So much work has been going on at the Center that I haven't had time to post the past two days. Apologies to anyone who thought I could actually find the time daily to post anything! It doesn't look like I'll have enough free time to post more than every other day for a while now. 

One reason is that Kagyu Shedrup Choling has two major events coming up. The main event in October is a fundraiser that we hope will allow us to pay for the great event in December -- the visit of Lama Norlha Rinpoche who's coming to consecrate and seal the stupas. Six other Lamas from the monastery will join him and stay with us for 8 or 9 days. The fundraiser will be fun, of course, with music, silent auction, wine bar, etc. Two bands have confirmed so far, one Latin jazz and one Latin rock. We are in Miami, after all. 

When all aspects of both events are confirmed, I'll post the flyers here.

One of the great things about Rinpoche coming is that by the end of 2012, KSC's stupas will be another sacred site for Buddhist pilgrims to visit. There is much more information about our stupa garden on our stupa blog, southfloridakagyustupas.com. And, on this pilgrimage blog we will soon put a map of North America that points out all the stupas on the continent. 


To return to the pilgrimage itself, the last photo on the previous post was taken inside another beautiful stupa built by Lama Norlha Rinpoche, this one in Charlottesville, Virginia. It is 35 feet high and houses a small shrine room in the "throne" where Lama Chopal painted the 35 Buddhas on the wall with a large Shakyamuni Buddha in the center. Years ago I actually visited the site for a while (there used to be a Dharma Center there, too, where I stayed) and helped paint these Buddhas. Several other people also helped paint and I'm sorry I don't have their names. (Stupas always end up being community events with many people working on various aspects.)


Here is an outer view of the Charlottesville Stupa where you can see a window of the shrine room:

This beautiful stupa sits in the middle of a dry field this year as the temperatures up and down the East Coast were sweltering. The stupa is closed and locked but a student in Richmond had contacted me during our trip and kindly provided the code that opened the door. This is what we found inside:

The paintings are impressive and the shrine room, while small, was a lovely place to sit for a while, chant aspiration prayers, and meditate. Circumambulating in that afternoon's heat was a challenge as both Iris and I were pretty tired from walking in the heat in Maryland and circumambulating the stupas there. But I did 7 rounds while chanting Om Mani Peme Hung before we started out for North Carolina. 

We didn't quite make it, though, as we had only reached Danville, VA at 10:30 p.m. and neither one of us could go farther. It had been a very long day, so we stopped at a hotel where the bill was almost double what we usually paid because they only had suites available. At that point I understood exactly what it means when someone says they are too tired to care. I paid up, dedicated the day's merit and crashed.  

The next morning's photo of the Danville skyline from the 6th floor was taken before cappucino but after a pretty good night's sleep so it's probably in focus. My co-pilgrim and I took our time getting back on that road.

In Dharma,
LKC