The Purpose
The Purpose
The reason for building this Temple in Portugal
Until this date, and as far as we know, this will be the first Temple of its kind in Europe.
Thus it is natural that some may find this project strange, though those who are already familiar with similar projects in Tibet, Nepal, and India will grasp more easily the significance of this great work.
Although the original motivations and aspirations are similar in all the Temples of Padmasambhava throughout the world, what marks this project apart is the will to bring the benefits derived from this sacred building to Portugal, to Europe and the world.
This reproduction of the Heavenly Palace of Padmasambhava offers the blessings of a most deep symbolism of peace and clarity, seeing that the building expresses the Guru Rinpoche’s own Pure Land, the dimension of the wonderful medium made manifest by an enlightened mind.
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This earthly recreation of the Heavenly Palace of the Pure Land in Portugal will host the sacred representations of the Body, Speech and Mind of Buddha, and will inspire and bless many generations, both Portuguese and European. This earthly recreation of the Heavenly Palace of the Pure Land in Portugal will host the sacred representations of the Body, Speech and Mind of Buddha, and will inspire and bless many generations, both Portuguese and European.
Virtuous actions such as generosity, devotion, prayers, aspirations and perambulations of the sanctuary will allow the accumulation of an enormous merit, the effective liberation of the vicious cycle of existence — Samsara — and the meeting face to face with Padmasambhava at his Glorious Copper-Coloured Mountain.
The rare typology of this Temple possesses a quality called Liberation Through Looking, which means that one look alone establishes the causes for liberation in the minds of beings. Through such a positive karmic connection, we are able to be reborn in the symbolic, sublime Pure Land of Padmasambhava, or in the Pure Land of Avalokiteshvara, or in the Pure Land of Amitabha.
Thus, the virtuous karmic link with this Temple of Padmasambhava will provide benefit in this and future lives..
Preserving the Dharma for future generations
Observing the examples of India and Tibet, where the temples and monasteries with their congregations have brought great benefit to beings through the sustaining and the spreading of the Buddha’s teachings, we thus feel that we must make our best effort to copy these examples in Portugal.
Our aspiration is the creation of an extremely solid and robust base for the development of a Buddhist Nyingma spiritual community in Portugal, with all the possibilities of study and practice that are still found today in the East.
Therefore, it will provide the future Portuguese generations — and anyone interested — with a complete training in accordance with the Three Precepts: observing the precepts for Personal Liberation externally; keeping the train of the Bodhisattva internally; and at the deepest level, keeping the Vajrayana practice.
Why is this important?
If only one practitioner develops completely his or her nature of Buddha, we feel certain that he or she will bring incommensurable benefits to the countless beings.