FINALLY LAUNCHING MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS AT STILL MOUNTAIN MEDITATION CENTER
We have a huge amount of work to do on the building and meditation hall before we can open for public programs in March
THE DAWNING LIGHT, Volume 8, # 757 Thursday, February 8, 2024
STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES Section # 46 Stories by Chinmayan about our life, challenges and triumphs in seeking simple living freedom and our way of serving the world in a small rural meditation center
WE HAVE LAUNCHED MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS AT STILL MOUNTAIN MEDITATION CENTER
We have a huge amount of work to do on the building and meditation hall in time to open for public programs in March.
This is an exhilarating time for us because we are doing major projects and taking big steps to prepare to reopen the Meditation Center for public and online programs as we can.
We have also already reopened our Resourcing Counseling Service and are now accepting clients for our Relationship Rescue and Restoration Program, which is a unique but highly effective program specifically for helping couples in troubled marriages to find their way back to having dynamic and harmonious close Love relationships.
Before the Lockdown and our own choosing to go into retreat to protect ourselves from Covid, this Center had been a busy hub of weekly classes, kirtans and Satsangs since opening in 2015.
As many of you already know, we live in a high mountain valley surrounded by mountains where we have a small meditation center we call “Still Mountain Meditation Center.
We found this very high quality and rare hand cast statue in a junk shop three years ago for a very high price. I started praying that somehow it would be given to us for our meditation hall…and recently, after losing track of it and then finding it again and a renewed round of prayer, its owner called us up and said he really wanted it to be ours and was ready to give us a great deal. He even brought it to Still Mountain where we traded some things we had in storage and a little cash for it. This statue represents Compassion and is connected to the mantra of Love: Om Mani Paydmeh Hung!
I have been teaching meditation and practical spirituality since 1977, after being asked to take up this work by my teacher, Kalu Rinpoche who authorized me to teach, found and lead meditation centers.
For more of our backstory, you can click on this link:: “THE FABLED HISTORY OF STILL MOUNTAIN AND HOW WE CRASH LANDED HERE”
After being closed since the Covid Pandemic, a few weeks ago I received clear inner guidance that it was time for us to move out of retreat mode and reactivate the Center and prepare for reopening for public and on line programs in March, 2024.
To be ready on time, we have already launched some major projects to restore and upgrade our main building.
Our main building is over 4,000 square feet with two large main halls with 12 foot high ceilings. The building is divided into two wings…the north wing contains our meditation hall, bathrooms, Resourcing Counseling office, kitchen and publications studio…while the south wing, which we call “The South End” was mostly used as a shop and store rooms.
Since closing for Covid and going through intensely cold winters, we had stopped using the north wing at all, and it gradually became filled with things donated to our non profit.
A little humor for you! This little Buddha squeaks when squeezed and never fails to make us laugh!
Image Copyright by Inner Resource Institute 2024
We didn’t come into the building much, as we both moved into tiny houses where we could be warm and snug during the harshness of winter.
The Inner Call To Re Open Our Meditation Center Has Caused a Cascade Of Changes
There is a huge amount that we need to get done before we can open…and the work is focused in the north and south wings of our building,
The biggest project is replacing the floor of the South End…
Ever since our building was constructed in 1906, a lake has formed under the floor when it rains in the winter.
When we bought this property, the entire floor in the South End had collapsed, the roof above it was leaking in many places where the old roofing had blown off and sinking towards collapsing and the whole south exterior wall had rotted out from all this exposure to water.
We spent 19 years slowly repairing these problems through thousands of hours of blood, sweat and tears on a shoestring budget.
We jacked the roof back up and placed huge cross beams on columns to hold it up. We removed seven tons of several layers of old rotted roofing shingles from the roof, repaired the rotted wood underneath and put on a new roof of shining white.
We rebuilt the entire south wall with new framing, siding, windows and doors which took one entire summer and fall to do.
We also installed 6 sump wells and sump pumps to keep the lake under the floor from forming by pumping out the rain water as it poured in.
We hired a contractor to rebuild the floor who made some major mistakes by using cheap interior grade particle board for the floor instead of the exterior flooring plywood he should have used. The particle board gradually deteriorated over the years from underneath from constant exposure to moisture.
We discovered this mistake when Ani fell through a section of floor that had become weak as it rotted from the water flowing underneath it. It wasn’t long before none of the replaced floor was safe to walk on as we fell through it several more times before realizing how bad it had become.
Two of the spots where we fell through the rotted floor
We had to lay down bridges of plywood sheets so we could walk through it.
The plywood “bridges” laid over the rotted floor to prevent falling through it
We have been planning to replace it all, but it wasn’t a high priority and was on the back burner until I got clear guidance to focus on reopening the Center.
We Launch The Floor Replacement Project
Two weeks ago we launched the floor repair project by starting to remove the old floor. We were shocked to discover just how much water was flowing across the ground under the floor and still forming large pools. We found that some of the sump pumps weren’t working from being clogged up or had broken down.
