Together We’ll Build the Buddha Hall 

$250,000 Jumpstart Challenge

Three generous donors invite us to join together to match their gift to build the Buddha Hall this year. Watch the new video!

Together, we can do anything — including build a beautiful temple where love, compassion, and wisdom can flourish and grow.

I’m Ken Mondal, a long-time fan, friend, student, donor, and volunteer of Sravasti Abbey.

I’ve been encouraging the Abbey to build its new Buddha Hall for a long time. Before the pandemic, it was clear that their present Meditation Hall is woefully inadequate to serve the rapidly growing monastic community and hundreds of visitors from around the world.

In 2019, the Abbey’s architect designed a beautiful new Buddha Hall that will be the center of religious life at the Abbey. Teachings, practices, and rituals for residents and their guests will happen there.

The pandemic put things on hold.

But now conditions are coming together to begin constructing the Buddha Hall this year, including this exciting $250,000 challenge gift.

That’s why I’m writing today: to invite you to help match their challenge. Together, we’ll build the Buddha Hall!

How does it work?

While the Abbey’s commercial contractor finalizes his estimates, friends of the Abbey  want to jumpstart the project with $500,000 to ensure Buddha Hall construction begins this summer.

A trio of challenge donors have taken us halfway there with their combined $250,000 gifts.

Now they invite more Abbey friends to join them by matching their gifts, doubling the impact, and ensuring that construction will begin.

Deadline to match the challenge is July 14, Wheel Turning Day, which commemorates the Buddha’s first teaching.

These donors—who modestly prefer anonymity—know that great things are not accomplished by one person alone. But when people join together in a virtuous cause, the results can be amazing.

Will you help double that gift?  Together, we will help the Abbey build a temple big enough for all of us to share the teachings on love, compassion, and wisdom.

Why should you help?

I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine what my mind would be like today if I hadn’t met Sravasti Abbey ten years ago. Actually, I can imagine. It isn’t pretty.

Now, having studied Buddha’s teachings on how to live with kindness, compassion, and wisdom, my mind has changed. Instead of wallowing in frustration and despair I have been able to find peace and joy in the midst of turmoil. I think you’ve had a similar experience; I want others to have it too.

Look at our world today. There’s so much suffering from the pandemic, polarization, and anxiety about climate change. While we can all do our part to help in a material way, the deeper need is spiritual. And that’s where Sravasti Abbey helps.

Through the teachings I have been able to find a refuge that is stable, reliable, and hopeful. Now I know there is a path out of suffering and that we can help others along the way. Sravasti Abbey offers the tools—and shares them freely—to guide us in doing that. And with a new Buddha Hall, they will be able to give so much more.

Dedicated to building a strong Western monastic community to learn and share Buddha’s teachings the Abbey has grown steadily since opening in 2003.

The next logical step is to build a new facility that can accommodate all the people who wish to visit once the pandemic is over. That’s why I want to help Sravasti Abbey build the Buddha Hall.

Please join me in supporting this most worthwhile project so the Abbey can continue to grow and create peace in our chaotic world.

Let’s meet this challenge together and build the Buddha Hall.

Every gift – any amount – makes a difference. That’s what we mean by, “together.” It will take us all to build the Buddha Hall.

Remember, all offerings made by July 14 will help to match the challenge and ensure that Sravasti Abbey can start to build this summer.

I have had the privilege to support other building projects at the Abbey. I know from personal experience that every donation dollar is spent wisely with an eye to function instead of opulence.

Your gift will be used wisely, and the good karma you make by offering it continues as long as the Buddha Hall is in use.  Hopefully, that’s a very, very long time!