Karma Berchen Ling

We arrived at Karma Berchen Ling in two steps: first Jutta, Lutz, Maria and Oli from Berlin went there – two days later the funky bunch was completed by Sidsel from Denmark, Mumchi from Bulgaria, Manu and Torsten also from Berlin. The place gave us a “warm welcome”: snowfall, strong winds and a 2cm layer of ice, which covered everything composite like e.g. the retreat-hut which one weren´t able to leave without help from outside.

For two days and nights we were living in a cloud which was really a new and sometimes strange experience for nearly everyone. We couldn´t see further than a few meters. Going from the clubhouse to the sanghahouse Sidsel got lost several times but luckily reappeared. The cotton-wool, we were living in, made it easier to fully concentrate on the Tsatsa-production. There were only few other influences, but lots of mantrasounds and twice a day the 16th-Karmapa-meditation. The group grew together, it really felt like Kagyu-family.

Then – the third afternoon it suddenly happened: the clouds tore up, sun and the breath-taking panorama appeared. Wow ! The whole week we had so much fun with Pjotr and Andi, the residents. Eating together, having some beers in the evening when work was done and listening to Pjotrs stories of the early meetings with Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche. After a visit of Jurgos restaurant and the ascent to the top of the Dorje-Phamo-rock an unforgettable week ended – with snowfall. Nevertheless: none of us left the place easily knowing that we now had to return to the so called civilisation. And to come back hopefully soon.

The first week of March was the time when the Black Mountain tigers of Schwarzenberg (Germany) visited the Black Mountain dragons of Berchen Ling. 13 members of our Sangha went to Greece into a Tsatsa Retreat.
Perfectly organized by Carmen we arrived in time despite of Airline and several other strikes. The weather was gorgious and showed all kind of varieties. Of course our retreat finished on Friday the 5th of March with never ending rainbows all over the place for several hours. Before, we really worked hard (and joyful) on the Tsatsas, supported by a wonderful kitchen team. Producing tsatsas makes very hungry! But also another important event happened at the same time: Rudi and Angelika carved the stupa and the dorje into the life-tree. Now this very special “spine of the stupa” is ready.
But not only “spiritual work” was going on, also the work in our new “clubhouse”, former showerhouse, continued. Martin finished an amazing staircase. The “club” is really very cosy and we enjoyed meditating, working and sleeping there.
At the last weekend in February our friends from the Acropolis center in Athens celebrated the opening of the new center. It is beautiful, impressive and definetly worth visiting it. If you are next time in Athens you should go there for a meditation.
Our excursion was rounded up with a great meal at “Yorgos Taverna” in Evrostina and a good adrenalin push by jumping into the Isthmus (gulf of Corinths), where our friend Andi has a wonderful bungee place.
For sure we come back!!!! Kalimera, Kalinichta, Kalachakra!

We were 8 people from the winterly Berlin plus one brave Bavarien, making a Tsatsa-Retreat in Karma Berchen Ling.
Friday night we were warmly welcomed by the KBL team in a freshly painted Sangha-house. After that, we all crawled into our cold beds. The next morning the sunrise was glowing red from behind the snow-capped mountain peaks, the snowdrops and the almond trees were blooming and a gigantic scale of lemons and oranges that we bought on the street below, tasted blissfully juicy. While we were producing Tsatsas, we were full of enthusiasm and were pleased about the growing number of boxes filled with Tsatsas.
The cupboard in the Sangha-house is now very secure, thanks to Ronny, maybe even more secure than the Sangha-house itself …

Dear friends,

the Czech KBL Website is online, please visit http://cz.berchenling.org. You can also shift between the languages at the upper right corner of the website.

Thanks to the great work of the translator J. Bures and the fast organizational help of Petr Hubá?ek we finally made it. Polish, Hungarian and Greek translation will be there very soon too.

Enjoy and spread the news in the Czech Sangha!

Dear friends,

one of the best ways to come to Berchenling is the ferry from Italy to Patras. We checked out the latest prices:

Now, everyone can get up to 50% discount for the ferry boats to Patras until the end of February (respectively March) at:

• www.anek.gr
• www.minoan.gr (30%)
• www.superfast.com

Please be advised that we will not be able to provide a shuttle service during the summer course 2010. Please organize your own transportation to and from the site.

