April 2025 News
An appeal for Guhyavajra in New Zealand
Guhyavajra
Sudarshanaloka Retreat Centre New Zealand is 11 buildings and huts spread over 230 acres of rugged and mostly steep ground. At age 70, it’s getting rather too much to get around for Guhyavajra, one of its main caretakers.
Rather than leave, Guhyavajra wants to manage ageing in these conditions intelligently. Having an electric bike will enable him to carry on his day-to-day work at Sudarshanaloka at the same time as strengthening his health - but without overdoing it.
Satyadevi, one of the Abhayaratna Trust’s reps in New Zealand, explains: ‘Guhyavajra is one of Sudarshanaloka’s mainstays, keeping it alive and well, and highly operative; a rich and increasingly beautiful blessing to all that come here for retreats and solitaries. But there is a glitch at present; Guhyavajra is ageing and with a degree of osteoarthritis that can affect his mobility.
‘Although he does very well with this impediment, the land is steep and rough, meaning the work is physical and at times hard graft. An e-bike would enable him to keep fit and have ease of access to various parts of the land.’
Aware of Guhyavajra’s circumstances and that neither he nor Sudarshanaloka can fund an e-bike, the Abhayaratna Trust have launched this appeal to raise £2800 / NZ$ 6,300 to enable Guhyavajra to purchase an e-bike that will be robust enough for the terrain.
You can help him today by donating any amount HERE, and then choosing the currency you wish to donate in.
10% of your donation plus any gift aid we can collect will go to help other Order members in financial need, through our grants programme.
Thank you for helping.
A heartfelt thank you from Ratnavandana
Ratnavandana
Ratnavandana has expressed deep appreciation to those who donated to the appeal we ran for her last month to raise £8,000 to buy a secondhand car and create a website for her Fleeting World cards: She says:
‘It’s been a truly unique and very heart opening experience to be the subject of an appeal by the Abhayaratna Trust. The whole process of making the decision to ask them if they would do an appeal was a big thing in itself, and it’s been very revealing in terms of what arises when putting oneself on the line in this way.
Any worries I might have had as to whether anyone would respond were very quickly dispelled as it soon became clear that I was living in Ratnasambhava’s realm of supreme generosity. This is truly how it feels to be given to in this way.’ Read Ratnavandana’s letter in full here.
A big thank you from the Abhayaratna Trust Team too for responding to this appeal.
Ensure that your end of life wishes are met
In this short video (click on image to watch), Samata explains why she chose to create a ‘lasting power of attorney’ rather than ‘an advanced decision’, and what the difference is between these two legal documents in England and Wales, in specifying your end of life wishes.
Samata has had experience of close family end of life wishes being at odds with doctors. In the full discussion with Mahasraddha, which you can watch here, she explains how this came about, and how you might better prepare for your wishes about medical intervention being taken into account.
As Samata says, ‘what happens around end of life is really important’.
What your donations have achieved
If you haven’t had a look yet at our Annual Review to see what we have been doing with your donations in 2024, you can still do so here or by clicking on the cover image. Read about the grants and projects we funded and some of our plans for the future, and let us know what you think.
And if you are not already doing so, we hope you will feel moved to support our work either by a regular donation and/or by getting involved in our work by, for example, helping to set up a Sangha Support Network at your Centre.
And check out our refreshed website at Abhayaratnatrust.org for the latest updates on appeals, success stories, projects and to see our mission statement.
GRANTS announcement: With the recent changes to Welfare Benefits announced by the UK Government, coupled with increases in utility and other bills coming into effect in the UK this month, we would like to remind Order members of the availability of hardship grants from the Abhayaratna Trust.
Although this announcement refers to living costs in the UK, grants are available to any Order member wherever they live who are in hardship. For more information, go to www.abhayaratnatrust.org or click the GET SUPPORT link below.
Contact Communications Support: jinavamsa@abhayaratnatrust.org with any questions or feedback.