The Marpa Foundation
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September 21, 2007 Dear Friends, I hope this letter finds you well. Thank you very much for the prayers, good wishes, and expressions of support that you have sent to Rinpoche and all of us here in Seattle who are serving him. With Rinpoche's blessing, I write to you now to ask for your help in support of Marpa Foundation, the non-profit charity that Rinpoche directs and that funds Rinpoche's activities and stay in Seattle, his nunneries, and his translation projects. This letter marks a big change from Rinpoche's usual way of doing things. In all my years serving Rinpoche as he traveled and taught the Dharma, I never once saw him ask anyone for a donation. Very often, Rinpoche would take whatever teaching honorarium was offered to him and simply offer it back to the hosting Dharma center. Whatever offerings he did keep, he gave the vast majority of them to Marpa Foundation. Over the years, he also directed Marpa Foundation to offer financial support to Dharma centers and students who were in need, and he made many such gifts from his own personal funds. As you know from my letter to you of August 30, Rinpoche's situation has now changed. Although Rinpoche's health is currently stable, he is not able to travel and teach. This has both reduced Marpa Foundation's income and increased its expenses. Nevertheless, with your help, Rinpoche's enlightened activity can continue to flourish. How We Need Your Help 1. Rinpoche's Stay in Seattle—$105,000 per year. Seattle is truly an excellent place for Rinpoche to stay. He enjoys his house and garden very much, there is plenty of support from Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and his students, and the medical care available is excellent. Rinpoche's home and car have been most generously offered to him by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and his students. However, all the expenses of Rinpoche's stay, including food, household, medical, room and board for five staff members (Rinpoche now needs an attendant to be on call twenty-four hours per day), and transportation are borne by Marpa Foundation. 2. Nunnery Construction in Nepal—$350,000. Rinpoche's special history as a spiritual guide of nuns goes back to the mid-1950's, when a group of nuns in central Tibet came upon a special young lama meditating in a local charnel ground, and requested his teachings. Rinpoche has always felt it important to give nuns the same opportunities to receive higher Buddhist training as their male counterparts. He is the guru for approximately one-hundred and seventy nuns in four nunneries in Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet. At Rinpoche's nunnery in Kathmandu, Nepal, which he named Tek Chok Ling ("Garden of the Supreme Yana"), three buildings are under construction: a four-storey shrine hall; a three-storey residence, including kitchen, dining room, and classrooms; and a three-storey retreat center. This nunnery expansion is important because many young women yearn to enter the nunnery and become Rinpoche's students; until now, there has not been enough space to accept them. It will also benefit the Tibetan community in Kathmandu, because Rinpoche's nuns perform rituals for households in the community with such care and grace that they are in very high demand, and at present they can never fulfill all the requests they receive. $350,000 is needed to complete this project that Rinpoche has started. 3. General Support for Nunneries in Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet—$80,000 per year. The nunneries are to a large degree self-sufficient-they receive donations in return for the rituals and services they perform in their local communities. However, Marpa Foundation supplements their income each year so that they have enough money to pay their clothing, educational, food, and medical expenses. Marpa Foundation also regularly sends western female students of Rinpoche's who are fluent in Tibetan to teach English and Buddhist philosophical texts to the senior nuns in Nepal and Bhutan, and these nuns in turn teach what they have learned to the rest of their colleagues. 4. Translation of Tibetan Texts—$95,000 per year. Ever since Rinpoche first began teaching internationally in 1977, he has put great effort into training translators so that Buddhism could purely and excellently flow into a variety of nations and languages. One of Rinpoche's great legacies is the translations of songs and texts that his students produce under his direction and guidance. Rinpoche would like to continue supporting his students who are translating the texts of sutra and tantra into international languages. Currently, Rinpoche has directed Marpa Foundation to sponsor translations into English of: The Hevajra Tantra, Rinpoche's teachings on The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, and his teachings on his text The Stages of the View at the Heart of the Definitive Meaning; and a translation into French of Chandrakirti's Entering the Middle Way. How to Help Any amount that you can contribute will be very much appreciated. It will all go towards helping Marpa Foundation support Khenpo Rinpoche and his Dharma activity. You can make a contribution in any of the following ways: 1. Check or Money Order: please make payable to Marpa Foundation and send to:
2. On-line via Credit Card (click here) 3. Wire transfer: Please contact us at ktgr@attglobal.net for wire transfer instructions. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law. The Marpa Foundation is a non-profit religious corporation (U.S.A. federal tax I.D. # 77-037-8622). Thank you very much for your attention, and for your support of Khenpo Rinpoche and his Dharma activity. May the merit of your generosity be a source of great benefit for all sentient beings. Sarva Mangalam, |