How to Use A Stupa

by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Practice Requirements
Anyone can do the practices described in this booklet.

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How to Use a Stupa

Contents
Benefits of the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras

Benefits of the Precious Relic Mantras

10

Benefits of Circumambulating Stupas

12

A Short Meditation to Do with Stupas

15

How to Use a Stupa

If a stupa has the Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras inside,

you can use it for success in dierent purposes if you are
having diculties in the life, are unable to find a job, are
experiencing diculties in business, etc. For success, you
need to purify the negative karma for having these diculties. You need to create merit for success, so go around the
stupa. You can use a stupa to solve many dierent problems.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche

How to Use a Stupa

Benefits of the
Four Powerful Mantras
The Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras (Stainless Crown Pinnacle, Secret Relic, Stainless Beam, and Ornament of Enlightenment) are a
sacred relic. They are the highest relics of Buddha, relics of the dharmakaya. Other relics, the ones that we normally see, such as relics of the robes or parts of Buddhas holy body, are secondary relics. These four mantras are the highest relic. After I learned about
the unbelievable benefits of each of these mantras, then I had them
written down and then, we printed many. These are normally what
we should put inside stupas, statues, and so on. These very special
mantras give unbelievable power. If you have put these mantras inside a statue, then devas will come to worship that holy object three
times a day.
By putting these mantras inside a stupa, then even a bell that is
oered to the stupa brings unimaginable benefit. For example, all
sentient beings who ever hear the sound of that bell, their negative karma gets purified. They are liberated from the lower realms.
Their negative karma gets purified, and they receive a good rebirth.
So, in that way, theres unbelievable benefit. It makes it so easy for
sentient beings to purify negative karma and reach enlightenment.
Also, if you circumambulate a stupa even one time that has these
mantras inside, it purifies the negative karma that causes you to be
reborn in all the eight hot hells. All the eight hot hells, from the lightest down to the unbearable, the heaviest suering hell realm the
negative karma that causes you to be born in all the eight hot hells
is completely purified by going around a stupa with these mantras
inside just once.

How to Use a Stupa

The Very Essence of the Extensive Benefits of the

Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras
The benefits of circumambulating and so forth are extensively explained, including the benefits from the tantric side, in the sutra
called Arya Compassionate Eye Looking One and in the sutra called
Compassionate White Lotus, and so forth.
There are skies of benefits explained by the Buddha in the Kangyur
for making just one prostration, circumambulation, or oering
even just one to a holy object containing the mantra of the Stainless Crown Pinnacle:

It purifies completely the karmic obstacles of the five uninterrupted negative karmas (killing ones father or mother, killing an
arhat, causing blood to flow from a Buddha, causing a schism in
the Sangha).
One will be completely liberated from the hell, hungry ghost,
and animal realms and from the evil gone realm of the Yama
world.
One will have a long life.
Like a snake changing its skin, when leaving the body one will
have the fortune to go to the world that is the blissful realm (i.e.
a pure land).
One will never be stained by the smell of the womb (i.e. never be
reborn in the womb).
All ones wishes will be completely fulfilled exactly according to
ones wishes.
Then there are skies of benefits explained by the Buddha in the
Kangyur for making just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering even just one to a holy object containing the Secret Relic
mantra:

How to Use a Stupa

One will be completely liberated from the hot hells down to the
unbearable hell (Avici)
One will never turn back from peerless enlightenment (one will
never go down ones life will always be directed towards enlightenment and this is irreversible so one never goes in the opposite direction)
By printing the Secret Relic mantra just once you collect the
same amount of merit as oering 100,000 buddhas x 10 million
x 100 billion. This was told to Vajrapani.
Having made oerings to as many buddhas as there are in ninety-nine sesame seed pods that is how much merit you create
and you are always guided by that many buddhas.
This is just a drop from the unimaginable benefits of this mantra.
Then there are skies of benefit explained by the Buddha in
the Kangyur for making just one prostration, circumambulation, or oering even just one to a holy object containing the
Stainless Beam mantra:

One who oers even a bell to the stupa containing this mantra
[of the Stainless Beam], by hearing the sound of that bell all the
sentient beings in that area, animals or humans, will be completely purified of the five uninterrupted negative karmas.
This shows how unbelievably powerful this mantra is. Since even
hearing the sound of a bell oered to such a stupa has incredible
power to purify, there is no question that any insect or other being
who sees or touches the stupa is purified of negative karma. Even
water, rain, or dust that just touches the stupa is so blessed that it
purifies all the negative karmas of the insects on the ground who
come into contact with it. And the wind that touches such a stupa
purifies the negative karmas of people or animals that it contacts
and brings a good rebirth.

