My Dear Kindhearted Friends and Supporters!

I'm writing this letter because I'm in need of a little support to get my Dharma teaching tour back on track.

Why I'm Asking For Help

I’m presently in a holding pattern in the city of Syracuse, in Central New York. I have a car problem related to the electrical system for my Honda Element and cargo trailer. I cannot legally tow my trailer due to malfunctioning trailer lights. So far I’ve paid out $150 for parts and labor to try to get it fixed. I will take my trailer into a shop north of Syracuse tomorrow to try to complete the job. I don’t know how much it will cost, but I currently am down to about $95 available for all my pending expenses.

It has been costing me around $23 per day for housing, food, mobile phone, car insurance and miscellaneous expenses while I remain here in Syracuse. I’m presently behind on my payments to my kind landlord who is has been quite flexible in offering me a day-to-day arrangement. I’ve run the numbers for my projected expenses this month in a spreadsheet and it looks like I need to raise a minimum of $911 to pay my accrued expenses over the next couple weeks and still have enough cash on hand for gas and food to get me by for a few days until the donations I’m likely to receive after upcoming teachings.

I plan to remain in Syracuse for about two more weeks. While here, I will engage in some Dharma Activities such as scheduling and promoting the next leg of my Dharma teaching tour, developing registration websites for upcoming Dzogchen Lineage retreats, finishing writing a guidebook for future Dzogchen Lineage retreat directors, and writing and recording some new Dharma music.

I already have a tentative teaching booked for Woodstock, New York for the weekend of February 12th, just over two weeks from today. I’m about to begin booking the events after that.  There seems to be lot of pressure on me, but I’m remaining calm, praying to Buddha that this situation will all work out for the benefit of all beings.

 

How Can I Help You?

If there is anything I can do to help you and your life situation, please get in touch with me.

If you need coaching about your career or any life challenges, then please don’t hesitate to call. I’m good at offering strategic career advice, which is informed by the profound philosophy of Buddha’s wisdom teachings. I also have skills as a web developer and email marketer. I'm able to take on an individual client or two.

I'm essentially a full-time volunteer, spending about 40 hours a week helping people with their life problems, praying for them, counseling them, coaching them, even offering advice based on my career expertise in the areas of media production, marketing, web development, property management, public service, and running an enterprise. Almost every single day I write a total of two to three thousand edited words that are delivered to a broad spectrum of people; every word is written with the intention of helping others. Much of my writing is related to the application of Dharma for reducing people's harmful thinking and increasing their beneficial thinking.

Please allow me to help you. My contact information is at the bottom.

 

What I've Been Doing

As of this writing on January 26, 2011, it has been 15 months since I departed from the Dzogchen Retreat Center after I finished directing the 2009 Dzogchen Lineage Internship. Since then I’ve given about 282 public teaching sessions to about 1,218 people in over 60 North American cities. I’ve traveled well over 18,203 miles (29,293 km) crossing into 25 states and provinces in three nations on this tour. When I checked and added up all these figures this week, I was surprised at the scope of my journey.

Besides my public teachings mentioned above, during the tour I’ve also given, and I continue to give, an uncounted number of private Dharma teachings to individuals or small groups of people, in person, on the phone, and online.

I recently recorded and released a 10-song album of my Dharma-influenced music. It is called Sun Valley Sessions, and is under my band name, Perceptual. It's a live-in-the-studio album, which means it was recorded quickly and is not very polished. It is not what I would consider to be the quality I would be comfortable releasing to the public. However, I'm releasing it in this raw form to give my friends a taste of where I'm headed with my music. I will remove the download link for this album once my more polished studio album is completed later this year. You can listen to or download any of the 10 individual tracks (as mp3 files), or you can download the entire album for free from the following site.

http://www.perceptual.com/music/

 

I am happy to announce that my publisher Annick Press has recently asked me for a second edition of my movie production handbook for kids, so I’ve been working on that revision with my co-author. So far there’s no advance payment, and this project is not likely to convert into much income for me until a few more months have passed. The first edition of the book is still available on Amazon if you are interested in checking it out:

http://ping.fm/AW84i

I’m working on these types of products which generate royalties with the idea that in my future, such books and albums will provide me the income streams I’ll need so that I don’t need to come begging to my supporters in the future. If my products provide me a living income, I can continue to offer Dharma teachings to the public and services to Dharma organizations for free without any consideration about donations. 

