The View from Lama Pelma's Retreat Site
Transforming our present world into a magical paradise. Although this is a mental process, it requires a some physical preparations such as building a cabin that is small, modest, adequate, comfortable. Located in a peaceful place. Most of us spend of our time trying to fix all the physical things in our world, the people in our lives, and even our physical bodies, sometimes taking extreme measures like cosmetic surgery.
I have contemplated over the years why we so naturally have this attachment to physical things, things we can see. I came to the conclusion that it is simply easier to do all these things than to spend about fifteen minutes just being ourselves in some form of quietude or meditative state. Venturing into the unknown can be a bit unsettling. If you had to sit and contemplate on...
Why do I exist?
Why do I see my body aging?
Where am I going to go when my mind leaves my body?
Are the stories about heaven and hell the truth?
Are they really angel amount us?
... then for an unskilled meditator, this becomes a real task or job. It is not the tool that will ultimately bring them to enlightenment.
Deep meditation requires stripping away and a deep searching for another reality, not the one that is currently existing in our minds from our projections. It requires probing into one’s mind constantly, learning how to not let your six senses run the show, so to speak. Going into the deep retreat, and taking yourself out of the world, staying behind a six feet fence, automatically helps you turn off your six senses. I remember not seeing the ocean for three years in my last three year retreat, the smelling of the salt water, as an artist not seeing the beautiful hues of the blue green water, not connecting it with seafood.. "Oh, how I would like some salmon, shrimp scampi or fried calamari..."
The simple process of seeing something or someone can make us yearn to get it, own it, which is a natural function of the mind, just plain old grasping. The retreat cabin is really like the physical paradise which protects the mind from things of this nature, so that you can get to really become extremely familiar with our mind and bad habits and patterns. Acquiring Samadhi (deep meditative states) can only happen when you have addressed all the garbage in your mind.
This is why I am asking you to help us manifest a sacred place, which will be used over and over again for the purpose of retreats. After the three year retreat, the cabin will be used by other people who want to do deep retreats. This is the first step of the enlightening process, and one of the preliminaries of deep meditation. One must find a suitable place to find peace, deep serenity, see emptiness directly, and ultimately use what they have seen or experienced to save all beings.
BUDGET FOR BASICS
ROAD TO GET TO THE CABIN: $6,000
WOOD CABIN WITH STUDY ROOM, MEDITATION ROOM, KITCHEN, BATHROOM: $50,000
SOLAR PANELS: $9,000
FENCE FOR SURROUNDING THE CABIN: $5,000
FURNITURE: $4,000
GARDEN MATERIALS: $1,500
OUTDOOR SHOWER FIXTURES: $500
MAINTENANCE FOR CABIN FOR THREE YEARS: $4,500
FIXTURES: WOOD STOVE FOR HEATING CABIN, GAS STOVE: $1,2OO
FOOD FOR THREE YEARS: $10,000
CANDLES AND BATTERIES FOR THREE YEARS: $700
OFFERINGS FOR RITUALS (FIRE PUJAS, LERUNGS, TSECHU): $5,000
MISCELLANEOUS: $3,600
TOTAL BUDGET: $101,000
