Our precious sangha sends offering every year to Andrea to include in her New Years Celebrations. Andrea sent these photos and accompanying Story to us to share with everyone . Thank You Andrea <3
At nine o’clock I started to walk up to Swayambhu for our
painting of the Holy Stupa and our offering of traditional lamps…
Walking from Manjushri Hill, where I live, to Swayambhu…
in the middle of the two hills is a new statue of Manjushri…
Luke and Namdu Davis arranged for this statue to be
created. I’m so happy this statue of Manjushri, the Lord
of Wisdom, has appeared on our hill!
When I arrived at the top of Swayambhu I was so blessed to see
Tamang Lama beginning to make strong prayers for our New Year!
I was also happy to see Dawa with Tamang Lama…how fortunate I
was after a number of years to have gotten in contact with Dawa to
oversee the painting of the Swayambhu Stupa. Originally I was in
contact with his father, but after he passed away, I had the monastery
arrange other people to do the painting. I was so happy I reconnected
with him in 2020…he organizes everything so wonderfully and included
Tamang Lama to do wonderful prayers on New Year for the sake and
benefit of all!
Just after I arrived Tamang Lama began a mandala offering…I was so happy
to offer this in front of the stupa for the benefit of all. After finishing that I went
to start lighting the lamps around the stupa…
As soon as Sunchari and Bachhu Ram arrived at the stupa, they began to
clean the traditional oil plates, then Sunchari began placing the wicks on
them…
Every year Sunchari and Bachhu Ram make the cotton wicks for our New
Year offerings…
Ba then added oil to the lamps, he also sent positive thoughts to all;
May the lights from our lamps warm everyones’ heart…
This New Year I began the lighting of the lamps around
the base of the holy stupa;
May everyone’s life be filled with stability,
peacefulness and great happiness!!!
May everyone’s mind awaken to the to the joy within…
Punya Tara, my Nepali granddaughter, also came and made New Year
offerings on our Holy Hill for the sake and benefit of all …
May the lights remove the darkness of ignorance, may they
free the minds of all fears…
Prajwal helped to clean the oil plates and then began to light lamps…
May all the negativities in this world be removed and
may positive situations begin appearing everywhere!
Bachhu Ram also lit lamps for the sake and benefit of all…
May the light from our lamps radiate out to all,
illuminating all darkness and bringing
happiness and good health to all…
I was so happy Deepak Bajracharya appeared at the stupa while we were
lighting our New Year lamps for the wellbeing of all…
May all pride, selfishness and impurities be dispelled!
How touching it was for both of us to meet on our Holy Hill
New Year’s morning…
I was so happy Father Yann arrived from India just at the right time so he
and three of his friends could come for our New Year celebrations…
May the pure wisdom of our lights fill everyone’s heart
with radiant compassion!
Geetika Bapna is lighting lamps in front of her lovely son, Uday Bapna…
May everyone have radiating relationships with
all their family and friends!!!
Ravi Nandan Singh is taking a picture of his son Uday
lighting lamps for the sake of all beings…
May everyones mind awaken to the joy within…
May the lights warm everyone’s heart, filling them
with boundless compassion!
The painting of the stupa’s dome began…the dome of a
stupa represents the field of emptiness out of which all
positive essences arise…
The lime paint is being poured from the top and then
spread with a homemade mop…
May the radiance of the dancing flames around the
bottom of the stupa send luminous, clear wisdom to all!
Abinas and Ba lit the lamps in front of the stupa…
May the lights from our holy stupa radiate to all beings,
bringing everyone a perfect New Year with
good health and happiness!
May the wisdom of our lights fill everyone’s heart with radiant compassion!
Tamang Lama was continuing to pray as we finished offering the lamps…
he then kindly gave khatas to all of us…how happy we were…
Father Yann then sat down to listen to the prayers and
look at the painting of the stupa…
Dawa requested me to bless the prayer flags with our
special incense…
Tamang Lama also came to continue making special blessings for all the
prayer flags and canopy before they were hung on the stupa…
he continued to consecrate the prayer flags and canopy just before being
sent to the stupa…
All of us also began making prayers with him for the wellbeing of all…
May our Holy Swayambhu Stupa radiate positive lights
and energy to everyone in this world. May our prayer
flags also send blessings and happiness out to all…
As our New Year prayers were starting to end, Tamang
Lama gave all of us some pieces of flowers…we threw
the flowers to purify the stupa, prayer flags, canopy and
send blessings to all…
The prayer flags and canopy just before being taken to the top of stupa
were placed on everyone’s crown for us to make final blessings for the
sake and benefit of all…
After the dome was painted, they began to pour the yellow, saffron water…
making ‘yellow garlands’…
how beautiful the yellow garlands are…and the prayer flags too…
May the prayers on the flags reach every corner of the Universe!
