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Forest Sangha Newsletter

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May 1987 THIS ISSUE

2544 Cover: Articles:

Communication Between Sangha & Friends Obituary; Ayya Rocanna Roots of the Forest, N-E Thaiiland, Ajahn Sucitto Northumberland, Ajahn Tiradhammo In the Footsteps of the Buddha; India, Ven. Bodhipalo

Number 1 HOME BACK ISSUES

Editorial:

Some early definitions of what the Forest Sangha Newsletter is intended to be. Having had the opportunity for a rethink about the Newsletter, we offer something of a broader focus than previously: a communications medium for the Sangha, not specifically moored to any one place. We welcome contributions and comments to help it to develop. There are two main kinds of written material. Firstly, more extensive reports of narrative and documentary nature; and secondly, shorter notices and invitations, for the Grapevine. This need not be relevant to the U.K. alone as there are close ties, and frequent comings and goings between Sanghas in Britain, U.S.A., Switzerland, Australia, Thailand and New Zealand. It would be good if the Newsletter could develop into a means of communication between monasteries and lay people who feel a kinship via the teachings of Venerable Ajahn Chah. As there is bound to be diversification over such a widespread community, notification of events, projects, debates and even failures, can provide us all with reflections on how the holy life should be lived in our contemporary world. Viharas that produce their own Newsletters are welcome to extract material from this one. Material that doesn't fit into one edition of the Newsletter may well find its way into another one, into Looking Ahead, or grace the pages of a so-far-unborn Annual. One last and crucial point: the copy date (the time by which material needs to be here

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at Amaravati) is about three weeks before the Newsletter is due to appear. So the next copy date is August 10th.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles:

May 1987

Communication Between Sangha & Friends Obituary; Ayya Rocanna Roots of the Forest, N-E Thaiiland, Ajahn Sucitto Northumberland, Ajahn Tiradhammo In the Footsteps of the Buddha; India, Ven. Bodhipalo

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Editorial:

Obituary Ayya Rocana passed away peacefully in New Delhi during her second pilgrimage to the Buddhist Holy Places. These personal reflections on her life are offered by Ayya Candasiri, with affection and gratitude. On 14th February Ayya Rocana, together with a small group of monks and lay people left Amaravati to go on pilgrimage in India. This, her second pilgrim was dedicated to her twin sister (the first, undertaken twelve years previously, was for her father). Members of the community were naturally shocked and saddened at the news of her death, only three weeks later, although she had spoken often of the possibility that she might die. Having made a supreme effort to wind up her affairs, she had cheerfully announced to those accompanying her, that it was extremely auspicious to die on pilgrimage! Bhante Dhammavara, who was staying in New Delhi, attended the cremation. He had been the first bhikkhu Ayya Rocana had met when, in 1973 she attended a weekend of meditation instruction given by him. This had been a major turning point in her life. Since then, studying first with Venerable Vajirinyana and later with Ajahn Sumedho, she never looked back. Early on in her Buddhist studies, she came across a passage in the suttas, which described dana (generosity) as the medicine which can cure all ills arising from desire. Rather hesitantly, she put this to the test, and found that it helped to ease the unhappiness she felt at that time. Ayya Rocana realised that this teaching, which had helped her so much, could also be of value to other Westerners. She also saw the great importance of establishing the Sangha in the West. So, she began to devote every ounce of energy and ingenuity to supporting the bhikkhus in any way she could. She lived very frugally, in order to buy food for them, and would make a long journey across London in the early morning to offer it in the traditional way into their almsbowls -- to the utter astonishment of those passing by on their way to work! In 1978 she took temporary ordination at Oakenholt. Then, in 1979 -- after visiting the nuns in Thailand to see how they lived -- she gave up her flat and her job at the homoeopathic hospital, arriving at Chithurst with all she possessed, ready to begin life as a nun. On the evening of 28th October she, together with the three other candidates, requested the Three Refuges and Eight Precepts. As the elder of the new anagarikas, she was the first to be given her new name -- 'Rocana', meaning 'Radiant'. This name couldn't have been more fitting. Her welcoming smile and warm words of encouragement eased the natural timidity that many visitors must have felt, at their first contact with the Sangha. Often too, she would exercise her skill in homoeopathy to relieve their bodily ills, listening kindly to their troubles and offering remedies and guidance. In 1983, she took the 10 Precept (Siladhara) ordination. It was not easy for so independent a

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spirit to live within the confines of the newly formed Order of Nuns. So that year, Ajahn Sumedho suggested that she begin working to bring the Jataka Tales to life. This was a perfect focus for her abundant energy, deep love of children and vivid imagination, which were coupled with an extensive knowledge of Buddhist scriptures. Now, two volumes are complete and in the hands of publishers -- a legacy for young Buddhists growing up in Western society. Fellow pilgrims have recounted how Ayya Rocana's generosity of heart and skill as a storyteller found expression, during her last days. Many were touched by the simple delight, with which she distributed gifts to the community of Tibetan nuns they visited in Kathmandu; while at Savatthi, the company were held spellbound by her account of the events which took place there, during the Buddha's life time. So her death, untimely in a sense, also carried with it a sense of fulfillment. Ayya Rocana had seen the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha firmly established in the West. This is what she cared about most -- recognising that, it is these three gems that can help to remedy the ailments of our Western Society.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles:

Communication Between Sangha & Friends Obituary; Ayya Rocanna Roots of the Forest, N-E Thaiiland, Ajahn Sucitto Northumberland, Ajahn Tiradhammo In the Footsteps of the Buddha; India, Ven. Bodhipalo

May 1987 HOME BACK ISSUES

Editorial:

Roots of the Forest; N-E Thailand Ajahn Sucitto spent ten weeks of the winter in Thailand, mostly in the North-East, which is the source of the monastic style of the monasteries of this Sangha. The North-East has produced many masters in the Forest Tradition, but naturally enough, it was Ajahn Chah and Wat Pah Pong that formed the fundamental reference point for the trip. It was Ajahn Sucitto's first visit to Wat Pah Pong and it provided some clear reflections on the heart of monastic practice.... In the middle of last year, Ajahn Sumedho invited me to spend the winter months in Thailand. I had no particular motivation in going, so there was a quiet space in my mind around the projected trip. I let the space be and watched to see how it would fill. A few days before my departure, I received a message from Ajahn Pasanno at Wah Pah Nanachat inviting me to go tudong with a group of monks in Kanchanaburi, a wild province on the Burmese frontier. Hardly had I got kitted out with tudong equipment by the senior monks at Amaravati and given advice on malaria, than a phone call came notifying us that Tan Ajahn Chah had been diagnosed as having cancer, and tudong and any other supposed certainties were indefinitely suspended. So on the 20th November, in a sudden change of events, Ajahn Sumedho himself joined me on the flight into the who-knows-what at Wat Pah Pong. It was a good start, a reminder that in the spiritual life, every journey, and every day, should be experienced as a movement into the unknown. It had been eight years since I had left Thailand. Being greeted with anjali by air hostesses and customs officials was something of a suprise. At Don Meuncr Airport, the customs men took my bags, not to inspect them, but to carry them through, as they ushered us to the front of the line. Travelling with Ajahn Sumedho certainly presents some occasions for reflection; the way that people relate to you shifts your perspective from a physical location to a place in the ongoing spiritual tradition. Images of benevolence arise at every turn. Ajahn Pasanno and Venerable Sumano from Wat Pah Nanachat greeted us at the airport, with a car to take us to Yom Kesaree's house. There a kuti had been made ready and almsfood prepared for our arrival. Anonymous supporters arranged for us to be taken to visit Tan Chao Khuns Sobhana and Pannananda in the evening -- the unexpected continued to be welcoming. But it could only be a short stay with the thought of Tan Ajahn Chah on our minds, and the next afternoon we were flown off to Ubon, the nearest city to Wat Pah Pong. Ubon is the capital of one of the seventeen provinces of the North-East which are collectively known as the Isan (pronounced Eesahn). The Isan is mostly a broad plateau extending from mountains 200 Km. east of Bangkok up to the Mekong River. Most of the land is given over to the cultivation of sticky rice. Without the technology to control nature, and without the resources to avoid it, people have to get used to being too hot in the hot season, flooded in the wet, cold in the cold, and hungry if the crop fails. Accordingly, Isan folk have developed

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ample resilience and patience. The Isan bears strong cultural and linguistic affinities with Laos. Until recently poor roads have made links with central Thailand tenuous, and villagers have always relied on their local custom and village traditions as social reference points, particularly when these have integrated with Sangha observances. When so much of the rest of life is uncertain, tradition exerts a far more powerful influence than changing governments. With the frailty of personal existence acknowledged and accepted, there is yet an unshakeable confidence in the spiritual life, in its conventions and essence. Complete commitment to it is for a few, and total fulfillment of it a rare attainment, but the holy life has been a vital presence in Thailand for about 800 years. It is to the sign of the holy life that customs men make anjali, it is to those who live the holy life that the villagers of the Isan offer rice every day. On special days some will bring food to the monasteries, while others will work in the kitchen -- preparing a meal for thirty, by 8:00 a.m. Through reflecting on this generosity of heart, the Sangha's incentive to practice is sustained, as well as its physical existence. From the villagers' point of view, supporting the Sangha is as much a part of life as planting crops or rearing children -- and as beneficial. When we landed at Ubon, late in the afternoon, the whole Sangha from Wat Pah Nanachat was there to greet us and take us to Wat Pah Pong. In the tropics, night comes down as swiftly and impressively as a snowfall, and the lights around Ajahn Chah's special kuti/ infirmary were glowing to match the innumerable stars when we arrived. After formal greetings had been exchanged, we were invited in to Ajahn Chah's bedside. The face was hardly recognizable as that of the radiant master I had met 7 years ago at the Hampstead Vihara. Ajahn Sumedho squeezed his hand and gave his greetings: there was a movement in the eyelids -- nothing more -- but I quickly realized that Ajahn Chah's movements were measured in such fashion. A movement of the eyes, a slight tensing of the hand muscles of one hand, or a look of recognition were all the signs that one could expect. Aiahn Chah was hardly traceable within this physical form. How he was feeling and for how long he would continue to live were equally uncertain. All that was magnificently apparent was the total care and attention afforded to him by his attendent bhikkhus. They were operating his body for him with a tenderness and respect that makes the word 'nursing' sound bare: it meant saving his life, guessing as to the state of his comfort, being aware of the effects of sudden noises, or changes in light, and a lot of hard menial work. Yet, it was a practice of love, in which every occasion to move his body was preceeded by the deferential gesture of anjali. Every day, Ajahn Sumedho and I went to the kuti to join the Sangha from Wat Pah Nanacahat in chanting vipassanabhum -- the development of insight. There were always visitors from all over Thailand coming to pay their respects, so for these occasions, Ajahn Chah would be brought into the glass-walled reception room in his wheelchair. His face was often not visible through the reflection of the Sangha in the glass; a strangely fitting image of what one can most clearly trace of Ajahn Chah now. His presence seems more manifest in the sincere practice of his disciples than in a worn out body. 'Ajahn Chah' signifies a quality of practice, quotations, personal memories, and a well respected Sangha. It is through their efforts that his body survives, and it is through his teaching that Wat Pah Pong, and its 80 or so branch monasteries pulse with spiritual life. Ajahn Chah's teaching has always emphasised a high degree of personal resourcefulness and respect for the traditions of the Sangha. It therefore fits very well with the principles that guide Isan society. The form of beautiful conduct that was apparent towards the Master is an aspect of the Vinaya that can readily be refined and extended, in a society that values deference and service to the elders, and in particular to those living the holy life. Such service benefits the 'servant' as much as the one who is served, because, if freely undertaken it brings joy into the mind. When the monastery and the teacher are established in Dhamma-Vinaya, https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/01/roots.htm[19/09/2017 12:26:06]

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people take on the training with a sense of honour. I noticed how teenage novices applied themselves to their duties with cheerfulness and personal initiative; they really seek out opportunities to look after the monks bowls, and to do running repairs on worn robes. It sounds archaic, but it looked like a realistic way to channel energy in a spiritual direction. Comparisons with teenagers in the West who have no spiritual guidance arose naturally in my mind, and I couldn't help but think that my meditation would have been a lot more peaceful, if I'd been washing alms bowls at Wat Pah Pong in my teens... Many of the down-to-earth applications of mindfulness that over-intellectual Westerners find so refreshing are highlighted by the forest life. You have to walk mindfully to avoid tripping on tree roots in a dark forest, or stumbling into a trail of biting ants; you bathe mindfully -frogs like to congregate near water, and where there are frogs, there are hungry snakes. In the monasteries, people are trained to be very scrupulous about their needs -you have to seek out a responsible monk to obtain even modest requisites, like washing powder and torch batteries: and they might very well run out. There is a routine and there are duties, but things are not always spelled out you're expected to notice and find out. You may be sent off somewhere at short notice, or find that your carefully prepared trip gets cancelled. Life is uncertain in forest monasteries; but the way of the Buddha is defined in practical detail by the careful use of Vinaya and training conventions. So such places, particularly when blessed by the presence of a master, are sought out by those who look for good practice. There's not much else you can expect to get out of a forest monastery, but those who stay come to appreciate the training for what it can bring forth from the mind. If you can learn to live without holding on, you find it a wonderful door to the Dhamma. Going into insecurity with mindfulness typifies Dhamma practice and extends it beyond any particular location. East or West, life is uncertain, and the Way invites us onwards. So we were only at Wat Pah Pong for about ten days before circumstances changed: Ajahn Chah's condition stabilised, Ajahn Sumedho had to fulfil a promise to visit Switzerland, and with things back to 'normal', I took up another invitation to go tudong. There was talk of hardships and tigers, but when 1 contemplated it, it didn't seem any more precarious than travelling in an aeroplane, or in a Thai bus for that matter. And, unlike most travellers, my wanderings would all be within the realm of Dhamma-Vinaya. After a few weeks, Tan Ajahn Chah was examined again by doctors, who found no traces of cancer. Current1y, his condition remains the same, with occasional crises when it seems as if he is about to die. Work on building the memorial building, composing a biography, and making arrangements for the eventual funeral are still underway. Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles:

Communication Between Sangha & Friends Obituary; Ayya Rocanna Roots of the Forest, N-E Thaiiland, Ajahn Sucitto Northumberland, Ajahn Tiradhammo In the Footsteps of the Buddha; India, Ven. Bodhipalo

May 1987 HOME BACK ISSUES

Editorial:

Northumberland Ajahn Tiradhammo has been the senior incumbent at Harnham Vihara for two and a half years. At the Harnham Wesak on May 24th, he will be handing over the incumbency, to Ajahn Pabhakaro and with it, the project to build a Dhamma Hall and more accommodation for Sangha and visitors at the Vihara. He offers these reflections. As a residence for a small Sangha and focus for a small Buddhist community since 1980, Harnham has been very successful. However, life does not stand still. Over the years Harnham has begun to change, due to the increasing interest in meditation and Buddhism. With the completion of the extensive renovation work on the cottage, more energy was put into teaching and supporting groups in the North -- from Yorkshire to Scotland and Northern Ireland. From the initial Newcastle group and subsequent groups in Doncaster and Edinburgh, bhikhhus from Harnham have begun to teach at newly formed groups in Leeds, Glasgow, Durham, Middlesbrough, Belfast and temporarily, in Hull and Sheffield. This changing perspective has added a new dimension to Harnham, and called for some serious consideration of the longterm direction of the community. In terms of numbers, the resident community has grown from two to six, and the number of support groups from one to nine; on major festival days the number of visitors has grown from a few dozen to hundreds. After several years of practice, the needs of the Buddhist community, have also expanded. Now there are monthly weekend retreats, more public gatherings such as wedding blessings and festivals, and an increasing number of visitors and guests. There is also the possibility of having nuns reside on a more permanent basis. With the maturing of the Buddhist community, we have found that many people want to help, out of a sense of gratitude and appreciation. This is particularly relevant in the organising and support of vihara-activities. 1n the setting up of a vihara we have found that we need to explore ways of facilitating communication and co-operation between monastics and laity. Put simply, the monastics have the experience, to know what is needed to nourish the form of Sangha, while the laity have the knowledge and skill to make that into a tangible reality. Our endeavours so far have culminated in the Sanghamitta Project to purchase and renovate further properties on Harnham Hill. A generous initial donation has given the impetus to make the project feasible. Besides providing more accommodation for Sangha, guests and retreatants, it is a focus for much co- operation, generosity and selfless service. The size of the project implies that few of the initial supporters will see its completion, but it is a joyful act of service to give towards something which will be of much benefit, to many people, for a long time. This has been a major source of Dhamma practice for many of us. It hasn't been easy, but it

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has been valuable to explore what aspects of Buddhism are workable and appropriate,and to learn how to apply them. In a way it is like learning how to separate the wheat from the chaff - the heart of Buddhism from the externals -- give it new soil to germinate, and watch it grow. In learning to co-operate and communicate on a much larger and more extensive scale, the extended Harnham community is becoming a focus for much, generous and noble energy, and a school for learning the practicality of spiritual fellowship. The main issue then, is not actually, building the vihara, but building people. With patience and care, people can learn how to apply spiritual principles in their lives, not only for their own benefit but also for the benefit of society. This will take time and energy, but it may well be the most valuable investment of time and energy that we can ever make for the peace and happiness of the many. evam. Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles:

