60 years ago, on the outskirts of the Sverdlovsk region, around the iron ore deposits, the city of Kachkanar and its mining and processing plant arose. In the mid-90s, in the mountain forests, just a few kilometers from the quarry, a graduate of the Buryat datsan founded a Buddhist monastery, the construction of which is still ongoing. Several years ago, the plant (owned by Evraz Group, 31% of which is owned by Roman Abramovich) announced a new development zone, and a monastery falls within its borders. So the interests of the Buddhist community and the metallurgical corporation overlapped - and, according to the law, should not be resolved in favor of the monastery. And while Buddhists argue with the authorities of the plant and bailiffs, life goes on on the top of the mountain.
Throughout the year, The Village photographer Anna Marchenkova recorded how Shad Tchup Ling lives, and who finds refuge where the temperature drops to minus 40 in winter. We tell the stories of people who are building a Buddhist monastery on the outskirts of the Urals.
Dokshit and its top
In Russia, Buddhism is the traditional religion of three peoples - Buryats, Tuvans and Kalmyks. All of them profess Tibetan, or northern, Buddhism, and the main Buddhist center of the country is in Ulan-Ude. There, at the Ivolginsky Datsan, there is a Buddhist University and the residence of the main Buddhist of Russia. Every year, two dozen novices - huvaraks are recruited to the university, and for five years they study Buddhist philosophy, oriental medicine, techniques of tantrism and meditation, Buryat and Tibetan languages. As in a secular university, graduates receive diplomas of higher educationand also religious ranks: men become lamas, women - khandams.
Now in Russia, a little more than half a million practicing Buddhists, monasteries and temples work in Kalmykia, Buryatia, Tuva, Irkutsk, Transbaikal Territory, Moscow and St. Petersburg. The only monastery in the Urals, where the Buddhist religion has never been traditional, in the spring of 1995 began to build a former military sniper Mikhail Sannikov.
In 1981, he went under contract to serve in Afghanistan, where he destroyed caravans of weapons from Pakistan. After service, in the early 90s, Mikhail entered the tantric faculty of the institute at the Ivolginsky datsan, from where he came out with a new name - now the lama's name is Sanye Tenzin Dokshit. The teacher, Pema Jang, instructed Dokshit to build a monastery in the Urals - and he himself chose the place. In 1995, the lama climbed Mount Kachkanar, and began to build a Buddhist center on no man's land, not far from the local GOK. Dokshit named the future monastery at the Ural height of 887 meters Shad Tchup Ling, or "Place of Practice and Realization."
Snow stupas
At the top, the lama built the first house with his own hands: he burned meter-long boulders on bonfires, chopped them with a sledgehammer, supplied electricity, built a lift for heavy loads on a steep slope. Here he brought the first disciples - 22 years later, they turned the wild mountain plateau into a Buddhist complex of several living rooms, a yoga room, a library, a workshop, warehouses and ritual rooms.
There is no monastery on the territory of the complex yet, but there are already religious buildings - Buddhist stupas. On a patch between the rocks, community members built a large and small stupa of Awakening, the Parinirvana stupa, laid the foundation of the Tushita stupa of Descent from Heaven. In total, there are eight types of stupas in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, associated with different stages of the Buddha's life. They are distinguished by architectural details in the middle part: the Parinirvana stupa is bell-shaped and symbolizes the perfect wisdom of the Buddha, the Convergence stupa has a large number of steps. It is the stupas that non-illusoryly protect Shad Tchup Ling, because they are objects of cultural heritage.
Only Dokshit and a couple of his followers remain permanently at the top of Kachkanar. In summer, 13-15 people live in a small community, in winter - half as many. Faces change, as does the reason people end up here. Students on academic leave and searching for themselves, former military men and budding Buddhists ascend to the top. The way upstairs begins at the western checkpoint of the plant - the parties observe tacit neutrality, and therefore the path takes several meters into the forest to the left of the checkpoint. In the summer you walk six kilometers on gravel, another two - along the roots of mountain pines, moss and kurumnik; in winter, along a well-trodden path, it turns out to walk even faster. Kachkanar, where 40 thousand miners live, remains far below. Yekaterinburg is located almost 300 kilometers to the west.
Community members maintain a logbook in LJ and the page "VKontakte", answer to the general mobile. The log records the work done during the day, the names of those who live here permanently, the number of tourists who came to the last days... There they also leave notes for those who are going upstairs and want to help the monastery - they ask to buy carrots and cereals, salt, matches, light building materials like self-adhesive film. From time to time, social media announces fees for something large, like solar panels.
Danil
Seven years ago, Danil traveled 500 kilometers by bicycle to get to Kachkanar. He is the lama's oldest student and never interacts with tourists. Much has changed here since he came to the top.
“Even in my youth, I wanted to get rich and started gambling on the stock exchange, doing internet trading. Loved to analyze financial processes, adored adrenaline. I dreamed of making a lot of money, going somewhere to the sea, sitting at a laptop, drinking juice, and in the evening go to the teacher and talk about the meaning of life.
Once I was sitting at the computer and realized that I was dumb. God, I'm 30 years old, I sit at the monitor for another 10-20 years - and nothing will change. I started looking on the internet for someone to inspire me and came across a biography of Lama Dokshit. I got on my bike and drove off.
Seven years ago I did not know anything about Buddhism. It was difficult for me to accept this worldview, I did not want to agree that the essence of life is suffering. He said that he was happy - he was afraid that if I accepted, I would really suffer.
