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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Escapes -> Shambhala Mountain Center
 COLORADO
RETREATS: The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya a Buddhist Destination
By Niki Hayden
For 30 years, the Rocky Mountain Shambhala Mountain Center of Red Feather
Lakes, Colorado, has hosted Buddhist retreats in platform tents and rustic
buildings. To the uninitiated, it looks like a Boy Scout Camp--complete with a
dining tent, mail pick-up and souvenirs. That is, until recently. Unveiling The
Great Stupa of Dharmakaya transformed the site into a pilgrim’s destination for
the faithful and an architectural one-of-a-kind. Nestled within a ponderosa pine
forest of the remote northern Colorado mountains, the Great Stupa looks as if it
migrated from a street corner in Nepal.
 The formal Tibetan sacred building beckons visitors to meditate. From the
parking lot, about a mile of gravel path twists and turns, through the camp,
down a ravine, alongside prairie grasses. Colorful silk banners point the way.
Eventually the gold top gleams in the sun. Around a corner the entire edifice
appears, rising several floors high in brightly painted white, green, orange,
blue, yellow, pink and red with streamers clamped to a peaked gold roof.
"In many parts of Asia, this would be called a pagoda," says Greg
Smith, an artist of sacred paintings called tankas. Greg lives at the Center and
often takes visitors to see the Stupa. Few know its history better. He painted
the Stupa’s ceiling, which is a giant tanka depicting scenes from the life of
Buddha.
 Great Stupa a Burial Structure
"The Stupa is related to ancient burial grounds in Asia thousands of
years ago," he says, when the dead were buried in simple mounded
structures. "When Buddha was close to death his disciples asked him what
they should do. He told them to build a stupa for his remains. And since then,
the stupa has been a place for the remains of a great teacher."
The teacher buried within is Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who died in 1987,
after establishing several Tibetan Buddhist communities in the United States.
The Shambhala Mountain Center is one, along with a sister center in Vermont and
Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Although several buildings house
retreats in the winter, by summer the Center turns into a tent city, with 500
Buddhist practitioners who show up for classes, meditation workshops and
cultural events.
There’s a gift shop, a visitors’ center, conference tent and large dining
hall. The Center is
home to scholars, those looking for a meditative retreat, serious pilgrims,
singles and families. On a summer day, a group of parents are seated at large
picnic tables as their children chase each other in a game outside. Not far
away, Buddhist students in the Vajrayana Seminary wear long-sleeved shirts and
ties as they listen to a lecture by a professor of Buddhism from Naropa
University.
 Retreats Follow Meditative Way
Well-known Buddhists such as the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, arrive as
teachers. Hanh lives in France, where he continues a Buddhist movement of
ecumenism that dates to the Vietnam War. In his seminars, Hanh emphasizes
the Buddhist virtues of compassion and harmony, as well as forgiveness.
Other religions
surface, too. The Jewish Renewal movement explores Jewish mysticism. Yoga, Zen
archery and Peruvian shamanism reveal Hindu, Japanese and Native American
influences. But the heart of most retreats is meditation. The Great Stupa
provides a quiet place with sacred intent.
To enter the Stupa, visitors remove their shoes. The one-room Stupa rises to
a high ceiling. Blue mats seat the prayerful. The floor is elaborately patterned
marble, each piece hand cut to fit a stone tapestry. On a summer day, the floor
is cool, as is the room. Once the door closes, the coolness is sealed in. The
major draw is a giant sculpture of a young Buddha. Painted a subdued gold and
seated with legs crossed, his hands are frozen in a stylized position.
"His hands are in a shape as if he is turning a wheel," Greg says,
"and that reflects his teachings." The sculpture once was hollow but
now has been filled with sacred objects. It is in the heart of the Buddha that
the remains of Rinpoche lie, along with thousands of prayers written on paper,
rolled and tied with silk ribbons. A cedar pole with engraved prayers represents
Buddha’s spinal column.
Both the Buddha who stands in a recessed alcove on the outside of the Stupa,
and the Buddha inside, portray a young man. They are typical of Buddhist statues
in 6th century in India, when India incorporated a few
European touches to their statuary. The mix of East and West reflect American
Buddhism as well, Greg says, and the youthful appearance of Buddha "means
that Buddhist understanding is innate. It’s not something that is acquired by
learning. You can be any age."
Tibetan Buddhism is steeped in mysticism and ritual. The colors of the four
gates reflect directions of the Earth, seasons, elements like fire and water,
and emotions. Numerology, saints, stories about overcoming obstacles, stages of
heaven and hell all factor into the design of the Stupa. But the basic teachings
of Buddha can be summarized in a few truths, Greg says, "loving kindness,
compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. Sympathetic joy is when you
celebrate another’s good fortune."
 Buddhists Add Earlier Influences
The Center often includes earlier religions that may have been altered as
Buddhism swept into the culture. That’s why there’s a Buddhist structure not far from the Stupa without
the grandness of Tibetan architecture. It’s not entirely Buddhist, either. It’s
a Shinto shrine of rustic wood design. A path leads through several Torii gates
up the hill. Nestled at the foot of a mountain is a small building that is
traditional Japanese architecture.
Shinto predates Buddhism and is the national religion of Japan. The shrine is
symbolic of a friendship between Rinpoche, a Tibetan, and a Japanese Zen
Buddhist monk. Greg says that a similar, shamanistic religion predated Buddhism in
Nepal, too, called Bon. Both Bon and Shintoism paid homage to earth spirits that
later were incorporated into Buddhism. The small bowls at the foot of Buddha in
the Stupa, for example, date to earlier religions. "Cleansing water,
flowers, incense, light, perfume, food, music. These were all offered as gifts
to the dead prior to Buddha’s time," Greg says, about the small vessels
at the foot of Buddha, so it’s only fitting, he says, that the Shinto shrine
be included, too.
A family from Southern Asia appears at the door of the Stupa. "Is it
open?" they ask, wondering why the courtyard is empty of people. Greg holds
the door wide to show them they are welcome. They remove their shoes and begin prayers. Their visit is
short and they blink into the bright sunlight as they leave the darker interior.
"People come from all over the world," Greg says. " It used to be
that Buddhists did not know much about each other. They didn’t know if they
shared similar beliefs. By congregating in holy places, Buddhists have come to
realize how much they do believe in the same things."
Helpful websites, for prices, seminars and availability: www.shambhalamountain.org
Shambhala Mountain Center, 4921 County Road 68C, Red Feather Lakes, Colorado,
888-788-7221
Other regional Buddhist retreat centers:
www.summitdharmacenter.org,
the Summit Dharma Center in Breckenridge at 719-836-0442
www.upaya.org, the Upaya Zen Center in
Santa Fe, New Mexico at 505-986-8518
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