contact us  

Sign-up!
Monthly eNews
& eTeaching



 

AUGUST 2004 UPDATE

Dear Friends,

We hope you are enjoying summer and the beauty of nature. New wildflowers have sprung up in the Abbey's forest and the meadows - a beautiful burst of colors. Our garden and orchard are growing, enabling us to freeze some fruits and veggies for winter. The knapweed has been trying to grow too, but with the kind help of our neighbors, Chris and Jan, we've been able to keep it at bay. Meanwhile, a wildlife biologist and a soil scientist visited the land and gave us useful suggestions for helping the animals who also make the Abbey their home.

Three of us are living at the Abbey now. Nanc Nesbitt, FOSA's Four Requisite Chairperson relocated to the Abbey in May and is a backbone of support. Karri McKee, who came for a six week visit, decided to stay on and is now my assistant. Together with many others, she's been instrumental in finishing the downstairs. We'll have" before" and "after" photos up on the website soon.

At the end of June, Panchen Otrul Rinpoche and his attendant, Ven. Margery, together with other friends visited the Abbey. Rinpoche is head of Maitreya Charity, which serves the people of Mongolia, providing them with basic necessities as well as education. After lunch, we took a walk up to the landing where we hope to build a temple in the future, and then continued up the meadow and into the forest. Rinpoche walked energetically; we could all tell he was enjoying himself very much in the beautiful surroundings.

The garage is transforming into a meditation hall. Look at the progress! After the contractor is finished, volunteers will paint it, lay the floor, and make the altar, where our new Buddha statue will abide. If you would like to help with this work, let us know. We depend a lot on volunteer work; speaking of which, Melanie, Kathy, Tracy, Susan, Renee, and Alix from Coeur d'Alene came to the Abbey to help in July, as did Nerea and Renee from Seattle.

Danna and Donna, together with their brothers and friends, came up the last weekend of June to help us

Haroldina and friends
cut up some trees for firewood. From 6 a.m. to noon they volunteered their skills as loggers and worked tirelessly. Nanc drove "Haroldina," our '77 truck named after her previous owner, up the hill and two teams followed on four-wheelers. Though the day started out sunny, showers greeted our picnic lunch. We are perpetually amazed and thankful for people whom we don't know and who aren't Buddhist coming to the abbey to help us out. The kindness of others is truly wonderful.

Some of you may wish to support those doing the three month Vajrasattva retreat this winter even though you may not be able to attend. If so, you can earmark your checks for this. Great positive potential is created by supporting monastics and those doing meditation retreat.

I spent most of July in Madison, WI, studying Je Tsongkhapa's Illumination of the Thought with Geshe Sopa. By continuing to learn, my practice improves and by extension, that will benefit those of you who attend my talks and retreats. During this time, I taught at the University of Wisconsin, at Deer Park Buddhist Center, and at Jewel Heart in Cleveland. As soon as the audio tapes are edited, these talks will be available at www.thubtechodron.org. During the trip I also made three prison visits. In Stateville, a rough prison in Illinois, I was honored to give the bodhisattva vows to an inmate, and in Ohio, to give two inmates the lay precepts.

Due to your kind support, the Abbey has been able to prepay some of its mortgage, thus saving about $37,000 in interest! There is still a good chunk remaining to pay on the mortgage, but we thought that you would like to know that we value your donations and want to use them wisely. Depending on the amount of donations, we will prepay more on the mortgage, thus saving more in interest. We'll keep you posted how it's going.

My teaching schedule can always be found on the web. For those of you who live in the Seattle area, I'll give a talk "Why Do Things Happen? And Why Me?" at the American Evergreen Buddhist Association, 13000 NE 84th St., Kirkland WA at 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 9. Sept. 10 -19, I'll lead a retreat at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center. Contact Tom at tsultrim@verizon.net for info. And Sept. 20, I'll give a talk in Portland.

The Dharma article at ThubtenChodron.org is the first in a series of columns I was invited to write for a new website designed for youth, called Mahayana Youth Initiative for Interconnectedness. It's just being set up now.

Enjoy the beauty of the summer. Let it lighten your heart and open you more and more to compassion for all beings.

Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron

(Back to top)

 
[ Home ][ Vision ][ Plans ][ Abbey Site ][ Founder ][ News ][ Get Involved ][ Donate ][ Dharma ][ FAQ ][ Monastic Life ]
[ Calendar ][ Visiting ][ Links ][ Boards ] [ What's New ] [ Photo Gallery ][ Reflections ]
All website content © Copyright 2002 - 2008 Sravasti Abbey - No duplication without permission