November 12, 2003

Dear Friends,

   This has been a very exciting and productive year for the Healing Buddha Foundation. Although the Foundation’s work has not been as visible as usual, we are making great progress in realizing our long-term vision of establishing the Buddhist tradition of Lama Je Tsongkhapa in the West.

   At the beginning of this year, Venerable Segyu Choepel Rinpoche, Venerable Damcho Sangmo and three other member of HBF’s Board of Directors began a working retreat to examine in depth what needed to be done to realize this vision. We came to understand that the only way for a lineage of teachings to grow deep roots in a culture is to set the course to produce authentic masters within that culture, and to do this requires first producing a thriving community of authentic practitioners. This lead us to examine exactly what this means and what the difficulties have been for doing it thus far in the West. We have seen that it is not simply a matter of transplanting a system that works in another country and culture such as Tibet, but carefully adapting that system to the modern West, without changing its essence. This is big task, and will take a long time. Our goal is to do the best we can at mapping out how to set the course so that these results could be realized in the future.

   As part of this process, Rinpoche and Damcho have moved from Sebastopol to Redwood City, California, just south of San Francisco airport. They felt that this would be a much more convenient and productive place to continue this work and build the Foundation. We are very happy that they found a wonderful house suited to their needs and to the needs of HBF. It has room for a small library, consultation room, temple, and our meetings, as well as living accommodations for Rinpoche and Damcho. We hope you have a chance to see it soon.

   We are very aware of the sacrifice this effort has meant for the students of Segyu Rinpoche and the Healing Buddha Foundation, and we are grateful for your ongoing patience and support. It is our sincere belief and hope that this short term sacrifice will pay off handsomely in the future as we create a vision and organization that will lead to greater opportunities for all of us to develop our practices, live happier, fulfilling lives, help others through compassionate action, and pursue the ultimate happiness of enlightenment.

   We thank you for your support and look forward to providing further updates soon.

With love and blessings,

Venerable Segyu Choepel Rinpoche
and the Board of Directors of the Healing Buddha Foundation.

PS: Please take note of our new contact information:

Healing Buddha Foundation
3923 Pepper Tree Court
Redwood City, CA 94061  USA

Telephone: (650) 299-9333
Fax: (650) 299-9331
Email: HBF@healingbuddha.org

Return to Top