VOLUNTEERING AT TARASTONE
It takes far more commitment and graft to make a Dharma centre like Tarastone work than most people ever imagine. Ensuring our clients have an excellent retreat or event requires graft every day of the year by our team. Each offering in our programme requires dozens of different facets to be planned and and carried out. The beautiful buildings and grounds that inspire all who come here also need upkeep and repair on a hourly basis. There’s background administration and we plan for the future too. And we have our own Practice to keep doing, a major daily discipline in itself. Most of all though, we are here to make the difference that Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes describes in the quote below.
It takes a team of people working long days year round to provide our visitors and students with experiences to treasure. Ripples of that goodness are felt in the world in ways that we don’t even see.
If you are interested in working here or volunteering in the Being Dharma Programme, please get in touch. We are particularly in need of excellent administrative skills, tech wizardry, help with cooking, gardening, cleaning or DIY.
The Being Dharma Programme is for those who wish to live a life immersed in Buddhist ethos. Our practice is Vajrayana but we are delighted to work alongside practitioners of other Buddhist schools too. Our staff develop good listening skills and we are very supportive of each other.
Volunteers are required to attend daily practice, and to work within the Four Agreements framework. There are a set work hours and volunteers either live-in or out, depending on what is viable at the time.
With our emphasis on the arts, music and the Holy Fool, life at Tarastone has a wonderful balance of influences. A lot of fun is had along the way.
Though it might seem delightful to be working at a retreat centre, it is quite different to being on retreat! It should not be considered in any way a soft option. We expect integrity, an excellent work ethic and compassionate dharma heart that would go the extra mile just because it is the right thing to do. If you can hold all that, what better way to spend your time?
If we haven’t put you off completely, please email or call!
“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.” – Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes
CLEANER WANTED – Live out, paid role
After a very fond farewell to our beloved Nicky, Tarastone stalwart for the last 4 years, we are looking for part-time help with cleaning.
Here are some attributes we are looking for:
- Flexibility – this is not a job that stops in the school holidays. If anything, it intensifies. We have guests staying here and so changeovers happen on all sorts of days of the week and all sorts of weeks of the year.
- Attention to detail is essential and makes an enormous difference. Our guests notice and rate us accordingly. Cleaning for paying guests must be to a higher standard than most homes.
- You should enjoy meeting people – this is hospitality! Sometimes you’ll be required to meet guests and show them around. Possibly also to do grocery shopping for them or share your local knowledge.
- We run a busy programme of events so there is the possibility of becoming involved in other aspects of organisation if you are interested.
- Interest in self-development or Buddhism would be an advantage. We are really looking to build a team of people who understand what we do here and how it can be of benefit to both individuals and the world at large.
- In essence, we are looking for a can-do person with a practical, light manner, plenty of common sense who wants to make a difference.Please email or call us if you are interested.
