The
goal of Diamond Mountain University and Retreat Center is to make
manifest the books of ancient wisdom that can change our world for the
better.
Let's see how this is being done:
The Written Word
Since the beginning of classes at Diamond Mountain University in 2005, approximately 5,000 pages of translations of ancient texts have been completed. Here are just a few of the beautiful texts that Diamond Mountain translators have produced during the past year:
At a November event in New York, we released King of the Dharma: The Illustrated Life of Je Tsongkapa, Teacher of the First Dalai Lama; the result of 20 years of effort to decode 15 rare Tibetan paintings. 100% of the proceeds are going to support a Mongolian Buddhist temple, and more than $60,000 has been raised already
In preparation for the ordination of new monks and nuns, the complete original ceremony, spoken by Lord Buddha 2500 years ago, has been finished
We are close to completing Clear Light of the Sun, written in 1744 and one of only a few Tibetan explanations of the Diamond Cutter Sutra; will be published with an explanation of the Heart Sutra in Tibetan and English, for free distribution to Tibetan monks and nuns
We recovered and translated an ancient book called Niguma’s Machine of the Body, composed by the female Indian master Lady Niguma in 1000 AD; this is possibly the first yoga series ever written down, and the only recorded ancient series designed by a woman; it teaches special yoga poses for managing our emotions, and has already been taught to participants of Tibetan Heart Yoga Series 7
May in New York saw the release of Lama Christie's new book, The Tibetan Book of Meditation (Doubleday/Random House), based on her translations of the King of Concentration Sutra and works by Master Kamalashila; the book quickly rose into the top group of Tibetan Buddhist bestsellers.
We completed the translation of two important works on the practice of Emerald Tara: the bimonthly Offering of the Gathering, and the empowerment, which was immediately used in the first Tara initiation held at Diamond Mountain
We are also close to the completion of five different commentaries to the practice of the Diamond Angel, Vajra Yogini, dating from 16th Century to the present; and these are being taught constantly in the advanced courses at DMU
Diamond Mountain University Press has this year released its first publication: The Ultimate Offering, a comprehensive description of the traditional torma-cake offering of Buddhism, prepared by Lama Pelma and a group of her students at DMU. For inquiries, email to customerservice@dmu-press.com
- ACIP developed and released ACE (Asian Classics Explorer) customized web application enabling online search, synchronized viewing of scans and input pages with the Chone Lama release
- Formatting of the Lokesh-Chandra Rinsen Edition into a searchable electronic format which can be released for scholarly purposes
- Development of customized database and catalog applications for ACIP's Master Catalog which will reflect ACIP's entire collection of data (scans and input) in its 20 years history.
- Collaboration with E. Gene Smith of Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center
- Collaboration with Japanese and Mongolian groups on distribution of rare Kangyur texts
- Exclusive permission digitize the entire collection of Kaivalyadhama Institute
- Partial release of St. Petersburg Catalog, NYC, 2008
- Translations of ACIP's works being used by professionals throughout the world to design program materials used by professionals in diverse fields around the world
The Global Family Project brings together two needs: the need to provide meaningful jobs to people who have few other opportunities, and the need to preserve the disappearing ancient texts of India and Tibet. This project now covers half the funding of the refugee computer input operator's salaries.
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The Spoken Word on Campus
In the first term of Diamond Mountain University in 2004, 16 courses were offered, by 2009 there were 37. In addition to ongoing courses of advanced Buddhist and meditation studies here are some of those new courses:
- Ayurvedic Bodywork I
- Beginners Yoga
- Building Course: adobe-paper blocks
- Chasing the Bard, Buddha and Shakespeare
- Dance as a Spiritual Practice
- Connecting the Cores of Inner & Outer Bodies: Vayus, Bandhas and Stability
- Explorations in Emptiness: Arya Nagarjuna
- Hypertexting
- Literary Tibetan
- Introduction to Chinese Language and Culture
- Nada Yoga: making a Joyful Sound
- Sanskrit Sound and Symbol: Learning to read Devanagari
- Tai chi chuan
- An Overview of Steps on the Path to Enlightenment
- Worldsavers
- A Collaboration of Dance and Chakras
- Yogi's diet
- Meditation 101
A variety of visiting teachers graced our campus:
Elisa Monte, choreographer and dancer founded her own dance company after 15 years as a professional dancer, 8 as principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Elisa charmed us and taught us grace under fire
AcroYoga's Jenny Sauer-Klein and Jason Nemer, AcroYoga blends the spiritual wisdom of yoga, the loving kindness of Thai massage, and the dynamic power of Acrobatics. Jenny and Jason wowed us and had us flying
Jon Ruez, expert straw bale builder, conducted a workshop that had us bring near to completion the first straw bale cabin at DMU
Master Chen Chao, teacher of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism from China, taught us about these three major philosophical systems. He enlightened us to the incredible history of how these three inteconnect.
