Dear Friends,
Fall has graced us at Tara Mandala with vast blue skies, bright sun and brilliantly colorful leaves. Ekajati Peak has turned from its summer green to a bright yellow and now a deep red and brown. Last week a few elk returned for their circumambulation of the sacred mountain. With the land quieter after a busy summer, the turkeys and deer are reclaiming Kapala Meadow.

With the turning of the season, those of us living at Tara Mandala begin to turn inward as well. Tsultrim is now in her writing retreat, working on her book, Feeding Your Demons: Wisdom for Challenging Times, which is due by the beginning of next summer. We are all wishing her the greatest success in writing another brilliant book that is sure to be of great benefit to so many.

We also have four retreatants on the land now. Tsultrim's son Costanzo is in his 9th month of a year-long retreat. At the beginning of October we celebrated Claudia Webinger's entrance into her one year retreat in Ratna cabin. Two of our summer staff have remained on to enter shorter retreats: Ian Jenkins who served as our land production assistant is now in retreat until next Spring in Padma yurt and Robin Reed is finishing up a three week retreat in the gompa. We are blessed to feel the power of their practice all around us as we continue to realize Tara Mandala's mission of offering a space for deep retreat.

We've had the fortune to welcome several new staff members to our community this Summer and Fall. A long-overdue welcome to Blake Walton who joined us in May as our office manager / registrar and Deborah Birr who came on board in July as our bookkeeper. Blake is a long-time sangha member who moved to Tara Mandala from Massachusetts; her background is in massage therapy, counseling and photography. We've been most graced with her phenomenal diligence and wonderful spirit. Deborah, who was retreat manager at Tara Mandala 6 years ago, moved here from Denver where she worked as a personal bookkeeper and assistant. Her second daughter just entered college and she's the proud and young grandmother of a beautiful little boy, Taven. Both Blake and Deborah joined us in the middle of a busy and crazy summer and jumped into their roles with grace and perseverance. We are deeply grateful to both of them.

Alison Iaso Isenberg is our new herb manager and has gracefully taken over the reins from Donna Boner. Donna held that position since last Spring and will be continuing on as a consultant. Thank you to Donna for all her incredible work in the garden and in the herb room, preparing the business for its next leap forward. Alison recently completed her Masters degree in Environmental Education and has a solid background in herbalism as well as business planning. Many of you will remember her as the retreat manager this past summer.

Beth Lee-Herbert whom you will remember from past summers on staff, has joined us as Administrative Coordinator, and will be working closely with Pieter and me in the areas of development, outreach, and programs. Beth just finished her BA in philosophy at Union College in New York. We are so happy to have her beautiful and vibrant spirit here on the land.

Beth's partner Patrick Dirkin is now our land manager and will be taking care of the numerous projects of building and maintenance. He is currently working on converting the small wooden building near the gompa into a cabin for him and Beth to live in. It has stunning views to the East and will make a beautiful home.

We also have three resident retreatants in our community; these members are in retreat half-time and work half-time. Ed Barth and Daphna McKnight are living in Cathill and helping out with numerous projects involved with the office move, development, and assisting Tsultrim. More Gussman, whom you will also remember from the summer staff, has just returned from her native Mexico City and will be working at Tsultrim and David's house and in the office. As you can see, Tara Mandala is chock-full and we are a bigger winter community than ever before. The new community building has been a wonderful gathering place and all are enjoying the new showers, baths and bright spacious kitchen.

With the last touches being completed on the community building, attention is turning to the design of the temple and resident housing. Steven Forneris and Alec Zaballero, the architects from TPG Architecture, a New York based architecture firm, were here last weekend walking the land and beginning to draw up schematic and design plans. We are planning to break ground for the temple and residence buildings next Spring. Also in the plans are two new retreat cabins on the three-year retreat site which is now accessible by a new road built this summer.

As a local community we've returned to our weekly Wednesday evening practice gatherings, rotating between Green Tara and Ngondro practice. Sunday mornings we have begun to meet for a Dharma Study Group, led by Tai Vautier. The focus is on Lojong or mind training and we are working with Jamgon Kongtrul's The Great Path of Awakening and Pema Chödron's Start Where You Are. It is a wonderful opportunity to engage in study while discussing how we can bring compassion and mindfulness into our daily lives and situations.

We're also getting ready to move our offices from Pagosa Springs up to the new building. This will involve a lot of sorting through old files and records, creating new computer and phone networks, and developing a floor plan for our new and bright space. We are all looking forward to commuting by foot, snowshoe or ski this winter!

On a personal note, I wanted to share that Mateo now has two new teeth and is happily chewing away at bananas, potatoes and yams (his first tsog food!).

Sending you all much love, wishes for a vast and spacious practice, and a beautiful Fall from all of us at Tara Mandala.

With love,
Charlotte