KALAPA CARE — Volunteering Week
INFO und ANMELDUNG AUF DEUTSCH: hier klicken
Come join us to make merit and offer service to the community at Kalapa for a few days or all of a volunteering period!
Dates 2025: April 17th – 21st, April 30th – 4th May, May 29th – June 2nd
Additional program for 2025: on some Kalapa Care days, we will be able to offer additional training as a cook for anyone who wishes to participate as a volunteer cook in our subsequent retreat seasons. We are grateful to offer this opportunity which will be guided by experienced Sangha members. If you are interested in participating, please write to our office as soon as possible so that we can keep you informed. You are welcome!
We invite you to come to Kalapa to volunteer for a wide variety of activities, ranging from deep cleaning, gardening, cooking, and driving, to painting, arts and crafts, decoration, care and maintenance of the stūpa and temple, painting, repairs and renovation, construction, and so forth. You can start with activities with which you feel most comfortable, and learn new ones over time.
Volunteering for the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is a precious way of accumulating merit to support your spiritual progress. Our spiritual director, Vajra Master Shar Khentrul Rinpoché, strongly encourages his followers to contribute in any form they feel inclined to, whether or not they are specialists in any given activity. The altruistic motivation is the most important.
In the evenings, free time is set aside for volunteers to rest and reflect or focus on individual meditation practice or Dharma study. Depending on the schedule for each Kalapa Care volunteering event and the wishes of the participants, we can also set aside some time to meditate together, practice guided yoga before breakfast, or explore the beautiful surrounding natural environment. These additional activities are entirely optional. You can focus only on volunteering if you so prefer.
If you have any difficulty registering at the bottom of this web form, or if you have further questions, please email [email protected] or call us at +43 676 395 8898. We can currently answer questions in English, German, Portuguese, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, and French.
Accommodation and Food
Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we are able to provide free accommodations and three complimentary vegetarian meals a day for all participants who commit to volunteer daily for seven to eight hours. The registration is for free.
Alternative: If volunteering full-time is too much for you and you would prefer to volunteer only half a day (4 hours), the option “visitor-volunteer” may be a better choice for you (in this alternative option, there is a cost of 30,- Euro per day for the stay, meals are provided free of charge) — if this is your preference, just let us by e-mail so that we can plan in advance.
We can host the volunteers in our dormitories. However, you do not necessarily need to stay overnight inside the retreat center. If you prefer to stay outside, please feel free to bring your own tent and enjoy camping near the blessed Kālachakra Stūpa. There are also some guest houses around the local area, which you can simply book yourself if you have access to a vehicle to reach the center.
We can also offer access to our internet for Dharma study or Dharma work purposes only. Owing to technical and time limitations, in general, we are not able to pick up participants from the train station. However, transportation to the retreat center is relatively inexpensive; please see the information below.
How to get to Kalapa?
Dzokden Kalapa Retreat Center, Garanas 41, Bad Schwanberg, zip code 8541, Austria, Südweststeiermark. The nearest airport is in Graz, Austria. To travel to Kalapa by train, start at the main train station in Graz. From there, take the S6 or S61 S-Bahn towards Wies-Eibiswald for about an hour to the Bad Schwanberg station. (Ttimetable information)
To travel from the Bad Schwanberg train station to the retreat center, a relatively inexpensive taxi service supported by the government is available that will take you directly to the Retreat Center, which is referred to as “Buddhistisches Zentrum” by this taxi service. For more information, please visit the following website: Regio Mobil. The taxi must be ordered at least one hour in advance, but visitors are recommended to do so much earlier or on the day before you intend to arrive. On weekdays, this taxi service operates between the hours of 6.00 a.m. and 8.00 p.m. On weekends it does not operate during the evening. As the journey is quite long (about 20 minutes), the service should be scheduled at least half an hour before the closing hours provided above. For trips on Sundays or public holidays please schedule the taxi service by 5 p.m. on the day before you intend to arrive.
To order: +43 (0)50 16 17 18 Cost: €6.00 total regardless of how many people are taking the taxi. Our Station Number for the Regio Taxi: 41080 / Buddhistisches Zentrum.
Alternative: if you are arriving or departing outside the Regio Mobil taxi working hours, you can book another taxi service e.g. the Wein Mobil taxi for €37,50, working hours from 10:00 to 23:30. In the latter case, the station number is D927. The reservation is made by calling the same number as above.
By car: From the Graz-West motorway junction (A2/A9), get on the A2 towards Klagenfurt/Italy and take the Lieboch exit. Then, continue on Federal Road 76 towards Eibiswald. After about 30 km, you will reach Schwanberg. At the end of the main square in Schwanberg, turn left towards Garanas. After the bridge, turn right towards Garanas and follow the signs to “Kalachakra Kalapa Center” uphill for about 8 km to reach the center.
