Sacramento Dharma Center

Our June 13th For the Love of the Dharma Party was a huge success! Thank you to all who attended, and to those who helped make it happen.  It was fantastic to see so many people coming together to support the vision of a combined dedicated practice space for our three Sanghas – Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group, Sacramento Insight Meditation and Valley Streams Zen Sangha. On June 13th 2014 his Holiness the Dalai Lama said “In the 21st century…We Buddhist brothers and sisters must have closer contact and cultivate mutual understanding. This will benefit us as individuals, will help preserve and spread the Dharma, and will be an example of religious harmony for the world.” It is truly exciting to see that vision being enacted right here in our city!!

Patience and Preparation   

Bringing everyone up to date with our property search, we told the guests that we still don’t know to whom the Lions will sell their building. All we know is that there is another party who has expressed interest. Susan Orr, board president, reminded attendees that all we can control are our own actions, and not the actions of other groups looking for space, nor the actions of the seller. So we are doing our best to make the strongest offer possible, to be patient, and also to keep our options open. Should the Lions sell to a different group, we don’t want to be caught on our heels so to speak. That is why we are already considering how to be proactive in looking at alternatives. One guest at the party said she has full faith that a location for the Center will arise, even if it’s not this one. We invite you all to join us in seeing this way! In the meantime we are continuing important groundwork though our committees that helps us be more prepared when we do find our new home. An example of that is refining our Conflict Transformation procedures. This is so that when conflict inevitably arises once we are sharing a space – whether between the Sanghas, between a Sangha and the SDC, or between us and our neighbors – we are prepared to learn from it and find harmony in going forward.

Ways to help

At the party we received much-needed monetary support. No matter which way this deal goes, there will be further expenses, and it helps for our financial position to be stronger. We have a thermometer graphic here www.sacdharma.org that shows our progress toward our goal of having 100  Sustaining Circle monthly donors by the end of June. It is so heartening to see the support coming in. Another way that a couple of people can actively support the creation of the Dharma Center is by filling vacancies on our board of directors. If that is a way you might be willing to help, then please email us from our contact page. You will find that it is a way to practice the principles that we learn in our Dharma studies in a conducive setting! Lastly, we are looking at ways that we can utilize volunteers, so please contact us if that is something you are interested in.

 

We are delighted to report that in a few short weeks we have more than doubled the number of monthly contributing supporters or ‘Sustaining Circle members’. Your response to our Sustaining Circle campaign has been wonderful, and we are so grateful to our community.

Today we have 65 Circle members and the monthly income has also more than doubled to $2,340.  Please take a look at our ‘thermometer’ where you can track our progress toward our goal of 100 Circle members by the end of June. Help us reach that goal by joining the Sustaining Circle, demonstrating your support for the Dharma Center vision, with a pledge of whatever you can afford, $10, $25, $50 per month or more. You can sign up now here!

Today, May 12th, our Board submitted a Letter of Intent to purchase a building for our future Dharma Center! This is a wonderful location across from Sierra Two Community Center on 24^th Street near 2^nd Ave., down a quiet alleyway named “Sakura”. Have a look here .

What happens next? The owners and their listing agent will consider our Letter of Intent, along with others that may arrive, and let us know how our proposed terms suit them or need to be adjusted. There is no deadline for the response, although one to two weeks is usual. The Letter of Intent serves to open the conversation between us and the sellers, ideally leading to a purchase agreement. At that point, we would be able to secure the property while we undertake 45 days of due diligence – i.e., thorough inspection, estimates, and planning. We would also begin the process of applying to the City of Sacramento for a Conditional Use Permit to allow our Founding Sanghas to hold sits, retreats, and classes.

Yes – there is no certainty about outcome! Right here we all can practice together with non-attachment. At the same time, we will use every skillful means available in negotiations.

Your support by becoming a monthly donor will make all the difference – please visit our donation page now to join the Sustaining Circle . Your gift, of any size, shows us the community support essential for this big undertaking! As part of the Sustaining Circle, you will ensure that we can meet the Center’s monthly expenses, while preserving the Capital Fund for the down payment and probable major improvements (bathrooms, fire sprinklers, permit expenses, etc.)

