Benchen Karma Kamtsang Buddhist Association operates thanks to our joint effort and is supported entirely through donations. We do not even have members' fees, which are common in many organisations.
Any amount of money and work, offered with a pure motivation, are all extremely helpful for our community and at the same time enable the benefactor to accumulate a lot of merit.
Generosity is the first of the six perfections of a Bodhisattva, the so-called paramitas. Practising them is the path to Liberation.
Offering money or work, you are not giving it to strangers, but rather you are co-creating the place, which you also use.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Some people make large or small donations regularly, others do it from time to time. There is also a Regular Sponsors Group, who on their own, have committed to paying PLN 1000 every month. All help is very important to us. Even tiny amounts offered by many people, add up to a great result. Houses are built from both large blocks and single bricks.
Your work is also a valuable contribution. Before, during and after a seminar we need help in cleaning, carrying things and arranging them. Many of the renovation work and new investments can be carried out much cheaper with our own hands. Even the daily management of the Centre is a big effort, which is often beyond the physical capabilities of its few residents.
Information pertaining to the needed funds and work to be done can be found in the Centre. Donations may be made directly in the office, via bank transfer or online (see: donate).
WHAT HAPPENS WITH YOUR DONATION?
Donations are earmarked for covering the running costs of the Centre and its development.
The suggested donation mentioned for each seminar organised by the Centre in Grabnik covers the Centre's running costs: electricity, gas, water, heating, garbage removal etc. Any possible surplus allows us to survive the periods between seminars and is invested in improving the infrastructure, current repairs or development.
Seminars with Rinpoche's require bigger financial effort, hence the suggested donations are higher. We need to purchase plane tickets for Rinpoche, the assistants and invited monks and nuns, pay for the visas and travel insurance, host our guests (food, cleaning products, medical care, thanksgiving offering etc.), prepare the lhakhang for the ceremony (equipment, torma supplies, substances for the shrine) and so on.
Some of the participants cannot afford the donation that we suggest. Therefore any additional donation (above the suggested amount), even tiny, is very valuable, because it allows us to balance the organisational costs.
The Centre has developed significantly since 1995, when we purchased the land. In the beginning, there was only one old house and farm buildings surrounded by a tilled field. The house and some of the buildings were renovated and are still in use today; others were taken down.
Grabnik 1995
Grabnik 2016
There are also new buildings that were developed:
- a house for Rinpoches (over 100 square metres of usable surface),
- the drubkhang, the three-year retreat centre (767,14 sq. m),
- the Buddhist culture Centre (469,70 sq. m),
- several smaller houses and huts for individual retreats.
We have built a stupa with Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche's relics. We have planted trees and bushes, we invested in improving the access road, courtyard surface, put in an ecological septic tank system, running water and mains gas line.
Currently we are carrying out the following projects:
- the construction and equipment of the shrine hall,
- the construction of the kitchen.
All money that is not consumed by covering the running costs of the Centre and the costs connected with inviting lamas and organising various seminars, is earmarked for finishing the projects underway. The date of their completion depends on acquiring the funds.
