By Susan Tuz
REDDING — For years, the 96-acre parcel on Putnam Park Road has been used for workshops and retreats. Now, the Buddhist organization that runs it hopes to make the site available to others seeking a place to meditate and reflect.
The late Maurice Pate, an influential member of the United Nations who was instrumental in the inception of UNICEF, started the retreat years ago as The Maurice Pate Institute for Humanity. After he and his widow, Martha, died, the retreat was given to the Mahayana Sutra & Tantra Center of Connecticut.
The center turned the land, and house with room for some 20 people, into a Buddhist retreat and named it Godstow. It has since been the site of workshops and weekend retreats led by Buddhist nuns and monks associated with the center.
On Feb. 26, Godstow’s executive body will ask the Redding Zoning Commission at a public hearing for a special permit to allow them to rent the site to “other organizations with parallel beliefs.”
This move is designed to help pay for the maintenance of the retreat.
“It’s a piece of heaven,” said Janet Schroeder, a Bethel resident and practitioner of Vipassana Buddhism, whose small group uses Godstow now. “I’m so thankful to have it there. It’s a beautiful facility.”
Schroeder’s meditation group is small in number, but strong in belief. Made up of five or six people, the gatherings include members from Redding, Easton and Bethel.
Schroeder also practices Christianity, attending church regularly on Sundays. She said the teachings of Buddha complement Christian doctrine.
“It brings an awareness of what you do in life,” she explained. “You come to make decisions on your actions apart from any emotions of anger or depression that might come up.”
Schroeder’s group is just the sort of “parallel belief” that Godstow’s executive body wants to attract.
“We haven’t really had the means to reach out into the greater Redding community, but we welcome other groups and would love to reach them,” said Godstow vice president Michael Wick.
Until now, Godstow has attracted Buddhists from New York City and New Jersey as well as “about a dozen” from the local area, said member and caretaker Stephen Michalski.
Retreat weekends usually attract 10 to 12 people. Many, like Wick, found Tibetan Buddhism while traveling through India. He took classes at the monastery in Dharmsala, the Tibetan refugee center, and said he found peace and purpose.
“Buddhism has two purposes: learning how to generate love and compassion in one’s daily life and learning how to train one’s mind to remain calm and focused on compassion,” Michalski explained. “It’s the practicality of the belief that attracted me. You have to practice the tenets of Buddhism in your daily life to be a Buddhist.”
Neighbors of Godstow have good things to say about the center. Bill Hill, whose property abuts Godstow’s 96 acres, said, “They’re fine neighbors, very quiet, no problem.”
Mary Ann Guitar, head of the Redding Land Trust which has easements to 53 acres of the retreat, also speaks well of them.
“They’re fine, and the land will always stay natural, will always be preserved as open space,” Guitar said.
“Pate was a conservationist and an influential worker for peace within the United Nations. When the property was handed over to the center, it was with the understanding that the open space was to be preserved. And they have.”
