Newsletters

Casa Werma Summer 2024 Newsletter

 

 

Dear Friends of Casa Werma, 

We recently celebrated five years as the Directors of Casa Werma and would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for your continuous love and support. When we started here in 2019, only eight months before COVID-19 upended our lives, we had so many hopes and dreams for Casa Werma and for all of you. We had plans to throw the doors wide open, connect with dharma teachers from all over the world, host group retreats throughout the year and place a real emphasis on practice. Of course, when we were all placed on lockdown, we were forced to slow down and reassess our priorities. We sat in stillness sometimes with great patience and other times with great restlessness, but always with the appreciation to be alive and with the recognition that we have a rare and precious opportunity to practice the dharma no matter what is happening. We hope you’ll come join us soon! The invitation is always open. 

With great appreciation,

~Mayela & Paul Manasjan
Executive Directors


2024 Retreat Highlights

Since the beginning of this year, we have enjoyed a flurry of activity at Casa Werma, hosting 5 retreats, 4 workshops and 115 retreatants. Here are a few photos that show the love and joy we all manifested together: 

  • The Art of Impermanence, a week-long contemplative art retreat that offered daily meditation practice and creative arts exercises. Participants explored the vulnerability inherent in our existence as sentient beings, observing how all phenomena arise and pass away. 
  • 10-Day Mahamudra, an annual sold-out retreat held under the expert guidance of Richard John using the 9th Karmapa’s Transmission Pointing Out the Dharmakāya and mahamudra and trekcho practices infused with devotion. Daily activities included: supplications, guru yoga practice, circle conversations, lujong exercises, interviews, personal study and practice of the Stroke of Ashe.
  • Dralas of Casa Werma, a one week Werma intensive, where we celebrated the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and practiced his Werma sadhana that originated at Casa Werma. The program also included excursions to cultural and archeological sites.
  • Shambhala Training Level 1: Art of Being Human, a weekend meditation program where we open ourselves with gentleness and appreciation to help us see our potential as genuinely kind and compassionate human beings. 
  • Write From Where You Are, a workshop led by Tim Z. Hernandez, award winning multi-disciplinary artist, author and performer. This workshop included sitting meditation, a discussion on memoir craft (research, ethics, structure and publishing), generative writing exercises, and sharing of participants’ work.

Cultivating Mindfulness and True Happiness, a retreat with Drupon Lama Dorje

In April, we hosted a wonderful 3-day retreat for 40 members of our sangha led by Drupon Lama Dorje, a wonderful Tibetan Buddhist monk who offers Dharma teachings in Spanish. Lama Dorje shared sitting and walking meditation, teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Ten Virtues and a refuge ceremony for 28 members of our sangha (pictured below) at the end of the retreat.


Community Connections 

For Earth Day this year, Casa Werma decided to celebrate by connecting with local 6th – 9th graders from the Colegio Amado Nervo school in Patzcuaro. The kids were invited to a day long field trip at Casa Werma where they enjoyed: 

  • Garden tour with our Head of Operations, Maintenance and Gardening, Jorge Cerna
  • Ikebana workshop with our head of Housekeeping, Angy Morales
  • Meditation instruction with our Executive Director, Paul Manasjan
  • Contemplative art workshop with our Marketing Director, Mayra Malo

Our Executive Director, Mayela Manasjan (an environmental scientist in her former life) offered a presentation on climate change and encouraged each student to create a bilingual (English and Spanish) environmental poster and then invited all of the students to present their work in our gardens. Afterwards, we hung their posters on the wall just outside Casa Werma where they provided the public with environmental education. We were really impressed with the quality of their work and are excited to continue empowering this younger generation to be good stewards for our planet.


Casa Werma Team Updates

Meet Mayra Malo, our new Marketing Director. She’ll be helping us stay connected with our sangha via social media, newsletters and local promotion. She has also been helping us translate several of our dharma talks, programs and retreats from English to Spanish so that we can continue to offer bilingual programs to our community. She recently took refuge with Lama Dorje and is looking forward to learning more about the dharma and staying connected with all of you. Welcome to our team Mayra! 

 

Casa Werma 2025 Retreat Season

We invite you to stay connected with us on social media and check out our website for future retreat announcements.


Come Host a Retreat with Us

We’re currently taking suggestions for future retreats. If you’re a teacher and want to host a retreat at Casa Werma next year, please contact us at [email protected] to discuss your offering.

 

Private Retreats 

Personal retreats are a wonderful way to deepen your understanding and practice of the dharma. At Casa Werma we offer both individual silent meditation retreats for when you want to focus on your study and practice without the distraction of interacting with others and personal retreats within our community that allow you to join our community events while also pursuing your own studies and practice. Please contact us at [email protected] for more information such as available dates and cost.

Come Stay with Us

Did you know that Casa Werma is more than just a retreat center and you can also come vacation with us? When we are not hosting private or group retreats, we have several rooms available and depending on your interests, we can help you design the perfect vacation. Do you want to learn Spanish, take Mexican cooking classes, enjoy a mezcal tour, or visit artisan villages? There are many popular holidays that bring visitors to Patzcuaro, such as Easter week, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and Christmas. If you’d like to come stay with us, send us an email at: [email protected] we would love to host you!

 

Capital Improvement Projects

Casa Werma is expanding! In late 2023, Casa Werma hired a local Mexican architect to perform a site assessment, create conceptual designs and develop a site plan for future development that includes upgrading our existing infrastructure (water and electricity), insulating existing buildings, constructing additional public restrooms in the garden, a meditation hall to accommodate up to 50 people and retreat cabins to house participants for both private and group retreats. In August, we will be launching Phase I to expand our public restrooms in the garden and will be providing updates in future newsletters.