Welcome

Welcome to our Redwood Vihara newsletter! To begin, we want to introduce Redwood Vihara and the spirit of the redwoods.

Redwood Vihara is short for “Redwood Brahma Vihara.” The Brahma Viharas are also known as the four boundless hearts: loving kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity. For us, that's the real heart of the monastery. 

You can come to this sacred space with the tall redwood trees, ancient Buddha images, and beautiful offerings, but we hope people come here and experience the Brahma Viharas. Loving-kindness is welcoming ourselves and each other as we are without judgments. We don’t have to perform here. We can just relax. We’re here to take care of each other. Compassion is being mindful of the difficulties we all face, and being able to hold it without needing to “fix it.” Allowing for a natural process of healing. Appreciative joy is celebrating and appreciating each other. We have a lot of fun here at the monastery. Equanimity is holding everything in a sense of spaciousness and balance, feeling grounded and at peace.

In 1991, Master Hua purchased this land with the wish to protect the redwoods. He learned that much of the redwoods was clear cut in California, so now there is only 5% of the redwoods left.

The logging began in the mid-1800s, and if you can imagine, when the loggers first came, they saw these giant trees. The redwoods could grow up to 360 feet high with trunks up to 24 feet in diameter. That’s taller than the Statue of Liberty! The trees we see here now are the children and grandchildren of those giants. Many grow out of the roots of the original tree and form fairy rings around the stump.

This is a metaphor for us because we are here growing out of the roots of our teachers. We have images here of the Buddha Shakyamuni, Master Xuyun, Master Hua, and Ajahn Chah. We are growing out of their roots. Another amazing quality about the redwoods is that their roots are broad and can spread 60-80 feet around the base of the tree, and their roots intertwine, not only for mutual support—protection from high winds and storms, but also for sharing water and nutrients. If one tree is weak, the rest of the redwood forest will send sustenance to the tree. They can even communicate with each other through their root systems and fungal networks, sometimes called the “wood wide web.”

Again, this is a metaphor for all of us here. We are each cared for by an invisible root system. Our roots intertwine with those of our parents, grandparents, ancestors, friends, and teachers. At Redwood Vihara, our roots can also connect so that we can support one another in growing to our full potential—just like the redwoods that extend individually towards the sky.

“Vihara” is a Sanksrit word. Vi is a prefix that means “separation.” Traditionally, a vihara is a place for solitude and meditation, a monastery or hermitage, secluded from the worries of the world. We can let go of the things that block access to our authentic selves. We are welcoming ourselves back to who we truly are.


This begins with listening deeply to ourselves with judgments and expectations. Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, “She Who Hears the Sounds of the World” is our role model. We welcome whatever sounds we hear in our hearts, we learn from them, and then let them go, returning to silence. We also listen to each other in the same way, being good friends to one another.

Loving-kindness is maitri in Sanskrit or metta in Pali, this is closely related to the word mitra, which means friend. So we are here to be noble friends to one another, giving each other support through our interconnected roots, while giving each other the space to grow to our full potential.

So, welcome again, we hope that through the stories you read, the pictures you see, and the reports on new developments — you can feel connected to this field of the Brahma Viharas.

May you be well.