Ten Million Day: The Nyingma Sangha in America

If you could be a part of establishing Dharma in the West, and preserving Dharma in Asia -- on a grand, unprecedented scale -- would you have the courage to seize the opportunity? Could you find enough generosity in your own heart to materially assist those who have taken the task this far?

"I believe that a Sangha can be established in the West. For this to happen in a way that preserves the beauty and transformative power of the Dharma, there must be a solid foundation. This is what we have been working to set in place."

---Kyabje Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche

Today, on Sunday, June 7th 2009, the effects of positive (or negative) actions are multiplied ten million times. The largest and most effective Tibetan Buddhist sangha in North America - and indeed, the founding Tibetan Buddhist sangha in North America -- today begins the gradual, painstaking, soberly measured, and carefully planned process of opening the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple complex in North America (and one of the largest such institutions in existence) to the world.

All of the pictures you see here are not from some far-away land. They are all taken at the Odiyan Temple complex in Sonoma County, California. However, these photographs are just a brief glimpse at only a very few of the treasures that are to be found there.

In the center of the stupa is a 10 ton prayer wheel, that generates 194,575,354,740 mantras per revolution. Two of the four walkways surrounding the stupa are lined with 356 continuously operating 300 pound "rainbow" prayer wheels of the type seen in the photo, above. There are a current total of 1,865 large prayer wheels operating on the Odiyan property.

Wouldn't you like to add your part?

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times.

The golden stupa -- the largest stupa in the Western Hemisphere -- is but one feature of the Odiyan Temple complex.

The grand stupa, together with the thousands of other stupas on the property, is continually maintained in as-new condition, and the grounds are kept in immaculate condition. Indeed, such enlightened masters as His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, and the Sixteenth Karmapa have walked upon these grounds -- a powerful, golden bridge between the past and our own time.

Today, Odiyan radiates both majesty and a magical sense of possibility -- and this has become an immediate reality strictly through self-sacrifice and dedication of people who deserve your support.

Don't you want to be part of this? Don't you want to be able to say that you have helped?

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times.

I look back at my own life, as I am sure you must look back at yours, and I ask myself what it is I have accomplished that equals even the smallest percent of this...

I ask myself about how I have spent my time... and what I can do right now that is more meaningful.

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times.

This year, you can have the Nyingma Sangha carry your prayers as they circumambulate the golden stupa. You can dedicate your prayers to a loved one, to an aspiration you have, or to all sentient beings. On the sacred ground of Odiyan -- on the sacred home ground of the Nyingma in the West -- on the finest Buddhist temple in all of North America -- in the presence of an enlightened master who carries on a tradition that is unbroken from the time of Shakyamuni Buddha --and today, on June 7th, your prayers will be multiplied ten million times.

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times.

This is not some fringe collection of neurotic misfits, playing at being monks and nuns, but a fully functioning sangha of intact samaya that has for 40 years been under the direct, day-to-day guidance of a living manifestation of Padmasambhava himself. For 40 years, they have been working anonymously, with quiet purpose, to accomplish the greatest gift that any spiritual master has ever given to North America. These people have dedicated their entire lives to a single purpose: your happiness.

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times.

Kyabje Tarthang Rinpoche -- a true guru and spiritual father on the grandest possible scale -- does not expect his sangha to care for him; rather, he cares for and supports his sangha, providing them with food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and a small stipend. This he has done for the past four decades, entirely from his own resources.

Tarthang Rinpoche does not live in a mansion, nor does he expend community resources to maintain a "private life," withdrawn from his students. Since arriving in America, he has kept himself to a modest room, eating a modest meal once a day, and has spent every penny he has ever received -- whether from donations or the income from his books -- on the welfare of others. Both he, and the Nyingma sangha, have conducted themselves with dignity and dedicated purpose -- their progress has never been defaced by disgraceful fundraising practices -- the precious Dharma has never been "sold."

Together with many others who know him, I believe the time has come to show our appreciation for his lifelong, loving care, and begin to relieve him of some of the financial burden he has shouldered. Rinpoche is no longer a young man -- he will soon turn 75 -- and it is truly high time for us to begin giving back to someone who has done so much for all of us. There is nobody else like Tarthang Rinpoche in the entire world -- he stands apart from every lama of the age in the depth of his vision, the magnitude of his accomplishment, and the impact he has had on this world. Even His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been moved to remark that Kyabje Tarthang Rinpoche is like a savior of the Dharma.

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times. Do this... please... while Tarthang Rinpoche is still in this world.

On June 7th, the five foot bronze bell in the stupa's gatehouse will be rung for you or your loved ones. In 1987, one of Rinpoche's students apprenticed himself to a Japanese bellmaker, and personally gathered all the necessary funds and expertise to cast this bell.

Stop and think about this, as it is an example of what sangha truly means... a single student of average ability and average resources (a guy next door, with no trust fund) committed himself to accomplish something of benefit to others. It took time, it took courage, it took sacrifice, and it took determination... but he got the job done.

If you could meet him, what would you say?

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times.

If you could walk with Padmasambhava... if you could help his purposes... if you could make dreams come true...

Why wouldn't you?

Click this link and make a direct donation to the Nyingma Trust. Today, June the 7th, the effects of your generosity will be multiplied ten million times.