The
Benefits of Building a Stupa, Offering
Prostrations, Presenting Offerings, Circumambulating It and Making
Aspirations
Kyabje Chadral Sangye Dorje
Rinpoche
|
Homage
to the Three Jewels!
I
will
explain briefly the benefits of building a Sugata Stupa and the benefits
for the faithful ones prostrating to it, presenting offerings and
circumambulating it. Assembly of fortunate ones interested in the
genuine scriptures that I have quoted here as witnesses, accept these
with joy!
In
the Karmavibhanga Sutra it is said: |
The
Buddha spoke to the young Brahmin Shuka: There
are eighteen benefits of building a Tathagata Stupa. What are
these eighteen?
- One will be born
as the child of a great king
Photo 3.53 Stupa at Godavari
|
- One will have
a noble body
- One will become
beautiful and very attractive
- One will have
sharp sense faculties
- One will be powerful
and famous
- One will have
a great entourage of servants
- One will become
a leader of men
- One will be a
support to all
- One will be renowned
in the ten directions
- One will be able
to express oneself in words and verses extensively
- One will receive
offerings from men and gods
- One will possess
many riches
- One will obtain
the kingdom of a universal monarch
- One will have
long life
- One's body will
be like a collection of vajras
- One's body will
be endowed with the major marks and the minor signs (of a Buddha)
- One will take
rebirth in the three higher realms
- One will swiftly
attain complete nirvana These eighteen points are the benefits of
building a Tathagata Stupa.
In
the Manjushri Mula Tantra it is said: |
If one builds a Stupa
with one's own hands in order purify one's body, one will be able to do
so even if one has committed the five heinous crimes. If one builds one
hundred thousand Stupas one will become the universal ruler of all knowledge-holders,
completely understand all scriptures and be endowed with skills and wisdom.
During an Abiding Aeon, after death, one will always be born as a king
and never go to the three lower realms. Like the sun rising in a central
country, one will be endowed with all sense faculties, retain what one
has learned and remember one's former lives. |