A message from the founder and spiritual director
It is a great honour that His Holiness the Sakya Trizin has entrusted me with looking after the Drogmi Retreat Centre. This carries with it the huge responsibility of a great and noble project – to build the first Tibetan-style Gompa in New South Wales.
Importantly, this new Retreat Centre will also fulfil the vision of the 14th Gyalsay Tulku Rinpoche who felt a very strong need to have a quiet place where people could receive teachings and undertake retreats. We are already part way there thanks to our very generous benefactors and supporters who have enabled us to purchase this special property so close to Sydney yet so secluded and private as well.
When His Holiness granted me an audience in late 2006 to discuss the Retreat Centre and examine the draft plans, he was highly supportive. His Holiness has taken a particular interest in this project and, in fact, offered specific advice on a number of aspects of the Gompa to ensure it retained a Tibetan flavour.
The new Gompa, and the Drogmi Retreat Centre more broadly, are going to play a critically important role in helping the various Buddhist schools to facilitate their practices and spread the precious Buddha Dharma. I see the fully developed Drogmi Retreat Centre playing a critical role for the Buddhist community throughout Australia and becoming one of the main centres for teaching in the region.
In particular, I see it supporting Sakya groups across Australia through the development of an extensive education program which will produce qualified Western teachers – both ordained and lay – to spread the Dharma more widely. The Drogmi Retreat Centre will also provide a venue for interfaith gatherings and, over time, I would like to see it become a place for people from around the world to undertake long retreats.
It is rare for us to able to contribute to something that will have such a profound impact on the lives of so many people. I invite you to consider contributing to this very special project which will benefit many generations to come and help countless sentient beings. Please consider your support as a great legacy from this lifetime.
For my own part, I commit myself unreservedly to this great endeavour and I intend to remain at the Drogmi Retreat Centre for a very long time to come. I assure you that whatever donation you can give to this noble project will be spent wisely and not a cent will be wasted.
Thank you in advance for your very generous support.
