Founders' Day Pilgrimage 9/17/2006

(L) Pilgrimage group at Prayer Flag Ridge; (C) Fall foliage on Ekajati; (R) Practicing Chod

In the first of what will become an annual event, the Tara Mandala staff and sangha celebrated Founders' Day with an all-day pilgrimage around Ekajati Peak. Beginning on Prayer Flag Ridge, we proceded up the ridge and towards the East, stopping at the cemetery for Chod practice. After circumambulating the nearby Green Tara shrine, we headed to the South point of the Mandala where we had a tsog feast at the Ratna shrine. From there we inched our way along the south slope of Ekajati to the West point of the Mandala, where we practiced Chod at the Padma shrine. Our final stop was the Karma shrine to the North, where we had beautful views as we finished our circumambulation of Ekajati. All the while, we were offering our gratitude to and sharing remembrances of those who had walked this path before us.
(see reprint below for the complete history of the finding of the Tara Mandala land.)

(L) (C) Pilgrimage along the south slope of Ekajati; (R) Southern view into New Mexico

Tara Mandala is Heading West! Colorado Retreat Land Purchased
(reprinted from the Tara Mandala newsletter; Spring, 1994)

Due to the blessing of the Buddhas, Devas, and Dakinis and the generosity of the Sangha
Due to the blessing of the Buddhas, Devas, and Dakinis and the generosity of the Sangha, Tara Mandala has begun its process of purchasing a beautiful, mandala-shaped piece of land on the south slope of Colorado's San Juan Mountains, just north of the New Mexico border, one of the wildest and most beautiful places in America. Twenty-three years ago, as a nun, I had the vision of creating a retreat center in America. I held the idea as my children were growing. Now they are old enough to make it possible.

On September 18, 1993, David Petit and I found the land for this retreat center. It is an 851 acre piece, more than 1 ½ square miles, in Southern Colorado between the San Juan National Forest and Ute Tribal Land. The focal point of the land is a breast-shaped peak which gives the land a center, like the center of a mandala. The peak can easily be climbed and a small circle of people can sit on the nipple looking out into space in all four directions.

The land lies between 7000 and 8000 feet, the highest point being the peak, which is 8051 feet. It is within the area frequented by the cave dwelling Anasazi people who were a peaceful, egalitarian, matrifocal culture which worshipped a female deity. Since then it has accommodated Ute Indians and Spanish and Anglo homesteaders. The terrain is alpine meadows covered with wild flowers, Ponderosa pine, cedar, scrub oak and cottonwood trees. There are four old homestead cabins in ruins, two ponds and two springs. A general feeling of openness, sweeping panoramas and big sky pervades the whole land. To the West you can see the Anasazi sacred site, Chimney Rock, where there is a kiva oriented toward the lunar standstill that takes place every 18.6 years. Beyond Chimney Rock is the Durango range of the San Juans. On the East side you see the Blue Mountains of the Continental Divide, and to the South you see the waves of hills and mesas, rivers and ponds stretching into New Mexico.

The land will be divided into areas for larger public teachings, areas for personal retreat huts and long term group practice facilities. There are adjoining parcels of land for sale to individuals and families for those who want to build a house or a cabin or just hold the land in trust. This will not be a commune or live-in community. The retreat situation will be the focus and we will grow organically. Our vision is to make a non-sectarian space, open to all those wishing to experience hermitage, but the fundamental practices done by the residents will be primarily the practices of the Dzog Chen traditions as taught by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and we hope to develop deeply his termas and practices. Other teachers will be invited to the land to share their teachings and we hope to have some resident retreat masters.

In Tibet, retreat centers developed when someone went to meditate in a place and others joined them there. We will follow that general model. Areas of the land will be kept undeveloped for camping and vision quests in the Native American tradition. We will also make a sweat lodge or "stone peoples'" lodge.

The entrance to the property faces the Continental Divide to the East, a geomantically ideal location for "the door". As you arrive, you pass through meadows and trees. A densely wooded path leads into a large upper meadow. To the left is a knoll with old trees and beautiful practice places. Above the peak and ahead a ridge looks down on the back acreage and out towards Chimney Rock. The back 300 acres has two old homestead cabins in a beautiful valley. It is completely tucked away, and has a big spring that fills a stock pond. The whole place feels safe, protected and contained.

The town of Pagosa Springs is twelve miles away by well maintained gravel roads. It is the sacred healing springs of the Utes and Navajos, and before them the Anasazi. In the 18th century it was dominated by settlers; the town of Pagosa was built around the sacred springs. The town itself is small. There is one supermarket, a few restaurants and cafes, motels, and a health food store. There are about 300 sunny days a year in Pagosa Springs and we have felt very welcomed by the local community.

Durango, the nearest big town, is an hour's drive to the West. Flights depart every half hour to Durango from Denver where a large new international airport is opening. This will make the land even more easily reached from both coasts as well as internationally. Durango is growing rapidly, with a university and Purgatory Ski Area nearby.

