Samadhi Update

Dear friends and students,

Early this morning I went for a long walk through the fields behind the Samadhi Meditation Center, watching the beautiful sunrise on the horizon. The soft whisper of the cool breeze and the singing of the birds were the only sounds I could hear. I felt such a deep sense of gratitude for everything that surrounded me.

In the trees, the leaves are turning vibrant colors. Our orchard is full of delicious apples waiting to be picked. It is a wonderful day to reflect on the summer at Samadhi Center and share with you the blessings, happiness and peace we experienced here this past few months.

My intention was to set up a meditation center to spread peace and healing. We worked hard on this for about four years. I am so glad to see the results. As far as I know, everybody who passed through the Center this summer felt and shared a beautiful experience of peace and happiness. Groups form Malaysia, Ireland, the USA and the Czech Republic came to Samadhi to participate in our meditation retreats.

I feel so lucky that we had such a wonderful staff, of mostly volunteers, who enjoyed working hard together at Samadhi as brothers and sisters. Most of the staff hope to return next year. At times, we had a lot of people here at Samadhi. For example, during the Irish meditation retreat we had thirty people at the Center for one week. At the end of the retreat we only heard good things from them. I am truly grateful to everybody who worked here and helped us.

We are planning for 2007 and hope for it to be a busy year. We have some great teachers, including Venerable H. Gunaratana, who wrote Mindfulness in Plain English, and Venerable Punnaji, who wrote the book Awakening Meditation, coming to lead retreats.

While the retreats were going on this summer, we were able to complete and open the second meditation hall at the Center, which we call the Dhamma Hall. The Dhamma Hall can hold up to 100 people. We have also opened a new Dhamma Study Center in Prague for the students in Prague who will be attending our weekly meditations.

In a few days we will be closing the Samadhi Center for the winter. We are planning to open the Center again in April 2007. Martin and Vlastha will stay on to take care of the Center and Jennie (Jana) will be working twice a week while attending school.

I want to share with all of you the wonderful Karma, the blessings and peace we shared with so many people who visited Samadhi during the summer. May you all be blessed with peace and harmony and happiness in life.

In two days, I will be leaving for Africa to distribute more wheelchairs and to visit some hospitals and schools as continuation of our humanitarian projects there. After the 3rd of October, I will be going on a lecture tour in the USA.

with love and blessings

Bhante Wimala