City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

[Will]

Here a video introduction to CTTB; runs about 82 minutes:

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

[Will]

Some more information about this Dharma center near Ukiah, California:

http://www.advite.com/sf/cttb/cttbindex.html

[Yudron]

I dropped in, one rainy day. They really took on a big project when they bought a huge campus with many old buildings on it. Delightfully, they have renamed the many streets with Buddhist names, I don't remember exactly, but like "compassion way" or similar. They occupy some of the buildings, and others are waiting for attention.

I attended one of their ceremonies in the main hall, run mostly by nuns, then went on down the road.

[JKhedrup]

me at a CTTB repentance ceremony, they were kind enough to let me wear their robes for the services. Bowing in their style would have been quite difficult otherwise!
The ritual involves bowing to the names of 10,000 different Buddhas in an ancient sutra. There are lovely tunes sung by the resident bhikshunis. It is a very demanding ritual both physically and mentally, but I really felt as if I moved some karma after completing it.
If anyone ever has the chance to participate in the 10,000 Buddhas repentance (usually takes place in the summer) I highly recommend it. For Westerners there is Pinyin to chant along with as well as a partial translation available of the the names of the 10,000 deities. Usually a fair number of people participate and there is a lovely group energy.

[Will]

JK: So you had no robes or your Tibetan style robes were not acceptable?

Also, they are now giving and archiving videos of events: http://www.drba.org/live

[JKhedrup]

the robes i had made the bowing very difficult in the chinese style, they started to gradually slide down and maybe would have made for an embarrassing incident, so I asked to please wear theirs during ceremonies and they were kind enough to allow it.

[Will]

Spring at CTTB

http://www.cttbusa.org/blossoms/cttb.asp

[Yudron]

Spring at CTTB

http://www.cttbusa.org/blossoms/cttb.asp" target="_blank

Beautiful!

[Silent Bob]

The City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, CA was the hospital for the criminally insane until then-governor Ronald Reagan de-funded all the state's mental health facilities.