“Get your brick for the stupa” – This is the slogan of our fundrasing action to get many centers involved in the building of the Kalachakra Stupa. Every center can get a brick for a donation of 1080 Euros.
Until now we have allready 28 centers and regions involved. WOW!

Thank you so much, Europe-Center, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Graz, Giessen, Munich, Villach, Ilserlohn, Schwarzenberg, Innsbruck, Ravensburg, Salzburg, Karlsruhe, Pforzheim, Tenovice, Tuebingen, Altmuehle, Bochum, Norway, Pilsen, Kladno, Karlovy Vary, Klatovy and Rakovnik, Oberwoelz-Judenburg, Australia.

Some members of the team were meeting at Schwarzenberg (Germany) last weekend, to work on the plans for the building of the Stupa and the course preperations. We had meetings with effective brainstorming and discussions that have actually led to a concrete timetable.
Saturday, even our stupa architect, Wojtek Koswoski from Darmstadt, joined our meeting and enriched everthing with his experience, concepts, sketches and stories of the twenty years of building stupas with Lopon Tsechou Rinpoche.
With Ouzo, Metaxa and beautiful images of our place, we enjoyed a Greek-eating out – deep in snow Karma Berchen Ling in Oy-Mittelberg, Germany. It was just fantastic.

Andrea and Hermann celebrated the New Year 2010 in Berchenling with warm temperatures and a partial eclipse of the moon…

To collect all the necessary donations for the Kalachakra Stupa in Berchenling, every Diamondway Buddhism center is invited to get it’s brick for the stupa. We created a model of the Kalachakra Stupa with 108 pieces. Every center can get one brick for 1080 Euros. For further information see the Finance & Donations site or contact donation@berchenling.org

“We have one mission only: To make the impossible possible. And to stay friends afterwards.”

With this slogan we started our last big team meeting in Hungary before we will all meet in Berchenling in May 2010. The incredible Budapest Sangha took care of everything: nice food, perfect accomodation and even the possibility ta visit an old Osmanic bath…

All teams reported on their acitvities and we managed to draw a broad picture of the big course in summer. Some new people joined the exiting process of working togehter in KBL and even more people will be needed in summer 2010. So please get involved!

The Polish group of Tsatsa producers was the last one before the winter. All groups together allready produced 7,000 Tsatsas. The work will be continued in spring 2010.

End of October a group of Austrians went by cars to Berchen Ling and started with the “industrial like” Tsatsa production in the Lama house. A few people stayed for four weeks and guided the Austrian, German, Polish and Bulgarian working groups coming for a week each. Allways eight people produced Tsatsas, but also repaired the water tank and completed the shower house construction.

Today the huge earthmover which should digg the hole for our second water tank hit the first one. All water was gone after a few hours…

But we took the chance and refurbished the old water tank, while it was empty. Furthermore we finally managed to build the two new (round) water tanks.

Finally we have got the building permission for the Kalachakra Stupa in Karma Berchen Ling. This means that in May 2010 we are going to start building the Stupa and complete it by summer.

According to the current plan, Lama Chogdrup Dorje and Lama Ole are going to inaugurate the stupa in the days from 21 to 24 August 2010.

The ceremonies will be embedded in a 72-hour meditation and a subsequent Great Seal course.

Looking forward to seeing you in Berchen Ling

In one week a team of Czech workers isolated the roof of the shower house with mineral wool, incrusted with gipsum plasterboards and wooden finish-boards allmost all attic and part of the basement. They also finished the sheet-metall roof and isolated the retreat houses. And of course, they produced some hundreds of Tsatsas.

Thank you all for coming and sharing the joy…

The work on the shower house is progressing and will hopefully be completed by the end of this week. Next, the house will be plastered and the ceiling will be made.
Now we have a big room for the tsa-tsa producing. Tomorrow the first group of people are going up to make tsa-tsas. Everybody is most welcome to help.

without words…

Again the 72h prostration retreat took place and opend the season in Berchenling. Lama Chodrup Dorje who will build and inaugurate the Kalachakra Stupa with Lama Ole Nydahl visited the place and joined the prostrations!

