Sacred Design: Enlightenment Stupa Project in Happy Valley, TN

Lama Norlha Rinpoche, one of the most renowned teachers and meditation masters of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, has highlighted the Knoxville region of Tennessee as possessing uncommon qualities and potential for the construction of a stupa, a traditional Buddhist structure meant to harmonize, purify, and enhance the elements of an environment and the inhabitants within it.

In India and Tibet, stupas were built as reliquaries of positive energy to act as objects of homage for the accumulation of merit, to guard against natural disasters such as earthquakes and storms, to bring new life and balance to areas scourged by war or disease, and to create a protective barrier of sanity and positive energy in the face of aggression and destruction. In the same way, the construction of a stupa in the Smoky Mountain area will have a great effect in bringing back to balance the interconnected personal, social, and environmental wounds that this area has experienced in the past centuries of colonization, war, and environmental degradation. And because of the natural uniqueness and qualities of this geographic region, and through the interpenetration of local health and global prosperity and balance, local participation in the construction of a stupa will have a global effect. In this way, a single individual invested in such a project is able to bring enormous benefit to themselves, the region, and the entire world.

In the Tibetan view, in the same way that a human body possesses pathways and focal points of energy of varying levels of subtlety that are indicators and controls of health and balance within an organ and within an organism as a whole, so too does the earth possess channels of energy flow and “power places” that are of great importance in the proper functioning and prosperity of a given region, extending out to the health and flourishing of the earth as a whole. Similarly, just as when imbalances and energy blockages in the human body that lead to pain and illness are treated with holistic healing techniques such as acupuncture and acupressure, building structures such as stupas and hermitages in places that are connected to histories of trauma (natural or man-made) can be a powerfully restorative force.

It is said in the sutras (traditional Buddhist scriptures) that the merit of laying even one brick toward the construction of a stupa is inconceivable. This is true not only because of the power inherent in the design of such a structure, but also because of the expansiveness of the vision that fosters it. These are some of the ways in which the construction of a stupa can have unlimited, inconceivable effects:

Ecological

Most ecological views and programs aim at conservation and protection. While these efforts are certainly admirable, they are still somewhat limited. In the Buddhist view, introducing a relationship of reciprocity between the earth and those that benefit from it is essential. Building structures such as stupas and facilities for meditation practice and ritual are unique ways of actually giving back to the earth in ways that not only protect the sanctity of the earth and restore the natural balance, but actually enhance the prosperity of the environment and its inhabitants.

Social

A stupa is a symbol and expression of focused human intention to strive to realize one’s greatest potential in order to give back the fruits of that achievement so that all others might also realize their fullest potential. It is a finite, tangible artifact and undertaking in the service of unlimited, universal ennoblement.

Personal

Larger stupas such as the one planned in Happy Valley contain a sanctuary within them which serve as sacred spaces for individual or group meditation and spiritual practice.  By participating in the building of a stupa or visiting such a sacred site, the blessing and power that is communicated to the environment also becomes an immediate felt experience that purifies and enriches one’s own body and mind, leading to the realization of one’s innermost nature as completely perfect awakened awareness.

Please join us in this most noble aspiration to construct a stupa and retreat facilities at MOCD dharma center in Happy Valley, Tennessee.

Checks can be made payable to “MOCD.”
MOCD Stupa Fund
6231 Paul Boone Road, Tallassee, TN 37878

You can also donate money for the construction of the stupa by PayPal. You will receive an itemized receipt at the end of each year listing all of your donations.