Dear Vajra Brothers and Sisters around the world

    We would like to officially open our doors to all who are interested in doing short or long term personal retreat here. Rinpoche has emphasized that this land is an ideal place for doing intensive practice, so our goal is to make it as available as possible for this use. Eventually we hope for this to be a true haven where practitioners can engage in long term personal practice retreats, in an isolated, undisturbed and vibrant setting.

    We are still in the early stages of development, so at this time there are few modern amenities for those living here. We are working towards providing more infrastructure and support, in order to accommodate peoples' varying circumstances; but for now, living is rather rough.

    Those interested should be familiar with outdoor living, and should have their own tent and camping gear, though we will be renting out stoves and cots for people who want them. You should be in fairly good physical condition. There will be some basic safety guidelines to follow, and you will have an attendant who will check in with you and bring you supplies as needed.

    There will be a few different areas on the land set up to accommodate retreatants, which vary in terms of proximity to 'base camp,' degree of accessibility and isolation, and character. We will be expanding this choice of location as time goes on.

    Those who come here at this early stage will also be helping us learn how to best support retreatants in the future, so you will be an indispensable part of our growing process. As such, some patience and flexibility is requested, though it will hopefully not be needed much. This will be a truly unique way to collaborate in a project that will benefit the whole Community, as well as to develop one's own practice.

    In setting retreat costs, we will try our best to accommodate everyone interested. The focus will be on covering expenses rather than on making profit, and development will be planned in such a way that ongoing expenses are minimized, so that retreat facilities and services will be extremely affordable. We will also be establishing a patronage program in order to sponsor lower income retreatants, and also to sponsor year-long retreats for practitioners of Santi Maha Sangha, as has been done already in Namgyalgar. News on this patronage program will be forthcoming.

    As this land truly belongs to all of us vajra brothers and sisters around the world, we invite you all to give us your ideas, hopes, suggestions and collaboration, in whatever form it may take. In particular, right now, in addition to retreatants, we are asking for participation in the building projects on the land, especially for people with specialized knowledge and skills, and also for contributions towards building expenses.

    Thank you all for your participation, and stay tuned for more news!

Sincerely,

The Baja Gakyil