One Monday in January the new Buddhist temple at Yeshe Long on Whidbey Island welcomed a large and joyful crowd for its first-ever evening meditation, led by Dza Kilung Rinpoche.

No matter that the hall wasn’t quite complete, nor yet consecrated, the spiritual energy magnified by place, by its very form, was fully engaged. Entering just after sunset, the color of the walls, the warmth of the wood, together with the lighting, felt as if walking into a golden sphere. The perfect mandala shape of the outer walls, rising high above our heads three levels to the points of an embedded crystal, seemed to focus the sacred intent of those present, while bringing in the lineage of centuries of Buddhists. Our brief chant, taking refuge in the three jewels, reverberated with a musicality i’d never heard before. Maybe with my sense of expectancy and delight to be there, i conjured it all, but i don’t think so.

Sitting there in meditation, surrounded by so many friends, Rinpoche in front of us all, in this beautiful space, my mind went back twenty years to the beginning, when we first began, with nothing. Now look! My heart was full, with spreading happiness and peace. Thank you…