Podcast

The Sacred Place
by Lama Tsering Everest

I am very happy at the reception for the podcasts, people seem to enjoy, I get lots of e-mails, people saying thank you for making podcasts and that's rewarding. I am happy that it meets some need and people are benefiting by it and I am a little bit nervous because I am not used to extemporaneously speaking. I usually talk dharma and, in this case, I am talking about a project.

There are two projects that I really want to introduce: one is the Guru Padmasambhava Mandala, Jalye Kam, the Palace of Guru Padmasambhava that is being constructed at Três Coroas, in the south of Brazil in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This is an absolutely amazing work that was Rinpoche's vision to create. Because I think he personally didn't care very much about bricks or buildings as really Rinpoche cared the most about wisdom and mind . As a lineage holder of the mind tradition, Rinpoche really cared to transmit that and for people who were sympathetic with that, who had interdependence with the transmission of the great dharma teachings, Rinpoche was really all about that.

But, at one point, he started wanting to create a location. He tried to create that location in the United States, and it was not very easy to do, it was really challenging. There were lots of restrictions in terms of building codes and lots of expenses and you had to meet lots of regulations and requirements that were always inconceivable to him and really slow to produce what he wanted to do.

I was along with all these different phases that Rinpoche went through in terms of creating a location that people could find a place, that they could go to, that they could visit, that they could see the environment of a dharma place. And he created many, many practice places all over in the United States and particularly Rigdzin Ling there.

And when Rinpoche then came to Brazil he came with a great kind of excitement because it wasn't like molasses in January trying to get things done. He could build the building he wanted to build, he could make the space and he did that: he built the temple in Três Coroas and it's absolutely magnificent. When you go there you really feel Rinpoche's enlightened intent manifest as a location; a place you can walk around and feel a sacred environment, a place that is easy for you to let go of your own personal worries.

In a way, you feel small there in the greatness of the location and the greatness of the architecture and the greatness of the art that has been so beautifully exercised there -even the architectural designs of pillars and cornices.

It's just a magnificent building and when you go in there it is easy to relax your mind. Like when you go to the top of a high mountain and you just seat there in the awe of the magnificence of the world, with the clouds over your head, moving and the silence of the wind and the trees, and you have a broad mind because you are seating there on the top of the world and it allows you a space of mind, it is a little bit the same way when you enter into a magnificent building. You can kind of relax your mind and then when the jawlings play and the cymbals clatter and the umze's voice resounds deeply, everything drops away and your pure heart is exposed, your pure motivation. I mean, that's if you are not troubling over which page you are on, or which language you are speaking, how do you read these phonetics anyway? There are some anxieties that come along with it too, but it is very amazing if you just allow yourself to let the environment affect you, this is a sacred place.

So there in Três Coroas Rinpoche manifested that dream during the course of his lifetime but his vision, his aspiration was always to build the Padmasambhava Palace, because he said that along with the temple it creates liberation by sight, to even see it plants a seed that will inevitably produce good fortune in the course of one's lifetimes -that there is like a signpost placed in your mind, how you find Guru Padmasambhava's Pure Land at the moment of death, it's something that affects you in a much deep way than we could understand in that there is the power of liberation by sight.

So, the palace is progressing. Khadro's vision is completely harmonious with Rinpoche's intention and it is coming along beautifully and you can see pictures on the internet sites like www.chagdud.org - you should watch the movement of this developing and rejoice in it.

Great if you come to visit, but at least, even at a distance to just rejoice that this is being created joins you together with the power of virtue that is manifesting through this construction being made for the benefit of beings.

At Khadro Ling, in the south, Rinpoche's seat in Brazil, Khadro Ling, we receive many visitors there, every weekend tourists come: it is so cute, they come with their lunches, they sit out in the yard like they are in a picnic, this is a place to go, they bring their family, they walk around and look at things, it is a place to go. They are not Buddhists, but that seed of liberation by sight is affecting them even if they are not Buddhist, it creates interdependence and good fortune for their minds to ripen into inseparability with Guru Padmasambhava and all the buddhas so it is really, really, really magnificent, so kind of Rinpoche, so kind of Khadro to carry it to completion -so wonderful!

