Ancient Teachings for the Modern World

Greetings friends,

About two weeks ago, Khenpo, who’s organization is renting the house that we are renting a room from, informed me that by October or November he will be leaving Colorado. He informed me that if we wanted to rent in full with the owner, Venerable Rakshi, we could get in direct contact with her.

This was quite a surprise, I was not expecting to have to think about finding a new place only a little more then a month after moving to Colorado. At this point I realized there are two options, either I need to find another place to live by October, or… PERHAPS if things go right, with help from the devas and supporters we can rent the whole house, Antakara can move in, and we could truly have a full and true Maggasekha Vihara.

Of course renting a whole house was not in the plans this early, not for a year or two. I have looked at house renting prices in Denver before, hence why I set the current rental dana goal to $3000 a month. Maggasekha is still a small community and dana is limited, still though my intuition was telling me this could be an important opportunity and to gather all the info about renting this home in full before I give up and look for another room to rent.

So I spoke to Ven Rakshi, who is a Tibetan Bhikkhuni currently residing in New Zealand because that’s where her main teachers are. We had a good long talk during which I learned a lot of information that I will pass on here. Ven. Rakshi lived in Denver before ordaining. The house we are currently renting was the first house she bought as a lay woman. She has no plans to sell the house and indeed she is thinking to eventually return back to the states and reside in the house as she gets older, but not anytime soon.

She currently rents out the house to cover the mortgage and maintenance of the home. For those who may be confused, Tibetan monastics have different rules and expectations about money. Indeed many western Tibetan monastics are expected to still work to support themselves and even tithe some back to Tibetan organizations.

She told me about how she has a fund set aside for maintenance of the house and that before Khenpo started renting last December she was renting out to a big family who did a lot of damage to the house and things like the septic and piping had to be recently replaced. This house is from the 1950s or 60s I’d guess, its a good well made house with no major issues I can surmise, and some new systems due to previous renter damage. Ven Rakshi has a vested interest in keeping the house up, so I suspect she would be a good landlord.

She also has an obvious wish for a monastic organization to continue renting the house, as she does not know what she may get if she has to rent out to the secular society. She hopes that Maggasekha can rent the house. I told her that we are a small organization and most likely we would not be able to , but I would bring it forth to the board and then the community.

Ven Rakshi asked if she could know sooner rather then later, as she would like to have at least two months to go through the marketing process to try and attract new renters. I told her that we should be able to give her a solid answer either way by the first week in August, which will give her the two months to prepare to find the new renter if we could not, during which time I would be looking for a new room to rent.

Last night I brought this information to the board, and while some concerns were expressed for us to be aware of, like overextending and worries about a bad economy suddenly hurting dana and therefore our ability to rent (all very valid concerns) , generally the consensus was to bring this forth to the community. I felt this is just too good an opportunity to not at least try and see if we take hold of.

So lets get down to details. The rent for the home is $2000 a month. Khenpo’s organization pays the rent, and we are sub-renting the room and use of the house for myself for $900 a month. Total for utilities ( electric, gas, water, garbage, internet) seems to be around $2-500 dollars a month depending on time of year ( gas more expensive in winter, etc) and usage. That brings the total rent + utilities to be around $2200-2500 a month.

For context, the minimum house rental prices in Denver in the worse locations start at about 2500, not including utilities of course. Englewood, where this house is located, is considered a very good location, the neighborhood is nice and safe. The house is a corner lot and as seen in the picture above has indoor room for 10-15 people to come for meditation events. The backyard is big enough to hold events of 20-30 people, like ordinations, Vesaks, Kathina etc, with plenty of road space for parking.

Adding up all the pros of this house plus having a monastic landlord, renting this place as a full and true Maggasekha Vihara would be an absolute steal and no-brainer. Of course, that would be if the Maggasekha community could afford the support to rent the home.

Now for Maggasekha Dana accounting. the Maggasekha community currently generously donates around $1200-1300 of steady monthly dana towards the rental fund. This is not counting general donations that are of course random and sporadic.