Communication Between Sangha & Friends Obituary; Ayya Rocanna Roots of the Forest, N-E Thaiiland, Ajahn Sucitto Northumberland, Ajahn Tiradhammo In the Footsteps of the Buddha; India, Ven. Bodhipalo

May 1987 HOME BACK ISSUES

Editorial:

In the Footsteps of the Buddha; India Venerable Bodhipalo came over from Thailand last year, to spend some time at Chithurst and visit his family. He decided to undertake a lone pilgrimage in India on his way back to Thailand. We received a letter from him a few months ago. Here are a few extracts... I had left Savatthi on 4th December. I'm glad I had the chance to see it. I wanted to walk to Lumbini but met with a lot of negativity from people. They told me all the terrible things that might happen to me -- I might starve, or get lost, or be robbed or killed, and it was too cold to sleep out at nights. It's easy to travel from place to place by bus with the pilgrims, and they're quite willing to take you if they have room, but I wouldn't have enjoyed that at all. I originally was not going to use roads but go cross-country from village to village, but this proved impracticable. Fifteen years ago the paddy fields were empty all winter, but now they're full of crops: winter wheat, rape, tapioca, sugar cane, vegetables, and here in Nepal they're still harvesting the rice in some places. . . . Anyway, in spite of other people's negativity, I thought I should at least give walking a try. So I thought of all the good things that might happen, the kind, helpful people I might meet etc. as I decided to walk to Lumbini to see how it would go. . . . On my first attempt at pindapata in Bulrampur, on my way to Savatthi, 1 did quite well -- not a square meal, but enough to keep me going. One problem was trying to explain to people that 1 didn't accept money or raw rice. I think perhaps also some people thought I was broke -- a hard up hippy. So then I got a monk to write a note saying something like (in Hindi) 'I am a Buddhist monk on pilgrimage to the holy places. I do not accept money. I depend on almsfood and eat only between dawn and midday. I am grateful for your help'. With this note things have been easier. I stand in front of a shop or house for a while, maybe half a minute, and if they don't say anything, I move on to the next. If they ask what I want then I give them the note to read. In most cases the response has been very good. Sometimes someone will walk along with me and chivvy his friends into giving me something. I usually look like the pied piper with a great gaggle of ragged children on my tail. One day I had quite a good meal of chapatis and sabjees and sweets. Other times I had small bits and pieces like samosas, etc. . . . I've slept in a variety of places; by the road in a small copse of trees with a stream running through it (plenty of streams in this area, so no problem bathing); one night in a straw sack. The villagers wanted me to sleep in a house in the village, but there were too many women and children around, so I slept outside the village in the threshing area on a heap of straw, surrounded by straw, under a large mango tree. That was one of the warmest nights. Sleeping out is very cold and it is usually impossible to sleep lying down, but I remembered my experiences in Kanchanaburi, and found that sleeping sitting up I could make more economical use of my robes, and keep warnier. One night I found an abandoned grass hut near

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the road. Daytime is pleasantly warm, but gets a bit hot in the sun around midday, if you're walking or exerting yourself. . . . I regret I can't speak the language. I think it would be even more fruitful If I could. I've decided to carry on the rest of the pilgrimage in this way, going next to Kushinara, then Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. Of course, some of the dangers that people have pointed out might happen, but I'm sure they were just as likely in the Buddha's day, and I could probably more easily be killed by a taxi in London than by robbers in India. I'm sure that my greatest protection is keeping the Vinaya. The parami of keeping good Vinaya is very powerful; especially important are rules about food and money. If I kept food or money, I could not go pindapat with a clear conscience. Many people have done their best to persuade me to accept money or carry food with me, but I know if I did that then pindapat wouldn't work, I would not get any of the help or respect that usually go to a samana. . . . I'm now in Lumbini. I stopped at Kapilavastu for one day, but there's not much to see. It doesn't appear to have been a very big place, nothing like Savatthi, but it's hard to say as so little has been excavated. You can see the Himalayas from here. At Savatthi you couldn't see them. On the second day's walk I looked up in the late afternoon, and there they were; quite took my breath away. Green fields and trees stretching into the distance and beyond, the purple brown foothills, beyond this the snowcapped peaks against a vivid blue sky. The best time to see them is early morning, before eight; especially at sunrise, when the snow is bright pink. . . . I could have gone into much more detail about the places I've been, the things I've seen and the things that have happened to me, but I've written more than enough already. I had a lot of doubts about doing this while I was in England, and after the possibility of doing it became more real. When I first arrived in India I had doubts too. Sometimes I thought I was completely crazy, or that it was just waste of time, a distraction, or an ego trip, but now I'm very glad I'm able to do this trip and consider myself very lucky to have the opportunity. I hope more monks will do the same. . . . I hope all goes well with everyone at Chithurst. Excuse my terrible writing, but I'm not used to writing so small. Metta, Bodhipalo Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

October 1987 THIS ISSUE

2530 Cover: Settling in at Stokes Valley; Ajahn Viradhammo Articles: Roots of the Forest; Ajahn Sucitto, (part II)

Letter from Chithurst; Ajahn Anando

Tudong in the Lakes; Venerable Amaro's notes

Desana; Ajahn Lee Dhammadaro

Editorial: Meditation and Prayer; Ajahn Sucitto

Number 2 HOME BACK ISSUES

Settling in at Stokes Valley The following letter comes from Ajahn Viradhammo, who was asked to establish a forest monastery in New Zealand in 1984. He's been there with Venerable Thanavaro for three years; recently they were joined by Venerable Bodhinando. This Vassa has been their first in the monastery that they have been building in Stokes Valley, near Wellington. Greetings good friends in the Dhamma,

It is the middle of June, and the weather for the past week, since my return from Thailand has been magnificent -- bright and sunny during the days with temperatures in the mid 50's, and nights that have been clear and cold with temperatures just above freezing. Venerable Thanavaro, Venerable Bodhinando and Anagarika Peter are working on our fourth kuti, about 200 metres up the hill from where I am presently sitting. About an hour ago, I almost knocked Anagarika Tony Bell (from Northumberland) off a ladder, as I opened the door to a room he is wallpapering. He is working in the main building, which is about 100 metres down the hill from where I am presently writing this article. Bodhinyanarama is all up or down, which gives us a strong incentive not to forget things here and there.

It has been over two years since Venerable Thanavaro and I left the UK for New Zealand, to help with the establishment of a forest monastery here in Stokes Valley. Much good work has been done during this time, both on the personal level of individual practice, and on the communal level of Sangha, laity and the monastery construction. All the facilities that are needed for training bhikkhus in Dhamma-Vinaya are now available, and this coming Vassa will be our first chance to set up a "Rains Retreat" schedule, similar to that of more established monasteries in the U.K. and Thailand. Both Venerable Thanavaro and I make regular visits to Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Wellington, to offer Dhamma instruction to Buddhist groups centred in those cities. Our original sponsoring committees in both Wellington and Auckland continue to be very generous and supportive, and as winter approaches (it never snows in Stokes Valley), our cloth cupboard has filled up with woolly

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socks. The diligent members of our association have organised a roster for our mid-day meals, so that the anagarikas need not do any cooking and can either participate fully in monastic retreats, or concentrate on the building work that is so vital to this new monastery.

This interdependent relationship between the monastic and lay communities is being introduced into New Zealand.

Local Community 0ur contact with the community at large is still very limited, but has been growing steadily. Stokes Valley is a quiet suburb, about 30 minutes drive from the City of Wellington. It has a population of about 11,000, among whom only 10% would attend one of the five churches in the valley. We are on the upper edge of this suburb and beyond our property, the valley continues to slope steeply upwards to a high ridge easily visible from the monastery. On three sides neighbouring our property one looks onto the lush green of native bush, interspersed with tall pine trees. On the fourth side, spread below the monastery, is the town of Stokes Valley where we go for our alms round. The people of this quiet suburb are proud of their valley, and there is a sense of community among them. For instance, I have heard it said that families wishing to sell their homes, because of changing personal needs, often choose to move within the valley rather than out of the valley. We have had a chance to enter into this sense of community through such groups as the Lions and Rotary Clubs who have invited us as guest speakers, and also through the Association of Christian Ministers who have very graciously invited us into the valley and wished us well. One of our lay friends, who lives locally, was saying last night that she has some claim to fame among her neighbours, because she goes to the monastery to meditate. People say to her, "you've been up there?!" in somewhat envious and amazed tones. Many people are curious, but most people are shy. It appears that in time, our monastery and the Buddhist relationship between the Sangha and laity will be accepted into the life of Stokes Valley, and that we in our turn should be able to make a wholesome contribution to the well-being of these friendly people. Thinking back over the events of the past years, one feels that much has been learned, and that the establishment of a branch monastery is in itself an art form. But it is not just a monastery that is being founded. Rather, it is a particular social structure that is taking root in this fresh soil. In a Buddhist country such as Thailand, one can take the cultural milieu for granted, because the establishment of a monastery is relatively straight forward. In Thailand, I have never been mistaken for Gandhi, Krishna or a skinhead, and most people understand how a bhikkhu functions in society. Any wrong views, concerning the monk and his connection with the laity, that have arisen over the ages because of superstition or corruption, can be corrected because the sincere and honest bhikkhu still has a lot of authority in the society. But outside of traditional Buddhist cultures, the bhikkhu and

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his position in society is unknown. It should be remembered that the bhikkhu is not a hermit, but because of his dependence on the laity for the basic requisites of life, he is very much a part of a larger social structure. It is this interdependent relationship between the monastic and lay communities that is being introduced into New Zealand.

Broadening the Scope With the example and hard work of our Thai, Burmese, Sri Lankan and Lao supporters, those of our friends who are not from Buddhist backgrounds are beginning to understand the form and structure of this ancient tradition and, in turn, are finding their own place within this wonderful form. As people begin to hear of our presence, Bodhinyanarama is becoming the physical focus for a broader association of like-minded beings. From these small beginnings, one can see how profound changes in society are in fact possible -- changes which are based on our individual practice of the Buddha's teaching, and our collective efforts to give what we can to the health and sanity of our social environment. Best wishes from all of us here at Bodhinyanarama to Sangha and friends in the U.K. With metta, Bhikkhu Viradhammo Â Â

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Settling in at Stokes Valley; Ajahn Viradhammo Roots of the Forest; Ajahn Sucitto, (part II) Letter from Chithurst; Ajahn Anando Tudong in the Lakes; Venerable Amaro's notes Desana; Ajahn Lee Dhammadaro Meditation and Prayer; Ajahn Sucitto

Roots of the Forest Ajahn Sucitto continues his introduction to the forest monasteries of the Isan. My introduction to the forest monasteries was at night. We had landed at Ubon early in the evening, been driven to Wat Pah Pong to pay respects to Luang Por Chah and then taken back to Wat Pah Nanachat, the monastery specifically established for Western bhikkhus. Having trained so long in the West with these monasteries' way of practice presented as the constant standard, I found myself entering them with a tingling expectation, a mixture of eagerness, awe and uncertainty. What austerities, what challenges lay ahead. I should have known better.

Anyway, I was not prepared for night in the forest. It is black. Faintly glimmering sandy trails wander off into the darkness to the huts scattered in the forest, and you try to follow one with a torch. Of course, the old-timers will tell you of the days before torches and trails, when bhikkhus proceeded through the forest with no other guidance than the Karaniya Metta Sutta, but the hazards haven't changed. There are still plenty of snakes about; and large aggressive centipedes can deliver a painful nip that will have you laid up for a while. More frequently encountered are dangling vines and newly-spun spiders' webs, or the roots that jut up through the sand like the knuckles of some malevolent troll for the unsuspecting tenderfoot to mash their toes upon. So you walk attentively focussed on a beam of light. My bhikkhu guide took me past a few simple huts (or kutis) to a newer one at the edge of the monastery, unlocked its padlocked door, pushed back the wooden shutters, and with a few remarks padded off into the night.

Darkness has already swallowed up the familiar, and the long mysterious night invites you to meditate.

Wat Pah Nanachat Wat Pah Nanachat's kutis are quite simple. They are all a plank construction with large roofs to provide shade arid a good run-off for water in the Rains. They stand on legs, to elevate one from the path of forest pigs and out of the densest flying zone of the mosquitoes; while with the more lofty kutis the space underneath is a cooler place for sitting than inside. The furnishings are a rush mat, a candle or oil-lamp and matches, a pillow for the head, and a rope to hang one's robes upon; the accoutrements are a spitoon and a kettle, a soft broom for sweeping the room, and a coarse one for sweeping the paths. It's all you need; nothing to distract the mind, and not much to have to look after. As soon as you enter such a dwelling, you want to sit and meditate for a while -- especially when the cool night is mosquito-free and the ghosts are quiet.

Having been advised to come to the sala at dawn, I had the pleasure of a private sitting early in the morning. Trying to find the sala in the half-light via the unfamiliar trails was a minor

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challenge, but after some fumbling around, the navigational aids established themselves in my mind -- the trailing vine here; the large water urn there; a derelict kuti visible through the trees; a fork in the path. Light comes around 5 a.m. and daily routines establish another set of norms: the morning puja in the sala, announced by the bell at 3 a.m.; walking or sitting meditation until 5:30; the morning sweep-up; the alms round (pindabaht); the meal; the afternoon chores; the evening bath and drink; and the evening puja. Then people leave the sala for their kutis. Darkness has already swallowed up the familiar, and the long mysterious night invites you to meditate.

The daily routine in a monastery, East or West, provides reference points on how to cooperate and enter a non-verbal communion with the Sangha. People who can't adapt get disgruntled and leave monasteries where they find the routine doesn't fit their style of practice -- a surprising reaction for someone familiar with the difficulties of practice outside of a meditation monastery, but indicative of the human mind's remarkable endeavours to find fault with the way things are. Actually you have a lot of space to contemplate how much rest you need, how you spend your time, and what kind of effort you sustain through unexciting days. The Ajahns vary the routines to encourage a clearer view of where suffering actually is. Sometimes there's more work, sometimes more group meditation, sometimes not much of anything. If you get the point, you see that dukkha follows its own routines. But Ajahn Sumedho and I didn't settle into anything at Nanachat; on the first day we went along with the routine to the point where the Sangha paid their daily visit to Ajahn Chah's kuti, and then we moved over to Wat Pah Pong.

Wat Pah Pong After visiting Luang Por again -- whose kuti is outside the wall that bounds the original monastery -- we entered the monastery proper over a side wall. The elements were the same: A couple of bhikkhus guiding us; darkness gatheringand hastening our paces; and attention fixed on the ground ahead. An astute lodgings officer had given me a kuti very close to the sala, with mosquito screens and its own bathing facility underneath. Well, such a luxury at Wat Pah Pong was a surprise. Furthermore, an evening drink was being served in the long dining hall adjoining the sala. Of course, as anyone will tell you, it's not like the old days when Luang Por gently remonstrated with a lay devotee who brought ice to the monastery, that such a luxury might spoil the monks. The day when coffee first came to Pah Pong is a noted historical event, and even now the choice of drinks in the poorer branches can be rainwater or well-water. Things change. I went over to the dining hall and, surveying the long wooden benches that ran down either side of the building, sat myself in a position that I hoped was not too presumptuous. But the evening drink is an informal occasion-- "Tam sabai!" (relax) is the phrase that indicates that it's not necessary to wear the upper robe or sit in a formal posture. Huge kettles floated down the line of monks; with tiny novices attached to the handles; and in their wake enamelled dishes with 'medicines' -- the bitter laxative fruits of the North-East. It is a quiet time, and unlike British 'tea-time', there's no tradition of lay people attending for an informal

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chat. Where the long informal conversations take place is traditionally in or under the Ajahn's kuti, or nowadays in a sala outside of the monastery proper where Ajahn Liam receives guests. We went there after tea. There was a lot of gentle humour between Ajahn Liam and Ajahn Sumedho; but I missed out on everything except Ajahn Liam's quiet conviviality and the sharpness of his mind.

