Greetings friends and supporters of Maggasekha,
I come to you with some exciting news. We have settled on a rental and I will be living in Colorado by the end of this month. As of this writing it is almost exactly a month ago that I had put the call to action out to find maggasekha vihara.
About two weeks ago one of the board members came across an opportunity and passed it along to me. There was a senior Tibetan monk in a small new vihara, a two bedroom house in Denver, who was looking for someone to rent a room and share the house with him.
I initially did not put much stock in this opportunity as I was still focused on an apartment. I found out however that the 2x/3x rent requirements needed to rent a small studio apartment still held even for a 501c3 renting.
This had lead me more down the path of private rentals, because I figured even if we did have 2-3000 dollars a month donations coming in, that money would be better spent on a private multiroom rental rather then a small studio apartment. I was looking on various websites like facebook marketplace, zillow, craigslist, etc for rentals of a room in a house or a guest house etc, just looking at what was available.
I called up the Khenpo (Tibetan title meaning senior teacher) and had a long video call. He gave me a video tour of the property and we spoke about the possibilities. He was very excited at the possibility of a monastic living with him as opposed to a lay person, as he felt it more proper for him. I explained to him who I was and what I was doing with Maggasekha, my teaching schedule and the like, to see how compatible we would be schedule wise.
He told me that he was very happy that I do the teachings I do, and that if I accepted the rental he would let me use the space in the house ( up to 15 people can meditate inside, with an ample back yard for outdoors activities) so long as what I did was not conflicting with his own teaching times.
This peaked my interest. Khenpo seemed like a personable monk, and I would have the opportunity to do in person teachings at the residence, something I had not planned to be able to do for years until we had a larger enough space for it. I told Khenpo that I would think about it and talk to the board members and community, then give him an answer in a week.
There was one problem though, I obviously could not call this “Maggasekha vihara”.
I realized that even though I had mentioned in the call to action video that I was probably leaning towards a private rental, a room in a house or a guest house etc, I had really titled it “help find maggasekha vihara” and I couched it in those words, which would kind of come back to bite me.
I was very, very hesitant to even think about the opportunity as a possibility because I always want to be transparent with regards to dana given in faith. I never want anyone to feel their dana is used for a purpose they didn’t expect or want. People trust me to make the best decisions I can for Maggasekha, and I never want to abuse that trust.
When speaking with board members about this opportunity I mentioned this and I was surprised to hear that they did not feel it would be dana ill spent, that the opportunity seems good, the location is good for a number of reasons. They said that I had explained the possibilities and that one was just renting a room and that the process would be an iterative one that grows over time.
I contemplated their statements and I did realize that even if we had rented a room in someone’s house, or a guest house in their back yard, I couldn’t really call that “Maggasekha vihara” either.
I brought the issue to the greater Maggasekha community in public on the discord and to a number of the people who are giving monthly dana towards the rent. I even brought it up on live streams so supporters who aren’t on the discord could weigh in.
The response was overwhelmingly positive in taking the opportunity. Even with the positive community response, I wanted to give myself more time to contemplate, there was still about 3-4 days left before I owed Khenpo a response, so I let myself ruminate on the decision. I contemplated, checked my conscious and my intuition, and waited to see if anything major came up.
One thing I contemplated was whether this opportunity, coming basically right at the start of searching, was a blessing and help from the devas, (whom i’ve been talking to about Maggasekha on advice from a variety of people) or a sign to not just accept the first thing that comes up and to keep looking. I still don’t know which one, but as I contemplated during those days I leaned towards help from the devas.
At the end of the week, no other concerns came up, my intuition was not giving me a strong indication either way( yes do it, or no don’t do it), so I told Khenpo we’d like to rent and he happily accepted.
Before we finalized it I did tell Khenpo that I didn’t know if I could give him a guarantee of how long I would stay, as if there was an opportunity that came up that was too good to pass, especially if it meant being able to have the gentleman who wants to ordain live with me, that I would have to take it. I also told him that I would do my best to use all my networks to help him find someone else to live with him when I left.
Khenpo asked if I could stay at least three months and I said that was reasonable and the deal was settled. The rental is $900 a month, and just like all the donations over the past year that went towards the future rental, any money not used will be banked for future use with a larger rental. My hope is to have some kind of two room rental within a year or so of moving to CO, although that may be ambitious, we will see what opportunities arise and how support grows.
This will not be a typical monastery situation. Khenpo is one monk who cooks for himself and doesn’t have a ton of support, so I will not be relying on him for things like daily food and other requisites. I plan to do pindapat daily and be supported by the Maggasekha community and donations regarding other requisites, just like I would have if I were in an apartment alone.
So that is the news and an account of the situation. I will be moving in with Khenpo on the 27th of April and we will see where things go from there. I will be making a video soon regarding my plans once I hit the ground in CO in a few weeks.
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