A brief review of the history of the land, written by John de Jardin, follows:
“In 1978, a group of us living here on the West Coast incorporated Crystal Mountain as a registered non-profit educational and charitable society, with the stated objectives of performing charitable works and promoting the study of religion and philosophy through the teaching and practice of meditation. Finding ourselves with a rare fiscal surplus in the summer of 1980, the members of the society decided to buy some land for a retreat centre and, in November of that year, we purchased two 10-acre lots at the end of Devina Drive on Galiano Island.”
“Our first summer kitchen, with its’ hyperbolic parabaloid roof, must have left more than a few observers scratching their heads in bewildered amusement. Gradually, however, enough was accomplished to make the centre capable of handling modest summer retreats, and over the years the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche and a number of his students, who have become qualified meditation teachers themselves, have led many successful courses on the property.”
“While most of our activities have had some connection with what might be called ‘the lineage’ of the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, our charter is purposefully non-denominational to reflect the universalist and eclectic flavour of this teaching. Rinpoche continues to draw on his early training as a Theravadin monk, while skilfully incorporating elements of Western mysticism, science and psychology into the ever-expanding Tantric mandala of his Vajrayana teaching. ‘Buddha dharma’, in its widest sense, means simply ‘the laws that underlie the awakening of human beings’, and it cannot be confined to any particular religion or culture. Though we recognize the value and necessity of preserving and supporting traditional forms, our primary concern is with furthering the inevitable development of a Western expression of Buddhism.”