July 2004

Dear Friends,
It's mid-summer and the month-long 3 Yana retreat is about to start, so I thought I'd take this moment to give a little update about what's been happening at Tara Mandala.

In June we got our building permit! The county actually went out of its way to be helpful and said, “we wish there were more people like you building with awareness of the land.”

The horse logging for the wood for the buildings continued through June. Teams of big draft horses thinning the forest seem like such a wonderful example of sustainability. Eris Husted and his crew work sensitively to thin the forest which helps reduce fire danger and then the horses pull out the logs. This creates much less impact, noise and disruption than traditional invasive logging. They used a portable sawmill to cut the timber and finally delivered it to the field in front of the stupa to dry and become the bones of the community building. We took some portraits of the biggest trees before they were cut and plan to hang them in the finished buildings.

Meanwhile the building site was cleared and the stem walls and plumbing have gone in. We did a ceremony burying a treasure vase for the earth protectors in the middle of the site with Lama Gyurme, the thangka painter who is here for the summer. We buried the vase where the shrine in the entrance hall will be placed. Now the electrical lines and radiant heat tubes will go in and then the slab will be poured and the adobe walls will go up.

Gyurme's brother Palden has been doing some amazing woodcarving. His latest work has been on the corbels to top the entrance porch columns. The Tara shrine Gyurme and Palden did together now overlooks Tara Mandala and can be seen from many points on the land. It's been wonderful to have the Tibetans contributing to the new building.

The month-long retreat is starting in a few days and will be held in a large tent in Kapala meadow to get away from the noise of construction below. We've had a lot of good rainstorms in the last two weeks, lessening fire danger and bringing the garden to fruition. We look forward to the Open House Sunday August 22 and the benefits with Krishna Das August 31 in Durango and September 1 at Tara Mandala.

The herb business has some new products including a healing salve, a soothing salve and lip balm. Ani Lhamo has started working more on the herbs and Vanessa has taken over the main functions of the bookstore. She can be reached at bookstore@taramandala.org or 970-264-6098 where you can order the salves and Ani's delicious tarragon vinegar. Amelia Hall has been very helpful with these new products and she and Ani have started to go to local farmer's markets with the tinctures and the new products. Yesterday Dave, Ani Lhamo and I went to the mountains to gather herbs.

Speaking of monastics, we have a new nun here, Ani Chötso, who was working with Ven. Robina Corbin on the prison project for five years, and has been working mostly in the kitchen for the summer.

Adzom Rinpoche will be in Europe in the beginning of December and I'll go to help with those visits; December 1-7 at Kamalashila Institute, near Koln Germany, teaching Powa and December 10-18 at Italo Cillo's center in Italy. These retreats will be also translated into English. Rinpoche and all will be at Tara Mandala approximately December 14-24.

On a personal note, my son Costanzo has been in Darjeeling the past 5 months studying Tibetan in a school there. He's now having a little break and reconnecting time with Paloma in Hawaii before going to Tibet on pilgrimage and hoping to connect with Adzom Rinpoche. After Tibet he'll take the trans-Siberian railway with his father at Lake Baikal in Siberia, where he films shamans. He plans to be home in October.

My daughter Aloka graduated with an M.A. in Organizational Management from Antioch L.A. at the end of June and has started her first job as a consultant. Some of you may remember Kevin Bache from family retreats etc., he’s another 'next generation' sangha member who's been studying Tibetan intensively at the University of Virginia for the summer.

Jim Woods bought land from Roger Gibson and is planning to start living there this fall. Jim’s nephew Robert Woods and his wife Tai Vautier are also moving to Pagosa this fall with their two young children to be part of the community. There are many people wanting to be here for the winter so we are trying to figure out housing.

Hope you are all well and flourishing!

Thanks to all of you who are pledging to the building fund!!!!!!

Yours in the Dharma,
Tsultrim

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