 

I've started getting some press for what I'm doing. A magazine called Buzi Buty, targeted at creative people and expatriates living in Amsterdam did an interview with me in January. Most of the content is art and poetry. The interview with me starts on page 35.

http://www.buzibuty.com/issues/buzi_buty_002.pdf

I remain an active director and officer of the Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation USA, with nearly six years of faithful volunteer service to the Foundation. I’m the publisher of the Dzogchen Lineage News (18 issues and counting since I founded this email newsletter in January 2008). I send out various other regional DSSF announcements to promote upcoming teaching events by Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche and the Dzogchen Lineage Bodhisattvas. Since 2002, I’ve managed and updated the two main databases for Khenpo and the Sangha. I’m also the webmaster for http://www.DzogchenLineage.org/ and have created the registration sites for almost every seasonal retreat and Internship since 2002. Here are two new registration sites that I launched since I arrived in Syracuse:

http://www.dzogchenlineage.org/springretreat

http://www.dzogchenlineage.org/internship

I’m not complaining, but note that my current expenses do not presently include any form of health care or health insurance. I can’t even consider that sort of expense at the moment although I'd certainly invest in my health if I had the income. I’ve had a broken molar that happened in the fall of 2008 when I bit into a tiny rock while eating. If I’m able to get the dental work done in America, it will cost me about $1,500 to have the molar crowned to extend it's life. I still have hopes the tooth can be saved, but if it is too decayed when I finally get the money together, then I’ll have to have it extracted. A few months ago during this tour I saved up enough from tour donations to do some dental work on another molar. That work ended up costing me $1,400, but unfortunately it was too late to save the tooth and the procedure ended up as an extraction. I know that taking care of my health is important, but taking care of others is much more important to me.

 

My Mission

I’ve been contemplating a lot about where I’m headed. I firmly believe that my calling in this life is the teaching of authentic Buddhadharma around the world, supported by my work as an author, songwriter, and recording/performing artist. These are all things I love to do and which leverage my skills and experience. This tour has really helped me bring my personal mission into focus. I’m almost 53, so I look back at my long life and wonder why it took me to figure out this path! After all, I’m doing something very similar to what I was working at during my mid-20s.

The difference is that today my understanding and experience of Dharma is much greater than it was 30 years ago. Music and writing are my skillful means to help me introduce a vaster audience to Dharma teachings. I will continue to offer the free dialog-style teaching sessions that I’ve been giving all across North America, since the results of directly teaching people Dharma are much deeper, and more profound than someone only listening to a song or reading an essay. But all three of these activities together, Dharma, writing, and music are a stable three-legged tripod that I can rest upon to benefit others. Now that I am clear about my mission, I’m going to devote the rest of this lifetime to pursuing these things and weaving them together to accomplish inspiring projects.

 

How You Can Help

I need to reach out and humbly ask for some financial assistance from my supporters. If you believe that I’m doing good work to help others, then your generous support of my activities can really benefit all beings including yourself.

If a number of my supporters could provide just a little, then I’m confident that my Dharma activities can continue uninterrupted. Even $10, $20, or $100 would go a long way to helping me overcome this bump in the road.

 

Assisting Via PayPal

You can donate money to me online via PayPal here:

http://www.pathbuddha.com/donate.html

 

Assisting Via Deposits or Transfers

If you have an online Wells Fargo account on https://online.wellsfargo.com/, then you can transfer money directly into my account.

If there is a Wells Fargo or Wachovia branch near you, then perhaps you’d be willing to stop there and directly deposit cash or a check into my account using a teller.

For these Wells Fargo-related donation methods, contact me off-list to get my checking account number.

 

Assisting Via Check or Money Order

If you prefer to write a check or money order, you can make it payable to me, and send it to this address:

Hazlitt Krog
3001 Bridgeway, Suite K#295
Sausalito, CA 94965

 

Assisting Via Your Beneficial Thinking

Even if you are not able to donate, your positive intentions are very beneficial to me. You can pray for me, think supportive thoughts about me, or even call or email to encourage me. It’s not easy being out on the road, physically separated from so many of my precious Sangha. Even small gestures like an encouraging Facebook chat or Google Video Chat can make a big difference to lifting my spirits and keeping my Dharma activities moving ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m very happy to know you. I totally wish you the best. May you always have happiness and especially the causes of happiness.

Love,

Hazlitt
Skype: hazlitt.krog
Mobile: 415-846-3618
Email: hazlitt@gmail.com
Music: http://www.perceptual.com
Dharma: http://www.pathbuddha.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hazlitt
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