(Click on the photographs or underlined words to view full size images).

Dear Friends,

The arrival of Spring has brought much movement to the land and community of Tara Mandala. We have made good progress on the community building and have begun to paint the outside with natural mineral pigments. As the weather warms up, the earth plaster will go on the lower level and the carvings will be painted using mineral pigments in the colorful traditional of Tibetan buildings. Inside the building we are beginning tile and interior finishes. We have passed the plumbing, electrical and framing inspections with flying colors and have only the final inspection to go.

Celebration Save the Date
We will hold a victory celebration for the community building the weekend of October 1-3. Exact plans will be announced but save the date as it will be a wonderful time to come together to inaugurate the new community building!

Programs
The Ngöndro Retreat June 18-26 is happening and will be our first summer program. This program will both support those just beginning their foundational practices and enrich the understanding of those already engaged in the practice.
The Program and Retreat guide is now in the mail to you with detailed schedules and descriptions. We'll be offering core programs in Green Tara and Chöd at the beginning of the summer. We are excited by the return of the Family Retreat, several high quality writing retreats with best-selling and experienced authors like Jennifer Lauck, Barry Spacks and Clare Walker Leslie, our first yoga workshop with Carré Otis, and our first dream workshop with Jeremy Taylor.
Mukara Meredith will be presenting her important and powerful work Dharma Matrix , which explores groups as living systems. So many Dharma centers have had problems because of the interpersonal glitches that arise in groups. Mukara's teachings offer insight into creating healthy groups, a vital element in bringing Dharma to the west successfully.
After several winter retreats, we'll also be hosting Adzom Rinpoche again this summer. We are honored that he has chosen Tara Mandala to establish the Tri Yeshe Lama teachings, Longchenpa's deepest Dzog Chen teachings. An intensive practice retreat will directly precede this for people to work on their Ngondro practices.
See our website for details of the summer schedule at www.taramandala.org. For a printed program or to add your name to our mailing list, please contact info@taramandala.org.

New Book
One exciting piece of news is that I have just been offered a contract with Little Brown for my book with the working title 'Feeding Your Demons: Wisdom for Challenging Times.' These teachings, based on the Chöd but written for a wide range of readers, are about non-polarization and feeding rather than battling the 'enemy'. It seems particularly wonderful to be able to share these teachings with readers at this time.

Land Purchases
Several people have bought land near Tara Mandala recently. Robert Olander and Kathy Gervasi bought 41 acres in Pinyon Hills Ranch off Trujillo Road and plan to build a house and retreat cabin; Carol Bailey and her husband Steve Medwell bought 75 acres above Tara Mandala; and Leslie Barnett and her husband David Laufer are buying about the same amount next to them. Susan Purcell has put money down on a condo near the river in town and Tai Vautier and Robert Woods are looking to buy between Tara Mandala and town. Whitney Wolf has moved to join our local Sangha. There is still great land for sale around Tara Mandala and if you are interested, contact david@taramandala.org or call 970-749-4172.

Building the Team and Job Opportunities
We have some wonderful opportunities to join Tara Mandala's team as registrar/office manager or accountant/bookkeeper.
Please help us spread the word about these positions. We're looking for creative and dedicated individuals who can join Tara Mandala at this exciting time. We give our thanks and farewell to Sheryl Schultz, our bookkeeper for over a year, and Janet Hollarbush, our registrar/office manager, who will be leaving by May.
Donna Boner, old friend and master gardener, has been hired to take over our herbal cottage industry. She is working between here and Santa Fe this year and will move to Tara Mandala full time next year. We are really excited to have her wonderful energy going into the herbs. Thanks to Susan Purcell for making the grant that made this position possible. Vanessa has been out of the bookstore for surgery on her knee but is just recently 'back in the saddle again'. Please send her healing heart streams.

Death in the Sangha
Prayers are continuing for trustee and dearly beloved Robin Magee who died suddenly in early March. I went to Telluride to support our wonderful Sangha there and they are holding the Shitro for the 49 days, practicing daily at 5:30 until April 23. Anyone wishing to join them in Telluride can contact Cindy Clarke at (970) 728-1376 for more information.

Khandro Thrinlay Chodon
We received an auspicious visit during the Equinox Green Tara retreat from Khandro Thrinlay Chodron, a lineage holder in the line of the great yogi Sakya Shriri, and the daughter of Apho Rinpoche, my oldest meditation master who died in 1974. Khandro La is visiting and reconnecting after many years. She recently lost her beloved husband Shabdrung Rinpoche, and is now focusing her energies on founding Khachodling, a retreat center in Zanskar for the nuns in her father's lineage and western women. She will also be returning to Tara Mandala for retreat and eventually teaching. She will be leading a fabulous intimate journey this summer to Zanskar, India (way up near the India-Tibet border and home to a Tibetan-based culture). The brochure for this journey can be downloaded and printed on your printer (download time will vary by your internet connection speed). In the future she hopes to lead more pilgrimages to holy sites in India during which one may practice deeply in the birthplace of the tradition.

Tara Temple
On March 25 Dave and I will travel to New York to meet with Stephen Forneris and other architects from TCG Architecture in New York who have offered to donate architectural design work for Phase 2 of the building project, the Tara Temple, Library nd Retreatant Housing. This is a terrific gift and we thank Carré Otis for making the connection. Then I head to Europe to teach for about six weeks, and then back to celebrate my Mom's 90th birthday in June. Hope to see many of you en route or at Tara Mandala this summer.

Thanks to all of you helping with the capital campaign and those making regular Sustaining Sangha donations; this is so important as we grow.

Happy Spring everybody!

Tsultrim

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