Over the years, I have become a different person, I must have become sad. Previously, the trips to clubs, alcohol, girls and purchases that spoke of high status were so delightful, but now I realized that there is no point in chasing this, because there will always be little. I destroyed everything that was pleasing before, but I did not find what would be pleasing now. And I'm going to go further: take a monastic vow and leave for Mongolia or India to continue my search. "
Shad Tchup Ling without monks
For 20 years, Lama Dokshit has been building a monastery with his own hands and accepting new followers, whom he teaches Buddhist practice and diligent work. But as long as construction continues on the top of the mountain, the community remains secular - Buddhist monks are forbidden to engage in physical labor. If everyone who chops a stone or grows vegetables in the garden between the rocks becomes a monk, life in Shad Tchup Ling will stop. And as long as there are no monks at the top, the “Place of Practice and Realization” cannot be called a monastery.
The community has an almost army order. Life glimmers in a narrow room with a stove and linoleum. During the day, the kitchen attendants cook here a simple soup of cereals and carrots, and in the evening in a room heated for the night, the lama's students spread tourist foam and sleeping bags in order to get up at six sharp and start the everyday whirlwind of meditation and work. To stay in the monastery, you just need to ask Dokshit's permission and be ready for hard physical labor. During the construction season, work at the summit continues until eight in the evening, with breaks for Buddhist practice, lunch and dinner. The bathhouse is heated here twice a week, on weekends they meet groups of tourists who sleep interspersed with novices or in tents at a distance from the monastic dwelling.
An ordinary morning in August, when it is already freezing at the top: after two hours of practice, the girls break the ice in a small pond and scoop up water to make breakfast and tea. In the yoga hut, novices grind the moss, being careful not to damage the spores. They are needed in order to sprinkle them on a five-meter sculpture of a dragon, collected from moss and polymer mesh. In the spring, the dragon will turn green. Over the summer, novices built a gymnasium, installed solar panels, and erected a statue of Buddha over the relic where the monastery's shrines are kept. In the last days of August, the men paint the statue with white paint.
By November, the construction season ends, and the students, who have decided to spend the winter on the mountain, melt snow and ice, get water, look after chickens and cows, prepare food for the dogs guarding the approaches to the monastery, chop wood and collect brushwood. The girls are busy sewing and preparing tea: each Buddhist community has its own secret recipe - in Shad Tchup Ling, for example, they like ivan tea. There are fewer tourists; in winter, novices devote themselves to practice and prayer.
Travelers come and go - someone stays for a week, someone for six months. Satima lived here the longest, for several years at the top she sewed thousands of colored flags, patchwork blankets and light fleece suits for students. Satima is now studying in India to become the first nun from the top of Kachkanar in the spring.
The lama teaches those wishing to study Buddhism according to the "Discovery of Buddhism" program. The student writes a statement, and for three months remains under the gaze of the lama, strictly observing the rules of the community. After that, it is customary to ask Dokshit for refuge and perform 111 thousand prostrations - a Buddhist practice that should help the student cleanse himself of vices and develop virtues in himself. In Shad Tchup Ling, prostration is performed on special planks, wearing gloves: the one who performs the ceremony lies down on the plank, and then rises and stands with his feet where his face was just now. One hundred thousand prostrations take weeks and months, followed by a conversation with the lama. And if Dokshit thinks that the student has not completely cleared his mind, he continues to work on himself in a special house for seclusion, reciting mantras for days alone and receiving food from other members of the community. After the conversation is repeated.
Maxim
A big, bearded and smiling guy at first does not want to tell why he is in the monastery. “You see, I had problems. But it is not important. The main thing is that everything is fine now, ”he says and leaves to clean the snow. The next time he decides to talk in the workshop, where he worked all day.
“Life went headlong after the army. I served the allotted two years and agreed to serve under a contract, signed a report. It was September 2004. The next day I was taken to the liberation of the school in Beslan.
Those who went through a terrorist attack defending the hostages are not provided with any psychological assistance. But with these memories something had to be done. I needed to calm down. I started with heroin and tried every drug available. After three years of service, he returned to his native Kachkanar as a drug addict.
The addiction made me cruel. This is understandable in war: if you do not kill, they will kill you. But even after my return, I did not consider people to be people. I perceived my parents as a source of money, and strangers who told me rudeness, I silently beat me half to death. They were taken to the intensive care unit, and they wrote a statement against me. Then everything was repeated again.
Once I left the house and realized that there was nowhere to fall further. Here, in Kachkanar, everyone knows about the monastery, and out of despair I went up the mountain. When I told Lama Dokshit about everything, he replied that he would think about what could be done. And he silently gave a job, as well as to everyone who decides to stay. So, while I was working, it was as if I was turned 180 degrees. I could not get drugs - I got rid of addiction, and suddenly began to communicate with people. I still find it strange that my mother again speaks to me in a loving voice - as if I were in childhood, and she puts me to bed.
Valya doesn't answer the lama, she thought. Vale 31, born in Perm, worked as an accountant in Moscow. Almost all adult life she suffers from psoriasis.
“There used to be rashes all over the face. I was ashamed to go out to people: it was ugly, unaesthetic, and everyone always pesters with questions. Psoriasis appeared when I had a fight with my parents and left home. They say that genetic predisposition is to blame, but no one in my family was sick. I was not lucky alone.
I worked an awful lot in Moscow. I was so tired of the routine that I moved out of the rented apartment, distributed all my things and went traveling - I wanted to find a cure for psoriasis. She lived in India for two years. Salty water and the sun gave a cosmetic effect, the disease went inward, but did not disappear. When I returned to Russia, exacerbations began again. Here, on the mountain, I want to cure my head, because any disease is psychosomatics. I’ll heal myself and start helping others.
