I was talking to Bev Palmer about the idea for a New Buddhist Center, and she asked where we would locate that. I told her that I didn’t know; I thought we might see if we could find some space in a temple or a church, depending on when we held our meetings, but that we were still a ways away from dealing with that question.

Bev told me about the building that Women Writing for (a) Change had recently purchased and remodeled, and she said that she thought that they would be interested in hosting a group like we were discussing. Bev is a member of WWf(a)C, and she volunteered to talk to the people who run the group and let them know what we were thinking of doing. The result of that was that I visited them on Monday and was thrilled with the reception I received and with the space I saw. Kathy Wade, the Executive Director; Mary Pierce Brosmer, the Founder; and Andrea Nichols, the facilities manager, were all very interested in what we were thinking about, and they were all eager to have us use their space for our meetings. There would be a cost, but a relatively modest one: $150 to use the space for half a day.

The space itself is quite magical (and most of you know that I don’t use words like that lightly). They’ve put a lot of thought, love, and craft into making it a space where people can feel safe and comfortable, communicate easily with one another, and express their creativity. I think that it’s a space that would accomodate the concept of a New Dharma Center gracefully and naturally, and I’d love the chance to take an interested group back for another visit. It’s in Silverton, on Plainfield Road near the corner of Montgomery. There’s a free municipal parking lot just a few buildings north of the WWf(a)C building.

I went back on Wednesday and took the photos below. You can click on any photo to see a larger image.

The spaces in the Women Writing for (a) Change building are warm and welcoming. In the center of the first floor, on the wall of the structure housing the elevator, a lovely statue of a female boddhisattva stands in front of the WWf(a)C hanging; I think it’s the Tibetan “White Tara”, but I’m not sure; maybe someone more familiar than I am with Buddhist iconography can provide a more certain identification.
There are large discussion areas on both floors; the left-hand photo is of the second floor and the right-hand photo is the first floor. Both areas are very flexible; there are lots of chairs sitting around, and they can be arranged in a circle, as shown here, or in rows, depending on what we might decide. The first-floor discussion area has lots of floor cushions (when I first saw it, there were no chairs, just a circle of cushions, where a group of teenagers had been meeting). They’re not zafus, and I doubt that they’d be very comfortable for a long meditation session, but we could certainly bring zabutons and zafus or meditation benches if we wanted to set one of the areas up for meditation.
The table in the large boardroom is modular; it’s made up of about eight modules that can be easily pulled apart and moved against the wall to free the area up for rows of seating.
The whole space is very open, with modular wall panels that could be moved to accomodate larger or smaller groups. These shots are of the first floor space.
Here’s another shot of the large discussion area on the second floor. The space is full of beautiful and useful stuff, like these comforters; and there are lots and lots of floor cushions that we could use any way we wanted to.
The first floor is arranged with five or six small-medium size discussion areas. The modular walls that separate one area from another are acoustically efficient, and I think that it would be entirely feasible to have quiet discussions going on in adjacent areas without one disturbing the other.
More of the first floor discussion areas.
And still more. The first floor of the building is an enormous space, but it doesn’t feel at all cavernous or hollow. Rather, the feeling throughout the building is of warmth and closeness. It’s clear that all of the furniture has been donated, but despite the fact that it’s come from a wide range of sources and (with a few exceptions) nothing matches, the whole appears totally harmonious. It’s been very thoughtfully put together.