# Seven-Story Stupa — Dīpaṃkara Pagoda

A common Chinese saying goes, “Saving one life brings greater merit than building a seven-story stupa.” The Chinese word *futu* is a phonetic rendering of the Sanskrit *stūpa*, meaning a Buddhist pagoda or reliquary monument. Stūpas were originally built to enshrine relics of the Buddha, Buddhist scriptures, or the remains of eminent monks.

The Dīpaṃkara Pagoda is dedicated to Dīpaṃkara Buddha. In the Sahā world in which we live, we now receive the teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha. Countless buddhas appeared in the remote past and are collectively known as ancient buddhas; Dīpaṃkara Buddha is regarded as the ancient buddha closest to our present age. The name Dīpaṃkara evokes a lamp that illuminates the path ahead, dispels the darkness of night, and brings light to sentient beings. In Buddhism, the phrase “transmitting the lamp” represents inheriting and carrying forward the Dharma.

## The True Teaching Behind the “Seven-Story Stupa”

“Seven” is not merely a number; it represents completeness. In Buddhist symbolism, seven may signify wholeness: the four cardinal directions, above, below, and the center together make seven. It represents awakening from delusion and the completeness of one's intrinsic nature.

The seven ascending stories symbolize the progressive overcoming of greed, anger, and ignorance. Just as a stupa is built from the first story to the seventh, Buddhist practice proceeds step by step, gradually removing attachment and elevating one's character. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the seven stories are often associated with the Seven Factors of Awakening: investigation of phenomena, diligence, joy, tranquility, mindfulness, concentration, and equanimity.

Building or seeing a stupa is meant to remind us that cultivating virtue is like constructing a tower: the foundation must be stable, and one's spiritual state must be continually elevated until complete fulfillment is reached at the seventh level.

The deeper meaning of saving a life is this: saving someone's physical life preserves the life of the body, while the Buddha Dharma preserves a person's “Dharma-body and wisdom-life.” Building a stupa allows passersby to see it and plant a wholesome seed from which the Dharma may take root. Likewise, helping someone break through delusion, awaken to understanding, abandon wrongdoing, and cultivate goodness through teaching the Dharma is to “build a seven-story stupa within one's own nature.” Its merit is immeasurable.

## The Merit of Circumambulating a Stupa: Cultivating Mindfulness in Motion

At major Buddhist sacred sites, devotees can often be seen walking reverently around a stupa again and again. Buddhist scriptures say that “circumambulating it three times brings immeasurable merit.”

**Why must one circumambulate to the right, or clockwise?**

Clockwise circumambulation was among the highest forms of respect in ancient India. Keeping the sacred object on one's right symbolizes learning to respond to circumstances with harmony, accommodation, and tolerance, while letting go of arrogance and attachment and helping others succeed.

**How should one train the mind while circumambulating?**

One should not indulge in wandering thoughts or chat about everyday matters while walking around the stupa. Doing so may provide physical exercise, but it does not produce the genuine merit of Dharma practice. True merit arises from purifying the three activities of body, speech, and mind:

**Body circumambulates the stupa:** The body is moving, but the steps remain steady, neither hurried nor agitated. This purifies bodily action.

**Speech recites the Buddha's name or a mantra:** One sincerely repeats “Amitābha Buddha” without mixing the recitation with idle talk. This purifies verbal action.

**Mind visualizes:** The stupa stands motionless at the center, representing the true mind in its original nature. We circle around it, representing the constant change of all worldly phenomena. We should learn from the stupa: regardless of how external conditions turn or how life rises and falls, the mind remains centered on Amitābha Buddha, without giving rise to restless thoughts or being moved by them. This purifies mental action.

## Summary of the Practice

We do not circumambulate a stupa in the hope that the energy of stone or clay will bless us with wealth. If one circuit reduces the greed, anger, and ignorance in the mind even slightly, that is merit. If someone walks around ten times but remains just as irritable and returns home to quarrel with a spouse, then the circumambulation has been wasted; it was merely physical exercise.

When seeing a seven-story stupa, we should ask ourselves: Are my thoughts and intentions rising toward a higher state through the Seven Factors of Awakening?

When circumambulating clockwise, regard the stupa as your own true mind. Let the storms and changes of the outer world turn as they will; keep the mind as steady as the stupa. Bring this concentration back to your family and your workplace. In the midst of ordinary life, no matter how others tempt or provoke you, let the mind remain clear with the single phrase “Amitābha Buddha,” steady and unmoved. This is the true merit of circumambulating a stupa.

## About the Background Music

### *Light Offering Aspiration Prayer*

[Performed by the Qingtai Fayun Ensemble. If there is any copyright concern, please contact us for removal.]

Emaho! This wondrous lamp of brilliant light,  
I offer to the thousand buddhas of this Fortunate Aeon,  
And throughout all the boundless realms of the ten directions,  
To gurus, yidam deities, ḍākinīs, and Dharma protectors,  
And to all sacred assemblies within the maṇḍalas.  
May all sentient beings, my parents foremost among them,  
In this life and in every life to come,  
Directly behold the pure realms of the buddhas.  
May we become inseparable from the Buddha.  
Through the power of the Three Jewels, the Three Roots, and the sacred assembly,  
May this aspiration that we have made  
Be swiftly accomplished through your blessings.  

*Tadyathā pañcendriya avabodhanāya svāhā.* (four times)