And you see it there on the side of the mountain: it looks like a UFO has landed, now because it is a very interesting shape architecturally, the features of the building are very interesting, but the roofs look like they have came from another planet, it's amazing.

So, along with Rinpoche's enlightened intent to manifest this liberation by sight and create an environment for Buddhists and non-buddhists to enjoy sacred environment, he also had these aspirations in São Paulo at our retreat land. Rinpoche marked out a place for us to build the temple there.

And it is not as difficult, although Rinpoche didn't really oversee construction. He sat the location for the temple and Rinpoche really knew that I would bring it to fruition. That doesn't mean me alone, that means me sort of helping everyone get along with this idea. Like a good sangha, like really what a sangha is, the arms and legs of the lama. And so, as Rinpoche's arms and legs, we manifest his vision, we manifest this, it's almost like a portal or something, a soft spot where people can gather and a soft spot that allows you to let your heart open.

This is what these sacred places, whether it's Khadro Ling or it's Odsal ling or it's Jigme Rinpoche and his activities creating a refuge place, a location, a practice environment, whether it is Rigdzin Ling, any of these kinds of places, any of these things that the lamas are making manifest, locations are soft spots -soft spots where you can experience an environmental taste of blessings.

So we are doing this in São Paulo also, a little bit more humble I think, in the sense that we don't really know how to do it perfectly, we are not Tibetans, but we have a heart to do it the best that we can. And Rinpoche gave me only a few words of advice in the building of this temple: he said to do it traditional. Because I was not going to do it traditional, I just wanted to create a practice place. I was thinking of wood and glass, I would make something very zen, it would just be a pretty place overlooking the valley.

Rinpoche didn't stop me at first, he let me get the whole design on paper for his approval and then one day as we were passing in the hallway Rinpoche rather grumbled at me and he said: “You this kind mistake making.” I said “What Rinpoche? What mistake making?” “You this kind mistake making, not traditional doing.”

So then I knew that I needed to do the temple traditionally. So again we started with the drawings and Lama Norbu, who is my magnificent manifester, like Rinpoche always said -that I, myself, have the power of pointing, but Lama Norbu was the one who makes it manifest.

So we began again with the drawings and showed to Rinpoche and he approved the drawings of the traditional temple, but as we were interrupted by impermanence, we had to carry on ourselves with this project along with the sangha which is tremendously supportive and very moving in how they help, help by making offerings, help by their own hands, help by doing the artwork, that it is all of our project -it is not just me or not just Lama Norbu, it's really the sangha, this body that is the body of Rinpoche's intent manifesting this building.

It is not a small building, it's kind of big because I made a decision to try to include everything in one building, because it is less expensive that way and so it seems a little bit big, although the shrine room itself is one third smaller than the shrine room at Khadro Ling -for those of you that have been there before you know what I mean. I think it will seat 100, 150 people comfortably, 200 people squeezed.

Now the basic shell of the building is finished and we are still working on some things like a staircase which has been a real challenge. We actually didn't know how to make a staircase and we have run into lots of problems with the staircase, like finding the stones for the staircase, transporting the stones for the staircase, 145 tons of stones for the staircase. I have been dreaming stones on the staircase, there are sometimes challenges like this.

But it is very exciting and it is progressing and for me, as the pointer, it feels like the temple is trying to make itself, although it is really not true, everybody is working very hard on this.

And the team of workmen are very wonderful, there is one particular workman that Lama Norbu was telling me about, he is called Mineiro and he is from Minas, one state in Brazil. He sings all the time, he loves to work and he sings all the time. He kind of reminds me of a sangha guy who is really happy to do the work, he is experiencing joy in doing the work. We don't always feel that way about work, but that is one of the things about building a temple or doing a project like this: that there is a joy in doing the work, there is a pleasure in making the offering.

