by the lazy Buddhist I had the good fortune to welcome 2024 while attending Donal Creedon’s wonderful online retreat. The retreat theme was Peace and it was based on Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s reminder that the nature of mind is already peace. During the introductory talk, Donal spoke of the Quiet room that can be found [...]
Hello all! I just returned from TRC where I spend a few days for the Mandela Volunteering Weekend, enjoying that special country place of ours. I really like to encourage you all, family, kids & friends to come out for a long weekend to relax & unwind. It is the ideal place for it. So [...]
The “middle veld” South African autumn is here. Last night the temperature was zero and in the middle of the day 35. So it's once again a time for putting on and taking off layers of clothing. At this time of year, nature's clever seed dispersal is in full swing, the grass seed-eating birds busily [...]
by the lazy Buddhist Sravasti Abbey is an American Buddhist monastery that came up on my YouTube feed. I watched the welcome video on the home page of their website and there was a sentence that has stayed with me - We try to instil every task with the Buddhist values of non-harming, mindfulness, compassion [...]
I am beginning to think that we are going through a quiet Irish invasion at the Tara Rokpa Centre. It kicked off with a month-long retreat with Dónal Creedon in November and December, then we followed up with Brion Sweeney in April for a bit of mindfulness. In my ignorance (before coming to TRC) I [...]
We are happy to announce that Monica Burr has offered to take over the role of champion of the Friends of TRC. Friends of TRC is the new 'membership' option that we have been rolling out for the past few years. Monica will be keeping an eye on our Friends admin, as well as promoting [...]
I can’t believe it’s nearly November! The year seems to be flying by at great speed. We have had 2 nights with dramatic thunderstorms bringing much-needed rain to the parched land. It has been a high alert for fires for some time with all the dry grass and strong winds. There have been some devastating [...]
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 [...]
Drupon Rinpoche often teaches that the way to understand the Dharma is to look at yourself. He suggests looking at your ways of thinking, talking, and conducting yourself and seeing if your words and conduct are consistent with the Dharma. It has been an interesting week, I faced two difficult situations, one business, and one [...]
I’m sitting, gratefully basking in the warmth of my wood-burning stove on an unusually wet and cold May evening, with time to reflect on my semi-retired life here in Tara’s valley. I joined Alan’s recent retreat on the Buddhist foundation practices and really benefitted personally. He skilfully and with his usual humility, kindness, and [...]
