From the Rime Center website:
The Rime Buddhist Center wants to be a positive force in the community. A sacred place that is full of learning, reflection and joy. We want to be a spiritual home to a vibrant sangha – your spiritual home. We invite you to participate in a truly unique project – building the first Tibetan Buddhist Temple here in Kansas City. Support us as we open the doors of loving-kindness and achieving peace through compassion.
The Rime Buddhist Center has working to spread wisdom and compassion in Kansas City for 30 years. It’s the oldest Buddhist community in Kansas City. In 2020 we had to give up our location because the rent by Pennway and I-35 was just getting way too high. So we bought a house at 2939 Wayne Avenue and some land around it. It’s great that the community actually owns something. But we need a meditation hall to meet our needs. The house isn’t big enough. So we’ve been trying to fundraise.
We are having to rent out a room in a nearby church for our Sunday services because too many people attend to fit in a living room. Of course we want our own space so we can stop doing that. Every community wants their own space. I believe if we can expand, we can do a lot to help beautify and lift up this area around Wayne Avenue.
We don’t have some larger organization we can lean onto for support like many churches do. As Buddhists, we are on our own. So, we could use some help. We did a lot of fundraising and it looked like it was really going to happen. Then the city told us we had to build to commercial regulations instead of residential. This is something that essentially doubles the cost and makes it feel out of reach for us.
If you feel inspired to donate to help us realize this dream of building a meditation hall, please click below. And if you feel inspired to share this with your friends and neighbors, please do that. This is the link to our temple fund. We have a long way to go but I believe in the dream.