El Collao :: a One Year Retreat Facility

In late 2009 on one of his long walks, about two kilometres from El Morer, Vajrabandhu founda piece of land for sale. It consisted of a small house located on a series of well kept terraces (1.4Ha; 3.5 acres) of almond, olive, grape and assorted fruit trees on the side of the mountain with a broad sweeping view of the PuigCampana, the Castelletes, the Mediterranean, and the mountains beyond Relleu. Unlike Guhyaloka which is enclosed in the canyon, it is more like a Vultures' Peak perched high, exposed to the vast open space of the sky. It seemed like and ideal location for the long retreats that we had been wanting to facilitate but could not because Guhyaloka itself is used for other important annual retreats.

So, by early 2010 Guhyaloka purchased the land and set to work, building the facilities that would support a one-year retreat for four men, and learning how to care for the land.

The community at Guhyaloka is small and has other demanding duties but none-the-less good progress has been made. The small house on the land has been tidied up and renovated for use as a communal kitchen and sitting room, and a bedroom for one person; one wooden hut has been constructed and now needs the finishing touches; another hut kit has been purchased and will be built later this year; a composting toilet has been completed; the water tank (which collects water for the fruit trees) has been cleaned, covered and serviced; and finally a major job of shoring up the terrace under the small house has been completed. A little more work is needed to complete the solar power supply to the house.

Perhaps the biggest job has been to learn how to manage the land. We purchased land that had been lovingly cared for and it was our wish to continue looking after it properly. Achaladeva has taken this on with a real love, and after a full year he feels that he has some clearer idea of what needs to be done when. The land produces a good crop of almonds, olives, grapes and a large variety of fruit that keeps coming from May to October.

Because there had been several years in which we held two ordination retreats Guhyaloka had some financial reserves and we thought that investing it in local property would be a suitable use for that money. So we have – almost - been able to pay for the land out of reserves. However we will need to raise money to build the facilities that will be needed for the one-year retreat. Even without launching a fund raising program several supporters have given us over €10,000 towards the €50,000 that we estimate will be required. We've also been given an additional donation of €6,000 for a tractor to help with the work of maintaining the land. We have be

en able to start work immediately because we've been generously provided with a no-interest bridging load of €40,000 for five years.

A New Factor

Thus things progressed – but then a new factor was introduced. The neighbouring piece of land came up for sale. Originally both pieces of land had been one property but two cousins had inherited the land and the owner of the second piece of land had a sentimental (as well as a pecuniary) interest in selling to us. We do not really need the land but it offers several very convincing long terms advantages. 

The two pieces of land together form a triangle with steep slopes and cliffs on two sides, and the land falls away steeply from the third side, the apex of triangle resting in the col between the cliffs, looks out on the wide valley to the north of Guhyaloka. It is a very satisfyingly self-contained property. Buying the land stops potential disturbances to our current plans and it also provides for future development of the site because – most importantly - it includes a house and permission to build. It is about one and a half times the size of our present piece of land (2.2Ha; 5.5 acres). 

Funds were of course an issue but The Guhyaloka Trust holds some money for the purchase of land in the Guhyaloka valley. To put it rather simply; because those funds have been sitting in the bank for some time and because the cost of land has risen so much in recent decades, its buying power has been diminished, and after some discussion it was felt that a better use of the money at this time would be to support the development of the facilities of Guhyaloka by investing the money in useful land rather than in the bank.

There was however one issue that caused concern, but we have a resolution to this and so we have recently made an offer that has been accepted. There are some loose ends that need to be sorted out on both sides, but it seems that we will soon be able to acquire this second piece of land.

This has rather thrown our plans for the development of the facilities. The second piece of land has a house with three rooms and an attic. It is 'rustic' but could fairly easily be renovated to provide rooms for two people. What we might do in the future remains to be seen – our idea is to wait for a few years to see what develops - although some of us would like to see the development of a community for full time meditation, study and work on the land – a more fully monastic community that supports the long retreats that we envisage.

Our new plans, on the assumption that we complete our purchase of the new land, will consist of providing accommodation for four or five men in the two houses and two huts; we would use a yurt as shrine room because it can provide an attractive shrine until such time as we build a new purpose built space. We are currently working on a budget for this work but expect it to be similar to our previous estimation – i.e. €50,000 including the extra €13,000 that was needed to buy the first property.

We are looking for donations to help with our work. We firmly believe that the establishment of a facility for long retreats – i.e. of a year or more – is important for individuals, and for the life of our order. Firstly it would enable those within our order who want to do such retreats to do so with others following the same tradition and without having to travel to the US, Myanmar, Thailand and so on. Secondly we believe that not only will those who do these retreats will be able to benefit others later, but that the simple fact

of such retreats actually happening within the Triratna Community will have a very positive effect on the confidence of the whole community. The benefit is therefore not only for those who are in the fortunate position to be able to actually go on the retreats, but the whole of the Triratna Community.

Ours is not a high profile project. We will not be a teaching centre as such, nor a meditation centre as such. It is about providing simple – even crude – facilities for a few men to move away from the world for a considerable [period of time so that they can go much more deeply into their direct spiritual experience. We are fully confident that this will be a major contribution to the life of us all. Please consider seriously helping us build our new and unique retreat facility.