Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 14.7-minute anniversary address, the director of Buddha House in Adelaide recounts the center’s decade-long development from its origins in 1981 through August 1991. He traces the founding by Lama Yeshe, the early expansion from a garage meditation space to a dedicated building, and the crucial roles of volunteers, administrators, and residents—particularly highlighting Jampa’s work as translator and Khensur Rinpoche’s arrival as a teaching presence. The talk reflects on the challenges of establishing Tibetan Buddhist practice in Australia at that time and celebrates how Buddha House became uniquely positioned among FPMT centers worldwide. A commemorative talk honoring community contribution and sustained commitment to dharma practice.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 1981 08 12 DEL.mp3
UUID: 5a7553dd-3d29-46f8-aa90-6707a7e9302c
Teacher: Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1
Collection: y Dharma in Everyday Life (Lama Zopa Rinpoche 1)
Date: 1981-08-12
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 14.7 minutes
Words: ~1,932
And thank you all so much for coming out tonight. And we tonight, Monday. It’s an important night because Buddha House is ten years old, and Anyway, so thank you all so much for coming. This is we’ve just finished the soup course, and I’m going to just say a few words, and then we’ll prevail on Lama Zopa to give a short teaching, and then we can then the main course will come, and I think then Robin, one of the directors of Buddha House, will say a few words as well. So it’s ten years since Buddha House began, and in fact, there was a small group started earlier than that in the sense of getting together a big dinner to to raise funds for Geshe Legden, like our own Khensur Rinpoche once an abbot of the Seraje monastery, and that was the first Tibetan Buddhist activity that I knew of in Adelaide.
And in nineteen eighty one, Will and Lindy Abram invited Lama Yeshe to come to Adelaide, and he gave three talks in the Box Factory. And it was amazing. I didn’t think anybody would come really, and it was quite full up. And despite the difficult topic, I remember one topic on emptiness, and half the people left. And I thought nothing can ever happen.
Anyway, much to my surprise, then Will and Lindy asked Lama Yeshe if we could start a center in Adelaide, and he agreed. And then more surprisingly, late one night, about eleven o’clock, the phone rang and this voice, doc, is that you? I said, yes. It’s me. He said, it’s Lama Yeshe.
I said, oh, hello. How are you? He said, oh, very well. Very well. Would you be the director of a new center in Adelaide?
And I said, oh, alright. I’ll do the best I can. And he said, thank you very much. I could never ask for anything more. Goodbye.
Anyway, I went to bed, and about one o’clock, I woke up screaming. I fell on the floor, and I threw myself against the wall, and I thought, this is worse than getting married. And I was really upset. I thought this is actually a commitment. And and so it was about half past two, and I really was smelling the fear and quiet beside myself.
I didn’t know which way to look. I thought if only I’d had the phone disconnected yesterday. Anyway, one of the leading nuns or one of the most devoted students of Lama Yeshe at the time was and still is, was Wendy Finster. And she was working at Crisis Care, and which is a twenty four hour hotline for the those in need for those in need. Anyway, I felt particularly needy.
And she responded for an hour between three AM and four AM stopping me from early suicide. It would have been murder, but Lama Yeshe had left town. Anyway anyway, so, really, a lot of people then deserve the credit for founding Buddha House. That was Lama Yeshe’s idea, and Will and Lindy, they put out these notices all over the place, and one came to me. This.
You know, heavens above. Anyway, so Will and Lindy deserve either the credit or anything else that you’d like to shower in them. Wendy did this wonderful job keeping us pointing us in the direction of actually what a FPMT center is about in in setting it up so that it was a vehicle to provide the teachings in the true and proper way without getting into other things. And without her encouragement and guidance, I don’t feel we’d ever be in a position to have the tenth birthday because, obviously, we just didn’t have a clue. I don’t think really how to set it up, and it turns out as nearly everybody here has done jobs at Buddha House at one time or another.
And it turns out that to get it right is a really big job, and there are many false trails that you can go down in setting up a Dharma center where people are working with their minds and going through change. And so she played a really important part, And there are a few people then we we first met in a room at my place and already four people. There was too much not enough room, and so we converted the garage. And the garage was lined, we lived there for a few years, and people came. And much to my shock, there was so much usage in the room in the my kitchen that the back part of the house actually started to fall off the main house.
And we actually grew to such an extent that we had to find the new premises. And, again, there were just a few of us, and we we extended the house and rebuilt it ourselves. And it was really quite an experience, and there are many people here who who were who were washing walls and painting and scrubbing. And it’s really fantastic that they’re still here now. Lindy’s actually written this speech out for me, and I’ve lost my place.