I came here in a deep depression, and now no worms enter my head. It is too beautiful here for heavy thoughts: I go out into the yard, look around, and happiness rolls over. "
The dog barks - the caravan goes
The monastery has been under threat of demolition for the past two years. In the bowels of the mountain on which it is located, there are deposits of titanomagnetite ore. Eight kilometers below, explosions thunder every day: after a ten-minute siren, two short beeps sound, and clouds of crushed rock rise into the air. When the resource of the Western quarry is exhausted, Evraz will need a new deposit - the very one next to which there are Buddhist stupas of the Shad Tchup Ling monastery. The complex falls into the sanitary protection zone of a new quarry, where any construction is prohibited.
Mikhail Sannikov began construction illegally, and therefore the company has the right to expel unwanted guests from its territory. Lama Dokshit has repeatedly tried to legalize his buildings, negotiated with the administration of the city and the plant, but in February 2017, the Bailiffs Service issued a decree to demolish the monastery. Then the authorities and public figures stood up for the Buddhists, including the musician Boris Grebenshchikov, and the bailiffs, because of the blurred road, could not hand over the decree to the lama for a long time. Along the way, it turned out that the construction equipment required for demolition is unlikely to rise along the steep slope to the top. The question hung in the air, and life on the mountain continues.
From time to time a new turn occurs in the conflict. For example, a month ago, State Duma deputy Andrei Alshevskikh submitted a request to the administration of the governor of the Sverdlovsk region about how the group for the preservation of the monastery is working. In response, the administration sent a letter with the results of the examination conducted by the St. Petersburg State Museum of Religion. They said that the religious organization at the top of Kachkanar is illegitimate, because it does not have a charter, and still cannot be considered a monastery, because it does not have the required number of monks.
Residents of Shad Tchup Ling shrug their shoulders in response to the results of the examination. After the news about the examination, they contacted the chief specialist of the museum, and it turned out that the specialist did not know about the study. In the spring, the first nun of the monastery, Satima, will return from India, and then others will be trained. The dog will bark and the caravan will walk.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Sannikov is a religious leader, head of the Shadchupling community.
Biography
Early years and education
Mikhail Vasilyevich Sannikov was born on November 30, 1961 in the city of Votkinsk, Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in a family of hereditary military men. At the end of grade 8 comprehensive school entered the Orthodox Moscow Theological Academy, however, having studied there for less than a month, passed the documents and returned home. Having passed the external exams for the 10th grade of a general education school in the winter of 1979, he spent the rest of the year at the school as a laboratory assistant at the physics and chemistry classrooms. In 1979 he was admitted to the Perm Agricultural Institute without examinations; having passed external exams and defended his thesis project, he graduated in January 1980. Along the way, I graduated from civil aviation courses.
Service in the KGB
In May 1980 he was drafted into the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces and for 8 months underwent training at the Yaroslavl training ground of the GB troops. After completing his training in the rank of junior lieutenant, in February 1981 he was sent for the first time under a contract to Afghanistan, where for several years he was the commander of a sabotage and reconnaissance group. Participated also in special operations KGB for checking the combat readiness of units stationed directly in the USSR. One of the permanent main tasks of his group in Afghanistan was the destruction of the caravans with weapons going to the Mujahideen from Pakistan.
Once, during a regular operation, he saw through the scope of a sniper rifle that a horse, carrying bales of dushman weapons, was crying as it climbed the mountain. He refused to shoot at her, for which he ended up in the mine rescue service in the Pamirs, and later in the Altai. In 1987, with the rank of captain, he retired on a disability pension; for several months he worked in the morgue of the Leninsky district of Perm as an orderly and an assistant pathologist. He studied externally at the Nizhniy Tagil Art School, worked a little as a cook on the Kama river fleet.
Admission to study at the Ivolginsky datsan
From his former mentor in Japanese sword fighting, he learned about the existence in the USSR, in Buryatia, of a living tradition of Buddhism and that it is possible to get a Buddhist education there. In 1988, for the first time I went to study at Ivolginsky datsan, however, due to the fact that at the time of arrival all the groups of the course were already completed, I entered it only the next year. Based on the results of an introductory interview, he was assigned to a group specializing in Buddhist Tantra, which was selected by Lama D.A.Zhalsaraev, and took monastic vows under the name Tingdzin Dokshit. A total of 12 people were recruited to the group, mostly Russians.
Education in Buryatia and Mongolia
During 1989-1991, Mikhail Sannikov studied at the Ivolginsky Datsan, although the Dashi Choynhorling Buddhist Institute at the Ivolginsky Datsan was officially opened only in 1991, while at first there were only two faculties: philosophy and medicine, and tantric was opened later. At this time, Mikhail Sannikov got acquainted with D. B. Ayusheev, who later became the head of the Buddhist traditional Sangha of Russia in the status of Pandito Khambo Lama and was also at the datsan at that time.
In 1991-1993, he lived mainly in Gusinoozyorsk, then in the Tamchinsky datsan of Dasha Gandan Darzhaling, where he underwent practice in performing rituals. In the summer of 1993 he made his first trip to Mongolia, where he received initiation into the Yamantaka tantra from Lama Sanje-la in a retreat near Orkhontuul. In October-November of the same year, in the same retreat, he practiced phowa, given to him by Lama Ngedub.
From the end of January to the middle of August 1994, near Kharkhorin, under the leadership of Lama Tsyren, a retreat was held on the Six Yogas of Niguma. He also gave him initiation into the tantras of Hevajra and Chakrasamvara. After a short return to the Ivolginsky datsan, he returned to Kharkhorin, to Erdeni-Dzu and remained there until November of the same year, participating in the restoration of the monastery fence from stupas under the leadership of Pabo Lama.
