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 being made far in advance. We’ve now decided to go ahead and order the third hut as it will take until the summer for it to be delivered, trusting that the remaining £7,000 needed will be donated in time.

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.

Offering a contribution of any size will be an incredibly powerful gift to those who use one of our huts while also creating immense merit for yourself, a connection to the benefits of solitary retreat and the cause for you to be able to complete a personal retreat yourself in this or future lives.

You are most welcome to make a donation of any size to help us build and complete our third retreat hut. If you would like to purchase something specific for the hut such as curtains for a window (£17), a kettle (£20) or a meditation mat (£36), please use the specific donation form below and choose what you would like to offer from the list. Alternatively, you can use the general donations form to offer a non-specific donation of any amount.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!