That would mean that we would need at least $1000 more a month to cover the rent and utilities. So as of today I’m putting out a call to action, and Maggasekha is starting a funds drive to see if we can garner enough support to rent out this house as a true full Maggasekha Vihara.

It is with all of your generosity, energy, and support that we have gotten this far. I know there are some of you who a very keen on wanting the vision of Maggasekha to succeed and donate much already. I’d ask that those people be very careful and not over donate.

As stated above the last thing we would need is for a bad economy to cause the floor suddenly drop out on us because people cannot afford to provide dana anymore. Besides funds we obviously need people willing to spread the word and get the message out to anyone who would like to support a small but growing Buddhist organization. So there are more ways to help then money.

This is a very solid plan and vision, a true Maggasekha Vihara, cheaper and years before planned. If we can do it, what an opportunity for a home to grow the vision in, including Antakara moving in with me as a lay person with intent to ordain.

A word about Antakara, formerly Anthony and current board treasurer who was introduced to the community via video recently. For over a year now Antakara has advoctated his position and desire to support Maggasekha as a lay person until he can ordain. He has offered even since last year to pay half the rent and work as a lay person while living with me until the support is there for him to ordain.

This is not an idea I’ve been a fan of, as I’ve told him a number of times, because frankly I do not want antakara to be locked in as a lay person until some nebulous future where finally we have enough support for him to ordain. He is aware of this concern but persistent, telling me that he would be a lay person waiting anyways, living by himself in Colorado and giving rent to a landlord instead of towards growing Maggasekha.

I have finally relented but still have concerns. I told him that if the community was able to cover the rent to the point where whatever Antakara covered as a lay person could conceivably be covered within a year by new donations, then I’d be ok with the arrangement. Antakara reminds me too much of myself, my dedication and willingness to go above and beyond for Bhavana is matched with Antakara’s willingness to do the same for Maggasekha. However as his future preceptor and monastic father I have to look out for him like I was not looked after and supported.

The ideal would obviously be the rent being fully covered so that Antakara could move in and I could move him towards ordination, spending time as an Anagarika, then a year as a samanera before full ordination. I have no expectations that this will happen, but I cannot discount trusting in kamma, and the generosity of people.

My hard limit for Antakara is about 500 a month. If the community is able to cover enough for the vihara that antakara supports with $500 a month, i’m reasonably confident that within a year that would be covered and I would move him forth as a samanera.

So now is the call to action, the start of the drive. We have about a month and a half to see if it will be feasible to rent this wonderful house as a full and true Maggasekha Vihara. My intuition tells me this is possible, and I believe the devas are helping, i’ve had some interesting signs of late. However there is no guarantees and it will be up to all of us who support the vision of Maggasekha for the benefit of many people to do our best in growing that vision.

If by the beginning of August its pretty clear we won’t be able to do so, then the focus will shift to finding a room to rent somewhere for about the same price we pay now, 1k a month, and progress will continue as it has been.

If however the Maggasekha community is able to pull this off, then what an amazing feat that would be, and an early start to a small city center for the monastic and lay community of Maggasekha to grow.

https://maggasekha.org/rental-support/

recently updated the list on the dana page ( https://maggasekha.org/dana/ ). For those interested in helping out with these little items here and there, check the dana page every once in a while as you never know when things will pop up on it.

A video introducing Antakara, formerly known as Anthony, current board treasurer and future monastic aspirant.

Friday night session at the house today as usual for Colorado friends, 7pm.

4690 S Washington St, Englewood, CO 80113

Just a reminder that we’ll have our weekly in person session tonight at 7pm. Please call me to confirm you are coming if you are able.

Current Address : 4690 S Washington St, Englewood, CO 80113
Email : bhikkhujayasara@gmail.com
Phone Number : 732-551-7715

Next retreat : “Living the Noble Eightfold Path in the Modern World” is next month. Register at the link below –

https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/maggasekha/n8fpmodernworld

Just a heads up incase some were going to meet me this morning. I had some strong allergy related illness last night and this morning im still feeling off and just not enough energy to do 4 hours of public transport today. Im going to stay in and rest.

