Not
only have the Native Americans found Crestone to be sacred,
but many Tibetan lamas have also declared Crestone a sacred
place. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Soknyi Rinpoche, Gangteng
Tulku Rinpoche all have retreat centers in Crestone. Adzom
Rinpoche and Tenzin Namgyal are also considering establishing
centers in Crestone. In addition the Karmapa Tashi Gomang
stupa representing the 84,000 collections of dharmas was built
in Crestone to dispel obstacles for Buddhist practitioners.
To quote
Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche: "A dharma center is an important
place where many dharma practitioners practice together. .
. .Crestone is a place where at your back you have the Rocky
Mountains and in front of you there is an incredibly expansive
view. It's a place where the earth is clean, the water is
clean and the air is clean. So it's a wonderfully beautiful
and secluded place, an ideal place to practice the dharma.
It's a place where many tulkus, many emanations of realized
masters are now gathering, have retreats or are building retreats.
So this creates a very auspicious connection for the teachings
of the Practice Lineage to flourish. Because we have so many
different emanations of realized masters, so many different
tulkus from so many different dharma traditions building retreats
in the same place, teaching in the same place, then that really
makes this place extraordinary.. Tibet has many sacred places
because they are places where realized masters came and practiced,
like Milarepa and Guru Rinpoche. Because these masters stayed
in these places and practiced there, the places became sacred:
Similarly because there are so many different emanations of
masters practicing here and building retreats here, this place
[Crestone] too will become a sacred place. All of these are
signs that say the teachings of the Practice Lineage will
flourish. So all of you, who are the pioneers in this, can
stick it out and endure while you have to do the difficult
work of building the place. ... In this world there are many
places where there are retreats going on and there are retreat
houses that have been built and constructed and people are
practicing. Because of the tulkus in Crestone, out of all
of the retreat settings in the whole world, this is the best!
This is the most extraordinary! It is the retreat land of
the emanations! And that's why in the future this will become
an extraordinary place."
Thrangu
Rinpoche locates Vajra Vidya Retreat Site
For
many years Thrangu Rinpoche had asked Clark and Pat Johnson
to find a place to build a retreat center. They traveled in
New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, but nothing was ever found.
Thrangu Rinpoche suggested Crestone, but due to some mishaps
nothing materialized. Then Thrangu Rinpoche asked in 2000
that Crestone be tried again and this time Clark and Pat Johnson
were shown eight different pieces of land. Of these one seemed
workable and Thrangu Rinpoche made a brief three day visit
to Crestone to see the 35 acre site. On the day he was shown
the land he walked on just the lower section of the land and
then had to meet with Hanne Strong of the Manitou Foundation.
Rinpoche said that he knew where the retreat center should
be built and asked for a map.
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Rinpoche marking the map for where
the retreat center should be
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He marked
the location on the map and said that there were two mountains
behind where the retreat center would go that looked like
"sand poured on a table." He went to see Hanne Strong and
his two monks ran up and found the spot that Rinpoche had
marked on the map. They had a video camera and filmed it including
the two mountains behind. That night Rinpoche was shown the
video and said that the monks had located the correct place.We
found out later that the boundaries of the map were located
wrong and when this was correct the location chosen by Rinpoche
was the only large meadow on the 35 acres and that it was
also located right in the middle of the land.
When
Thrangu Rinpoche visited the land in 2003, he explained that
the location of the retreat center
was to be in a position of what is called in Tibetan "the
lap of the bear." The mountain on the left was the sacred
mountain and coming down from each side of the mountain were
small hills which were like the paws of the bear spreading
on each side of the retreat center. This way the retreat center
received the focused energy of the mountain. Rinpoche also
suggested that a small fire lake be built in front of the
center so that it could capture some of this energy.