December 1, 2011

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Milarepa Center 

 1344 U.S. Route 5 South,  Barnet, Vermont  05821    

(802) 633-4136

www.milarepacenter.org    milarepa@milarepacenter.org 

     Affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT)

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Greetings from Milarepa Center!

We hope you had a very pleasant Thanksgiving holiday and are getting settled in for the winter season. 

Milarepa has been quieting down after our wonderful time with Geshe Tashi Tsering. Many people enjoyed an in-depth weekend program on emptiness while the weather was warm and lovely. Geshe-la relished his relaxed time in the quiet of the center and was shown around the local area by Rosanne and Jeff. 

We were very pleased that Geshe-la agreed to return and hope to see him in future years.

So now Rosanne and Elisa are holding down the fort at Milarepa Center. Jeff and I have made it safely and easily to Kopan Monastery outside Kathmandu in Nepal. It's wonderful to be back in one of my spiritual homes, the place where I first came in contact with Buddhism nearly 25 years ago.

I hear the monks debating now in the courtyard below my window. Their energetic voices ringing out hope for a better planet, peace for our troubled minds. It's been hard experiencing the absence of the past abbot, Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lama Lhundrup. The new abbot, however, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Chonyi, is the perfect new addition. 

There are about 270 people from all over the world attending this month-long course. The monastery asked me last spring if I could lead the meditation sessions for this time and flew me over. I really enjoy connecting with the some long-time friends and hanging out with the monks here and the nuns at Khacho Ghakyil Nunnery just below.

Jeff seems to be having a very nice time. The other night we ventured down the hill to have dinner with Lama Zopa Rinpoche's brother, Sangay, and family, not far from the great stupa in Boudhanath or Boudha as the locals call it. 

The stupa is about the size of a city block and is surrounded by Tibetan shops and many people doing "korwa" or circumambulating clockwise around the huge shrine. Then another morning, Sangay took us to a statue workshop where our Guru Rinpoche statue was created. He showed us a 12-foot high version of our statue that he is having made for Lawudo Gompa, the remote retreat center where Rinpoche is from and where I have done numerous retreats. 

Sangay is now the director of Lawudo and is trying to develop some retreat facilities there. It's a slightly different venture from what we are trying to do at Milarepa since the center is located about 13,000 feet up near Mt. Everest!

So you can see here a photo of Jeff and Sangay in front of the large statue that is being created.

As Jeff will not be returning to Milarepa, but venturing off to get ordained and experience life as a monk for a while in Asia, we are actively looking for a new Facilities Manager. Please see more details below about this full-time position.

I also look forward to returning to lead our Annual New Year's Vajrasattva Purification Retreat and so hope you will be able to join us to lend great meaning to your holiday season. More details on this are also below.

In addition, please see below for more news about Kopan abbot's relics and my Saturday afternoons with the child featured in the documentary film, Unmistaken Child.

Please enjoy these three photos of the Boudha stupa, young monks studying at Kopan, and the inside of Kopan's main meditations hall with the participants.

Please see below for additional information on:

• Job Opportunity: Full-Time Facilities Manager Needed
• End of Year Fundraising Appeal
• Rejoice!
• Wish List
• New Year's Vajrasattva Purification Retreat
• Lama Zopa Rinpoche Health Update
• November FPMT News
• Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lama Lhundrup Relics at Kopan
• Practice Days and Program Highlights for December

With much love,  

Amy 

Job Opportunity

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Full-Time Facilities Manager Needed

This is a full-time residential position to perform and supervise tasks 

related to maintenance and construction for all buildings and land 

involving the Center's property, structures, and equipment. 

To review a job description and apply online, please go to:

http://www.milarepacenter.org/staff/facility-mgr.html. 

If you do not have access to the internet, please contact Rosanne Hebert 

for more information at milarepa@milarepacenter.org.

End-of-Year Fundraising Appeal

  There is still time to participate in and make a donation to our End-of-Year

  Fundraising Appeal.  We greatly need your support and are still $3,000

  short of our goal of $6,000.  It is a tremendous way to help us through

  the winter, a time when we have very few events due to the harsh season.   

  All donations are tax-deductible, so please consider a generous donation

  at this time.  We deeply appreciate your kindness!

·  New Year's Vajrasattva Purification Retreat

Don't miss our Annual New Year's Vajrasattva Retreat that Ven. Amy will lead starting on December 29 and ending with a wonderful New Year's brunch on January 1.  It will definitely be a very meaningful and fun experience for all.  Do be sure to register online in advance so we can plan accordingly.  

To view the program, please see this link.

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Lama Zopa Rinpoche 

Health Update

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Venerable Roger Kunsang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche's attendant, recently sent this message from Dharamsala, India, regarding Rinpoche's health:

Dear Friends,

Rinpoche has been in France and now India focusing on his health. With the help of Khandro-la, Rinpoche continues to improve. Everyone has been very understanding in giving Rinpoche the space for the necessary therapy.

Rinpoche is being careful to follow a good diet and doing regular exercise (with some prompting).

Rinpoche is continuing with his western medication, in addition he is seeing a Tibetan doctor who is giving Tibetan medicine for paralysis. Rinpoche is also regularly going to a hot spring and having Tibetan treatment called "LUM" . . . simply speaking is a special mixture of herbs in a hot bath.

One exercise that Rinpoche enjoys -- which surprised us all -- is soccer!

