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Tsegyalgar West, Baja
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Los Cabos, Baja, Mexico
Founding of Tsegyalgar West
BAJA (MEXICO) AND OUR RETREAT, OCTOBER 3- 5, 2003
A SHAGGY DOG STORY-Carol Fields
The sense of saga does not abate. We thought that after four or five years of discussion and search for the Winter Gar for North America, that we would come to rest in a cozy little, warm spot where the snowbirds could alight when their extremities began to freeze in the American northeast during winter. Instead, we caught the tail of the tiger. Or maybe, in Baja terms, we fished for grouper, but pulled in a whale instead. We re still landing it. Or, maybe, it is landing us.
It all started innocently enough, with Rinpoche suggesting that the Dzogchen Community West Coast in California should be responsible for finding and obtaining a property for the North American Winter Gar in a warm place. We would use the majority of the funds we obtained from the sale of Kyundingar, our ill-fated, though beautiful, property in Cazadero, CA. Back in the 80 s, Kyundingar encountered resistance from a new neighbor that grew to a firestorm, though we had a perfect retreat there on the land with Rinpoche, swam in the Russian River and the ocean, and watched a peregrine falcon mother train her young fledgling above us as Rinpoche taught under the oaks. But that mountain refuge was not to be, and our decision to leave it led to a long period of waiting and search. From the sale of Kyundingar, we were able to send $40,000 to Merigar and various gifts to other Community sites, and save some for a local Center and the Winter Gar.
After a number of forays to southern California looking along the coast, at the inland desert, and close to the Mexican border for the future Winter Gar, we had one of our famous Community-to-Community meetings (C2C) in Joshua Tree (inland of Los Angeles) at a Vipassana retreat center which was for sale (spring of 2002). We thought that perhaps this was our new Winter Gar. However, most of the group, which attended from Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, and New Mexico, did not fancy this property-though cheap, it was next to a military reservation, which was regularly sending helicopters overhead, and it was in a desert which recently suffered a 7-year drought, and was entertaining air pollution from Los Angeles, despite its world-famous national park. We decided as a group, that this spot was not for us.
We formed an expanded search committee. And we proceeded to search far and wide-Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California, northern Mexico, Baja, Hawaii and Belize. The search committee was an example of what can happen when people have determination. It is my firm conviction, that without this group energy, we would never have found this land in Baja Sur. Rinpoche encouraged us- I do not need to see the land, he said, meaning that we could take steps to secure the land when we found it, even while he was traveling elsewhere. He offered to have a retreat in the new place in October of 2003-but he also compassionately advised, If you do not find it, don t worry.
At one point in the search, Jey Clark sent out a message about an internet site describing a four million dollar property in Baja Sur (the Baja peninsula extends from California south into Mexico) and said we can dream about this one. As I looked at the photos on the site, it reminded me strongly of Tassajara Zen Center in the Ventana wilderness in California. I couldn t resist calling the contact number-it turned out to be Jeff Klein, who lived just across the San Francisco Bay from me. We met in a bookstore, and he showed me an amazing permaculture plan for the property, and said there might be a place for us on this land. I suggested that we go to see it, and he agreed.
This was not our first trip to Baja. Cathy McGrane and Stephanie Denyer went earlier; and Carisa O Kelly from CA and Julia Deisler from New Mexico went to Loreto; and also, the three of us, Carisa, Julia and I visited the Ulrych property on the Sea of Cortez in Baja Sur. On exploration number four, we hit the jackpot.
Margaret Bradford and I visited the Rancho San Miguel Grande land with Jeff Klein, and it took us two days to explore it. It is only 40 minutes from the Los Cabos airport in Baja (where all the tourists land), and is up 1,500 feet in the mountains (where the weather is pleasant). It is 50 minutes from the most beautiful beaches on the Sea of Cortez. We were impressed with the great white fig trees which wrapped their huge roots around the large boulders; with the 22 unfinished casitas; and with the enormity of the great arroyo streambed which threads through the valley and also through the middle site of this property. Palm trees clustered by the streambed and scattered up the mountain slopes.
It was warm, but not too warm to hike into the middle of the land, which is a totally private valley, separated from the other two sites by ridges. The streambed is 50 yards wide in places with huge, ultra-smooth white granite boulders and pools. A lot of water has flowed here through the eons. We were very touched by this property. We could not imagine that such a spacious place could be ours in which to practice. Individual retreat huts, a campground, staff quarters, and a gompa could be completely invisibly developed on the middle site. Jeff said, the nonprofit could own all of this. We could not comprehend what he meant. We later found that the owner, Peter Baumann, had considered that donation to a worthy community, which would put the land to good use, was something he would entertain.
Many negotiations later, after Peter had revisited the land, where he had a strong experience indicating that a community (OUR COMMUNITY) must own this land, we were headed to Baja again to have a retreat with Rinpoche. The land was to be ours. All 3,000 acres. This was a donation, to secure which we would contribute an amount up to about $70,000 for the various transfer costs, including the appraisal, which rated the land as worth $1,375 million. Only our collective karma with Rinpoche s enduring vision could have produced this result.
