We're asking for donations to refurbish the Gompa at Lama Ben Christian's Mt Yarrowyck Retreat Centre in Armidale, NSW. Lama Ben and the local Sangha have tirelessly maintained the Centre since its inception, constructing the buildings by hand, and contributing enormous amounts of their own time and resources to create an extraordinary environment for Buddhist practice.

 

The Gompa, which is the central place for meditation and ritual in the Centre, has been damaged by strong winds over the last several years. Work is required to repair the roof *in anticipation of a visit from Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche's early next year*.

 

We are planning a working bee led by Lama Ben this September. Members of the local community will be volunteering their labour, but we will need to purchase the materials for this project.

 

We are looking for 50 members of the wider Sangha to contribute AU$250 each, to cover the cost of this project. Your generosity will be deeply appreciated, and will contribute to the maintenance and growth of this beautiful environment for practice.

Please consider donating and/or sharing this fundraising project with any others who may be willing to support.

The artwork above features paintings from Lama Bob Roden and a poem from Clare Sandal composed at the Retreat Centre during a Mahamudra meditation retreat this year. The text from the poem is as follows:

A golden mushroom

pushes through the earth

of the rocky path we climb

up to the gompa

More and more luminous

it glows as it grows

and we feast first our eyes

then our hearts

seeing other lives

with their tiny bites

feasting like us

on the path