A home for Buddhist nuns

For 12 years, even as we serve and spread the Dharma, we have shifted from place to place, in India, Mexico and the US, living in rented or borrowed places, always attempting to uphold our monastic way of life and serve our beautiful Spanish-speaking lay community. We started as four Buddhist nuns and are now five. We have had several women ask if they could take vows and join us, but due to our lack of permanent housing, we are unable to accommodate their requests. In order to offer opportunities to other women and to serve our larger community as it too grows, we now plan to put down roots and establish a stable base. Help us make a home! 

WHO WE ARE: An intentional community of Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns. We are deeply committed to embodying a new model of spiritual community that eschews patriarchal institutions and ideologies, embracing our shared responsibility to care for the earth and to serving our lay community dispersed across Latin America and anywhere that Spanish speakers are found. 

Damcho, a nun for 22 years, with a PhD in Sanskrit and a background in journalism. Originally from New York. Our reluctant leader. 

Nangpel, a nun for 13 years, former anthropologist from Mexico and an aikido black belt who had her own dojo. Keeps us on our toes. 

Lodro, a nun for 7 years, a former accountant born in the Dominican Republic and emigrated to Puerto Rico as a teenager. Our unofficial head of "laughter therapy" 

Dapel, a nun for 13 years, a former schoolteacher from Switzerland. Our chant master and resident artist.  

Karya, our newest nun, from Colombia. A former university lecturer with a degree in semiotics

WHAT WE DO
It is of great importance to us that economic inequalities not form a barrier to accessing spiritual care and services particularly in Buddhism. This is why we offer all of our programs completely free of charge; meditation retreats, online group practice sessions, online courses and a seven-year study program. Our Dharma offerings and services are accessible and open to anyone who speaks Spanish. In keeping with the greatest Buddhist example, Buddha himself, we live on whatever donations we receive. And, thanks to our many kind donors, we manage to cover our costs of living. 

 
However, our need to secure dependable housing has now become acute. It will be quite a stretch for our lay community to meet the costs of buying a suitable house and property. This is why we are turning to you and the English-speaking world. The amount we are seeking would serve as an initial down payment that would allow us to start our journey. We have a long way to go and cannot make it alone. Can you help us get there? 

 

For over a decade now, a constant part of our life has been moving house - packing, house-hunting and unpacking, first in India for 7 years, then in Mexico for 4 and most recently in the state of Virginia in the United States. Our landlord wishes to sell the house we are now renting, so it is time for us to act. 

It has become increasingly difficult and expensive for us to find appropriate rental spaces for our growing community, and the wear and tear of this itinerant life has made it increasingly challenging for us to continue service our lay community. We long to put down roots for our next phase of growth!

Please help us find a stable home at last. 

 

 

When we started together, we were convinced that before building a physical monastery, it was important first to develop the personal bonds and group practices that would make us a true community. We are happy we placed the focus there in our first decade, but now we really need to settle in a place of our own--our own and also a place to offer to the world. We yearn to create a safe space that we can fill with the energy of our practice and our love, and offer that space as a refuge to others. We long to tend the earth and care for a forest.

 

Will you help us purchase a home that can serve as our base so that we can continue caring for our lay community, as we sustain our contemplative lives as nuns? We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so all donations to us are tax deductible in the United States.  

 

You can see the approach we offer on our Youtube channel, where you can find teaching series on topics such as working with difficult emotions, gender identities, cultivating openhearted generosity, courageous compassion and other qualities, environmental awareness and action, voluntary simplicity and Mahayana sutras. Our channel has over 160,000 subscribers and this allows us to reach and benefit many people who are not Buddhists, as well as those who might not otherwise have access to a Dharma center. Since the pandemic, hundreds of people have joined our online meditation retreats and taken courses on our online institute. Our always-open meditation halls serve over 35,000 members, all entirely free of charge.

 

YouTube channel "faceBuda" youtube.com/user/faceBuda/featured

Online meditation halls (Salas de meditación Dharmadatta) budismoenlinea.ning.com/

Online courses (Instituto Budadharma) institutobudadharma.org/

Seven-year study program institutobudadharma.org/programa-de-formacion/

You may be interested to view as well the parallel fundraiser we have running concurrently for our Spanish-spekaing community here: https://gofund.me/03a9e1d1

 

For us, gratitude and simplicity are fundamental, and anything you can offer will be appreciated deeply and used with care. For us, the opportunity to ask for your help is also an opportunity to connect and expand the webs of compassion and care that we are building. If you do choose to donate, please let us know how you would like us to dedicate aspirations for you. We do prayers twice a day for all our benefactors.  

With palms together, we thank you from the heart,
Damcho, Dapel, Karya, Lodro and Nangpel  (and Tashi, our resident beagle)