Kicking around a little ball . . . it is good exercise! and helps with balance and coordination . . . Rinpoche gets a real kick out of this!

All the treatment outside of the western medical is guided by Khandro-la. And Khandro-la fully supports the western medical approach.

Thank you to everyone for all your support in so many ways, very much appreciated!

Roger

November FPMT News

Please see this link to read updates on all of the latest news from FPMT (the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition), the global organization to which Milarepa Center is affiliated.     

Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lama Lhundrup Relics at Kopan

(from Ven. Amy)

Upon arriving at Kopan Monastery two weeks ago, I was informed that after the abbot's cremation this past September, a number of relics were recovered from the ashes. Normally, when a highly realized being dies, there can be many holy relics retrieved from the cremation ashes. The relics are displayed under a glass case in the room where the abbot died and visitors are allowed to see them. So one day I went to see them and also to visit the abbot's main attendant, Kunkyen, a wonderful monk whom I have known for many years.

I was astonished to find thousands of holy relics and include two photos for you here. One looks just like a tiny conch shell. Others look like pearls and jade and are multiplying and growing out of some of the charred bone remnants.

The first time I had any experience with relics was in 1990 in Sarnath, India, the first place the Buddha ever taught. I didn't have any appreciation for what they were. However, now after seeing some precious relics from the Maitreya Tour and discussing numerous times with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, I am beginning to have more faith in them. And these relics from Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Lama Lhundrup are simply amazing.

Another delight I enjoy at Kopan are my Saturday afternoons with the reincarnation of Geshe Lama Konchog, the first Lama I ever had a teaching from when I wandered up to Kopan in the spring of 1987. Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche is now nine years old and is attending school at Kopan and is extremely clever. He is free on Saturdays and enjoys playing Scrabble, reading, and occasionally chasing me around the house! 

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Practice Days and Program Highlights 

for December

The New Year's Vajrasattva Retreat falls mostly during a weekend and makes it easier for people to attend without missing too much work.  In addition, we will be offering a mid-February Presidents' Weekend Retreat on the Nature of Mind, so please bring your skis and snowshoes for some internal and external winter activities.   Please check our website for more details on all of our programs.

December 2        Tara Puja, 6:30pm

December 4         Lama Chopa Tsog, 4pm

December 10       Medicine Buddha Puja, 4pm

December 20       Lama Tsong Khapa Day Light Offerings and Lama Chopa Tsog, 6:30pm

December 29       New Year's Vajrasattva Retreat with Ven. Amy Miller (ends Jan 1)

January 1, 2012   Tara Puja, 1:00pm

Rejoice! 

We are so grateful to all of our donors and benefactors for their tremendous support. We could not do it without you!

New Membership

John Ganzi

Florence Sicoli

Annual Fundraising Appeal

Anonymous (2), Tom Beach, Jessica Bratton, Jeff Caspari, Marcy Celiz,

Flint Chandler, Holly Cook, Pam Cowan and Steve Miller, Jim Fellows,

Ping Gee, Doren and Mary Harper, Don Isaacson, Chin-Nan Lai, Janet Levine,

Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, Will and Sandi Manson, Tim Brown and Donna Mckean, Therese Miller, Susan Ostertag, Goh Pik Pin, Alena Polak-Paquet, Lana Popovic,

Claudio Ruben, Tom Pruzinsky, Vickey Schafer, Jaime Silberman,

Tangie and Greg Solow, Peter and Joyce Teng, Carmen Wilcox, Soo Hwa Yeo, 

Ray Zelesky, and Bob and Mae Zimmer  

Staff Stipend Offering

Mike Scanlon

And to:

·  Elisa Lucozzi for her outstanding posts to our Facebook and Twitter accounts;

·  John Keaveny and Claudia Puerta for the free printing of all of our flyers;

·  Sheila Cohill for her beautiful ad and flyer designs;

·  Ross Lasley for offering our Constant Contact e-letter account;

·  Greg Cundiff for wonderful website work;

·  Mark Winwood of the Chenrezig Project for the production of our e-letter; and

·  The wonderful and dedicated Milarepa staff and board members.

 If your name was omitted, it was not due to our not appreciating your support,

 but solely the fault of the editor.

Wish List . . .  

Offering or contributing to an item on our wish list is a great way to support the Center and feel a part of our family. We respectfully request that you not bring anything to the Center that is not on the list without checking with us. If there is something on the list below you are interested in helping us with, please call Rosanne Hebert at (802) 633-4136 or email her at milarepa@milarepacenter.org to discuss the specifics.  Thank you so much.

We are still urgently in need of our featured wish list items this month: color and black Epson printer cartridges  

 -- 2 Mackie Thump 15" Two-Way Compact Speakers ($700)  

      (We realized the last speakers we listed were far out of our price range.  

      Last year we borrowed speakers. Milarepa really needs some quality speakers for

      our seasonal programs and events. This would be a great way to support our Center.)

 --  New 4-legged flip-chart easel with attached white board ($158)

 --  New or refurbished desktop computer

 --  Good quality Spanish saffron (can be ordered from Bacstrom Import Company at

      http://www.bacstrom.com/saffron.html)

 --  Septic-safe recycled toilet paper and paper towels

 --  New or good condition library sofa 

    To see more items on our wish list please check on our website.

    With huge love from all of us at MIlarepa Center!