THE NEW MILLENIUM

We celebrated the coming of the New year in Carlos’ apartment. We were a small group, but we would soon meet more friends. Carmen Salas and Violeta were already coming.

There were some new members who had not yet met Lama Ole since he did not come in 1999. They would have to wait until year 2,000, and they made instant connection with him when they finally met him. A young German girl called Valerie came to Lima in order to make a research and made contact with us. Her then boyfriend was Buddhist. We would get together in Javier’s Internet place to read Diamond Way web page and find out more about Karmapa. We also met to study “Things as they are.”

A lady called Rosa Rivas came over one day. She was friend of Carmen. She had a school in San Borja, called  “Maria Reiche”. She offered the premises whenever we needed a larger place for a conference. I remember Eduardo Herrera gave a lecture there. We also started meeting for meditation in the school on Mondays. We kept meeting on Thursdays in Carlos’ apartment. That was in San Isidro, another neighborhood.

In November of year 2,000, my daughter Stefanie got married and all my sangha friends attended the ceremony. Some days previous to the wedding, Javier had rented a house in San Bartolo, a seaside town 49 kilometers south of Lima. He would have the first Internet place in the beaches of the south. That meant business went well that summer (January, February, March)     of 2001.

We also started using Javier’s house in San Bartolo as a place for lectures and retreats (renting the local stadium). It became officially a Diamond Way Center when Hannah told him he had the blessing. In his office, Javier had a thangka I had given him, a picture of Mahakala and a small Buddah blessed by Lopong Tsechu. It was fun for all of us to go south, have teachings, eat seafood; and later have a walk and a dip in the ocean. Many Dharma teachers went there.

In year 2002 we had Phowa and that changed many lives. It was a difficult Phowa because Lama Ole always advises not to take drugs if you want to take Phowa. He says if you do take drugs not to go. That time a lot of young people came and they were taking drugs. I was translating for Lama Ole and I could see he was troubled. It took an extra effort of Lama’s extraordinary energy to drive us all to the final goal. But it was not in vain, because after that Phowa several young people approached our sangha and many stayed until today.