A letter from Rinpoche (February 14, 2015):
Donation appeal for completion of retreat temple in Nelson, Canada
Dear Dharma students and friends,
Greetings. I wish you all the best during the year of the wood sheep. I hope this year will be peaceful and much more spiritually meaningful for you and your family. I pray for you and your family.
In 1999, the presidents of our Dharma centers in North America gathered together and shared our vision: a dream to build a retreat temple in the pristine Canadian Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia.
My students decided to build a retreat temple close to my hermitage at Sproule Creek Nelson B.C. We are fortunate that we found an ideal, beautiful property with a house close to a big waterfall and lots of nature. We purchased the property in September of 2001. The property is on the side of the hill between two creeks with a fantastic view of Copper Mountain, I call it little Mt. Fuji. (Pictures are here.)
Through the efforts of volunteers and donations from our sangha we adapted the old building into a comfortable meditation space. We needed to update the building and facilities to meet the building code requirements and for the needs of our large numbers of sangha community. We did renovation, built an accommodation wing, built a water line from the creek with an excellent water purification system, as well as an expanded septic system.
The very first retreat I offered was a Red Chenrezig Jina Samudra Initiation and retreat. Many people attended, it was auspicious as Red Chenrezig is the personal Yidam of my previous incarnations. We have done lots of retreats since then.
In the spring of 2009 at the end of a Vajrayogini retreat after the passing away of my spiritual mentor Mongolian Guru Deva Rinpoche, I announced my wish to build a New Retreat Temple in the traditional style.
My wonderful students from different parts of Canada, US, Mongolia and Australia offered funds and their time to start building the new temple. We got very generous help from the Australian Tang Soo Tao sangha, many of whom are builders and have come to Canada on a working holiday to help build the new retreat Temple. Hoping to complete the new retreat temple the Tang Soo Tao Sangha crews have come to Canada over the last three summers. This year thirteen of them are coming to help us. This summer we are aiming to complete the construction of the temple.
All that is left to do is build a railing, a roof over the walk way ramp, install the heating and good quality timber flooring inside the temple. We expect the cost of the construction above without the cost of labor will be about $71,000 with tax.
I am writing to request if you could help us by giving donations to fulfill our dream. Canadian donors will receive a tax receipt from us.
There are three ways you could help us:
- Give Donation for the temple
- Give Interest free loans
- You could pay the cost of your future favorite retreats now in advance. You are most welcome to request what kind of retreat you wish me to lead in the near future. This way we could complete the construction of the retreat temple faster and soon you could come and do retreats with me and the sangha at our retreat temple. With your great kindness we could fulfill our common wish to do more retreats. I hope you are able to make a donation for our retreat temple.
Please contact: Sharon Gretzinger
Email – tenzing1@telus.net
Phone No: 604-708-9081
131-West 15th Ave
Vancouver. B.C.
V5Y 1X 8
Canada
Yours in the Dharma
Zasep Rinpoche