Important Update from Steve and Michele
November 7, 2008
Dear Friends of Vipassana Hawaii,
We're grateful to be moving forward at last now that the land for the Hawaii Insight Meditation Center is finally secured! We highlight for you below our plans and the unique features our Center will offer.
Brief Background & Current Plans
As many of you know, we envision our Center as a global resource bridging Eastern and Western tradition and innovation. The great forest monastery tradition of SE Asia melds with the spiritual geography of Hawaii, creating a unique vessel in which to cultivate mindfulness and loving-kindness.
We began our search for the land in 1996 and finally found the perfect spot on the northern tip of Hawaii Island: about 200 acres of rolling pastures, gulches, springs and streams, and a rugged coastline blessed by trade-winds. Our site comprises three old Hawaiian community-based land divisions (ahupua'a): Halawa, Napapa'a, and Halelua. In December 2000 we were granted a special permit by the County Planning Commission to build the Center on 15 acres previously zoned for agriculture. However, we could not take title to the land until 2007 — a lengthy escrow process that tested our intention, patience, and resolve.
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Construction will proceed in three carefully designed phases, allowing us to meet the special-permit requirements and adjust our plans as we move forward into the actual experience of operating the Center. Our initial goal (first two phases) is a 30- to 40-bed facility by 2013. At full build-out, the Center will comprise a meditation hall complex; guest, teacher, and staff accommodations; a kitchen and dining hall; an administration building; and maintenance/support facilities. Eloquent simplicity is our guiding principle. One key condition of the special permit is the requirement to put in place intensive agricultural projects in exchange for rezoning the 15 acres of agricultural land. Thus, as we build, we also will plant orchards and gardens. A cornerstone of our vision is off-the-grid, renewable, and sustainable energy systems — a way to recycle our gratitude back to the land as well as live in conscious partnership with it and minimize detrimental environmental impacts. Unique Features of our Retreat CenterRetreat Considerations: We will offer retreats of varied lengths and sizes for students at all levels of practice, including specialized youth and family-oriented courses. Retreats for health, educational, business, and environmental leaders also will be included. Our retreats feature smaller numbers of students, intimate settings, and fuller access to and attention from teachers, including one-on-one interviews. Residence halls, cottages, and tent platforms will be available to meet a variety of accommodation preferences. Older students and practitioners staying for longer periods can rest assured of being close to Nature in a physically comfortable way. Environment: Hawaii's perennially warm climate and nurturing spirit provide a place of perfect solitude and serenity for meditation practice. The line between indoors and outdoors blurs. |
Invitation from the DirectorIn 2000, when Vipassana Hawaii obtained the special permit to build a retreat center, I was the architect who did the site planning and schematic design, in part because I was familiar with the land, then grazed by cattle, formerly in sugar cane. When Vipassana acquired title for the roughly 200 acres in 2007, the land had long been neglected. I took on the role of land manager and began hiring local folks to clear brush, trim trees, mend fences, and mow pastures. We've made excellent progress on the 60 or so acres that will surround the Center where orchards and gardens are planned. However, with 200+ acres of pasture and deep gulch in a tropical climate, the land will absorb our energies perpetually. As the current Executive Director charged with bringing Steven and Michele's vision to fruition, I'd like to extend an invitation to visit the land to all our friends and supporters. During summer 2009 we plan to hold our first "rustic" retreat for the fit and young at heart. In preparation for that retreat, we'll have much to do and gladly accept the labor of any volunteers so inclined. Please come join us in this incredibly special place. Aloha, Jack Hoyt |
Our “cool weather” rarely requires more than a sweater, a pair of jeans, and, only occasionally, real shoes. The ocean is rarely out of sight. The growing season is endless, with local fruits available year-round and tropical flowers perennially in bloom. During winter the humpback whales migrate to our waters, delighting us with their acrobatics and awing us with their majesty.
Power of the Land: The Center will be situated on powerful land graced with the remains of sacred sites and filled with hidden layers of history and culture — what the Hawaiians call kaona. It was in the ahupua'a of Halawa that the boy Paiea grew to manhood and fulfilled his destiny as King Kamehameha I to unite these islands into one kingdom.
The great mountains Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, at nearly 14,000 feet, are a watchful and palpable presence. With the active volcano Kilauea to the SE we are ever mindful of Earth's, and our own, beginnings: an intimate dance of creation and destruction.
Sustainability & Stewardship: A core part of our vision is planning for seven generations. We are committed to sustainability on multiple levels — of the ecosystem, of the community, of the Hawaiian Islands, of the Center itself, of our Buddhist lineage, practice, and values, including the livelihoods of teachers who carry forward the tradition. Ours are living, not calcified, teachings and must, like the land, be cared for to be sustained. As land stewards, we will include gardening as part of the practice as well as restoration of rare and endangered native species and of culturally important Hawaiian taro farming (lo'i kalo). Historical indicators of thriving, well-populated native communities are evident in the gulches, reminding us that land and people have been nurturing one another here for centuries.
Fusion: Land, culture, stewardship, spiritual tradition, and innovation will be embodied in the Center through a respectful fusion that also retains the unique characteristics of each element. Monk and nun, male and female lay teacher, classical and contemporary teaching style, East and West, past and present, Buddhist and Hawaiian tradition — these and other pairs will be honored for the way in which each partner, and the pair as an integrated whole, contribute.
Community: Our Center and its lands are aligned with the old Hawaiian community model of ahupua'a, which extends from mountain to sea and includes all bioregions and lifeforms in perpetual kinship. At the Center, like-minded people will live, work, and practice together in the awareness that what occurs here can and will have ramifications far beyond the Center's borders.
With Metta,
Steven Smith & Michele McDonald
