EC Blog News & Reports

Now that the construction has started, things are moving very quickly! What you see on the pictures below is what is left of our barn at the moment, not even three weeks after the first truck arrived.

The carpenters completely dismantled the roof, and another company demolished a good part of the barn. Taking down so much of the building is necessary for several reasons. This way it is possible to dig a basement underneath the ground floor for the sanitary areas saving both time and money. Rotten parts of the wood will be replaced to make sure that our new gompa building is really going to last for a hundred years. Visually, the new barn is very much going to resemble the old one according to the monument protection requirements.

Much of the demolished material is being recycled, e.g. the old roof tiles have already been used to create a street for the construction vehicles, and the wood not suitable for the construction anymore will be transformed into garden furniture and other things.

The next big thing is the earthworks for the new building, starting this week. Despite the main construction being in professional hands in order to manage the tight time frame in between the snowy periods, voluntary helpers are welcome, especially during the next weekends.

If you would like to come and help with supporting the construction work with whatever action is needed, please let us know at join@europe-center.org.

No way to deny it any longer – the EC team is now officially addicted to construction sites! As if we did not have enough building works going on at home, eleven of us happily followed the invitation to help with the renovation of the new London Diamond Way Buddhist Center.

Last Friday we flew over to England for a “power-weekend” full of joyful activity together with the London Sangha. Instructed by professional restorer Beate, who as an EC resident is also in charge of the Europe Center Villa’s restauration, some of us enthusiastically scraped, plastered, and painted in the new meditation room for many hours. Layers of old wall coverings this way transformed magically into a brandnew bright white wall as a background for the beautiful Buddha statues.

Others worked on the interiors of the smaller rooms, preparing them for the first residents to move in. In the evenings, we listened to Dharma lectures by Buddhist teachers from London and from the EC, and enjoyed the city at night.

The Diamond Way Buddhist Center in London has been in a small house in the Holborn area of London for more than a decade. Now a wonderful building called the Beaufoy Institute in the Lambeth area in south London has been purchased and is being transformed into the new center. To learn more about the history of the Beaufoy, its cultural and future functions as London’s biggest buddhist center, and ways to support the project, please click here.

We would like to thank our friends in London for inviting us for this very inspiring and joyful weekend, and for taking such good care of us. Many new connections evolved and many old friendships deepened. If you would also like to come to enjoy London and help with restoring the Beaufoy, on your own or with your home sangha, please send a message for more information.

Why would we blog about furniture? After all we are Buddhists and not collectors of antique furniture. What does the Europe Center have to do with furniture and what is it all about anyway?

On the one hand it is about friendship, internationality, about connections. It is a melting pot of all our condensed center experience and it is a place where friends from different cultures meet and learn from each other. On the other hand the Europe Center is a beautiful more than 100 year old building. Every little last detail in the house was given great attention while designing and building it. We keep alive the awareness and the care that the original architect put into this house. We make it our everyday awareness training and thus into living Buddhism. The care that was put into the planning itself clearly shows in the way the rooms on the ground floor are designed: the architect’s original idea was to connect the different rooms by repeating colors and picking up design elements.

In the early days of the EC the yellow room was the place for transmission and long nights with many friends but after many decades of use the yellow furniture was finally due for restoration.

After years of searching we found very skilled craftsmen to restore the furniture in the traditional way it was done a hundred years ago. As it is under monumental protection they used original materials like horse hair and shellac finish. It was a blessing to find Max in Graz for the restoration of the wood and Hendrik in Kiel for the upholstery, using fabric from a sangha friend in Munich. On top even friends from Budapest helped out with the transport.

Today, the new fabric is shiny grey in color and is of modern make. In this way we pick up the original design idea with a modern twist. We are very thankful to Hendrik and Max for all the countless hours of work and we will hopefully use the furniture for another hundred years.

After years of fundraising, planning, talking, and preparing the place, the first steps of construction started a few days ago.

Together with some friends we were happy to do the first part of the renovation of the old barn ourselves: dismantling the tool-shop between the barn and the gatehouse. After we finished this, the construction company took over. At this very moment, they are dismanteling the barn. All day long, tiles have been sliding down the over 1500 square meter roof and the wooden planks surrounding the upper floor of the barn have been taken down as well.

Our recent Transmission weekend was a family affair on many levels.

Firstly, the topic was about the second generation of Diamond Way Buddhists (the few now in their 20s & 30s and the ever growing baby boom), their experience of growing up in Western Buddhist families and their parents experience of how to manage one’s Dharma and family life successfully. Secondly, as we had more parents and children than usual staying at the EC and participating in the sessions, there was a playful family feeling about the place.

Over weekend we had a very inspiring talk on Compassion & the 6 Liberating Actions, we meditated together, had working groups, and  questions & answers with parents, children and those who have lived & worked in centers for many years.

Another reason to celebrate, another very important step taken on our way to the new EC building!

After days, weeks, and even years of working on the plans, Caty, Gergö and the architects on behalf of the foundation gave the building company the green light for starting the construction today. All the formalities were agreed on and sealed by handshake and a toast with the construction manager and his team afterwards.

“Let us make the big wish that the project will benefit many, many people and that it will be a step on the way to enlightenment!” (Caty)

The road is being fixed this week, the heavy construction trucks will be able to go up and down – the way for the transformation of the old barn into our future gompa, kitchen and dining hall is clear and the kick-off only days away now. We could not be more excited and will keep you updated!

Update: [ECTV] short movie about the event:

Once again the team running the Summer Course came together to prepare this year’s event. Even though the individual teams work together constantly throughout year to make the next course even more enjoyable for everybody, it is very important to meet with the whole team in one place, for a weekend. Such a meeting serves the purpose of addressing issues that concern more than one team, e.g. planning the individual team budgets for the upcoming course. It is also a chance for new people to join the different teams and help run the course. Last but not least: The more we know each other and the better friends we become, the better we can run the course. So we therefore, also use the time to get to know each other better.
This year is the 20th anniversary of our yearly Summer Courses, which started 20 years ago in Kassel. After a short movie about the course in ’93, Gerhard shared some words of inspiration, as to why we organize a course and what it means for us and for the people who attend courses like this one. I am at a loss to repeat what he said, but it was incredibly inspiring for everybody and made us all look forward to sharing that inspiration with all of you at the summer course.

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On April 8 Lama Ole Nydahl and the mayor of Immenstadt officially broke ground here at the EC, kicking off our construction project to create space for more meditation, more activity, and more friends!

A few weeks ago (better late than never) around 60 Russians took over the EC and cooked for us, worked in the barn, meditated with us and shared their culture and wonderful music with us. Spasiba friends! Enjoy these impressions of an exciting week at the Europe Center!

The fire brigade in the local village came to visit us the other day, but luckily it wasn’t to put out a fire. They came to practice their manoeuvres: unloading the truck, getting hoses & pumps hooked up, rescuing a damsel in simulated distress from a window and spraying water around as if there was a fire. They also came to accept a donation – they’re in need of a new fire truck, and the Diamond Way Buddhist Foundation was glad to support them with a cheque (oversized of course) for €3000. After practice, the giant cheque and handshakes all round, everyone headed to the Baucafe for warmth, coffee, cake and sausages. Should we ever have need of them at the EC, we know we’re in good hands with the Bühl Fire Brigade.