Bringing the Dharma to New England for more than 20 years

Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies

Bringing the Dharma to New England for more than 20 years

68 Magoun Avenue

Medford MA 02155

(617) 624-0177

www.kurukulla.org

December 1, 2009

Dear Kurukulla community,

Expanding our vision, strengthening our foundation, and coming together as a community – these goals defined Kurukulla Center in 2009. In our eighth year at our home in Medford, we made progress in developing a program to meet the needs of our varied students, stretched our vision to include the aspirations of our guiding lamas and kept our facility in good repair. And in spite of the unfortunate news we received about resident teacher Geshe Tsulga’s cancer, we rallied to offer a full program of events during his treatment. Without your support, little of this could happen. We hope you appreciate your role in these achievements; you have done much for all of us to rejoice!

Here are some of our accomplishments in our spiritual program

• Students offered two Long Life pujas for the recovery and health of our precious resident teacher Geshe Tsulga.
• We welcomed Geshe Tenley home after the successful completion of his Geshe examinations, providing the center with another highly qualified teacher of classical Buddhist texts.
• Geshe Tsulga resumed teaching the Sunday morning class.
• We employed the teaching skills of our two resident nuns Tsunma-la and Ani Yeshe to offer courses for newcomers and intermediate-level students.
• Inaugurated the highly popular Kids’ Program, which we look forward to develop much more in 2010.
• The Yoga classes continued drawing in a wide range of students.
• Hosted visiting teachers Ven. Amy Miller and Thubten Gyatso who inspired us with their advice.
• Ngawang Khechog charmed us with his entrancing music.
• Ven. Jampa Ludrup introduced us to the harmonious world of Feng Shui.
• We demonstrated the “power of many” and opened our doors and hearts to members and newcomers alike to experience the transformative presence of the Maitreya Project Relics.
• We served as a living laboratory for students wanting to see a Tibetan Buddhist temple in action.

We also expanded the vision for our facility and made critical repairs

• Made substantial progress on construction of a Kalachakra stupa.
• Acquired the adjacent vacant lot and re-landscaped the backyard.
• Replaced the damaged roof of our main building.
• Reconfigured public areas so they could accommodate larger groups.

Your contributions of time and money made all this possible. To continue our determination to not request money in order to attend teachings, we rely on membership support. Our monthly expenses hover around $8,000:

As you can see from the chart, our income fluctuates throughout the year, which creates cash flow challenges to help us meet our monthly bill payments. We take our fiduciary responsibility to you, our community, very seriously by not only keeping good records of our income and expenses but also by budgeting our spending, scrutinizing our expenses and communicating our needs to you. Our financial goal for next year is to have a steady membership base which translates into a predictable inflow of income, the only way to reduce appeals for more funding support. Please continue to offer your support by renewing or increasing your membership.

What Kurukulla Center offers is quite unique in this world. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminds us, [it] “offers an education in how to develop compassion, loving kindness. This education is not taught in the universities, not taught in the college, not taught in schools…. That is why I am saying a meditation center such as this, which offers complete teachings on how to develop the mind, plays a most important role in world peace; not only peace in this world but peace for numberless sentient being….”

Therefore, dear friends, please continue to support Kurukulla Center with your kind membership or general donation. If financially possible, please consider either increasing your membership to the next level—pledging an additional monthly amount—or making a one-time donation for the coming year. You may use the enclosed remittance envelope or visit our website.

Thank you so much,

Much love,

Nick Ribush

Director