Lama Kathy’s Dharma Blog: Family Around the Table

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Looking around the social hall at Tifereth Israel, seeing all the smiling faces gathered at the big tables, I felt as though I were at a family reunion, a family dinner.

More than 80 people were enjoying lunch and talking about old times – how they came to Columbus Karma Thegsum Chöling, what benefits they gained from coming there, why they stayed – or why they came back.

I was reminded of another gathering, many years before, in the living room shrine hall at the home of Jerry and Kay Adams in suburban Linworth, just north of Columbus, where a group of about 15 dharma students crammed into the shrine room to bid farewell to the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa.

Sitting on the throne (covered in cloths sewn by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche – the same ones we had in our old building on Grubb Street), His Holiness looked out over the tiny crowd, and made a prediction.

“It’s funny,” he said. “In most places I go, [other dharma centers] are much bigger than the KTC centers,” he said. “But here, the KTC is bigger. This is good. In the future, the KTC here will be a really large center.”

That was 1980. Now, many years later, we are celebrating our 40th Anniversary, and, looking over that room full of people who love KTC and its mission, I feel as though His Holiness’ words are coming true.

The 40th Anniversary Celebration commemorated the founding of Columbus KTC in September 1977 by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche. We invited friends past and present to have lunch and share their stories about the KTC and what it’s meant to them.

During the lunch, we showed a beautiful slide show prepared by KTC Director Kim Miracle, and heard from several early KTC members – Art Chambers and Winie Wirth, among them – and from Eric Weinberg, a more recent member and KTC Board volunteer.

Art shared his feeling of “being home” when he attended a Chenrezig chant back in the late 1970s, and Winie spoke about how KTC was instrumental in the creation of a network of Columbus Buddhist centers. Eric shared how he met KTC through the visit of His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche (the guru of His Holiness the 17th Karmapa) at Columbus KTC in 1994, and how he returned years later to receive teachings and connect deeply with the dharma.

All spoke about how the KTC’s warmth and friendliness made them feel welcome, and how our education and practice programs “brought them up” in Buddhism.

We also heard about the amazing work being done since an arson fire destroyed the KTC building on Grubb Street in January 2016 and how the KTC is getting ready to rebuild a new center on the site of the old one at Grubb and Rich streets in Columbus’ Franklinton Neighborhood on the Near West Side.

Director Kim explained the process of surveying the sangha for ideas about the new building, conversations with our first architect, Keith Spruce of Wisconsin, and how we got permission from the City of Columbus’ East Franklinton Review Board to rebuild on our old site.

We also discussed the hiring of our contractors, Centerpoint Construction, and our new architects, Peter Lenz and Pete Macrae, and the timeline for both fundraising and completion of the project.

We will see the first drawings from our new architects later this fall, and start getting more information about the materials and methods that will be used to give us a brand-new center.

Meanwhile, we’re working with a goal of $1.4 million for the building, architecture, and basic furnishings (tables, chairs, etc.). Of that, we have raised $887,000, which includes our insurance settlement. That leaves $513,000 to raise.

We reviewed ongoing fundraising efforts, and announced a “challenge matching grant” from the Hummingbird Fund of the Columbus Foundation.

Hummingbird Fund representative Christina Grote then spoke, talking about her connections with KTC going back into the center’s earliest days, and about how she and her husband Jim Grote believe in the mission of the center and want to inspire others to give to help us rebuild.

Their foundation will match gifts given to KTC up to a total of $100,000. What an amazing start to our campaign!

During the 40th Anniversary lunch, folks had an opportunity to pledge funds toward the matching grant. By the end of the event, those in attendance had given (or pledged!) $31,416 for the campaign. They received gold Karmapa pins and entries in a drawing; Rose Spencer won the top prize, a beautiful cast metal statue of the Buddha.

Even after the event, people lingered behind to share stories and fellowship; the dharma family filled that hall with love, and the love is giving us all the strength we need for this amazing Journey Home.

Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche on His Wish for Columbus KTC [archiveorg CKTCKhenpoFinal2 width=640 height=480 frameborder=0 webkitallowfullscreen=true mozallowfullscreen=true]

Columbus KTC 40th Anniversary Luncheon Program Presentation

So Many Ways to Give!

Not everyone was able to attend our 40th Anniversary Celebration. If you’d like to participate in the project, there are lots of ways to help.

Lama Kathy Dharma Blog: Face to Face with Stunning Beauty

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The look on her face was nothing short of enchanting; she seemed to chase away all cares with that look of confidence and grace. Holding the vajra in her hand, she seemed to be indicating the nearness of compassion and truth; once one began looking at her, it was hard to look away.

But then I had to hand her over to the photographer, and our moment together was at an end.

It felt like that over and over again some weeks back, when a crew of merry volunteers from Columbus KTC crawled all over the home of Kim and Bill Miracle on the Far East Side, cataloguing, photographing and carefully weighing and measuring dozens of beautiful statues, paintings and art pieces donated to the center.

The fruits of their labors can be seen this week on the auction site eBay, where Columbus KTC has been holding its first-ever Charity Auction to benefit the Columbus KTC Rebuilding Fund.

The Charity Action ends late Thursday evening/early Friday morning (see eBay listings for exact time), and can be found here.

Here is how we came to have this wonderful event.

After our home in an old church building on Grubb Street in Franklinton was destroyed by fire in January 2016, gifts of all sorts flooded into Kim’s home. As the Director of the KTC, she heads up the effort to rebuild, and the gifts were seen as tokens of hope by people who knew we’d lost not quite half or our statues and virtually all of our sacred paintings in the fire. (In fact, just one little thangka scroll painting survived, because it had been taken off display and was stored rolled-up in the library. Auspiciously, it was a painting of Green Tara, the compassionate feminine bodhisattva who removes obstacles.)

As we looked at the bounty, we were touched, but unsure how to honor the gifts we had been given. Should we keep them? If so, where would we keep them? Should we display them? What was the best way to make use of the beautiful gifts?

As we were mulling over these questions, our spiritual guide Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche sent us a message: we didn’t need to worry about getting new statues for the shrine in our new building – he himself was going to provide us with all new statues and paintings for our shrine. It was such exciting news; we were overcome with joy.

This also gave us an answer as to what we could do with our gifts; we could turn them into steel frames and wallboard for our new building!

So we saved aside some pieces to use in our future library shrine, and prepared the rest for listing on eBay.

You can see the beautiful thangka of the wisdom Bodhisattva Prajnaparamita I described in my first paragraph (it’s Item 64 in the auction) as well as door curtains, malas, and other wonderful items that can beautify your shrine room and home. Some are blessed and consecrated, and will bring great blessing wherever they are displayed. And through purchasing them you will be supporting the floorboards and library shelves and kitchen appliances in a brand-new KTC.

Some items are just $5; others go much higher. But what is most important is that the circle of love started by the donors will be completed when the purchasers when they install them in their shrine rooms and homes.

The love being directed toward Columbus KTC since our tragedy has been astonishing; it has filled the halls of our temporary meeting space at Congregation Tifereth Israel and filled our hearts, as well. Because we believe in the power of karma and the power of our donors’ pure intentions, we know that all will be filled with merit and virtue in the days, weeks, months and years ahead. You are our family in the dharma, and we treasure you all!

HELP the KTC – join in and share the auction with interested family and friends this week by clicking here. Thank you and may all beings benefit.