Hi. My name is Karen Becker and I am a 68 year old grandmother of three boys, and will be the oldest person going into three-year retreat.
I didn't meet Tibetan Buddhism until 1997 when my husband and I left for a year abroad two weeks after he retired. We had no itinerary and told family and friends we would see them in a year. We spent 6 months in Nepal, 3 months in India, 2 months in Mali Losinj, a Croatian island in the upper Adriatic and a month in Denmark with friends we made while trekking in Nepal.
Our introduction to Buddhism was through Kopan Monastery's month-long "November Course - 1997" in Kathmandu, Nepal and we both felt as if we had come home to our path.
When we returned to Colorado after the trip, I was looking through a Buddhism magazine and saw a position for a couple to caretake 3 monks and 3 nuns at a retreat center on the Big Sur coast in California. An interview was set up for January 12. To fill in some time between Christmas with our daughter in Oakland and the interview in Long Beach, I had read about a Geshe Michael Roach - whom I did not know - who would be giving a 3-4 days teaching on Mahamudra, and the location of the teaching - coincidentally!- happened to be halfway between our daughter and our interview. So we signed up - and my whole idea of "retirement" completely changed! This holy precious Lama gave purpose and meaning to my life and I have been on the path ever since.
Geshe Michael and some students were preparing to go into 3-year retreat on March 20,. 2000, and so at his last teaching I asked if he would be my teacher and what he wanted me to do while he was in retreat. He said to keep a book (a record of our vows that we check six times a day), do a 3-4 week retreat twice a year and to complete the 18 ACI sutra courses (available on-line as www.acidharma.org). I ordered my first course and my first retreatr module as soon as we returned back to our caretakers house at the retreat center - yes, we got the job and stayed for two years. And I started my first 3-week retreat on March 20, 2000.
I completed the 18 courses before the end of the three-year retreat, as I promised my holy Lama I would do. I did 5 retreats during those two years, came home and started doing month-long retreats and to date have done 18 retreats since 2000. In 2004 my husband and I returned to Kopan Monastery to do a 3-month long Vajrasattva retreat - -I love being in retreat! My mind is so scattered when I am not, and the wonderful calm and clarity that I attain in retreat doesn't last long when I come out - so I am really looking forward to three whole years with nothing to do but my practices and working on my mind, so that I can reach my goal of helping others in an ultimate way.