Construction of a temple on Mount Kachkanar
One of the stupas on Mount Kachkanar under construction
After graduating from the Ivolginsky Datsan, Mikhail Sannikov was going to finally emigrate to Mongolia, However, in the winter of 1995, his Root Teacher, D.A.Zhalsaraev, gave him an order to build a Buddhist datsan in Russia. He motivated this by the fact that in the west of Russia there is already one Buddhist temple - the St. Petersburg datsan "Gunzechoinei", in the east - the temples of Buddhist Buryatia, but in the middle, in the Urals - there is nothing. Zhalsaraev indicated the place where such a temple was to be erected - the top of Mount Kachkanar.
It was decided to name the temple “Shadtchupling” “Place of Practice and Realization”. On May 16, 1995, on the day of the Buddhist holiday Donshod-Khural, Mikhail Sannikov began work on the construction of a monastery at the indicated place. Almost the entire remaining, as well as the next, years he spent in stone work on the mountain, periodically going down to the nearby city of Kachkanar to earn money for food.
The fire that occurred in 1998 completely destroyed all the wooden buildings of the temple complex erected at that time, and the construction had to start almost from scratch.
Temple "Shadtchupling" is being built by the forces of Mikhail Sannikov himself and a small community of people who took his initial monastic vows. Material construction is provided by the community of his lay disciples living in the Middle Urals. The construction is extremely complicated by the inaccessibility and remoteness of the location of the temple from the transport infrastructure, as well as by the policy of the leadership of the Kachkanar mining and processing plant, which claims to develop ore deposits located near the construction site of the temple. In the fall of 2006, another director of the Kachkanar mining and processing plant climbed the mountain, offered 5 million rubles and help in moving the monastery to another place. Sannikov grinned and replied: we, they say, will ask for exactly twice as much as you can pay. He laughed, left the gingerbread and left.
In 17 kilometers from the city of Kachkanar, at an altitude of 843 m above sea level, among the rocks, there is “Sannikov Land”. On a small patch of land, Mikhail Sannikov is a former "Afghan", and now a "Buddhist", as they call him locals, - lives for more than six years. Together with like-minded people he is building a temple. With the help of colleagues from the newspaper "Kachkanarsky Rabochy", we visited this person.
Road to sky
Kachkanar and its surroundings are indescribable beauty. Especially in the fall. The pale blue pre-sunset sky is reflected in the huge mirror of the man-made Kachkanar Sea. Above its distant shore (as viewed from the city), a large golden mountain rises in the form of a regular triangle. A gray cloud caught on its peak, carelessly dropping too low.
At night, on the eve of our "expedition", it fell on the mountain in rain, tarnishing in my eyes its "reputation" as one of the most beautiful places in the Urals. The forest became damp, cold and gloomy.
The photographer of "Kachkanarka" Viktor Nikolaevich Chuprakov acted as a guide and guide, walking these places far and wide. Zhanna Tashlykova, an athlete, a beauty and, moreover, the executive secretary of Kachkanarka, Svetlana Teterina, her colleague, the organizer of our campaign, and me, climbed the stones behind him.
After 40 minutes of ascent, we realized that ... we do not know where to look for "Sannikov Land": heavy fog interfered. Tired, hungry, wet and chilled, alone among the indifferent cold forest, we began to shout at Mikhail, hoping weakly that he would hear the unlucky travelers.
Needless to say, we perceived the cry “I am coming!”, Heard in the hopeless foggy silence, as the saving voice of God.
After some time, Mikhail himself appeared - well-knit, of short stature, in a pea jacket and an exotic-looking panama hat. He turned out to be a sociable, witty, ironic person. He took us to his shelter, located in a gorge: two small wooden houses (a workshop and the "apartment" itself), nearby - a stone Stupa, a symbol of the Enlightened Mind. From living creatures - kitty Kitty and shaggy "Caucasian" Angry.
How do you live here - without electricity, TV, newspapers? - we asked Mikhail a question that is natural for people spoiled by the benefits of civilization.
I look at the sky - clear, no smoke. So there is no war. And the rest - it doesn't matter, - our savior answered half in jest.
How Sannikov became a "barn mouse"
He said about the war for a reason: he spent 4 years in the shooting mountains of Afghanistan. At the end of the service, this happened. During one of the operations, I suddenly saw through the telescopic sight of a sniper rifle how a horse, laden with a dushman load, climbs along a narrow mountain path and ... cries with large tears ... When they were ordered to shoot at the poor beast, he flatly refused.
Mikhail had a choice: either to serve a sentence in a hazardous chemical production, or in the mining and rescue service (the same penal battalion). Sannikov preferred the latter: after all, fresh air. For six (!) Years, as he put it, he carried sacks in the mountains (no longer in Afghanistan).
At the age of 27 he returned to his native Perm region. He remembers the post-army times like this: he got married, built a house, worked in the river fleet. And I also thought a lot about the meaning of life. Began to take an interest in religious issues.
In war, they either become atheists: if God exists, how could he allow this to happen? Or, on the contrary, they come to God, - says Sannikov, pouring his favorite green tea into mugs.
We sit with our legs tucked in on a boardwalk covered with blankets. The hut is solid, but cramped. Light streams through the only small window inside gray daylighting up an ascetic environment. Of the "furniture" - only the mentioned flooring - "sofa" (it is also a table). Plus shelves with books on religion, history, psychology, and various building guides. In the corner, the stove “digests” the wood with a crackle. Next to her is the washstand. (The girls notice that the towel hanging over it is the perfect white). Ural landscapes, tanks (Buddhist religious painting), portraits of Tibetan lamas are hung on the walls.
I was lucky: I met one person on time, - our interlocutor continues the story. - It was he who told the parable that saved me from religious throwing. A sparrow flies over the field, then a grain will find, there it will bite. Suddenly he sees - a mouse is lying on a stone - basking in the sun. He flies up to her, asks: “What are you doing, a mouse? Why aren't you looking for food? " The mouse answers him: “What do I need? I live in a barn! "
It is incomprehensible only at first glance. A sparrow is a person who seeks meaning in life. It will stick to one teaching, to another, and will be left with nothing. And the "mouse" has already found its religion - and at its disposal - all the seeds of sacred knowledge accumulated over the millennia.
