Home     Contact Us         Log in

Regions - Category Archive

May 27
Tuesday

An Austrian Offspring of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya

Filed under Regions, Austria, Switz., Italy, Community Articles, Editorial Staff

By Peter Nowak

It is said that a stupa would have unseen impact on our world and inspire future generations of practitioners. This story, coming from as far as Austria, is a little example of the radiation of “The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing” in Drala Mountain Centre.

Last May, the Board of Shambhala Global held a retreat at Drala Mountain Centre. During this retreat, we had a magical visit to the Stupa with Dale Asrael giving teachings and the Board together with the Stupa team breaking ground for the construction of the new Stupa Visitors Centre. At this occasion, I was reminded of this little story when my second daughter requested me to build a stupa in the Austrian/Italian mountains.

We, my three small kids and my first wife, had been at Rocky Mountain Dharma Centre for a month-long Vajrayana program in 1999. We all were very impressed by the Stupa still under construction. At that time, the “life pole” of the Stupa was finalized. So, two years later I went there again, together with my six-year-old son, to take part in the consecration ceremony for the Stupa.

When we came back to Austria touched by the magic of the Stupa, my eight-year-old daughter urged us to also build a Stupa near our beloved mountain hut at the Austrian-Italian border high in the mountains. Of course, we followed the command of my daughter and constructed this little Stupa with the stones from the surrounding mountain slope. We tried to follow the basic form, put an Ashe in the foundation, a “life pole” wrapped with the Vajrasattva-Mantra, and a white quartz stone as the top. With a little imagination, it looked like Mount Kailash. We consecrated it with a Lhasang and offered incense in a circumambulation at the beginning of September 2001. See a little documentation below.

It was expected that our little stupa would not remain for a thousand years or longer like The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing. But last fall, 23 years later, I was there again. It was still standing! It needed a little bit of renovation, the quartz stones were gone, but it was still there. Of course, I had to document this as well.

May the Great Stupa in Colorado and the little stupa in the Alps bring liberation and happiness to future generations!


Peter Nowak first met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1985 and attended the last three-month seminar Trungpa taught in 1986. He has three adult children, worked for 35 years in health system reform and was teaching at several universities in Austria. By developing strategic initiatives in close collaboration with the Austrian Ministry of Health, he had a rich training ground for creating an enlightened society – with and without success. He had many roles in his home Shambhala Center in Vienna, has been a meditation teacher since 1986, was on the Board of Shambhala Global from 2020 to 2024 and during this time also part of the Shambhala Europe Advisory Board. Only in recent years has he started to teach more in Shambhala.

Entries filed under Regions


Tribute to Connie Clause and MilkLake Retreat

Tribute to Connie Clause and MilkLake Retreat – HIGHLIGHT

By David Whitehorn On October 21, 2010, Connie Clause passed away after living gracefully with cancer for four years. She died in her own bed, in her own home, on the land that she and her husband Gregg had nutured for over ten years, the MilkLake Shambhala ... continue
Posted May 13, 2011 by David Whitehorn
The Sacred Gift: Tradition and Modernity in the Spiritual Art of Nepal

The Sacred Gift: Tradition and Modernity in the Spiritual Art of Nepal – HIGHLIGHT

With great enthusiasm, the Berkeley Shambhala Center is hosting an exhibition of contemporary paintings. You might remember our exhibit, The Divine Feminine in the spring of 2007. The curator, Siddhartha V. Shah, is back along with Barbara Cook bringing still finer, museum-quality work in a major ... continue
Posted April 18, 2011 by
Exploring Pure Perception at Senge Ling

Exploring Pure Perception at Senge Ling – HIGHLIGHT

By Russell Rodgers One of the key commitments in vajrayana Buddhism is to experience the world as sacred. Sacred in this context doesn’t mean that some deity proclaimed it so; it just is, primordially, in the present moment of fresh, pristine awareness. In our business, however, we ... continue
Posted March 23, 2011 by Michael Foster
A Pinch of Rice

A Pinch of Rice – HIGHLIGHT

By S. Marie Vernon The lodge is cozy and comfortable with a huge fireplace that constantly invites us to “come sit by the fire.” It’s our Winter 2010-2011, Weekthun and Oryoki Retreat in North Alabama. Twenty three of us are here for the event with our teachers, Shastri ... continue
Posted March 23, 2011 by SMarieVernon
Boulder's New Rigden Thangka