Tearing out the old rotted floor had its own challenges
Fortunately, we are blessed by having two young carpenters who are dedicated to helping us.
In the past five days, we have restored all the sump pumps to work well and come on and off automatically.
We have improved the drains into the sump wells and cut canals to catch all the water and get it to flow like little creeks into each sump well.
A view of one of the sump wells from above
This has been grueling, hard labor because the dirt is thick heavy sticky clay and mud that is nearly impossible to dig out and move with a wheelbarrow.
It has taken days of hard labor to remove half of the old, rotted floor, repair the sump pumps, and cut all the water catchment canals.
We have removed half of the rotted floor as shown above, with a view of the wide water catchment canals
Fortunately, last year we got a donation so that we could invest in buying all the new flooring plywood sheets when they were on sale. They have been stored in the south end, waiting for the day when we would be using them to make the new floor.
One of the newly cut water catchment channels ro keep water flowing into the sump wells
Tomorrow morning, we will finally be starting to lay down the new floor after all these days of meticulous preparations.
Then we will do the same processes with the other half of rotted floor until the entire South End has a beautiful new floor. Then we will move on to doing all the projects in the Meditation Hall next.
Our Future Plans For The South End
After we complete our work on the Meditation Hall and open for public programs…then later, when we have more funding, we will return to working on the South End…in this later phase, we will insulate the walls, then cover them with Sheetrock, texturing and paint.
We will also repair the big holes in the ceiling (you can see the framed open walls and the holes in the ceiling in the project pictures) and install insulation in the attic.
We have a new Ashley wood stove to install after all this work, plus new windows to put in, ceiling lights to install and finishing touches.
After this is all done, we plan to use the South End for the new home of our Publications, with separate writing and video production studios.
The Next Major Project Is Clearing and Restoring Our Meditation Hall
Once we have the new floor installed in the South End, we will have open space to move everything that currently is filling up the Meditation Hall out of it so we can make the repairs and upgrades that need to be done before we are ready to open for public programs.
The hall is still too cold to be in for very long during these intensely cold winter days and nights, even with a big hot fire roaring in the big wood stove.
The hall was never been insulated, so an important goal we have is to fill the huge attic over the hall with very thick blown insulation, which will keep the heat in the hall.
We also need to paint the hall, make repairs to parts of the ceiling, replace the old buzzing fluorescent ceiling lights…and install a row of new windows so we have much better natural light and ventilation.
A view of our original shrine and meditation hall layout before Covid, including my prayer seat and instruments for leading kirtan events
We also need to get a complete new sound system for our kirtans, classes and courses….and new chairs for our participants to use while attending events.
This is just a glance at all the work we need to do, but the full list is long and extensive.
We Now Have The Momentum For All These Positive Changes
We now have this work moving along at a steady strong pace, with major progress every day.
So far, we have been able to keep these projects moving by tapping a small savings account from our non profit’s bank account which has paid for the first phases of this work.
But to keep it going, we need to ask you, our Dawning Light family and friends to help us with a donation of any size to the “Still Mountain Restoration and Building Fund.”
We have created a safe and secure portal for making donations directly to our non profit organization of any size at any time.
Here is the link you can use to make donations of any size:
CLICK HERE: To make a donation.
Or use this handy QR code:
Ani and I have been funding all the work we have done to build this Center over the past 28 years through taking outside jobs and saving up, often for years, to do the next repair.
But now it is time for us to appeal to our friends and the folks who love this Center and all that we are offering here to come forward and help us.
To do all the work that is needed for us to be ready to open, we have a projected budget of $25,000 dollars to raise. This is the amount we are praying for. We are extremely frugal with all the funds that come to us, as we now live very simply and have learned how to be wise in the use of money so as to get the most “bang for the Buck.”
We will posting stories of our progress as we keep this momentum going.
The purpose of all of this work is to restore our old building so we can reopen for a full schedule of programs and activities with only purpose in mind—which is serving as many people as we can through offering classes, courses and events that truly make a major positive difference in the lives of all who participate.
If you can’t give a donation, but still want to help us with our quest, there are many opportunities for volunteering.
It takes many people in alignment and working together to accomplish great and meaningful things…and you are whole heartedly invited to join us in whatever way you can and want to on this magnificent journey!
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE WITH US TODAY!
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LEARN TO MEDITATE and DEVELOP YOUR OWN INNER SANCTUARY OF EVER GROWING AWARENESS, MINDFULNESS, PEACE and JOY!
Join with us in this very special course that will enthrall and inspire you while giving you absolutely everything you need to develop your own effective and soul satisfying personal meditation practice that you will love and want to do every day because of its blissful benefits….This course was created and is taught by Chinmayan, who was trained by some of the greatest meditation masters of our time…and who has taught authentic meditation and practical spiritual principles for forty years.
“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about change”
—Wayne Dyer
“I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.” —Ram Das
“When God is the center and focus of my life, everything else falls into it’s rightful place.”
—Chinmayan