But I just like to so we bought the present building in August nineteen eighty four, and it was through the kind generosity of two people in particular. One is in New South Wales that lent some money very favorably to top up what the the the loan that Dennis Kenny gave. And although we were a really small embryo group, the idea was to because the teachings were so important and so many people would get benefit from them, to set ourselves up so that we could be taken seriously and maybe and just see what happened. And what has happened is that over the years, there’ve been thousands of people have come and learned to meditate and heard the lamas and got an idea of the teachings and have been able to do the work on their mind and live happier lives and contribute and come and go, go to other centers, do other things, but be happier for it. We’ve been able to disseminate the books, the wisdom books.
Most of you know of them. And there’s been a huge hive of activity each year. There’s been traveling teachers in the early years, Geshe Dawa, Geshe Doga, Geshe Nawang Dargye, Sonam Rinchen, any number of very important teachers in Australia, bringing a whole new set of ideas to to Australia. One of the difficulties in setting up Buddha House was that the whole idea of eastern psychology was really quite unique in in Australia. And so we’re really starting on barren turf, and, of course, for some people, this is a hard thing to to comprehend what are we actually doing.
But those people who’ve seen it through have got tremendous benefit, and it’s culminated in in these teachings that we’ve been getting just this week from Lama Zopa, but also the teachings from Khensur Rinpoche in the three years that he’s been here, and also our friend Jampa. Fantastic teachings and guide. So because it’s our tenth birthday, there so many people have helped. And there’s this big list. My name’s there, but I’ll forget that.
There were Doug Pierce, Judy and Phil Perkins, Linda Kennard, Dennis Kenny, Kimball. Kimball deserves special thanks, really. I was really exhausted when he took over, and he really worked so hard and diligently and attended teachings when nobody else would they just go home. But Kimball was such a devout devout student, and I really respect him for the effort that he made. And I probably let him down a bit, but he really did fantastic work in enabling us to be here still today.
And I think people those of you who are interested in the center’s development should know exactly how much work Kimball did in very dire circumstances, and I think it really deserves recognition. Linda Kimball, Brenton Hill and Ingrid, Gary Hill, Lindley, Lindley Denson, Tim Connell, Alan and Linda Covelin, Alastair and Sue Knott, Carrie Gilbert, Lindy and Will Abram, Natalie Kagan, Sue Dixon, Kevin Barrett, Annette, Dale and Sonya, Bronwyn Fox particularly made a big effort. There are many other people who who I obviously, just at this moment can’t remember. But without everybody participating constantly, we could never have got here. And even now, it’s become more of a team effort, and it’s still a big it’s a big strain to be doing something quite kind of altruistic and difficult, and people are still working so hard.
And this year, then we welcome the new directors, Robin and John. And it’s a difficult time, I know, but I’m very impressed that they took on the commitment, and I’m sure we’re really going to grow under their guidance. And it’ll be really great if we can support them really strongly now because with a lot of support, it’ll make the job so much easier. I have forgotten to mention in particular. I should also thank Jen Gibson, Margaret Monday, Sylvia Barber, Jim Anderson, Linden, David Melanie, who I know that I can’t think of right now, Rana, and in particular, Judy Perkins and Phil.
They’ve been there. If anyone I’ve forgotten, I’m really sorry. But anyway so that’s kind of the history. After Wendy went, Sangye Khadro came, the author of How to Meditate. And, again, she had a specific energy and a good heart, and we grew some more.
And then there was a gap. The Australian embassy put Geshe Dawa’s file in the wrong under the wrong name, and there was silence. And then Jampa was kind of prodded with an electric prod almost, Wendy’s intense pushing, and he came here. And he’s been a fantastic friend and asset. And without his support also, through hardships and being alone in a sense and having to do so much work, he’s inspired so many people, and I’d like to record thanks to him as well.
Anyway, the true growth of the center has come since the arrival of Jampa and Khensur Rinpoche and Tenzin. And well, we’ve all had teachings from Khensur Rinpoche and we all and translation from Jampa. It’s a unique it’s really unique of the seventy centers around the world. We’re the only one with such a fantastic teaching staff. I I hope the opportunity will they’ll stay with us as long as they can, but we’re mad not to make the most of it while they’re here because it’s unique to have an English speaking translator and such a highly esteemed teacher as Khensur Rinpoche.
Of the centers around the world in this foundation, only sixteen have resident teachers, and we’ve got two of them. So it’s no wonder that we’re constantly having people come to Buddha House from distant shores to to partake of our offerings. So to Rana also, who’s worked in the office of late, thank you so much. And that’s I just hope we can have another twenty our twentieth birthday in the same positive light, and that you’ll all be here to join in that celebration. And once again, to thank you so much for coming, your generosity.
And I hope I haven’t spoken too long. I’m sorry if I have, but I think these are things that should have been put on the record. And now we have a short, I suppose, after what I said, a teaching by lama before dinner. Thank you.