Reflections (& feelings) after 5 years dedicated to taking care of Suryavana Retreat Centre
Sudaka (Director Suryavana)
Masia Novales,
Extramuros 6,
12450 Jérica
29th October 2024
Some Frustrations and Joys…
As I write now I note some tension and tiredness also satisfaction and joy. An abundant and rich mixture.
I have not had a weekend free since the middle of September. Seven weeks ago. So that’s two months, working pretty much flat out day after day. (It’s true some of the work has been running my own teaching events, for my own as well as Suryavana benefit).
Back in mid-September, we (Jesu (my wife/partner “in crime”) and I were preparing Suryavana for the forthcoming big run of events. 1000’s of euros have flowed into the accounts and 1000’s have flowed out over the last weeks.
It costs around €4200 a month to maintain Suryavana afloat and moving forward. I often think of Suryavana as a ship on an open-ended world voyage Or a starship heading out into the unknown Cosmos! More often than not we are in stormy waters. Around about half of the income goes on returning loans (€1200 to the bank BBVA, €600 to the Windhorse Trust and €250 to a private individual). The rest are running costs and support for me (€600/month). I plan to raise this to 800/month in the New Year 2025, accounts permitting
The “Rub”. The Main Difficultly
Almost every event we run in Suryavana implies that we have to pack up our “lounge”, living space and set up a “Shrineroom”. So we go from “Salon” to “Sala” on Fridays. (Then back again on Sundays. We pack our bags and head over to nearby village. Where we set up camp for the weekend. Sometimes this process is fun and even a relief, to get away to a different space. Sometimes it feels as though we are being “kicked out” of our living space. Either way its a lot of work and is very time consuming!
We aim to bring around 1500 euros for weekend events charging €75 (full board) for two nights with a minimum of 10 persons paying. From this income we often give €150 to each of the two cooks who facilitate the event. And we spend €150/200 on food. There are other costs, like diesel for the Generator if it’s cloudy. Petrol and transport costs. Ongoing maintenance and so on. So we aim to “earn” €1000-1200 per weekend with the intention of doing 3/4 weekends a month. That’s the basic dynamic month to month.
Working every weekend is not really sustainable for me or my family to be straight up and honest! It doesn’t make for a sensible work-life balance.
As well as running Suryavana I am also a “dad”. I live up here with my family (wife and two young kids (12 and 9 years old)). Suryavana provides me 600 euros a month. This is around a third of what I need/want to be earning so I also run two businesses to supplement my income. These projects go back many years and have give me a great deal of autonomy and agency in my personal economic life. “Sudakayoga” is yoga/meditatiom/Thai massage teaching. Bodhiyoga International, a collaborative yoga teacher training project with Sadhita. Sudakayoga goes back to the year 2000. Almost 25 years. Teaching is one of my great joys in life!
We have been doing all this for five years now. We arrived in the depths of the Covid Pandemic in 2020. I love living at Suryavana. It’s a beautiful and expansive space to be in. I love being “in the nature”. Also, running a Triratna project, especially a retreat centre/temple has been a long time wish/myrh of mine. Since my late teens (before contact with Triratna actually).
The current set up works because my wife’s family generously provide a small house nearby where we can “retreat to” as is necessary at weekends. I have developed a love and appreciation for the area that now goes back more than ten years thanks to the visits to the family house and now with the purchase of Suryavana in 2016. My kids love going to the local schools and enjoy the more “rustic” country living “vibe”. The plan is that they will follow through to University age, 2032. This would make a natural review point for us/me staying or going and handing “things” on. 2032 auspiciously coincides with paying off the BBVA bank debt. There is the loan from the Windhorse Trust to take into account! The property will then belong to the Comunidad Budista Triratna (Xerica).
Moving Towards Longer term Sustainability?
What does this mean? Two aspects come to mind immediately.
- Working and collaborating with others in a friendly and effective way. We are really very fortunate with Yashomani as treasurer who is giving his time freely and seems to be always at the end of the phone (or WhatsApp message) and handles a lot of the book-keeping. The cooks too are crucial. I have been fortunate too with members of the Sangha helping here in the kitchen, a vital aspect of any retreat centre. Padmashalin has been consistently involved since the purchase of Suryavana and we have encouraged men and women Mitras to join in.
- The living situation. Perhaps the more important factor. The project benefits having me/us around and onsite. Firstly it’s just beneficial having a presence here. The premises is occupied. By us! Problems get noted and things get fixed. Maintenance gets done. People are welcomed in and received as guests for their events. Working remotely could work but the project is very “hands on” and living elsewhere would bring its own issues.
We are here almost full time (90% of the time). To be comfortable and at ease means having some private living quarters. Currently we occupy two rooms (and a bathroom) which lead onto the Shrineroom space. Obviously this presents some challenges.
The next step!
The need to build or set up a dedicated shrine room/yoga space/ workshop. This then frees up the “flat” which currently we give up to visiting groups to use as their shrineroom/workshop.
A Dedicated Shrine-room / Workshop
My current thinking is to roof over the rear patio of the main house (the Masia). There have been ideas of a geodesic done or yurt type structure, but I know in summer this space would get very hot and in Winter would be difficult to heat making it unusable.
The rear patio has already three walls standing and the area falls in the designated legal “DIC”, permitting building and development. My neighbour has just done something similar and it costed out at around 30 000 euros to put a floor and roof down and window in some walls.
With legal and architectural costs added in I estimate for around 30/50 thousand euros, we could have a wood-floored and heated practice space of 70/80 square meters. Perfectly adequate for groups of 30/40 meditating or 20-25 doing yoga.
The Solution – Fund raising
Evidently we need to raise the funds to do the build. Current income permits keeping the project going but doesn’t allow for any serious accumulation of capital. The intention is to have something of a “cushion”. This is currently around 5k euros but we would like to lift that to 10k.
Suryavana just lost its vehicle. A clapped out old Peugeot Partner van, donated by Sanghapala many years ago. It survived 25 years use. Presently I am using my own family car to run errands for Suryavana which is not ideal.
I would love to see Suryavana move the next level and that means getting a shrine room!
Personally I feel too stretched to take on fund-raising and love someone to take this on, aiming to generate enough capital to build a Shrineroom. 30-50 k depending how luxurious we would make it. Any offers?
