Maitreya Project Update, June 2007

Dear friends,

We are pleased to send you the latest in our series of progress updates.

Land in Kushinagar

We are delighted to announce that in compliance with the Indian Land Acquistion Act, the State Government of Uttar Pradesh has completed the necessary legal requirements for the acquisition of the 750 acre land site to be made available to Maitreya Project, in Kushinagar, UP in northern India.

The State Government has not yet taken physical possession of the land site and it will still take further time before it is operationally under the control of the Project; nonetheless, this is a major milestone in the development of the Project and we are pleased to be able to share with you this news which has been eagerly awaited for so long.

There now follows a process in which Maitreya Project will work closely with the State Government, local leaders, landowners, and third party agencies to ensure that fair and agreeable levels of compensation are awarded to those whose land has been acquired.

As explained in previous Updates, there are still a number of permissions, clearances, and approvals to be obtained. With a new State Government just recently elected in Uttar Pradesh we hope that these will now proceed quickly, but we realise they may also require patience.

Once all permissions have been secured Maitreya Project will resume design, and engineering work on the land, and will make preparations for construction of the 152m Maitreya Buddha statue, and for the implementation of the planned healthcare and educational projects in Kushinagar.

Maitreya Project Heart Shrine Relic Tour

Since the last Update, the Relic Tour has covered a lot of ground bringing the blessings of the holy relics and the message of the Maitreya Project to communities around the world. There have been Relic Tour events in Spain, Holland, Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary, France, Italy, USA, Canada, Mexico, Columbia, Chile, Argentina, Trinidad, Uruguay, Singapore and Malaysia.

In January last year, Lama Zopa Rinpoche said, “The relics have incredible benefit for the world…people want [them] very much [and] there is greater and greater benefit now.”

In Budapest, Hungary, more than 11,000 visitors came to see the holy relics. The event organizer expressed his gratitude, “We would like to offer our sincere thanks to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for having us ordinary sentient beings in mind, and…to Lama Yeshe [and] Lama Zopa Rinpoche that the relics can be seen in Europe and all round the world. We would like to express our gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for giving his blessing to the Maitreya Project…”

In Mexico City, more than 25,000 visitors came to view the holy relics during an 8-day event. The hosting Museum even asked for an extra day to cope with the overwhelming response.

The organizer of the event in Aguascalientes, Mexico wrote, “…we want to express our gratitude to Lama Zopa Rinpoché for giving us the opportunity to welcome with open arms the holy relics. … Thanks for your time, thanks for your great effort, but specially thanks for spreading the dharma seeds in our city.”

In Colombia, a 7 year-old boy commented while receiving a blessing with the relics of Shakyamuni Buddha on his head, that “it felt like golden thunder going through my body”.

The organizer of the Palermo, Italy Relic Tour event discovered the harmonizing effect of the holy relics. “Palermo’s response was really surprising; an estimated 6,000 people attended. There was great consideration and respect for the relics, many requests for blessings…The altar was always shining during the show and the gompa we prepared to host the relics was teeming with a strong energy which everyone seemed to be aware of. …[I felt] Rinpoche was there together with the relics and Maitreya and this explains how everything was so perfect. So, many, many thanks from the very bottom of my heart for making all of this possible, thank you for the extraordinary energy which we set in motion by working all together, side by side.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has added more relics to the collection – a tsa tsa made by Lama Tsong Khapa and a tsa tsa made by Lama Atisha with his holy thumb print on the back.

In France, a visitor to the Relic Tour, offered relics of the revered Kagyu master, Kalu Rinpoche, to the European Relic Tour.

More events are planned for the remainder of 2007 in USA, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Latvia, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, Canada and Laos. For full details of the 2007 Tour schedule, please visit our Relic Tour Calendar. If you wish to bring the blessings of the relics to your community, please email relictour@maitreyaproject.org

Maitreya Universal Education Project

Activities and development at the Maitreya Universal Education School in Bodhgaya continue to progress.

National Exam Results

Our Class 10 students sat for national exams in October and achieved a good result with only two papers failed out of sixty taken and an average mark of around 60%. During the same exam session, some of our former Class 12 students who graduated earlier in 2006 also repeated papers they had failed. These latest results mean that of the sixteen students who sat for Class 12 exams last year, fourteen have now passed all subjects and have now enrolled in degree programs at local colleges.

Organisational Changes

For the last four and a half years Dick Jeffrey, Maitreya Education Director, has also doubled-up as school principal. At the end of December 2006, Ven Kabir Saxena, who has been helping with teacher training for more than four years, accepted the role of School Principal on an acting basis.

It is anticipated that Ven Kabir will continue in the role for the remainder of 2007 and in the meantime we will continue to search for a suitably qualified person for a permanent appointment. While our preference is to appoint an Indian national with Hindi language, we would be pleased to hear from anyone who is interested in the position.

The Journey towards the Good Heart

This was the theme this year for both our annual art and craft exhibition and the school concert, both of which took place in January. The art and craft exhibition included collections of works on a range of themes that included: generosity, kindness, love, patience, rejoicing, respect, tolerance and unity.

Our concert this year was based on a story developed by our drama teachers and the action was interwoven with the usual range of classical and folk dances for which our children have now become well known in Bodhgaya. As usual, the concert ended with a ‘quawalli’, or Muslim prayer song, which always pleases the audience.

New Kindergarten Class

It is always exciting to take in a new group of five-year-olds for our kindergarten class. As usual we had a difficult task selecting the twenty-five children from the many hundreds who applied.

Maitreya Peace Meditation

Everyone wants peace, but it cannot be legislated nor imposed – it cannot be safeguarded by coalitions and military forces. Loving-kindness is the root, the only real cause of peace. The attitude of loving-kindness generates peace in the individual, which in turn creates peace in the family, peace in the community, peace within the nation, and in turn, peace within the world. Maitreya Buddha is the embodiment of loving-kindness, the very heart of peace and happiness for all beings.

So much effort goes into bringing about peace, but many people lack a method for achieving it. The Maitreya Peace Meditation is a practical method by which anyone – of any, or even no religion – can generate loving-kindness. It is based on a meditation that Lama Yeshe often led during his public talks around the world and was first recorded by Ven. Sangye Khadro for Maitreya Project’s DVD.

We invite you to try the Maitreya Peace Meditation, which you may download from the website in nine languages, both as an mp3 audio file and as a print out.

Please join us to encircle the world with loving-kindness.

We hope you will feel inspired to do this meditation whenever it is convenient for you. Additionally, because there is an extra power that comes from meditating in a group, we have organised special times for the Maitreya Peace Meditation to be conducted at different places around the world so that, wherever you are in the world, you can meditate along with other people.

When we come together, it is easier to motivate to do the practice in the first place and there is a sense of community that makes our experience richer. Please join us to support one another while sending loving-kindness to every corner of our suffering world!

New dates, times and locations are being added to the Maitreya Peace Meditation calendar all of the time. Please contact us at media@maitreyaproject.org if your group would like to be included in the calendar.

Thank you from Maitreya Project

Thank you for your continuing interest and loyal support. We really appreciate your contributions, be they prayers or donations. Without you, the incredible benefits that Maitreya Project already brings – and will continue to bring throughout at least the 21st century – could not be realised.

Please let us know if your email address changes so you will continue receiving Updates throughout Maitreya Project’s construction and development.

You may contact us at any time be emailing info@maitreyaproject.org or via the links on the website at www.maitreyaproject.org.