PROGRESS REPORT # 11 on MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Dharma Center
We have taken a huge leap forward towards making this Center all that it needs to be to truly serve those who want and need it
THE DAWNING LIGHT—-Journal Of Inspiring Writing For Spiritual Warriors
Volume 8, Issue Number 887 for Sunday, April 14, 2024
STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES Section # 58 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
Ani “suiting up” to work on spray painting the ceiling…All images in this story by Chinmayan
PROGRESS REPORT # 11 On MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Dharma Center
After months of work, we have reached a major turning point
Our Continuing Diary Of Accomplishments
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
It is mid afternoon on a bright blue sky sunny day. I am sitting on the front porch and from where I sit, I can see that the meditation garden is surging with verdant green new growth.
Everything that can bloom is covered in flowers of every color.
All the trees have unfolding buds and leaves. It is very comforting to see and hear clouds of bees buzzing around every flower.
It may seem like Spring during the day, but the nights are still bitterly cold—so much so that we keep the big wood stove in the Hall burning night and day.
In case you missed our previous stories of Progress Reports, you can read them here:
Back To Working On The Ceiling
Yesterday we worked for a few hours on the ceiling above the Altar wall, experimenting with using cans of spray paint to cover the recently repaired drywall and off-color areas.
We thought that instead of painting the entire ceiling that we would cover just those areas in our quest to make it look good as efficiently as possible.
We realized it was a mistake when, after using up two cans, the Hall was full of misty noxious fumes and the spray paint had not covered very well.
It turned out to be a waste of time and money. The terrible fumes were so thick and heavy that they lingered for hours even with hurricane fans going full blast and all the doors open.
The stench was still lingering even this morning. We felt stupid for exposing ourselves to such nasty and toxic materials…and when we looked at the ceiling, we couldn’t see where the spray paint had made any difference.
Back To The Paint Master For Sage Advice
This morning we returned to our friend the paint master who calls his little store “Paint Doctor Paints.”
After hearing about our situation, he spent a few minutes teaching us the right way to paint over the yellow drywall compound lines criss crossing the ceiling.
He recommended to cover them first with heavy duty primer (which we already have), wait for it to dry and then put on a finish coat of high quality non VOC (no fumes) flat white to have the perfect permanent paint job.
We also realized that we could cover those drywall lines quickest by using 4 inch mini rollers with thick nap roller heads.
We invested another $60.00 that we borrowed from our non profit’s bank account for one gallon of high quality flat white, rollers and the expert advice we should have asked for in the first place.
Our goal is that once we get the Altar wall ceiling area painted to perfection, then we can move on to setting up the Altar in a fresh, well prayed over and thought-out way.
Ani painting with a mini roller
Where Our Altar Came From…The First Dharma Center in Bolinas, California
The Altar we have had in place here for many years is made from the last two remaining components that my Dharma brothers and I built especially for Kalu Rinpoche’s 1978 visit to my first Dharma Center that was in Bolinas, California.
We built a large Altar, a traditional high seat and prayer table for Rinpoche and several smaller prayer tables for the monks and lamas traveling with him.
After outgrowing a smaller room as more and more people joined our practice and study group, we created a spacious and very beautiful Meditation Hall in a rented two car garage that was on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
We had invited Rinpoche to come to bless this Hall and bestow a Chenrezig meditation initiation, which is the meditation practice which has the mantra of Love and Compassion “OM MANI PAYDMEH HUNG” as a vital part.
At that time, I had been a “heart son” and close disciple of Rinpoche’s since 1972. During the years of doing the intense daily meditation practices at our large San Francisco Dharma Center (which I helped found) Rinpoche had appointed me “Omze” (Chant Master) and asked me to lead the Chenrezig Practices.
He also authorized me to found new Dharma Centers (after I helped found our centers in Los Angles, Sante Fe, Portland and Eugene) and to teach the Foundations (basic principles) and meditation practices.
Kalu Rinpoche
Bolinas was the first Center that I started on my own with Rinpoche’s guidance and it grew to about fifty people who became students and practitioners.
This group worked together to produce Rinpoche’s visit with a high degree of loving cooperation which was the hallmark of all the Centers which were blossoming wherever he taught.
