Голоса трёхлетнего ретрита B, гостевой спикер: Николь Дэвис — стенограмма

[Speaker 1]
Is that working? Hi, Nicole! Hi!

Thanks for coming. I just wanted to start out by saying thank you to all the people who have spoken so far in this weekend. And to thank all the upcoming speakers.

I thought the talks so far were amazing. And I haven't gotten a chance to tell you guys that in person. So thank you very much for sharing your hearts with us.

And this talk is a little bit different. This is one of the more... The treaters aren't here.

And there's a reason for that. This is more of the business of Diamond Mountain. But we'll try to make it fun, too.

So I'm Nicole. I'm the operations manager of Diamond Mountain. That means that I look after the buildings here.

And the grounds. Along with Joe's help. And my husband, Brian.

So that's why I'm here to talk to you today about building Diamond Mountain. So this first slide is kind of what's the purpose of Diamond Mountain? Why are we here?

What is it? Why does it exist? It exists as a home for the Dharma.

So from the ACI courses we learned, the Dharma comes in two main forms. There's the physical Dharma, right? The lung.

So this is a home for the physical Dharma. The books. The teachings.

It's also a home for the tok. That's the Dharma as it lives in our hearts. The realizations.

So how do we... What's the road to building a home for the Dharma? How do we get there?

How do we make a place that can house both the physical Dharma and provide space for the teachings, the individual contemplations, meditation, and service? And that's the path. The lung.

So this talk is going to be about the lung. Both where we've been along our path to building this home for the Dharma and where we're going in the future towards this purpose. So first you have to build the place that moves your heart.

And then offer it to the world. So that's sort of the underlying theme of everything we do here at Diamond Mountain. So we've established...

Get my technology in order here. So we've established the temple. There's the stupa.

The matrix. So we've established the campground in the lower... What we call lower campus.

And we've also built... Here's the Two Boots Gate that separates what we call lower campus from upper campus. And this is upper campus here.

This is the retreat valley. And this is what we've already established here at Diamond Mountain. We've established a temple.

We've blessed it with seven years of holy teachings. We've built 28 retreat cabins and consecrated them with three years of silent meditation retreat. And so I'm going to show you some of the cabins since we can't take you up there today.

This is cabin 21 right here. And here's a closer up view of it. The cabins have a lot of aspects of green building that's really important to us here at Diamond Mountain that we care for the earth, that we take only as little as we can to get by on.

So you can see the solar panels here. And this is the Gompa of cabin 27. A lot of the cabins have their own separate smaller building just for meditation.

So there's a living quarters up the hill. But this space is just reserved for silent contemplation and meditation. And this is cabin 1.

And, again, you can see the solar panels here. And right here you can see a box. This is a passive solar water heater.

This is one of the great things about Arizona is we have so much sunlight so we can really use that as an energy source. So in this cabin and many of the cabins, they just have the sun heating their water directly on their water, heating up their water, so they don't have to use any propane or electricity for their water heating. And this is another passive solar water heater here.

This is cabin 15. And this is a great example. A lot of the cabins have what's called passive solar design.

It's another way to save energy in heating and cooling costs. So this is a lot of windows on the south wall. That allows the winter sun to come in and heat up the cabin so you don't have to run your heater as much.

And then in the summer, the sun is high enough that it doesn't blaze in and make the cabin too hot. Well, you can ask the retreaters if that really worked out. That's the idea.

It would be even hotter if it wasn't designed. Passive solar. And this is just a gorgeous shot.

This is cabin 27 again. And I just wanted to show, you know, this retreat valley is incredibly rugged. And you can really see that here.

It's a great place for solitary retreat. And this photo was taken on the day they went into retreat during an Arizona blizzard. And this is cabin 34.

And you can see there's a deck up here for stargazing, or that day it was for snow gazing. And the cabins also have gray water systems, and that means that all the water that isn't considered black water, that's safe to use, we pipe out and use on trees. So we've grown some trees for the retreatants to sit out and enjoy the desert.

What is it, Wensa? Desert environment. And this is cabin 38.

This is cabin 51. Again, you can see the terrain. If you haven't been up there, it's just amazing.

And again, passive solar water heater here. This cabin is straw bale. So were the last two that I showed.

And straw bale is just one of the alternate building materials we used. It's a green building material in the valley. So that's another way that these cabins save energy is by being built out of very insulating building materials.

That way you don't need to heat and cool them as much. And this is Geshe-la's cabin right there. It's a double rainbow.

You can kind of see the second one there. So this is a very special place. It's just like custom made for silent retreat.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about, so now that we've seen a little bit about what we have built here already, I wanted to talk a little bit about where we're going. As the retreatants prepare to come out into the world, we're just starting to look ahead to how can we continue to offer this place to the world in the next phase of Diamond Mountain. So the vision for the future of Diamond Mountain is that we will become mostly self-supporting by renting out the cabins for spiritual retreats.