Living Images Ajahn Liam's been in charge of Wat Pah Pong for five or six years now, at least to the extent that anyone could be in charge of the myths, mystique and devotional energies that surround Pah Pong and Ajahn Chah. Luang Por is a constant reference point as the standard for correct practice throughout 80 monasteries and thousands of lay people. Luang Por still oversees the monastery through the many images that gaze at the visitor and the resident with unwavering eye. A portrait (a reproduction of the painting at Chithurst) presides at the head of the line in the dining hall, and another stands opposite a portrait of Ajahn Mun in the sala. There his seat, with kettle and spittoon beside it still occupies the central place before the shrine. It's not just a cult, but a sign of the continuity of the tradition, and the respect for the Master as an embodiment of the practice. Meanwhile Ajahn Liam guides the Sangha and adds his own insights to the storehouse of the Dhamma-Vinaya that supports the holy life. It's not like the old days, but Wat Pah Pong doesn't pretend to be; it manifests constant change. A morning wandering around the monastery verifies that. At one end of the dining hall is a small unused building that was the original meeting place for the small group of bhikkus with Ajahn Chah in the early days. Some way off to the side is the mango tree where Ajahn Chah first placed his mosquito net umbrella on arriving in this haunted forest 33 years ago. Now a tiger, symbol of the tudong bhikkhu, pauses there, turned into concrete, wide-eyed and harmless. A dozen metres away, another image sums up the development: it is an effigy of Luang Por rendered in flawless detail, sitting underneath the kuti where he received guests during the prime of his teaching career. It's less awesome than the Master in past or present condition, yet close enough to still convey the comforting presence of a wise man. In between these two images is a condensed history of Wat Pah Pong: the primitive old kutis; an array of ancient sima stones from the Cambodian border; and the new Uposatha Hall. Stylistically, this building is an innovation -- with its pointed upswept arched roofs hanging over a polished marble floor, the only connection it made in my mind is with the Sydney Opera House. Luang Por visited it for a couple of years before his decline. Now terecotta murals depicting scenes from his his life hang on the walls; and at the feet of a standing Buddha, a bronze figure of the Master gazes out towards the dining hall, the new sala (the first cement building in the monastery) and the still unfinished three-storey building at the very entrance to the monastery. This will be the Ajahn Chah museum.

Heart-practice It has become customary to erect these pipitapahn to contain the relics, the biographies and the books, and the sparse personal effects of forest masters when they die. Inside this one, more terracotta murals of Luang Por's life tower over the emptiness. So this is the latest phase: Wat Pah Pong as a pilgrimage centre. The critical faculties can mutter that such extravagance contradicts the exemplary austerity of the Master himself, but the heart knows that these are tokens of the faith and the love that sustains a spiritual tradition. One should approach such places from the heart, not with the memory or the eye. Looking backwards or looking outwards, the mind is overstimulated. Images and perceptions collide: USAF fuel tanks (now water reservoirs) from the Vietnam era; Dhamma poems hanging off the trees; the main gate, a replica of the the Oaken Holt gate that impressed Luang Por when he visited Britain; a bell tower festooned with graceful Thai temple plasterwork; rickety kutis; and looking up at the

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ultra-modern Uposatha Hall, a large blue pottery owl in the style of the Isan. Notions of the old and the new are obviously not to be clung to. And then one notices the calm of the forest -- no wind to rattle the dead leaves; no voices where forty monks and novices, and as many nuns pass their days; in the afternoons the rhythmic rustle of the sweeping chore; in the evening the absorptive trill of the insects. You contemplate the trees that punctuate the mind's monologue with their ordinariness, their suchness, and you settle into practice.

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Cover: Settling in at Stokes Valley; Ajahn Viradhammo Articles: Roots of the Forest; Ajahn Sucitto, (part II)

Letter from Chithurst; Ajahn Anando

Tudong in the Lakes; Venerable Amaro's notes

Desana; Ajahn Lee Dhammadaro

Editorial: Meditation and Prayer; Ajahn Sucitto

October 1987 HOME BACK ISSUES

Letter from Chithurst Part of a letter written by the Abbot, Ajahn Anando, to his mother in the United States. July 5th was our annual ordination ceremony. We were very fortunate that for two weeks prior to the ceremony we were blessed with beautiful warm, sunny weather which offered us the opportunity to do all the things that one tends to procrastinate about but which need to be done in order to prepare the grounds for the ceremony. Everyone in the community worked with a feeling of purpose and willingness; it seemed we all realised the importance of the occasion, and that every effort added to the sense of celebration. I think the ordination ceremony can be seen in such a way -- there's a going forth, a dying in one sense, a dying of old habits and ways. Yet one is also being accepted, welcomed into a new situation in the community.

The grounds were looking so beautiful that I asked one of our neighbours and friends if I shouldn't enter the monastery in the "Better Monasteries and Gardens Competition". Laughingly she said, "Oh yes, please. I'm sure you'd be first". Â

This meditative life is so exquisite, it becomes glaringly Â obvious that to be of service is the raison d'etre.

About 200 people came for the ordination, friends and family of the newly ordained people. Even Venerable Anigho's parents came from New Zealand -- offered his robes and sat quietly during the ordination, watching this very ancient ritual of leaving behind the old and embracing something new.

The four recently ordained monks will be staying at Chithurst at least until the end of the year, and we will have an opportunity to go through the Vinaya -- the monastic rule -- in some detail, particularly now during the retreat season.

I am on retreat with half the community down at the cottage near the woods. This meditative life is so exquisite, it becomes glaringly obvious that to be of service is the raison d'etre, and the seemingly paradoxical aspect is that it brings such joy. Service, of course, doesn't necessarily mean being in the market place; although, as you know very well, there is a time and place and need for such activity. I suppose what I'm thinking about could be called "service of the heart", which is a quality of being which is open, accepting, available and giving. It is a turning away from selfseeking concerns to maintain the image or mask of numero uno.

I have been exploring the world of devotion and feelings, which are very much intertwined. The inspired mind can be a way to tap the fount of our spirituality, and flood the mindheartbody with feelings of blissful surrender to nothingness. We limit ourselves so miserably by

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the unfortunate habit of grabbing hold of notions of self as the good, bad, right, wrong, jealous, loving, wonderful, terrible, sinful, pure one; spinning with manic speed and wondering, only briefly, why we feel dizzy -- our minds find no rest. It can be so hard to truly let go, for when it comes down to it we are faced with the awesome knowledge that we have to be a Buddha-Christ, to be utterly free. The heresy, if any, in not having the trust in one's innate goodnesswisdom to dare to simply be. It would be delightful to have you visit. After years of serene elegance, Chithurst is once again a building site. We have taken down the main staircase because it has dry rot; something we knew since moving in. To see the main hall littered with broken plaster, scaffolding up to the ceiling, to smell the pungent stench of dry rot treatment fluid in the air, with power tools here and there, brings back nostalgic feelings of the good old days at Chithurst when long hours of heavy building work was the norm. Black, sweet tea for breakfast was the fuel and slumping through the evening meditation (if you were not still working) was the result. It would indeed be wonderful to see you again. Please bring some work clothes ....I'm teasing. If you were coming, September would be a wonderful time. We have a project on which I refer to as the wildflower project and which Ajahn Munindo refers to as the weed project. However, it was started some time ago and the idea is to gradually reintroduce meadowland in the fields around Chithurst House. We began first by consulting with a long-time friend and supporter, Nick Scott, who, after some investigation, gave us a list of the types of flowers that would have grown in the fields at Chithurst prior to their being cultivated and modern grass seed sown. He suggested as a test that we plant out in seed trays 50,000 seeds, expecting that we would ' have 25% to 30% germination success rate. And at that time, one of the anagarikas, Viveka, was at Chithurst, and I asked her to take responsibility for the wildflower project which she very capably did. When I returned in April,after accompanying Ajahn Sumedho on his trip around the world, I found that we had a great many more flowers than expected. Instead of 25% to 30%, we had 90% and when I asked Viveka what she had done to be so successful, she smiled and said, "I chanted mantras as I was planting them out". Do you think we should let the local nursery know about this secret? So we now have about 42,00 flowers to plant out in the south-facing field towards the South Downs. If you think any of the family would like to come with you to plant out the flowers, we could, of course happily accommodate all of you. . . .

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Tudong in the Lakes Ajahn Sumedho, accompanied by Venerable Amaro and Nick Scott, went on a nineday walk in the Lake District at the end of June this year. Here are some of Venerable Amaro's notes on the long wet hike: Rock-hewn bridges, human constructions, enter disuse and pursue their cycle-of change. Now green fronds emerge from between the stones, ivy clambers and moss distends across the wall. This is not nature reclaiming but our participation, the human element in the flow of change. Layers of sandstone now are split, and swirling ferns appear. As yesterday, for a moment we were the Lune -- no river apart -- sediment formed upon our feet as wee, wee fishes explored our toes, planted in the cool running water. The inner and outer landscapes we contemplate: complexity and stability are twinned' in nature, and the stable heart is that which can accommodate all conditions in harmony.

"There is only one mind," as the Ajahn put it, "and it is the ultimate simplicity which contains all complexity."

A day of nature reserves and conservation areas bring these thoughts to mind; conservation being the sustenance of the great complexity for the blessing and benefit of all.

We arrived at Manjushri quite waterlogged. Nick is now busy masterminding the laundering of clothes -the tents are hanging, the Ajahn rests alone, and we are in the dry and protective embrace of thoughtful welcome.

As forest bhikkhus we were in our element, like woodland creatures, and we perched ourselves between the mossy rocks and spread the mats to take our meal.

Living with the Wet Yesterday, as we headed down from Hutton Roof crags, we talked much of living with the wetness.

"You can see the entry of self," the Ajahn said: 'My sleeping-bag is wet, my socks and my robe', the worrying mind goes on. But then this is simply the way things are, and when that is seen then there is no suffering; water in a sleeping-bag, so what?"

We were on our way to meet Arthur and Brenda of the Preston group. There was persistent drizzle. On the way, I mentioned to Nick that it would be deeply appreciated if he would stop constantly underestimating our distances. His optimism would always trim about a third off all the miles and time he had to reckon, which made the journey seem longer and longer all

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the time.

An hour and a half late again (this had become a daily. occurrence), we met up and then drove to the Gaitbarrows Reserve. After a little search we found a yew-grotto and strung our tent up to make a silver awning. As forest bhikkhus we were in our element, like woodland creatures, and we perched ourselves between the mossy rocks and spread the mats to take our meal. Little was said. Amidst the offerings of shelter, food and medicine there passed good feeling and the strength of kind support. We were damp and chilled, and we faced another long trek that afternoon.

Arthur and Brenda remained unquelled and walked with us for the afternoon. We beat through the bushes of flaweswaier Reserve, and rainsoaked, we arrived in Silvprdale. There was a sad feeling brought on by the sight of narrow-minded human ways, as we passed through some estates and farms around there. Nick described it as the: 'If it isn't a sheep or a blade of grass, kill it' attitude. Disease-free pig-pens, dead moles on a fence, a field of bullocks who rushed across to see us, all these brought a feeling of frustration and incompleteness, of an unkindness put upon the earth.

Happiness is a Dry Blanket We arrived at Silverdale station (an hour and a half late), and found a shelter on the platform there. There was a wondering moment, as we found that the next train across; the estuarv left far too late for us to reach our campsite.

"I wonder what happens now?"

Nick disappeared to see if he could find the house of some of his friends, who lived somewhere in the village. It was a moment of suspense. Somehow, however, the wonderful can always be discovered, in the midst of any situation. "A beautiful smell pervades your clothing", said Arthur, "juniper -- just like Tibetan incense." Nick reappeared with the broad grin of success, and we were invited into the home of the Clothier family . . Four generations were gathered round a fire in their sitting room on this Sunday afternoon. We apologised for our invasion, and were presented in return with tea and warmth and commiserations about the rain. The rain! After an hour or two, Arthur opted to drive us out to the edge of the reserve where we hoped to camp. I watched out of the windows of the car as we sped along -- the hike of light miles or so in this sheeting rain, hard work we would have had with it. And off we went to Roundsea Woods.

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It was still raining when we reached the promontory, and found a spot to camp-beneath little oaks, Chinese and gnarly, low cloud and drizzle on the bay. It rained all night, but nonetheless we had to push to leave early. Everything the Ajahn and I had was waterlogged by now, so Nick shared out his last dry socks. We borrowed the veranda of an empty cottage as a shelter while we brewed some tea and dried our boots. Heaven was then a few dry feet in which to shake your tent out, a dry place to sit and watch the rain. A breeze-block public toilet became a palace for a while as we paused to adjust our gear and rest our packs.

These are the ways the mind instinctively reacts but, looking closely, what is wetness anyway? A feeling in the skin, unknown by the water, it has no name or expression for it's own nature. Water on skin, in cloth, on the ground -in grey rain it is tolerated; in a hot shower it is loved; appreciated in laundry, yet rejected in your boots.

Right Direction As we have been journeying I have tried to attune to the ways of the Ajahn.

"I can't be bothered with trying to set the world straight -- it's just endless. You just have to go in the right direction yourself, and there will be some who follow and some who don't."

In turning to the ways of the Teacher, personality is seen to arise and be highlighted by the emptiness of his mirror. The self emerges like a spare part, accompanied by shadows of error and ineptitude. A moment of embarrassment dissolves, however, when the light is allowed to shine forth. The person has no owner, it appears for social convention only, a big red 'I' standing all alone.

Profound hospitality has met us at Manjushri; Roy Tyson, the director, has been attentive, respectful, sensitive and sincere. He introduced us to the resident teacher, Geshe Konchog Tsewang, who greeted us warmly -- no English, but no problem. At last the clouds have gone and the late sky has now dimmed to ultra-violet and aquamarine. It is late now, and the day has been long; I bid you all good-night.

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Desana: 'Keeping the Breath in Mind' Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo was one of the disciples of Venerable Ajahn Mun. He was perhaps the first master to come out of the forests and lonely places to establish a monastery of his own, where he taught meditation to lay people and Sangha alike. This monastery was Wat Asokaram, quite close to Bangkok. Ajahn Lee was a gifted speaker, and many volumes of his sermons are still at Wat Asokaram in unpublished form.

Venerable Thanissaro has contributed greatly to the available teachings of the forest masters by translating selections of Ajahn Lee's sermons into English, and having them printed for free distribution. From time to time, we receive packages of these at Amaravati -- so just ask if you're visiting as to what we might have in stock. Here is a small section from the book, 'Keeping the Breath in Mind' We all want nothing but goodness, but if you can't tell what's good from what's defiled, you can sit and meditate 'til your dying day and never find nibbana at all. If, however, you can set your mind and keep your mind on what you're doing, it's not all that hard. Nibbana is really a simple matter, because it's always there. It never changes. The affairs of the world are what's hard, because they're always changing and uncertain. Once you've done something, you have to keep looking after it. But you don't have to keep looking after nibbana at all. Once you've realized it, you can let go. Keep on realizing, keep on letting go -- like a person eating rice who, after he's put rice in his mouth, keeps spitting it out. What this means is that you keep on doing good, but you don't claim it as your own. Do good, then spit it out. This is viraga-dhamma: disengagement.

For most people in the world, once they've done something, it's theirs. And thus they have to keep on looking after it. If they're not careful, it will either get stolen or else wear out on its own: they're headed for disappointment. Like a person who swallows his rice: after he's eaten he'll have to digest it. After he's digested it, he'll be hungry again, so he'll have to eat some more and digest some more. The day will never come when he's had enough. But with nibbana, you don't have to swaliow. You can eat your rice and then spit it out. You can do good and let it go.

That's where nibbana is. Like a person without any money' How will thieves be able to rob him?

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Nibbana doesn't lie far away: It's right on our lips, right at the tip of our nose. But we keep groping around, and never find it. If you're really serious about finding purity, set your mind on meditation and on nothing else. As for whatever else may come your way, you can say, 'No thanks.' Pleasure? 'No thanks.' Pain? 'No thanks.' Goodness? 'No thanks.' Evil? 'No thanks.' Attainment? 'No thanks.' Nibbana? 'No thanks.' If it's 'no thanks' to everything, what will you have left? You won't need to have anything left. That's where nibbana is. Like a person without any money' How will thieves be able to rob him? If you get money and try to hold on to it, you're going to get killed. If this thief doesn't get you, that one will. Carry around what's yours until you're completely weighed down. You'll never get away. In this world we have to live with both good and evil. A person who has developed disengagement is filled with goodness, and knows evil fully, but doesn't hold on to either, doesn't claim either as his or her own. Such a person puts them aside and lets them go, and so can travel light and easy. Nibbana isn't that difficult a matter. In the Buddha's time, some people became arahants while going on their almsround, some while urinating, some while watching farmers ploughing a field. What's difficult about the highest good lies in the beginning, in laying the groundwork -- being constantly mindful at all times. But if you can keep at it, you're bound to succeed in the end.

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October 1987

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EDITORIAL Meditation and Prayer In August of this year, Ajahn Sumedho was one of the invited speakers at the United, World Religions Conference being held in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in California. (They don't do things by halves in the States.) He called from there to give the Sangha at Amaravati notice of a Harmonic Convergence -- an auspicious line-up of planets -- that was being recognised by many spiritual groups in the West as a time for meditation and prayer. So in Britain, we followed suit in our own fashion. Although it seemed quite normal for us, it was uplifting to consider how many people might be inclining their minds towards peace at such a time. But what about the rest of the time? Sustaining that inclination towards peaceful coexistence and co-operation is a daily effort against the pull of selfishness, and it needs some encouragement.

Sustaining that inclination towards peaceful co-existence and co-operation is a daily effort against the pull of selfishness - and it needs some encouragement.

Buddhist customs serve as reminders of such themes. After Vassa, comes the Kathina Ceremony, an occasion that typifies the harmonising of the household and monastic lifestyles to support the Holy Life. It's a time for harmonic convergence throughout the Buddhist world; and it establishes our intentions as householders or mendicants to support and set an example to each other. So you are invited to take the opportunity that occurs to participate in this 2,500year-old ceremony at your nearest monastery.

