PROGRESS REPORT # 10 ON MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Dharma Center
After our miraculous work day painting our Meditation Hall, we are gearing up for the next projects while deeply appreciating how far we have come and all the people who have helped us along the way.
THE DAWNING LIGHT — Daily Journal Of Inspiring Writing for The Soul
Volume 8, Issue # 879 for Tuesday, April 9, 2024
STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES Section # 57…Stories by Chinmayan about our life and adventures in pursuit of simple living freedom, our spiritual path and our service to the world in a small rural meditation Center
A view of our Meditation Hall during the miraculous painting day covered in our last report
All images in this story by Chinmayan
PROGRESS REPORT # 10 ON MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Dharma Center
Sunday April 7, 2024
Dear Friends…
I am in our beautiful still partially restored Meditation Hall in the wee hours of the night, with a fire that we now keep going 24/7 in our big wood stove to keep me warm, to work on this newsletter and in a little while, to do my nightly kirtan and prayer bath.
After the miraculous day of work that I wrote about in our last Progress Report, we have been getting ready for the next phase of this work, which will be rebuilding our main Altar, doing the finishing touches on the ceiling and walls, cleaning the carpets and other vital steps towards being ready to reopen this Center to public programs.
In case you missed our earlier stories about this major restoration work, you can read those stories here:
TAKING OUR TIME TO DO THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE QUALITY OF WORK
We are taking the time it takes to do top quality work because ultimately this work is a vital part of our service to the world.
The ceiling and now, the walls of this Hall is looking far better than I expected we would be able to achieve—and I know this is due to the Divine helping us behind the scenes.
It is also true that as we have been pouring our hearts into this work, our abilities have been enhanced.
The more we push for doing the highest quality work we can, the more we see how to improve the results…and that is an inspiring and beautiful thing.
The currents of transcendental Love are swirling all around us night and day…and I believe these currents of Love will remain and keep on growing here from now on.
I am doing very strong prayer and kirtan practice here every night and constantly invoke the living presence of the Divine to show me what to do and how to take each step as we come to it.
WE ARE ALL GETTING PERSONAL BLESSINGS and BLISS FROM DOING THIS WORK
We, all of us who actively working on this project and those generous folks who have donated the funds necessary to keep this work going so far, are all being lifted into our Higher Natures as a real and very welcome consequence of pushing ahead with this work.
Kalu Rinpoche told us several times that…”Both the dharma student who chooses to do very serious Dharma practice in retreats such as the traditional Three Year Retreat and the persons who sponsor the retreatant with financial support will reap the same amount of merit and spiritual advancement.”
There is real uplifting power in choosing to give our very best efforts and attention to work that is intended purely to serve others and the greater good of the world.
My teachers always emphasized that when we are doing anything to serve the Dharma that it should always be done with the very best materials and work.
ONLY THE BEST
This Meditation Hall is emerging from its neglected state of the past few years and being reborn as an absolutely beautiful sacred space that we can be “Vajra Proud” of (which means having positive Dharmic appreciation and respect for one’s own efforts to serve)as a magnificent achievement.
This Hall is being charged with so much Divine energy (“Shakti” in Sanskrit) that it will give anyone who comes into this space an intensely good feeling of being Loved and energized.
I AM REMINDED OF THE SWEET ENERGY FROM SERIOUS PRACTICE in our first Dharma Centers
Our Big Residential Dharma Center “Kagyu Migyur Chuling”, San Rafael, 1979
Thinking of this reminds me of the largest Dharma Center that I founded under Rinpoche’s guidance back in 1979 in San Rafael, California.
We had a large Victorian house with a large sunny Meditation Hall, with 7 students in residence, living communally and keeping the very strong morning and evening meditation practice schedule Rinpoche had given us.
Our Dharma Community working together…Chinmayan is in the blue bandana and blue jeans in three of the pictures above…I was 29 years old
We also had many local students who came to our programs. Many of those who came for the first time would literally be moved to tears because the “vibe” of our Center was so loving and pure.
That was when I realized how powerful it is to put our entire being into these Centers and how much doing so with “the pure motivation of dedicating all your actions of body, speech and mind to benefiting all beings” that Rinpoche taught us really helped people on a practical level.
Our Altar in the “Gompa” (Meditation Hall ) at our Residential Dharma Center in San Rafael, 1979
OUR INTENTION IS FOR THIS HALL IS FOR IT TO BE A LOVING and SACRED SPACE
This is the way the Hall here on Still Mountain is feeling more and more.
Our goal is to create the same open hearted, welcoming, accepting and loving vibration that we had in that large Center, to embrace and uplift everyone who comes here.
I love being in this Hall and this is where I am most of the time now…because being in sacred spaces like this does make attaining higher levels of consciousness and states of open hearted Love much easier.
This is exactly why we are renewing and recharging this Hall so that it will be a refuge from the normal hustle bustle and stress and strains of daily life.
I am here in our Publications Studio or on my “asana” (one’s personal seat for spiritual practices) many hours every day and night now as I am consciously investing my life energy, my Shakti force and my Higher Love into this space.
We still have a long ways to go before we can reopen for public programs…
But I couldn’t think of anything better than doing this work, and am very grateful for how far we have come.
For us, it is both a grand adventure and a massive investment of our time, energy and attention that is worth everything we have been putting into it and will be doing as we make steady forward progress.
The 16th Karmapa
As the 16th Karmapa said in the early days of bringing the Dharma to the West in the 1970’s and 1980’s, “Doing the right thing in service to the Dharma is never the wrong thing—even when it is very hard and there are great obstacles to overcome.”
We will keep on keeping on with this work, just as Karmapa recommends, no matter what challenges and obstacles may arise.
And we will keep on telling you all about in the next Progress Report…
Our Meditation Hall after Chinmayan spent the night cleaning it after our day of Miraculous painting…now ready for the next phase of work…
WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THIS NEXT PHASE…
So far, from the beginning of our major restoration work to the present day, we have invested hundreds of work hours and over $12, 575.00 of combined donations to Inner Resource Institute’s (the name of our California recognized Non Profit Organization) Building Fund and as of today, are completely out of money.
THIS WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO MAKE A DONATION TO OUR BUILDING FUND
We are extremely frugal in the use of all the money that our friends and supporters have generously donated to this work.
As of this writing, we have ABSOLUTELY NO FUNDS left in our building fund, and a lot more that still needs to be done or purchased before we can reopen…
This would be A GREAT TIME TO MAKE A DONATION OF ANY SIZE by clicking on the donation button below and giving us any amount!
WE THANK EVERYONE WHO ARE SUPPORTING THIS WORK
We are sending a big thank you! To all those of you who have written to encourage us, who have made financial donations to keep these projects going, who have offered their help through volunteering and most of all, who believe in us and value what we are doing to serve the world. We could not be doing these great and wonderful things without you!
We still need your on going help and support to complete these projects and re open this Center.
Here are the links to our ultra safe donation site… We are asking for donations of any size, even a few dollars makes a massive difference!
DONATION PORTAL to Support Restoration Projects At Still Mountain Mediation Center
Or use this QR Code:
In return, everyone who donates any amount to our cause will receive a generous discount on tuition to upcoming new programs and courses, plus we will send you our “Meditation Training Intensive” video course ($150 value) as a reward.
Meanwhile, we will continue to keep on working to do everything we can to be a source of inspiration, information and encouragement for you, our friends and family in the “Dawning Light.”
Thanks again for being here and shining your own light of Love which is needed now more than ever!