Unfortunately, the only two components which remain from that ocean front Meditation Hall is Rinpoche’s prayer table, which is drenched with his shakti, and one of the smaller prayer tables…and these two components are the main parts to our Altar today.
Because we are going for complete renewal and a fresh start, we will carefully consider each decision in the creation of our new Altar.
I know very well that this time we are being called to build on all the years of experience and reach higher and further than ever in all we are doing to renew and recreate this Center…
Thursday, April 11, 2024
We Realize We Have Been Pushing Too Hard
Ani came to the Hall early this morning and resumed painting the ceiling, which was nothing short of heroic.
Over the past two days, we worked together on this challenging aspect of this restoration project, with Ani being the one doing the hardest work of going up and down a tall ladder with brushes, rollers and paint, while I held the ladder for safety.
Both days we worked through to states of utter exhaustion because working over our heads for hours at a time is so physically demanding. We were both far beyond the pale last night in terms of being utterly bone tired.
Last night, we both collapsed at the end of our work day and realized we have been pushing too hard. We call this “hitting the wall.”
As Ani put it, “we have gone off the road and got lost in the trees in a tangent that is not good for us.”
We discussed this between us, just as we discuss everything—always looking for the wiser and better way.
There is so much to do, and such an urgency to do it, that we got swept away in trying to accomplish our very important goals…and completely lost our balance.
“After all,” Ani said “there are only two of us here and so much that still needs to get done before we can reopen…”
The Meditation Hall has been a construction zone for weeks…
We had slipped into a state of being stressed and over stretched so much that the lights of joy and being present and being close with each other and ourselves that we normally live in went out without our noticing.
We realized that we were both short tempered and irritable—sure signs of having fallen out of our usual states of clarity and loving open hearted closeness. We had a long heart to heart talk, and today we are taking steps we need to come back into balance.
We Finally Had a Breakthrough
We had a breakthrough with the ceiling painting as Ani started applying the new Flat White paint. It looks so much better than the old paint, that we realized if we paint the entire ceiling with the high quality paint we bought yesterday it will dramatically improve how the ceiling looks.
We also realized that climbing up and down the tall ladder, then having to move it constantly was just too slow, time consuming and exhausting.
Ani immediately shifted to using a long extension pole with a wide roller to finish painting the areas over the Altar wall…and completed this first part easily and quickly.
She used up the gallon we just bought, and we decided we will have to come back to doing the rest of the ceiling at a later time.
Our priority now is to get a basic Altar set back up…later today if at all possible.
Cleaning the Hall…Ani vacuuming the Sanctum
But first, we need to thoroughly clean the hall, take up all the drop cloths covering everything and move all the ladders and tools out.
These weeks of all this painting work when we had no Altar at all has shown me how important our Altar really is as a focal point of our practice.
We really need to take a break from working on this Hall to now using the Hall.
Later, At The End Of This Glorious Day—VICTORY IS OURS!
I am very grateful to Ani for pushing through on the ceiling this morning…even though she didn’t feel well. She started at dawn, after telling me to stay abed and get as much rest as possible.
Because of her selfless work, and after we both cleaned the Hall, we were able to set up our Altar so that we can resume our practices!
For weeks, this Hall has been a messy construction zone.
But now, we were able to convert it back to being clean and orderly…and when we started setting up the Altar it really felt like the Divine took charge and literally guided our hands and our minds as we did it.
Ani has a talent for creating beautiful and sacred spaces which was in full flow today. All the components came together in a miraculous way… smoothly and quickly as we were literally shown what to do.
You can see some of the progression in these pictures, which included being shown how to set up my prayer and practice table on the main floor facing the new Altar. We were shown how to set up the sound system in a new way, which is far superior to the old.
As soon as everything was up, we stood back and were moved to tears to see how beautiful, sacred and powerful the Sanctum is now. We turned on the sound system, I took my seat at the prayer table and we immediately started singing kirtans and doing prayers in our first practice session.
It is absolutely amazing! It is like being given a spiritual starship for cruising to the highest states of supreme consciousness. We now have the very best Altar and practice table that far exceeds my wildest hopes and dreams…
We still have much more to do and complete before we can open, but we have now taken a huge leap forward on this journey towards making this Center all that it needs to be to truly be a place for serving those who want and need it.
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!