The favorable climate allows practice all around the year; temperatures in winter range from lows around 5 degrees Celsius at night to about 15 to 20 degrees Celsius during the day. Needless to say that summers are nice and warm. An average of 330 days of sunshine a year is another advantage which is especially appreciated by people from more cloudy and overcast regions in Central and Northern Europe.
At present, we have about 15 guest rooms in Karma Guen. As we have bought another house near the entrance we are continuously working on building more smaller rooms. If possible, we try to give each couple or individual person visiting Karma Guen their private
room and only on rare occasions rooms need to be shared for short periods of time.
There is a rumor that "in Karma Guen one only has to work and cannot meditate". This is not true! However, as we try to keep costs as low as possible, there is no paid staff for the services offered in Karma Guen. Instead, all people present try to share jobs like cooking and cleaning, tasks necessary to run and maintain the place. But this is not at all time consuming - you may consider one hour a day of your time as your contribution to the center. This applies if you are just staying here in order to study and practice or if you are doing an open retreat.
If you have finished the Preliminaries (Ngondro) and wish to do Yidam meditation or another practice that requires a closed retreat, please contact us first. We are very eager to make this possible, too. However, we need to check whether there are enough residents available for the desired period of time so that services may be maintained.
Last but not least, you might be interested in the costs of your stay. The rate, including food and accommodation is Ptas. 1.700,00 per person and day which corresponds to approx. 20,00 DM or 14.00 US$. Although this is considered to be a really moderate price, we can also talk about a discount if you wish to stay for several months.
We are all looking forward to welcome you in Karma Guen at the beautiful Costa del Sol in Andalucia, Spain, and to spend a great time together!
Please contact us at:
Buddhist Retreat Karma Guen Velez-Malaga Atalaya Alta, Apartado 179 E-29700 Velez-Malaga Tel + Fax: 34-5-2115197 E-mail: 100517.1023@compuserve.com
Copyright © 1995 Karma Kagyu Buddhist Network