So this is something we've never done before. Everybody who's come here knows we've never charged for anything before actually. And so this is sort of a radical idea.

I just thought to explain it for a minute that the idea of being mostly self-supporting, and we say mostly because we'll still have capital projects or things that require big fundraising pushes, and we're going to be getting to that in a couple minutes. But if we can charge sort of the minimum fee that's necessary to keep the cabins maintained and to keep the place running, this will allow Diamond Mountain to be sustainable into the future. So this is our idea that we want to charge just what we need to charge to keep the place running.

I mean, it's not for profit, but it's a way to keep Diamond Mountain sustainable, to support this place so that it can continue to exist. Right now, Geshe-la raises 100% of the money for this place with the help of many others like Venerable Jigme. They go around the world and raise money.

So this will also be an offering to our lama that he can spend his fundraising time raising for other beneficial projects and will be able to keep this place going. So this retreat center will be open for large group retreats. Geshe-la is talking about doing his large retreats that are now in Prescott here, which would be wonderful.

Other groups, other teachers would be welcome to come here and do retreats. Short-term retreats. It could be a weekend group retreat.

It could be a 10-day group retreat. Also, individual retreats. There are different areas of the retreat valley that would allow us to have some people in silent retreat for a longer term, while maybe some shorter-term group retreats are going on in other areas of the valley.

And we'll have a, our plan is to have a paid staff with modest stipends, starting with four staff positions, which I had listed on the last slide, director, operations manager, a program manager, and a food services manager, and then expanding that later to include more positions. So now I'm going to show a couple of photos. This is from Royal Palms in Phoenix.

And these are a couple of photos just to sort of get our hearts moving for the vision that we have for the physical aspects of this place. We want to make a place that's very welcoming to people, that when people come here, they feel embraced and loved physically, you know, with the physical facilities here. We already do it with the people.

You know, everybody always says how much love they feel from the people when they come here. But we want to make a place like this that, for people to gather and study and learn Dharma. So we're looking at an architectural style that's a blend of many different styles, a Spanish colonial, southwestern, a Moorish style, and a Mexican hacienda style.

And this is, again, I'm presenting the long-term plan for Diamond Mountain. So the first act for the new Diamond Mountain Retreat Center is to launch our all-new website. And this website's being created by our own dynamic duo of the Vasek Ben-Bessatz.

Where's the Ben-Bessatz? Is she here? So I wanted to thank them and give them a round of applause.

They're just in the beginning stages. But they've really sweetly taken on making this website, which we saw, the board saw as really crucial to Diamond Mountain's next phase. We really need a place where people can come on the Internet before they come here, because everyone can't come check it out in person.

So we really need a place that's going to showcase Diamond Mountain and let people visually see what's here if they are considering coming here to do a retreat. So this is a sneak preview of the website. So Scott was very clear, this is very rough preliminary.

Most of their work so far has been all the background, code writing, and all that stuff. But I just wanted to show, to sort of announce the website and do a little premiere here. So let's see.

So this will be the front page of the website. And then if you look right in this area, if you click on this area, it'll take you to a page something like this. And this is where you can view all the different cabins and you can select which one you'd like to do your retreat at.

So you'll actually be able to take a virtual tour of the cabins and even see things like the view from the window. You can see how private this cabin, how secluded is this cabin versus other cabins, how big is it, what kind of facilities does it have. But the most innovative part of this website, and I've got to make sure I get this right, is it's going to be responsive.

So responsive means it's going to display correctly on whatever device you view it with. And this is a big deal because as people go more and more to smartphones and tablets and things like that, a lot of websites show up looking funny. So this was something that I was really grateful to have Scott and Arit point out from the very beginning that we need to make sure we set it up in such a way that it's going to last into the future.

It's going to be responsive. That's the word for it. So here's another little screenshot we have.

This is a donation page. So in addition to showing people what we have to offer here on our website, we also want to add a few things that will make people's experience here complete. So we are talking about adding on the biggest thing that we need is some kind of a large student union where people can come, where food can be prepared, where people can come to talk, eat, study.

It's what we're doing in the tent out there during this event. We're looking forward to making a building for those uses. So, again, I mentioned the motif is an old-world kind of style, so I just wanted to sprinkle in a few pictures.

You can see the really brightly colored tile here, and they've got that on all the risers of the stairs. Little touches like that are what we're hoping to do. So we've been working with our team of architects and consultants and designers to develop a multi-phase architectural plan for this student center.

So this is a rough site plan, and you can see here's the temple where we're sitting. This is the matrix. This is the path out to the parking lot and the handicapped parking pad.

So here's the parking lot right here. And when we looked around for where to put a building that would still be close to the temple to make some kind of a courtyard start to develop, we were sort of narrowed down by the road, which runs by here, and the wash, which runs over here, into moving our parking lot and putting the building right in the middle of it. So that's what we're going to do.

