Sacred Sites
Land of Medicine Buddha is blessed to be the home of an abundance of sacred sites and an immense collection of holy objects. This includes temples and shrines, statues, prayers wheels, stupas, reliquaries, as well as many thangkas (Tibetan Buddhist paintings) and unending prayer flags displayed throughout the land.
GOMPA
(Main Meditation Hall)
Our main gompa or meditation hall hosts a variety of spiritual programs amidst an impressive array of beautiful altars. The altars support a variety of statues, thangkas, and ritual items and the room also contains a magnificent sand mandala (a symbol representing an aspect of the universe).
Some of the greatest spiritual teachers in the world have led programs in the gompa and the room also contains a throne used by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The gompa is generally open from 9 am to 5 pm and you are welcome to come and sit or do your practice here at any point.
KSITIGARBHA PURE LAND
Up the hill from the gompa, there is a temple and pavilion at the Ksitigarbha Pure Land. The site is graced by a nine-foot Ksitigarbha statue, a large Namgyalma Bell, a prayer wheel, and nearby temple where people can make offerings, meditate, and engage in a variety of practices.
Ksitigarbha is widely venerated in all traditions of Buddhism as the Earth Treasure Bodhisattva (Buddhist saint) or the “Essence of Earth” who made special vows to liberate all living beings. Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains the benefits of Ksitigarbha practice as being enormously helpful for those with serious health and financial problems and says, “It is the most unbelievable for great success to happen as quickly as possible.” Rinpoche also adds that this practice can help avert disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires.
Visitors are welcome to sponsor an 18-inch Ksitigarbha statue in honor or in memory of a loved one or someone needing healing for an offering of $1,080; the name will be placed on a card in the Ksitigarbha Temple. Prayers from our daily Medicine Buddha puja will be dedicated for the person’s good health and long life as well as for the person’s wishes to be fulfilled.
100,000 STUPA PROJECT
As you walk the path from our Great Prayer Wheel to the upper part of our land you will encounter the venerable 100,000 Stupa Project. Our Mahabodhi stupa is an icon of peace rising from an open meadow.
Sponsors and benefactors are planting their own seeds of enlightenment by sponsoring stupas and becoming benefactors at this holy site. You can sponsor a stupa for a loved one, living or deceased, dedicated to your family, for all sentient beings, and more.
Rinpoche advised us to build the stupa to last 1,000 years! Our Mahabodhi stupa is the central axis in a mandala which will offer sites to sit and meditate,
thousands of stupas, gardens grown as offerings to the Buddha, places to perform prostrations, and ponds with places for peaceful travelers to rest and reflect.
To learn more about this project, how and why to sponsor a stupa, contact Stupa Project management, and more please click below.
“It has long been the tradition that wherever the teachings of the Buddha’s have been revered and practiced, communities of followers have built reliquary monuments known in Sanskrit as stupas and as chörtens in Tibetan. And wherever they have been built, they have been regarded as sacred, for like religious images and scriptures, they represent aspects of enlightenment.”
– His Holiness The Dalai Lama
EIGHT VERSES TRAIL
Our signature Eight Verses Trail offers an opportunity to meditate on unique thought transformation verses (lojong) in a peaceful and restorative outdoor setting. The loop is approximately one mile, relatively flat, and takes around 30-40 minutes to walk. There are benches along the way at each of the eight verses for reflection.
PRAYER WHEELS
Land of Medicine is blessed to have three sizable prayer wheels on the property. Prayer wheels are round structures of varying sizes that contain numerous mantras (sacred syllables used for practice) and are turned in a clockwise direction to spread blessings to the world.
As they turn, prayer wheels also bless insects and animals nearby and can create a connection for all with Chenrezig, the Buddha of Infinite Compassion, as the mantras contained in the prayer wheels are normally OM MANI PADME HUNG, the mantra of Chenrezig.
“I saw that after the prayer wheel was made, the whole place became completely blessed; it became very peaceful. Why? Because you receive blessings from the heart of the Compassionate Buddha. Because of that, one is able to develop compassion more quickly for sentient beings and help sentient beings to reach enlightenment more quickly.”
-Lama Zopa Rinpoche
