Join in Offering a Permanent Monastery for Dhammadharini Bhikkhunis
Ayya Tathaaloka and Ayya Sobhana at the gate of the potential new “Sonoma Mountain Bhikkhuni Refuge”
Dear and Treasured Friends and Sangha,
I am pleased to thank everyone who has been so generous in helping us come as far as we have. We are now ready and poised to take the next step: the purchase and offering of our Bhikkhuni Monastery (vihara).
There are Dhammadharini supporters and friends-of-friends here in our area and around the world who are uniting behind this vital and interconnected worldwide community for the noble and worthy cause of the Bhikkhuni Sangha.
The rise of the Feminine wisdom in Buddhism and its role in the Fourfold Sangha will be nurtured and encouraged by a permanent Monastery.
Let me update you about where we are.
For the past three months, our New Vihara Search Committee has been diligently looking at properties in the greater Santa Rosa area. Our Search Committee has reviewed a lot of properties, and we’ve learned much about real estate in Sonoma County.
And now, we have found a place that seems ideal in many ways.
Our venerable Ayya Tathaaloka calls it the “Sonoma Mountain Bhikkhuni Refuge.”
6063 Hyland Way is a beautiful compound perched on a western flank of Sonoma Mountain above the small city of Penngrove, just south of Santa Rosa. Spread out over 1 ¾ acres are multiple buildings, a light-filled accessible meditation hall, a space that can be remodeled into private monastic cells, a kuti for solitary retreats and male visitors, and a 2 bedroom 2 and ½ bath house. The most outstanding aspect of this dwelling, and the whole space, is the sense of purity and quiet, so the visitors will feel they have left their busy lives behind and entered a sacred space.
$400K has been donated and pledged. We can proceed if we receive loans, pledges, and gifts totaling $600K. Whatever can be loaned or given by individuals will reduce our need for bank financing. Luckily, our community has good and skillful friends who have successfully organized financing and purchasing for places like Wat Buddhanusorn and the Compassion Meditation Center in the San Francisco East Bay Area. Our advisors know how to draft the associated private contracts and letters of obligation to make the situation legally clear amongst all parties.
We are not certain of success in obtaining this property. The critical factor in securing this property is timely support from friends.
This is what you can offer which will make it possible:
Immediately, by September 6, signature guarantor for our bank loan, or similar support from friends who have financial assets.
Within the next 3 weeks, by September 21, financial gifts or personal loans to reduce the amount we need to borrow from a bank.
As soon as the purchase of 6063 Hyland Way is complete, possibly by September 21, someone to purchase the adjacent vacant parcel, hold it for up to five years and then re-sell it to Dhammadharini. (link to adjacent parcel: https://www.redfin.com/…/6057-Hyland-Way-94951/home/18753763)
If you can contribute in any way, please contact Maryann Marks, the Dhammadharini Treasurer: (email: maryann.marks.mft@gmail.com, phone: 707-322-2523).
For the purchase of our monastery to be successful, it will be because many of you are ready to spread the campaign widely among your friendship networks.
In coming weeks, we hope to launch a crowdfunding campaign in order to pay down our loans and remodel this property. A minimum of $100,000 is needed to pay down the loan to a manageable monthly mortgage.
How fortunate we are here at Dhammadharini to have Monastics who are at the center of the renaissance of the full Ordination and full Acceptance of Theravada Bhikkhunis, and have contributed and are contributing so much to the Monastic feminist voice in Buddhism. Let us nurture and establish our good fortune, so that it may go deep and far.
We look forward to the establishment of our deeply wished for permanent Dhammadharini Bhikkhuni Monastery (Vihara). We desire that our beloved teachers and their students (our teachers-to-be) may live in harmony and safety and lead the life that is for the benefit of all — liberation and following the Buddha’s path.
