Garchen Rinpoche’s Message to Global Sangha

When presented with these offerings of 108 Tara Crystals, Garchen Rinpoche shared some words to help us understand the immense benefit of building stupas:

“The building of stupas in different places of the world is very important because it benefits the country wherever you are building the stupa. The merit of a stupa is immense. Even if one is an animal and doesn’t understand its meaning, just going around it one accumulates such immense merit. This is the kind of merit that will stay with you until you attain enlightenment. I encourage you to have the determination in your mind to continue to engage in such activity of building the stupas. Anyone who makes a connection to such a stupa will benefit from it. Not only this life, but until attaining enlightenment. The merit is really immeasurable. If you have such a merit, then you will temporarily become liberated from the suffering of samsara and ultimately you will attain the state of enlightenment. So, in this way, sentient beings can gradually become liberated from samsara. These representations of the Buddha’s enlightened body speech and mind, like the stupa for example, create such a merit for that to be accomplished.

Then regarding these crystal Tara statues, the Tara is extremely precious and her true nature is the space like nature of the mind. When you look at these crystal Taras, this translucent crystal image of Tara appears and that image is connected to the inner Tara within your own mind, which is your own Buddha nature. When all obscurations are purified, then that mind itself is Tara. One is really being able to benefit others.

A stupa is like eyes for the blind, for those who do not understand karma and past and future lives and it is also a heart for the heartless, showing bodhicitta, the preciousness of love, temporary and ultimately. Our minds are one when we cultivate bodhicitta; at that time, our mind becomes one with the mind of all the buddhas. If we just cultivate bodhicitta for one single time, it is extremely significant.”

Tashi Delek to all of you.
-HE Garchen Rinpoche