The Story of the Amitabha Stupa, Sedona Arizona 1 | Page 27

Tree of Life
Auspicious coincidence had a
role to play, bringing together just
the right people for the myriad
tasks needed to give rise to the
Amitabha Stupa. Seemingly by
chance in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
the stupa’s project coordinators
met two Tibetan brothers, one a
spiritual teacher and artist, the
other an accomplished wood carver, who agreed to come to Sedona

to carve and paint the Stupa’s tree
of life or sok-shing. They arrived
within days at the exact phase of
construction that required their
artistic mastery.
The sok-shing is a tapered,
4-sided cedar column that is the
central channel and life force of
the stupa. The brothers carved a
stupa at the top of the sok-shing
and a thunderbolt, or dorje, at
the bottom.

The tree of life
symbolizes the
transcendent
knowledge of
phenomena
realized by an
awakened being.