Michael chose Buddhism as the "barn" - the most ancient of the 4 world religions. At 28, he decided to become a monk. He entered a Buddhist monastery located 25 km from Ulan-Ude in the village of Verkhniye Ivolgi.
Monastery life
The main thing, perhaps, is the difference between Buddhist monasteries and Christian ones - they do not have a tonsure ceremony, after which a person can no longer return to worldly life. Buddhist “monks” - huvarak, which translates as a listener - are given freedom of choice, they are free to leave the monastery at any time. Everyone decides his own destiny.
After all, the main tenet of Buddhism is responsibility. For your thoughts, actions. A bad deed cannot be "canceled" by confessing to a priest. He will have to be expiated in this or next birth. The Buddha said, “To understand what you have done in past lives, look at your present life. To find out what your future will be, look at your current thoughts and actions. "
People come to the monastery with the noblest thoughts. But about 60 percent of those who entered leave, unable to withstand the harsh monastic life.
Among them are the "Losers" who did not show due diligence in the sciences and failed in exams, which are held regularly. The range of subjects studied is quite wide: philosophy of Buddhism and general philosophy, history of religions and Buddhism, languages \u200b\u200bTibetan, English, Sanskrit, rhetoric, debate, foundations of medicine, esotericism, etc.
Didn't you miss the secular life at the monastery, didn't you run AWOL? - I ask Mikhail.
It happened, we ran, - he honestly answers, - to the cinema, to go to football, just to walk around the city.
This was especially the case for the "freshmen". Their older monastic brethren had more “applied” religious entertainment.
Once we were sweeping the area near the Stupa (a religious building, a monument to the Enlightened Mind of Buddha, it resembles a pyramid and symbolizes the vertical model of the universe) - and noticed that, having been near it, our teacher Pemo Jang ... leaves no marks on the ground, - says Mikhail ...
Then we decided to conduct an experiment: we dug a shallow hole half a meter by half a meter, put thin frames of wood above it, covered them with newspapers, sprinkled everything with earth. And what? The teacher calmly walked through our trap, grinned and went on further!
Or else there was a case. My friend Sasha Pchelkin, once repairing the fence, stepped on a nail. The foot is very swollen. The teacher comes up: “What, my leg hurts? I release you from this work - take a bag from the caretaker, go to the garden - bring cabbage. " And this is 4 km there and back. Sasha, gritting his teeth in pain, went. I came back, and my leg didn't hurt at all ...
After 6 years of study at the monastery, it was time for Mikhail to set off on his journey to the place of service. The conversation with the mentor on this matter was short-lived.
The teacher said, - recalls Mikhail, - that in Russia everywhere there are monasteries and retreat centers (places of meditation retreat). But in the very heart of the country, in the Urals - no. I added that wonderful people live here, and there are mountains (a prerequisite for a monastery). The teacher, who had never been not only to Kachkanar, but generally to the Urals, showed a dot on the map, described in detail the place where I was to build a monastery. I didn't ask any questions ...
A place where wishes come true
This is how the word "Kachkanar" is translated into the Tibetan manner. Lama Tenzin Dokshit (Sannikov's new name) arrived at the point indicated by the teacher in 1995. With him was only a backpack with books, clothes, "quick" Chinese noodles, and some money.
The first "huvarak" came to the lama a week later: they met by chance in the city. Now Sannikov has a dozen students. He works with each of them individually. In addition, 50-60 students from the Ural universities come in summer. There are especially many guys from the faculties of psychology and philosophy. (We visited the lama in the fall, so they were not found anymore).
I must say that Sannikov does not invite anyone to his place. Buddhism does not accept missionary work at all. If a person is spiritually mature, he comes himself. If not ripe, then, as the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to a watering hole, but you cannot make it drink.
People learn about the flower of spirituality, blossoming on the wild Kachkanar rocks, from friends. Some children are sent on a trip ... by their parents, looking at the friends of their children, who returned home from the monastery calm and peaceful.
The goal of solitude is not to close and escape from the world, but to understand oneself in the mountainous silence, to conquer one's passions, says Sannikov.
On the one hand, he is glad to the ever-increasing stream of those interested in Buddhism, on the other hand, there is not enough time for everyone. After all, it is necessary to talk with everyone, answer exciting questions.
Many guys want to immediately learn the secret sciences, yoga, - Mikhail smiles, - and are a little disappointed that at first they have to do hard physical work. But Buddhism does not accept theory without practice.
And the first of the practices that those who arrived at the temple comprehend is chipping stones from rocks, dragging them to the construction of a monastery. ( Physical work contributes to the establishment of control over the mind - the main goal of Buddhism).
Today the lama and his associates are completing the construction of the Stupa. The first floors of the workshop and the refectory have already been completed. Areas for a bathhouse, showers, a classroom, a greenhouse were prepared, a pit for a pond was dug. The next step is the temple hall, library, tea house. The plan even includes the creation of a farm in the nearby village of Kuchum to provide the monastery with vegetables and dairy products.
As for the goals of the Shad Tchup Ling monastery itself (translated from Tibetan as “a place of practice and realization”), they are as follows: to preserve centuries-old monastic and yogic traditions: to lead educational activities (lectures are planned for everyone on the history and philosophy of Buddhism, astrology, Tibetan medicine, painting, etc.). The monastery, Sannikov hopes, will become an international meditation and psychotherapy center.
