Sunday

Installing the Vajradhara Thangka

Joshua Mulder preparing to install the Vajradhara thangka at the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya

We want to let you all know that the installation of the Vajradhara thangka in the Stupa went very well. It is up and absolutely beautiful and magical and perfect in that space! It almost felt like the Buddha smiled.

Once we got up to Shambhala Mountain Center, it took Bob, Joshua and me–with our dear friend Patrick–from late Friday evening to Sunday morning to prepare the thangka and the insulated wall insert for the clerestory window above the main entrance to the Stupa where the thangka would be hung. We sewed a fine cotton cloth to the top of the back of the thangka, to protect it from touching any surface, and it unfurled beautifully during raising–which happened on Sunday around 1 p.m. It had been skillfully repaired and prepared for transport by our sangha art conservator Ann Shaftel and her Boulder Shambhala Center assistants. She gave us excellent guidance for our preparations at the stupa for protection from light, temperature changes, and contact with detrimental materials.

We installed an offering shelf above the door and at the foot of the thangka, which makes a nice division between the two, and upon which we placed two lovely potted flowers, battery operated tea
lights and a rupa (image) of the Dharmachakra or the Wheel of Dharma.

Vajradhara now installed in the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya

Our time doing this together was a real gift. It was wonderful and essential to have Patrick with us, and it was also exceptional for Bob, Joshua and me to have this simple, quiet, gentle, loving time to work together again in the stupa with this thangka. It was like a beautiful dance, how we thought things out, made decisions and executed each move together. It was natural, graceful and peaceful–a very special time.

On Sunday at 2 p.m. we did the Lhasang with offerings and music–cymbals, horn and drums–which was lead by Greg Smith and further aroused the potency and blessings of this precious event. We stood next to the circumambulation path in front of the main entrance with a small but perfect group of people. Makpon Jesse Grimes was auspiciously present with other kasung, as he was presenting to the SMC community and the kasung that weekend. There was a shastri on the land, teaching a meditation workshop, who attended with several MIs and participants. Adana Barbieri and several SMC staff, of course. were there. There were also a couple of young ladies from Fort Collins who just stopped up to visit the Stupa. They felt profoundly moved with a heartfelt connection to the event. Rachel Homer came up from Boulder, so she stood as the representative of everybody else!

Makpon Jesse Grimes and others practice with the Vajradhara thangka after its installation at the Stupa

After circumambulating while chanting Ki Ki So So, we all entered the Stupa and sat down in rows facing each other, with the Buddha to one side and Vajradhara on the other, the Ashe on the floor in
between. No one had their back to Vajradhara and the space felt good this way, more open and direct.

We did the Great Vajradhara lineage chant slowly with potency and sat for awhile. Then we all just smiled and hugged and felt awe together.

It’s a wonderful change for the Stupa, magnificent actually. And it feels very natural.

You can watch a video by Greg Smith and see other photos of the event here:
http://shambhalatimes.org/2010/12/08/a-new-home-for-vajradhara/

Just a reminder as you watch the video… although you see the thangka embraced by windows on either side, it is completely protected from the window and the wall with two different types of insulation. It worked out nicely to have adequate protection and still have natural light from that wall. It does not feel dark in there. It feels just right.

“….through all my births may I not be separated from the perfect guru and so enjoy the splendor of dharma. Perfecting the virtues of the paths and bhumis, may I speedily attain the state of Vajradhara.”

Photos by Patrick Elliott.