Edmonton, AB

After the amazing crossing over the Rocky Mountains, we entered the great plains of Alberta. Just as we were swiftly engulfed by majestic mountains, without knowing it we left them behind to encounter nothing but flat land in all directions. Our first out of two events in Calgary was in Edmonton at a small but beautiful Vietnamese Buddhist temple.

The young abbot kindly offered opening and closing prayers during the event.

Most Vietnamese temples I have been to have a really cool neon halo behind the Buddha.

This particular statue was huge, perhaps 10 feet tall.

The man on the left is Dr. Stephen Aung. He organized the Relic Tour in Edmonton and arranged the Vietnamese temple to host. He is an acupuncture master and also a chi-gong master, a very special person. He has a personal mission of building peace stupas (monuments symbolizing enlightenment with precious items inside such as relics of Buddhis masters) all around the world, fulfilling his teacher’s wish to build a stupa in every continent.

An enlightenment stupa

Some time ago, Dr. Aung had an interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He asked His Holiness what he could do to help people in Edmonton, and amongst his answers, was a gift of the 8 Medicine Buddhas for his clinic. The photos shows them all, and they were fully consecrated with blessed and holy substances just a few weeks prior to the Relics arriving in Edmonton. The Relics are inside the yellow brocade bag.

Dr. Aung, Fred Rolland (right, used to be a custodian for the Relic Tour, travelling in Asia and North America with the Relics. He is a Lacota Song Lineage Holder, and works with youth by taking them out into nature. He is also very involved with conservation efforts in Canada), Dekyi-Lee and myself.

I leave you with a friendly Labrador jumping into a lake fetching a stick on a hot summer day in Portland, Oregon a few years back.

May all negative and destructive emotions and actions be quenched like a refreshing splash in a cool lake!

OM AH HUM

Read Full Post »