To my question about the attitude of the Orthodox Church to the plans of the lama, Sannikov replies: “It's okay. Now during the reign of Vladyka Vincent, we have no disagreements. "
But in the time of Nikon, especially zealous adherents of the Orthodox faith were indignant: they say, what kind of Baptist Buddhist? And why would his temple be located higher than our Orthodox?!.
First and last appearance
Mikhail gets up early. It splits stones, preheating them with a fire, so that they crack. He also performs various Practices that contribute to the development of the mind, meditates. (Although the word is not very fond of, he says, there is a beautiful Russian synonym - contemplation). The goal of the Practitioner is to make the mind like a diamond: a clean, strong, sharp instrument.
Permanent financial aid the lama does not turn out - the idea itself must prove its viability. Sannikov accepts donations, but only with construction materials. He explains this by the fact that he does not want to feel obligated.
But, naturally, the lama does not live only by the “holy spirit”. He is very fond of tea. He can talk about him for hours. He does not drink alcohol at all. Eats ascetic: pasta, porridge, mushrooms. Although there was a time, I swam with a cook on a liner and cooked shark fins with avocado sauce. He feeds his barking and meowing friends with what he eats himself.
In order to earn money, Sannikov goes down to the city in winter, lays tiles, and performs other construction work.
In summer and autumn he collects mushrooms and berries. The animal does not hunt for reasons of principle.
The "highlander" also grows vegetables and flowers. Especially for these purposes, he equipped flower beds. Will soon install wind turbines, an engine that will generate energy. Then it will be possible to conduct light, even install a computer with Internet access via a radio modem - a Buddhist monk is well versed in technology.
On " big earth”, In Yekaterinburg, it is rare. With a shudder he recalls the last "sortie": friends persuaded to go to the anniversary of one of the city's TV channels. For a long time he did not agree, but when he found out that there would be ponies, - Mikhail adores horses, - he agreed. What he regretted very soon: among the celebrants, little horses were the only sober creatures. The most depressing impression on Sannikov was made by children who, as he put it, “professionally,” swore.
This is my first and last "publication" for the next 10 years, - Mikhail is sure.
Prophecy of a Tibetan Lama
Buddhists, according to Sannikov, live "without a homeland and a flag." Because it is not wise to get attached to anything, for everything earthly is maya, an illusion. Attachment to them creates suffering and puts an end to the possibility of getting out of the wheel of birth and death.
But still, the Kachkanar Lama loves Russia, believes in what will come for us better times... According to him, the prophet lama who lived in Tibet many years ago also spoke about the imminent revival of the "northern country" (judging by the numerous details, it can only be Russia). All predicted events (for example, the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese) - came true.
… We talked with the lama until late in the evening. A cloud, interested in our conversation, peeped with a misty face through the window, the wind whistled through the rocks. An "eternal candle" (such a clever device) was burning in Sannikov's dwelling, and Kotya was humming peacefully at his feet.
Everything in the world is interconnected, everything is alive, nothing is dead, ”says Sannikov. And he begins to prove the postulates of Buddhism ... with the help of the concepts of nuclear physics.
… There is an ancient parable about how differently people realize themselves their place in life. Three people who were building a structure were asked what they were doing. One said, "I'm digging the ground." The other one is “I'm crushing stones”. And the third answered: "I am building a temple" ...
The Kachkanar Lama builds a temple among the Kachkanar rocks and, at the same time, inside himself.
... When in the editorial office of "Kachkanarsky Rabochy" we summed up the successful "expedition", one of my colleagues said: "It's so good that now there is Sannikov Land, where any traveler can get shelter, spend the night, talk with this extraordinary person. "
And the lost one - to shout to Michael, and he will respond to the call, come and help.
Andrey KARKIN
"Regional newspaper" October 26, 2001
See also:
Alexander ARKHIPOV "Monk" ("AiF", No. 39, 2003)
Sannikov Mikhail Vasilievich- the founder of the Buddhist monastery located on the Kachkanar mountain, lama, head of the Shadchupling community.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Sannikov was born on November 30, 1961 in the city of Votkinsk, Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, into a hereditary military family.
http://www.kommersant.ru/gallery/2388788
In May 1980, Sannikov was drafted into the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces and for 8 months underwent training at the Yaroslavl training ground of the GB troops. After graduating with the rank of junior lieutenant.
In February 1981 he was first sent under a contract to Afghanistan, where for several years he was the commander of a sabotage and reconnaissance group.
Sannikov Mikhail also participated in special KGB operations to check the combat readiness of units stationed directly in the USSR. One of the permanent main tasks of his group in Afghanistan was the destruction of the caravans with weapons going to the Mujahideen from Pakistan.
Buddhism
In 1988 he first went to study at the Ivolginsky Datsan.
During 1989-1991, Mikhail Sannikov studied at the Ivolginsky Datsan, although officially the Buddhist Institute "Dashi Choynhorling" at the Ivolginsky Datsan.
In 1991-1993, he lived mainly in Gusinoozyorsk, then in the Tamchinsky datsan of Dasha Gandan Darzhaling, where he practiced rituals. In the summer of 1993, he made his first trip to Mongolia, where he received initiation into the Yamantaka tantra from Lama Sanje-la in a retreat near Orkhontuul. In October-November of the same year, in the same retreat, he practiced phowa, given to him by Lama Ngedub.
From late January to mid-August 1994 near Kharkhorin under the leadership of Lama Tsyren Mikhail Vasilievich Sannikovpassed the gate on the Six Yogas of Niguma.
In winter 1995, his Root Teacher, D. A. Zhalsaraev, gave him an order to build a Buddhist datsan in Russia.
It was decided to name the temple “Shadtchupling” “Place of Practice and Realization”. On May 16, 1995, on the day of the Buddhist holiday Donshod-Khural, Mikhail Sannikov began work on the construction of a monastery at the indicated place.
