Landscaping and Main Building Opening Ceremony in Chittaviveka Monastery

Dear friends,

Construction of the main building of the monastery is nearing completion — and we are delighted to invite you to the opening ceremony, which will take place on June 27.

To fully complete the project, we still need to landscape the surrounding grounds: plant trees and vines, reinforce the soil, and much more. You can see a preliminary render of how the monastery will look once all the work is finished in the attached image. The trees and vines will create a comfortable, shaded setting for the monks to rest and dwell in. For this, as well as for the opening ceremony itself, we still need to raise around 3,000,000 rupees.

This is the final stage of the building's construction. After it, all that remains is to furnish the second and third floors — which will house kutis for practitioners, a meditation hall, and other rooms.

Looking back

Construction unfolded in three stages and began in 2024. Over that time, more than 200 people have taken part, making over 500 donations for a total of $78,000. This is a truly wonderful and very rare offering that we have made all together, through our combined efforts! What's more, the building itself stands on land that we also offered to the monastery — back in September 2023 (here's the post about that offering).

Let's pause for a moment and all rejoice together in this wonderful and very rare offering to the Sangha 🙏

May the Sangha flourish in this beautiful monastery, and may there always be suitable conditions here for the successful practice of the Buddha's Dhamma!

📅 Ceremony Program

• Night of June 26–27 — all-night chanting of parittas
• June 27 — the formal opening ceremony

Everyone is welcome! You may also stay at the monastery before or after the ceremony to devote time to practice under the guidance of an experienced teacher — the abbot of the monastery, Bhante Nyanaseeha.

The Buddha's words on offering dwellings and planting trees

In the Vanaropa Sutta (SN 1.47), the Buddha says:

Those who plant gardens and groves, who build bridges, who provide wells and places to drink, who give shelter and dwellings — their merit grows by day and by night. Such people, established in the Dhamma, endowed with virtue, are bound for the heavenly realms.

And on offering a dwelling to the Sangha, it is said in the Cullavagga (Vinaya Piṭaka):

Dwellings protect from cold and heat, from beasts of prey, snakes, and insects, from driving rain. They give shelter and tranquility for meditation and insight. Offering a dwelling to the Sangha is praised by the Buddha as the highest gift. Therefore the wise person, seeing their own welfare, should build fine dwellings and house there those learned in the Dhamma.