
Appreciation for Dora DeCoursey
In this year of KCC’s Golden Jubilee, we are honored to highlight Dora DeCoursey’s more than 45 years of service to our center. Dora has had a hand in the creation and maintenance of all that we value at KCC – from its curriculum to its events to the beauty and function of SCOL, our rural retreat center.
Dora became a Buddhist in 1980, when she and her husband, Bill Spangle, spent eight months in India and Nepal. The first part of their journey took them to Ladakh, where they spent two and a half months. They were moved by the people there, who were open, happy and steeped in their Buddhist tradition. In Ladakh, they connected with a local lay scholar-practitioner who taught them about Buddhism adding to what they had learned in college and books. They became inspired to take refuge there in the Kagyu lineage.
After Dora and Bill returned from their travels, they moved to Portland, where they met KCC’s Lama Tinley. Their decision to live in Portland, rather than another West coast city, was strongly influenced by the existence of KCC, a Kagyu center, and the accessibility of the teacher.
When Dora began attending KCC, their small group was meeting in rented spaces. Dora became a board member. She explains that the group was so small that almost all committed students were on the board, and nearly all the work was done by board members.
Right after Dora’s move to Portland, the Sixteenth Karmapa was slated to come to Portland. Dora dove in to help with this auspicious visit. She and Bill loaned Tibetan rugs and thankas they had brought back from India. Dora remembers putting up posters, helping to set up the venues and vacuuming rice from the carpet afterwards. The Karmapa’s visit was extremely successful, although it did not result in a large increase in sangha members.
In 1981, KCC decided to buy a house to further its mission. This of course turned out to be the house on NE Monroe Street in which KCC flourished from 1981 until its move to the current center in 2017. The house was a fixer-upper. Along with Bill and Peggy Ensign, and with intermittent help from a few others, Dora worked non-stop on this four-month endeavor to refurbish the house so that it could receive practitioners. She stripped woodwork, repaired plaster, and helped sand the floors. To KCC’s good fortune, she was not yet employed and had the time to devote to turning this old house into KCC’s spiritual center.
Dora, Bill and several other students lived in community with Lama Tinley at Monroe Street. Dora wore many hats during that time such as running the bookstore, putting out newsletters, pasting up and copying Tibetan-style practice texts and recruiting volunteers. She also learned to lead group chanting for around ten different practices in traditional Tibetan style, including playing drums and cymbals. While the Center was limited by the fact that it had no translator for Lama Tinley, Dora persisted in learning and volunteering.
In 1991 Dora participated in a pivotal meeting with the venerable Bokar Rinpoche where Rinpoche granted Lama Tinley permission to retire from KCC and asked the small sangha for ideas on how to proceed in a renewal of center activity. It was mutually agreed that it would be beneficial to reduce the number of practices to two – Shamatha and Chenrezig – and focus on doing them well, and to initiate a study group to foster learning.
After about a year, the group decided that a new resident teacher was needed. Dora participated in the decision to begin to seek an English-speaking lama from their own culture. Dora was on the board at that time and played a key role in recruiting Lama Michael and in gaining the consent of Bokar Rinpoche for his appointment. Lama Michael finally arrived to teach in 1993, and the center began to develop quite rapidly.
One of Dora’s central contributions over the years has been organizing retreats and lama visits. She was particularly skilled in organizing to a high level of detail, and the events were extremely successful. One of her largest undertakings was leading the organization for Bokar Rinpoche’s 1996 ten-day residential Mahamudra retreat at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. The event was attended by 200 people, offering in-depth exposure to a great Tibetan master of our tradition to students from KCC and from far-flung areas. It also served as a reunion of sorts for many students of Kalu Rinpoche following his death in 1989. Dora explains that organizing such events, while intense and effortful, was extremely rewarding since one could easily see the benefit that people received from them, leaving the teaching or retreat glowing and happy.
Another organizing feat was putting together a group retreat at Salt Spring Island, Canada in 1995. This included organizing carpooling with two ferry rides and a border crossing to reach the remote location. The retreat, which lasted three weeks, was the longest that Lama Michael had ever led. Dora also helped organize a group trip of over 20 sangha members and Lama Michael to Bokar Rinpoche’s Mahamudra Seminar India in 1999.
Following completion of a one-year retreat in 1998, Dora was a KCC teacher from 1999 to 2019. This writer remembers her as a thoughtful, well-informed, gracious instructor. In this role, she made an important contribution to advancing the practices of the many KCC members who arrived over those years. As a teacher, she also served on the Program Council from its inception in 2001 until 2019. The Council met most every week for hours, planning the curriculum and offerings for each year and deliberating on teaching and practice related issues at KCC.
Interest in long retreats grew at KCC, and in 2000, Dora took part in the search for land on which to offer both long and short residential retreats, leading to the decision to purchase the property near Goldendale, Washington. She and Bill did the legwork necessary to obtain a conditional use permit to build SCOL, a process that took months of effort prior to closing on the land in 2001.
Once KCC owned the land, Dora soon headed up a major project to improve SCOL’s riparian environment by planting over 11,000 trees and shrubs along all streams on the land. The planting project took a full year, with many facets such as planning, ordering plants and supplies, mapping planting locations, and hiring contractors to plant. KCC received a federal grant to pay for the project and since completion in 2003 has received several thousand dollars a year to maintain it. Soon after that Dora led a tree thinning project on 33 acres to reduce fire danger and increase forest health. Over the years, she led or participated in numerous work parties to cut and burn excess fuel, reduce noxious weeds, plant grass and flowers around the retreat center, and map endangered western gray squirrel nests. If you have enjoyed walking the trails at SCOL, you can thank Dora for her work helping to put in the trails and maintaining them.
I asked Dora why she has volunteered so steadily over the years, taking on tasks large and small, and why she recommends that others do so. Here is her reply:
- KCC, at its foundation, depends on volunteers and donations. If you value it, it makes sense to do what you can to help keep it thriving.
- It’s a great way to connect with and learn about fellow sangha members and to experience the joy of accomplishing something together.
- It’s a good environment for practicing off the cushion, alongside people who share similar values and spiritual aspirations.
- It brings you closer to the Dharma and builds a sense of ownership in KCC.
- It’s a beautiful way to help others profoundly by facilitating their spiritual growth.
This volunteer wholeheartedly agrees. Thank you Dora for leading the way and inspiring others to help shape the future of KCC.
