COMMON BUILDING “E” or SHANTAVANA MEDITATION BARN
“Every community needs a common place that is suitable for meeting, for common discussion, for common events. Therefore, I saw it as a necessity to build more common space here, so that people can meet here, find a place to practice, work or meditate, and a place where they can gather, and a space for tools, so that people can work here. So we’re building a multi-purpose building here where the community can gather and pursue activities together.”
-Tomas Dhammadipa-
Dhammadipa’s original intention was to build a classical meditation hall, but due to circumstances (negotiations with the authorities, termination of cooperation with the “Theravada Buddhism” organization) we took over the building in the autumn of 2023 ,as the Dhammadipa Foundation and tried to build on the work already completed.
In May 2024, Ing.Arch.Tomas Chrdle prepared a project for the change of the building before its completion. The reason for the change was the arbitrariness of the then vice-chairman of the Dhammadipa Foundation, the chairman of the Theravada Buddhism organization and the owner of the construction company Dajaka a.s. in one person. The then chairman altered the building, increased the building by one floor, changed the layout and also used different material for the outer walls.
These circumstances and the fact that the building authority allowed us to build a service technical and storage building – a barn (the building is located in a protected area in the middle of forests without an asphalt access road) helped crystallize the original design of the meditation hall into a multifunctional barn, also suitable for meditation).
Thus the future heart of Shanta Vana came to be called the “Meditation Barn”.
In April 2025, we started the construction of the Meditation Barn – Shanta Vana building at house no. 431 Malá Skála, Bobov, on the plot of land No. 241, parc. No. 1420/1 in the cadastral area of Sněhov on the basis of the final decision on the change of the building before completion dated 8.10.2024 under the reference number SU/24/4193/HEM
Builder: DHAMMADIPA Foundation, ID No. 05499712, Bobov No. 676, Malá Skála, 468 22 Železný Brod.
The construction will not be carried out by a general contractor, but by individual contractors who will be controlled and coordinated by the construction supervisor. Each of the contractors will have its own construction manager. Construction supervision. Tomáš Chrdle. (tel.739 057 365, tomas@chrdlearchitekt.cz)
The work started with the modification of the roof truss and the carpentry contractor was Filip Javůrek.
The barn is intended to serve the purposes of the Dhammadipa Foundation as an addition to the Shanta Vana group of buildings and to provide facilities for various activities. The technical and storage building will not be permanently occupied. The two-storey building, with plan dimensions of 17 x 9 m and a built-up area of 155 m2, has a gabled roof with a traditional wooden roof truss, the ridge of which reaches to a height of 8.4 m. The structures are designed to not detract from the overall character of the surroundings and evoke period buildings by using traditional timber beam construction. The timber beam truss will be partly exposed and partly concealed by a soffit. The façade is adapted to the local architecture, this will be tile at first floor level, complemented by timber decking at the top of the second floor. There will be a large wooden sliding door on the façade and smaller windows to provide light to the interior. On the second floor, the windows are in the gable walls and will be covered with wooden shutters. The roof covering will be metal, with small skylights to light the attic space.
The main entrance is on the east side. On the first floor, there is a staircase to the left of the main entrance, with a clothing and shoe store behind it. To the right of the entrance is a tool storage room and hobby workshop.
MONIKA ON THE MEDITATION BARN
Tranquillity and fulfilment can be found in sitting on a meditation cushion, but they can just as well be found through noble work. Here we create a unique space where different activities, be it work, exercise, art making or meditation, become a pathway to one and the same thing – to calm and fulfillment. We are building a barn and a meditation space at the same time. A simple building, at the same time filled with complex Dharma in the form of images, texts and symbols, hidden in the way different activities are carried out here.
And so, sometimes a tractor will be repaired in the workshop, someone will put away a lawnmower, rake, hoe and various other work tools in the store room. Someone else will admire the paintings on the walls, someone will exercise or dance or sit in silence to regain strength and inner peace. Work, meditation, exercise, storage, farming, DIY, herbalism, natural medicine or art, or something else? The use of the barn depends on the creativity and skills of Shanta Vana’s circle of friends.
In addition to overalls, you will also be able to find some decent kimono or Shaolin trousers in the workwear warehouse. Rain jacket or yoga pants? Rakes but also martial arts training weapons, hay but also mattresses and cushions for sitting, medicinal herbs and vegetables, these will also have their place in the barn.
The ground floor space with its high ceiling invites physical activity. In traditional culture, the space in the middle of the barn served as a threshing floor – a place to thresh grain by hand. The draft between the open doors was used to separate the grain from the chaff. The symbolism of the barn speaks to us, and we also symbolically thresh and separate grain from chaff, truth from illusion, good from bad, beneficial from unbeneficial. With the development of machine threshing of grain, the threshing floor has lost its original meaning and has become a space for a corridor or a warehouse. We walk around, stacking both training weapons and garden tools.
The space in the attic charms with symmetry, generous height and skilful carpentry work on massive beams with traditional forging. Inspire you to settle down in silence, to retreat into yourself. Meditation. A hay store where you too can lay down in inner peace.
Not only garden lovers are welcome around the barn. It’s a colder climate location, but with a south-facing slope that provides dry, normal and waterlogged areas. Herbs, vegetables, fruits, ornamental flowers… but also thistles and nettles have their place here. Around the barn we want to create an edible forest and a medicinal, vegetable and ornamental garden. The barn should also serve as a base for garden work and for agricultural processing of the harvest.
Growing one’s own food and herbal medicine was an important part of monastic life in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, especially in China.
We chose the famous master, the sixth patriarch of the Chan Buddhist tradition, Hui Neng, as the patron and protective saint of the barn because his destiny is linked to the barn. When Huineng, as a young man, came to the Fifth Patriarch’s monastery with the intention of learning the Dharma from him and attaining Buddhahood, the Patriarch sent him to work:
‘If you want to learn the Buddha Dharma, then first go and help with the work.’
And so Huineng cleaned, carried wood, split it, and threshed rice, sifting it right in the barn. He didn’t have access to the meditation hall and library like the other monks. He spent eight months in the barn working and meditating alone, until finally the fifth patriarch came to him and asked him if he was tired of his work. Huineng replied that he was not tired of the work and was satisfied with it. Huineng understood that work is the way of practice. All in all, whether it is sitting, reading or working, if one puts one’s heart into it and no more thoughts, one will achieve inner peace. The heart becomes calm and our abilities increase.
If you are interested in supporting the project kindly send your contribution to the following bank accounts of Dhammadipa foundation: www.shantavana.cz/foundation
Thank you for your kind support with lots of mettá from Shanta Vana Sangha!
