To commemorate Turning the Wheel of the Dharma Day (on Wednesday, August 3), the community at the Odiyan Buddhist Retreat Center, a Tibetan Nyingma lineage laity community located in northwest Sonoma County in California, will conduct a prayer walk ceremony for the benefit of all beings on the sacred ground of the Odiyan Enlightenment Stupa. Details and background by Jennifer Chapman of the Nyingma Trust.
“Like magic, like a mirage, like a dream,
like the moon reflected in water, like an echo;
such is the Wheel turned by the Protector of the World.”
–from The Lalitavistara Sutra (The Voice of the Buddha: The Beauty of Compassion), Volume 2
To commemorate Turning the Wheel of the Dharma Day on Wednesday, August 3, the community at the Odiyan Buddhist Retreat Center, a Tibetan Nyingma lineage laity community located in northwest Sonoma County in California, will conduct a prayer walk ceremony for the benefit of all beings on the sacred ground of the Odiyan Enlightenment Stupa. This will be the third of the great celebration days observed in this year’s Tibetan lunar calendar. Those within and outside of the community have the opportunity to contribute heartfelt prayer requests, intentions, and wishes towards a cause or for the well-being of self or others to be offered on each specific celebration day.
While participating in a three-week long sacred peace flag project at Odiyan this past June, I had the treasured experience of being able to participate and pray alongside the community in a ceremony celebrating the anniversary of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. The morning of June 15th was warm and cloudless, and all were dressed in red, maroon, or in the traditional Tibetan chupa. Having never participated in a Tibetan Buddhist ceremony before, I really did not know what to expect. However, the members of the community immediately put me at ease with their mentoring kindness, and the positive energy of the Stupa felt very tangible and comforting. The moment my forehead touched the earth during prostrations outside the Stupa gates, I had the instant feeling of belonging and love.
During the ceremony itself, there was a basket located inside the Stupa gates filled to the brim with written prayer requests from all over the world. I watched as each person from the community accepted a prayer slip, honoring and connecting with it in his or her own way. Some placed the paper to their forehead, to their lips, or to their heart before beginning their walk on one of the four pathways around the Stupa.
My own senses were overwhelmed as I walked and focused with an open heart on each special prayer that I received. Prayer flags billowed over the courtyard, which was bursting with roses, mosaics, and jewel offerings. The smell of incense and the sounds of soft chanting, horns, and conch shells brought awareness to the present moment and to the prayers and intentions in our hands. Once the basket was empty and all the intentions offered, the community gathered outside the Stupa gates once again to hear the deep, resonating sound of the grand Stupa Bell, punctuating the end of the ceremony.
According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the four great celebration days are extremely powerful days, as all positive and negative energies and intentions are magnified 10 million times. This means that all prayers and good intentions dedicated on these holy days by the Odiyan community through the Stupa prayer walks will also be amplified.