Local Protectors
There have been several synchronistic events with the "local protectors" connected to this land which indicated its auspiciousness. As we got out of the car the first time, an old eagle was sitting in the tree nearby. He flew from the tree revealing his ancient, tattered wings and circled over and around us. As we climbed up the peak we were followed closely by a raven and two hawks flying together. In the Tibetan tradition these birds are seen as the dakinis and protectors of the teachings.

Bertha Grove, Red Earth Woman, Elder of the Ute Nation
Then when we returned home to New York, I heard that Bertha Grove, called Red Earth Woman, Elder of the Ute Nation, was to be teaching near my home in New York State with her husband and brother! When I went to the teaching, I recognized Bertha as the woman I had sat next to, by chance, at the Peace Elder's Gathering at the Thunder Horse Ranch in Texas in 1990. I told her about the land, and it turned out that the reservation land of her tribe adjoins this property! She is a seventy year old wise woman, raised in a "medicine" tipi, by her grandfather who was a Ute medicine man. She knows the healing plants in the area and believes that by preserving and sharing the Indian way of life all humans will benefit. She welcomes us to the area and invited us to do sweat lodges with them when we come. She will teach on the land this summer and her husband will lead sweat lodges.

After meeting Bertha and her husband Vincent, I was convinced the land was meant to be. I went home and I sent out a fundraising letter about the land. It was as though many people had been waiting for this place and we were able to raise the money for the down payment quite easily.

Richard Running Deer
On October 16-18, 1993, I went back out to Colorado and met with about twenty-five people who came from all over the country to see the land. During that weekend we met Richard Running Deer, who was raised by Apache medicine man Albert Left Hand who had died at the age of 104 in September 1993. We spent the evening together and made a profound connection. After we left, he went up on the land and as he was walking on the East side of the breast-shaped peak he found an eagle feather. He ceremonially presented the feather to our group during the lunar eclipse on the full moon on November 28. At that time he asked if we planned to always come on the full moon, and we realized that the three times we'd been there had been when the moon was full.

Thanksgiving Pilgrimage 1993
Over Thanksgiving I met my family and other friends in Pagosa Springs. As we climbed up the ridge and saw Chimney Rock, I said to David, "I feel like I've come home." Five of us circumambulated the breast shaped mountain. The land naturally forms itself into four distinct sides with the mountain at the center. It took five hours of almost continual walking to do the circumambulation. We started in the East, at the entrance to the land which faces the snow peaked mountains of the Continental Divide. Crossing toward the South we traversed the area to be sold to private families and found the first of five stones shaped like trigugs (dakini knives) which appeared on the path during our circumambulation. We followed a herd of elk so closely we could smell them and saw deer, bobcat and cougar tracks.

The South side looks out over ponds and ridges to a v-shaped pass leading to Abiqiu, New Mexico, the home of Georgia O'Keefe. It was covered with bright pieces of yellow stone, Ratna jewels, and the wind twisted cedar trees. Then we entered the western part of the mandala, a long green meadow covered with snow. It is the home of elk and wild turkeys who walked in front of us up the valley. We ate lunch at the two roomed mud floor homestead cabin at the south end, reading the clippings from the old newspapers that were used for wall paper. As the sun set, we climbed up the steep hill out of the western valley and onto the ridge that looks out on Chimney Rock and the white peaks of the Durango range. When we reached the top, the setting sun illuminated the silhouette of Chimney Rock.

Then we passed through the upper meadow in front of the North slope of the land, leaving the peak to our right as the snow turned lilac on the ground and the full moon began to rise. The sun was a pastel rainbow as we held hands in a silent circle marking the end of our pilgrimage. The next morning in meditation I saw a vision of five stupas, one in the center and the other in the four directions, creating a pilgrimage circumambulation walk around the land.


I asked him what Chimney Rock means to the Utes. He said, "Many things, but the simplest is that when you see Chimney Rock, it means you are home."
On December 1st we made the down payment on Parcel "A" of the land, the first 108 of 851 acres. After the closing, Erica Mosley, Richard Running Deer, Cheyanne West and I went back to the land, where Richard did beautiful ceremony on the western ridge overlooking Chimney Rock. After prayers and preparations he dropped his eagle feather as a divination. It fell several times towards the light without wavering, indicating that our direction and intent are true. Richard said, "It's not that you will take care of the land. The land will give you everything you need. You can't afford not to buy this land." He kept saying, "You can't afford not to buy this land." My heartfelt thanks to all of you who heard the call and have already supported the vision. We're looking forward to getting back "home" this Spring.

We need another $50,000 by summer to dig the well, improve the road, buy a teaching yurt and make an outhouse, as well as our next land payments. We will be camping on the land this summer, and there will be several group practice retreats. I hope many of you will come to the land then. We have much to do in preparation. Everyone's continued support and wonderful generosity will benefit many.

May all beings be happy!
Tsultrim