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Friends – here is the first of a three-part series of highlights from the interview we held with Lama Ole and Caty about moreEC this summer.  The full interview can be found in the “moreEC Reports” – http://more.ec/events/report/.

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Q. Lately a statement has been made that the Europe Center in the West has a function similar to Tsurphu in Tibet. Could you explain that connection?

Ole: Karmapa made three main centers: Kampho Khandra in Southeast Tibet, Karma Guen in Northeast Tibet and Tsurphu, 70 km from Lhasa. He made them all in inaccessible valleys that were extremely difficult to reach. The people who wanted to see Karmapa either had to go one of those places, or see him when he came out. Most important was that he travelled for about half of every year. He visited all the different places that had been built up at that time. That was a serious strength; through these travels he did the work. Tsurphu, Kampho Khandra and Karma Guen were really solid places where people practiced and lived in communities.

It is a bit different here today. We have the central place where people can come with much greater ease. We always make it easy to make a contact. That’s true at the EC as well as in all our centers around the world.

Caty: Tsurphu outlasted the life of any one Karmapa. The real estate guaranteed that the lineage would survive. This is how it relates to the Europe Center. This place will guarantee that the Diamond Way will endure beyond our generation. This is very important because the real estate manifests the vision. Tsurphu was the first place of Karmapa, and now the Europe Center takes that role.

Q. Why is it so important to focus on this big construction and renovation now?

Ole: Because it is now that we need it. Our friends are living under conditions they should not be living under.

Caty: And we need it in order to be able to make the program the whole year through. I think we would only postpone our development if we would not start now. Why wait 10 years? There is no sense in waiting. It is totally natural to take the next step now. We have the full power so why not use it?

Q. What will the completion of moreEC bring to the worldwide sangha’s development? How do you see it after 3 years when we will have managed to build it all?

Ole: I see much more of the same in a more lasting way. Buddha gave 84,000 different teachings in 108 books. Going through the teachings, accumulating the wisdom, doing the practice and meditation takes time, and it takes space. It requires buildings with no holes in the roof and a place where you can live comfortably and take shower in the morning. If this place is really going to do the service that we aim to do around the world, then we have to get that money and build.

Caty: After we have built it and start with year round courses, this place will also make money and we will again be able to send money from Germany to the rest of the world as we did before. We have had a big habit of doing that for twenty years. We sent money everywhere. I think we will have a big win-win situation by focusing the energy here now, and then continuing with the world. Nobody will lose anything.