Meanwhile, another convergence of sorts: Herein a gathering of letters, articles and notes to remind you of the Sangha's presence in the world. For the next Issue, please send material to 'Newsletter' Amaravati, by November 20th. Ajahn Sucitto

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January 1988 THIS ISSUE

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Number 3 HOME BACK ISSUES

Cover: Wood Hammered at Chithurst; Ajahn Anando Articles: Serpentine, Western Australia; Chris Banks

Looking for the Sweet One; Ajahn Jagaro

Wish You Were Here; Venerable Sumano

Kathina 1987; Sister Candasiri & Upasika Susilo

Off the Beaten Track; Venerable Kovido

New-Born; Sister Viveka

Amaravati Summer Camp; Medhina

Editorial: The Way the Wind Blows; Ajahn Sucitto

Wood Hammered at Chithurst When Britain was hit by a hurricane in the middle of October, West Sussex was right on target. Ajahn Anando describes some of the storm's effects. That evening I looked at the barometer -- it was right at the bottom. I thought: "Either it needs adjusting, or we're really in for a storm". I went to sleep. Two hours later I woke up -- the kuti was moving!

...Everything was vibrating in the house. Mahesi had the window open -- it faces West and the wind was coming from the South-west. His description was: "We woke up and the room was alive, it was heaving:" He rushed to the window to close it as it was blown from its hinges, and he caught it just as it fell. Everyone was awake, there was just so much noise...

When it became light it was still quite windy. I walked around to see. I had feelings that the big cedar in the corner of the walled garden would go, and I was just very pleased that the wind was from the South-west. It fell into the garden: had the winds come from the other direction, the Southeast, then it would have fallen towards the house. I think it would have stopped at the ground floor! Half the bhikkhu Sangha would either be in hospital, or ashes spread about the grounds. Venerable Thanuttamo was living in the garden kuti -- he left after the third tree crashed down. Eight trees have fallen there: it looks like a bomb went off.

We spent the morning with chainsaws, tractor and trailer, cutting our way out -- just to the entrance of the monastery. Then all the rest of the day, from right after the meal until it was dark, we spent clearing our way down to the nuns' cottage.

With the loss of many oaks, we gathered up quite a number of acorns and have started a little tree nursery.

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We have all of the necessary materials.... There were about eight trees down on the lane, enormous ones: we have enough firewood for the next five years. The following day we finished clearing, or widening, the roadway from the monastery out to the main road.

It will take months to clear all of the grounds. With the large oaks that have blown down, we'll trim them and either leave them in place or move them to one side -- they can be planked later on. So it's quite likely that when we get around to rebuilding the coach-house there will be a lot of oak panelling in there!

We lost about a hundred tiles from the house and some gutters were broken. We're very fortunate because we have people who can repair things like that -- and we have a supply of tiles. None of us thought very much about it, but on the day after the storm Anagarika Nick went up and replaced almost all of the tiles. Of course we didn't have any electricity or telephone. The telephone was down for ten days and the electricity, strangely enough, came on for the afternoon of the Kathina.

With the loss of many oaks, we gathered up quite a number of acorns and have started a little tree nursery. We have all of the necessary materials because of the Wild Flower Project. Once the acorns have sprouted and grown to a height of just a few inches, they can then be planted directly into the forest with one of those tree guards, so it isn't the somewhat laborious procedure that one has to follow with wild flowers. There seems to be a real willingness to help, because it's rather sad to see so many beautiful trees down.

We have "Forest Days" on the last Sunday of each month and a planting already scheduled for the first three weeks of December -- only a small plantation, 250 trees.

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Wood Hammered at Chithurst; Ajahn Anando Serpentine, Western Australia; Chris Banks Looking for the Sweet One; Ajahn Jagaro Wish You Were Here; Venerable Sumano Kathina 1987; Sister Candasiri & Upasika Susilo Off the Beaten Track; Venerable Kovido New-Born; Sister Viveka Amaravati Summer Camp; Medhina The Way the Wind Blows; Ajahn Sucitto

Serpentine, Western Australia We don't hear so much from the Sangha at Bodhinyana Monastery, Western Australia; so when Chris Banks, who has stayed there from time to time, sent us a brief letter, we asked her to write a little more. As the warm red sun sets in the Western sky, through the thick bush it is common to see the gentle kangaroos with their "joeys" quietly hopping down to the dam to drink, unafraid of the orange-robed monks walking to the meditation hall for the evening sit. This quiet scene can slow you down after a busy day labouring on a building site or teaching in the city.

In November the Sangha will be bidding farewell to Venerable Brahmavamso, who, along with Ajahn Jagaro, has worked tirelessly to establish Bodhinyana Monastery at Serpentine. Venerable Brahmavamso has coordinated and worked on every building programme at the monastery and always seems to have a trowel in one hand, hammer and nails in the other! A1so he cheerfully teaches, on a regular basis at the Buddhist Society, schools, colleges and local prisons. At the monastery, he has taken on the responsibilities of teaching the Vinaya to all. He will be "holidaying" in England, visiting his family and monasteries before returning to us next winter -- we hope. En route to England he will be visiting the NE of Thailand with Venerable Thanavaro. During his absence, the hard working Sangha will hopefully build a number of much needed brick kutis (to keep out the heat!). Also, the enormous task of finishing the large sala lies ahead now the Rains Retreat is over.

Being opposite a park and only ten minutes from the city of Perth, we feel it is a real gem!

The Sangha is truly grateful to receive Ajahn Sumedho for a three-week stay at Bodhinyana Monastery in November. The Sangha will be in complete retreat for these precious three weeks, but shortly after Ajahn Sumedho's arrival in November, our new city centre will be officially opened. The Governor Of Western Australia (our Queen's representative!) and many leaders of our state will be present -- along with many more local Dhamma friends. The new centre at 18 Nanson Way Nallamara 6061 was purchased from the Anglican Church in June. It comprises a large church hall with an extended kitchen, toilet block, noticeboard area and even an extra room at the rear for visiting nuns. The house next door has four bedrooms for the monks, an office for the Buddhist Society Committee, a growing library, and a family room off the kitchen. The

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band of willing workers, using a lot of elbow-grease and paint, have decorated and carpeted the new hall and house in less than six week-ends! Being opposite a park and only ten minutes from the city of Perth, we feel it is a real gem! The hall is used every Friday night for meditation and Dhamma talks and again on Saturday afternoon and evening. A year has passed, since the arrival of Ajahn Gunhah and Venerable Jundee. (Ajahn Gunhah is a cousin of Ajahn Chah.) These two very peaceful Thai monks have had a wonderful calming effect on the Sangha and lay visitors. Although not actively teaching, their impeccable quiet manner is ' an example to all of us of how the Buddha must have behaved.

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Looking for the Sweet One The following teaching is adapted from a Friday night Dhamma talk by Ajahn Jagaro at the Perth Vihara on 7th June, 1985, in a response to the question "What is happiness"? Happiness is something close to the heart of everybody. We all want to be happy. Happiness in the normal sense means that you always' get what you want, when and how you want it. This is very difficult because so many things are beyond our control. The weather, one's appearance, health, relationships, one's meditation, so many things we cannot control. One's striving for worldly happiness seems constantly hindered. Where is this happiness? How can we possibly be happy when everything is in this state of uncertainty and constant change. We may spend all our lives seeking for it and finding disappointment. If you are a fortunate person with good conditioning and positive states of mind you may be happy most of the time. However there is always the opposite, when things are not as you want them to be, when the mind doesn't do what you want it to do, when people are not as you want them to be, and naturally the opposite emotions and feelings, which we call unhappiness, will arise. Unhappiness has to be there as long as there is happiness.

Even when you are getting what you want, maybe you can be ninety per cent happy, but still there is that ten per cent at the back of the mind

It is like Nasrudin, the wise man who acted like a fool, or maybe he was a fool who acted like a wise man. He was sitting with this big bag of little red chillies, -- very hot! Tears are streaming down his face and he is panting and crying and eating chillies. An old friend comes by and asks "Nasrudin, what are you doing there eating all those really hot chillies?" Nasrudin, between gasps for air and wiping away his tears and blowing his nose, managed to say "I'm looking for the sweet one."

And so we continually look for the sweet one, continually seek happiness in the conditioned, and we haven't found a sweet one yet. Even when you are getting what you want, maybe you can be ninety per cent happy, but still there is that ten per cent at the back of the mind that's a little bit concerned, a little bit afraid, a little bit possessive. Underneath you know it can't last! That nagging fear leads us to a spiritual path, to seek an alternative source of happiness. In Buddhism we are striving for a different sort of happiness. Do you think there can be a happiness and a joy in the mind which is self contained, independent of all conditions and perceptions, completely independent of

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anything whatsoever. This is the happiness of the Buddha. This is Nibbana, the happiness of Enlightenment and nonattachment, the happiness of no limitations, the happiness of no self.

When you stop having an invested interest in conditions and results, you are not burdened by anything. When one is not burdened, the mind is at peace, it is naturally joyful and happy. The Buddha was a shining example of this happiness. From my own experience of having met many great meditation Masters they share this quality of inner tranquillity, despite the inability to control conditions and events.

When I went to live with Ajahn Chah at first I was amazed and then I was quite upset to see how he ran his monastery. I expected him to have a really tight control over everything, keep the monks- in line, keep the lay people out of the way, have a regular timetable. But Ajahn Chah didn't do anything like that at all. Things would continually change in the monastery, sometimes we would meditate in the morning, sometimes we would chant, then for a month or so we would do a lot of formal practice, then we would work, continually flowing with the conditions. I began to realise that Ajahn Chah didn't go out of his way to control and regulate conditions. Everybody wanted him to have a timetable and he just never kept to them, he never turned people away. If they didn't come then he was perfectly happy to be alone. He didn't bother to control events, yet if I have ever met a joyful happy person it was Venerable Ajahn Chah. Not because he was always laughing, although he did laugh a lot, but he just had this joy about him, whatever he was doing. He wasn't seeking anything from anybody, wasn't trying to control things in order to be happy. In Buddhism we are interested in freedom, the freedom of non-attachment. We carry around an immense burden of attachment to everything we consider me and mine, like a big heavy stone on our shoulders. When a wise person points out to us that we could throw off this burden we regard them with suspicion. "Throw it off? Then I wouldn't have anything left! I couldn't do that!" Thinking they will bring us happiness we continue to lug around our personal investments and self interests, this great big heavy burden! The Buddha taught that nothing is worth attaching to. Do not attach to anything, that will bring true peace and happiness. Reflect on the process of what we call suffering. What it really is. How it arises. Only then can one begin to appreciate what attachment really is, what the result of attachment is and begin to glimpse the idea and Possible results of non-attachment. Attachment is something we create in the mind. When we let go we begin to experience the silent empty mind. This still, peaceful mind can be found when sitting in meditation. Is it possible to bring it also into our daily lives? Can we live as ordinary people with this nonattachment? There is one vital factor needed if we wish to live skillfully and that factor is mindful awareness. This factor of knowing, of being present is essential if we wish to go beyond our continual stream of thinking, projecting, analyzing and reacting. It is difficult, isn't it? Without awareness we are locked into a stale conditioning, like a monkey with its paw

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stuck in the biscuit jar, all it has to do to become free is let go but this is just what it won't do. Actually non-attachment is not something you have to do, all you have to do is stop attaching. This is natural for the enlightened mind, and it is awareness which makes this a real possibility in our lives. The Buddha taught a path, gave us a method of skilful means. Meditation is the tool to help us with the process of being present, of seeing attachment and tensions arising, of knowing when to relax and let go. The practice of meditation is very highly emphasized. The more you become aware the more you can begin to experience true peace and happiness. No need to have anything else, no need to achieve anything. Through Enlightenment you gain nothing at all, all you do is get rid of the extras, you just put down your rock. Life is still life, there are still relationships and there is still action. The big difference is that one is perfectly at peace and there is a real and lasting happiness. So we should all make an effort with our practice. Without meditation life is very difficult, progress on the spiritual path is very hard. I once knew a German who even at that time had been a monk for fifteen years and I asked him "Do you still meditate?" and he said "Yes, I meditate regularly, I don't think it is possible to lead a spiritual life without meditation". I have always remembered that and I have always reflected on how true it is. Without the ability to calm the mind, without the ability to clear the mind, without the ability to sustain awareness and reflect and observe the nature of the mind and body, it is not possible to develop in the spiritual direction -the ultimate direction which enables us to let go, to stop seeking happiness from anything or anybody. Â Â

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Wish You Were Here Everybody has their own notion of the ideal place and the ideal practice. Here is Venerable Sumano's. This Phansa I've found the best way-place in the whole world. It is a Wat deep in the back country of Thailand... On one side we are walled in by a series of rugged, steep foothills; on another side by a wide and deep lake. As the sun rises behind the sala, we can just catch a glimpse of the lone village on the other side. The few fishermen never venture near this side for fear of the ghosts who are known to swamp boats and also haunt the forest on the back side of the Wat. (Phansa: Rains Retreat, or Vassa in Thai.) This peculiar entanglement of vegetation appears never to have been traversed. Each of the huge trees has grown in a rather deformed manner. Probably because of the challenge and conflict for space in this almost prehistoric environment, some have gone lop-sided, others concave; and all have knotty "faces" which appear animated on the days fog comes in off the lake. The extent of the forest can only be estimated by some clues and the "feel" of it: I guess it to be 15-20 miles. The sounds of tigers in the night carry over long distances and indicate sufficient territory for more than just a few of them.

... many of the samanas are seen only occasionally leaving their shelters -- when lack of nutrition requires they go to the village for alms.

On one side of the lake is a desert about 2 km across at its narrowest point. At dawn we cross that expanse to reach the small village for alms. Here we receive a few spoonfuls of rice and some wild vegetables, then the food is taken back to the Wat by the village boys, they alternate in order to gain the merit of carrying several bowls back for the monks.

There has been rain every day about 20 minutes of hard rain in the early morning. The morning, consequently, opens fresh and clear. Of the insects, it is only the butterflies who call our attention. There are 50 many of them that we need to be careful not to step on any as we walk on our meditation paths. The temperature is a stable 76 degrees F in the day and 72 degrees at night. Of course, there is a powerful strain of malaria (ultra-malaria I call it). At this

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juncture there are between 12-14 of us; we began the retreat with 20. The exact number cannot be determined as many of the samanas are seen only occasionally leaving their shelters -- when lack of nutrition requires they go to the village for alms. The Abbot comes out only fortnightly to cross the desert, bathe, and preside over the recitation of the rules of conduct. Somehow he has managed to maintain a constant weight of 35 kilos.

Aside from the rare malaria mosquito which is hardly ever seen, the other species of mosquitos are content just to bite each other - for the sport of it, I suppose.

For the few who choose to keep the Phansa schedule, the morning bell goes at 1.15 am for chanting and sitting. The 3-4 monks living under their umbrellas adjacent to the Sala maintain the schedule and leave after the 30 minutes required to haul water, dust and sweep. Everything is completed by 5.20, a few moments before the first light. The meal of the day and the washing up of the bowls is a 15 minute process; after which those who ate in the sala sit two-and-a-half hours together before resuming the normal sitting and walking schedule. The last sitting is finished at 11 pm. There is no one to ask about posting a letter. It never came up and no one has spoken for the past six weeks or longer. However, tomorrow marks the mid-point of -the retreat and four of the six families from the village will enter the Wat for their only opportunity of offering a meal during the retreat season. While the two remaining families watch over the bit of garden and few coconut trees which support their lives, the others will offer handwoven mats, and perhaps a box of soap powder to replace the one that ran out last month. Bar soap and toothpaste seem adequate enough. So, I will leave this for them at the staircase to the sala, possibly it will pass through many hands on its way to Bangkok for posting and then onward. Â Â

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Kathina 1987 With three Kathina Ceremonies being held within our monasteries it is pretty clear that people are finding more in this ancient custom than supplying a monk with some cloth. Here are a couple of viewpoints from Sister Candasiri and Upasika Susilo. There is something impersonal, immensely powerful and miraculous about the unfolding of Dhamma as it touches the hearts of human beings. Year by year, we can observe this coming about through the vehicle of Sangha, which provides a container and channel for our human energies. By contrast, a few days before the Amaravati Kathina, we witnessed the untamed energy of nature, manifesting in the strongest gale in recorded history. Bringing much of the country to a standstill, it reminded us of the precariousness of our human existence.

The Kathina season is a time of reunion. During the week prior to the ceremony, bhikkhus who had spent the Rains in other monasteries began to arrive at Amaravati: bowing to pay respects, and exchanging greetings and gentle enquiries as to each other's welfare. The days were spent in quiet, purposeful activities -- tidying up, raking up leaves and twigs blown down in the storm. Lay friends began to arrive and on the evening before Kathina, the kitchen took on a particularly festive air. People gathered and began the serious business of preparing the meal which two or three hundred people were to share the following day. Bright faces an unmistakable sense of joy pervaded the monastery.

