Recently the concrete footings for the solar panel array were formed up and made ready to be poured. Here the SK works hard to get all the concrete poured and finished. The forms are later removed and the footings made ready for the panel mounting hardware. It is estimated that the Solar array will produce up to 80% of the monasteries day time power and about 40% of its total power. This will help to fulfill, in part, the monasteries attempts to be sustainable and self-sufficient.

Work moves forward on the Media Studio renovation. Here is the main space, now being closed in with framing for the walls. The ceiling is being prepared for the coffers that were made some months back from our own Kauai woods. There are 18 of them, and inside will be different village kolams. LED lights will be hidden inside the coffer, creating an indirect light bounced off the canvas kolam.

Ponnambalam Chandrasekaran family visited for first time from northern California. He met Gurudeva twice in at our temple in San Francisco and then when it moved to Concord. He says he helped performed padapuja to Gurudeva in S.F..

Sharing today a couple of images that show the design directions for the publication's building renovation. The first one shows some ventilation grates and windows, done in a kolam tribal motif. Followed by some screen shots of the interior from above, one showing the floor.

Over the three-day retreat Sadasivanathaswami and Sadhaka Mayurnathan took the taskforcers on a tour of the Princeville Botanical Gardens. The owners and designers (Bill, Lucinda and Michael) took us through their amazing 8-acre paradise complete with trails and stream, bridges and many thousands of plants.

Here and there Michael would say "that one's from the monastery, and that one and the palm over there…) We have been sharing with them over the years and they invited us to come. Lucinda gave a tasty chocolate tutorial, complete with 10 or 12 artisan chocolates, including her own home-made (yes, from their own cacao trees).

They are devotees of Anandamayima, the "hugging guru."

The temple is where the inseparable connection between this and the inner worlds is most easily felt. The Homa is a sacred ritual by which offerings are made to the inner worlds, establishing communication and one mindedness. At today's homa Jnanideva Cevvel took his Vratashishya vows after years of personal study. He has been at the monastery on task force for the past four months and has been an incredible help in the current media studio reconstruction project.

Yesterday the monks performed a pada puja for our beloved Gurudeva. His presence is always strong in our hearts. Thank you Gurudeva for the life-changing blessings which you bring to countless people everyday.

With days of continued rain Wailua river is flowing strong, flooding many logs and sticks downriver.

"Running water will run faster if you remove an obstruction here and there. You need not do much more." - Siva Yogaswami

Today we stumbled upon this hybrid crinum, a flower which is usually bright orange, pink or white, but to find these ones flowering red and green is truly a rarity.