April 11th, 2005 Endurance, Perseverance, and Baking Soda Blasting..

The day started in the Stupa Park, the crew out for another go at the Long Life Stupa base after spraying yesterday. You can see from the PHOTOS BELOW that again, we made some progress, but not a lot. We were all taking heart that Milarepa was able to accomplish his practice in one body, in one life, through engaging in tremendously difficult physical labor in order to follow his Teacher's instructions. We hope that we too, in our own way, may be wearing out some of our heavier karma by this difficult activity, so we may develop the wisdom and compassion necessary to be of true benefit to beings...

We had a visit from Stacey Stone of Chesapeake Soda Clean to test Baking Soda Blasting. After our morning at the Stupa Park we couldn't have been more eager to see what he could do. The PHOTOS below show it was a mixed result. The Enlightenment Stupa is going to be another difficult challenge. Don't get us wrong, we're going to keep going until this is all done. But we are also trying to plow forward and make real progress, for the sake of the Stupas. Fortunately, Stacey has a sense of adventure, and a truly sincere desire to help, so he agreed to drive his truck and 4000lbs of equipment up the bumpy, dirt road to Migyur Dorje, to give the Soda Blasting a test run up there. It was worth the trip, as we all got to see what this technology is capable of. It was fast, efficient, and gentle. Now we just need to see the estimate. We all agree if we can raise the funds for it, this is definitely the way to go for Migyur Dorje. It is gentle, clean, and smells good (unlike our stripper, which has such a foul odor we are banned from entering the temple building when we work with it). All that and it's really fast. So we're all saying our prayers...

The next few days will be focused on continuing the ordeal at the Stupa Park (Long Life Stupa base) and completing repairs over there. Friday we will resume activity on the Enlightenment Stupa. We're waiting for Stacey's estimates before we invest in more stripper.

Best wishes to all beings with the good fortune to find us here, and to see all these Stupas! May all beings without exception receive whatever merit or virtue is generated by this activity!