Dear Friends of the Audio Recovery Project,
We want to let you know of a very important and auspicious event that will be taking place at the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya on Sunday, July 20, 2008. You are invited to attend. Please read on.
We are approaching the final few months of ARP. It is somewhat stunning that we have been able to pull this off! At the beginning, the Archives staff all wondered whether we would actually be able to complete the digitization of all of the Vidyadhara’s teachings, let alone provide libraries to so many centers, within the time span we set for ourselves: three years. Well, it took four years, but we’re almost to the finish line!
First of all, in order to begin, we had to raise a quarter of a million dollars, which sounded like an enormous sum for our little institution. You made it possible for us to proceed by committing your financial resources and support.
Having received your support, we had to go forward. So we did. The exceptional staff (Gordon Kidd, Chris Levy, Sandra Kipis and Carolyn Gimian supporting them) did exceptional things. They will have managed to massage 50,000 CDs out of our equipment, and they will have shipped most of those to your centers by September 1, 2008.
Now it’s time to celebrate!!! On July 20, 2008, there will be a final empowerment of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya. This Speech Empowerment will entail the installation of 3000 gold cd's of the Vidyadhara's teachings into the body of the Stupa. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche will preside and give an address. The installation of the CDs is the culmination of the Audio Recovery Project as well as the final empowerment of the Stupa. Gordon, Sandra, Chris and Carolyn will all attend the ceremonies at the Stupa. We hope to see you there.
The Stupa received the empowerment of Body when we placed the Vidyadhara's skull relic into the heart center of the Buddha on the main floor in 2000. Mind is what the stupa is, the architectural representation of awakened mind, and the formal empowerment of mind happened during the Consecration in 2001. Now, we are completing the three empowerments of body, speech and mind.
The ceremony will include a lhasang, a blessing puja, and a procession to carry the boxes of CDs up to the Stupa. A representative from your center is invited to attend this event and carry a box of the gold CDs in the procession. It could be someone attending Seminary or the Dzogchen Retreat at SMC, or perhaps someone from your center would like to come especially for this event.
The activities of the day also include Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s “Run for Peace", which will start and finish in the morning at the Stupa with awards following. After lunch, everyone will gather in the tent downtown for SMC’s annual fundraising presentation, followed by the procession up to the Stupa for the Speech Empowerment. Dinner that night will be a celebratory barbeque with live music and dancing.
As this event is happening during a very busy time, the land and facilities at SMC are quite full. We are sorry that, except under exceptional circumstances, we cannot invite you to spend the night at SMC. But of course you are most warmly invited to come up and participate in and enjoy all of the events of this wonderful day. If you would like to spend the night in the neighborhood, we can send you information on nearby accommodations.
It would help SMC tremendously to get a sense of how many people will be coming up from our local community so that we can plan accordingly. We would appreciate it if you would let us know if someone from your center will be able to attend. Please contact Sandra Kipis if you have questions and/or if someone from your center will be attending theevent. Her e-mail is archives@shambhala.org. SMC has a website to register, which will be a great help to them. To register go to: http://www.shambhalamountain.org/register.php?id=945 or phone 1-888- STUPA21
We hope to see you this summer. Thanks so much for your support,
Carolyn Gimian for all the Archives Staff
cgimian@suchns.com
Director Emeritus
Shambhala Archives
June 12, 2008
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