First of all: In September 07 we sat together as an international team and developed a long-term “Vision of Karma Berchen Ling Sangha”:

“KBL is an international Diamond way-lay Buddhist retreat center of the Karma Kagyü Lineage. It is holding a protective powerfield for Europe through its activities such as Kalachakra Stupa for the longer future and retreats and smaller and bigger courses throughout the year. The whole year an international team is partially living at the place. The meditation is protected and the yogi mind is lived. There is a vivid Sangha based on friendship and trust where the people are open to learn from each other and have a good relation to their Greek neighbors. The place provides a simple but cozy and independent infrastructure which reflects the limited resources and the origin wilderness of the place. The environment is improved for better meditation in-and outdoor. Many beings shall develop and get enlightened in the Mandala of Berchen Ling.”

It was read to Lama Ole, and he was very happy about it and blessed it.

Overview: There were a lot of events in 2007

• KBL will be run throughout the year with a new model of 12 housekeepers
• There was building activity and we will continue with our international friends
• To see the details – read our newsletter

Stephi from Graz has stayed on the place over the winter and gave many friends the opportunity to come and go as they please, the place was very lively! Friends from Austria, Poland, the Slovak Republic, England, Germany Switzerland and Athens meditated together during the winter. Except for 14 days, she always had company. So, the houses on our beautiful place are well used.

It was the mildest winter in Greece in 40 years. For next winter, we will surely need more wood, and the Lama House and the retreat huts must be isolated against moisture (because of mould).

Bucky from the Slovak Republic, Remik from Poland, Jan from Athens and Juergen from Germany have planted over 400 trees on our property within 3 days, of these 200 are equipped with a protective wire netting against the sheep and goats – and also to make sure they are seen. They have had a lot of fun; the weather was warm and good. Metty and Stephi cooked for the hungry farmers. Two days after that the snow rain started again – for 24 hours – just to make sure the new trees would be watered thoroughly.

Due to the generosity of Patricia and Alex in the past, transport of goods, building material and people to KBL could be managed. As we all know, roads up tho the place in the Greek mountains are an adventure for most normal cars. Therefore, Martin, Stephanie and Jakob from Austria had the idea to buy a strong car (see photo) for Berchen Ling. (The car was bought from donations, and we still need some more money for insurance and transport to Greece. No money from the KBL account was used.) The car is already in KBL and being used for transport. It is ready to be used for everything that is planned this year.

Last and hottest news: the hill was bought on the 9th of March! With our lama´s blessing, the Stupa Hill now belongs to KBL. Lama Ole´s old wish is now fulfilled. May this be the beginning of our next steps to decide where to build the Stupa and move towards the application of the construction permits. May this benefit all beings.

The first centre activity of the year was the 72 hours prostration retreat end of May. Following that the building season was opened. First we noticed several damages which had occurred over winter:

The roof of the sangha-house was damaged to a large extent, all the tiles of the southern side were broken or gone. These damages we had often, they appear due to the extremely strong winter storms. That is why we decided to cover the roof with a plate for now, which can be fastened and secured better than tiles. An agent of the Allianz was there and noted the damages, the insurance will cover the costs. Due to the recommendations of a carpenter we also made the down tilt steeper and heightened the roof.

The provisional building in the centre of the place, that is used as storage room, course kitchen and Cafeteria, also was damaged so strongly through the wind, that reconstruction doesn’t pay. It all was quite ugly anyway, which is why we took it down completely. Insteadd we constructed a pretty new kitchen/cafeteria house.

Sheet metal flying around have slightly damaged the roof of the lama house (only a few tiles and a few corners of plaster) and the little generator house has disappeared completely, sort of gone with the wind. We built a retreat house with two rooms and separate shower and toilet. They are limited to the sangha house by a dry wall and thus protect the retreat area. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to finish the building completely. A leafy roof and a nature stone front are to be added to give it a cave-like character. Another dry wall supports the slope in front of the lama house. In front of the Sangha house we constructed a beautiful pergola made from wood with a straw roof. By this the “gypsy camp-feeling” has disappeared, which reigned due to using the camouflage nets and plastic foils as sun protection.