Wangapeka Origins

As told by Lama Wesley Knapp

Namgyal Rinpoche first brought us to Rotoiti in New Zealand as part of his 1972-73 'Magical Mysteries Tour' (my label, not his). Back in the late sixties, Namgyal Rinpoche had been telling us that the Yukon and New Zealand, along with a third 'secret' place, would be the best places to evolve Universal Awakening Communities.

Previously, I had been in the Yukon for two years after he sent me there in the winter of 1970. From the Yukon it was on to Morocco for over a hundred of us for a 6 month 'therapy retreat' - which was followed by a one-month wild party boat ride around Africa and across the Indian Ocean to Bombay. From there we travelled to the Himalayan foothills to encounter H.H. Sakya Trizin 41 and His Guru Chogye Trichin Rinpoche, and then back to Delhi to encounter H.H. Karmapa 16 for His 'Black Hat Vajra Mukut' Wongkur at the Ladakh Temple. After that, we came to a 'pause' in Australia to replenish empty wallets for three to six months. All of this brought us eventually to the next stop, Rotoiti in New Zealand, for the Mahamudra and 6 Yogas of Naropa retreat with Namgyal Rinpoche.

The six-month Mahamudra and Six Yogas of Naropa explorations at Rotoiti were fabulous. However, that ended eventually and, with less than $10 in my pocket, I had to 'get a life' again. The bulk of students journeyed on to meet up once again with Namgyal Rinpoche in South America and Mexico, but those of us with the fortunate karma got to stay in 'Kiwi Country'. It was paradise - I was amazed by the Kiwi ability and resilience, isolated as the country was from the rest of the world, to do whatever needed to be done, and make whatever was needed to do it. All in all, my experience of the country was tranquil and beautiful.

I hadn't planned to stay, but nor had I planned to leave. I had met a beautiful Australian lady in Auckland. We became pregnant, and moved to Christchurch when we heard that Bryan Shore, later to be known as Karma Chime Dagpa - and later still as Chime - had started teaching, and a group was forming around him called 'The Sphere Group', manifesting Rinpoche's Vision of Universal Awakening Community.

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I don't recall how the word first came, but we heard there was a piece of land available near Nelson, which might be acquired as a retreat centre. It was next to the state-forested mountains where the conscientious objectors hid out during WW2. We had a 24-hour option of first refusal on it. So Chime called a Sphere Group meeting for after we got back, then he and I took off in the trusty Ford Consul to inspect the land. It was a long drive, more than 6 hours as I recall.

When we got there, we met the potato farmer who was selling the land. We walked up his tractor trail to the field he couldn't cultivate anymore. The trail washed out every time it rained, he warned us. The windswept hill was treeless, covered with patchy gorse and bracken. He left us to it and we climbed up onto a high point on the land. Sitting there, we imagined what it might be like in twenty or thirty years, covered with local and exotic trees and with retreat cabins sprinkled about.

We stayed that evening in a motel with a thermal swimming pool. One of the other guests swam over to Chime and said something like, 'I hope I'm not intruding but I felt like I had to talk to you.' I believe that was how the County Engineer for Wangapeka began his long and fruitful relationship with the centre. The next day we returned to Christchurch and attended the meeting where the Sphere Group voted to purchase the land. We called for pledges and instantly raised the $5,000 that was needed to secure the down payment.

I was not so much involved with the rest of the business part. But I did take Chime once again and a few of his students on the group's first look at the land they were purchasing. In the car besides us two were, Elaine, Ian and Shirley. When we got close, we drove up a lane to a farm to ask for permission to tent for the night. There was a gate just in front of the farmhouse and a young, very long-haired hippie was doing some kind of carpentry on the deck. Chime said Elaine should go and find out because she was the most 'presentable' looking. She went through the gate and asked the young fellow, who was wearing a full-length leather apron. He said he would check with the others and as he turned to go into the house, we could all see he was completely naked under the apron!

The next day we went up onto the land. The view over the shallow river valley was spectacular. And we could see right across the mountains to the ocean in the west, amazing! There was a natural spring higher up on the land, which was Rinpoche's first requirement for land. "Humans can go for long periods without food, but only a very short time without water," he said, and translated Taṇhā (from the Buddha's Pāli language), as 'thirsting' - desire, longing, and greed, either physical or mental.

From the very beginning, it turned out that we had to go to Wangapeka every time there was a heavy rain forecast because the trail that wound around the outside of the hill curve going up would get washed away. So that became a very early priority for the group, to create safe and reliable access up onto the land. Chim's pool encounter with the county engineer was beneficial.

The first retreat we did there required that we spend the night sitting outside, within a circle of stones as a boundary, which we should not cross until the sun came up. I climbed up to the very highest point on the land. There was a clear 360-degree view in every direction, down all around and up into the sky, which was clear and brilliantly ablaze with stars. I actually felt like I was sitting in space and I had a cold but marvellous, exhilarating experience. After the sun came up, I went down into the shallow river and created a stupa with boulders in the middle of the flow. This created an arc of the current flowing around on either side of the stupa, with a very placid area of water in front of it. I lay there in that, thinking what a wonderful gift this land was, and how Blessed beings would be in the times to come using it.