On the morning of the ceremony, members of the monastic community and their guests rose ear1y, and met as usual for morning chanting. Then at gruel time, we thought about what needed to be done in preparation for the events of the day. There were important messages about who should sit where, and when it was all going to happen: "Maybe someone should ring a bell!". . .

Perhaps the best gift we can give our dear ones is to wish that their hearts be peaceful.

The Dhamma Hall was prepared as the dining place for the monks and nuns: neat rows of mats, a water jug and spitoon to one side. The big bell sounded, members of the Sangha assembled, (Although the community had swelled considerably at this time, everybody knew exactly where to sit.) The lay people came in -- many of them: "Please come and sit well forward. Don't be shy!" They bowed, the formal request was made, and each one solemnly avowed the Eight Precepts for the day -- a very special moment. Paritta chanting followed; blessings for all present, and also for absent friends and relatives. Perhaps the best gift we can give our dear ones is to wish that their hearts be peaceful . . . Then a long line of robed figures https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/03/kat.htm[02/10/2017 20:38:11]

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with bared heads and feet, the customary signs of humility, filed silently past heavily laden trestle tables to receive alms food -- from old people, young people, big people, little people, Asians and Westerners. It was far more than we could eat -- enough to sustain the body for many days, rather than just one. More important than having exactly the right amount was being available to receive such offerings freeing given, and the more one held back from saying: "Just a little, please", the more glad and serene one felt. Sometimes, with our Western conditioning efficient and economical to the last -- it takes us a little while to learn the ways of the heart.

The Kathina at Amaravati was billed as an "All Supporters' Kathina". Upasaka Susilo, with others Of the Bedford Group, had undertaken to offer the Kathina Cloth and to help in coordinating the offering of general requisites to the community. If, at any stage he had felt uncertain as to what it would involve, he soon found that there was nothing to worry about: the Sri Lankan, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese communities were all - as one friend put it -- "right behind him". This was touchingly evident as the offering was made amidst a sea of clearly delighted faces gathered in the Sala -- both from far corners of the globe and from just down the road. People shared in the gladness of giving, in doing something good together. There was no prize, no reward or personal recognition, but simply the natural arising of happiness in a pure heart. In his short address, Ajahn Sumedho encouraged us all to make good use of our situation and the opportunities which life presents us with, and stressed that the teaching is something that we can all make use of; it doesn't make any difference who we are, or where we come from -- all of us can meet in Dhamma.

The Chithurst Kathina, a week later required a great deal more preparation. The "minihurricane" had dealt a much more severe blow in Sussex than in Hertfordshire, so the week preceding the Kathina was taken up with preparations of a more strenuous nature. Extra help was drafted in, and from dawn until dusk the air was filled with the rasping whine of chain saws and the scent of wood smoke. The sun shone, and a couple of days before the ceremony the marquee was brought out and Ajahn Tiradhammo's voice could be heard: ". . . a little more to the left, and . . . pull . . . hold it", Fifteen pairs of hands pulled and held it, while others hammered in pegs and tied down the guy ropes . . . it was up! Then the interior design team moved in, and with coloured lanterns, carpets, banks of flowers, and streamers, set the scene for the Kathina Ceremony.

Sunday morning saw a triple circumambulation of the marquee by friends bearing gifts. The Kathina cloth was held aloft, and a large tape recorder provided a

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background of Cambodian folk music. Behind the scenes, a rather tired-looking representative from the Electricity Board was still struggling with damaged cable at the top of a pole, while his companions below tried to sustain a measure of equanimity as cheerful passers-by enquired kindly as to their progress. (The final connection was made in the afternoon, just in time for the bhikkhus to plug in the machine and begin sewing the robe.) With Mr Tan Nam as MC, no one was in any doubt as to how to proceed, he led the requests for the Precepts and the Paritta chanting and later on, directed his friends Mr and Mrs Moeng Phok in the offering of the Kathina Cloth to the Bhikkhu Sangha. This time Ajahn Sumedho expressed his intention to remain in Britain for the whole of 1988, and to devote more time to training the monks and nuns. He said that he felt a bit like the "Johnny Appleseed" of Buddhism; for ten years he has been scattering seeds far and wide, but now it is time to tend the young trees which have taken root. Young trees, given suitable conditions grow to maturity and bear fruit -- and that means more seeds, many more! The day ended, our friends returned to their homes, the many gifts which had been offered were stored away and at nine o'clock in the evening, the freshly-sewn Kathina robe was presented to Ajahn Anando at a formal meeting of the Bhikkhu Sangha An archaic custom? A dusty old tradition? They say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating . . . It tasted all right to me! Susilo (Tony Cook) offered the Kathina cloth at Amaravati this year, assisted by Thai, Laotian, Cambodian and Sri Lankan friends. When he stopped in at Amaravati the other week, we asked him for a few comments. I didn't actually see the Kathina Ceremony last year, but it seemed like a nice idea, so 1 went up and asked Tan Ajahn and offered. He said that he wanted to make it an international event, which was fine. There was a lot of moral support. I talked about it with the Bedfordshire Buddhist Group, and put a letter out in order to let people know what was happening. Mudita let the Thais know; Ruki let the Sri Lankans know; Tan Nam let the Cambodians know and Paw Puoy let the Laotians know. The jungle telegraph seemed to swing into operation. It seemed like a nice thing to do, I didn't think about why. When I'd volunteered, I'd lumbered myself and that was it; I just did it. It was a very good teaching -- I learned a lot about suffering in the months beforehand! "What's going to happen? What have I got to do?" I wondered what I'd let myself in for. The idea of just letting something happen I found very difficult. This was something else I had to learn -- and it worked Originally we were going to have a meeting about six months beforehand to see what needed doing, but in fact everything just seemed to come together in the last three weeks. Money came in from individuals and groups. I met a lot of nice people and I had a lot of encouragement from people, which was very valuable. Someone said to me quite early on in the planning stages: "Get the cloth and let everybody know -- that's all you've got to do, it will happen!" And it did. It seemed alien to our Western view where you have to plan things down to the last detail- just to actually let something happen is something else. I'll apply that to other aspects of my life as well, I think. . . .

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The offering of the Kathina cloth has already been booked for the next two years at Amaravati and for 1988 at Chithurst. However, as the Comments above make clear, thats just a part of it, and there are still plenty of opportunities to participate.

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Cover: Wood Hammered at Chithurst; Ajahn Anando Articles: Serpentine, Western Australia; Chris Banks

Looking for the Sweet One; Ajahn Jagaro

Wish You Were Here; Venerable Sumano

Kathina 1987; Sister Candasiri & Upasika Susilo

Off the Beaten Track; Venerable Kovido

New-Born; Sister Viveka

Amaravati Summer Camp; Medhina

Editorial: The Way the Wind Blows; Ajahn Sucitto

January 1988 HOME BACK ISSUES

Off the Beaten Track Venerable Kovido reports on happenings at Devon Vihara Well, there has been quite a lot happening at Devon Vihara in the last couple of months. Despite the fact that Odle Cottage is in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a potholed road, it is quite a busy place.

So it was rather nice at the beginning of September to have the chance to slow down and shut up for a period of formal retreat. The fact that on 10 of the 12 days various lay-people gave up their time to come and offer us beautifully prepared food was a source of inspiration and gratitude for us all. Also helpful was Ajahn Kittisaro's guidance during the retreat. I would find it difficult to recall some of the "profound" insights that arose but it certainly shifted my attitude towards meditation and retreats.

After that we moved on to Supanno and Pasadaka's wedding blessing. It was quite amazing how a few pieces of material, wood and brick were able to transform that rather nondescript patch of lawn into a suitable venue for such an occasion. The other piece of magic was the marquee which was somehow able to expand the space to accommodate 60 people, 4 trestle tables and 2 shrines, with room to spare. Then after the people went away, the shrines were dismantled, the "magic tent" broken down. and the little patch of grass and Ajahn's Kuti reappeared.

... there was a willingness and openness to explore each other's traditions.

A week later 65 people came to share a meal and offer their skills on the Skills Offering day. The Vihara and grounds became a hive of activity as curtains were sewn and put up. the garden, trimmed and manicured, stones dug up and moved down the road. It was far more that we could, do in a month and done in such a harmonious and joyful way!

During September Ajahn Kittisaro started a new course of treatment -- and as a result during October was able to visit six different spiritual centres. He went to a Hindu ashram in Wales; to the Life Foundation in Birmingham, to Harnham Vihara for their first Kathina, to Hillfield Friary for an interfaith workshop, to Amaravati for the Kathina and a Theras' meeting, and to the Forest Hermitage for a weekend retreat of Buddhist Prison Chaplains.

The impression of these visits was perhaps encapsulated in a meeting at Odle Cottage with Father John, a Russian Orthodox Priest, arranged by our good friend Mrs Lee. Although the outward forms seemed so different -- a married Orthodox priest and a celibate Buddhist monk https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/03/beat.htm[02/10/2017 20:39:35]

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-- and the language and teachings seemingly contradictory, there was a willingness and openness to explore each other's traditions. As the discussion progressed and they started to talk about the experiences and qualities needed for the religious life, then the disparities fell away and there was a feeling of standing on the same ground. During Ajahn Kittisaro's extensive travel and teaching engagements monastic life at Devon Vihara continued under Venerable Attapemo's skilful guidance. The routine of chanting, meditation, alms-round and work, which to those at the Vihara can become so mundane, is also the life force at the centre of the Vihara from which all these other things can emerge. In terms of work -- a few yards were added to "the road", the outside bathroom was smartened up, the well repointed, and the carpark levelled and drained -- amongst other things.

Various supporters invited the community for dana at their houses and others came to offer dana at the Vihara. These were opportunities to get to know some of the good people who make our monastic life possible.

Other such opportunities have been the fortnightly discussion group which continues with some lively exchanges of ideas and experiences which we have found helpful -- or confusing -- in our daily lives. This gave us a chance to see that often what we think is "The Way" or "Right View" is in fact one of many viewpoints, each of which can equally be a skilful means or a source of suffering, depending on the way it is used.

So that is just about it -- or almost. Yesterday, a baby blessing of Terry and Sue's daughter Fern; today a Trust meeting and another Skills Support day. Tomorrow, the Discussion Group, and the builder, comes to extend the Shrine Room. Sometimes people say to us "Aren't you running away from the Real World?" Far from it. I don't think I have ever met so many people in my life and the curious fact is that they are all so nice. But even so, I am becoming more and more grateful for this conventional structure, with its formal meetings and meditation periods. I can see how easy it is to get overwhelmed by all the incredible important things that need to be done -- and how necessary it is at the end of the day to put aside our separate affairs and convene for the evening meeting, to chant, to bow, to sit together and for a while, in Ajahn Kittisaro's words "to stop rearranging the furniture and let the world end". Extract from an interview with Ajahn Kittisaro from the booklet Buddhist Advice. copies of this booklet are available at the Devon Vihara. My teacher [Ajahn Chah] said: "Regardless of time and place the whole practice of Dhamma (truth) comes to completion at the place where there is no thing, nothing. It is the place of surrender, of emptiness, of laying down the burden". We find this very useful for

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contemplation, because many times we get very overwhelmed by the notion of time, the idea that we are getting somewhere, that we're becoming more and more pure, more holy, so that then we can go to Heaven, or then we can go to Nibbana, or then we can be happy. One of the fundamental principles Of the Buddhist teaching is that the Truth is always present (Akaliko Dhamma). It's not bound in time. By putting Truth off into the future, you never get there. That's what we call endless rebirth in Buddhism, When you wake up to the present, there will still be that thought in the mind. "I want to get something then", but you're aware of that thought for what it is. You see it as a thought about time arising and passing; and being at peace with the thought as thought, the heart knows how things are. It's laying down the burden of delusion, of imagining, and bringing us back to the present. Time, the notion of tomorrow, yesterday, is something we create with our thought, but tomorrow and yesterday arise and pass away in this present moment now. The essence of religion, "religio", means to re-link, to point to that which brings you back to the source of things, to completion, to God, to the oneness, to the "coolness" (Nibbana). In schools there is a tendency to approach Buddhism through the Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Are there any pre-requisites for the "normal" Buddhist, rather than a monastic tradition, that should be approached prior to looking at that? You always start with generosity. When a being imagines itself to be separate, there's this habit to hold -- and to imagine by holding we're going to be happy. The whole nature of life is not to stand still; the whole nature of life is to breathe in and out, the heart beats, the blood flows, food comes in and out, the water element coming in and out. The whole essence of life is movement; and yet a mind that doesn't understand that still imagines that by maintaining and keeping it's going to be more secure, more happy. That's a fundamental mistake. The first thing the Buddha teaches, especially to children, is a very profound thing, to learn to share, to offer. It is beautiful, in Thailand, to think that children are just brought up that way. They get something and immediately they want to offer it around. It's just instinctive with them. It's very humbling. We see a lot of selfishness, of grasping in our hearts; and this is where it helps to realise "It's not mine". So much of our monastic life revolves around offering, sharing, "how can I be of help to others?", listening, offering of time, and things like that. Â Â

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New-Born Sister Viveka was one of the women who took the ten-precept ordination at Amaravati in July. During her first Vassa as a siladhara she offered these reflections on the Going Forth. It is only 2 months since I took the Going Forth as a nun, yet life in a brown robe is certainly very different from that of an anagarika. The hustle and bustle of cooking, driving, serving, endless washing, suddenly dissolves and develops another momentum. One is no longer running ahead of oneself in a frantic battle to ensure that the material environment is OK, because control over that material plane has been relinquished. Surrender is the most constant invitation, and in numerous situations the only possibility. The monastic form, the numerous rules of deportment and behaviour are there keeping watch, checking throughout the day and helping to centre and still the restless, confused, fiery energies of an untrained mind. I must admit, a few purifying fires have raged through during my two years as an anagarika, and although there is plenty more to burn away, the preliminary flamer have made it possible to live in what can seem like a pretty tight box. (Of course there is a sense, perhaps the best word is "faith", a kind of intuitive knowledge that the box is an illusion.) Allowing oneself to be locked in also leads to the eventual discovery that the box isn't really there at all, and the freedom to gaze at the marvellous.

Now I own nothing. I have no control over providing my body with its needs for survival.

Going Forth has been the most, perhaps the only, truly wondrous experience of my life. That is not to say that life has been devoid of experiences many of which would conventionally be labelled exciting, stimulating, fascinating or even fulfilling. But looking back, everything which I did or relationship I had, left behind it the same energy with which it was approached: there was always something more to want. Now I own nothing. I have no control over providing my body with its needs for survival. Living entirely dependent on the goodness and generosity inherent in people, the jog and gratitude which fills me when someone offers me a cup of rice gruel in the morning is something I could not have imagined. Being encouraged to approach each situation with a mind of renunciation, no longer expecting to get what you want, seems to bring with it that very sense of fulfillment, of nothing more to seek, which had been so often missed.

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bald as new born babies and almost as helpless, is one of the most beautiful moments of the day. Greeting the softness of the air at 4.25 am to walk to the Sala for morning puja is another precious time. I am becoming more aware of the unique quality of Sangha: the beings who have surrendered themselves to this way of life so that it has continued for 2,500 years. For those who have started their training before me; who are now guiding, supporting, correcting and inspiring all of us who are young and insecure in this life as ,samanas, I feel a growing sense of gratitude and love. Sometimes it is hard to believe that all this has happened; that I should have found such a fine and wholly good way to live, in the most unexpected place.

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Amaravati Summer Camp "Family Days" first started in 1985, with the intention of helping the family unit -especially children -- to come closer to the teachings of the Buddha-Dhamma and the community of Sangha. At first they were of an experimental nature, but in response to the interest shown they have developed and are now a firmly established part of life at Amaravati.

Several summer camps, both weekend and longer, have been successfully organised for families and in addition "Rainbows", a children's Dhamma magazine with a page for parents, has been published regularly at Amaravati. This has been very well received both among families and in schools.

Unfortunately, owing to increased pressure from family commitments, Medhina, who has written this account of the 1987 Summer Camp, has had to resign as the co-ordinator for family activities. Brenda Popplewell has kindly undertaken to replace her in organising next year's family activities. For further information contact "Amaravati Family Events", Amaravati. There was a minor disturbance in the cosmos last August, when about fifty children and their parents converged on Amaravati. Gradually congregating from Wednesday until the following Monday, beings of all ages arrived from different parts of country. They came from as far away as Devon and Yorkshire, and across from Belfast; they came from different Buddhist traditions -- Theravadin, Tibetan and Zen -- with different backgrounds and ways of life, including single parents and extended families, and with a variety of expectations: yet for six days these differences dissolved as they merged into the annual community gathering known as "the Family Camp".

The camp-site filled with tents occupied by families large and small. Those without access to a canvas home were made comfortable in the rooms and dormitories of the adjacent Retreat Centre --miraculously just big enough for the number of families in need.

"What did they do for six days with so many children?" you might ask.

"Keep busy and learn a lot" is the short answer; but better than that was the joy, the sharing and inspiration that seemed to blossom out of the many activities available to all age-groups.

All these activities were taking place in a benevolent, non-competitive environment, encouraging the children to incline towards kindness, co-operation and sharing.

