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Dear Friends of Shambala, welcome to our Autumn newsletter, a magazine published twice a year (Spring and Autumn) to keep you informed about our events and activities, and interspersed with the occasional news flash. A lot has happened since the opening of the new Shambala Retreat Centre in April this year. We have been incredibly busy over the summer period and we are extremely happy to announce that the new centre has been a great success on all levels. The feedback from our B&B guests and retreat participants has been overwhelmingly positive and everyone is commenting on the beautiful healing atmosphere at Shambala. Here are the topics of this newsletter: Everyone Wants to Live at Shambala: Introducing Our New Staff (by Maris Warrior) We hope you will enjoy reading this newsletter, and pray that you will stay in touch with us, visit us, call us, e-mail us, tell your friends about us, and continue to pray for us. With much love and prayers of peace and happiness to all of you, Shambala Newsletter, Autumn 2006Everyone Wants to Live at Shambala: Introducing Our New Staff We have had an abundance of volunteers helping us over the busy summer period and some of them are now staying on, becoming permanent staff at Shambala. This is a great situation for us and we all feel much more settled as a real family. However, as i'm writing this, my mother Tiiu, who has supported the project since last year by sharing her vast practical knowledge of gardening and sauna healing methods, is leaving to go back home to Estonia. She will be missed by staff and guests alike. Below is a little introduction to our family: Patricia McCuskin: a beautiful young lady from Ireland who after a month of volunteering became our housekeeper. She is looking after our guest rooms and has many other tasks to support the smooth running of the centre. Her other talents and interests are wide and varied: she is an exceptional violin player and a skilled massage therapist. Nicolas Pauly: a dedicated and willing young French man who now is taking care of various essential tasks in Shambala, such as laundry, sauna, cooking, gardening etc. His interests and skills are bountiful and one of his greatest assets is his always willing attitude to service and his constant strive for learning. In the next week or two our family will be complete with Clive Ramsey joining us as a chef and kitchen manager. He has taken a big step to relocate here from busy London, where he has offered his cooking skills along with yoga lessons and making music in a great many settings. The rest of our staff consists of Kate Graham, our sweet and friendly office manager, who has helped us plough through mountains of administrative jobs since spring, offering her expertise and advice with inexhaustible enthusiasm; Venerable Angie Muir, the Tibetan Buddhist (Scottish) nun and a spiritual advisor who holds the focus of all meditations, spiritual practices and programs at the centre, following the advice of our Lamas and teachers; and Thomas and Maris Warrior, who have been managing the centre since its conception. Twice a week we are joined by Catherine Brislee, who meticulously looks after all our book-keeping needs. We are also blessed with some wonderful committed volunteers who offer their help on a regular basis. Allan is mowing the lawn, and running several maintenance projects; Carmen is helping to look after the house; Jackie takes care of the plants. What has 11 heads, 1000 arms, and weighs 370 kg? Our New Chenrezig Statue "Holy Objects bless the land and plant the seed for enlightenment. Every time beings see holy objects, their minds are purified. Just by seeing a statue of Buddha, you collect numberless virtues like the limitless sky….Holy objects are an antidote to war, famine, and disease." (Kyabje Thubten Lama Zopa Rinpoche) Chenrezig (Tibetan for the Buddha of Compassion) has eleven heads and one thousand arms signifying his universal service and great compassion toward all living beings, and within the palm of each of his thousand hands is an eye of wisdom, embodying his ability to see directly the minds and specific needs of all beings. Understanding the benefits of Holy objects for the environment and our wish to have as many as possible at our center, we received 2 very generous donations earlier this year from Venerable Patricia Devoe and another anonymous sponsor to purchase a very exquisite 7-foot statue of Chenrezig. This statue arrived safely from Nepal this summer and is a very powerful source of inspiration and blessings for our meditations, retreats and workshops. We wholeheartedly rejoice and thank our sponsors for the unbelievable benefits they have brought to our community. If we Build it He Will Come! Plans to Build an Enlightenment Stupa Again with the kind assistance of Venerable Patricia Devoe, we are now planning the construction of a 9-foot Enlightenment stupa at Shambala, starting in December this year. The site for the stupa is in a very special place on the patio between the Ballroom and the Findhorn Bay. We hope that the construction of the stupa will create the causes and conditions to finally bring Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Shambala, who indicated that he might come to consecrate the stupa. Stupa is a Sanskrit word that means “to heap” or “to pile up” and refers to the mound-like shape of the earliest stupas. The stupa’s form represents the structure of the path to enlightenment, the interplay of the five elements, and many other aspects of the knowledge developed in the Buddhist tradition. Stupas embody the holy mind or the embodied wisdom of the Buddha, and reveal how the mind can be transformed into enlightenment. Abundance: 6 Ways to Help us Raise 1.4 Million Pounds! I feel very encouraged by the many miracles we have been experiencing and the overwhelming amount of support and guidance we have been receiving since the conception of the project. We have raised about £150,000 in donations and interest free loans since we bought the house, which has helped us to cover our expenses in the first 6 months of the project when we had no income, as well as financing the setting up of the centre. However, we pay interest of just under £6000 every month to service the original loan of 1.4 Million Pounds, so in order to continue our activities we will need to continue raising large amounts of money in donations and interest free loans to see us through the more quiet autumn and winter period, and ultimately to replace the entire loan. Two thirds of this loan (about 900,000 Pounds) needs to be repaid in two years time, by September 2008, and the remaining sum (about half a million Pounds) after another two years, by September 2010. I feel that Shambala is a truly blessed project making a real difference to the many people who come here for healing and renewal, and i feel that the centre is very well looked after and supported by countless beings, seen and unseen. So i am confident that we can raise the necessary funds to repay the original loan in time, in order for us to continue benefiting the people who are drawn to this special place. Please consider how you can support us at this crucial early stage of the project. Here are a few options: Become a member: One great way of supporting us, while enjoying a number of benefits and discounts, is to become a member of Shambala. Please visit our web site for more details by following this link: http://www.shambala-retreat.org/membership.html Make a donation: To be able to continue our activities at the centre we welcome your donation, no matter how big or small. If you would like to make a one-off or regular donation to Shambala please follow this link to our web site: http://www.shambala-retreat.org/ways.html Offer a loan: Please consider helping us to repay our existing interest-bearing loan on the house by offering us an interest free loan. Please contact us for more details if you can help in this way. Become a volunteer: Shambala relies on the help of many dedicated volunteers. We welcome your help with cleaning, gardening, maintenance projects and fundraising. Work Exchange: Throughout the year we offer a few spaces for work exchange at the centre. This is an opportunity to join the Shambala family for a while and offer your skills in exchange for room and board. Offer your Prayers: Please continue to dedicate your prayers and good wishes to the material and spiritual wealth and success of Shambala Retreat Centre, for the the benefit of all living beings throughout space! I would like to express my sincere gratitude for all the help and support Shambala has been receiving from all of you on so many levels. Please continue to support this special healing place, so we can continue to serve countless living beings in the future. Something for Everyone! Shambala Events Calendar |
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