Mid-winter. The sun makes its way over the horizon here on the main site at 7.10 am, lighting up a sparkling frosty scene. From my top stoep I look down on the frozen bird bath and see frustrated birds arriving to skate and peck away at hard water until I make it down there to [...]
Daily Life Dharma by the lazy Buddhist Although I can be patient at times (I feel the need to convince those of you who know me that it is actually possible!), there are certain circumstances where I find it incredibly hard to keep my cool. Queues and what seems like time-wasting incompetence are two big [...]
At TRC late last year, Tashi, Pippa’s much loved cat was very ill and near death. With half his face eaten away by cancer, it was hard to witness. Many of us who have spent time at TRC over the years know Tess and her long illness. In a previous post, I touched on the [...]
Autumn has once again crept in with seasonal food coming in from the kitchen garden, wonderful shades of colour in the trees, early morning mists and almost our first frost as it hit 0 degrees. We had our intimate Easter creative family Elements Weekend with Jayne Pilossof, our home grown Tara Rokpa Therapist from Zimbabwe, [...]
I remember when Donal and Akong Rinpoche came back from a visit to Zimbabwe and South Africa. We sat in the garden at Samye Ling, fascinated and impressed, as Donal told us about the African Buddhist Centres, and about their strong commitment to the dharma. Then, many years later, in December 2017, I had the [...]
Autumn is in the air with abundant seeding weeds, plants yellowing and nights cooling. After good late summer rains the valley is looking lush. Ceiling repairs This has not been a busy month for retreats, but endless building and grounds maintenance continue. Our employees are currently replacing an old collapsed ceiling in the [...]
Over the last few months Tikologo has experienced what we are now identifying as a seasonal activity induced media blackout. We insure you that this is a legitimate condition but hopefully the worst of it has passed and slowly our digital and social presence will return! That said it has really been a very [...]
Changing our minds The Ngondro contemplation on the agenda for the day was the first of the eight adverse conditions. This is the one where you get to mull over how much your mind gets disturbed by the five poisons. It’s important. The more strongly our minds are affected, the more we are under their [...]
Big Changes at TRC 2018 will see some big changes at the Tara Rokpa Centre. Since 2002, resident volunteer, Pippa Cope has been developing and running the Centre. She is now building a beautiful eco-house on the Tikologo site, in order to retire. This means that we are looking for a Retreat Centre Manager to [...]
Mitta was one of the last remaining matriarchs of Modibate ("Die Stadt", our next door neighbours). She lived in a completely ramshackled hut in a small family complex. It took 3 trips last Saturday to move her and her possessions into her newly constructed house in Rietvallei, a developing village which is about 8 km [...]
