Sacred Spaces - An Invitation To Join in the Temple Project
(excerpted from a podcast by Lama Tsering Everest)

As a lineage holder of the mind tradition, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche always cared the most about wisdom, and bricks and buildings and temples were really secondary to that. His wish was to transmit the great dharma teachings to those who were sympathetic, to those who had an interdependent link with the wisdom tradition, and to plant the seeds of liberation in the minds of all who could be benefited. In order to accomplish this, Rinpoche's enlightened intent manifested in many ways -creating sacred environments, creating liberation by sight, both for Buddhists and non-buddhists alike.

His aspirations included the Odsal Ling retreat land near São Paulo and, on one of his visits, he marked out the place for the temple to be built before he attained Paranirvana.

Rinpoche didn't really oversee the construction as he did at Khadro Ling and Rigdzin Ling, but he did set the location for the temple, knowing that I would have to bring it to fruition. That doesn't mean me alone, of course, but I would have to sort of help everyone get along with the idea. The sangha would have to work together like the arms and legs of the lama. And so, as Rinpoche's arms and legs, we manifest his vision, we manifest this sacred space. I think of it almost like a portal or something, a soft spot where people can gather, a soft spot where your heart can open.

This is what these sacred places are for, whether it's Khadro Ling or Odsal ling or Rigdzin Ling or Jigme Rinpoche's land. Any of these places that the lamas are making manifest, they are all a place of refuge, a practice environment, a soft spot where you can experience an environmental taste of blessings.

So now we are doing this in São Paulo. It is 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 do have a heart to do it the best that we can. Chagdud Rinpoche gave me only a few words of advice in the building of this temple. He said to do it traditional, because he knew that, originally, I was not intending to do it traditional, I just wanted to create a practice place. I was thinking of wood and glass, something very zen, 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, reworked the design. (Rinpoche always said that I had the power of pointing, but Lama Norbu makes it manifest.) So we began again with the drawings, and later we showed them to Rinpoche, and he approved the drawings of the traditional temple.

We were interrupted by impermanence, however, and we had to carry on ourselves, along with the sangha, to try and complete it.

The sangha is tremendously supportive and very moving in how they help - helping by making offerings, helping by their own hands, helping by doing the artwork. It is all of our project -it is not just me or not just Lama Norbu. It is really the sangha, 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 the dining room and kitchen and dormitory, and other things, all in one building, because it is less expensive that way. So it does seem a 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 200 people comfortably, 250 people squeezed.

Now the basic shell of the building is finished and we are still working on some things like the entry 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 - 150 tons of stones for the staircase. I have been dreaming about stones for 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.

The team of workmen are very wonderful. There is one particular workman that Lama Norbu has been telling me about who they call Mineiro (since he is from Minas, one state in Brazil). 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 - 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 gyalings, 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 their link to enlightenment. 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 by this Mineiro. He is not even a dharma guy, but he has dharma energy in his work. He is there as just a regular workman, but even if there is not obvious work to do he will find work, he will sweep something, he will clean something, he will brush up and improve something, and I am very moved by that - how Rinpoche would like that. One thing that bothered Rinpoche 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 from working. Rinpoche was disturbed by that, since it is not really making an offering.

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

There is a story about one Tibetan man. He was the attendant to the lama, and the lamas you know, 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. And everywhere they went, they would stop on the way and have 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, then he would have a the cup of tea. Then he would pack it all back up again, put it on the yak and they would go on.

So one day he got tired of it and he said to the lama : “You know, I am tired of this. All I do is unpack the yak and build the fire and make the tea and then put it all back again. 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, build the fire, go to the river to collect the water, and heat the water. Finally, he put the tea in the water and then had a cup of tea. After tea time was over, he took it all apart, put it all back on the yak, and….. suddenly he saw himself, and 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 a training in generosity. If it is an offering that you are making, then really give it to the lama - really give it to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas, really give it to all sentient beings and whatever forces of benevolence that are out there somewhere that benefit others. 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, that they could be fulfilled and 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, 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 also to share a little bit of my appreciation for all 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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