How to Use a Stupa

Then there are skies of benefit explained by the Buddha in the

Kangyur for making just one prostration, circumambulation, or offering even just one to a holy object containing the mantra of
the Ornament of Enlightenment:

By putting even just one mantra of the Ornament of Enlightenment inside a stupa, it brings the same merit as having built one
hundred thousand stupas whether the stupa is gigantic like
Bodhgaya or tiny like the size of a finger.
One collects the merit of having made oerings to all the Buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha
When you put these Four Dharmakaya Relic Mantras inside a stupa,
even mentioning the name of a person or animal that has died and
by praying for them brings them a good rebirth, like birth in a pure
land. It definitely liberates that person from the lower realms. It is
very powerful. You can also do the same for very sick people, making dedications for them to be healthy. As you put the mantras inside the stupa (or holy object), you should do the seven-limb practice and make the dedication for that person. This is a very powerful
method for healing.
Holy objects such as these liberate sentient beings continuously
twenty-four hours a day, every day. They purify the causes of the
lower realms and bring sentient beings to higher realms so they can
meet the Dharma, then to liberation and enlightenment.
Creating holy objects with these special mantras inside and making them available to others brings constant, unbelievable benefit
to sentient beings. As soon as stupas and statues of the Buddha are
made, they have the power to cause sentient beings to do actions
such as circumambulating, prostrating, oering and so forth, which
then become virtuous actions creating the cause of enlightenment,
even when those actions are done with the eight worldly dharmas1

How to Use a Stupa

and non-virtuous thoughts. It makes it possible for sentient beings

to create the cause to meet the Dharma and to actualize the path.
So even though we who are making these holy objects at the moment do not have realizations such as bodhichitta, emptiness, nor
have reached any of the bhumis (levels of a bodhisattva), the holy
objects have the power to liberate sentient beings from the oceans
of samsaric suering, to actualize all the realizations of the path
guru devotion, the three principles of the path, and the two stages
and then to achieve enlightenment.
So these are some of the drops of Buddhas unbelievable methods
to liberate sentient beings quickly from the suerings of samsara
the activity of the Buddhas unbelievable compassion to us sentient
beings.

For more extensive teachings and practices related to stupas, please see BENEFITS AND PRACTICES RELATED TO STATUES AND STUPAS, PART 1, an FPMT Education
Department Publication. This text includes general information about stupas
and their symbolic significance, the benefits of holy objects like stupas, benefits
of specific practices related to holy objects, and a collection of practices advised
by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to do when in the presence of holy objects or when making pilgrimage to holy places.

Endnotes
1

Concern with getting things or not getting things, pleasure or pain, praise or
blame, good or bad reputation.

Colophon
Scribe Ven. Holly Ansett, Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, November 2002. Section of the benefits is from the Kangyur, which is the essence of all the Buddhas teachings. Lightly edited by Kendall Magnussen, FPMT Education Services,
August 2003. Revised May 2004.

10

How to Use a Stupa

Benefits of the Precious

Relic Mantras
From the sutra text Stainless Crown Pinnacle Beam Always Entering
the Door, Circumambulate the essence of a relic or one that has the
essence of a relic of the tathagatas, remembering at the same time
the two Wish-Fulfilling Precious Jewels (the precious mantras of
Stainless Crown Pinnacle and Stainless Beam). By this (having done
even one circumambulation along with remembering the precious
mantras):
1. You will generate virtue in relation to the tathagatas that equals
in number the grains of sand of one million zillion River Ganges.
2. You will have great fortune.
3. The five uninterrupted negative karmas and the karmic obscurations will be completely purified.
4. You will be completely liberated from the realm of the hell sentient beings, the animal realm, and the evil-gone realm of the
world of Yama.
5. You will have a long life.
6. You will go to paradise, a blissful world realm (a pure land). By
having equal fortune, you will leave the body of this life, like a
snake shedding its skin. (By having equal fortune might mean
that if one does even one circumambulation while remembering
the precious mantras inside the stupa, one has merit equal to
the beings in that pure land.)
7. From that time on, you will not be stained by the pollution of
the womb, that is, you will no longer experience the suering of
rebirth from a womb.

How to Use a Stupa

11

8. All your own wishes will be completely and exactly actualized.

9. On the 8th, 14th, or 15th day of the Tibetan month, if you recite
these two mantras of the Wish-Fulfilling Precious Jewel (Stainless Crown Pinnacle and Stainless Beam) 108 times and circumambulate a stupa containing this relic (the mantras), your mental
continuum will immediately be free from obscurations, negative
karmas, and all disturbing thoughts (attachment, hatred, stains
of ignorance, miserliness, jealousy).
From the text Stainless Beam, Due to the blessings of the tathagatas, anyone of the race of boy or girl (one whose imprint of the Mahayana teachings has ripened) who circumambulates, prostrates, or
makes oerings to the stupa will be irreversible from the path of
highest enlightenment, and all their previous karmic obscurations
will be purified, without any remaining.
From the Buddhas teaching Samatok of the Precious Relic, Any sentient being having done one circumambulation of or one prostration
to a stupa will be completely liberated from the karma that makes
them reincarnate and experience suering, down to the unbearable
suering state, the lowest hell realm, which has the heaviest suering among the hells among all samsaric realms; that person will become irreversible from the highest fully perfected enlightenment.
One receives these unbelievable benefits by having these precious
mantras inside holy objects.

