PROGRESS REPORT # 3 ON MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Meditation Center
After completing our rebuilding of the floor in the South End, We are now focusing on clearing, restoring and upgrading our large old meditation hall in time to reopen our Center for public programs
THE DAWNING LIGHT—Daily Journal Of Transformational Writing
Volume 8, # 811 Tuesday, March 5, 2024 STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES Section # 50 Stories by Chinmayan about our life and adventures in pursuit of simple living, serving the world and our own spiritual path at a small rural meditation center in the mountains
All images in this issue by Chinmayan except Still Mountain Logo by Jayadev
PROGRESS REPORT # 3 for MAJOR RESTORATION PROJECTS at Still Mountain Meditation Center
After we have replaced the rotted out floor in the South End, we are now focusing on restoring our large, long neglected Meditation Hall so that we can reopen our Center for public onl;ine and in person programs…
Dear friends….
It is a cold, wet, windy and stormy day on Still Mountain.
This is day three of our work on the second phase of the major restoration projects to our old Meditation Center building.
Our focus has shifted from rebuilding the floor in the South End to clearing, remodeling and reactivating our large meditation hall.
Our meditation hall in process of being cleared
NOW WE ARE FOCUSING on Phase Two: Restoring Our Large Old Meditation Hall
Ever since we closed our Center to public programs at the outset of the Covid Pandemic lockdown, we have been on extended retreat on this sacred property. Last winter, when it was intensely stormy and cold, we took refuge aboard my tiny house and stopped using the Hall.
Even with the big Alaskan wood stove going full blast, the winters have become much colder than all the years we have been here, so the Hall was simply too hard and too cold to be in.
It gradually filled up with a flurry of donated items over a few months.
It remained in dormant condition while we focused on several other projects that were more pressing (such as the long process to find and bring the perfect tiny house for Ani here…then the even longer process to repair and upgrade it).
But now I have been feeling an urgent inner call that its time to come out of retreat and fully reactivate this Center and open it as soon as possible again for public in person and on line programs, courses and trainings.
During the past three days, we have made substantial progress.
Because of all the intense work we have been doing over the past month to rebuild the floor in our South End, we now have the big open space we needed to move on to the next phase of our work here.
If you missed our stories about Phase One of our Restoration projects, you can read them here:
WE ARE CLEARING THE MEDITATION HALL
Most of the stored donated items that were completely filling our Meditation Hall have been moved into the South End in a highly organized and thought out way so that when Spring comes, we can put them up for sale as a fund raiser.
In the process of clearing the hall with wood stove with a fire going
Above; Donated Items that were filling the hall now moved onto the freshly rebuilt floor in the south end…
The Hall is getting clearer by the minute now, as Ani and our young volunteer have been working on it all day.
We are all having rushes of uplifting energy because this project has been waiting to be done for so long, that now that we are actually doing it there are surges of releasing energy as the Hall is being emptied of everything extraneous and being thoroughly cleaned.
I am having a deeper understanding of what the old saying—“Cleanliness is next to Godliness” actually means.
I am also experiencing the fulfillment of one of my own classic affirmations: “I am surrounded by order and peace…order and peace sustains me!”
Setting up the new “DAWNING LIGHT PUBLICATIONS” Studio in the back of our “New” meditation hall
THERE IS STILL MUCH MORE THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
We do have our dream list of all the repairs and upgrades that we would like to do, and we still have a limited budget and do not have unlimited time. We are praying our way through to see how to cover all the important elements that this Hall needs to be ready to open to the public.
For example, the ceiling in the hall can only be described as “funky,” and rough.
It would be great to redo the entire ceiling to a beautiful look with all the holes and sags fixed as the next part of this project and then freshly painted in sparkling white.
In fact, it would be wonderful to repaint all the walls as well while the hall is empty and before going on to the next repairs. And this will probably have to wait…
Things that can’t wait are all the things needed to produce our programs…
**A new sound system
**New comfortable chairs
**New main sign for the front of the building
**New components for our Altar…we are looking for a new large thanka (“sacred painting for meditation and mind training”) for the wall above the Altar because this one image is very important to invoke devotion and reverence for all the participants who will be coming to our programs)…
A close up of our newly acquired Chenrezig temple statue in deep meditation
Since the Altar is very important, we will be rebuilding its physical structure to enlarge and enhance it and using the very best materials…for example, fine brocade cloth to cover it, faux marble shelf tops cut to size, a new beautiful lotus flower incense bowl, nice new frames for pictures of our teachers and lineage, a stash of quality Tibetan temple incense and a new set of offering bowls.
**Thick blown insulation for our attic to help keep the Hall warm
**And most urgently, finding and installing a new, efficient way to heat the Hall during even the coldest winter days. We are doing research on new technologies, such as infrared heating, that we can use to keep the Hall warm to fulfill this very important need. We have had our wood stove going full blast in the past few days as the temperatures dropped during these intense rain storms…and though it does provide enough heat during mildly cold temperatures, once the temperatures drop to freezing or below, the wood stove alone can not overcome the cold.
A broad view of our meditation hall from the back towards the front…you can see some of the “funky” cieling, the old altar with our recently acquired Chenrezig temple statue, the wood stove and the doors to the Center’s kitchen and Resourcing Counseling Room…
Original altar and Chinmayan’s seat for Kirtan events before the Pandemic
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!
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE WITH US TODAY!
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Stay Tuned for free upcoming programs and trainings for our subscribers and supporters of “The Dawning Light”…
We are planning to launch our next “Meditation Training Intensive” course in the first months of 2024. When we set the dates and open this course for registration, we will announce the details in this newsletter first so that all of our “Dawning Light” friends will get first choice.
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
Love following the work! So exciting.
Such fantastic news 🙏💖