A charitable bequest is one or two sentences in your will or living trust that leave to Tara Home a specific item, or an amount of money, as a gift contingent upon certain events, or a percentage of your estate. By including a bequest to Tara Home in your will or living trust, you are ensuring that we can continue our mission for years to come. Your gift also entitles your estate to an unlimited federal estate tax charitable deduction.

Make check out to "Tara Home" and send to:

Tara Home
PO Box 130
Brookdale CA 95007

Honor a friend or a loved-one’s memory with a gift in their name. Or you may wish to anonymously fund a reserve for guests who need financial assistance through Tara Home's Compassion Fund. Your donation pays rent, keeps the lights on, trains, educates, and facilitates transformation on many levels.

Birds chirp and flitter through the branches of the ancient forest while deer graze amongst the lush grasses and other animals hide in the denseness of the undergrowth. Peace permeates the whole area. 

As I turn one of the Prayer Wheels and utter the powerful mantra, ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’, I allow my eyes to seek out a wooden staircase that wends its way up through a bank of blue periwinkle flowers. At the top of these steps stands Tara Home, a hospice in which one terminally ill person lives. I had the privilege of visiting this white-painted cabin of compassion once and while sitting there I could sense the presence of tranquility that pervaded the cozy and beautiful rooms. In Tara Home’s sanctuary, the patient is surrounded by dedicated volunteers twenty-four hours a day and their loving kindness allows the invalid to not only die with strength and dignity but also with peace. 

When my time comes to die, I am fortunate enough to have a large and caring family to guide me through my last days on earth; however, there are many people who are not as blessed. Tara Home fills a need for those, regardless of religious affiliation, who have no one to care for them while they are dying and this hospice is, therefore, a haven where they can stay and be looked after. So strongly do I feel about this most worthy service offered by Tara Home that I try to support it as much as I can and trust that my small donations will somehow help ease another person’s pain. It is the least I can do and I sincerely hope that my words will encourage you to reach out so you too can help make a difference in somebody’s life.”

About seven years ago, Tara Home became a reality, one little cottage just down the path from guestrooms and across from meeting rooms, office space, gardens, prayer wheels, and a bookstore. Amidst all of the activity of a vibrant Tibetan Buddhist center and the fun that accompanies Elderhostel(Exploritas) programs everywhere, the little hospice, a temporary home to one who is passing from this life, serves as a comforting reminder of how natural the cycle of life is. This juxtaposition of living and dying, the beauty that is the stream of life, always touches my heart deeply. Tara Home, overlooking the very heart of Land of Medicine Buddha serves as the epitome of the love, kindness and compassion of which the Dalai Lama spoke. It exists in a community where happiness flourishes. It inspires me to take seriously the Dalai Lama’s words and to set my own intention, fragile though it may be, “to be kind, loving and compassionate ... and to have a happy day.” And it is in that spirit that I, an agnostic living in the midwest, choose to contribute to Tara Home’s mission.