City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

[kris]

I get to know City of Ten Thousand Buddhas from a friend by chance. Anyone here know about this and has anyone been here before? I am really happy to find out this place and rejoice to know what has been achieved.

From their website: http://www.cttbusa.org/
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Ten_Thousand_Buddhas

The City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas (pinyin: Wànfó Shèngchéng, Vietnamese: Chùa V?n Ph?t Thánh Thành) is an international Buddhist community and monastery founded by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, an important figure in Western Buddhism. It is one of the first Chinese Zen Buddhist temples in the United States, and one of the largest Buddhist communities in the Western Hemisphere.
The city is situated in Talmage, Mendocino County, California about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Ukiah, and 110 miles (180 km) north of San Francisco. It was one of the first Buddhist monasteries built in the United States. The temple follows the Guiyang Ch'an School, one of the five houses of classical Chinese Ch'an. The city is noted for their close adherence to the vinaya, the austere traditional Buddhist monastic code.

[buddhalovely]

The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is situated in Talmage, Mendocino County, about 110 miles north of San Francisco. It occupies an area of 488 acres, of which about 80 acres are presently been used. The rest of the land includes meadows, orchards, and forests. Large institutional buildings and smaller residential houses are scattered over the west side of the property. The main Buddha hall and monastic facilities, the educational institutes, the administrative offices, the main kitchen and dining hall, the vegetarian canteen, and supporting structures are all located in this complex. The environment is quiet and peaceful. The air is fresh and pure. It is the first large Buddhist Way-place in the States. It is also an international Way-place of Proper Dharma. It is said, "Welling up from the ground, the land of jeweled kingdom appeared." In the City, the light house of world Buddhism, there is no discrimination regarding religion, race, nationality, or age.

[lotus1]

It’s amazing to know about there is such a great Buddhist monastic community in US. It is established by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua who wanted to wanted to establish a center for propagating the Buddhadharma throughout the world and for introducing the Buddhist teachings, which originated in the East, to the Western world. He planned to create a fountainhead of world Buddhism and an international monastery of orthodox Dharma for the purpose of elevating the moral standards and raising people’s awareness.

It comprises about 70-80 buildings. Originally, it is a state hospital that closed down due to the water supply crisis. However, Venerable Master Hsuan Hua found the underwater source and solved the water problem.
It is an established educational Buddhism institute with has Instilling Goodness Elementary School, Developing Virtue Secondary School, Dharma Realm Buddhist University and Sangha and Laity Training Programs. It also has a gallery, a vegetarian restaran, monasteries, libraries and translation centre where over a hundred volumes of Buddhist scriptures have been translated into English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and other languages here, laying a solid foundation for the dissemination of the Buddhadharma in the West.

Rejoice to know about this place where Buddhism are propagated and spread to the west.

The link to see the slideshow of The City of 10,000 Buddhas: http://www.cttbusa.org/cttbtour/cttb1.asp

Official website in Chinese: http://www.cttbchinese.org/

[fruven]

This is such a beautiful place. They have created a spiritual place blending nature with Chinese influenced Buddhist temples and building for people a place to learn and practice spirituality. This is a good example of how we can live together with the environment harmoniously. They provided everything for people there to experience and learn about Buddhism from vegetarian restaurant, and gallery to libraries, translation center and monasteries. Many people who go there for visit and to learn will be blessed and have the chance to transform their lives with all facilities and opportunities to involve in Dharma activities.

[Rihanna]

This is a really beautiful place. The concept is A city within a city. There are 10,000 Buddhas in the main prayer room. What a beautiful sight. Hopefully there will be a resurgence of interest in Chinese Buddhism in the West.

Tame and friendly peacocks roaming around. As this place is huge, make sure you have a map of the place with you.

If you like vegetarian food, try out the restaurant!! They have some really great stuff. I'm usually a bit wary of fake meat, but the cooks at this place have fake meat down to a science! Also take note of the fun street names. Have fun visiting. I did, two years ago.

[bambi]

Wow! This is the 1st time I heard of this place. Can you imagine the amount of merits from the circumambulation? 

