The Garchen Buddhist Institute in Chino Valley has been made possible through extraordinary generosity and blessings. Now built and available for the benefit of all sentient beings, these wonderful facilities require that the institute pay mortgage, insurance, utility, transportation, and ongoing maintenance costs.
Help the Institute and make a pledge now.

Current

New Stupa Construction Project
We rejoice in the great generosity of the Sangha! Traga Rinpoche's stupa of prosperity and blessings to the center is overflowing with funds - we have surpassed our goal of $30,000. Thank you! May all beings benefit!

Click here to download flyer

Endowment Fund
For the future, we need to think Big Picture, long term, for the financial stability of the Center. If anyone is interested or has experience in developing endowment funds or strategic plans or would like to contribute to the fund, please contact me at elder@theriver.com or at 520-292-6070. This is something that needs exploration and development and I welcome all your help.

www.southwestbuddhafield.org

We are caring as lovingly as we can for Garchen Rinpoche's gift to North America and I am so grateful. May the blessings flow without end!

H.E. Garchen Rinpoche's comments on the
Southwest Buddha Field Endowment Fund - Click here (PDF)
To all of you in Garchen Rinpoche's mandala,
I have some miraculous news to share with you regarding the Southwest Buddhafield Endowment/Trust Fund. It's really quite an amazing story. In November during the 2006 Vajrakilaya Drubchen, blessings rained down like a summer monsoon. One of the blessings goes like this:
Christina Lundberg, a student of Garchen Rinpoches', proposed we commission a large thangka with White Tara (Garchen Rinpoche) in the center surrounded by 1,000 Taras (the sangha). For each person contributing $1, 000 to the Endowment Fund, he or she would choose which Tara they wished to be on the thangka. I thought this a great idea, as did everyone here at the Center, and Christina was asked to write to the thangka painter she knows in Nepal to see if he could do this. Upon contacting him, he reported he had a thangka just like this already painted in his studio in Katmandu and that it would have taken a year to a year and a half to paint another one. Clearly this was our thangka!

Three sangha members immediately came forth to purchase the thangka, and we were able to present it to Garchen Rinpoche and the sangha on Losar morning. It now hangs in the Garchen Institute Temple next to Lord Jigten Sumgon. The best surprise is that not only is the thangka stunning, the White Tara in the center looks just like Garchen Rinpoche! She has a masculine torso, and her biceps look like she's been working out in the Bodhisattva gym. See for yourself, as I've included a photo of her with this letter.
For anyone who would like to be a Tara, we would welcome your help. There are four rainbow spheres filled with Taras surrounding the large central Tara, and for anyone who would like to be a "rainbow sphere Tara," we're asking for a $5,000 donation. If every Tara on the thangka is sponsored, we will reach our goal of raising 2 million dollars to seed the Endowment Fund.
To contribute, checks can be made payable to the "Southwest Buddhafield Endowment Fund" and sent to: Will Evans, 79 El Diente Ct., Livermore, CO 80536, or to Jacki Elder, 5210 N. Nina Drive, Tucson, AZ 85704.
Your donations are tax deductible.

Love to all of you,
Jacki Elder
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

3 year Retreat Support
Updates on the Garchen Institutes First 3-Year Retreat Program.

2005 Update: As many of you know, we had 10 retreatants begin three-year retreat in September. Eh Ma Ho! $55,000 was raised, and 10 glorious retreat huts, 1 kitchen, and 1 bathroom were built in the peaceful valley. For the three-year retreat food fund, we aimed at raising $35,000 and an amazing $34,710 has been raised thus far. Thank you to all who have contributed and to those who have pledged to donate monthly throughout the retreat. We count on your monthly donations. Thanks also to the raffle ticket buyers, as we raised a total of $1,270 on the Green Tara statue during the Vajrakilaya drubchen and on the bell and dorje during the Winter Teachings. The only other outstanding cost for the three-year retreat is propane. All the kitchen appliances run on propane, which includes two refrigerators and one stove. We are looking to raise $7,200 to cover the propane cost over the three years.
TOTAL STILL NEEDED FOR THE THREE-YEAR RETREAT FUND:
$ 290 Food
$7,200 Propane
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TOTAL $ 7,490

We are so close to completing this project!

