VAJRAPANI INSTITUTE

I had heard of Lama Yeshe’s center in Boulder Creek before I came to America in 1977. I was staying with students of Lama’s in Berkeley and when Lama Yeshe arrived in the spring of 78 I told him I would stay at Vajrapani over the summer.
“So short?” he said.
Two words from him could have a lot of power; I ended up staying more than thirteen years!
When I came, only a year had passed since the land had been given and all there was, besides a multitude of redwoods, was a few makeshift cabins and three tepees. We thought it would take a couple of years to build the center, but it took about 15 years. I assisted in designing the main building:


It never was painted quite as fancy as this sketch, but it did get the eyes of Buddha:


I did some of the carvings:



I also painted the altar in the meditation room for small group retreats:


and I build my own cabin:


During these years I painted mostly thankas (Tibetan paintings). Here is one with the Vajrapani land as background – later I will post others.