Please read the following letters from Ines Freedman, the Insight Retreat Center Managing Director and Gil Fronsdal, my teacher and founding/guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Center.  I’ve benefited from many IMC retreats held at Hidden Villa and now, IMC has purchased a property that will allow them to provide more opportunities for retreats.  If you’ve attended an IMC retreat, or have wanted to, but haven’t been able to attend in the past, please consider supporting this project.  If you’d like to see the property and grounds, check out the link to the IRC website – there are videos and photographs to see just how beautiful this is and how wonderful this will be for retreats.

Dear Friends,

The Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City has been searching for property for a retreat center for several years.  We have just purchased a property in Scotts Valley, about 10 minutes east of Santa Cruz, CA.

• We plan to offer retreats for up to 40 people completely freely.
• Every retreatant will have a private room.
• We plan to offer a monthly 7-14 day retreat and two 3-5 day retreats most months
• Once a year we plan to have a month-long retreat.

Though we’ve been able to purchase a beautiful 2.8 acre rural property, we now need the funds to convert it from a nursing home into a retreat center, and to purchase the adjoining 38-acre forest preserve.

We need to raise $2.3 million to complete the project and purchase the preserve.  A sangha member has just offered a $500,000 matching pledge, so that every dollar donated is matched.

Just as IMC is completely run by volunteers, so will the Insight Retreat Center.  This project is so close to my heart that I’ve volunteered to be Managing Director for the next few years to guide this project full-time.

We would appreciate your support, both with donations, and in spreading the word to your respective sanghas.

You can learn more and see photos of our new Insight Retreat Center (IRC) here:  www.insightretreatcenter.org

We also invite you to read Gil Fronsdal’s document, A Three-part Vision For A Balanced Buddhist Culture – his vision about the relationship between the Sati Center, the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City, and the newly developing Insight Retreat Center (IRC) in Scotts Valley.

Hope to see you on retreat with us!

With Metta,

Ines Freedman, IRC Managing Director

insightretreatcenter@gmail.com
(408) 663-1906

---

Dear Friend,

It is rare that I make a direct request for donations.  All that we offer at the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) we offer freely; a person can participate in our programs for a long time and never hear any request for money.  Now I would like to make an exception and ask you to consider making a donation to help transform our newly purchased property into a residential retreat center. We have recently received a very generous $500,000 matching pledge, which means that every dollar you donate will be matched.

This year is our time of greatest opportunity to renovate our new retreat home and to acquire and protect the adjacent 38-acre private nature preserve.  If we can complete the renovation as planned, we will have a retreat center that operates in the same efficient and welcoming manner that beautifully continues the Dharma culture we have at IMC. Just as we do at IMC, the retreat center will offer retreats freely, with no costs to participants.

Our goal is to raise $2.3 million dollars to complete the project and acquire the nature preserve. This will include the creation of a meditation hall, a walking hall, and 40 individual bedrooms. The nature preserve will help us make walking in nature an integral part of our retreats.

Having our own retreat center fulfills a dream many of us have nurtured for a long time. Knowing the benefits from even a few days of retreat, we are excited to be able to offer a rich and varied program of retreats throughout the year.

This retreat center is our gift to future generations. Here, countless people will discover how mindfulness heals, develops love, and liberates. Having practiced here, retreatants will bring the benefits of mindfulness and compassion into the wider world.

It is very inspiring to me that so many people have found value in the teachings and practice opportunities at IMC.  I hope you will help us expand the good we can do by helping us build and establish the Insight Retreat Center.  Your gifts will not only help make the renovations possible, they will also add to the goodwill and generosity that will serve as the foundation of our center.

When we open the retreat center in 2012, please come join us on a retreat.

To make a donation online please visit our Donation page.

With much gratitude,

Gil Fronsdal