Dharmadatta Community

Durante 12 años, mientras servimos y difundimos el Dharma, nos hemos estado moviendo de un lugar a otro, en la India, México y los Estados Unidos, viviendo en lugares alquilados o prestados, intentando siempre mantener nuestra forma de vida monástica y sirviendo a nuestra querida comunidad laica hispano parlante. Empezamos como cuatro monjas budistas y somos ahora cinco. Varias mujeres nos han estado preguntando si ellas pueden tomar votos y unirse a nosotras, sin embargo, por carecer de un lugar de residencia permanente, no podemos atender sus solicitudes. Con el fin de ofrecer oportunidades a otras mujeres y atender a nuestra comunidad amplia que también está creciendo, ahora estamos planeando echar raíces y crear una base estable. ¡Ayúdanos a crear un hogar!

 

A lo largo de los años, nos hemos conocido a través de los proyectos de FaceBuda, el Instituto Budadharma, las Salas de meditación Dharmadatta, y confiamos que ahora, con las aportaciones de tantas personas, por el poder colectivo podemos hacer realidad este lugar.

 

Aquí en este sitio, vamos avanzando juntos hacia la meta. Súmate. Somos muchos. Aunque parezca lejos, juntas y juntos, con todo lo que cada quien pueda contribuir, lo lograremos.

Te invitamos a regresar de vez en cuando a este sitio para ir viendo nuestro colectivo y regocijarnos por ello.

 

QUIÉNES SOMOS:

Una comunidad internacional de monjas budistas hispanoparlantes. Estamos profundamente comprometidas a crear un nuevo modelo de comunidad espiritual alejado de actitudes e instituciones patriarcales, a abrazar la responsabilidad de cuidar a la tierra, y a servir a nuestra comunidad laica de habla hispana.

 

Damcho, monja durante 22 años, con un doctorado en Sánscrito y experiencia en periodismo. Originaria de Nueva York. Nuestra líder reluctante.

 

Nangpel, monja durante 13 años, nacida en México, anteriormente investigadora académica. Cinta negra en aikido: con ella, ninguna de nosotras baja la guardia.

 

Lodro, monja durante 7 años, anteriormente contadora, nacida en la República Dominicana y muy joven emigrada a Puerto Rico. Encargada no oficial de “risoterapia”.

 

Dapel, monja durante 13 años, nacida en Suiza. Profesora de primaria antes de ordenarse. Con esta voz, tiene que ser nuestra “líder de canto”.

 

Karya, nuestra monja más nueva, de Colombia. Profesora universitaria con un posgrado en semiótica.

 

 

QUÉ HACEMOS:

Para nosotras es muy importante que las desigualdades económicas no sean un impedimento para acceder al cuidado y a los servicios espirituales, particularmente en el budismo. Por esta razón ofrecemos todas nuestras actividades completamente libres de pago: retiros de meditación, sesiones de práctica en grupo en línea, cursos en línea y un programa de estudios de siete años de duración. Nuestras ofrendas y servicios de Dharma están disponibles y abiertos a cualquiera que hable español. De acuerdo con el mayor ejemplo budista, el Buda mismo, vivimos de las donaciones que recibimos. Y gracias a las y los amables donantes logramos cubrir los costos para vivir.Sin embargo, la necesidad de contar con un espacio estable para vivir se ha agudizado ahora. La cantidad que necesitamos reunir nos permitiría comenzar nuestro viaje hacia una sede estable. Tenemos un largo camino por recorrer y no podemos hacerlo solas. ¿Nos puedes ayudar a hacerlo?

 

 

Cuando empezamos juntas, estábamos convencidas de que antes de construir un monasterio físico, era importante desarrollar primero los vínculos personales y las prácticas grupales que nos llevarían a ser una verdadera comunidad. Estamos felices de haber puesto el enfoque ahí en nuestra primera década, pero ahora realmente necesitamos establecernos en un lugar propio, que será también un lugar para ofrecer al mundo. Anhelamos crear un espacio seguro que podamos llenar con la energía de nuestra práctica y de nuestro amor, y ofrecer ese espacio como refugio a los demás. Anhelamos cuidar la tierra y soñamos en custodiar un bosque.
 
¿Nos ayudarás a comprar una casa que pueda servir como base para que podamos seguir cuidando a la comunidad laica, mientras mantenemos nuestra vida contemplativa como monjas?
 