Now that Maggasekha is a 501c3 and Bhante is living in Colorado, he discusses next steps for Maggasekha and what is needed for growth towards fulfilling the vision.

Just wanted to update from the last post so people don’t show up and I’m not there. Currently the only consistent pindpat will be Sundays on Tennyson Street starting at Natural Grocers, Previously I said around 10am, but actually from now on it will probably be closer to 11am.

If you do plan to come to Tennyson, best to give me a call so we can connect(732-551-7715), but basically I start at Natural grocers and walk past “funky Buddha” and past the park up until the Thai Restaurant, then I come back and spend time outside Funky Buddha then Natural Grocers for a longer period.

If we have a group of people who show up, we could even do some meditation and discussion in the park.

Tennyson is great because its very busy and filled with families and groups of people on Sunday mornings/afternoons, so its a good place to be seen, to talk to people, and do Pindapat.

developing regular pindapat at other locations has been a bit tougher, but as I solidify other locations and days I’ll post them up.

Just a reminder that the weekly session of meditation, dhamma talk, Q&A/discussion is tonight, 7pm at the center here. 4690 S Washington St, Englewood, CO 80113

So it’s been two weeks since I landed in Colorado. I wanted to give a synopsis/summary of those two weeks.

Pindapat & Dana

In regards to food dana, I went out on Pindapat five times within those two weeks. The shortest journey to pindapat locations was a forty minute walk, and the longest was two hours one way on busses. I would have done more had I not had a some very strong allergies that put me in a bit of a coma for five days.

Doing pindapat has been an interesting experience, because every single time I’ve gone out so far, I’ve gotten at least a little bit of food, and a few times more food then I could eat in one day, so I brought it home and saved it in the fridge, which came in handy during my allergy coma.

I was asked to leave one place I had been to before, which was a bit of a blow for me because it brings up some concerns about what happens if every place I try tells me to leave, but that’s kind of part of pindapat life. it’s a very common experience to be asked to leave a corporate owned place.

This is essentially one big experiment for me, to see what works and what doesn’t, to find those hidden gem pindapat places in Denver that will hopefully eventually lead to a regular schedule.

It’s an interesting experience when essentially 3-6 hours of your day center solely around if you are going to get food. It does take up a lot of time, energy, and bandwidth I could be using for other things, but at this early stage It’s part of the journey of growing Maggasekha here in Colorado, because It gets me out in the public and meeting people as well.

I’ve had multiple people ask me things like ” why aren’t you with your brothers in the peace walk?” or ” have they mad it to Washington yet” etc. So the recent peace walks have certainly helped recognition of what a monk is in general society.

I’ve had generally positive interactions for the few people who come up to me. See I typically just stand there with my bowl, eyes downcast and I don’t make eye contact with people unless they are coming up to me. I don’t want to try and force people to feel like they have to come up to me in any way.

I’ve had an experienced tudong/pindapat monk tell me its better to smile and say hello to people as they pass by then to keep eyes downcast, that in western culture it makes more sense, but I’m not exactly sure if that’s the case, for me at least. I probably should be more assertive like that, I may well have to end up being so in the future, who knows.

As for those days I didn’t go out on pindapat, well four days someone brought food to the house, which was greatly appreciated. A supporter from Facebook also gave a general dana that included various needed items for general monastery use, in addition to a number of breakfast items like oats and nuts. The rest of the days I either fasted or ate some of the left over dana from what was given.

I’ve been contemplating about doing a schedule of pindapat every other day, giving one day in-between to rest and not fall behind on responsibilities. Whether I fast or have a little bit of dana in the house will depend on whats available, but it I think it may be the best bet.

Adapting to Altitude and a New Environment

I’ve had multiple locals over the years tell me that it takes about three months for your body to adjust to the higher altitude and lower oxygen. The most I stayed in Colorado for a visit was about two months last year. I certainly notice that I have essentially a mental state equivalent to brain fog. It’s harder to recall things and to think clearly in general. My energy has also not been all that great.

