Bodhicharya Britain Centre
Would you be glad if there was a permanent Bodhicharya centre in the UK? I'm writing this letter to get a clearer idea of what the level of interest might be.
Purpose
A centre like this might provide:
* a retreat centre for day, weekend, week, and longer retreats lead by a monk - and for private retreats
* a home and base for Rinpoche when he is visiting the UK
* a centre for a community who have Rinpoche as their main teacher
- a place where people can practice together
- a place where both young and old and family with children have a place
- a place where people can get old together retiring in a small Buddhist community – not too far away from medical and other care facilities.
Place With Rinpoche’s students in England, Scotland and Wales a centre located at the midpoint makes sense. One possibility is the Peak District National Park - attractive for its scenery and for walking - it’s close to Sheffield which has direct rail and coach links to Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Southampton and Bristol.
(see more pictures at end)
The property Rinpoche has asked if we can find somewhere nice preferably near a lake.
It might be possible to find a former chapel and church buildings, farm, monastery or inn that would provide a suitable base that might in time be converted or extended.
At the moment there are several inexpensive properties for sale in this general area - one former hotel near a railway station in a small nearby town with 15 bedrooms and large meeting rooms downstairs that is expected to sell for £70,000 (!) Not quite suitable but still…
There is a chance that people who would like to live in a Bodhicharya community might be able to buy a share of the centre or else, of course, buy separate property and live nearby.
Resident monk Rinpoche has asked me to be the resident monk. This I would be very happy to do. I do have teaching commitments in the West Indies which I would like to keep up, but visiting monks and lay teachers would be welcome to come and teach in my absence.
Fundraising We would be starting from scratch. If there proved to be a lot of interest this might not take too long. The funds would be held in a charitable trust which we would have to set up.
If several people were interested in selling up and living in the centre soon this could all happen quite quickly and an extensive building might be provided.
I think we might even be able to start looking for property within a year.
Any surfeit of funds generated by the centre once it’s operating would be given to Rigul and the work being done there.
Interested? If this project interests you then please get in touch with me by e-mail letting me know of your interest and how you might be able to contribute to setting up this centre. All ideas (it’s very open at this stage) and offers of help and support welcome! We can anyway develop according to need.
I will then send out a more detailed proposal – and maybe we can soon make a start.
With every good wish 
Karma Sonam Rinchen monk.rinchen@gmail.com
Peak District National Park
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 October 2011
Dear Friends
I hope this finds you in good health and good spirits. I am well here in Trinidad though we have a State of Emergency at the moment with night curfew - but the sangha here seems to be doing pretty okay despite all that.
I am planning on returning to UK in early spring so as to be around when Rinpoche returns to the UK. I'm hoping we will meet together with him at that time and start to make the BBC a reality. I plan to stay on in England then to do whatever is necessary to make a start. At the moment a couple of friends are keeping an eye out for properties for me in the Peak District area - but our funds do not put us in a position to be looking seriously at the moment!
Until then we are trying to raise interest in the centre and see what funds people might be willing to commit to this so that we can have a sense of what might be possible for us (and we really need to raise substantially greater funds - but then - it's early days yet). As well as this it's important to know how much help people might be willing to offer. Many of you have kindly replied to our questions and there have been some very generous responses in terms of funds that would be made available and time and skills offered * Our base is slowly but steadily growing. We are also building up a picture of what people would like in terms of accomodation and retreats &c
I'm also following up one or two good leads I've received from interested sangha members about the possibilities of obtaining property that is subsidised in some way.
And I'm investigating legal structures to find what would be most suitable fo us. At the moment it looks like Charitable status would be best (I've been involved setting up two Buddhist ones in the UK before now) as the government would give us back 25% on all taxable donated funds. This would apply to the buying of the property itself as well to donations given for retreats &c&c
I feel this centre might prove to be a blessing to us all and a benefit for our beloved teacher Rinpoche too.
With every good wish