 

 

Puedes ver el enfoque que ofrecemos en nuestro canal de YouTube. Encontrarás ahí series de enseñanzas sobre temas como trabajar con emociones difíciles, identidades de género, cultivar la generosidad con un corazón abierto, la compasión valiente y otras cualidades positivas, la conciencia y la acción ambiental, la simplicidad voluntaria y los sutras Mahayana. Nuestro canal tiene más de 160 000 suscriptores y esto nos permite llegar y beneficiar a muchas personas que no son budistas, así como a aquellas que de otro modo no tendrían acceso a un centro de Dharma. Desde la pandemia, cientos de personas se han unido a nuestros retiros de meditación en línea y han tomado cursos en nuestro instituto en línea. Nuestras salas de meditación, siempre abiertas, sirven a más de 35 000, todo de forma totalmente gratuita.

 

Canal de YouTube "faceBuda" youtube.com/user/faceBuda/featured

Salas de meditación en línea (Salas de meditación Dharmadatta) budismoenlinea.ning.com/

Cursos en línea (Instituto Budadharma) institutobudadharma.org/

Programa de estudios de siete años institutobudadharma.org/programa-de-formacion/

 

Para nosotras, la gratitud es fundamental, y todo lo que puedas ofrecer se apreciará profundamente y será utilizado con cuidado. Esta oportunidad de pedir tu ayuda es también una oportunidad para conectar y expandir las redes de compasión y cuidado que estamos construyendo. Si decides donar, por favor indícanos cómo te gustaría que dediquemos aspiraciones por ti. Hacemos plegarias dos veces al día por todas y todos nuestros benefactores.

 

Con las palmas juntas, te damos las gracias de corazón, Damcho, Dapel, Karya, Lodro y Nangpel (y Tashi, nuestro amigo canino residente).

 

 

 

 

 

For 12 years, even as we serve and spread the Dharma, we have shifted from place to place, in India, Mexico and the US, living in rented or borrowed places, always attempting to uphold our monastic way of life and serve our beautiful Spanish-speaking lay community. We started as four Buddhist nuns and are now five. We have had several women ask if they could take vows and join us, but due to our lack of permanent housing, we are unable to accommodate their requests. In order to offer opportunities to other women and to serve our larger community as it too grows, we now plan to put down roots and establish a stable base. Help us make a home! 

WHO WE ARE: An intentional community of Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns. We are deeply committed to embodying a new model of spiritual community that eschews patriarchal institutions and ideologies, embracing our shared responsibility to care for the earth and to serving our lay community dispersed across Latin America and anywhere that Spanish speakers are found. 

Damcho, a nun for 22 years, with a PhD in Sanskrit and a background in journalism. Originally from New York. Our reluctant leader. 

Nangpel, a nun for 13 years, former anthropologist from Mexico and an aikido black belt who had her own dojo. Keeps us on our toes. 

Lodro, a nun for 7 years, a former accountant born in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to Puerto Rico as a teenager. Our unofficial head of "laughter therapy" 

Dapel, a nun for 13 years, a former schoolteacher from Switzerland. Our chant master and resident artist.  

Karya, our newest nun, from Colombia. A former university lecturer with a degree in semiotics

WHAT WE DO
It is of great importance to us that economic inequalities not form a barrier to accessing spiritual care and services particularly in Buddhism. This is why we offer all of our programs completely free of charge; meditation retreats, online group practice sessions, online courses and a seven-year study program. Our Dharma offerings and services are accessible and open to anyone who speaks Spanish. In keeping with the greatest Buddhist example, Buddha himself, we live on whatever donations we receive. And, thanks to our many kind donors, we manage to cover our costs of living. 

 
However, our need to secure dependable housing has now become acute. It will be quite a stretch for our lay community to meet the costs of buying a suitable house and property. This is why we are turning to you and the English-speaking world. The amount we are seeking would serve as an initial down payment that would allow us to start our journey. We have a long way to go and cannot make it alone. Can you help us get there? 

 

For over a decade now, a constant part of our life has been moving house - packing, house-hunting and unpacking, first in India for 7 years, then in Mexico for 4 and most recently in the state of Virginia in the United States. Our landlord wishes to sell the house we are now renting, so it is time for us to act. 

It has become increasingly difficult and expensive for us to find appropriate rental spaces for our growing community, and the wear and tear of this itinerant life has made it increasingly challenging for us to continue service our lay community. We long to put down roots for our next phase of growth!

Please help us find a stable home at last. 

 

 

When we started together, we were convinced that before building a physical monastery, it was important first to develop the personal bonds and group practices that would make us a true community. We are happy we placed the focus there in our first decade, but now we really need to settle in a place of our own--our own and also a place to offer to the world. We yearn to create a safe space that we can fill with the energy of our practice and our love, and offer that space as a refuge to others. We long to tend the earth and care for a forest.

 

Will you help us purchase a home that can serve as our base so that we can continue caring for our lay community, as we sustain our contemplative lives as nuns? We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so all donations to us are tax deductible in the United States.  