So this is the state of the Southwest Buddhafield ! As a sangha, we are truly perfecting the practice of generosity, and I thank everyone for their generous heart.
Through your deeply kind and generous support, construction of the three-year retreat facilities has been completed, and we entered retreat on September 29, 2005.
Still to be completed is the fundraising for food and supplies, and we would be most grateful for your help with this endeavor. Our goal is to raise $30,000, just under $100 a month for each retreatant.

If you would like to make a donation, please send it to the Garchen Institute, P.O. Box 4318, Chino Valley, AZ 86323, and indicate that it is for the "3-Year Retreatant Food Fund."
Both Guru Rinpoche and Milarepa have said that the benefactors of Dharma practitioners receive the same merit as the practitioners they support, and this new retreat facility and the tradition of the three-year retreats at the Garchen Institute would not be possible without your kind help. May the merit of your generosity ripen into ultimate happiness for each and very living being.
With Gratitude,
Sara, Eric, Tim, Sarah, Aaron, Yarik, Zhuravka, Trisha, Steven, Romny
The 3 Year Retreat

In April of 2004, we began raising funds to build a new retreat facility here at the Garchen Institute. Many kind benefactors responded to our aspirations and made it possible for the construction of the retreat facility to begin. At that time, we had the intention of building six retreat huts, a kitchen and a bathroom. Since then, under the direction of our retreat master, Traga Rinpoche, the retreat facility has expanded to include ten retreat huts, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a temple for group practices, teachings, and personal interviews. Because of this, we have exceeded our initial estimated budget, and we urgently need your help and support.
We need to raise an additional $12,500 in order to finish the construction of the retreat facility by our expected completion date of June 2005. All of the retreat huts are partially constructed, but we are currently unable to finish them. We have run out of funds for the project, and we will not be able to complete the construction of the new retreat facility at the Garchen Institute without your help. Eight out of ten of the practitioners who wish to stay in retreat have been the full-time construction crew for the entire retreat facility, and the other two have helped tremendously with financial support for the construction. On behalf of all of these practitioners, I am writing to ask for your compassionate support.

Please help make it possible for dedicated practitioners to devote themselves one-pointedly to the practice of Dharma. If you are able to donate all or part of the remaining funds needed to complete the retreat facility, please make a donation to the Garchen Institute and mark it for the "Retreat Facility". Any funds raised that exceed the amount needed for construction will be used for the three year retreat food fund. We hope to raise $30,000 for food, which is less than $100 a month to feed each person in retreat.

Both Guru Rinpoche and Milarepa have said that the benefactors of Dharma practitioners receive the same merit as the practitioners they support. This new retreat facility and the tradition of three year retreats at the Garchen Institute will not be possible without your help. May the merit of your generosity ripen into ultimate happiness for each and every living being.

With gratitude,
Sara Barrows
(Dechen Wangmo)

Prayer Wheel
A large prayer wheel is in the process of being constructed for the Garchen Buddhist Center in Chino Valley, AZ. This prayer wheel is now being built in Tucson and will be placed up at the Center in between the Dining Room and the Temple, a perfect location chosen by Garchen Rinpoche and Traga Rinpoche. This prayer wheel will have great and manifest blessings. The Center and surrounding area will be transformed and harmony will prevail among the Sangha. Just touching a prayer wheel brings great purification of negative Karma and obscurations and all beings in the area where the prayer wheel is built will be saved from rebirth in lower realms. Garchen Rinpoche would like 4 mantras placed inside the prayer wheel-Chenrezig, Guru Yoga, Achi and Mahakala. If anyone would like to share in the merit of building this prayer wheel, contributions are being accepted for sponsoring the mantras. $5 will cover the cost of one sheet of mantras.
2005: $1,689 has been raised to construct and fill the giant Prayer Wheel at the Southwest Buddhafield . No more funds are needed for this project, and the Prayer Wheel now resides in Tucson in the Elder's garage. We apologize for the slow progress on this project, but we have been a wee bit stretched! It should be completed in fall 2006. The Prayer Wheel will be placed according to Garchen Rinpoche and Traga Rinpoche's directions and will reside between the Dining Room and the Temple. When completed, it will contain four mantras: Chenrezig, Achi, Mahakala, and Lord Jigten Sumgon's Guru Yoga.
Contributions can be sent to:
Jacki Elder
5210 N. Nina Drive
Tucson, AZ 85704