1 Month Gone, 2 Left! Elk Trails, a Flood of Generosity, & What the Heck is Due Diligence?

Welcome to a Clear Mountain land update.
So about four years ago, we came to
Seattle and three and a half years ago
or so, we began searching in earnest for
a home for a monastery, a refuge for
monastics and leoty to find quiet
meditation uh near enough to the city
that it was readily accessible but also
secluded enough to find a place of quiet
and practice in everyday life.
About a month and a half ago, we finally
um found two parcels um adjoined which
fit the criteria we were looking for.
And our steward nonprofit organization,
Friends of Clear Mountain, put in an
offer on that which we announced on
Christmas Eve fortuitously. And now
we're in a phase of due diligence where
for 3 months until March 22nd, we'll be
seeing if the land is suitable and
seeing if the community comes together
in support. Uh at which point we
hopefully can have a home for the
monastery and the community. If you want
to learn more, visit friendsofclear
mountain.org/land.
Um and we'll continue to talk about our
first month update. So, the vision of
Clear Mountain was a home for a
community of uh monks and within about
40 minutes or so of a of Seattle and
we're hoping to have uh eventually as
many as 15 to 20 little coutis where
monastics could live a large hall where
the leoty and monastics could gather to
do morning and evening chanting uh
meditations uh and find quiet. um a
large hall, a garden, a colarium where
people can put the ashes of those who've
passed away, a multi-purpose hall where
the community could gather every morning
um and share meals and a forest where
people could walk. Uh this was the
vision and here are the two parcels. Um
so yeah, 90 acres total. Uh a 50 acre
parcel and a 40 acre parcel. Uh it's
south of Northbend, which is 40 minutes
east of the city. And it's really uh
quite lovely when you drive out I90. Uh
just you might be talking to your friend
in the car or coming out and then uh
there comes a point when you just notice
that you're not surrounded by buildings,
but rather surrounded by green and
nature and it stops. even though you're
still on a at times starting six lane
highway and then down to a four-lane
highway, uh you really start to feel
like you've left the city. Um maybe even
just 20 15 to 20 minutes uh out east on
I90. The vision will be for as Ajanispo
said for us to be on the land to start
with the community which is just Ajanisa
and I at the moment but this is a
project which will go on in perpetuity
probably for generations and generations
and hopefully you know we get the land
and then it will just be a monastery
permanently uh whatever that means but
eventually yeah we'll make more monks
with ordination and um yeah possibly
There's 90 acres could very easily hold
a a group of 20 forest monks who really
felt like they their each individual
cabin was both secluded from the eye and
secluded from the ear. That is monks can
chant at their own huts and look around
and really just see nature all around
them. Be surrounded by the emptiness of
humans but surrounded by the fullness of
of nature. So,
>> we found it was in a there's an elk
migratory corridor that moves through
the parcel with the couti. So, secluded,
but there's herds of elk that come
through. Um, and the fact that it's 40
minutes from the city is really
astounding. It took us a long time to
find secluded land that had that about
it because it means that people can
actually get there and it might be one
of the only forest monasteries in North
America to be within that proximity of a
major metropolitan area which will we
hope make it accessible to the wider
community as well. At this point we want
to bring in our uh wonderful um some of
our wonderful team.
So, uh, to introduce Nicole Jarenski,
uh, who is the Friends of Clear Mountain
Secretary. Uh, Nicole, thanks for
joining us, being here.
>> Thank you. Good to be here.
>> Yeah. And for all the work. Um, this
this crew is um works very hard and are
supported by others inside the
community, but this is a real core
group. Uh, followed by Alex Haynes,
who's also one of the leads on the land
development crew. So, Alex, thank you
also for all the work you done doing and
for being here.
>> Yeah, I'm very glad to be here.
>> And Susan Tillik uh is also on our land
development um group and she is a uh
trained architect and has just been very
generous with her time and has created
maps and has a knowledge of of land and
the possibilities of land which has just
been invaluable. And so Susan, thanks
for joining us as well.
>> Thank you so much. So happy to be here.
>> Nicole and Alex both, they popped onto
our Zoom screen before they came here.
