EC Blog Archive for the ‘Internationality’ Category

Work at the EC surely never gets boring – today JC and Stefan went up into the air to get down five antique carriages and sleds from under the roof of the barn. Both of them being routined mountain climbers, they managed this rope-action elegantly, securely and with a lot of fun.

We are already getting quite excited about what our new meditation hall will look like. Now that the wooden walls and lots of other stuff have gone, one gets a feeling of the huge space under impressive old wooden bars and 2500 squaremeters of roof. However, emptying the barn is just the beginning of many months of work – we will constantly need a lot of help to make this happen. You are more than welcome to support our barn-becomes-beautiful-gompa-action whenever you can – as even Lama Ole just did this week!

This week Lama Ole spent some project days at the Europe Center – mainly to write articles, answer his students’ emails and letters and to support the ongoing construction work in the old barn that will be transformed into the new EC meditation hall. Before driving here, Lama Ole spontaneously spent a relaxed evening talking to friends at the nearby Schwarzenberg Retreat Center.

A lot of cleaning-up action together with the Lama took place in the barn – the work was so dynamic that we really had trouble taking focussed pictures… The newly built shoe shelves for busy weekend events were immediately tested by one of our youngest inhabitants – he obviously approved! ;-) The very active day was followed by a cosy movie-watching evening in the Baucafé.

We waved goodbye to the Lama even before the sun came up on Thursday – wishing him and everyone joining a great time in Hungary, Skandinavia, Russia, Ukraine, and Spain!

In sunny autumn weather there was a lot of tidying-up action at the EC this weekend. Besides removing all sorts of summer course leftovers, tons of wood have to be sorted and stored, woodsheds have to be built to keep the wood dry in the snow… basically, everything has to be ready for six to seven months of winter and snow very soon. The golden fall is usually very quickly followed by the first snow. Of course, in between we also found enough time to enjoy the sunshine while meditating, having breakfast, lunch, and meetings outside and playing with the kids.

And last but not least, more deligent helpers came on Sunday to also polish the Villa – preparing everything for someone very special to arrive tonight for the next days… we will keep you updated!

Birds are heading southwards, the wineleaves shine in bright hues of yellow, pink and red and the nights are becoming quite chilly. There’s even already snow on the higher mountain tops that can be seen from the EC.

These pictures are probably just the start of  some more blogposts within the next weeks – we would like to share lots of photo impressions of the extraordinarily beautiful Allgäu autumn with you.

After a summer of hard work by many, hindrances like injuries and long periods of rain that prevented the continuation of the work – we had a lot of reason to celebrate yesterday: Edwin and his team put the last tile on the roof of the 2nd House, took down the scaffolding right afterwards and celebrated the fresh and clear view from all sides together.

Lots of thanks to all the friends who spent hours, days and weeks of their summer on the roof to get this done – please come back home soon to see the results of your great work (before it’s all covered by snow! ;-) ).

Once a year, the Immenstadt ladies put on their nicest dirndl – the traditional Bavarian dress – and the gentlemen the according fine leather trousers for the “Viehscheid”. Translated directly, this means something like “cattle division” and it refers to all the Allgäu cows being taken down from the meadows to their home farms for winter. Even the cows themselves are dressed up – the sound of the hundreds of huge bells around their necks is very impressive when they pass through the valley. The “leading” cow of each farm wears a crown made out of flowers to show everyone that things went well during the summer season up on the mountain meadows.

After the cows have all arrived safely in their owners’ transporters, it’s the Immenstadt version of the Oktoberfest. Probably there’s no need to add much to the pictures. ;-) We had a wonderful time down in town today, learning a bit about the Bavarian culture and traditions – hopefully you will also enjoy some “Viehscheid” impressions!

Even the cows on the meadow seemed to be wondering what was going on today. Lots of chainsaw sounds in the middle of peaceful, quiet Allgäu?

Well, to literally cut it short – our resident arborist Jürgen and a team of helpers took down the line of big trees separating the 2nd House from the parking lot. To improve the view, secure the house and to bring bright sunshine into the rather dark dormitories. New trees have been planted already and more are still to come. It’s about time to do all this, since there is already the first snow on the mountain tops…

Okay, from the outside it might look a bit like a battlefield at the moment – with the tree logs and the not yet finished new roof. ;-) However, EC residents Charlotte and Tamás immediately inspected the new view across the mountain meadows and the lake from the dormitory windows. They were obviously delighted with the result of the “tree action”!

And as if it had not been enough action and challenge already, the guys afterwards tried some rope acrobatics in the garden…

Here are some beautiful photo impressions taken by Wolfgang from Hamburg during the Summer Course. Yes – there was a loooot of rain – however, clearly there was even more fun, friendship and cosiness all around! :-)

The Transmission Days could not happen without the presence of good old friends of Lama Ole, who spent a lot of time with him traveling, organizing, planning or teaching dharma. Present among our vast family are: Caty, Tomek, Gabi, Leif, Maxi, Erik, Wojtek, Karola, Magie, Manfred, Bernhard, Kerstin, Gerhard, Ronald, Sasha, Rüdiger, Wolfgang, Jesper, Pit, Meike, Didi, Mäc, Mira, Kai, Marianne, Zsuzsa, Karol, Juliane, Grisha, Marta and many others who are enrichenig Lama Ole´s talk with their input, interesting questions and stories. A team of dozens of friends had prepared lots of data and sorted memories of the past in order to update the Diamond Way history timeline. In huge tables and files, our history is written down and checked by many bright heads.

For the photos we thank this time to Jan and Ginger :)

The Phowa (tib.: Conscious Dying) course with 1.300 people as the first part of the 3rd International EC Summer Course was successfully completed yesterday.

Sunday night brought the beginning of a whole week dedicated entirely to talks and lectures with and by Lama Ole about 40 years of bringing Diamond Way Buddhism to the West. Lama Ole and friends will recall stories from the past and explain the reasons and backgrounds of developments and decisions made that formed the way we practice Buddhism today. Please join in via live streaming if you cannot be here!