Mendocino California Retreat – www.lotusretreat.org

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam:

 

I found 3HO in the 70’s when I was in High School. Inspired by the TV series

Kung Fu, I was already studying meditation and found KY added to my life the

needed connection of body soul and mind I was seeking to guide my life and the

training in discipline I recognized my youth was lacking and I deeply desired.

 

I graduated from High School in June ’73, moved from Illinois to San Rafael

California. I was at first turned down from moving into the ashram, being too

young to move into the Ashram. I camped out on the local hill side and every

morning would hike down in the morning, keep up and share in morning meal. I

would take up house hold Karma Yoga, often taken on Karma Yoga of working

members of the Ashram so they could go off to work. I think it was January ’74

I was invited in and my life for that moment was fulfilled. The one TV program

we watched was Kung Fu on a black and white TV. When one of the yogis called

Kung Fu the only spiritual program on television, I knew I had placed my 18 year

old life in the right place. < Grin>

 

At some point I moved out of the Ashram and kept my practice strong until 1981

when my daughter was born. At that point I discovered a new drive in my life,

working 7 days a week, often 16 hour days, for the first three years until I was

able to purchase a home for my small family and build my business. The larger

price I paid was I let my yoga practice slip away keeping to just sitting and

chanting.

 

In 1996 I bought into a174 acre Buddhist retreat. The retreat was a going

concern, not profitable, but on going, for most of 1989 when my land partner

purchased the land until 2000. We had about 7 years of people volunteering and

building the retreat, then as it happen, life changes. Some people moved, some

lost interest or found new projects, and I had little time for the business of

running a retreat while trying to figure how to pay for my daughters private

high school and put money away for her education. The past seven years the land

has really become my private retreat. My land partner moved out of the state and

hasn't been there in three years. And even the last time he was there with his

friends, I was on the other side of the property and we only spoke for a moment.

My ownership in the property is held in a non-profit foundation, a California

501© 3 non-profit corporation, with restrictions on the title of the land so it

can only be used or sold as a retreat. (This was drafted by our real estate

attorney when I purchased into the land to remove any incentive of one land

partner to sell off their shares and the use of land changing as a result of the

sale. Also, the selling price of the land by either partner can not increase

from the 1996 price I bought into the land at . This land is not what anyone

would call an investment. )

 

I am now 51, I feel my daughter’s path is set in the right direction. (She is a

Yogi, dancer and in a Masters of Science Program)

 

I am not sure where I will end up, I am hoping to still find a good local KY

teacher in Marin County. I am heading back into Yoga for this phase of my life

and would be happy just being the guy who sweeps the deck of the retreat, and

the cook who makes the soup and Yogi Tea. (Actually my wife makes the best Yogi

Tea).

 

The land is a blessing, unless you have experienced having your own place of

real solitude you can always count on, you have to take my word on what a

blessing it is. And a blessing is better if it is shared.

 

I have no interest in trying to make this a retreat business or allowing it to

happen again. I never liked making plans on how to earn a living off the people

who came to retreat. The vision of a profitable retreat we held back in the

90’s does not fit into the hermitage model I now see for this land.

 

What I want is a place someone can sit under an oak knowing someday their great

grandchild may sit under the same tree. I am looking for a few Yogis, a few good

people, who will share in the being stewards of this land from time to time.

People who share in the vision that this place should be here for the next

generation and bless the land by using it to grow their own practice.

 

This is truly an offer of love. I expect nothing back except good stewardship

now and then and people blessing the land by utilizing it as a personal retreat,

as a hermitage or a special place to share with a few friends in exchange for

taking care of the land, and as Smoky the Bear teaches, always leaving the land

a little better than when you arrived.

 

The land is about 20 miles North of Willits, CA, up a 13 mile state maintained

gravel road built around 1870 as a wagon train road, actually, open wagons with

blankets the history book say. In 1908, the “Overland Auto Stage Company”

crossed over this 36 mile road at speeds averaging three miles per hour,

stopping at my neighbors ranch for dinner and a nights rest. It is one of the

oldest roads in California. When Highway 101 closed from a mud slide in 1998

and 2001, which happens every few years I was told, CHP caravanned groups of

cars over this one lane road as the only bypass from highway 101. As a result,

the state keeps the road clear and in good repair for a gravel road all year.

 

That is a little about me and a little about my vision for the land. You can

see the land at www.lotusretreat.org . I will be out of town and off line until

April 16, 2007

 

 

In love always.

Sat Nam

- Bob

bob

 

 

(A little history and a modest humble disclaimer. I have no association with

Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery, except that I love the Abhayagiri Buddhist

Monastery and I honor Ajahn Amaro in each and every way. If I was to seek to

become a monk, I would be honored to be accepted by Abhayagiri. But that is not

my path and I do not want to mislead anyone by posting this article that in some

way Bell Springs Hermitage or the Lotus Retreat (all one in the same) are

associated with the Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery. In saying that disclaimer as

a humble clarification, 1996 we were honored to be blessed to host a very

special event. http://www.fsnewsletter.net/35/light.htm