The fire that occurred in 1998 completely destroyed all the wooden buildings of the temple complex erected at that time, and the construction had to start almost from scratch.
In 2001, in Kachkanar, a local religious organization was registered as part of the RABSHKK by the students of Mikhail Sannikov.
By 2003, a fundamental agreement was reached on the assistance of the Ural organizations of the "Association" in the construction of the monastery "Shadchupling". The question of the direct registration of the monastery as a retreat (reclusive) center was also considered.
The question of the direct registration of the monastery as a retreat (reclusive) center was also considered.
Plan:
- Introduction
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 early years and education
- 1.2 Service in the KGB
- 1.3 Admission to study at the Ivolginsky datsan
- 1.4 Education in Buryatia and Mongolia
- 1.5 Construction of a temple on Mount Kachkanar
- 2
Relations with Russian Buddhist Organizations
- 2.1 Relationship with the Gelug School after graduation
- 2.2 Relations with the Karma Kagyu School
Literature - 4 Materials in the media Notes
Introduction
Mikhail Vasilievich Sannikov (Tingdzin Dokshit; November 30, 1961, Votkinsk, Udmurt ASSR, RSFSR, USSR) - religious leader, head of the Shadchupling community.
1. Biography
1.1. Early years and education
Mikhail Vasilyevich Sannikov was born on November 30, 1961 in the city of Votkinsk, Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in a family of hereditary military men. At the end of the 8th grade of a comprehensive school, he entered the Orthodox Moscow Theological Academy (Zagorsk), however, having studied there for less than a month, he passed his documents and returned home. Having passed the external exams for the 10th grade of a general education school in the winter of 1979, he spent the rest of the year at the school as a laboratory assistant in physics and chemistry rooms. In 1979 he was admitted to the Perm Agricultural Institute without examinations; having passed external exams and defended his thesis project, he graduated in January 1980. Along the way, I graduated from civil aviation courses.
1.2. Service in the KGB
In May 1980 he was drafted into the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces and for 8 months underwent training at the Yaroslavl training ground of the GB troops. After completing his training in the rank of junior lieutenant, in February 1981 he was sent for the first time under a contract to Afghanistan, where for several years he was the commander of a sabotage and reconnaissance group. He also participated in special operations of the KGB to check the combat readiness of units stationed directly in the USSR. One of the permanent main tasks of his group in Afghanistan was the destruction of the caravans with weapons going to the Mujahideen from Pakistan.
Once, during a regular operation, he saw through the scope of a sniper rifle that a horse, carrying bales of dushman weapons, was crying as it climbed the mountain. He refused to shoot at her, for which he ended up in the mine rescue service in the Pamirs, and later in the Altai. In 1987, with the rank of captain, he retired on a disability pension; for several months he worked in the morgue of the Leninsky district of Perm as an orderly and an assistant pathologist. He studied externally at the Nizhniy Tagil Art School, worked a little as a cook on the Kama river fleet.
1.3. Admission to study at the Ivolginsky datsan
From his former mentor in Japanese sword wrestling (kendo), he learned about the existence in the USSR, in Buryatia, of a living tradition of Buddhism and that it is possible to get a Buddhist education there. In 1988, he first went to study at the Ivolginsky Datsan, but due to the fact that at the time of arrival all the course groups were already completed, he entered it only the next year. Based on the results of the introductory interview, he was assigned to a group specializing in Buddhist Tantra, which was selected by Lama D.A.Zhalsaraev, and took monastic vows under the name Tingdzin Dokshit ... A total of 12 people were recruited into the group, mostly Russians.
1.4. Education in Buryatia and Mongolia
During 1989-1991, Mikhail Sannikov studied at the Ivolginsky Datsan, although the Dashi Choynhorling Buddhist Institute at the Ivolginsky Datsan was officially opened only in 1991, while at first there were only two faculties: philosophy and medicine, and tantric was opened later. At this time, Mikhail Sannikov got acquainted with D. B. Ayusheev, who later became the head of the Buddhist traditional Sangha of Russia in the status of Pandito Khambo Lama and was also at the datsan at that time.
In 1991-1993 he lived mainly in Gusinoozyorsk, then in the Tamchinsky datsan of Dashi Gandan Darzhaling (the village of Gusinoe Ozero), where he practiced rituals. In the summer of 1993, he made his first trip to Mongolia, where received initiation into the Yamantaka tantra from Lama Sanje-la in a retreat near Orkhontuul (Selenge) [source not specified 109 days]. In October-November of the same year in the same retreat he practiced phowu, given to him by Lama Ngedub [source not specified 109 days] .
From late January to mid-August 1994, near Kharkhorin, under the leadership of Lama Tsyren, a shutter was held on the Six Yogas of Niguma [source not specified 109 days] . He also gave him initiation into the tantras of Hevajra and Chakrasamvara. [source not specified 109 days]. After a short return to the Ivolginsky datsan, he returned to Kharkhorin, to Erdeni-Dzu and remained there until November of the same year, participating in the restoration of the monastery fence from the stupas under the leadership of Pabo Lama.
1.5. Construction of a temple on Mount Kachkanar
One of the stupas on Mount Kachkanar under construction
After graduating from the Ivolginsky Datsan, Mikhail Sannikov was going to finally emigrate to Mongolia, However, in the winter of 1995, his Root Teacher, D.A.Zhalsaraev, gave him an order to build a Buddhist datsan in Russia. He motivated this by the fact that in the west of Russia there is already one Buddhist temple - the St. Petersburg datsan "Gunzechoynei", in the east - the temples of Buddhist Buryatia, but in the middle, in the Urals - there is nothing. Zhalsaraev indicated the place where such a temple was to be erected - the top of Mount Kachkanar (Sverdlovsk region).
