Aloka Vihara News

The newsletter giving the calendar for the next 3 weeks at Aloka Vihara is available here.

We welcome you to join us on Saturday, September 25 for our first post-Caldor Fire Community Workday! Join us in clearing up the buildings and land after the wildfire. The work will include: land restoration indoor cleaning clearing paths (chainsaw work) clearing up rubble from the yurt and kuti sites   We begin at 8:30 am with a short meditation and Dhamma reflection and then commence with the work. There…

Gent Returning to the Web of Life – Knowing where we belong Daylong with Ayya Santacitta Meditation on the elements brings us back to the reality of inter-being with our planet and its myriad life forms. Putting on the corrective lens of the Dharma, we find our way to openness, curiosity and discernment – getting to the root of attitudes and beliefs that keep us from seeing clearly the way…

The evacuation order was lifted to warning status and we were able to go and see the results of the Caldor fire that passed over much of the Aloka Vihara property. The firefighters worked hard to protect the house. As you can see the house and dorm are untouched by the fire. Below are more pictures and a narrative of our visit Saturday, Sept. 4th.   When we arrived there…

Here is the link to the latest newsletter. Follow up: Since writing this newsletter, this morning we learned that the monastery’s main vihara building, the dorm/workshop building, and the green yurt for meditation all were marked as undamaged by the fire. We suspect the inspectors were not aware that there was also a kuti, another yurt, and a trailer tucked into the forest, so we may not know if they…

The Aloka Vihara Monastics are offering monthly teachings in person again: Due to Fire Evacuation – Sept 1 will be on Zoom. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89255810544?pwd=NFRCTU9ad1JOZkluSVFzOW0xMXJiUT09 Meeting ID: 892 5581 0544 Passcode: 675620 Next meetings:  Sept 1 (Ayya Anandabodhi) | Oct 6 |Nov 3 | Dec 1. Schedule for in person meetings outside at the Boeger Winery in Placerville: Schedule for Sept 1 (on line Zoom): 6:00 pm:  Informal chat…

See August 24th post here.

This morning, August 17th, we had a mandatory evacuation order and are now at Sacramento Dharma Center. We are appreciative of the friends who received us here. The evacuation went smoothly and we able to do some protective measures for the vihara before departing. We are well and safe. The alarm of the birds and the concern of the mother deer and her fawn just before we left touched the…

From August 5 – 14 the Aloka Vihara community will be in silent retreat. We are sharing the blessings of our practice with you and thank you for your kind support!

Here is a link to our latest newsletter, please click here and enjoy!