Contemplation Garden

This special outdoor Contemplation Garden is built in the right corner of the temple, beautified with the 44″ x 84″ framed structure displaying the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas as one of the foremost LoJong (mind-training) texts written by Gyalsé Tokmé Zangpo and the 6-feet tall Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha statue who took a great vow to guide all living beings from the hell and denied to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are empty.

Visitors often stop by the Contemplation Garden surrounded by all season perennial companion plants that complement each other in the landscape, and read the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas and Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha’s vows, and study, contemplate and reflect these mind-training teachings.

Garchen Rinpoche said, “I highly recommend all my followers to carefully study and contemplate the meaning of the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas. This text is nothing other than my substitute. This is the main heart advice I give to my students. If you manage to tune your way of acting to the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas and never deviate from it, that will bring great benefit to you personally and to all sentient beings.”

Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha is one of the four principal Boddhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism. He is depicted as a Buddhist monk with a shaved head, wearing simple robes, and wielding a staff.  Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha took a great vow to guide all living beings from the hell and denied to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are empty.  He said, “If I do not go to Hell to help the suffering beings there, who else will go?… if the Hells are not empty, I will not become a Buddha. Only when all living beings have been saved will I attain Bodhi.”

Moreover, on the upward slope corner by the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas framed structure, there is the ancient Buddha Amitabha statue, naturally secured by the twining vines, that has been sitting firmly on the tall tree stump for at least over 2 decades.  Garchen Rinpoche has paid deep respect and reverence to the Buddha Amitabha who has been so compassionately showering the temple and us with blessings for the benefits of all sentient beings.