So this is the Jason Capa Student Union, and here's the statue that's going to bless our new building right here. This is the Venerable Jigme Gilded Buddha, Gilded Jason Capa? Do you remember its name?

[Speaker 2]
Yeah, that's the Gilded Statue of Jason Capa.

[Speaker 1]
The Gilded Statue of Jason Capa. This was a gift from our kind donor in China who has already donated enough money for us to build the kitchen part of this student union. So I want to give him a round of applause and thank him.

And also a few additional donors, too, have donated. So we've raised $235,000, which will probably get us this portion here, the kitchen portion, which is amazing. It's going to be a full-service commercial kitchen.

I think I have some pictures of it next. Nope, not next. Okay, I'll go back to that one then.

So here's where we're thinking in the future will be a courtyard sort of nestled in here with gardens and maybe some fountains and a beautiful place for people to come. Here's the dining area of the student union, outdoor dining, and a study lounge. So here's another photo of the Royal Palms Courtyard in Phoenix.

That's one of our inspirations for the building style. And here's our architect's floor plan for the Jason Capa Student Center. So this is really exciting.

We're wrapping up the plans and we're getting ready to apply for a building permit and actually break ground within the next month or so. So again, dining room, indoor dining, outdoor dining, a quiet study lounge. This will be a coffee nook.

And this is the commercial kitchen portion. The dining room itself is, I think, 130, but the total is 200 including the porch. Total including the outdoor dining is 206.

I can't remember. 40 by 50 is 2,000 divided by 15. Anybody got a calculator?

2,000 divided by 15 will tell you how many people. No takers on the calculator?

[Speaker 2]
163, I think.

[Speaker 1]
163. 160. It's definitely more than 130.

It's either 130 or more. Anyway, I'll get back to you. I forget right now.

I'm nervous. Okay, so here's some photos of commercial kitchens. So we'll have a world-class food preparation space that has all the bells and whistles of a full-service kitchen, but it also takes into account the way we like to do things here as a community and we like to involve volunteers in the cooking.

So we'll have extra space in the prep area. We'll have extra space in the cook line area. We'll have access to the dishwashing area for guests so that people can come in and do some karma yoga to help with the dishes and easily exit the kitchen without having to go way back into the kitchen.

And I'm going to talk about some aspects of the kitchen that I listed on that last slide. We'll have a 16-foot cook line. That's here.

Here's what I was talking about, the dishwashing. These are the three-basin sink and the commercial dishwasher so people can come in and actually participate in the dishwashing and then easily go back out. And this is the serving area.

We can have two serving lines so people can get through the lines quicker. This is the main prep island, and this is a lot of space for prep so we can have many people, many hands making short work. This is a bear-proof composting and trash area, which I'm really excited about.

It'll be somewhat open so it'll have some openings in it so a breeze can come through, but it will have a roof. It will have walls up most of the way, and then we're looking at some kind of product that looks nice, not bars, but some kind of a screen that will keep bears out but that will allow air to flow through. Let's see.

So this is the pantry or the dry storage area. This is the loading dock area. So this is the part that will be built now.

Right there and down to there. This is a commercial laundry so we can do all the sheets and towels from the retreat cabins. And so this kitchen is going to allow us.

This is Chaz's menu ideas. So this kitchen is going to allow us to cook up delicious meals for people to enjoy. At first we'll enjoy them in an outdoor dining area in a tent until we raise the money to build the dining room.

And guests can choose from a tiered menu depending on their budget. And all the food will be fresh and made with love. So we'll have a commercial juicer, a griddle, eventually an espresso machine so we can make lovely espresso drinks.

And then all we need is someone who can make Jimi Hendrix out of the phone. So any volunteers?

[Speaker 2]
Well, you could make him smile.

[Speaker 1]
So we're really excited to announce that our commercial kitchen part of the project is underway. It's funded, and we're very excited to be breaking ground soon thanks to our kind sponsors. And then I want to look ahead to the next phase, the indoor and outdoor dining that I've described, the coffee lounge and the study lounge.

We still need to raise the funds for this part. So if you know anybody who's looking to make a lot of people's dreams come true, give them my number. It's one of the highest karmas there is to be involved with making a place where the Dharma can live.

So it's a place where when people set their eyes on it, they feel an inner expansion. And that's the space for the toke, the Dharma of Realizations, changing people's hearts. That's what we're wanting to do here.

So here are some side views of the building. So you can see the grand entrance of the dining hall and the big south-facing windows that'll have the beautiful mountain view. Let's see.

Right here, yes. This part here is going to be the quiet study lounge, and the walls will be bookshelves. So this is a place where we can finally house all the precious books that we have here.

