Memorial Grove and Memorial House
May dear mother sentient beings receive Bodhi Blessings when they come into this world, and when they leave. Here at Shinay Land of Calm Abiding we would like to dedicate our cultivation of LamRim MahaMudra realizations on the Path towards our loved ones who have passed on. We have received three sets of ashes from elder Sangha members who abided in retreat here and were highly influenced by their retreat experience. The family and friends of these elder Sangha members have elected LCA to be the custodian of their precious remains. Henceforth we are cultivating a Memorial House and Memorial Grove near our sacred Enlightenment Stupa in dedication to these dear ones and others whom have passed on.
Each Memorial consists of a glass Stupa around our Enlightenment Stupa with a small portion of visible remains. The majority of remains can be kept in the Memorial House with an individual designated space that displays the picture of our loved one and room for offerings. Also for those who would like, we are planting both local evergreen trees and fruit trees with our dear ones ashes. Even some current living practitioners have elected to plant trees in honor of their own future plot. Even a pre-established tree can receive the benefit of our ash remains by planting them in a circle above the feeder roots. Both the Memorial House and Memorial Grove are being designed to host visiting family and friends of our dearly departed with well placed comfortable seating positioned with views of our vast valley, Enlightenment Stupa, and the loving gaze of our life size marble Ksitigarbha statue.
Our Memorial House once completed with future donations, will have this statue in perfect view through a side window looking over the alter space of the Memorial shrines of our loved ones.
When the statue first arrived, the Light of Ksitigarbha could be seen before the statue itself. In fact the arrival of this blessed Bodhisattva statue actually fulfills a wish Lama Zopa Rinpoche made here in 2013 when he said, “Best for Shinay Land success to have life-size statue of Ksitigarbha. Ksitigarbha makes 100 million times more powerful our prayers and offerings”
The finished Memorial House will have marble floors that extend beyond the walls of the building to the edge of the platform. The surrounding perimeter below the platform will have matching blocks to our Enlightenment Stupa. The walls will have large windows and glass double swinging doors to invite maximum natural light and the vast view of the sacred area.
Every portion of our surrounding future Memorial Trees in the 2 acre meadow, will also be within view of the Enlightenment Stupa which was blessed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Khandro Tseringma Rinpoche during their time on the land.
So much Room to Bloom here at Land of Calm Abiding.
If anyone would like to help us realize these precious aspirations, please don’t hesitate to donate here on our website. If a check is more comfortable, it can be mailed to Land of Calm Abiding, PO Box 1778, Cambria CA 93428
Land of Calm Abiding is a 501c(3) non-profit corporation - All Sponsor donations are tax deductible.
Also if anyone would like to reach out to inquire about sponsoring a loved one’s Memorial site and place of family pilgrimage at this rare to visit remote Bodhisattva Hermitage, please also don’t hesitate to contact our Director Kolby at [email protected]
May all our dear mother sentient beings, like our Elder Sangha, work to uncover the irreversible Path of Awakening for All Beings!
And may we see to it that our cultivated realizations here in solitude at Shinay Land of Calm Abiding always maximize their benefit!
Offering large portion of Venerable Pemo-la’s ashes by Venerable Gyatso from the top of Maitreya Rock over-looking Shinay Land. The Tara chanting prayers are from our Most Kind and Dear Khandro-la Tseringma Rinpoche.
Glass Stupas contain a special portion of loved one’s remains on a bed of saffron with mantras or any prayers wrapped around them if desired by friends and family.
Meditation at Memorial sites are indeed already potent places for blessings. Death and impermanence synthesize with our ability to let go of our tiresome grasping to the mere appearance of this life. One’s internal dialogue with all its stories is free to disappear as we sit at a Memorial site of a Beloved one that inspired us greatly. Our own current Director for years has benefited from the sanctuary beneath his own mother’s Memorial Live Oak Tree in the Stanford Hills of the Bay Area. It would be such an honor to host others who could make the same pilgrimage here to this most blessed and remote Shinay Land of Calm Abiding. Already it is truly undeniable for any who comes here, that the pristine wilderness which surrounds Shinay Land of Calm Abiding is essential for helping to provide the fertile field of our minds to grow irreversible realizations on the Path of Awakening.
Such sacred wilderness in conjunction with decades of Bodhichitta meditations from our solitary Yogis and major Bodhi Blessings on the land from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Khandro-la Tseringma Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, and Ribur Rinpoche– is just truly remarkable! On Lama Zopa’s last visit he brought Khandro-la and they blessed the building site of our Enlightenment Stupa and offered a very memorable teaching in our very humbly small Lama Zopa Main House gompa. On one of Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche’s visits, he came to see one of our yogis abiding in his second Great Retreat (currently the same Yogi is following his Guru’s advice and abiding in his third Great Retreat!). Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche’s first visit was actually in a small airplane circling overhead while offering from the open window the blessings of flowers upon us! On Ribur Rinpoche’s visit there was a Sangha lunch outside the Amitabha cabin where two Chinese nuns were abiding in long retreat. During his stay Ribur Rinpoche prophesized, “One day this land will be one of the holiest sites for preserving the Dharma!”
The spacious meadow around our Enlightenment Stupa has close to two acres of land that can be dedicated to this Memorial Grove. The current design of pathways outside the Memorial House is for the Grove to border the north-western edge of the meadow until reaching the adjacent larger meadow portion that could house a grid that mimics the design of a Dharma Wheel. It would be such an honor to cultivate a Memorial Grove amidst our inspiring Yogis and Lama Blessings here. A sanctuary that could serve as a genuine place of pilgrimage for more of our fellow Bodhisattva Path aspiring friends to come and rest in the home of their own true nature. Whether the beloved deceased is an inspiring Bodhisattva practitioner, or whether it is a member of the family or friends who are, here at LCA we would be filled with joy to open up our rare to visit land for loved ones to pay homage to their Memorial site during the non-rainy seasons.