It was decided to name the temple “Shadtchupling” “Place of Practice and Realization”. On May 16, 1995, on the day of the Buddhist holiday Donshod-Khural, Mikhail Sannikov began work on the construction of a monastery at the indicated place. Almost the entire remaining, as well as the next, years he spent in stone work on the mountain, periodically going down to the nearby city of Kachkanar to earn money for food.
The fire that occurred in 1998 completely destroyed all the wooden buildings of the temple complex erected at that time, and the construction had to start almost from scratch.
Temple "Shadtchupling" is being built by the forces of Mikhail Sannikov himself and a small community of people who took his initial monastic vows. Material construction is provided by the community of his lay disciples living in the Middle Urals. The construction is extremely complicated by the inaccessibility and remoteness of the location of the temple from the transport infrastructure, as well as by the policy of the leadership of the Kachkanar mining and processing plant, which claims to develop ore deposits located near the construction site of the temple. In the fall of 2006, another director of the Kachkanar mining and processing plant (owned by Abramovich) climbed the mountain, offered 5 million rubles and help in moving the monastery to another place. Sannikov chuckled and replied: we, they say, will ask for exactly twice as much as you can pay. He laughed, left the gingerbread and left.
2. Relationship with Russian Buddhist organizations
The changes that took place in the life of the country in the first half of the 1990s and influenced the formation of Buddhist religious organizations in new Russia, including the growth of nationalist sentiments in the ethnic republics of the Russian Federation, as well as the growing popularity of Buddhism among the urban population in regions non-traditional for Buddhism, predetermined complex relations between Mikhail Sannikov and modern Buddhist associations in Russia.
2.1. Relationship with the Gelug School after graduation
In December 1996, Mikhail Sannikov visited the Ivolginsky Datsan in order to obtain a document certifying the completion of his studies, which was denied to him and to the rest of his fellow students at Zhalsaraev under the pretext that the cases of Russian graduates were transferred to the jurisdiction of the St. Petersburg datsan "Gunzechoynei". As a result, in early 1997, Mikhail Sannikov undertook a trip to St. Petersburg, where he met with several more students of Zhalsaraev's group, awaiting a decision on the issue of issuing a diploma. The abbot of the datsan, Danzan-Khaibzun (Samaev) at that time was in Tunka, and his deputy, Donyod Lama, could not help in this problem.
In 1998, in the second half of June, the lama again visited the Gunzeichoinei datsan with the intention of meeting on the same issue with Yeshe Loda Rinpoche, who was to visit the datsan to confer the monastic sangha initiation in Yamantaka. Although this initiation did take place, the organization of the ceremony - the presence of a large number of laypeople contrary to what was announced, as well as the limitation of the time of Elo Rinpoche's stay only by the initiation procedure itself on the part of his companions - did not allow him or even the Donyed Lama to have a long meeting with Rinpoche, although such Lama Donyod made the agreement in advance.
In 2002, a group of Mikhail Sannikov's students sent a request to the Ivolginsky Datsan for documents certifying his education. According to the answer, there were no such documents in the archives of the datsan, and the question itself was forwarded to Yeshe Loda Rinpoche. However, as a result of another trip of Mikhail Sannikov to Yeshe Loda Rinpoche, this time to the center “Rinpoche-bagsha” (Buryatia) he founded in the winter of 2006, it was not possible to meet with him again. The absence of a formal document certifying the fact of the Buddhist education of Mikhail Sannikov is a reason for criticism of his personality, activities and views from some leaders of the secular Buddhist communities of the Urals.
2.2. Relations with the Karma Kagyu School
The main initiations received by Mikhail Sannikov came from the schools of the Kagyu lineage [source not specified 109 days], and this led to his attempts to establish relations with the largest organization representing it in Russia - the Russian Diamond Way Association of the Karma Kagyu School.
At the end of May 2000, at the invitation of the President of the Elista Dharma Center Karma Kagyu, Mikhail Sannikov visited the construction of a stupa in Elista (Kalmykia), where he received from Lama Norbu fragments of the bookmarks used in the construction, which, upon returning to Kachkanar, were used among others for the mountain stupa.
In 2001, in Kachkanar, students of Mikhail Sannikov registered a local religious organization as part of the Russian Diamond Way Association of the Karma Kagyu School. As a result of several personal meetings and correspondence between Mikhail Sannikov and the founder of the "Association" Ole Nydahl during 2002-2003. In principle, an agreement was reached on the assistance of the Ural organizations of the "Association" in the construction of the monastery "Shadchupling". The issue of direct registration of the monastery as a retreat (reclusive) center of the "Association" was also considered. However, due to the orientation of the "Association" towards predominantly secular, non-monastic Buddhism, as well as the requirement to exclude from educational program materials that do not belong to the Karma Kagyu school, the real relationship has reached an impasse.
Literature
Poresh V. Tibetan Buddhism in Russia // "Modern religious life in Russia", Vol. 3, / Otv. ed. M. Burdo, S. B. Filatov. - M., "Logos", 2005, ISBN 5-98704-004-2
4. Materials in the media
- Arkhipov A. Monk // "Arguments and Facts - Ural", No. 39, 2003
- Bessarabova A. Our correspondent tried to become buddhist monk // "World of news", 20.12.2005
- Zhukovskaya A. The fate of a scout in Ural. The resident became a Buddhist monk // "Arguments and Facts - Ural", No. 34, 2006
- Samodelova S. Sannikov Land // "Moskovsky Komsomolets", 12.01.2006
- Khazov A., Suvorova T. Ural Buddhism. // "Ural Pathfinder", No. 7, 2002
- Shorin A. Buddhist monastery under threat of demolition // "Regional newspaper", 09/14/2006.