We ask your support in preserving the Heartwood Legacy begun in 20XX by Venerable Pannavati and Venerable Pannadipa, by creating a safe and enduring American Buddhist Mandala:

• A residence for the monastics of the Embracing Simplicity Order;
• An operational basis for our many outreach programs and services;
• A headquarters for Learning from Buddha Academy;
• A meeting place for the Heartwood Sangha.

[Insert here (or on either side of the following 2 paragraphs) photographs of Ven. Pannavati and Ven. Pannadipa]

For more than 25 years, as the first (and for 20 years the only) fully ordained Black American Theravadan nun, Venerable Pannavati has worked tirelessly to spread the Buddha Dharma and to serve living beings. Along with [her dharma brother and partner?] Venerable Pannadipa (deceased 2022), she established Embracing Simplicity Order in 2004 to provide residential training for monastics, chaplains, ministers, and dharma teachers. In her earlier years, she was a ground-breaker, providing job training and housing to homeless youths in Western North Carolina; building wells and toilets and renovating schools for the Dalits in India [state or province]?; ordination of nearly 50 Bhikkhunis in Thailand (expand - against wishes of govt?); and ordination of more than 100 Buddhist lay ministers or dharmachaya in the United States.

Our beloved teacher, now 75 years old, is looking ahead to the time when she will be departing this body. It is her greatest wish to leave behind a secure and lasting American Buddhist Mandala for the Order’s resident nuns, (dharma heirs? Not sure what this means), and their many programs and services to living beings, for generations to come.

HISTORY

Heartwood Retreat Center (maybe a photo of old Heartwood?)

In 2016, Venerable Pannavati acquired a run-down hotel property on Osceola Road in Hendersonville, NC, to fulfill her vision of bringing all of the Order’s programs under one roof, and creating a multi-lineage Retreat Center. After a multi-year, $X million-dollar renovation, Heartwood Retreat Center opened its doors. The 91-room property hosted residential retreats taught by prominent American teachers and attended by hundreds of students and dharma seekers, providing the financial underpinning for the project. It was the home of Hendersonville’s small but dedicated, committed sangha. Here, Pannavati conducted her dharmachaya training and ordination, as she continued her own teaching in venues nationwide.

The COVID pandemic arrived in 2020. With residential gatherings prohibited, the Center lost its primary funding source. Given the worldwide economic crisis, the property stayed on the market for 2 years before being surrendered to the trust holders for the amount still owed.

389 Courtland Boulevard

In 2022, Heartwood relocated to 389 Courtland Boulevard in Hendersonville, where the monastics still reside and where its sangha meetings, dharma talks and studies, and other programs are based.

It is a [description of property - refer to photographs and graphics, attached as a pdf?].

The owner of the Courtland property has graciously leased it to Heartwood for the past 2-1⁄2 years. The current lease expires in January 2026. In order for us to remain here, purchase would commence. Again the owner has offered most favorable terms for selling and financing the acquisition. To this end, we are looking to raise $300,000 by January 2026. This is the amount needed to retire his current mortgage and transfer the title to Heartwood. The owner will finance the balance of the extremely reasonable purchase price for 30 years.

FUTURE

Your financial contribution will directly fund the purchase of the Courtland Boulevard property, securing the future of the Embracing Simplicity Order, preserving the precious legacies of Venerable Pannavati and Venerable Pannadipa, and establishing Heartwood Mandala. Heartwood Mandala will be the heir of Heartwood Refuge and will have several aims:

• To propagate the teachings of the Buddha
• To preserve, edit, and share Dharma teachings from Venerables Pannadipa and Pannavati through our online platform.
• To model and promote “Mandala Houses” where practitioners can live, study, and practice together in community.
• To develop and share our Vidya program:
  • Healing Vidya: To promote health and wellness of body and mind through activities such as sound healing, frequency (rife and scalar) healing, meditation, and other modalities.
  • Sound Vidya:
    • DharmaVoci
    • Recording studio – for recording Dharma music, chants, prayers and readings
  • Craftsmanship Vidya:
  • Causality/ Logic- Study of the sutras and discourses
  • Inner Realization Vidya: