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Year-end Aloha from the MettaDana Project

 

Aloha Friends,We hope you are able to take the time to appreciate this great turning of the seasons-a time for being with family, friends, and taking stock of the old year and starting a new year again with great Dhamma energy and compassion. May all of our hearts find great rest, renewal, and peace. We are delighted to be journeying soon to our 20th annual Kyaswa Retreat  in upper Burma, starting January 11. There is still some room if anyone can come for the 3 weeks, to travel into the inner depths, with the momentum and support of the same burmese staff that returns to support the yogis. It is a time for all of us to deepen our practice. The retreat container there ancient and strong-with time for working individually with the teachers.

Sayadaw U Pannananda, our new monastic teacher, is wonderful! Steven Smith went to visit him a few months ago to connect and talk about the upcoming retreat. He was warmly welcomed and was enthusiastic about his feeling of connection. We are very excited to practice with him and receive the offering of his teachings. He is also looking forward to joining us and is even planning to join the yogis on a bus tour of Sagaing Hills at the end of the retreat. It is truly the beginning if a new era for the Kyaswa retreat.

 

We also want to give thanks to all who have offered their generous support of our MettaDana projects there. We have 20 years of consistent supportive relationships with the nuns, the school, the hospital as well as numerous small infrastructure projects throughout the years. This winter, a new acupuncture team is coming to continue our acupuncture training program and two Swedish doctors are coming to do research on women’s health needs (including nuns) in the village. We are also hoping to continue Sayadaw U Lakkhana’s tradition of a donation to village elders as well as explore other new projects with the community. To learn more about our past year’s work, click here.

If you have not already, please consider a year-end donation to the MettaDana project to support our wonderful projects there. Any amount that you offer has considerable impact locally in the village of Wachet and helps continue the lineage of connection and support that we are all so fortunate to be a part of. Click here to donate now. Thank you so much for your generosity!

~ The Kyaswa retreat and MettaDana team