Elad Levinson
President, Dhammadharini (support foundation) Board of Directors
Facilitator, Dhammadharini Leadership Council
Email: elad.levinson@gmail.com
* If Dhammadharini support foundation is not successful in purchasing this Hyland Way property, your gift will be applied to the next best property proposed for Dhammadharini’s Bhikkhuni Monastery, or if you wish, your gift would be returned to you.
Join in Offering a Permanent Monastery for Dhammadharini Bhikkhunis
Dear and Treasured Friends and Sangha,
I am pleased to thank everyone who has been so generous in helping us come as far as we have. We are now ready and poised to take the next step: the purchase and offering of our Bhikkhuni Monastery (vihara).
There are Dhammadharini supporters and friends-of-friends here in our area and around the world who are uniting behind this vital and interconnected worldwide community for the noble and worthy cause of the Bhikkhuni Sangha.
The rise of the Feminine wisdom in Buddhism and its role in the Fourfold Sangha will be nurtured and encouraged by a permanent Monastery.
Let me update you about where we are.
For the past three months, our New Vihara Search Committee has been diligently looking at properties in the greater Santa Rosa area. Our Search Committee has reviewed a lot of properties, and we’ve learned much about real estate in Sonoma County.
And now, we have found a place that seems ideal in many ways.
Our venerable Ayya Tathaaloka calls it the “Sonoma Mountain Bhikkhuni Refuge.”
6063 Hyland Way is a beautiful compound perched on a western flank of Sonoma Mountain above the small city of Penngrove, just south of Santa Rosa. Spread out over 1 ¾ acres are multiple buildings, a light-filled accessible meditation hall, a space that can be remodeled into private monastic cells, a kuti for solitary retreats and male visitors, and a 2 bedroom 2 and ½ bath house. The most outstanding aspect of this dwelling, and the whole space, is the sense of purity and quiet, so the visitors will feel they have left their busy lives behind and entered a sacred space.
$400K has been donated and pledged. We can proceed if we receive loans, pledges, and gifts totaling $600K. Whatever can be loaned or given by individuals will reduce our need for bank financing. Luckily, our community has good and skillful friends who have successfully organized financing and purchasing for places like Wat Buddhanusorn and the Compassion Meditation Center in the San Francisco East Bay Area. Our advisors know how to draft the associated private contracts and letters of obligation to make the situation legally clear amongst all parties.
We are not certain of success in obtaining this property. The critical factor in securing this property is timely support from friends.
This is what you can offer which will make it possible:
If you can contribute in any way, please contact Maryann Marks, the Dhammadharini Treasurer: (email: maryann.marks.mft@gmail.com, phone: 707-322-2523).
For the purchase of our monastery to be successful, it will be because many of you are ready to spread the campaign widely among your friendship networks.
In coming weeks, we hope to launch a crowdfunding campaign in order to pay down our loans and remodel this property. A minimum of $100,000 is needed to pay down the loan to a manageable monthly mortgage.
How fortunate we are here at Dhammadharini to have Monastics who are at the center of the renaissance of the full Ordination and full Acceptance of Theravada Bhikkhunis, and have contributed and are contributing so much to the Monastic feminist voice in Buddhism. Let us nurture and establish our good fortune, so that it may go deep and far.
We look forward to the establishment of our deeply wished for permanent Dhammadharini Bhikkhuni Monastery (Vihara). We desire that our beloved teachers and their students (our teachers-to-be) may live in harmony and safety and lead the life that is for the benefit of all — liberation and following the Buddha’s path.
Elad Levinson
President, Dhammadharini (support foundation) Board of Directors
Facilitator, Dhammadharini Leadership Council
Email: elad.levinson@gmail.com
* If Dhammadharini support foundation is not successful in purchasing this Hyland Way property, your gift will be applied to the next best property proposed for Dhammadharini’s Bhikkhuni Monastery, or if you wish, your gift would be returned to you.
Link to property photos: https://www.redfin.com/…/Penngrove/6063-Hyland…/home/2642742