Preserving the Heartwood Legacy
DonateWe ask your support in preserving the legacy of
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 base for expanded outreach programs and services;
- headquarters for Learning from Buddha Academy; and
- a meeting place for the Heartwood Sangha.
For more than 25 years as the first (and for 20 years, the only) fully-ordained Black American Theravadan Bhikkhuni (female monastic), Venerable Pannavati has worked tirelessly to spread the Buddha Dharma and to serve living beings.
Along with Venerable Pannadipa (deceased 2022), she established Embracing Simplicity Contemplative Order in 2004 to provide residential training for monastics, chaplains, ministers, and dharma teachers. Many of the service programs she has undertaken through the past two decades were groundbreaking:
- providing housing and certified job training to homeless youths and teen mothers in Western North Carolina.
- building wells and toilets for the Dalits (Untouchables) in southern India;
- ordination of fifty (50) Bhikkhunis in Thailand, the first female monastics to be ordained on Thai soil;
- ordination of more than one hundred (100) Buddhist lay ministers and dharmachaya in the United States;
- ordination of the first Dalit nun and the second Cambodian Bhikkhuni.
Venerable Pannavati is universally recognized for her example and teachings of fearless compassion and wisdom. She has received numerous national and international Buddhist and humanitarian awards, including a Special Commendation from Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand.
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, to continue Heartwood’s legacy of service, to provide a home for the Order’s resident nuns, and to expand the spreading of the true Buddha Dharma through Mandala Houses throughout the country where practitioners can live, study, and practice together in community.
Heartwood Refuge 2016-2022
In 2016, Venerable Pannavati acquired a run-down, 90-bedroom hotel property on Osceola Road in Hendersonville, NC. She invested over $1.5 Million in renovating the property, which for three years hosted residential retreats attended by hundreds of students, opening up the South to prominent American and international Buddhist teachers and masters. These retreats and other events provided the financial underpinning for the Center. Heartwood was also home to a small community of lay residents, to the small but dedicated sangha, and to Pannavati’s and Pannadipa’s dharmachaya training program.
The COVID pandemic arrived in 2020, putting an end to residential gatherings and Heartwood’s primary funding source. The entire landscape for retreat centers (both spiritual and sectarian) shifted towards on-line events. Given the worldwide economic conditions, the property stayed on the market for 2 years before being surrendered to the trust holders for the amount still owed.
Moving to Courtland Boulevard
In 2022, Heartwood relocated to 389 Courtland Boulevard, Hendersonville, where the monastics continue to reside and where our sangha meetings, dharma talks and studies, workshops and events, and other programs are based.
The property includes .37 acres of land, a main building and an ancillary “Cottage” structure. The total property square footage is 4072 square feet. The main building consists of three floors, housing the Dharma Hall and Sangha Fellowship Hall; kitchen, living area, and office; and a total of 7 bedrooms for the resident monastics and visitors. The Cottage houses Heartwood’s recording studio and includes bedrooms and bathrooms to accommodate up to four visitors and/or retreatants.
Two and a half years ago, we optioned the property for $65,000 to be applied and to lock in a purchase price. Heartwood has leased the property and the current lease expires in January 2026. The owners, Mike and Betty Ervin, have been gracious and supportive of the Heartwood mission, and are committed to helping us remain here. To that end, they have offered most favorable terms for selling and financing our acquisition of the property.
We need to raise $300,000 by December 31, 2025.
This is the amount of the existing mortgage on the property, and the amount needed to transfer the title to Heartwood. The Owner will finance the balance of the extremely reasonable purchase price at terms which will allow Heartwood Mandala to continue to thrive, expand, and grow.
Heartwood Mandala is the heir of Heartwood Refuge. It will continue and expand the Heartwood Legacy, fulfilling a multi-faceted mission: It will continue as the residence for the monastics of the Embracing Simplicity Order.
- It will continue as the meeting place for the Heartwood Sangha and the venue for workshops, training programs, and outreach events, to preserve, edit, and share the dharma teachings of Venerable Pannavati and Venerable Pannavati.
- We will promote the development of “Mandala Houses” in communities throughout the country, based on the Heartwood model.
- We will continue to develop and share the Five Vidyas, focusing on music, health and wellness, and inner realization.
- Finally, Heartwood Mandala will be the base of Correct Cultivation/ Learning from Buddha Academy which consists of live in-person classes as well as an on-line platform to propagate the non-sectarian teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha as imparted by Dorje Chang Buddha III and elucidated by Venerable Pannavati.
"Even those who serve and are attended primarily by Westerners are mainly supported financially by Eastern countries, where the practice of supporting monastics - those who have given up personal gain to devote their lives to mastering the Dharma and serving living beings - is part of their cultural history and tradition.
King Ashoka, who sent his own son and daughter to Sri Lanka to establish Buddhism there asked (when they returned to their homeland) if the work was done. But, it was reported that that would not occur until the people of that country were in positions of leadership, in charge of their own affairs. I have dedicated my life to training Americans while appreciating and supporting Buddhism in the east. Now is our time to establish a Western council and relationships that will oversee and be responsive to the needs of people in this land." - Venerable Pannavati
***Heartwood Mandala is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax deductible.