Sabumnim David Herbert, Martial Arts Master, holds an 8th degree black belt in Jujitsu and a 6th degree black belt in Hap ki do. He taught us for an action packed four days.
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Darren Rhodes, one of the premier Anusara yoga teachers in the world, has been listed as one of Yoga Journal's most influential young yoga teachers. Darren guided us skillfully into yoga asanas to our fullest capacity.
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Building on Campus
Enormous strides were taken in preparing and building for the Great Retreat (3 years, 3 months, 3 days) scheduled to start in 2010. This includes the Lama Dome - an earth bag building, a test cabin, a straw bale home, septic installations, water system installation, retreat cabin pad preparation, foundations poured
 Test Cabin |
 Straw Bale |
 Lama Dome |
 Pad preparation |
Green building technology developed such as adobe bricks, composting toilets, clay stack wall. In our case in the Southwest, there is an abundance of adobe mud and of recyclable paper trash, and by amending mud with the cellulose matrix found in paper, made from trees, a super adobe building material results. So keeping our local community's paper trash out of the landfills, we can produce non-toxic, eco-friendly, high quality low cost building materials.
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Retreats
Diamond Mountain students and teachers continued to do group and solitary retreats, and over the last year completed 35 meditation retreats such as Vajrasattava, Je Tsongkapa, Yamantaka, and Vajrayogini.
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Bringing the Teachings to the World
During term breaks students who studied at DMU went out into various communities and taught what we had learned. Many have established sanghas with students that meet on a regular basis.
Here are some of the announcements we sent out:
Yoga Studies Institute offered teachings all over the world for many students from business people to yogis. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika final chapters was taught in New York City and Tibetan Heart Yoga 7 introduced in San Pancho, Mexico. We are now registered with the Yoga Alliance and have just completed part one of our first 300-hour Teacher Training Program.
Virtual Classroom
Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its “residents”. The residents of Second Life can attend, via their avatars, a live class covering Tibetan alphabet, pronunciation, and vocabulary every Saturday morning. Students interact both with voice and Instant Messaging
Sera Mey Study Overseas Program
Each year a select group of Diamond Mountain students travel to Sera Mey Monastic University in India. They study both colloquial and scriptural Tibetan and the classical form of debate. They return to Diamond Mountain and teach it here.
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Community Service
Here is some of what we did in the last year:
PATH Educational Initiative teaches personal accountability to children as the key to becoming successful and happy and is a seamless integration of academic standards with a consistent study and practice of ethical principles for youth around the world
Project 108; yoga practioners are sponsored to complete 108 successive sun salutations. Among the variety of recipients over the last 4 years of this fund-raising event have been an Iraqi child of war and, for this same event, a scholarship for a local child who lost a parent in the war. $10,000 was raised for this one event.
Rural ACCENT (A Community Coalition to Eliminate Need through Teamwork), a 501 (C)3 in Bowie, our immediate neighbor. Local youth participated in building a youth center by applying for grants, doing design, construction and creating policy. Services were also brought in including bi-weekly medical exams, food banks, and emergency food boxes. A low cost non-profit food store was created. These services have continued to function for 4 years, and has become a provider in a town riddled with low income families without access to basic services.
The Prison Yoga Project in operation for three years continues to provide inmates with yoga asana, philosophy and meditation instruction in Arizona, offering a non-harmful way to work with life situations
Meditation Practice Institute provides meditation instruction to suit the needs of people in a variety of organizations and business settings.
Yoga Studies Institute's association with SEVA was initiated in Mexico with service to a senior center creating a chapel and a garden.
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How You Can Help
Will you commit to a monthly donation to pay off the mortgage on the Diamond Mountain land? We are asking for a monthly donation rather than a big one-time gift because we'd like for you to think of Diamond Mountain activities as being part of your own. As a free university it is available to all who are interested.
This chart shows what we have paid off so far toward our goal of $1,300,000 and what is left to pay. Your donation will go directly toward accomplishing that before the Three Year Retreat begins.
- If you are presently participating in the dollar-a-day program,
we would like to thank you and encourage you to continue - If you have participated before but have recently lost track of us,
we would like to invite you to please join us again - If you haven't known of this opportunity before and want to start,
we would like to welcome you