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Buddha. Everyone involved worked closely together to script, costume, rehearse and produce this grand project, which involved every child who wanted to take part.

One family came to the camp armed with the know-how and materials to make a full-sized Chinese Dragon -- the type that dances in the streets at Chinese New Year; some members became absorbed in its creation for three days. At the same time, those in the cookery group were baking special treats to offer to monks and nuns on pindabaht (alms-round).

Some children liked to join in the Morning and Evening Chanting, and in the guided meditation sessions. Art and craft workshops; crochet and embroidery on the lawn; woodgathering expeditions; walks and play filled out the days. All these activities were taking place in a benevolent, non-competitive environment, encouraging the children to incline towards kindness, co-operation and sharing. For many parents, the opportunities offered by the Camp provided an oasis in the desert of life in a modern materialistic society. There was the rare chance to meet with so many Dhammafriends (practising within the form of family life); and variously-sized groups could be seen discussing anything from the workings of a motor-car, to the Meaning of Life and The Universe.

There were many opportunities for contact with the monastic community: Morning Puja in the Retreat Centre at 7.30 am; daily Dhamma reflections; meditation classes and discussions with Ajahn Sumedho or with monks and nuns; Evening Chanting with the main community in the Sala and afterwards, informal talk around the camp-fire.

Community living -- a novelty for most -- brought its own insights and joys. All shared in the practical nitty-gritty of cooking, cleaning and childcare. The monastic backdrop provided a constant reminder to use the ordinariness of these activities -- as much as any of the classes and events -- as an opportunity for cultivating the heart, so allowing the spirit of Buddha-Dhamma to transform the mundane into the wonderful. By Sunday, dress-rehearsals for the play had reached a furious crescendo; later that evening the great golden Buddha-rupa in the Dhamma Hall witnessed a tear or two, when the children performed "The Earth is my Witness" -- in the artless way that only children can manage. Then followed the "Empowerment" of the Dragon -- magically brought to life when a monk ceremonially painted in the edges, and nine children climbed inside. It lurched determinedly out to the Stupa to the accompaniment of cacophonous percussion, all this designed to rout Mara and any of his lurking hordes. Even if Mara didn't get the message, the neighbours

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surely did! After all the excitement of the Sunday, on the final day everyone went out on a ramble through the surrounding countryside. It was a marvellously grounding exercise in preparation for returning home; the picnic that day on Hudnall Common provided a memorable picture of Sangha and lay friends sitting together with nature and sharing a few moments Of their lives on this earth. The culmination and one of the most treasured memories of the camp was the blessing ceremony conducted by Ajahn Sumedho and the monastic community. The children began the proceedings by offering carefully-prepared trays of flowers, incense, candles and colourful paintings to the monks and nuns. A special offering, expressing the gratitude of the families, was given to Ajahn Sumedho: a "Cat Cake" made by the children. The ceremony consisted of auspicious chanting and the symbolic sprinkling of holy water on those participating -- giving the children the go-ahead to respond with squeals and excited laughter. A long thread - used to encircle the gathering -- was divided up, everyone taking a length to tie on someone else's wrist. This was to be worn for as long as possible, as a reminder of the wonderful spirit of communion between those present. The ceremony came to a reluctant end with Ajahn Sumedho addressing the children: "I think you've been blessed enough now, don't you?" "NO-O-Ooooooooo!" came the enthusiastic response. The Ajahn smiled. . . The camp had been a great success. Â

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EDITORIAL The Way the Wind Blows

For most people, New Year begins on January 1st but for us the seasons are not so closely tethered. The end of Vassa in October is something of a reference point, but radical changes occur at their own time, the old drops away, and the new situation arises with its own inevitability. Like the hurricane that blew through in October's third week, life changes are unpredictable and immeasurable. You view them afterwards, marvel at what survived, puzzle over what went down and proceed with a sense of wonder.

It was the first Vassa for four new bhikkhus and two new siladhara, and the presence of new aspiration and commitment is always a rejuvenation for the Sangha as a whole. It was also the first Vassa in Britain for two Thai bhikkhus from Wat Sanghatahn, and Venerable Kassapo from Wat Pah Nanachat. There were the losses too: Sister Rocana passed way in New Delhi in March, Venerable Bodhinando went to New Zealand in the spring, Venerable Thitapanno left for Thailand in December; and two bhikkhus disrobed. However Ajahn Sumedho, reviewing the gear at the English Sangha Trust's AGM, seemed pleasantly surprised by the way the wind has blown:

With Sangha you have people committed to the life style of Dhamma-Vinaya, and then within that country you have the opportunity to make that commitment.

I want to express my appreciation for the past decade because it has been a very inspiring time for me. To see the growth of the Sangha in this country is something that really touches my heart. I didn't expect it. I didn't think it would grow to the extent it has in ten years. . . . There are men and women of all ages, of all nationalities coming to study, to practise and to take the precepts; and these people are benefitting from their life here in a way that proclaims the validity and truth of the Dhamma.... Sometimes they feel like failures or they go through disillusionment, but their intention is not coming from emotion or inspiration, but from deliberation. It's a deliberate choice to live in a way in which they can realize that goal of liberation from all ignorance.

One of the more recent developments has been a studied overhaul of the Sangha's administration. The Theras (senior bhikkhus) used to meet occasionally to talk things over, but this year has seen the formalization of a Thera Council to give guidance to the Trust. At Amaravati a nucleus of lay administrators has been established to implement decisions and manage works, accounts, retreats and publications. In characteristic "jump in at the deep end" https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/03/editor.htm[02/10/2017 20:44:16]

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fashion, their first job will be to run Amaravati during the January-March monastic retreat, aided by the people who've decided to come and help out.

Tan Ajahn also spoke of future developments overseas: meditation groups that have been associated with the teaching of this sangha seem to be moving out of the "retreat" mode into the "advance" of a deeper commitment. The Swiss vihara is due to open in May, and there have been invitations to set up viharas in the USA. Commented Ajahn Sumedho:

There is an awakening to the need for Sangha; and this is quite different from a meditation retreat. With Sangha you have people committed to the life style of Dhamma-Vinaya, and then within that country you have the opportunity to make that commitment.

"When you've got a big fire on your hands, you'd better call for the Fire Brigade" was the way that some of our future American supporters put it when they stopped over in the summer. Next year, Ajahn Sumedho will be teaching in California in March, and Ajahn Sucitto in Massachusetts in May: before long it seems likely that the tickets will be one-way.

This year the wild flowers were planted at Chithurst, and trees in Hammer Wood; another few yards of the road to the Devon Vihara were paved; the construction of further living quarters at Harnham got off to a good start; and at Amaravati it was plenty of everything. Now another year borne along by Dhamma sheds its busy-ness. The skies darken early; monks and nuns swell visibly with winter clothing; hammers, saws, and lawnmowers enter their final stage of activity before the winter retreat: time to be still. May your New Year be as pleasant as the world will allow; and as peaceful as your practice can make it. Ajahn Sucitto

Swing These pine trees teach us to gently sway in hard times patient with our growth. Quieting this mind to hear only sweet silence that is our being. Joseph Ciarlo

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April 1988 THIS ISSUE

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Cover: Monastic Winter Retreat; Reflections Articles: Magha Puja; Post Retreat Stats

Life in the Sangha's Forest; Ayya Thanissara

Editorial: Mask of The Great Unknown; Ajahn Sucitto

Monastic Winter Retreat A few reflections from one of the monks Winter time in Britain is the natural equivalent of the Asian monsoon Vassa - the retreat Season. Things close down and wait for better weather. Following natures lead, Ajahn Sumedho has established a monastic retreat as the customary winter practice. This year Amaravati and Chithurst extended the retreat to two months, with Ajahn Sumedho using the theme of Paticcasamuppada for the Amaravati community,- and Ajahn Munindo offering reflections from the suttas to guide the practice at Chithurst. At Amaravati a resident community of about sixty received ample instruction and reflections ranging from the Sumedho Bhikkhu Psychiatric Counselling Service for depression and anxiety ("Snap out of it!! Five cents please!") to the goal of the religious path ("to be born anew, to be free from all that delusion, and the attachment to God, to doctrine, to the highest ideas, attachment to the finest values) through reminicences of his early days in America, and his life as a Samanera, to the direct teaching of Ajahn Chah: "When monks would come to Luong Por and say "It's impossible to get enlightened now. there aren't any arahants left" he would ask them: "So why did you become a monk?' To get a free meal?":" There's too much in those 56 retreat days to fit in this space, but here are a few fragments:

If you just let go of the ignorant view of "I am"; if you can see that, and understand the way of letting go - the way of non-attachment - then the truth reveal's itself...

In the human state, we must recognise that we have to learn to be totally humble by never succeeding in anything we're doing in this meditation: by never being successful, never getting what we want - and if we do get what we want, we lose it right away. We have to be totally humble to where any form of self-view is relinquished willingly, graciously, humbly...That's why in meditation the more it comes from will power based on a self-view and on "me achieving and attaining", then of course you can only expect failure and despair . . . Even a winner in the worldly plane is still going to be a failure because if you win something you're going to lose something too. Winning and losing go together, so winning is never as wonderful as it might look . . . It's more the anticipation of winning: when you've actually won https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/04/4.htm[02/10/2017 21:11:40]

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something - so what? You have a moment of elation: "I'm a winner!" - and then: Now what do I do?". ... More and more there is the letting go of the desire to develop and become anything. And as one's mind is freed from all that desire to become and get something, and attain something, then truth starts revealing itself: it's ever present, here and now. It's a matter of being able to be open and sensitive, so it is revealed. Truth is not something that is revealed from outside it's always present, but we don't see it if we're caught up in the idea of attainments, of me having to get something. The Buddha made this direct attack on the "me and mine". The only thing that's blocking you up is the attachment to a self-view. If you just see through that, and let go of that, then you'll understand the rest. You don't need to know all the other elaborate kinds of esoteric formulas and altruistic ideas of the human heart or anything; you don't have to go endlessly on into the complexities. If you just let go of the ignorant view of "I am"; if you can see that, and understand the way of letting go - the way of non-attachment - then the truth reveal's itself wherever you are, all the time. But until you do that, then you'll always be caught in these problems, creating problems, complications - out of ignorance conditioning habitual desires that take you to old age, death, sorrow, grief, lamentation and despair. That's all you'll get for the rest of your life!! It's a pretty boring prospect isn't it? But that's all you'll get if you insist on being attached to the illusions of a self, and to greed, hatred and delusion - all that's possible is just despair. But you can be free from that, here and now,through this right understanding, samma ditthi; seeing things in the right way, knowing the truth, no longer deluded by the appearances or by the habits or the conditions around us. ...and then eventually having to give talks, to Thai people, in Thai, and all this self-consciousness became apparent: of the highs you'd get when you felt you'd really given a good talk, and everybody said: "Oh, that was wonderful, you're really good Sumedho, you really can give good Dhamma". And then sometimes you'd give a really stupid talk, and you'd say: "Oh, I don't ever want to give another talk again, I didn't become a monk to give talks", and then you'd want to chicken out and disappear, run away. But the idea was to keep watching all this, to notice. Luang Par Chah would always encourage me to just keep aware of the pride and conceit and the embarrassment and the selfconsciousness that I would feel. And fortunately, in Thailand the people are such that they're just grateful for a monk giving a talk, even if it's not a very good talk. So that made it quite easy actually.

One time I remember at a Kathina ceremony where we had to sit up all night, he said: "Sumedho, you have to give a talk for three hours tonight!" - and up to this time I'd only talked for half an hour, and that was a strain. Three hours! -

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and with Ajahn Chah I always felt if he'd said I had to do something, then I would do it. So I sat up on the high seat and talked for three hours. And I had to sit there and watch people get up and leave, and I had to sit there and watch people just lie down on the floor and sleep in front of me! And at the end of the three hours there were a few polite old ladies still sitting there! So that wasn't Ajahn Chah saying: "OK Sumedho, go on in and bowl them over with some really scintillating stuff, y'know, entertain them, and really sock it to 'em. the real Dhamma." It was more that what he wanted me to do, was to be able to just look at this selfconsciousness- the posing, the pride, the conceit, the grumbling, the laziness, the not wanting to be bothered, the wanting to please, the wanting to entertain, the wanting to get approval and attention and so forth. All these would come up during these talks over these past yeard. I've been doing this for over fifteen years! But the meditation itself was one in which just more and more one felt a real understanding of the suffering of the self-view, and then, through that, the abiding in emptiness. When there's emptiness, personality still operates, there is still a quality that appears through these forms . . . It doesn't mean that we're all the same like ants or bees in a hive . . . there's still the myriad differences of character and personality that can manifest but there's no delusion ... and there's no suffering. I observe that when there's no self, when there's no attachment, then the natural way of relating to others is through metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha. These are not from a self or from avijja, not from an idea that: "I must practise metta, I must have more metta for everyone, and I should have loving kindness for all beings and should have compassion . . . and I should have mudita for other people, I should be glad at other people's successes . . . and I should be serene too!" But the brahmaviharas as an ideal for a selfish person - that's not the real practice of metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha! As the illusions of a self fall away, this is a very natural way to relate. You don't become a vacuous zombie through understanding Dhamma: you still relate to each other, ' but it's through kindness and compassion, joy and serenity rather than through greed, hatred and delusion. Greed, hatred and delusion come from the "I am".

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Monastic Winter Retreat; Reflections Magha Puja; Post Retreat Stats Life in the Sangha's Forest; Ayya Thanissara Mask of The Great Unknown; Ajahn Sucitto

Magha Puja Extracts from the minutes of a gathering of the ordained community of all four U.K. viharas, plus Ajahn Brahmavamso on a visit from Western Australia. After the first month of the Amaravati and Chithurst monastic retreats (and the end of the Devon and Harnham retreat) came a Sangha gathering of the ordained community of all four viharas, plus Ajahn Brahmavamso on a visit from Western Australia. The gathering of some 80 samanas and 20 lay people centred on Magha Puja, the traditional "Sangha Day" which commemorates the Buddha giving the Exhortation on Discipline (Ovada Patimokkha) to a spontaneously assembled gathering of 1250 arahants, Magha Puja itself was quite an event, with monks and nuns being invited to give talks on Dhamma throughout the all-night vigil. On the day afterwards, the Sangha met to discuss any matters concerning the training or the conventions of the Holy Life. It is from this meeting that the following minutes are taken: Ajahn Sumedho opened the formal Sangha meeting on 2nd February with an hour of meditation - after which, as was to be expected, nobody had anything to say. However the Ajahns of the four monasteries were prompted into giving some account of the current state of affairs, and any future plans.

Ajahn Sumedho stressed the traditional form of Theravada Buddhism and a loyalty to the clear and practical approach of Luong Por Chah.

Chithurst: Ajahn Anando mentioned the growing participation of lay people in the daily life at Chithurst. As at Amaravati, the present monastic retreat was made possible through the support of lay people in preparing the food and staffing the office. Mike Holmes has just taken up his post as Warden of Hammer Wood; there the most immediate project is the clearing of the trees damaged by last October's hurricane. This and the removal of 500 tons of logs for firewood should be done before the spring, otherwise the growth of the newly planted trees might get damaged by the work parties. There are plans to convert the monastery walled garden into a meditation area with a cloister and seats; to afforest one of the paddocks; and to build more kutis in the wood and around the House. The project requiring the most planning, organisation and support is the reconstruction of the Coach House, which will serve as a main Dhamma Hall and residence block when it is completed. Plans are still being drawn up for this.

Harnham: Ajahn Pabhakaro summarised development at Harnham as the growth from a residence, towards becoming a fully operating monastery which can have teaching functions on site and offer substantial accommodation for lay people. This involves a prolonged building project which has only recently left planning stages, and a lot of patience and sacrifice on all sides. The teaching tours of the North were being somewhat curtailed in order to spend more time on developing Harnham,

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but would still include visits to the groups in Durham, Sheffield, Doncaster, Middlesbrough and Leeds in the North of England, and Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. The work on increasing Sangha accommodation at Harnham was proceeding well, and the next stage would be to convert and extend the barn into a Dhamma Hall. A project Of such a scale certainly needs a lay building manager to allow the teacher-builder-abbot the space to fulfill his more contemplative functions. As it is, the building project offers useful reflections on the patient efforts of bygone generations who had carved and fitted the huge stone slabs on the roof, and the four previous Sangha incumbents who had all put their energies into restoring the building. It all encourages a more humble view and a respect for the past, which mellows personal enthusiasm into a willingness to learn and adapt to the traditional ways. Ajahn Pabhakaro felt that he was just now becoming familiar with the situation; and could even understand the many dialects in his widespread parish. But new or old, and whichever side of the Border, what the Ajahn felt to be the most important foundation for the laity was the undertaking of the Refuges and Precepts.

