20250728175757-acacea-lewis-Submission: Difference between revisions
From Tsadra Foundation Advanced Contemplative Scholarships
20250728175757-acacea-lewis-Submission
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{{SavedApplication | {{SavedApplication | ||
| | |status=FirstSave | ||
|Submissiondate=2025-07-28 | |Submissiondate=2025-07-28 | ||
|Submissionyear=2025 | |Submissionyear=2025 | ||
| Line 15: | Line 15: | ||
|telephone=3412192885 | |telephone=3412192885 | ||
| | |retreattype=Three-year retreat | ||
|center=Ser Cho Ling | |||
|centerstreet=54333 Two Hills Rd | |||
|centercity=North Fork | |||
|centerstateprov=CA | |||
|centerpostalcode=93463 | |||
|centercountry=United States of America | |||
|startdate=2026-02-22 | |||
|enddate=2029-02-22 | |||
|retreatmaster=Wangchen Rinpoche | |||
|retreatadministrator=Wangchen Rinpoche | |||
|retreatliaison=Wangchen Rinpoche | |||
|studiedtibetan=Yes | |||
|spokentibcomprehension=Basic communication skills | |||
|writtentibcomprehension=Basic reading comprehension | |||
|tibetanrequiredforretreat=Recommended | |||
|otherlanguage1=Spanish | |||
|otherlanguage1Prof=Very good command | |||
|introbuddhism=I started with my late husband, Mike Lewis who died in 2021. We were married in 2015 and began practicing around late 2016 with sutras from the Amitabha Pure Land and Lotus Sutra, those were our first contact with Buddhism and it reduced us both to tears. After Mike died, shortly thereafter I met Lama Karma Tenzin Dorje, also known as Lama Mike Crowley, a karma kagyud lay buddhist lama who gave me my first Upasika and later on Bodhisattva vows in Mount Shasta at his center called Amrita Dzong, were he was a student of Chime Rinpoche, First Kalu Rinpoche and Dzongsar Khentyse Rinpoche. He issued me the initatory name Chime Ja, after his teacher Chime Rinpoche at Marpa House in Wales. He also offered for me to attend 3 yr retreat in England at his home center if I didn't have other options. Later on that year in 2021 I met with Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche at google and attended a lecture with a student of his named Tom. Tom later visited Ser Cho Ling for Nyunges and that is where I met my Precious secondary root guru, Wangchen Rinpoche. I stayed for a total of 18 Nyungnes done non-consecutively, completed my first 8 in the fall of 2023 and completed my first 25 Nyungnes as a Chopon in the temple this year in May. | |||
|refugehistory=I took Refuge first with Khentrul Rinpoche of the Jonang Tradition Nov 3rd 2022. And then I took Refuge as an Upasika or Laybuddhist Dec 28th, 2022 and found what I felt was the deepest connection thru the Kagyu lineage tree and transmissions from him. My third time taking refuge was in 2024 with Wangchen Rinpoche which is who gave me my Ngondro instruction and quickly became my full time Guru. | |||
|formalvows=Yes | |||
|formalvowsdetails=Sept 13 2023 with Lama Mike Crowley. We went to the Japanese garden and I read the vows with Lama Mike Crowley. | |||
|ngondrocomplete=No | |||
|ngondronotes=I am projected to complete them by the end of the Year. | |||
|ngondroPartialComplete=Yes | |||
|ngondroPartialDetails=I have completed about 25 percent of the prostrations and I have a system of completing the rest of them prior to the retreat start date next year. | |||
|previousretreatscomplete=Yes | |||
|previousretreatsdetails=The longest is 50 days Nyungne unbroken or uninterupted with Wangchen Rinpoche. | |||
|ynadvstudiesprogs=Yes | |||
|ynofferedservices=Yes | |||
|offeredservicesdetails=I am a medical herbalist and natural medicine doctor without western medicine license, and I have helped my Lama and sangha members with general medical advice. I hold an Honorary Doctorate in Traditional Native American Medicine from the NACTI organziation. I also founded a school for herbalism online. I Also volunteer by cooking, cleaning and purchasing groceries several times a week, I also water the local gardens and my gurus lawn. I also was the junior Chopon for the 50 day Nyungne retreat and in charge of opening the temple, performing umdze tasks and other things throughout the time here. I started an online university called divine master alchemy, and I have been traveling to many colleges and universities teaching culutral anthropology of ethnobotanical plant medicines and promoting harm reduction and beneficial practices related to dharma and mindfulness practices in the greater Enteogenic community for over 5 yrs. | |||
|othercommunitywork=Volunteering with Nature Conservancy, Speaking at Colleges and Universities on the topic of plant medicine. | |||
|retreatduration=36 | |||
|StartFunding=2026-02-22 | |||
|EndFunding=2027-02-22 | |||
|costestimateCurrency=USD | |||
|costestimate=27000 | |||
|requestedamountCurrency=USD | |||
|requestedamount=13000 | |||