You are working, you are sweating, your muscles are reaching maybe a little bit beyond their capacity, but there is something joyous in the fact that you are making an offering and that you are building this great mandala that will outlive you. And it will go on in time for whoever has the connection to the dharma to see it, to come and hear the jawlings, to listen to the dharma there. Even if it is only to do one prostration: how wonderful somebody in the future will come into this room and make a prostration! Think of the karma that they will purify, think of the merit they will accumulate, think of the link to enlightenment -and so in that there is a joy, there is a delight, there is a fulfillment in that offering and so I am moved a lot by the sangha and this Mineiro. He is not even a dharma guy, but he has dharma energy in his work. There as just a regular workman and even if there is not work obvious to do he will find work, he will sweep something, he will clean something, he will brush up and find something, and I am very moved by that -how Rinpoche would like that. One thing that bothered him a lot is people that go to work and all they do is stand around and talk: they got the shovel in their hand and they are not doing anything, they are just talking, not only they are not working they are also stopping someone else form working. He was always disturbed by that, that it is not really making an offering.

It is easy to get lost in the ordinary stuff of a job to do and time to do it, but if you use the path of work as merit inseparable with wisdom, wow , it's a path that produces realization -and Rinpoche taught it to us, we always worked, we always did a project, and you know, if we weren't doing this temple we would be doing something else, because we all work, we are working ,we are working at something. So why not work at something that creates this kind of interdependence for others?

It doesn't mean that you don't need to work for your family or you don't need to work for your own livelihood but why not, if you are going to work anyway, why not?

There is a story about one guy. He was the attendant to the lama and the lamas, you know, lamas are kind of wanderers. They are always going from place to place teaching and he was the attendant, so everywhere they went he had to pack the yak. Aand everywhere they went, they would stop and it was time for tea. He would have to unpack the yak, he would have to go find some rocks, he would have to build the fire, he would have to warm the water, he would have to put the tea in the water and then he would serve the lama a cup of tea, he would have a the cup of tea, then he would unpack, put it all back in the yak and they would go on.

So one day he got tired of it andhe said to the lama : “You know, I am tired of this. All I do is pack the yak and build the fire and make the tea and put it all down and all I have, I am tired of this” and the lama said: “OK, thank you for all that you did and OK, it's all right. You don't have to keep doing this, that's fine.”

So he left and he went along his way and it was time to have tea, so there he was: he had to take off the pack, he had to unpack the pack and then he had to go find the rocks, he had to build the fire, he had to go to the river to collect the water, he had to heat the water, finally put the tea in the water and then he had a cup of tea and then he had to let tea time to go on, put it all down, take it all apart, put it all back in the yak and suddenly he saw himself, he said: “Wow, I have to make a cup of tea anyway, why not make the tea for the lama ? At least I am making virtue.”

So this is the teaching on dharma work, because you are going to do work anyway. In that you are going to do work anyway, why not do work that actually creates virtue, that's actually selfless? It's actually a training in your generosity, that is actually an offering that you are making, that you really give it to the lama -you really give it to the buddhas and the bodhisattvas, you really give it to all sentient beings and whatever forces of benevolence that are out there somewhere who help dharma people. You offer to them too and even the people that are really nasty minded, and harmfully intent, that they could be touched by this virtue and that they could be softened, they could be fulfilled and they wouldn't harm anymore. This is the reason to do the work, to make the offering.

So, even if we weren't making this temple, we would be doing something.

So, we are making a temple and I invite you to rejoice in it, and more than just rejoicing in your mind, you know, put your energy in, try, get yourself involved. It's not like somebody else trying to get out of the work, I am happy to do the work, everybody here is happy to do the work -it just that you could do it too, it is to create an environment for you to also create virtue, for you also to purify karma, for you also to create the causes and conditions to benefit people now and on into the future.

So, I was asked to talk a little bit about this today and introduce to you these projects and encourage you to participate and share a little bit of my appreciation for all of those of you who are involved either by your contributions, or by your artwork, or by your efforts, whatever it is that you are doing, to really thank you and dedicate the merit.

So this is an invitation: come along, let's go, we can make it happen! One day it is going to be done and you, your children, your children's children, they will look: “Look what we did, look what my dad did, look what my grandfather did”, and even if it is not in your own family, there will be someone who looks at this and says: “Look, look what they did for us, how wonderful we have this”.

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