12

How to Use a Stupa

Benefits of
Circumambulating Stupas
There are extensive teachings on the benefits of circumambulations, the benefits taught by Buddha to his disciple Shariputra. Before circumambulating, read it out to everyone; and other groups
can hear it, too.
Stupas are the main holy objects in relation to which sentient
beings accumulate merit. The sutra called Circumambulating the
Stupa says:
By circumambulating stupas, one avoids being born in the
naraks, as a preta, an animal, a barbarian, a long-life god, a
heretic, a fool, or in a place where Buddha has not descended. One receives a deva or human body, and one has a long
life. One is not harmed by pretas, cannibals or other creatures. For hundreds of eons one is not born blind, or crippled
with arthritis. By circumambulating stupas, one receives perfect power and perseverance; because there is no laziness,
one is able to develop the mind quickly. One receives the six
clairvoyances. One also becomes an arhat, having abandoned
all delusion and possessing great psychic power. Finally one
achieves the golden holy body of Buddha, adorned with the
holy signs.
Many other benefits are mentioned in The Sutra of the Compassionate-eyed One and Advice to King Sogyal, which says:
If a person circumambulates with devotion a stupa or statue
of Buddha, in his future lives his enemies will respect and sur-

How to Use a Stupa

13

render to him. He will become a person of quality, respected by and pleasing to other people. The temporal and ultimate benefits are infinite. Circumambulating is the supreme
method to purify obscurations and close the door to the
lower realms.
This text also adds:
Any being who does one circumambulation of or one prostration to a stupa is liberated completely from the karma to
be born in any of the levels of hell. One becomes a non-returner, and achieves highest enlightenment.
Im sure you have often heard the story of Jinpa Plgye (Shrijata).
Buddha explained that Jinpa Plgye had the karma to actualize the
path through becoming a monk and an arhat because long ago in
one of his previous lives he had been a fly that followed the smell
of dung around a stupa. By following the odor of the dung, the fly
circumambulated a holy object. In other words, even when there is
no virtuous motivation, any circumambulation of a holy object becomes a virtuous action because of the power of the holy object. It
is useful to remember that a stupa has this power.
Circumambulating holy objects purifies broken pratimoksha
vows, the five uninterrupted negative karmas all the karmas to be
born in the naraks (hell realms).
In India there were great siddhas who achieved realizations
by circumambulating temples, and Lama Atisha and the Kadampa
Geshes did many circumambulations of stupas.
Once when Lama Atisha was circumambulating, Dromtompa
asked him, Why dont you relax? Why not practice virtue while sitting? Why do you do this ordinary practice of circumambulating?
Lama Atisha replied, You dont understand. A circumambulation
contains all three actions of body, speech and mind. If you just sit
and meditate, you have only the one action of the mind meditating, with no virtuous actions of body or speech. In terms of creating
virtue, there is no greater merit than that from circumambulating.

14

How to Use a Stupa

The Method to Achieve All Success

If you have diculties in life are unable to find a job, have diculties in business, etc., for success you need to purify the negative
karma for these diculties. You need to create merit for success, so
go around the stupa. You can use this (method) for many problems.
I think it would be very beneficial for anyone with a disease that is
dicult to cure or incurable, such as AIDS or cancer, to circumambulate a stupa several hundred times a day. This is my personal suggestion. Since depending on these holy objects purifies the cause of
the disease, it has to have an eect on the disease.
Even if a person does this practice with the motivation of just this
lifes happiness, even if the motivation is not dharma, but for the
happiness and success of this life - that motivation wasnt to benefit
sentient beings and therefore it didnt become Dharma, but due to
the power of the object, it becomes Dharma. It becomes the cause
to achieve enlightenment.

How to Use a Stupa

15

A Short Meditation to
Do With Stupas
If you can concentrate or sit down and do this meditation every
day for a half an hour, or one hour, this is fantastic.

Visualize light coming from the stupa and totally illuminating your
body. White light is coming from the stupa, totally illuminating and
purifying you from sickness, delusions, spirit harms, and negative
karma. You can also chant mantras.
Some mantras that can be chanted:

Chenrezig
OM MANI PDME HUM

Shakyamuni Buddha
TADYATHA OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNIYE SVAHA

Tara
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA

Colophon:
All contents of this booklet were extracted from Benefits and Practices Related
to Statues and Stupas, an FPMT Education Department publication, August 2003.
For more extensive benefits and practices to do with stupas please refer to the
original publication.

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