The Western Retreat Center
About the center
The Western Retreat Center preserves the living transmission of Diamond Way Buddhism. It is a place where our Buddhist practice deepens through meditation courses, personal retreats, gatherings of friends and more. Read more »
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Upcoming events
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Latest news
Invitation to Memorial Day Retreat
May 14, 2010:
Exciting Change of Plans for Lama Ole’s Visit to WRC- Please RSVP
April 20, 2010:Dear Sangha,
Are you ready to Camp out at the Western Retreat Center (WRC) with Lama Ole and 35 other friends from around the world? That’s right – On Wednesday evening, April 28th, Lama Ole will give his first lecture on the WRC and then we will all stay over night on the land in route from LA to SF on his North American tour!
Last weekend our Airstream trailer arrived at the WRC and we soon realized that our sangha could provide a wonderful full moon experience on our beautiful land for Lama Ole and the tour group. You will not want to miss this special occasion yourselves!
What We Need to Make This Happen:
1. Work Weekend Friday -Sun. April 23-25
We really could use your help. Contact Morgan if you can come. morgan@diamondway.org
You will need to bring your own camping supplies, food, etc. and enthusiasm and no worries- there will be plenty to do. See full list of what to bring below. Car Pooling is possible just contact Morgan ASAP.
2. We need :your spare tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses (Thermarest or similar), and large ice chests. Please email Morgan if you can donate these for the night. He promises to take care of them and get them back to you. You can also bring them to the center on Wednesday night this week.
3. EVENT: Wednesday April 28th
Please come to the land early to help set up the event. Lama Ole’s tour from LA will arrive around 3PM.
If you can get to the land by 12 Noon to help set up for their arrival- we need you there!
If you want to CAR POOL- A caravan will leave from the Center at 9:00AM. Contact Stephen if you can provide a ride or need a ride or if you are coming early. <stephen@diamondway.org>
PLEASE RSVP by THIS FRIDAY APRIL 23rd if you will join Lama Ole on the land on Wed. April 28th.
Cost $40- (Payable at the WRC) This covers breakfast and dinner, camping overnight, a lecture, support for the WRC and an unforgettable experience with your sangha friends and Lama.
RSVP to morgan@diamondway.org
WHAT YOU WILL DEFINITELY NEED Whenever on the land:
Tents & sleeping bags, ground pads
Eating utensils, paper plates, ice chests
Mugs for drinking
Flashlight
Sunscreen/ toiletries, etc,
Warm jacket for the evening
Water, Snacks
Financial Hardship Consideration: If you cannot afford the event and would still like to come, please email Morgan to discuss.
Invitation to Vision Meeting in San Francisco
January 18, 2010:Dear friends!
We are pleased to invite you to a special Workshop over the President’s Day Holiday: Feb. 13-15th in San Francisco! This will be a time to put our minds together and finalize a development plan for the Western Retreat Center purchased last year. If you’d like to participate in this exciting event, let us know at wrcteam@diamondway.org
More details will be arriving soon, but here is a general outline so you can make your arrangements.
Friday, Feb. 12th:
People can arrive and stay overnight at the SF center.
Saturday, Feb. 13th:
12noon – 5pm – Walk the land and imagine together what it could be like: where the main residence would be, the gompa, the showers, kitchen, meditation huts, the garden, etc.
7pm – Dinner back at the SF center, followed by the informal discussions and social time.
Sunday, Feb. 14th:
We’ll have several professionally facilitated sessions to help us explore possibilities, generate ideas, bring them together into a unified vision, create a time line and the action plan going forward.
Monday, Feb. 15th:
Celebrate the future of the WRC and head back home.
Impressions from our first official retreat.
October 29, 2009:
Sascha, Laura, Ellen, Morgan, Ron, Stephen, Antoine, Gosia, Ivan, Roland, Simone, Erik, Ella, Aly, Sophia, Jonathan, Krystyna, Annet, Nik, Jasmine [San Francisco]; Victor [Australia], Heather, Eric [Portland], Gary [Nevada City], Nicole [Palo Alto], Tadas, Ingrid [Cupertino], David, Alex, Masha [Los Angeles], Hope [San Diego], Lara, Eugene [San Juan Bautista].
Meditation
We had three group and one individual practice sessions, and teachings on “Meaning of the DW Sangha” by lovely Simone.
We collected 142,000 Karmapa Chenno mantras in support of the Heartland Retreat Center Project in Midwest.
Work
Due to the diligent efforts of our noble post hole diggers and concrete masters [Roland, True, Whit, Nicole and Eugene] during the previous work retreats, we were able to pitch our meditation tent for the first time on the KKL land. It was a complete success and we officially inaugurated it by our group meditations.
Laura, Ellen, Heather, Krystyna and Lara gave our beautiful outhouse another exterior and interior coat of sexy oil-based satin clear varnish… it’s getting hot in here, ladies…
Sascha took GPS coordinates of the roads on parcels 20 and 4, and existing water lines and trenches on parcel 20. These additional way points were the only missing data for a complete 3-D topo map our architect in San Diego are working on for inclusion in the Master Plan.
During the heavy rains of week ago in the KKL area which dumped more than 2″ of water in two days, the water pipe trenches we cut with the ditch digger got flooded and filled 3/4 with mud and silt. So this weekend we needed to clear the trenches off the earth and debris and lay the pipes in place. It required a hard manual labor of a skilled team of Diamond Way diggers: Gary, Eric, Ivan, Antoine, Morgan, Ron, Stephen, Johnny, Nik, Tadas, David, Alex and Eugene. Big dogs don’t have to bark… still gotta dig though…
Nicole, Heather, Gosia, Antoine, David, Inga, Gary and Roland carried 60′ sections of water pipes down the hill from the water tank, and positioned them along the trenches. Eugene, David, Gary and Ivan primed and glued five 60′ sections of water lines together, and the whole noble assembly solemnly lowered and laid 300 linear feet of new water pipes in the freshly cleared trenches on parcel 20. There was some blood, lots of sweat, but we managed to avoid the tears though… Good job, everybody!