They both moved from the east coast to
be uh well, at least in part to be
nearby Clear Mountain. And it's been a
blessing to see the community kind of
gather from everywhere. Um we're so
grateful for that. And so we visited the
land um after putting in the offer. Um
we had a first community visit on
December 3rd or no, January 3rd. um
after we really serendipitously had got
to announce the land on Christmas Eve um
which felt you know very sacred um even
though we're Buddhists um and on January
3rd we took the community out there 50
people came and it was really heartening
I mean we had seen the land before but
to walk there with the community and
really uh listen to their testimonies
how they felt and feel that people felt
the same resonance we did um that this
was a home where we could find uh where
we could really find uh refuge for
generations.
And we've done a number of every time we
go to the lamb which has been twice now
as a big group like this we'll circle up
and do chanting chhatta metasuta the
Buddhist words on loving kindness which
he suggested people chant when you're
entering into a new place to indicate
that you're coming with a intention of
peace and harmony and that in the image
on uh the big image behind us there is
mount sai um
>> which as we always note sai in Thai
means means clear
>> clear mountain.
>> Yep.
>> Susan, would you uh talk about your
impressions? You've been on the land for
both visits and as our architect and and
a sincere community member, you have
both perspectives.
>> Yeah, sure. Um
uh well the very first time I went a
couple of weeks ago, I was struck by how
um you're coming off of the freeway and
onto a smaller kind of arterial road and
kind of this feeling of busyness. But
you get to the gate and there's a forest
that you drive through. You're driving
over a wetland and it's a it's a pretty
dense forest. It it looks very healthy.
It's got a lot of ferns and a diversity
of flora. And it just feels like this
sort of moment for decompression, you
know, where it's like a threshold from
the everyday hubbhub into this more
quiet, peaceful place. Um, and you drive
through this sort of dark threshold and
then there's this clearing, this opening
where where it's very open. And
yesterday when I went, it was very sunny
and bright. And um the feeling I've had
both times is that this piece of land is
is really special. And um I can really
see um the full vision that the Aons
have for this monastery and for the
community to grow here. Um
the other thing about the land is that
it's got a lot of diversity of terrain
and um and different kind of forests on
it as well as some wetlands an area that
is very pondlike and um I can just see
potential so much potential for gardens
and for forest trails and all kinds of
um sacred little places on this land.
Um, right now we're trying to determine
where the best most auspicious places
will be to build eventually. Um, it
looks like there are a number of
potentials currently. Um, and there may
be others that we haven't even explored
yet, but I'm super excited for the
potential of this land. It's it's really
quite beautiful.
>> Thank you, Susan. Alex, you've also been
there. Actually, you were there for our
first visit as well, so you've been
there three or four times. What would
you What are your impressions?
>> Um, I'll say that it was really
beautiful to be there with the whole
community. Um there was such a sense of
excitement from everyone and almost
everyone I spoke to had this kind of um
expressed this this feeling that this
place already felt like um there was
already a sense of um of the dharma in
this place already. Um and everyone
really felt that this place could really
support a monastery and really support
all of our practices. And there was just
so there was just so much excitement.
And it was so beautiful to chant with
everyone on the land. Um they kind of uh
everywhere you look almost there's like
a a mountain this sense of the embrace
of the mountains. It was just um a
really wonderful experience. So yeah,
good good spot. On that second visit,
um, Ladawan was there who, uh, actually
hosted Ajin Sha on his first or maybe
first visit to Seattle 47 years ago and
he was at her house and said,
"Eventually the Dharma will flourish
here." And it was kind of, you know,
very powerful to see her speaking to
that moment on the land 47 years later,
a day after Longor Shaw's memorial uh,
passing as well. Um, and also to note
we're really honoring wanting to honor
the we're working with the second
largest conservation organization in
Washington, Fortra to really work to
preserve the environmental ethos of the
land. And on February 7th, we'll be
touring it with an ecological expert to
kind of really see how we could honor
the elk migration corridor to honor the
wetlands and integrate uh the monastery
and dharma into into the land as well.
And on the first visit, Audin Kovville
and I went camping and it was cold.
>> That's us in a tent. And uh it was a
really special night. It was the night
after our first big group visit. And we
went and met the neighbor who's a
meditator and has meditated and
practiced at Spirit Rock Meditation
Center in California. A really nice guy.
Um and yeah, that evening we just
hung out in the tent and chanted. did
more chanting. Um saw another herd of
elk, probably eight to 10 or maybe even
12.
>> Uh very large. These are very large
creatures. And um yeah, as we did the
chanting, honestly,
>> yeah, the whole night felt very um
protected, very safe, very good
actually. Um so the timing once again
felt sacred. It was actually a full moon
of Posa today that we happened to camp
there just like we just happened to
announce it on Christmas Eve and that
wasn't planned. um the most kind of
sacred monthly evening in our calendar.