Devon: Ajahn Kittisaro presented his view of the Devon Vihara next. There were no work projects other than a monthly clearing of a small woodland which had been given to the Sangha to use, and the gathering of rocks from fields and packing the road with them to make it more serviceable. Venerable Subbato's building skills had so far only been employed to fix a light switch. The vihara was active though, but mostly as a haven for people to Visit for a few hours. Apart from his service as a teacher at the vihara, there were also regular teaching engagements with groups in Bath, Plymouth, Totnes; long retreats at near-by Golden Square-, and weekends at Sharpham near Totnes. Future dates worthy of note were a proposed visit of Ajahn Sumedho in April, Wesak on 22nd May and the first Alms- Giving Ceremony in Devon on November 20th.

Western Australia: Ajahn Sumedho then asked Ajahn Brahmavamsu to give the community an idea of the situation in Western Australia. Ajahn Brahmavamso gave a sketched account of the two centres which he and Ajahn Jagaro are involved with - namely the Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre in Nollamara, a few minutes' drive from central Perth, and Bodhinyana Monastery in the bush about an hour's drive out of town. In the past five years there had been a lot of effort put into the groundwork of establishing a sangha. This had born fruit in a well-fitted monastary complete with meditation hall, kitchen, guest house, ablutions block and twelve kutis; a sangha currently numbering seven bhikkhus, one Samanera and an eight-precept nun-, and the establishment of a proper sima for ordinations. The effect of the ample presentation of the Dhamma at the city centre had given the sangha a lot of support in a region which had equated Buddhism with some of the more licentious Cults which bear a superficial

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resemblance to it. It was quite an auspicious sign that the Queen's representative, His Excellency the Governor of Western Australia, had presided over the inauguration of Dhammaloka last November. The apparent isolation that one experienced in Western Australia could be seen in wider perspective within the Sangha, Venerable Brahmavamso commented. Having spent some time in Thailand, and in some of the monasteries in Britain, the harmony of the Sangha was clear. Guarded by its respect for Dhamma- Vinaya, the Sangha Refuge presented a place of unity where apparent separateness fell away.

Amaravati: The meeting then reviewed some aspects of Amaravati. Ajahn Santacitto expressed his thanks for the skills of Sylva Simsova in helping to establish a library of some 7000-8000 volumes with a cataloguing system that will enable it to link with other libraries and provide a support to monastic and lay practice of Dhamma. Some new developments were the appointment of Anne Pryor as Librarian, and the completion of the Lay Peoples' Practice Questionnaire, which is the first stage of an exhibition on Lay Practice. This survey, conducted by Barbara Jackson, is aimed at providing a resource of ideas, skillful means, and a pointer at common difficulties or shortcomings as experienced by lay Buddhists. A Sense of community was thereby offered to those who otherwise might feel that they were "going it alone". Ajahn Sucitto summarised the status of Amaravati Publications as being very much at the beginning. Most Of the work in the past year has been in establishing an editorial panel and finally in appointing a Manager, David Babski, to oversee productions. Regular production only involves newsletters, Rainbows and Looking Ahead; there is also an ongoing project to issue a Dhamma magazine - Forest Sangha Review - from time to time. The production of books was limited. The non-commercial nature of Amaravati Publications meant that one could only proceed in accordance with donations, which had mostly been through the generosity of Khun Vanee Lamsam and friends in Thailand. There was a lot of material available but the future of such publications depended largely on the interest and support of lay people, as the Sangha accepted only the responsibility to teach and edit its teachings. Meanwhile, Mindfulness: The Path to the Deathless and Cittaviveka had both been reprinted, an Introduction to Insight Meditation was ready for publication and he was gathering material for a couple of books by Ajahn Sumedho which Wisdom Publications were interested in. The use of a commercialpublisher (albeit a Buddhist charity) was to make the Dhamma available through a wider global network than the monasteries could provide; the Sarigha was not interested in any commercial gain.

Ajahn Sumedho: Ajahn Sumedho briefly mentioned the likelihood of opening viharas in Switzerland and America, and then responded to questions. There were some comments on experimenting with a Puja in English on an occasional basis, but, in general, Ajahn Sumedho stressed the traditional form of Theravada Buddhism and a loyalty to the clear and practical approach of Luong Por Chah. This was not to deny the validity of other teachings, but to encourage the full use of a teaching by giving oneself to it rather than endlessly comparing and doubting. This tendency to look elsewhere was an escapism of sorts. The direct approach that he appreciated in Ajahn Chah -was a very suitable one in a world where the options were running out. The world now had no unexplored paradises left, and humanity had to realise that there was no escape from being responsible and mature by "getting away from it all": cloudy idealism was no substitute for a thoroughgoing training in what was universally moral, wise and benevolent. Towards supporting the Sangha as a foundation in this practice, Tan Ajahn had determined to

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spend most of this year in Britain rather than travelling. There was a possibility of furthering the wandering "tudong practice but this was not a matter of privilege. Actually privileges, personal rights and status were nothing to do with the spirit of the Holy Life, Even such conventional status as being an abbot was of no advantage in realising Nibbana - the only true goal for a monk or nun. -oooOoooWith such remarks everything that needed to be said was felt to have been said, at least at this time. . . The meeting loosened up a little with tea and informal conversation - during which we were joined by Ajahn Khemadhammo and Venerable Vicayo from the Forest Hermitage near Warwick. These bhikkhus, associates from the Wat Pah Pong tradition, have a small vihara which acts as the residence of Ajahn Khemadhammo and the shrine/meeting place for local supporters. It was a very pleasant surprise and one that echoed the Buddha's words: So long, 0 bhikkhus, as you will assemble frequently together and assemble in large numbers ...as you will meet in concord, disperse in concord, and tend to the affairs of the Sangha in concord, so long bhikkhus may be expected to prosper, not to decline. (Dialogues: Sutta 16)

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles: Editorial:

April 1988 HOME BACK ISSUES

Monastic Winter Retreat; Reflections Magha Puja; Post Retreat Stats Life in the Sangha's Forest; Ayya Thanissara Mask of The Great Unknown; Ajahn Sucitto

Life in the Sangha's Forest Ayya Thanissara reflects on some of the various aspects of Hammer Wood, Chithurst It was ten years ago that a jogger on Hampstead Heath caught sight of Ajahn Sumedho on alms round and became interested in the possibility of the sangha acting as a Warden for a neglected woodland that he had purchased in West Sussex. In the ensuing months, he gave this wood, Hammer Wood, to the Sangha; this instigated the English Sangha Trust`s purchase of the nearby chithurst House as a monastic residence, Over the decade, the Sangha's property was increased by the acquisition of Hammer Pond and Cottage and various projects to restore the woodland have been undertaken. At the end of last year Mike Holmes was appointed as Warden of Hammer Woods with specific responsibility to effect the restoration of native woodland and the establishment of Hammer Wood as a Nature Reserve and Monastic Sanctuary. Here is his introductory report: In 1977 the monks came to London from the forests of N. E. Thailand and the Hampstead Vihara was re-opened. This was a very different situation to the simple rural environment from which the lineage originated, Strong affiliation to forests as part of Dhamma practice could not be followed In North London. Hampstead Heath was a poor substitute. When, suddenly, they were given about sixty hectares of woodland in Sussex, the future of Buddhism in England changed. A house was found at the edge of this wood and in 1979 Chithurst Forest Monastery came into being. Here in rural Southern England, Theravada Buddhism as known in North East Thailand could take root. Many people - members of the Sangha, their friends, and those visitinig the monastery - have enjoyed the quiet and beauty of the woods. They have been able to use the kutis for their retreats or just to walk peacefully amongst the trees. Some may have wondered about the history of the area, about the species of trees or the local wildlife. In this account, I will try to answer such questions, tell you a little about what we have done and our plans for the future.

The Buddhist idea of harmony with all forms of life means that the Hammer Woods must naturally be managed as a conservation area.

The name of this forest is Hammer Wood. Through it flows a small river known as the Hammer Stream and there is a lake called the Hammer Pond. Such a name shows that this was once part of the medieval English iron industry, which flourished in the area until finally giving way to the more efficient Midlands during the last century. Had this not been so, rural Sussex would not be the pleasant place it is, but perhaps a land of industry and urbanism like the Black Country around Birmingham today. Hammer Wood is situated to the north of the Greensand plains of mid-Sussex. Here the land rises to the Wealden Hangers, as the broken hill country in the north of the county is called. A

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great view stretches away to the Downs in the south. Here the soil is acid and the hillsides steep, so that the area was of no use for agriculture and has been thickly forested since the last Ice Age. Our earliest historical records go back to the Iron Age. An ancient fort is situated above steep slopes overlooking the Hammer Pond and the valley through which flows the Hammer Stream. Archaeologists made excavations in the 1950s and a copy of their report is held in the Chithurst Monastery library. They found little, but made interesting observations about the ancient people who once lived there. These Celts were finally defeated by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. The Romans in turn left their mark with us on the road that they built between the cities Silchester and Chichester runs in a straight 1ine through the edge of our woods, to cross the River Rother at a ford to the South. We have another mark of history. Tne Western boundary of the property runs along a muddy track, which is called Moorhouse Lane. This is said to be an old coaching road, though looking, at its direction it is difficult to pick out what towns it must have joined in the old days, when stage coaches actually used it. Where it crosses the Hammer stream, there is a bridge marked on the map as the New Bridge, Carved in the brickwork of the bridge as the date 1797. One presumes that the actual fort must have been clear of trees to a certain extent, when people lived there, but they would have naturally regenerated through medieval times. Many were cut down to fire the iron smelting industry. This was followed by the destruction of forests in the, South of England, when all available oak was used to build the great sailing ships for the Royal Navy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Later case the demand for timber during the two World Wars. By now there was no natural woodland left in the South of England and the pattern of growth that we find today reflects this. All the trees that grow here now, have been planted by man for one reason or another. This reason is usually commercial. In our woods, one area was planted about eighty years ago. We do not know who by, but we can see that they had a good knowledge of mixed forestry and what needs to be grown in order to make the environment good for wildlife. The main trees are oaks, which are host to many kinds of insects, thus providing food for birds and some mammals. Their acorns are another food source. There is a sprinkling of other species; thus the resulting berries, nuts and leaf canopy produce more food, cover and nest sites. Unfortunately, the remainder of the forest is quite different. It was owned commercial companies until quite recently. They planted it with species that were only useful for their value as a crop and in many cases harmful to wildlife. The monoculture system was used. Large areas of sweet

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chestnut were grown and coppiced. Such growth provides excellent posts, rails and firewood, but produces a thick canopy of leaves, which excludes the light from the forest floor. The leaves are large and when they fall in the autumn, take many years to break down. Thus no humus is returned to the soil and the nutrients are leached out. These leaves are also toxic and cause the soil to become even more acid. All this results in an almost total lack of plant growth beneath the chestnut. Where there is no plant growth, there are few insects and therefore few birds. Wildlife is almost totally absent and consists of little more than rabbits, whose main food is bark and young chestnut growth. They in turn provide food for foxes. The spring wild flower carpet, as seen in an oak wood, does not exist. Furthermore, sweet chestnut is an introduced species. It is thought to have been brought to this country by the Romans from its home in Southern Europe. Introduced species are poor hosts to insects, which have their own hosts and do not move to a new environment. Hence, the insect life on chestnuts is minimal. There are very few birds present in such plantations and it is therefore a desert for wildlife. The commercial planting of woodlands means that few, if any, trees are allowed to grow to overmaturity. Old trees provide homes for hole nesting birds and mammals. Hollow trees provide roosts for bats. We have very few old trees in the Hammer Woods and this means an almost total absence of those species that require them for survival. Scots Pine had been planted Close together in tight rows. as is necessary for their commercial cultivation. Once again, this keeps the light off the forest floor and stops any plant life beneath. We have ten hectares planted with these trees, which are now about thirty years old. About eighty percent of Hammer Woods was a desert for wildlife. This is the normal pattern in modern farming and forestry, but it does not go well with conservationist ideas and the Buddhist accord with nature. Plans were made to change the situation and bring Hammer Wood back to life. This can only be a long job. It will take many decades to complete, but it is fascinating and already the first changes are taking place. It is really a great privilege that we at Chithurst have this chance to work with Nature, There are small corners of the woods - an acre here and an acre there - that have not been spoilt. Starting from these, we are now working to bring wildlife back to all our lands. Our management plan has two aims, which must run in parallel. Firstly, the Hammer Woods must be a place of peace and tranquillity in which local friends and people visiting the monastery are able to go for walks; and in which members of the Sangha can further their meditation practice. Towards this end, three kutis have been built. Monks and nuns can stay in these, living quietly just as was possible for them in Thailand. This they do, staying in some cases for up to three months and only returning to the monastery for the meal each day. It is hoped that twelve more such kutis will be built. Secondly, the Buddhist idea of harmony with all forms of life means that the Hammer Woods must naturally be managed as a conservation area. To achieve this, wildlife must be induced to return to those areas from which it was driven when the environment became impossible for survival. To do this, as much sweet chestnut as possible has to be replaced. Wood is used for cooking and heating at both Amaravati and Chithurst. The chestnut is useful for this scheme as it can supply the requirements for both monasteries. We follow the coppice system that has been practised in English woodlands for centuries. When a tree is cut down, new growth springs from the stump. This comprises many shoots. They in turn are cut when they reach the size required for their intended use. Poles, rails and firewood take about seventeen years of growth; walking sticks take three. Forestry contractors know what the current market requirements are. They buy all the wood in an area of forest where there is a

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sufficiency of the size that they need. They then clear that area of trees. We manage our chestnut in this way. We sell an area to contractors. They cut all standing wood and sell it as the market demands. We buy back our firewood requirements. Should we cut our own wood using our untrained anagarikas we would face the certainty of chain saw accidents. This is obviously quite unacceptable. Cutting is carried out in the winter; the area is cleared of all chestnut and we can then start bringing it back to life. Firstly, in the spring we must kill the chestnut stumps. This prevents a further cycle of growth. In May, when the first new shoots appear, each stump is treated with ammonium sulphide. This does not poison the ground; it just kills the tree and causes it to break down over the years, which in turn puts humus and nutrients back into the soil. With no overhead canopy, light reaches the ground and dormant seeds can germinate. Plants suddenly grow where for years there had been nothing. Then insects appear; life starts to move. We want to make the woodlands resemble an old English broad leaved forest as much as possible. We plan our operations with this in mind. Tree planting costs money, so first we have to obtain grants. These we get from the Forestry Commission or various other country organisations. We have in the past also had generous help from the Royal Thai Embassy. Many other friends and supporters have given us young trees and we buy a wide range of species from a helpful tree nursery. Those that would have been natural in this locality in the past were mainly oak and ash, but many other species were present. These included the shrubs whose berries and nuts are so important as food for wildlife. Each grew in its particular part of the forest according to its need: some at the edge or the middle, some at the top or the bottom of a hillside. Also, the proximity to water has to be taken into account. Planting has to conform to all these requirements. Operations are planned well in advance and many people come to help us. In December 1987, during three afternoons, we planted two hundred and fifty trees. On the first day, thirty school children arrived. Their enthusiasm was marvellous and it was a very happy time for everybody. We have also had help from Thai supporters of the monastery and many local friends. During the winter of 1986/97 we planted eight hundred trees, but during the previous winter the total was eighteen hundred. Overall we have planted nearly four thousand. Our success rate of over ninety percent has been very encouraging, but, in spite of all our planting, it is a fact that from the conservation point of view, it is best to allow an area to regenerate naturally. This is being tried in a number of places, but rabbits and deer keep the growth trimmed. The cost of a wire netting fence is beyond us, but this is being looked into. Already there is plant growth and this is bringing insects. Twenty three species of butterfly have been counted and there are more whose habitat requirements are such that it is only a matter of time before they appear. The small corners of the Wood where food plants still grow provide sources from which they spread: wildflowers grow in little pockets and must be induced to spread. The first to take in the newly cleared areas are foxgloves, which like the acid soil. Brambles grow, and both their flowers and berries are important food sources. Clumps of heather are starting to appear, but the rabbits keep these trimmed. Under the oaks grow wood sorrel, bluebells and wood anenome. A careful search will reveal golden archangel and in the grass along the forest roads grow scarlet pimpernel, tormentil and trailing St John's wort. All these and more show that life is there and will spread if we can give it the chance. In some places though, bracken is spreading. This can smother all other growth in the area and will prove a problem that must be kept in check. The Scots pine are being thinned in a regular five yearly cycle. This means that the better trees are being left and the spacing increases between them. In time, there will be groves of strong https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/04/forest.htm[02/10/2017 21:08:58]

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mature trees as in Scotland or the New Forest. They will provide food and nest sites for many mammals and birds. We have counted fifty eight bird species. This is not many, but as with butterflies, there are now a greater number about as the habitat improves. Small mammals increase as more plants provide more food and ground cover. Tawny owls now hunt for mice and voles over our young plantations. Bats are another mammal that suffers from modern pesticides and farming methods. They have become an endangered species. We have put up bat boxes for them to use as day roosts and it is hoped that at some time in the future a hibernation tunnel can be built. The Hammer Stream runs through a deep flat bottomed valley, which floods in winter, and in the summer is a tangle of broken Willows and alders. This, at present is unmanaged and could be left as it is. It provides thick cover as a sanctuary for deer and other wildlife where there is little disturbance. The stream then flows into the Hammer Pond, which has an area of about three hectares. This is a man-made lake built for the iron industry, years ago. It was formed by building a dam wall about one hundred and fifty yards long across the valley bottom. It runs out over a wire into a pool, beside which kingfishers have regularly nested. Unfortunately, over the years, our lake has silted up and continues to do so because of the loose sandy soil. Leaves from countless autumns have fallen and helped to choke it. This means that there is little water plant growth and thus little food. Our population of birds is small. consisting of just a few mallard and teal. As it is shallow, diving ducks seldom visit us and then only stay for long enough to find out that there is not the habitat that they require. Swans also find no food and there is no grazing along the banks for the local Canada geese in the Rother Valley. It is hoped to remedy this one day but the task and the cost would be enormous. There is great hope in our Hammer Woods and a great chance to work for conservation. Perhaps in this forest, we can help to turn the current tide of destruction which is so affecting life on our planet today. As is being done by other conservation organisations, We can make one more oasis for wildlife. Also, we can create a place of peace and tranquillity for both Buddhists and others to enjoy. Perhaps we can leave something for future generations.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

April 1988 HOME BACK ISSUES

Cover: Monastic Winter Retreat; Reflections Articles: Magha Puja; Post Retreat Stats

Life in the Sangha's Forest; Ayya Thanissara

Editorial: Mask of The Great Unknown; Ajahn Sucitto

EDITORIAL Mask of The Great Unknown

In assembling a newsletter, one is always juggling with the uncertainties of the future and with subjective interpretations of the present and the past. There's a feeling that if you set it down in black-and-white and get it to the printers on time, maybe that will actually help recorded or proposed events emerge from their dreamlike reality into actuality. A similar process is experienced at the beginning of a year; when the mind has been sharpened by a long meditation retreat, one begins to understand what that compulsion is. It is the becoming that is in towards birth. 1988: what will happen? What are the plans? there's a scurry to get the year planned out before the actuality of the uncertain and the unpredictable merrily chews up the diaries and the projects and the visions. Someone is taken ill. Some machine breaks down, people and events arrive which weren't expected - and what we planned for doesn't get born. Then, if you haven't understood how things are, you suffer.

