Dear reader,
I hope you are doing well.
In the previous newsletter I brought the news that we were very seriously considering making an offer on a beautiful monastery in the Belgian Eifel. That we had negotiated an option to buy until May 20.
This previous newsletter was also an invitation: who has opportunities to participate?
The Mahasi Sayadaw Foundation has €180,000 in its savings account, and the asking price, including buyer’s costs, is almost €1,700,000. How do you get it into your head to think about it at all, someone might have wondered.
But there is such a thing as confidence, faith, (the first of the five controlling faculties).
Read below how we have fared and how we are doing now. Also read how Panditarama Lumbini was realised more than 25 years ago.
1. For NOW we refrain from buying
2. 10-day retreat in Winterswijk Kotten
3. How Panditarama Lumbini was realised
4. Agenda
With heartfelt greetings,
Guus Went
www.mahasi.net
1. For NOW we refrain from buying

A monastery with 30 guest rooms, a villa, two building lots and forest as far as the little river Amel (Amblève) – all together 8.6 hectares.
A monastery that would make possible at once, rather than gradually, our highest ideal: the establishment in Europe of a center where one or two monks or nuns of Panditarama could reside. A Mahasi alternative in Europe to the many centers there are in the world where the Goenka method of Vipassana is taught.
Well, many offered to come and help if it came to that or otherwise expressed their sympathetic joy (mudita) and interest. But what also happened: a yogi’s husband reported that he did have financial ability to join. He also had experience in real estate, in what is involved in buying real estate.
We grew as a team over two months: this gentleman, yogi Rolf (architect), yogi Reinout (manager) and me.
The selling broker, Mickey Bosschert of Heritage Europe, also works a lot with confidence, as her staff indicated. The village of Montenau, part of the municipality of Amel, is very involved in the future of the monastery, and we had contact with the lord mayor. The sellers, the SVD, were willing to provide us with a substantial vendor loan, and even agreed to the possibility that we would rent the center for a year with no obligation to buy. We started looking into crowdfunding, into making a presentation video. We also tried a lower offer.
And finally, after the option time expired on May 20, in an exhilarating last 24 hours in which we had to make a decision, the human, mental side prevailed: what can we handle without manageable worries? And the unanimous decision was: not this one now. But we parted in good spirits, keeping hope that something is possible in the future.
2. 10-day retreat Winterswijk Kotten


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