I knew it would take a while to adjust, so i’ve been trying to find a balance between hitting the ground running and trying to do many things to start building Maggasekha, and taking it a bit easy and giving myself some leeway during this adjustment time.

Regarding Allergies, I visited Colorado for near four and a half years before I moved here, but admittedly near every visit was either in November or March/April. I’ve not truly experienced peak allergy season here, but I am now.

For most of my childhood and into early adulthood I had to have weekly allergy shots and yearly testing. I was allergic to many things and always struggled to breathe deeply, or through my nose at all. Thankfully I am nowhere near as allergic to as many things as I was as a child.

Spring time is always the worst for me, for most of my life I had what could be called reverse seasonal depression, meaning I was happiest in cold weather, and once spring and summer came along and my breathing got worse my allergies skyrocketed, I always felt worse mentally and physically. Still to this day I do prefer the cold and my breathing and allergies are worse in spring especially, and less in summer, but I don’t know that I get depressed over it like I used to.

We will have to see how I experience my allergies with this new environment. The “coma” I experienced for five days where I essentially feel like I have the flu and have little energy to do anything , even go for a walk, is something I’m familiar with from my years at Bhavana. Actually I’m susceptible to it whenever I live in a place that doesn’t have a consistent enclosed heating and air conditioning ecosystem, which of course as a monk means most places and most times haha. it is just part of having this body, which in many other ways is an amazing superior body that im very grateful for, so I’m not complaining.

Living/Rental Situation

Generally speaking I am quite happy with the current living arrangements. Khenpo, the senior Tibetan monk who resides here, is very generous and kind, always asking if I want to have lunch(and dinner too, until he understood I dont eat dinner) with him and that I can have anything in the house.

My first thoughts were that I didn’t want to mooch off of him or take any of his Dana ( which admittedly is a very western thought, I know), but also my thought process has been that when I am in a true Maggasekha Vihara, I wont have a wonderful Tibetan monk who cooks every day and wants to offer me food. The other thing is that Khenpo is vegetarian, so I couldn’t rely too heavily on his food either way for what my body needs.

I am thinking in the future I may eat lunch with him twice a week, at the very least to be nice to my generous host and to develop a deeper relationship with him, which I hope to maintain for the years to come. I already think we have hit it off well, there are some cultural differences to understand and worth though, but otherwise there’s been no real friction, and any hesitation has been on my part, not his.

Events and Next Steps

To close out I’ve been contemplating regular events going forward. From here on in every Friday night at the Bodhi Dharma House where I’m living, I’ll be host an in person Dhamma session which will consist of meditation, talk, and Q&A. I doubt anyone will show up for the first number of months, but I will keep this event open and as more people get to know Maggasekha and that the event exists, more people will come over time.

Im also contemplating doing a Wednesday evening Library event at a branch I’ve done them before during visits. It’s more centrally located in denver compared to where I live, so people wont have to do much driving on a weekday evening. Im not exactly sure I’ll be able to reserve a room every week, but these are things to Iron out.

Im also contemplating in the park events. Which part, what day and time? who knows, still figuring it all out.

And of course I do have one consistent Pindapat going forward. I plan to be on Tennyson street (starting at Natural Grocers) every Sunday around 10 or 11 for pindapat. There is also a nice park on the route where if people came we could sit and do a little talking and meditating. It’s a two hour ride on buses one way, but its a very busy place on the weekends and a great location to meet many people and to be seen.

Im planning on making a video about next steps soon, so keep an eye out for that. Now however I think this is good enough, time for me to catch the bus to Far East Center and see if I can get in a successful pindapat today.

For local Colorado Friends,

From here on in i’ll be hosting an event on Friday nights, from 7pm-8:30pm here at the Bodhi Dharma House in Englewood where I live. The event will be a typical Dhamma event with meditation, Dhamma talk, and Q&A.

Address : 4690 S Washington St, Englewood, CO 80113