This would be a great place to visit and experience the peace. They practically have everything! From meditation to food to university! Master Hua is incredible! Bringing Dharma to the west and made it so big there! Rihanna, I envy you! From what you say, it sounds like a must visit! I wonder if one can stay there and do a retreat?



http://www.cttbusa.org/cttb.html

[Jessie Fong]

[imghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a2/CTTB_from_Air.jpg/275px-CTTB_from_Air.jpg]http://[/img]

Sites of interest
1. The Jeweled Hall of 10,000 Buddhas
2. Hall of No Words
3. Dharma Realm Buddhist University
4. Jyun Kang Vegetarian Restaurant
5. Tathagata (Rulai) Monastery
6. Great Compassion Courtyard
7. Bell and Drum House
8. Tower of Blessings
9. Wonderful Words Hal
10. Five Contemplations Dining Hall
11. Instilling Goodness Elementary and Developing Virtue Secondary Schools
12. Organic Farm

With so many interesting sites, this place is a community on its own.



Bambi : they do have dormitories for guests and visitors but I would suggest that you contact them directly if you are interested to do your retreat there.

[RedLantern]

Dharma Realm Buddhist Association purchase the City of the Ten Thousand Buddhas on 1974 and has established an international center thereby by 1976 the city comprises 488 acres of land,about 25 times the size of White House.
Originally,this has been the site of a large state hospital constructed by the Californian Government beginning in the 1930's.All the building and facilities were first class.There were over 70 large buildings,over 2,000 rooms of various sizes,three gymnasiums,a fire station,a swimming pool,a refuse incinerator,fire hydrants and various others facilities.
The venerable Master Hua personally visited the valley three times and negotiated with the seller many times.
He wanted to established a center for propagating the Buddhadharma throughout the world and for introducing the Buddhist teachings,which originated in the East,to the Western world.He planned to create a fountainhead of world Buddhism and an international monastery of orthrodox Dharma for the purpose of elevating moral standards and raising people awareness.

[biggyboy]

Few years ago I was there upon invitation from a friend of mine who was attending a meditation class there then.  The monastery is so gorgeous and is so vast, having all the necessary amenities of city within a city for visitors to go to.  What attracts me was the roaming peacocks, pheasants, dear, squirrels amidst the living quarters of the monks.  Was told that the peacocks came by themselves to the premise there! The monastery itself is wonderful and serene to be there too.  There are schools for boys and girls.  What more interesting is their street signs - Funny! A place worth going to.

[pgdharma]

Born from the pure vision of Master Hsuan Hua, conceived with great compassion, realized with intense vigor, and dedicated to the spiritual upliftment of all beings, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas became a reality in 1976 and the inauguration of the 10,000 Buddha images was held on October 31, 1982.

It is one of the largest Buddhist monastic communities in North America and the residents adhere to a strict/austere monastic way of life. It currently comprises approximately 700 acres of land with many buildings and the original site is a mental hospital. It is a beautiful serene place and is a city within a city. There are even peacocks roaming around and the fruits and vegetables are free from pesticides.

[Midakpa]

In one of Master Hsuan Hua's Dharma talks, he described the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. To me, it sounds like a Buddha land.

"The states which occur at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas are inconceivable, to the point that all the birds and beasts, all the flowers and grasses, all the trees and herbs exemplify the Dharma, speak the Dharma, and practice the Dharma. Although grasses, trees, and flowers don't actually speak, nonetheless they embody the ineffable wonder of the Buddhadharma. They are,

Apart from the mark of language and speech,
Apart from the mark of the mind's conditions,
Apart from the mark of the written word.

In all four seasons - spring, summer, fall, and winter - they represent the Buddhadharma.

In the spring the white flowers bloom.
In the autumn the yellow leaves fall.

If you can understand the principle behind the myriad transformations of nature, you will become enlightened. That is how Those Enlightened to Conditions awaken to the truth. They contemplate the Twelve Causal Conditions - all of which exemplify the Dharma.

All the creatures here at the City are speaking the Dharma. Black crows caw and white cranes call, each with its own sound. Black crows and white cranes - isn't that a matched couplet? Then there are the bluejays, who are the thieves of the group....

Isn't it strange that before I made the announcement that everyone should take special care in protecting the wildlife here those foxes seldom showed themselves, but now that I've made that announcement, they are seen all the time in the most public places and don't seem the least bit afraid of people any more. If you walk past them, they will even parade before you. They'll greet you first! That's why it is said,

All living beings have the Buddhanature;
All can become Buddhas.

They are here accompanying us in cultivating the Dharma. In every single dust mote here there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cultivating the way. If you did not have great good roots from past lives, you wouldn't get to come and live here. So don't take it for granted! (From "Listen to Yourself; Think Everything Over", Vol. Two, by Master Hsuan Hua)

[Midakpa]

Master Tsuan Hua was born in 1908 in Shuang Cheng County, Northeast China. He was the youngest of eight children. Shortly before the Master was born, his mother had a dream in which she saw Amitabha Buddha emitting light from between his eyebrows that illuminated the entire world system of one billion worlds. When she awoke, the room was filled with a rare fragrance.

