STUPAS

The benefits of building a stupa and walking around it:
The main purpose of building a stupa is to help sentient beings purify their negative impressions and accumulate positive impressions in order to gain merit and wisdom, both of which are prerequisites for reaching enlightenment. Building a stupa, regardless of its size, while maintaining a pure view, will clear away veils obscuring the mind, and the good impressions experienced during the construction process may result in intelligence, wisdom, and all the other high qualities.

The motivation for the construction of a stupa and the intentions of the participants and those who visit it should be directed towards the following points:
1. Maintenance of the Dharma, Buddha's liberating teachings
2. The temporary and ultimate benefit for all sentient beings
3. The continuing all-encompassing activities of the realized masters
4. Purification of obscurations and the development of all the positive qualities of practitioners.

People who live close to a stupa can make good wishes, prostrations, and offerings. Others, who are visiting, may experience a sudden moment of awareness. Simply stepping into a stupa's shadow accumulates great merit.

Buddha stated, "These are the benefits of walking around a stupa: Free of the eight unfavorable conditions, you will be reborn into a noble family and will acquire great wealth. You'll be free of disturbing emotions such as miserliness and you will happily exercise generosity. You will look good, be attractive, have beautiful skin, and others will be happy to see you. You will have power over the world and will be a king of the Dharma. You will always attain a happy rebirth and will be enthusiastic for Buddha's teachings. After completion of your practice you will perform miracles and continue to achieve the thirty-two pure signs and the eighty physical perfections of Buddha's body."

These are only some of the benefits resulting from walking around a stupa; there are many more. Simply seeing or touching a stupa, or through memories of it or teachings about its qualities, walking through the shadow of a stupa or being touched by the wind that passed over it, one's life will be a happy one, ultimately resulting in awakening.