Understanding)



For Malaysians and Singaporeans, please make your donation to the following account:

Account Name: Bodhi Vision
Account No:. 2122 00000 44661
Bank: RHB

The SWIFT/BIC code for RHB Bank Berhad is: RHBBMYKLXXX
Address: 11-15, Jalan SS 24/11, Taman Megah, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Phone: 603-9206 8118

Note: Please indicate your name in the payment slip. Thank you.


Dear Friends in the Dharma,

We seek your generous support to help us train NORBU, the word's first Buddhist AI Chat Bot.

Here are some ways you can contribute to this noble cause:

One-time Donation or Loan: A single contribution, regardless of its size, will go a long way in helping us reach our goal and make the Buddhist LLM a beacon of wisdom for all.

How will your donation / loan be used? Download the NORBU White Paper for details.



For Malaysians and Singaporeans, please make your donation to the following account:

Account Name: Bodhi Vision
Account No:. 2122 00000 44661
Bank: RHB

The SWIFT/BIC code for RHB Bank Berhad is: RHBBMYKLXXX
Address: 11-15, Jalan SS 24/11, Taman Megah, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Phone: 603-9206 8118

Note: Please indicate your purpose of payment (loan or donation) in the payment slip. Thank you.

Once payment is banked in, please send the payment slip via email to: editor@buddhistchannel.tv. Your donation/loan will be published and publicly acknowledged on the Buddhist Channel.

Spread the Word: Share this initiative with your friends, family and fellow Dharma enthusiasts. Join "Friends of Norbu" at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norbuchatbot. Together, we can build a stronger community and create a positive impact on a global scale.

Volunteer: If you possess expertise in AI, natural language processing, Dharma knowledge in terms of Buddhist sutras in various languages or related fields, and wish to lend your skills, please contact us. Your knowledge and passion could be invaluable to our project's success.

Your support is part of a collective effort to preserve and disseminate the profound teachings of Buddhism. By contributing to the NORBU, you become a "virtual Bodhisattva" to make Buddhist wisdom more accessible to seekers worldwide.

Thank you for helping to make NORBU a wise and compassionate Buddhist Chatbot!

May you be blessed with inner peace and wisdom,

With deepest gratitude,

Kooi F. Lim
On behalf of The Buddhist Channel Team


Note: To date, we have received the following contributions for NORBU:
US$ 75 from Gary Gach (Loan)
US$ 50 from Chong Sim Keong
MYR 300 from Wilson Tee
MYR 500 from Lim Yan Pok
MYR 50 from Oon Yeoh
MYR 200 from Ooi Poh Tin
MYR 300 from Lai Swee Pin
MYR 100 from Ong Hooi Sian
MYR 1,000 from Fam Sin Nin
MYR 500 from Oh teik Bin
MYR 300 from Yeoh Ai Guat
MYR 300 from Yong Lily
MYR 50 from Bandar Utama Buddhist Society
MYR 1,000 from Chiam Swee Ann
MYR 1,000 from Lye Veei Chiew
MYR 1,000 from Por Yong Tong
MYR 80 from Lee Wai Yee
MYR 500 from Pek Chee Hen
MYR 300 from Hor Tuck Loon
MYR 1,000 from Wise Payments Malaysia Sdn Bhd
MYR 200 from Teo Yen Hua
MYR 500 from Ng Wee Keat
MYR 10,000 from Chang Quai Hung, Jackie (Loan)
MYR 10,000 from K. C. Lim & Agnes (Loan)
MYR 10,000 from Juin & Jooky Tan (Loan)
MYR 100 from Poh Boon Fong (on behalf of SXI Buddhist Students Society)
MYR 10,000 from Fam Shan-Shan (Loan)
MYR 10,000 from John Fam (Loan)
MYR 500 from Phang Cheng Kar
MYR 100 from Lee Suat Yee
MYR 500 from Teo Chwee Hoon (on behalf of Lai Siow Kee)
MYR 200 from Mak Yuen Chau

We express our deep gratitude for the support and generosity.

If you have any enquiries, please write to: editor@buddhistchannel.tv


TOP