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Message from Cheri - February 2006
Gasshō, It is sad yet true that the slippery, self-serving tendencies of egocentric, karmic conditioning have entered the world of giving and helping. No surprise, but the scale on which it is happening and our ability to know of every abuse has made people anxious about where donated money actually goes. Does the money you send to support the Monastery actually wind up in a Swiss account for my retirement? Do the funds you specify for Africa ever make it to the children? Enough scams have been run and enough people fooled that no one can blame a person for being suspicious. Actually, a better word might be prudent. Money is hard to come by for most of us, and when we give it we want assurance that what we’ve given is treated with care and respect and, most of all, goes where it’s supposed to go. We have the advantage of a long relationship with many of the folks who support us financially. As we endlessly attempt to make clear, the “us” of Living Compassion is all of us. There isn’t an “us” of Living Compassion and a “you” as the people we serve who support us. Us is us! We all work, we all give, we all contribute, we all participate. We have different roles depending on all sorts of circumstances, but circumstances don’t define connection any more than lifestyle defines sincerity or commitment. You may live with your family in the mid-west, but that doesn’t make you less a part of us. The only way for us to lose our us status is to remove ourselves. (Which still won’t work because it’s not possible to disconnect from interconnectedness, but that’s another conversation.) As I give you an overview of Living Compassion, please keep in mind that as an organization we just celebrated our first birthday. We haven’t even reached the toddler stage! The good news is that this is sort of a re-birth situation in that we have existed as A Center for the Practice of Zen Buddhist Meditation—in shorthand, the Zen Center or The Monastery—since 1983 and 1987, respectively. The big difference between the old days and these new days is that there are so many more of us doing so much more. Back in the day, we were out here in California sitting and doing workshops, building a monastery, writing books, offering retreats around the country and living from whatever people chose to give us--what has changed? We rarely asked for money. Often we didn’t even mention money at the end of a workshop or retreat. (I was actually accused on more than one occasion of having “money issues.” Fancy that!) We were able (metaphorically) to have everyone over for a fine tofu, beans, and rice spread and cover the cost from whatever folks dropped in the kitty. Then we decided to go out for the big pizzas, and we began to ask people to kick in some bucks. This was a shock for some folks who had to grapple with the right/wrong of mixing spirituality with money. A big part of the conditioning, at least in the culture of those pursuing alternatives to “organized religion,” is that if money is involved, it must be crooked. People who offer spiritual practice shouldn’t have any interest in money. They shouldn’t need it. They should just magically manage to be completely available as needed while surviving on whatever people happen to think to give them after all their own wants and needs are met. We could all have lingered at that juncture for way too long, but fortunately we met an amazing woman named Lynne Twist with a strong, beautifully articulated opposing view. To read the beautiful articulation, you can pick up a copy of her book, The Soul of Money. In the interim, I’ll offer my paraphrase: Asking, encouraging and assisting people to find their greatest generosity is one of the kindest things you can do for them. Our way of talking about that is that it is way more fun to allow the open heart to participate fully and generously than to have egocentric, karmic conditioning make every life decision based on ego trying to get something for ego. So, it is with all that in mind that we enter the world of financial transparency. We are playing much bigger. We are constantly inviting you to play bigger with us, which includes body, emotions, mind, spirit, and resources. It feels great to be able to offer reassurance that the playing field is level, all players get to be in the game as much as they choose, and the referee’s calls are fair to everyone. (Enough with these metaphors already!) In 2005, Living Compassion, which includes the Zen Monastery Peace Center, received $305,564 in donations from 986 donors. Our top 75 donors contributed $170,000 of that. The percentage breakdown of expenditures was as follows:
What does that actually mean? Please keep in mind that ours is a very small organization. We have 7 people who work full-time as volunteers (the monks) and 3 people who are paid: one full-time in the Zen Monastery Peace Center office, one part-time technology consultant, and yours truly. I receive $2800 per month as director and resident teacher of the Zen Monastery Peace Center and CEO of Living Compassion. Our other two paid workers receive roughly the same amount. In addition we have a very part-time accounting assistant. Without a completely dedicated, nearly full-time, all-volunteer Board, most of what we do would not be possible. I want to repeat that: Without a completely dedicated, nearly full-time, all-volunteer Board, most of what we do would not be possible. Between the monks and the board, 95% of the work of this organization is accomplished. Some other details to take into account: Most of the work we are doing in Africa is just getting off the ground. You will soon be receiving an update from that quarter detailing new programs and commitments. To date most of the actual expense of Africa has been the Living Compassion House in Ndola. We started the lunch program in Kantolomba in October, and the sewing cooperative is not yet a regular expense. We will send the funds to Masala Primary School this month for the first project there, the new water storage tank. Fresh, uncontaminated water for the students and teachers to drink and the first giant step toward flush toilets. Huge! Our cost for Zambia will rise dramatically in 2006 due to greater program involvement and the fluctuation of the exchange rate. Our biggest expense remains practice—as it should be! This includes workshops and retreats at the Monastery and around the country as well as maintaining the Monastery and the monks. Within that is travel, food, cars and insurance, offices with phones, computers and other accoutrement, building and building maintenance, upgrading the facilities to a more sustainable level—you know, everything it takes to be spiritual home to many thousands of people. Some reassurances about funds:
That’s really all I can think of on the subject. If there’s more you need to know, let us know and we will do our very best to address your questions. We will, of course, continue to let you know how things are going, how we’re doing financially, where your money is being spent and so forth. In a very real sense, our approach to finances is not that different from what everyone with a family faces. We have X amount of money. These are the things we want/need to accomplish. How do we do that? Sometimes it can be a matter of “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,” sometimes it can feel like a juggling act, and most often we are simply awed that somehow, miraculously, it continues to work. Our yearlong email class is coming to an end. (If you’re not a part of this one, I hope you will join us for the next one.) I love everything about the class, so to say I love a particular thing is silly—but I REALLY love the quotes! I will miss the daily quotes from the class and the ones participants include with their responses, and I feel grateful for the Daily Peace Quotes. One of my current favorites from both sources seems apropos right now: “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” Mother Theresa Let’s keep doing that. In lovingkindness, with a grateful heart.
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