And you know the land really has two p a
personality like the eastern parcel is
very open where we could have you know
these uh this public facilities but the
western parcel is much more forested and
it's secluded and that's where the elk
came through and it's also where you
know we were chanting there and it it
was just there was a lot of meta coming
from those woods and that's always a
really key metric for us. So
>> I didn't realize it, but we actually did
our monastic observance there. So we've
already had a formal sa on the land. So
>> whatever that means.
>> We'll pass here to I believe uh Nicole.
>> H sure thing. Thank you Ajan. Uh so we
first made the land announcement as was
said on Christmas Eve December 24th and
right now we're at January 18. So a
relatively short time and since then
we've received such beautiful support
from the community all around the world.
Uh and both near and far. It's really
heartwarming to see. One way we
encourage community support is for
people to dedicate their merit to the
creation of Clear Mountain Monastery and
reciting the short chant to go for
refuge to the triple gem. So there's a
link at the bottom of the land page that
friendsofclair mountain.org/land
where you can learn more about the
refuge recitation uh listen to what it
sounds like and then also contribute
your own recitations to the count.
there's a a master count and so we have
the goal of 5 million recitations and
the community just passed 3 million or
60%. So that's one way that people can
offer support. Another major support
we've received is material support and
there has been such an outpouring of
funding that it has really been all
inspiring to witness. Um, as Ajan
mentioned, open land around Seattle is
very rare, which also makes it extremely
expensive, and it will take about $5
million to purchase the land. And that
includes all of the other associated
costs with closing and due diligence.
So, over the past years, the last about
four years until last Thursday, a couple
years uh days ago, about 4.6 million has
been generously offered over that entire
time. the community is at 93% of the
total which leaves right about $280,000
remaining to complete the purchase. So
in 2 months on March 22nd, that is the
milestone date that determines if there
are enough funds for the purchase to
move forward. So that is the next big
date to keep in mind, March 22nd.
Um other ways that the community can
support the project are to let people
know that the project is happening. Uh
we'd love to see you on Saturdays or and
Wednesdays whether in person or online.
There's also alms round and the various
volunteer positions that people can help
with. And once the purchase is complete,
the community will be organizing
gardening crews and land cleanup days to
start preparing for the future building.
Uh Allison, our board treasurer, has
received so many beautiful notes along
with people's gifts and she shared them
with the board uh the rest of the board.
And these notes share what the community
means to to the uh to the people who
have given and there's also notes of
encouragement and the board feels such
deep gratitude and joy. Muda rejoicing
in the goodness that people are
expressing through their gifts and
through their notes and all the
different ways that people contribute.
So I just want to say a big thank you to
everyone out there for all of the ways
that you participate in and contribute
to the Clear Mountain community. Thank
you.
>> I think now we'll pass to Alex.
>> So hey everyone. So right now we are
working with a firm called M Foster
who's conducting our due diligence. Um
and this is kind of making sure that the
land is suitable to build on. Um so far
Maul Foster has conducted an
environmental um or subcontracted out
the um an environmental site assessment
and so far there are no major surprises.
So this is a really promising result and
we'll get our full result by the end of
January. Um while Foster is also doing a
variety of other um support work um
engineering support, uh permitting
support, ge geotechnical support,
assessing the roads. So that's all
happening over the next several weeks.
Um and once um the due diligence process
has been completed and assuming we
acquire the land and close um for is our
partner for Terra is going to look into
acquiring conservation easements for us
so we can hopefully recoup um some of
the funds that went into the land
acquisition.
So yeah, that's due diligence so far and
a little bit of the future. And I love
how we added our last bullet point of
just the building of the monastery.
That exclamation point will get us
there. So, as many know, we've tried to
be very careful how we've talked about
this process. We never want people to
feel imposed upon or anything. Our uh
community has two parallel nonprofit
structures. We have a monastic nonprofit
which doesn't handle liquid funds and a
steward organization which works with
donations and such. Um, but we did want
people to at least uh be able to follow
along with the process and know the
practicalities of it and rejoice in the
goodness of what's happening. And if
you're in Seattle on a first or third
Saturday, um, after the gathering, we'll
be visiting, planning to visit the land.
And if it all goes well, then we hope
you just visit us on the land one of
these days. And thank you so much for
keeping a breast of what's happening and
for all who are contributing.