When he was nineteen, his mother died. He became a monk and observed a three year mourning beside his mother's grave. He cultivated dhyana samadhi, reciting the name of Amita Buddha, eating one meal a day and always sitting, never lying down. One night, many people observed a brilliant light shooting up into the air from his hut as if it had caught fire. But the hut was unburned and the Master was sitting in meditation.

One day, the sixth patriarch Hui Neng of the Tang Dynasty came and told him that he would go to the West. After the Second World War, the Master travelled to Pu Tou Mountain where he received the complete Bhikshu precepts.  When he arrived at Nan Hua Monastery, he received the mind-seal from Master Hsu Yun and became the Ninth Patriarch of the Wei Yang Lineage. In 1950, he resigned from the post of Director of the Nan Hua Institute and left for Hong Kong where he lived in the mountainside and later helped other sangha members to establish new monasteries in Hong Kong.

In 1962, he  went to the United States and lived in San Francisco. In 1968, he declared that the flower of Buddhism would bloom with five petals. That year, he conducted the Surangama Sutra Dharma Assembly which lasted 96 days. Five of the people who attended that session became monks and nuns.

[rossoneri]

Wow! Such an amazing place. With compassion, The Venerable Master Hsuan Hua had developed a heaven for all the sentient beings not just human, yes, it is a place for all the animals as well.


"Isn’t it strange that before I made the announcement that everyone should take special care in protecting the wildlife here those foxes seldom showed themselves, but now that I’ve made that announcement, they are seen all the time in the most public places and don’t seem the least bit afraid of people any more. If you walk past them, they will even parade before you. They’ll greet you first! That’s why it is said,

All living beings have the Buddhanature;
All can become Buddhas.

They are here accompanying us in cultivating the Dharma. In every single dust mote here there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cultivating the Way. If you did not have great good roots from past lives, you wouldn’t get to come and live here. So don’t take it for granted!"

Master Hsuan Hua

So as a human being, rejoice because we are be able to receive Dharma directly, we should make use of every day and strive to be better, not only in samsara but more so in spiritual!

[Tenzin K]

What a wonderful monastery that 1st set up in America.

Although Buddhism spread throughout Asia it remained virtually unknown in the West until modern times. The early missions sent by the emperor Ashoka to the West did not bear fruit.

Knowledge of Buddhism has come through three main channels: Western scholars; the work of philosophers, writers and artists; and the arrival of Asian immigrants who have brought various forms of Buddhism with them to Europe, North America and Australia.

The 'come and see for yourself' attitude of Buddhism attracts many Westerners. They are not asked to believe in anything, but to follow the Buddha's advice of testing ideas first.

With the growth of easy travel and communications, the West has been able to find out more about Buddhism in this century than in all the time before. The informality and emphasis on practice of Buddhism appeals to many Westerners.

Buddhist attitudes of peace, mindfulness and care for all living creatures have come to be the concern of many groups in the West. Buddhist believe that all things should be looked after: the earth, plants, birds, insects and animals. This is close to the feeling among many people in recent years that the human race should stop polluting the atmosphere and destroying the surface of the earth by cutting down forests.

It was not until the second half of the twentieth century that Buddhist ideas reached a wider section of the American society. American servicemen returning from East Asia after the Second World War and Korean War, brought with them an interest in Asian culture which included Nichiren Shoshu and Zen Buddhism. The latter gained considerable popularity in the nineteen-sixties among literary and artistic groups in America and this helped to popularise Buddhism. When Tibetan refugees began arriving in America after 1959, they brought with them Vajrayana Buddhism. Soon it gained a substantial following there. During the postwar period, academic interest grew. Many new departments of Buddhist studies were established in the American universities.

[Barzin]

I rejoice for such accomplishment.  As the world is progressing but individual spirituality is degenerating.  Many of the spiritual organizations have developed their organizations in a way to provide education to people instead of just a temple to make offerings.  Unlike the olden days, people rely on making offerings and talking to statues or mediums for advice. 

With today's generation, we debate what is logic and right and this is where many are attracted Buddhadharma  because of its logic and philosophy behind.  As the monastery studies and texts are opened to the public, many of the Buddhist organizations were building institution for learning. And through this way can reach out to many.  I pray that more of these kind aroses to benefit the beings.