We invite you to reserve a place at the SDC party on June 13^th, where you can learn more while enjoying music and refreshments! [your invitation]

Some background: Since the property became available three weeks ago, your Board plunged into multitudes of discussions and diligent research. We have engaged a highly energetic broker, Bob Rosenberg, with decades of experience; examined a variety of scenarios and selected the safest and strongest financial offer we can make; brought in architect Mike Malinowski to evaluate the property, resulting in a detailed To Do list on which all the committees are hard at work ; obtained an environmental report about the parking lot facing 24^th St (former site of a gas station); and began gathering the tools to apply for a special-use (assembly) permit from the City, if we enter a purchase agreement.

Please contact your Sangha representatives for more information or with questions or suggestions, and find out how you can join in our efforts! Valley Streams: Linda Dekker and John Penfield; SIM: Joette Sebastiani and John Phelps; SBMG: Helen Hobart and Julia Mullen; and at-large Board member and President, Susan Orr. [our board]

“Our problems today are no longer as simple as those encountered by the Buddha. In the twenty-first century, we will have to practice meditation collectively—as a family, a city, a nation, and a community of nations. We can prepare the ground for bringing that Buddha to life, for our sake and for the sake of countless others, by transforming our own suffering and cultivating the act of Sangha-building. It is the most important work we can do.”

The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings, page 167

Thich Nhat Hanh

For several years, SDC has had its eye on a property on 24^th St., across from Sierra Two Community Center. Once we knew it was coming available, we promptly toured the property and engaged a highly experienced and determined broker, Robert Rosenberg, to assess how it might meet our needs. It’s an ideal size and location, accessible, safe, with public transportation, good parking, and a café nearby. The building had stood empty for several years, while the owners, the Lions Club Foundation, decided what to do with it. We have begun to energetically explore all possibilities.

Join us in enthusiasm tempered by “don’t know mind”, as we begin these steps right away: investigate the condition of the property, including a parking area with potential environmental issues; consider how to obtain the necessary “assembly use” permit, requiring approval of neighbors and up to 6 months of City processing; and determine financing strategies, private loans, and whether we can demonstrate a dependable flow of income to meet monthly costs. Many steps, walking together, are needed to manifest a dharma center!

On April 14th, your Dharma Center board adopted an implementation plan with timeline to accompany the new strategic plan, soon to be posted here on our website. New President Susan Orr, VP Julia Mullen, Treasurer John Penfield, Secretary John Phelps, and members Linda Dekker, Joette Sebastiani, and Helen Hobart warmly invite your participation! Your continuing encouragement and sense of possibility has buoyed the SDC board through months of very focused work.

We now have a pragmatic set of tools for the work ahead: criteria for assessing the suitability of buildings; checklist to choose a realtor, fundraising targets based on numbers of supporters and amounts, by key dates; more conversations with donors and Sanghas; guidelines for day-to-day tasks at the Center, and much more, are spelled out in the implementation plan. Board energies are high. Frank and lively discussion at the late March brunch with the Founding Sangha boards from Sacramento Insight Meditation, Valley Streams Zen Sangha, and Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group, sparked everyone’s can-do spirit. Person-to-person conversations make all the difference!

What’s Coming Up?

1. Party time! Save the evening of Saturday, June 13th, for a time to come together in The Courtyard in midtown for live music, refreshments, a raffle, and conversations, all in the flow of Second Saturday goings-on. You’ll have a chance to get free raffle tickets when you sign up to participate in the Sustaining Circle of donors, the critical building block of our ability to meet the Center’s monthly costs.

2. Monthly giving is the key to our future. Please be on the look out for the letter you will receive shortly, explaining this new phase of developing our community Dharma Center. If sharing the benefits of your practice, and contributing to growing compassion and wisdom in our community, speaks to your heart, please offer your generous support.

3. Your help is essential and we welcome you to participate in an upbeat Volunteer Program where you can express your love of the Dharma, use your talents, and get in on the very foundations of creating the Center with like-minded friends. Do your interests lie in graphic design? Working with finances? Scouting buildings? Hands-on work when we have a building? Social media and photography? Special events? You are needed!

You will be seeing concrete steps this month and throughout 2015 to ensure we are ready and able to enter into negotiations for a lease or lease-to-buy building without delay. Together with your help, we will offer the community the benefits of sitting groups, Dharma classes, Sangha programs, retreats, and workshops, family programming, and much more, available every day in our own home.