Our first two huts are now complete with people very much enjoying and benefitting from the facilities they provide. As many of you know, we have been wanting to offer these huts for a long time so it’s amazing to have them in our grounds.

They have been very popular with lots of bookings far in advance. We’d therefore love to build the third hut as soon as possible. We already have planning permission so can go ahead once we have raised the remaining £17,125 needed to purchase the materials required.

The huts are built on a wooden platform within a lightly wooded area quite close to the main house. Supplied in kit form, from slow-grown timber, they are well insulated with electric wall heaters

There is:

• A spacious room for sleeping and practicing

• An shower and toilet room

• Basic facilities for tea-making, cooking, washing up etc

• A veranda overlooking the surrounding countryside

Each hut (including it’s platform) fully installed with all necessary services and furnished will cost £23,000.

As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says,

‘So retreat is the foundation of true development. Without retreat, without being alone, the mind is like muddy water. But the mind in retreat, being alone and free from outside distractions, is like a calm, crystal-clear lake. There is the clarity to help see ourselves more clearly and to see our Buddha nature more easily.’

Conducive spaces to do individual retreat, particularly longer-term ones, are a rarity in today’s world. Building these huts will enable us to provide a precious space for those who wish to dedicate time to turning inwards for the benefit of others.

Not only that, if a hut is not being used for individual retreat at any time it will be utilised as overflow accommodation for those attending group retreats in the main house, reducing the numbers of people needing to use the dormitories. However, priority will always be given to those doing individual retreat.

Making an offering of any size will be an incredibly powerful gift to those who use a hut while also creating immense merit, a connection to the benefits of solitary retreat and the cause for you to be able to complete one yourself in this or future lives. Please use the donation form above or below to donate to this incredibly beneficial and powerful cause.

If you are a UK tax payer please consider claiming Gift Aid on your donation which will add an extra 25% to your donation for free! It’s as simple as accessing the form by clicking here, filling it in and returning to us by either scanning and emailing it to director@landofjoy.co.uk or printing and posting it to Land of Joy, Greenhaugh Hall, Hexham, NE48 1PP.

Land of Joy is continuing to grow thanks to the huge positive energy of all our supporters, something which will also help the huts become a reality! If money is difficult please consider reciting the Ganapati Mantra (Please click here to find out more!) and/or dedicate the merits of your own practice to the development of the retreat huts.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

As a thank you for donating to this project we would like to offer you a rosewood or sandalwood mala purchased in Boudhanath, Nepal and blessed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche while at Kopan Monastery.

If you would like to accept please complete the form below.