We scheduled the October retreat as planned in Baja, even though the land transfer was not yet completed. Carisa held a great raffle in Merigar and Tsegyalgar to publicize this occasion. (Jim Smith won first prize.) We engaged the Buena Vista Hotel and Spa on the Sea of Cortez (having one of two conference centers on the coast) as our site. The hotel was ideal-small bungalows, lovely restaurant overlooking the beach and the sea, and (later we found out) its own generator! Hortencia, the coordinator of group events at the hotel, agreed to start teaching us Spanish by e-mail-su amiga, senora. Rinpoche would be able to walk from his room to the beach or the pool. We planned a public talk on the Pacific side in Todos Santos (the new Santa Fe), invited the local Buddhist Vipassana teachers, and planned a visit to Peter and Alison Baumann s mansion on the tip of the peninsula. Elias Capriles of Venezuela graciously consented to be the retreat translator.
As of the beginning of the Tsegyalgar retreat, which we all attended, only 30 people had signed up for the Baja retreat. But by October, we had 120 people or so, including one-fourth of those enrolled coming from Mexico.
You can imagine what it was like trying to coordinate with the hotel in Mexico from California, and register everyone, and make sure they had transportation, etc. But this was only openers, just the horsdeurves. A giant hurricane hit lower Baja one week before the retreat. Wouldn t you know, this was the ONLY time in living memory that two hurricanes have hit Baja in one year!! Oh well.
For Christina and her friend who arrived from Italy early for the retreat, this meant that the hotel met them faithfully at the airport, escorted them by van over the various flooded arroyos until the last one before the hotel which was the most gigantic flood of all, where the road was not yet repaired (picture two football fields wide of river), then turned to the little town of La Ribera, to the shore, and put them aboard a boat which took them to the hotel! Those of us who arrived a bit later were able to negotiate the road-in-progress all the way to the hotel, including driving right through the shallower crossings, and over the pontoon bridges at the big one (almost with eyes closed) in our jeeps (no, we were not trained to do this). We decided that Rinpoche and Rosa needed to come ot the hotel in the hotel vans-which is what happened.
I was struck that this was not the Baja I had visited in February and May. Then, it was a desert environment. This time, every patch of ground was green, there were hoards of yellow butterflies, and every bush was in full greenery and flower. It was Hawaii. I would have sworn, I had never been there before. Welcome to the tropical drylands-completely different at different times. A rare ecology.
Was the retreat divine? Of course. Rinpoche glowed-in the pool, in the sea, in front of us at the teaching. People were totally silent at the end of his first teaching. Not a word. No one lined up. Just complete silence. Honor. Later, they were told they could line up and ask questions afterwards, and everyone did. Each morning, arriving at the beach at sunrise. Ozer Jenma practice. Mandarava practice. Rinpoche, joking in the water. A big nature all around. Kitzia and Gabriel Howearth attended from the permaculture botanical gardens in La Ribera next door-Kitzia brought her new baby and had told us her story of being guided by an inner wisdom being who taught her Green Tara. She had asked seven years ago when the being would appear in the flesh-and the answer was, this year, 2003.
We made every effort to take people to the land-we tried twice with Rinpoche, and sat at the bottom of the mountain, with our feet in the cool water coming down the arroyo.
We had a picnic Tibetan style, sitting on the road and joking around. But we had to turn back. Only a small party of four students hiked up to the land. The road was completely disrupted by the hurricane, and the government was busy trying to repair the main roads.
One student who hiked up to the land said that he had an experience there. He did not wish to leave it-ever. As they walked up they encountered some of the local rural folks who live up there-one man offered his horse for the one woman of our group who was hiking up the road. They asked if we were going to buy the land. Baja is basically a huge natural place with few people, where word travels quickly, as if it were a small town. No secrets. As the New York Times front page recently recounted, Americans are buying up Baja. No wonder. It is Southern California without the people.
Rinpoche announced that this was the beginning of the Winter Gar. He met with Peter and Alison, the owners and donors of the land, as well as with Jeff Klein, our contact and Peter s long-time colleague in the music business. Peter regaled Rinpoche, Rosa, Jennifer Fox and myself with a gourmet dinner at his home at the tip of Baja, and the topic of conversation was Dharma, from start to finish. A good time was had by all.
To say that we have been overwhelmed by the magnificence of the gift, the land, Baja itself, and by Rinpoche s unwavering positivity regarding this opportunity, is putting it mildly. I have lived in California, and never seen Baja before, the southernmost extension of California. The Sea of Cortez, on the east shore of Baja, is the most biologically diverse body of water on the planet. Baja is, as Joe Cummings of the Moon Guides,writes, neither Mexico nor the United States. It is a dream state. I wish to explore the mountains, the arroyos and pools, and to hear our songs and the arroyo s own song on this land. It will take some time to comprehend the massive beauty of this place where whales congregate, and the Buddhists are drawn-not just us, but the Spirit Rock group, a Lama associated with Gyaltrul Rinpche, and others. For the benefit of all.
P.S. We expect the official land transfer to be completed in November, 2003. We have received a challenge grant of $20,000 and if we match it, we will receive more in 2004. Please consider contributing to this stupendous project (there is room enough for all of us). Your contributions are tax-deductible in the U.S. Send to : Dzogchen Community West Coast, Winter Gar Fund, 2748 Adeline, Suite D, Berkeley, CA 94703, USA. Thank You.
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