During our first ten years in America, we have never made a formal request for financial support. Instead, we have sustained ourselves and the work of the Tendai Buddhist Institute on voluntary contributions alone. Throughout this time, our original facilities in East Canaan, New York have absorbed a lot of wear and tear. Moreover, our new responsibilities as the Tendai Ordination Platform in North America will make a whole new set of demands - spiritual, physical and financial - on our collective resources.

Our Tendai Buddhist leadership in Japan has generously granted us the funds to construct a necessary, larger Hondo (Temple) that will be able to accommodate as many as 100 participants for meditations, lectures and meetings. This new structure will be environmentally friendly and will incorporate many of the beams and slats from our original Temple (located in a converted barn from circa 1825.) The new Hondo will be dedicated in a formal ceremony on June 25th.

But this new Temple is only one part of our revitalization effort. We also need to erect to ‘all-purpose’ facility that will serve as a combination library, meeting hall, retreat center, administrative headquarters, dining facility, training center and dormitory. The cost of this facility, its contents and supporting environment will exceed $1 million.

Now, for the first time, we must ask all who recognize the importance of our work to help us sustain and enrich both the scope and quality of our services, for all who will require them in months, years and decades ahead.

If you wish, you may make a secure on-line contribution by clicking here.

You can also click here to use our printable donation form (in Acrobat format) to mail a donation by check. We graciously encourage other forms of support as well, such as a gift of appreciated securities, or the designation of the Tendai Buddhist Institute as an annuity recipient or beneficiary of your estate.

Thank you so very much.

Gassho…..

Monshin Naamon, Jushoku (Abbot)

To submit a question on any Tendai-related topic please click here.