|othermoney=I just started a part time job at $27 an hour, and I have $2k savings I am putting towards the retreat cabins which have not yet been built, hence the total cost including a Retreat dome from Pacific Domes, as well. That will be partially paid for by me and the rest by my precious Guru. | |||
|letterofmotivation=During the time directly before my partners death at age 43, we had both aspired to go deeper into dharma practice and study after our child was born. We were even considering raising our first child in a buddhist retreat style community setting. I lost my child shortly after the death of my partner of 8 yrs, and that shattered my connection with reality as I knew it and exposed me deeply to the experiential concept of impermanence and suffering far more than I had been exposed to it before. I led a life before that point searching for tools to heal my body from numerous health conditions, tumors, endometriosis, lung disease and liver ailments that I had been suffering from and designed a school with my partners help to try and share meaningful advice and herbal knowledge to those underpriveleged or who weren't able to access higher levels of medicinal care in the alternative medicine sphere. Though my life was already dedicated to serving community at the time of my partners death, the mind rending screams that came out of me during the time of my partners passing, were underlying a silent calm stillness that supported me thru the process of cremating and funeral preparations for my spouse. The notion that my mind couldn't completely shatter and that there was truly a deeper buddha nature within not only myself, but all sentient beings.. was merely conceptual jargon and didn't seem very factual up until that experience. The years that followed that experience were frought with poor decisions and attachment to comfort through seeking closeness with people who did not have my best interests at heart and also I rushed into my previous patterns of unhealthy behavior: smoking tobacco, promiscuity... etc that did not only fail to fulfill me in any way, but made my waking reality like a living hell from which there was no permanent or even temporarily long lasting escape. I was plunged into deeper levels of desperation and deep longing to connect with my partner who had passed away and brought to joy whenever something of beauty came into my sphere of consciousness, be it a bird, flower or butterfly.. I started to use that longing to connect with the compassion and wisdom aspects of my own mind, slowly ad surely... it helped lead me out of depression and away from harmful behaviors and within a few years, I couldn't say that I was depressed any longer. This guiding process came from my first root guru, Lama Mike Crowley, who shared a connection with my partner somehow and felt that they knew of them from Wales. Even though my partner had never physically been to Wales, I knew that this connectedness was not accidental because I felt chills when he looked at my partners photo and seemed to fondly recognize them (pronouns: they/them). Futhermore, my late partner was a big fan of his book called "Secret Drugs of Buddhism" as me and my partner worked with some entheogens for the purpose of healing sexual trauma and depression before coming to dharma. On one fateful night we stayed up till 3am reading Amitabhas Pure Land Sutra and it was so beautiful we made reading sutras a part of our weekly spiritual practice, (over 7 yrs ago now). My first guru would give me Shamata instruction and then leave me to practice for a few months or a year and then give further instructions for visualization.. around 2023 he announced I was ready to take my Bodhisattva Vows and I did so happily. That same year I completed my first Niguma Yoga retreat with Yangsi Kalu Rinpoche and I had felt I had made a new dharma friend not knowing the scale and previous life history of the 1st Kalu Rinpoche. I immediately fell in love with Niguma Yoga and the following year in 2024 I made a point to take another 4 day retreat with Kalu Rinpoche to study Niguma Yoga. After that life changing experience I knew for sure that I had to go deeper in to my Shangpa Kagyud practices. The next events I attended were Mahakala with Kalu Rinpoche and Niguma Yoga that was held at Ser Cho Ling. That was the day at Ser Cho Ling I had the pleasure of meeting my primary Guru, Wangchen Rinpoche. He greeted me with a deeply knowing look of recognition and I knew from that time on I would be spending a lot of time at Ser Cho Ling. I then signed up for my first Nyungne in 2024 and practiced diligently with Wangchen Rinpoche and started Ngondro Simultaneously. After a year, I was encouraged that I would make a good nun by Wangchen Rinpoche and I took my vows with his Holiness Tai Situ Rinpoche in March on March 26th in 2025. That was one of the most life chaning journeys I had ever had... since then Wangchen Rinpoche suggested I get ready immediately for three year retreat. | |||
}} | }} | ||
Revision as of 01:59, 29 July 2025
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