Fun
Whit [who is lounging and surfing in Costa Rica right this moment] generously offered his cabin for cooking, showering and hanging out after work and meditation.
Morgan headed a team of cooks and sue chefs who grilled tri-tip steaks, burgers, chicken, and served us other culinary wonders of this world… yumm…
Masha, Heather, Gosia, Alyson, Lara, Stephen, Ivan, Ron and Eugene took pictures of everything that moved this weekend. The fruits of their labor are exhibited in the photo gallery for the inspiration of all!
Most of us camped on our land throughout the weekend. On Saturday night after the dinner accompanied by a moderate beer and wine intake on the deck of Whit’s cabin, we moved back to our little encampment on parcel 20. In this beautiful setting, under the vast starry skies one of our far-sighted friends produced a bottle of white Hornitos, which took our festivities to the next level. We shared stories from the early days of DW in North America, paid homage to Lama Tsechu and Hannah… Later we entertained ourselves by searching for the Verizon Wireless satellite in the Milky Way, oblivious to the fact that in this trying times of “economic recovery”, it was strategically relocated into more prominent position in the Big Dipper constellation. We wrapped the night by rolling a little in the grass by the picnic area of the parcel 20. Good clean fun, kids!
Friends! Don’t miss the photo account of this great weekend… Wish you were there…
Invitation to 1st official retreat!
September 29, 2009:Dear Friends,
We are pleased and excited to invite you to our first ever MEDITATION RETREAT at Karma Kunzang Ling – our beautiful new retreat land, the weekend of
Friday, October 23 – Sunday, October 25.
COME MEDITATE WITH FRIENDS!
We plan to meet on Friday for a BBQ, to set up all our tents, MEDITATE, and be social. Saturday will begin with a group MEDITATION and individual practice, followed by work projects on the new land. After lunch we will meditate, get updated on the latest developments about our land – then it will be open to hiking, and enjoy the company of our friends. Meditation will follow dinner, along with a campfire and a good time. Sunday will be morning MEDITATION, breakfast and a group MEDITATION on the 16th Karmapa to wrap things up. We plan on ending the program around noon to give people time to drive or fly back home.
WHAT YOU NEED
We will all be camping with conditions. So there are no utilities except for water – so bring:
Tents & sleeping bags
Eating utensils
Mugs for drinking
Flashlight
Sunscreen/ toiletrees, etc,
Warm jacket for the evening
Water
COST
The cost of the retreat is $60 and included all meals
Feel free to contact Morgan if you’d like to contribute in any way – we will need volunteers for setting up the site early on Friday, cooking, organizing the work projects, taking pictures to document our event!
Register
You can register by emailing Morgan Camp: drmorgancamp@gmail.com
We ask that you register by October 17th so we can make sure to have enough food and supplies for everyone.
*Let us know about any special requirements (dietary or otherwise) when you register – vegan, veggie or food allergies – so we can plan for it.
We look forward to seeing everyone!!
Children Welcome!
Your KKL Retreat Center Team
Let’s make it happen! Become a member.
August 20, 2009:We know that in order to meet our initial obligation of $45.000 to meet the payments on the construction contracts, we will need to begin in earnest our membership campaign.
We are looking for 108 individuals or families – we’ve constructed a membership ladder that we think will be comfortable for everyone. We have 3 monthly membership levels (of course you can always write us a check for your total annual pledge)
$108 per Month = $1,296 Annually
$50 per Month = $600 Annually
$25 per Month = $300 Annually
Please visit the “How to Support” tab has both a “Join as a Member” button as well as a “Donate Now” button for all at once gifts.
Diggin’ trenches for the waterline…
Things are happening! This weekend Roland, Miroslav, Whit and Sascha, were digging trenches for the water line. Now we have a 2,500 gallon water tank and the partial water line to our shower and bath room area finished. Exciting! We hope that more powerful hands can join us for the next work weekend in September. To be announced soon!
Help needed August 8-9th, 2009
August 3, 2009:Hi everyone,
As we discussed at our last meeting, Whit is going to move forward with building the shower facilities. He needs help next weekend August 8th and 9th – Saturday and Sunday. We need strong man to carry some rocks and other work for the waterline and shower area.
Due to the weather we have to start early in the morning, therefore it would be ideal if we can all arrive Friday night in order to get an early start.
Pls. email sfsascha@gmail.com if you’re coming and helping.
See you there.
Sascha
Let’s make it happen! – Become a member of Karma Kunzang Ling
July 28, 2009:We know that in order to meet our initial obligation of $45.000 to meet the payments on the construction contracts, we will need to begin in earnest our membership campaign.
We are looking for 108 individuals or families – we’ve constructed a membership ladder that we think will be comfortable for everyone. We have 3 monthly membership levels (of course you can always write us a check for your total annual pledge)
$108 per Month = $1,296 Annually
$50 per Month = $600 Annually
$25 per Month = $300 Annually
Please visit the “How to Support” tab has both a “Join as a Member” button as well as a “Donate Now” button for all at once gifts.
Next meeting this Sunday 07/19 – 11.a.m.
July 14, 2009:Hi everybody,
Here’s the reminder for the Karma Kunzang Ling Retreat Center Meeting:
When: Sunday, July 19th 2009 – 11 a.m.
Where: at the DWBC San Francisco
We will meet for about 1.5 hours to give you an update about the latest developments, fundraising and also think about a possible event plan for Fall 2009 and the next steps for the general development.
Hope to see you all there.