Vajrayana Practice
In addition to the foundational Mahayana practice of bodhicitta offered in the Bodhisattva Peace Institute programs, Iron Knot Ranch, as the residential center of the 501(c) 3 tax-exempt non-profit Chagdud L'hundrub Ling, maintains practices of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. With the motivation to help all beings awaken from suffering, the Vajrayana practitioner relies upon the extraordinary skillful means of the Vajrayana to accumulate merit and wisdom, cultivate pure perception, and fully realize mind's nature.
Iron Knot Ranch residents and visitors participate in daily group prayer and meditation practices, the purpose of which is to help participants generate loving-kindness, compassion and wisdom. Lama Shenpen provides instruction on daily practices in person, through recordings and remotely on zoom.
Eight days a month, on special holy days, during certain extended retreats, and on auspicious occasions such as the blessing and consecration of sacred representations of enlightened body, speech, and mind, we do extensive ceremonies for the benefit of all beings. If you would like to make a one-time or regular contribution on one or more of these occasions and dedicate it to friends or relatives, living or deceased, we will read your dedication aloud in the course of the ceremony. At any time, you may add someone's name to our prayer list. There is one list for prayers for removal of obstacles and another for those who have died in the past 49 days.
This mandala of activity is centered at Iron Knot Ranch, but encompasses friends, family and those in need throughout the world.
RUPAKAYAS
REPRESENTATIONS OF ENLIGHTENED BODY, SPEECH AND MIND
One of the traditional Buddhist methods for generating vast amounts of virtue to help remove hindrances to the recognition of our true nature and to support our ability to benefit others is the creation of rupakayas, representations of enlightened body, speech, and mind. These include statues, t'hangka paintings, prayer wheels, and other physical representations. Just as one candle lights another, contact with such representations establishes a connection between our latent positive qualities and those actualized by enlightened beings. This is a powerful way to nurture the causes of peace and good fortune in difficult times and to pacify the negative forces of disease, war and famine. No matter who adds oil to the lamp, everyone benefits from the light. The virtue generated by the creation of rupakayas serves to illuminate a darkened world.
Under the direction of our resident teacher Lama Shenpen Drolma and visiting lamas and artists, we are engaged in the ongoing creation of such precious representations. Our temple (lha khang in Tibetan) is nearing completion and hosts ceremonies and teachings. It is also home to numerous statues (representations of enlightened form), sacred texts containing the words of the Buddha and great Buddhist masters (representations of enlightened speech) and a stupa (representation of enlightened mind).
PRAYER WHEELS
A separate prayer wheel house contains seventeen twelve-foot-high prayer wheels, which contain hundreds of billions of mantra (enlightened speech) turn day and night at Iron Knot Ranch. One of these wheels is spun by hand, as has been done for centuries in Asia. The rest are solar-powered and turn twenty-four hours a day, everyday throughout the year. These and the prayer flags which adorn the land radiate the blessings of enlightened speech in all directions.
H.H. Getse Rinpoche
STUPA
During a break between the teachings of Dudjom Lingpa’s Nangjang and T’hroma Nagmo practice at Iron Knot Ranch, His Holiness Getse Rinpoche unexpectedly gave Lama Shenpen instructions on the design of a Stupa to be constructed at Iron Knot upon his passing.
“Not too small, not too big…outdoors, in a suitable location.” There were additional details that Lama Shenpen recorded with the help of his translator Tenzin Weigyal, including the placing of a plaque stating: "In memory of HH Getse Rinpoche, who walked this land and gave transmission from September 2006 to [ December 2017.]”
A stupa is a symbol of enlightened mind and the path to its realization. It is a sacred repository of consecrated substances, including the relics of enlightened masters. After a teacher passes away, a stupa serves as a structural body in which the teacher’s awakened mind resides, a symbolic body wherein students can still meet their teacher, express their devotion and invoke the teacher’s wisdom. It is filled with many precious substances, thousands of mantras, tsa tsas (small clay stupas and images), statues, precious and semi-precious jewels, crystals, gold, silver, brocades and auspicious foods, earth, wood, and water from around the world, all of which have been consecrated through extensive ceremonies. A stupa created upon the passing of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, resides on the Iron Knot Ranch shrine and has subsequently been refurbished with gold leaf and jewels.
This vast accumulation of sacred and auspicious substances, which have been imbued with prayers on behalf of all living beings, carries the force of immeasurable benefit for all those with connection to it. It is a sacred presence which radiates peace, harmony and healing throughout the world. Anyone who makes connection to it – through helping in its creation to seeing, touching, remembering or hearing the wind that blows by it – receives the blessings of enlightened mind. The seed of their own enlightenment is firmly planted if they bring to that connection the wish for all beings’ ultimate benefit and happiness.
In the short term, one’s life can be extended, the effects of one’s harmful actions purified, obstacles can be pacified and positive qualities enriched. It is said that wishing prayers made in the presence of a stupa or through participation in its creation will be fulfilled, so it is crucial to make one’s motivation as altruistic as possible. It is the purity and magnitude of one’s own aspiration that blends with the enlightened intention of all Buddhas and bodhisattvas embodied in the stupa that creates the auspicious circumstances for the fulfillment of one’s wishes.
To play any role in the preparations, construction, consecration, maintenance and honoring of a stupa establishes an intimate connection between ourselves and the lineage of enlightened mind. It provides a means for averting all that is inauspicious or counterproductive, suppresses negativity, wards off the causes of strife and assures all that is auspicious and supportive of spiritual development, and ultimately, enlightenment. As well, participation in the creation and honoring of a stupa supports the fulfillment of short term goals for oneself and those to whom our merit is dedicated, including health and longevity, prosperity, peace and harmony.
Lama Shenpen and the Iron Knot Ranch sangha are bringing H.E. Getse Rinpoche’s stupa to fruition, and warmly invite you to participate in this vast accumulation of merit and the strengthening of interdependence between ourselves and this sublime master.
