Dhargyey Buddhist Centre News

DHARGYEY BUDDHIST CENTRE

22 Royal Terrace, Dunedin, New Zealand Tel (03) 477 8374

20 February 2005

Dear Dharma friends,

Purification practices – first Sunday of the month
Various purification practices have been done at 9am on Sunday mornings with Rinpoche over the years.
This is a very meritorious activity and you are encouraged to make the effort to come to these.
If you have found the difficult or confusing in the past, part of the Easter course
will be an explanation of the various practices.

Centre's calendar:
The calendars of events and teaching dates will not be free this year. We have put a bit of effort into making some nice ‘hang on the wall' type ones. You have the choice of $20 for a colour one or $10 for a black and white one. We aren't aiming to make any money on them. If you want one please e-mail us or put your name down on the list in the hallway of The Centre – there is a separate jar for paying for it there, too.

Co-op idea:
It was suggested to initiate some kind of food co-op through the Centre and the Board would be keen to hear from anyone who might be interested in joining this initiative. Please get in touch with any of the board members (Jane, Jens, Olga, Peter or Hiltrun).

Membership forms:
It has been the practice in the past to require all members and donors to fill out a membership form each year for our records of current members. For those of you who have been members/donors for years this must have seemed a bit of a superfluous exercise and it generates work for the board. So, we decided to get you to do it one more time on a form that makes you a member until you give us a letter declaring that you no longer wish to be a member. You will then be ‘on the books', at least until you stop donating and won't have to fill it out again. We need a signature one more time though (or for some of you for the first and last time) – see included form – because the form is slightly different and has not got a year specified. Please, bear with us and fill it out one more time and then, we promise, we won't ask again!

Introduction to Buddhism
We are also planning another Beginners Course to Buddhism, dates to be decided. If you know anyone who is interested in this, please pass this information on to them and we would appreciate it if interested people contacted the Centre.

Centre funds:
As you are all aware, we are very reliant on donations and the pledges to run the Centre. We have been trying to get by but we are not managing to make ends meet and are running at a shortfall of income. It is always useful to get a new small amount trickling in. $5-$10 a week might seem hardly worth the effort, but lots of little donations are heaps more secure than a few big ones, which if lost, create real problems. Why not make 2005 the ‘Encourage a wealthy friend to make some good Karma by giving small regular amount to the DBC”- Year. We ask you to consider increasing your contribution to the Centre so that we are able to provide for the Lamas better and expand the range of people who benefit from Buddha's teachings. Please see Peter Small about details.

Our Web Site:
We have some very specific way in which we wish to make our web site much more valuable to people. However, we don't have anyone who is a savvy website builder. If you know someone who knows their stuff pelase get hem to get in touch with us – they don't have be Bill Gates (in fact we don't want Bill but if you are reading this, Bill, PLEASE SEND US SOME MONEY, OR JUST BUY US A SMALL COUNTRY!) – however, they must have a bit of energy to move it along.

That's all folks. Hope to see you all at the Centre soon. If you have any questions, please feel free to call the Centre: 03 4778374
With best wishes for the New Year