Thursday April 14th

I worked today, and Norbu has been care taking the Prayer Chart (we have a 24 hour Prayer Vigil for Peace at our temple which has run for 20 years unbroken!). Caretaking means he or his partners (usually 3 all together) have to cover any of the 2 hour shifts in a day that aren't covered by other volunteers. : ) Those middle of the night shifts tend to remain open, calling on the committed care takers to keep the Vigil going. After 20 years no one wants to be where the chain breaks! So Norbu is getting a little crispy...Care taking lasts a week and the baton gets passed to the next team, so relief is in sight for him...

By the way, you can email the temple with prayer requests, if there is someone or something you'd like us to pray for (it's okay to request we pray for you!). Just see the links on this page to our center websites. We also have traditional group practices (prayers) every evening, at which the requests are read aloud prior to the practice beginning, so practitioners can keep them in their minds when praying.

Back to Stupas. Some more power washing by Norbu on the Long Life Stupa base. He's about ready to investigate sandblasting for real. : ) He's also going to apply a coat of stripper to some sections of the Enlightenment Stupa. We're breaking down the areas on this Stupa since it is so much larger than the previous ones. If he emails me photos tonight I'll post them in the morning (sorry all you late night visitors, there will be photos tomorrow, I promise).

Tomorrow (Friday) we'll be removing the stripper from the Enlightenment Stupa (in sections). Wish us luck! We already know it won't remove the "stucco" layer, but we're going to move forward. We'll have a much better idea what we're dealing with once we get some larger areas of paint removed.

For anyone who knows about such things, we've been told the "stucco" layer is a mixture of sand, portland cement and lime. It was suppose to fall off, but didn't, and has been painted over ever since. You can see in previous posts (recent ones) photos of this material coming off in chunks in places, but not so readily that we can remove it where it hasn't been damaged. We're trying to find a way to get this material off without damaging the underlying concrete. We tried Soda Blasting (see the post from Monday) and it didn't work. We're afraid of anything stronger, as it might really damage the concrete underneath. We're open to suggestions!

Feel free to join us out at the Enlightenment Stupa tomorrow, if you are close by and have time! If not, do stay tuned! We'll post photos of the work tomorrow, as well as some from our Open House for the Prayer Vigil Anniversary.

Please know that all visitors are welcome! All of this for you! It doesn't matter what your faith, practice or inclination, you are invited to embrace these Stupas as a source of refuge. Our efforts are devoted to ending suffering and establishing peace in the world. If you think that sounds impossible, take a look at the archives of this blog, we're doing things many would have thought impossible already! A bunch of volunteers from many backgrounds, with no experience in this kind of thing, have accomplished all you see on these posts. May all those who view these entries forgive their unrefined nature and share in the joy that inspires us to work so diligently!