We've been searching for a place to keep the books here at Diamond Mountain. We don't have a proper library, so this is very exciting. So picture a small room with bookshelves all around, some small tables where people can sit and enjoy the scriptures and with a lot of light streaming into the room.

That's the study lounge. These are some cross sections that are architected. And again, this is the study lounge area.

This is the main part of the building. And of course, a big part of the beauty of a place is the landscaping. So I put up two drawings that Dennis did that show how by just using our rainwater off of this building, we can make our own little paradise.

So these are big trees, and this is our little courtyard. This is the student center. And now I'm going to show some 3D views to help you visualize the building.

So here's the temple, the matrix. Here's the Jason Coppa Student Center. This is the parking lot coming around here.

So this will be the quiet lounge, the kitchen, the dining area, and outdoor dining. This will be the coffee corner. Another view here.

So this will be the courtyard someday. There will be covered walkways. The goal would be that there would be covered walkways surrounding an inner courtyard here.

So here are just some more samples of the types of spaces we're looking to create in a zoomed-in view. So if you can join us for the retreat and coming out celebration in April, you might see this building in progress, or you might be the first group to enjoy meals cooked from it, depending on how fast we can go. Wanted to put up the budget.

This budget was created by our Philly team members. They helped us create this budget. And the total budget is quite impressive down here.

$946,262 is our estimated budget for the whole building. So with everything we need inside, all the commercial kitchen equipment and all that square footage, we really can't do it for much less than a million dollars. So it's going to be a big project.

We're looking to raise $700,000 more over the next few years to finish the project, but we're doing it in phases. So the commercial kitchen is already, as I said, in progress. And our next adventure is to go out and raise the funding for the next phase, the dining area and the study areas and everything.

So like I said, the budget estimate and many more things were created by our Philly team, and that's Bob and Jim. And Jim's in the room, so I wanted to give them a round of applause. So I don't want to embarrass them too much, but they're very kindly offering many years of expertise and guidance in commercial construction to us who've never done a project on this scale before, and we couldn't do it without them.

So I call them my commercial construction gurus. So really, thank you. Applause So as we know, every good project needs a karmic business partner.

So here's one. This is a project that Jim's company is also working on, and this is a great organization. It's called the Dog Tag Bakery.

And what they do is they're under construction right now, and they are set up to serve veterans. So their profits go to disabled veterans, and they're a bakery. They actually are making baked goods in Georgetown.

They will be making baked goods in Georgetown, and I noticed they're already selling holiday goodie baskets. So if you want to create some good karma for our project, I think this is a great karmic business partner to have. And so you can go to their website and order a holiday gift basket, or if you're in Georgetown, you can stop by at their place and buy some of their baked goods when they're – do they have a date for opening?

[Speaker 2]
March 19th.

[Speaker 1]
Okay. My mom's birthday. So that's another way you can help build Diamond Mountain is to keep your eyes out for other projects to support that are trying to also do similar things, right?

So owners rep Jim's company also helped us create a preliminary schedule. You can't really see it. It's actually kind of too fuzzy.

But if we started in two weeks, if we broke ground in two weeks, we would be finished by May 31st. That's what this schedule is saying. It's a very rigorous schedule.

So this is – it's about a six-month timeline. So it is possible to get this kitchen done really fast. Just wanted to give you guys some idea of the timeline.

Let's see. So in the meantime, while we're waiting for the plans to come through over the next few weeks, we can use this time to raise the remaining funds and to work with our karmic business partners and create the seeds to see our Jason Kappa Center come to life. So I'll just wrap up by saying the purpose of the Jason Kappa Student Center and the purpose of Diamond Mountain is to make a home for the Dharma.

So a place where the books can stay, where people can come and read these holy texts, where teachings are given and practiced on the ground in our own coffee lounge where you can take your person and help them, listen to them and find out what they need and do your coffee meditation. In deep retreat, up in the retreat cabins or in the kitchen chopping vegetables, you might have the toke, the Dharma in the form of realizations come in and move your heart. So that's why this place exists.

And this verse from the chapter on joyful effort in the Bodhisattva's Way of Life tells us that the fourth perfection, joy in doing good things, is the key to collecting merit. And merit is what makes Buddhahood possible. So the great compassion of a fully enlightened being rises in the heart when it is full of merit.

So helping to build a Dharma Center is a goldmine of opportunity to do the very highest goodness. So I hope you'll be part of the future of Diamond Mountain. I hope you'll support the new retreat center by doing your own retreats here, by spreading the word so that other people that you know might come and do retreats here.

Help us raise the funds to build the Jason Kappa Student Center. And also keep your eye out for announcements for the staff positions that we'll be developing for the next phase and apply for them if any of them catch your eye. So in whatever way your heart leads you, I hope sincerely that each one of you will continue to be part of this place and help us to make this home for the Dharma for many, many generations.

Thank you.