Since its inception, the Toronto Center has rented various sites around the city as a venue for its Sunday group meditation sessions. However, restrictions due to zoning regulations made it increasingly difficult for the ever-growing number of practitioners to meet. After relocating several times, it became apparent that purchasing a piece of property would be the best alternative, if we could manage it. We needed a place that was zoned both for commercial use, to accommodate the group meditation sessions and retreats, as well as residential use, so that some practitioners could live there to take care of the Center and pay rent to help with the mortgage payments. We searched and, after a short while, found a location in the southwestern corner of the city which met our needs and was available at a very favorable price.

The place had previously been a convenience store with a main floor, a basement and two apartments on the second floor. We looked around in dismay. The place was truly a shambles! There were holes in the floor through which one could see all the way down into the basement. The floor was covered with half-torn linoleum tiles and littered with debris. The walls were grimy and dirty. The previous owner had left enormous quantities of rubbish on both the main floor and basement levels. The basement was completely unfinished, and in many places, the walls were covered with mold and mildew from moisture that accumulated due to leaking from outside. The apartments upstairs also needed much work to make them livable. Old plumbing throughout the building caused water to constantly leak from one floor to the next. The place was a nightmare! Some of us had grave doubts that it would ever be habitable.

Nevertheless, those who had more faith in Master's blessing power reassured us, and so we set to work. There is an old saying, "Many hands make light work." Nowhere was that more apparent than at our new Center. Our small patch of backyard accumulated a veritable mountain of garbage -- the remnants of shelving, equipment, and dusty old merchandise from the one-time convenience store. We cleared away one mountain of trash to make way for the next. All together there were several such "mountains" before we finally emptied out the building!

Before our disb. Holes were patched, debris was swept away, floors were mopped, and fresh paint was applied to the walls. We knocked out some walls to make one large room on the main floor. A young brother, who was very enthusiastic about wielding his sledge hammer for this purpose, was particularly jubilant any time someone suggested that another piece of a wall should come down. Next, about several dozen brothers and sisters hammered in the sub-flooring. It was a thunderous and thoroughly enjoyable activity. Then with some financial help from a brother initiate, we completed the floor and tiled it ourselves.

We then attacked the basement, building a storage closet at one end, and installing a large kitchen at the other, complete with new plumbing, electrical wiring, drywall, paint job, counters and sinks. One very determined brother, who had masonry skills, succeeded in stopping the leak that came through the basement walls. (Well, most of it!) Some of us had understood that a wet basement could never be made dry, and were amazed to see that these efforts paid off.

Upstairs the overhead apartments were painted, carpeted, and repaired. Then some initiates moved in.

The exterior of the building received a major "face-lift" when an entirely new storefront was installed by professionals, and our new sign, "The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association," was hoisted over the top. New vertical blinds were installed indoors, and Master's paintings were hung along the walls. A long shelf at the front of the hall was draped with a gold colored cloth. We set up the TV for watching Master's videos, and hung Master's picture overhead. We all stood back in awe at our new meditation Center, and silently thanked Master for making our work go so swiftly, smoothly and enjoyably. Financially, we have somehow managed to pay the down payment and most of the expenses. Some of us don't know how this happened, given the considerable costs involved, and the fact that we had very little money to begin with. While we stand about and scratch our heads, others simply smile and nod knowingly.

Now, each Sunday we come together to meditate here, benefitting our surroundings spiritually, as well as physically. To those of us who live at the Center, the change is most keenly felt. When we first moved in, we could hear the neighbors fighting loudly with each other. We could also see and hear groups of children and teenagers "patrolling" the streets, cursing and fighting. One neighbor had paint thrown on his car. The store alongside us had suffered two robberies before we arrived. A few months after we moved in, these incidents had already diminished. Today, two years later, the neighborhood has become friendly and peaceful, and disturbances have become virtually nonexistent.

The fellow practitioners have worked happily together here in Toronto, both physically and spiritually. A little more work still needs to be done on the Center, but it is nearly finished. Master has given us a cozy place to call our home in this world, while we await departure to our true Home. In the process, a new feeling of closeness and camaraderie has been created amongst us, and for this, as well, we are ever thankful to Master.