Building the Temple
Help to build Ireland’s first Tibetan Buddhist Temple.
A Beacon of Wisdom and Compassion for the New Millenium, the temple is being built in the style of a traditional Tibetan monastery, adorned with spectacular copper roofs and with innovative features such as floor-to-ceiling windows that make the most of the expansive ocean views
The temple will be at the heart of our Buddhist community as a place of spiritual practice and teaching where we will also offer a programme of public retreats and seminars open to everybody. According to Tibetan geomancy, this site’s position at the south-western tip of Europe means the temple has the potential to bring powerful healing to this locality and to Ireland as a whole and also has a global significance.
History
In May 2009, Sogyal Rinpoche (our Spiritual Director at the time) invited Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, a uniquely qualified Tibetan master, to visit Dzogchen Beara, to advise on the temple design, location and orientation. Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche has supervised numerous temple projects, including the Temple at Lerab Ling (Rigpa’s main retreat centre, located in France) which was consecrated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2008.
The temple at Dzogchen Beara will be built in the style of a traditional Tibetan monastery, a form of architecture designed to be an inspiring symbol of the Buddha’s teachings.
Why build a temple? The renowned Tibetan Lama Mingyur Rinpoche answers, “If you were to ask how beneficial it is to create a place where people go to gain peace and happiness in their minds, I would say that the benefit is enormous. Why? Because most of our problems are, in fact, caused by our minds. Therefore, building a place where we can find peace and happiness in our minds can only be beneficial, in the widest possible sense.”
Orgyen Tobgyal Rinopche returned to Dzogchen Beara in October 2015 to bless the site of the temple. He said that, according to the ancient art of geomancy, this location at the south-western tip of Europe is a “power place” and building a temple here, at this specific time, will bring renewal and healing to Ireland as well as benefitting the whole world.
“If you build this temple here in Dzogchen Beara, and inside erect representations of the enlightened body, speech and mind, and have practitioners practise there, then this will be the cause for the teachings to remain for long and will have enormous benefit for the world at large; protecting against famine, against war and epidemics and so on.”
Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, Dzogchen Beara, 17/10/2015
Support the Project
If you would like to support the building of the temple and the future of this ancient wisdom tradition in the West, please make a donation or sponsor building materials here.
For enquiries please contact us.
