December, 2022, with Dónal Creedon by Anton Krueger, Jan 2023 This was my first time back at the TRC in three years, and I’m happy to report that everything is still standing and it’s greener than ever. There’s still a dead tree at the farm pool, but the new trees on the lawn are [...]
Update June 2023: The gravel road from the Rietvaly turnoff 9 km after Groot Marico has been fixed and graded and is passable once more in a normal sedan car. A reminder to drive slowly and you will arrive with all 4 tyres intact! As you may have seen, we have started recommending that [...]
As a first-time visitor to Tara Rokpa Centre, it was easy for me to blend into the environment simply because of the scenery and it was what my heart had been yearning for, for a very long time. Completely different from what you get at a vacation, for me, a vacation means how do I [...]
The countryside and our little valley look immaculate and very green. We have been blessed with a lot of rain in recent months leaving us with overflowing bridges and a very active waterfall. This has prepared the soil for our tree planting activities at the centre. With the assistance of Alhyrian from the permaculture site, [...]
by the lazy Buddhist Happy New Year! It’s 2022 and I’m probably not the only one who happily waved goodbye to 2021 and its challenges. Early on in the year, I came across a Facebook post in which H.E. Garchen Rinpoche talks of what Khenpo Munsel Rinpoche taught him while in prison. ‘When you find [...]
TO MY UNIVERSAL FAMILY AND FRIENDS A JOYOUS NEW YEAR – 2022 Paulo Senior and Paulo Junior joined us for the Compassionate Living in Difficult Times retreat with Alan and Pippa. This was their first visit to TRC, and hopefully not the last. One more challenging year has come to an end. But economic hardships [...]
I cannot believe that I have been at Tara Rokpa for a year already. The time has gone so fast. It certainly has been a year filled with trials, tribulations, new experiences and great learning. It has been wonderful meeting interesting people, making friends, learning different cooking methods, getting accustomed to a new landscape, and [...]
Back in the late 1900s, (I kid you not, it was 1997!) my now-husband and I spent just under a year travelling around America in a camper van. It was the most amazing adventure and something I have thought of often in the last few weeks as the Gabby Petito murder unfolds. At the same [...]
1 September, Spring Day, in the southern hemisphere, was always the day the public swimming pools opened in Johannesburg when I was a child. I’m sitting on my lovely “stoep” catching the last warmth of the setting sun. I tried dipping my feet into my pool and they became completely numb, so no swimming for [...]
In mid-June the cold creeps in as the sunsets. I have just come in from the cold where I braved a bowl of soup while watching the sky colours change and the waxing sickle moon and Venus and Mars growing brighter as the darkness crept in. The welcome wood-burning stove is now glowing, bringing needed [...]