I gave an offering to Tamang Lama from all of our sponsors…
then I began to read my special prayers for the sake of all beings…
On this auspicious day, the first day of 2023, May the power of our
prayers and offerings from the Holy Hill of Swayambhu spread to all
beings in this world! May the situations in every country return to
their normal state so all can again have normal, happy, healthy lives!
May the lights we offered around the bottom of the stupa have filled
everyones heart with boundless compassion…we also send this
compassion to those traveling through the Bardo, the intermediate
state after death, may their past negativities be removed and then
may they be directed along the correct path so they obtain a perfect
human rebirth!!!
Those who have taken a lower rebirth, by the power of all the special
rituals and prayers we sponsored for Christmas and the New Year, may
they quickly take a new higher rebirth! I then read all the names of those
who passed away…
May all who are sick; those with the karma of their lifespans
ending soon, may they pass peacefully and take a precious
rebirth…all others, may they quickly recover from whatever
sickness they have and may the rest of their life be healthy
and full of joy and happiness! I then read all of the names of
those who are sick…
May all of our sponsors, their families, friends and all other beings have
excellent health and a long life filled with happiness and success in all
they do! I then read all of their names, plus others that had been given
to me…
On this auspicious day, May the power of our prayers and offerings, here
on the Holy Hill of Swayambhu, spread to all beings in the world! May all
have happy, healthy and positive situations!
After we offered the lamps around the bottom of the stupa I thought some
more friends may come…so I decided to wait until our prayers were finished
to offer the final lamps at the Naga (Serpent) King’s shrine…Sunchari began
to place the wicks around the Serpent and Ba added the oil…
In Swayambhu there are five Naga (Serpent) King shrines…mystical snakes.
This shrine is on the northern side of the stupa…we are lighting lamps making
prayers that the Naga Kings please bring prosperity and good health to all!
With great happiness Ravi Nandan, Uday, Geetika and Father Yann sent
the pure essence of the lights out to all…
May everyone’s life be filled with stability, peacefulness and
great happiness!!!
On this auspicious day, may the holy stupa, Swayambhu; the self-existing,
the self-created, have sent blessings in all directions…bringing happiness,
peace and stability to all! May the power of our prayers, our positive energy
and offerings we sent from the Holy Hill of Swayambhu, have spread to all
beings in the world!
Just before I was leaving the stupa to go to the Manjushri Hill to continue
making lamp offerings…Prakash appeared…we both made strong prayers
as we were leaving this magnificent holy hill…
As I was walking up to Manjushri Hill, which is the opposite
hill, I took another picture of the Holy Swayambhu Stupa …
Here on Manjushri Hill we made our final traditional lamp offerings…first
we lit the lamps around Manjushri, the Lord of Wisdom’s,Temple…in the
center is Chenrezic and on top is Manjushri…
May Manjushri, the Lord of Wisdom, and Chenrezic, the Lord of Compassion,
send their blessings to all…
Our dear friend Betty Woodsend appeared for our final offerings…
May our family, friends and all beings in the world receive
the warmth of the lights and boundless compassion from
all of us here on Manjushri Hill…
May these brilliant lights show the positive path to follow…
I was so happy Betty was able to come and make offerings
with us on New Year!!!
May the warmth from both of us fill everyone’s
heart with boundless compassion…
Machakaji is one of Betty’s friends who looks after her…
he was the one who brought her up to our hill…
May the pure wisdom of our lights radiate to all…
awaken everyones mind and bring luminous,
clear wisdom…
Prakash was so happy to be able to offer some lamps for
everyone on our New Year 2023…
May the warmth of the lights fill everyones
heart with boundless compassion
May the brilliant light from these lamps radiate out to all…
and continue to withdraw the darkness…
By the power of all of our offerings, may every being be
happy, healthy and have a wonderful New Year!
May the pure wisdom of the lights fill everyone’s heart with great joy!
May the lights free everyone’s mind of all fears and confusion…
How happy Prakash, Betty and I were to be together on our Holy Hill on
this special New Year’s morning…
May the pure wisdom of our lights fill everyone’s heart with great joy!
May all the prayers and offerings we made for the New Year bring happiness,
joy, success and excellent health to all!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
💕💖🌈🎊🎉🙏🏼😍🙏🏼🎉🎊🌈💖💕
Andrea