Boulder’s New Rigden Thangka – HIGHLIGHT

The new Primordial Ridgen thangka was unveiled on Shambhala Day in Boulder, and a celebration to commemorate its installation happened the following day, March 6th. Khandro Tseyang led Shambhala’s own Gesar Lingdro dance troupe for the occasion in their second-ever performance to date. Following that, the ... continue
Posted March 17, 2011 by
Boulder Welcomes the Sakyong out of Retreat

Boulder Welcomes the Sakyong out of Retreat – HIGHLIGHT

Boulder’s newly renovated shrine room glittered on Shambhala Day to welcome Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche out of his year-long retreat. Members of the Mukpo and Ripa families, the Kalapa Council, and Shambhalians from near and far were present to celebrate the new year together with the Sakyong ... continue
Posted March 10, 2011 by

A New Kind of Governance

[caption id=”attachment_4404″ align=”alignright” width=”150″ >click here. By Shastri Rebecca Hazell In mid-February, one of several governance conferences around the world was held in San Francisco. Victoria Centre Director Layth Matthews, Practice and Education Director Mark Hazell, and Shastri Rebecca Hazell (me) attended this huge gathering. People came from ... continue
Posted March 6, 2011 by James Northcote

Bo Graham – End of Life Story

Hello friends and family of Bo and the Shambhala Mandala, At the request of Acharya Warwick and from the inspiration of my recent time with Bo and his family I want to share with you some of the experiences that we all had together in the last ... continue
Posted February 25, 2011 by
Doing Ngondro in Bodhgaya

Doing Ngondro in Bodhgaya – HIGHLIGHT

Kurt Hofstetter, a member of the Shambhala Centre in Vienna, describes a recent group ngondro retreat in Bodhgaya and shares a gallery of vivid photographs from the experience. During Vajrayana Seminary in 2009, the Sakyong mentioned that doing prostrations in Bodhgaya would be very ... continue
Posted February 16, 2011 by Kurt_Hofstetter
Miksang with Incarcerated Youth

Miksang with Incarcerated Youth – HIGHLIGHT

Jake Lorfing describes his adventures and shares photos from teaching contemplative photography to teenagers. We didn’t know what to expect entering the Gardner Betts Juvenile Justice Center to meet the eight girls, ages 14-17, who had signed up for a weekly Miksang Photography class. Four volunteers ... continue
Posted February 14, 2011 by
Training the Greatest Gift

Training the Greatest Gift – HIGHLIGHT

Luc Jacobs describes his experience at the Mukpo Institute, engaging training, study, and meditation to discover that becoming who you already are is a gift to everyone. Mukpo Institute has been in existence for several years now, but somehow it has not attracted that many students, ... continue
Posted February 11, 2011 by
Ambassador of Dharma

Ambassador of Dharma – HIGHLIGHT

As Jennifer Woodhull describes, in September of 2009, the small sangha of Shambhala South Africa waved goodbye to their dharma brother, Johann Verster, as he traveled to Karme Choling for an extended stay. While it was hard to do without him, everyone in South Africa is ... continue
Posted February 9, 2011 by Jennifer_Woodhull
Visualizing Sopa Choling

Visualizing Sopa Choling – HIGHLIGHT

This is the fifth and final article in a series on Sopa Choling and the three-year retreat experience. In this photographic essay, Laura Kaufman has selected images that celebrate Sopa Choling and highlight the place, with its changing moods throughout the seasons, and some of the ... continue
Posted February 1, 2011 by
Life, Death & Three-year Retreat

Life, Death & Three-year Retreat – HIGHLIGHT

This is the fourth article in a series on Sopa Choling and the three-year retreat experience. Sharon Keegan shares how personal experiences of impermanence led her into a three-year retreat, and guided her activity in the world when she emerged. Be sure to read the ... continue
Posted January 30, 2011 by
Discovering Enlightened Society at Sopa Choling

Discovering Enlightened Society at Sopa Choling – HIGHLIGHT

This is the third article in a series on Sopa Choling and the three-year retreat experience. Shastri Chuck Whetsell describes his experience of discovering enlightened society, slogan by slogan, during his three-year retreat at Sopa Choling. Be sure to read the fourth article and click ... continue
Posted January 28, 2011 by

RSS feed for the Regions category

View all posts from authors in Regions:



Website Development by Blue Mandala using Wordpress MU.
All content and source Copyright © 1994-2025. Shambhala International (Vajradhatu), Shambhala, Shambhala Meditation Center, Shambhala Training, Shambhala Center and Way of Shambhala are registered service marks of Shambhala USA
Privacy Policy
Translate »