Posts Tagged ‘Fundraising’

What happened this year: 2016

Posted on: August 7th, 2016 No Comments

This year is already a very important one for our project. The external contractors finished a large amount of very technical (and expensive) work that we would not have been able to do ourselves.

We have a very clear idea of where we need to go next in order to bring all of the building into use finally as a Buddhist centre, and we’ve started fundraising to get there.

Bringing us up to the present day

Make a wish!

Posted on: August 7th, 2016 No Comments

When you’re renovating a building, there are a lot of material concerns. You have to think all the time about deadlines, administration, and above all money. Sometimes you also have to talk loudly about money..

But when that building is a Buddhist centre, there are other important factors. It’s possible to make a strong connection to the project through working on it, or giving money to enable others to work, of course, but it also creates a connection if one joins in with the aspiration behind the project.

Really wishing that the renovation of the centre helps to make a more inspiring backdrop for the Buddha’s teachings, that those who wish to use the enlightening methods of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism really have that opportunity and it benefits them in their life, and that in general all the activity is beneficial, adds power to the project and creates massive positive impressions in one’s own mind.

So if you cannot help materially at this time, no problem – wish us luck!

Caracas Now!

Posted on: August 7th, 2016 No Comments

The third project that we’re fundraising for here at the Europe Centre Summer Course, as well as our own and the Israeli Retreat centre, is the Caracas Buddhist Centre.

While the outer conditions in Venezuela are truly unlivable, and her citizens enjoy the unplanned consequences of the planned economy, including severe shortages of basic goods, rampant theft and gun crime, the members and visitors of the Caracas Buddhist centre are concentrating on inner values.

To properly serve the ever-growing numbers of Buddhist practitioners, they have come up with a grand plan for a complete overhaul of their centre.

Construction costs, like most costs in Caracas, are prohibitive, so international donations from fellow Buddhists are really the only chance for the project to succeed. Since the main teacher of Diamond Way Buddhism, Lama Ole Nydahl, chose this project to be promoted, he must see the outer troubles to be temporary and the investment in inner development as lasting and worthwhile.

The Venezuelans have been an enthusiastic force here, fundraising with a different idea each day. Their haircuts have proven very successful.

Fundraising haircuts for Caracas

Learn more at caracasnow.org.

Extreme public speaking

Posted on: August 6th, 2016 No Comments

If speaking in public is consistently ranked as most people’s greatest fear, then spare a thought for the representatives of our three projects fundraising at the Europe Centre Summer Course this year. They took spontaneous questions on stage tonight in front of 3,500 people.

Skilfully explaining why these projects in particular were chosen, they stayed calm under pressure (there must be something in this meditation after all), and even managed to squeeze in some jokes and anecdotes. Well done, chaps.

Q&A about the projects

Britain (still) loves Europe

Posted on: August 6th, 2016 No Comments

Technicalities of treaties and trade agreements notwithstanding, the atmosphere of cooperation and friendship between countries hasn’t changed at the Europe Centre Summer Course.

Members of Diamond Way centres travel relatively often to meditation courses in different countries, and stay for a longer or shorter time in different places. The Europe Centre, being something of a headquarters, has residents from all over, and the course organising team is similarly diverse.

Our London Buddhist centre too is one big mix of nationalities, like London itself, and we have learned to work very well together. Cultural differences are real enough, but less important than our shared values, the most basic of which for Buddhists is that we like to work with the beyond-personal benefit of as many people as possible in mind. Within this frame, national differences are a source of inspiration – and of course the subject of jokes.

What the British say - and what they mean

What the British say – and what they mean

The Buddha comes to the Beaufoy: 2015

Posted on: August 6th, 2016 No Comments

As a welcome break from constant building work, in 2015 we had a statue-filling event where we collectively filled our 2-metre tall golden Buddha statue with relics, beautiful and fragrant substances, and rolls of hand-dyed mantras.

What happened in 2015

Wherever you go, there you are

Posted on: August 5th, 2016 No Comments

Seems that we brought our typical weather with us to the Europe Centte Summer Course from England – it has been raining steadily for two days, turning pathways into mud, roads into running streams, and generally soaking all those brave enough to make this hillside their temporary home.

But it hasn’t slowed down our fundraising efforts at all. We spontaneously decided to offer wellness sessions for donations at our stand, which are proving very popular.

Another satisfied customer

Opening the Buddhist centre: 2014

Posted on: August 5th, 2016 No Comments

After more than a year of rough, cold, hard work, we finally prepared the building to the point where we could open as a Buddhist Centre in 2014.

As context to our journey to the fundraising campaign of the present day, enjoy this continuation of our history below.

Our history from 2014

Meet & Eat

Posted on: August 4th, 2016 No Comments

One of the pillars of life in a Buddhist centre is eating together. On a full stomach, one relaxes, and becomes a bit more open to others.

The Europe Centre uses this effect in an informal daily event called Meet & Eat. Different centres, teachers, or whoever has something useful to say, give short presentations or take questions, while people eat, listen, and digest. There’s one session every lunchtime and dinner time, and it’s very popular.

At today’s Meet & Eat we spoke about the history of our project, how it originated with the wish of the 16th Karmapa to open a Karma Kagyu Buddhist centre in London, how grateful we were to, among others, Lama Jigme Rinpoche (who is teaching here at the Europe Centre Summer Course tonight) for helping us to realise this wish, and how we’re going to develop our centre – our offer – for Buddhists as well as anyone who’s interested in learning about mind.

Fundraising for one, for all

Posted on: August 4th, 2016 No Comments

There are three projects fundraising at the Europe Centre summer course – ours, the Caracas Buddhist Centre, and the Israeli Retreat Centre.

The Israeli Diamond Way Buddhists have an ambitious plan to build a large meditation hall for one hundred people, along with huts for solitary retreat for serious practitioners who want to depend their meditation practice.

The final stage would be to build a stupa, a kind of Buddhist monument that provides excellent conditions to meditate nearby.

Rather than seeing the situation as competitive, we all decided to fundraise together and split whatever people wish to give three ways. In the end, the aim of all three projects is the same – to provide good conditions for people to meditate – and the only difference is the geography.

For more information, see the website about the Israeli Retreat Centre.