 

You can see the approach we offer on our Youtube channel, where you can find teaching series on topics such as working with difficult emotions, gender identities, cultivating openhearted generosity, courageous compassion and other qualities, environmental awareness and action, voluntary simplicity and Mahayana sutras. Our channel has over 160,000 subscribers and this allows us to reach and benefit many people who are not Buddhists, as well as those who might not otherwise have access to a Dharma center. Since the pandemic, hundreds of people have joined our online meditation retreats and taken courses on our online institute. Our always-open meditation halls serve over 35,000 members, all entirely free of charge.

 

YouTube channel "faceBuda" youtube.com/user/faceBuda/featured

Online meditation halls (Salas de meditación Dharmadatta) budismoenlinea.ning.com/

Online courses (Instituto Budadharma) institutobudadharma.org/

Seven-year study program institutobudadharma.org/programa-de-formacion/

You may be interested to view as well the parallel fundraiser we have running concurrently for our Spanish-spekaing community here: https://gofund.me/03a9e1d1

 

For us, gratitude and simplicity are fundamental, and anything you can offer will be appreciated deeply and used with care. For us, the opportunity to ask for your help is also an opportunity to connect and expand the webs of compassion and care that we are building. If you do choose to donate, please let us know how you would like us to dedicate aspirations for you. We do prayers twice a day for all our benefactors.  

With palms together, we thank you from the heart,
Damcho, Dapel, Karya, Lodro and Nangpel  (and Tashi, our resident beagle)

We are a group of Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns from all over the world - Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Switzerland and the US - living together in rural Virginia where there is no public transportation. We are turning to you here because our old car died (leaving one of our nuns stranded and alone), at an awful time to be looking to buy a new one. One of the most important things we have in common (besides being Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns!) is a shared vision of our spiritual path as inseparable from an ecological commitment. These days to live more sustainably can be terribly expensive and this is evident in the cost of a hybrid car. We are doing our best to find the funding in our budget, but are coming up short $8,500. If you can help us reach this goal to cover the costs of replacing our old gas guzzler with a hybrid, we would be so very grateful.

For three years, we have driven a 1998 Oldsmobile that was gifted to us by a friend of our community. As part of our way of life, we seek to limit our needs to what is given us freely. A life of voluntary simplicity, reciprocity and a basic trust in the kindness of others. We cared for the car we were gifted as best we could. She served us well for a long time. We called the Oldsmobile our "Nunsmobile" and ended up on a first-name basis with Robert, the local mechanic who nursed her along in the past year. But after being left on the roadside various times, and finally stranding one of our nuns alone far from home in a dicey situation two weeks ago--we had to recognize that her days are at an end. We have no choice. We need a new car: We live in rural Virginia, and there is simply no public transportation serving our town.

We and the earth itself would greatly appreciate your support in making it possible for our next car to be a hybrid. All the funds we receive will be put toward the cost of a new hybrid Nunsmobile!

We are a 501(c)(3) so all donations made to us are fully tax deductible in the U.S.

MORE ABOUT US

OUR MISSION: We are deeply committed to embodying a model of spiritual community that eschews patriarchal institutions and ideologies, and embraces our shared responsibility to care for the earth.

WHAT WE DO

We serve a lay community dispersed across Latin America and anywhere that Spanish speakers are found. All of our programs are online, in Spanish and completely free of charge. We offer weekly Dharma talks, guide online retreats and group practice sessions, online courses and have a seven-year study program that currently has over 500 students enrolled. Our Dharma offerings and services are accessible and open to anyone who speaks Spanish.

It is of great importance to us that economic inequalities not form a barrier to accessing spiritual care and services particularly in Buddhism. Therefore we do not charge for any of our programs or services whatsoever. In turn, in keeping with the greatest Buddhist example, Buddha himself, we live on whatever donations we receive. And, thanks to our many kind donors, we have managed to cover our costs of living, month after month for over a decade. 

WHO WE ARE: An intentional intergenerational community of Spanish-speaking women.

Damcho, a nun for 22 years, with a PhD in Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhism and a background in journalism. Originally from New York. Our reluctant leader. 

Nangpel, a nun for 13 years, former anthropologist from Mexico and an aikido black belt who had her own dojo. Keeps us on our toes. 

Lodro, a nun for 7 years, a former accountant born in the Dominican Republic who emigrated to Puerto Rico as a teenager. Our unofficial head of "laughter therapy" 

Dapel, a nun for 13 years, a former schoolteacher from Switzerland. Our chant master and resident artist.

Karya, our newest nun, from Colombia. A former university lecturer with a degree in semiotics