Even the best plans are only perceptions in the mind

In the spiritual life, the underlying intention is away from becoming and birth, but our situation in the world asks for plans, events and statements. So we prepare a framework for events to establish the right intention of bringing Dhamma into the world, and let things take their natural course. Even the best plans are only perceptions in the mind, but right intention means that whatever does arise will be conducive to Dhamma. There is so little that we can expect or control, but in that is the need for, and the discovery of, a pure heart. So here is 1988: the current Mask of The Great Unknown. And here are the viewpoints of a Newsletter, based on the intention to keep in touch: can't do better than that - and at least it shows that someone is watching. Ajahn Sucitto

Notices Dhamma for Families: A Review It is now three years since the first Family Day was held (a little timorously) at Amaravati and also since the first "homegrown" (to put it politely) edition of Rainbows was printed and handed out to a few local friends of the community. This was a beginning, and as in any new situation, https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/04/editor.htm[02/10/2017 21:07:29]

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experimentation has taken place - amidst some uncertainty. The experience needed for such an undertaking could only be gained by trying things out and by reflecting on the results. Now, three years later, it is possible to determine a direction that will best serve families who are interested in having the Dhamma taught in a way that children can easily comprehend. Over this time the Rainbows mailing list has increased considerably to include places such as New Zealand, Australia, Poland and America. This growth encourages the perception of a global community, which seems a more skilful way of viewing the human family than through cultural and national differences. In response to suggestions, ideas and criticisms, Rainbows has undergone various improvements, and no doubt will undergo more as the future unfolds. The annual Family Summer Camp, held at Amaravati, initially grew out of the Family Days and, like Rainbows, has developed in an organic way. At present it is felt that the Camp is very worthwhile and has much potential. The Family Days, which have been the source from which both Rainbows and the camp evolved, have been rather uncertain affairs. This is mainly due to the lack of continuity that individual families can offer. For many, the long travelling distances to Amaravati have allowed for only occasional visits. Running Family Days has always been unpredictable - there's no way of knowing who will come and what ages the children will be. A great deal of adaptability has been necessary to make the best of these days. Actually, in spite of the uncertainties, each of the gatherings have been delightful, with a sense of sharing and warmth amongst the people involved. However, until there are more interested families able to come on a regular basis, the idea has been put forward to hold these days less frequently. So for this year, we shall hold three main Family Days with overnight accommodation available. This could stretch to a week-end event within which a wider scope of activities and more involvement with the community could be offered for both parents and children. There will also still be a few regular Family Days which will now function more as a "class" for children. This "class" would be from 1-3 pm on occasional Sundays and would comprise of a Small puja, story, discussion, reflection and some kind of activity. For dates and further information, see Looking Ahead or Rainbows, both available through SAE from Families at Amaravati. Â

A Distinguished Visitor: Tan Ajahn Pannananda is one of the most loved and respected monks in Thailand. Very much one of the grandfathers of the Thai Sangha, his warm, benevolent and wise manner cannot help but impress all those who meet him. Like his teacher, Tan Ajahn Buddhadassa, he considers himself to be a servant of the Triple Gem: he has dedicated his life to helping people develop right understanding of Dhamma, and fearlessly speaking out against corruptions in Buddhism. As abbot of Wat Cholapratahn, a large monastery in Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok, Ajahn Pannananda regularly teaches and has a Dhamma school. As well as attending to the duties as abbot of

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his monastery, he is also invited to give as many as four talks a day to different sectors of society: students, teachers, civil servants and soldiers. He has the ability to make the teachings of Buddhism accessible to the understanding of a whole variety of listeners, and he regularly appears on National radio and T.V. His direct but fair comments On the ethical conduct of the nation - even of its eminent figures make him a voice of Thailand's moral conscience. Because of his service to Buddhism he has been honoured by the King with the ecclesiastical rank of Tan Chao Khun; recently his official title was upgraded to Tan Chao Khun Depvisuddhimedhi. Like many monks however, he uses his ordination name, and people refer to him in affectionate respect as "Luong Por Pailfla". Ajahn Pannananda is taking a very sincere interest in the Dhamma as it is spreading to the West. He regularly travels overseas to offer his support and encouragement to new monasteries in the United States, Australia, New Zealand - as well as here in England - and has put a lot of effort into speaking on behalf of our Sangha in Thailand. He first visited Chithurst in May 1983 and since then has made an effort to return regularly. We are once again delighted to receive him as our guest at Amaravati and Chithurst for the latter part of June and early July. Although he speaks good and charming English, the Dhamma flows more naturally for him in Thai; so we have arranged two venues for him to give talks primarily to the Thai community: at Amaravati on Sunday June 26 (with English translation) and in Thai only at The Camden Centre in London on July 3rd.

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July 1988 THIS ISSUE Editorial:

2531 Cover: Mind Conditions the World; Ajahn Sumedho Articles: Amaravati Exhibition; Lay People's Practice

View from Switzerland; Tiradhammo Bhikkhu

Emerald Buddhas; Amaro Bhikkhu

The State of America Out West; Ajahn Anando

Old Insights in New England; Sucitto Bhikkhu

Number 5 HOME BACK ISSUES

Mind Conditions the World As you try to understand how to live your life, consider that how you actually live in a place has its effect on your mind. Like a monk's cell or room, if seen as just a place to crash out, then it becomes merely that. As you develop it into a place for mindfulness, you set up that which supports and encourages your practice. So you begin to see that how you think and what you do, affects the space around you, either for the good or for the bad. One's isolated view is that somehow you are an independent creature that is living life for yourself, without it being influenced or affected by anything or affecting or influencing any- This is the total alienation view. We can see why in a society where samanas or holy people live, that society has a quality to it that is lacking in a country where there isn't any encouragement or interest in the holy life. Many of you have been to India, and you can see that in spite of the poverty and the many kinds of depressing sights in India, one thing that's always impressive, is the fact that spiritual life is highly regarded there. Because of that, India has a quality to it. In spite of the poverty and corruption, I personally would rather live in India than in a country that didn't allow religion of any sort, even if it was well organised and clean and efficient. I think that one really appreciates that which is uplifting the spirit, the inclination towards the divine. Then as you lift yourselves up from just the instinctual survival mechanisms of the body you find that strong aspiration towards the higher. We reach up to the light or to the sun, symbols of enlightenment, out from the amorphous dark, the nameless terror; away from hell toward heaven; aspiring from the bad to the good. So we determine to develop a life of virtue. This is uplifting the spirit. In the Ovada Patimokkha, the Buddha says "Do good, refrain from doing evil, purify the mind." Do good is the first - thats the rising up, isn't it? In our lives, there's the active side right speech, right action, right livelihood. To really perfect those three, the moral part of our path, is always a matter of rising up. You don't sink down to do good, you rise up to it. There is a lot of inertia, and just not wanting to be bothered and scepticism and cynicism and laziness and doubt and despair, all this pulls us downward. And so the way out is not to reject or just fight them out of fear or aversion - that pulls us down - but to understand the whole process of rising up.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

Then you're not going into depression about washing the dishes or spending a lifetime of the same old boring Â reaction, because maybe your mother made you wash the dishes.

Now if you contemplate the Buddha-rupa on the shrine, then you can see that that is actually a symbol of rising up. Its a figure of a human being who has an erect posture; the eyes are open, but they are not gazing at anything they are not seeking anything, they are not trying to find something to look at - but the eyes are open. So using the energy that one can generate within the body to bring it up, to a balanced posture. In Thailand, the word for going crazy is "thinking too much". And when you look at symbols of modern man such as Rodin's The Thinker, sitting with his head on his hand, looking utterly depressed - he's thinking too much. When we think too much we can go crazy, we get depressed, we just get pulled into a kind of whirlpool vortex of thoughts, that always pull us downwards. Even though we might feel elated for a while, it always ends up in pulling us downwards, because thought itself is just like that: if you think too much you can't really do anything anymore, you have to stop thinking about it to do it. "Should I do the dishes? or shouldn't I do the dishes? Do I feel like doing them? Is doing the dishes really me? Should men do the dishes and not women or women do the dishes and not men or should both do them together?" And all the while we're just sitting there ... Whereas if you take the task and look at it in a different way, look at it positively: "What an honour to be able to do the dishes! they are honouring me by asking me to do the dishes!" Putting your hands in soapy water with bone china - all those are pleasant physical sensations, actually, aren't they. So if you start looking at the positive side, then you're not going into depression about washing the dishes or spending a lifetime of the same old boring reaction, because maybe your mother made you wash the dishes. These things hang on, just little things like this. You can see it with men sometimes, the way they react to women, "No woman is ever going to tell me what to do. No woman can boss me around." And these are the kind of male reactions that you develop when you are rebelling against your mother. And then women about men, it's the same thing isn't it? Rebelling against the father, "male chauvinism, trying to dominate and pull Us down and tyrannize women. grrr." Because sometimes women never outgrow their rebellion against their fathers. Sometimes We carry that on through a whole lifetime, without really knowing that we are doing it. In our reflections on Dhamma, we begin to free the mind from these very inadequate and immature reactions to life. We find in this "rising up" to life a sense of maturity and willingness to participate in it, and to respect people who are in positions Of authority, rather than rebelling or resisting out of immature habits. When we are mature, when we understand Dhamma, we can work in the world in ways that are of benefit, harmonising, of Use to the society that we live in. I remember in my first year at Wat Pah Pong, in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, with Ajahn Chah, I liked the monastery at first, but then I became very critical too. I wasn't going to give in too easily. I was going to keep my eyes open to see if it really was a good place or not. So when people tried to convince me about what a wonderful monastery it was, I'd be very sceptical. Many people would ask: "Don't you love Luong Por?" I thought: "No, I don't feel anything really." The idea of loving Luong Por at that time had never even occurred to me. Then they carried on about how it was such a good monastery - and my reaction when people tried to tell me how good something was tended to be to resist and look for what was wrong with it. That's an immature reaction, isn't it? I could see then that when somebody tried to convince me or convert me there was this kind of stubborn attitude: "I'm not going to do it, I don't care if it is the best, I'm not going to believe it because I don't want you to be right!" I didn't know really very much

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

about Buddhist monasticism, but I still had strong views about what monks should be. And so I would very much be aware of that which I didn't approve of but then living there, I began to see what an opinionated, conceited attitude that was. So I began to let go of these things, I found that I fell in love with Luong Por Chah! This falling in love was coming from feeling a tremendous respect and trust. So you see the human heart itself is a heart of warmth and love, and it can bring joy and beauty into a situation. And when the heart is full of love and joy then that affects, not only our own happy states of mind but affects the people around us, and, the society we're in. When I first went to Ubon, I thought I wouldn't stay very long, but I spent nearly 10 years there, and to this day, I still look at Ubon as to a place I'd really love to go to. Not because it's beautiful because it's not particularly beautiful, but because I really began to appreciate it and what I received there: the support, the teaching, and the ability to live the holy life. So I very much connect with, that in the mind - my mind relates to Ubon Ratchathani as a holy place.

The mind - the map - the world?

We can see it in England now, as people are developing the holy life, here. It's no longer the England of the Colonial Era; we see a very different side, we've experienced something within this country, and in our mind - it connects with living in Britain. Being able to live the holy life through the openness and tolerance generated towards us in this country, one is pleasantly surprised and this is the rising up of the spirit too. Before I came to Britain I'd detetmined in my mind that I would only go and live in this country if I found I was offering something worthwhile to it. There was no point in just going to see it, or with a missionary attitude.. I didn't feel any enthusiasm in going to convert people to Buddhism. I thought that the idea of conversion was repulsive. But the idea of going to Britain to try to offer something beautiful, and something that would help people, was something I felt I could do. And so that remained in my mind as an attitude of coming to England to add more sweetness, rather than to come here to divide and cause trouble and create more problems for the country or to take advantage of it in any way. These are a way of looking at your life here, at what you are doing as monks and nuns living

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within this country. A way of looking at it no longer as being a kind of oddball or anachronism. When you are bringing something into the country that is delicious and beautiful, it may not seem at first that way, because it is different from what people are used to. Many people have that fear that we come here to make everything worse and poison the country. But to our own living of this life, in the right way with the right attitude, then the whole image changes from being freaky weirdoes who come here to cause trouble to being that which is worthy of respect, worthy of alms. In the society we live in we begin to see that just the presence of good monks and nuns is making an offering to it by being examples. Then that gives great hope and inspiration to others if not necessarily to become monks or nuns but to live more skilfully and aspire towards higher than just getting along in the system. To me just floating along in the system is a hell realm. It is such a depressing idea, to use one's human life to just float along the easiest way. You don't do anything, you don't offer anything, you don't aspire to anything you just get by. So we can see in the holy life, the opportunity is here: at Amaravati and Chithurst, the occasion is here for that rising up. With our contemplation of Dependent Origination we are actually being with the world rather than believing it to be the real world. We're aware of it and understanding of it as it is, without being deluded by it through the conditioning process of perception and culture. So the empty mind is the receptive, because in that way of mindfulness, there is no need to name or call anything anything, unless there is a conventional reason for it. Then as we begin to realise the cessation of the world, we can begin to refrain from frantically creating more worlds to cease. We're not trying to create anything because we are content and at peace with the way it is. Now really contemplate this, and know the attentiveness, mindfulness, before the opinions, views, desires and fears start arising. Now if you're doing it for the wrong reason - out of desire and fear and ignorance - then of course you only receive despair. You feel that you're always going to fail and meditation is going to be a lot of suffering for you. Even when you can get refined states of consciousness, you can't hold on to them. The more you try to convert and impose refinement on the world around you the more frustrated you feel by the inefficiency, corruption, brutality and mediocrity. You can see with very refined types of human beings how difficult life is for them. If you have very high standards and very refined tastes, then you're going to be upset even by the style of curtains on the wall. Now the empty mind has room for everything: the curtains on the wall, the refined subtleties the beauties, the coarse and the gross. The empty mind is all-embracing. So there isn't that need to run about trying to pick and choose, control and manipulate. To pick and choose, control and manipulate is always such a frantic way to live, but when you appreciate the empty mind, the cessation of the world, then the mind is receptive to the totality of the whole of it. One begins to just look. Now this is like a child's mind. I remember as a very young child where I grew up, I'd been able to walk in the countryside in empty fields which had beautiful tiger lilies growing wild in them, and I remember being much impressed with these spring flowers. Such things are discoveries when you are a young child and you don't have perceptions and views about things. So you're with the way it is. Then you begin to forget about these things. Now how many people here think: "Oh, another grey cold English winter fog. I wish I were in Tahiti. I wish we could go to some place where there is lots of colour and sunshine." These are conditioned reactions. You see a muddy field and the fog and the grey sky and the mind goes: "I don't like it. I want to see something else, I want to see sunshine and million spring flowers and bananas and coconuts, mangoes, beautiful azure skies." And so while the eyes are focused on the muddy field, you're not seeing the mud anymore and there's just a total rejection of that. So when we talk about meditation, and people accuse us of avoiding the real world, you can challenge them and say: "Where is the real world? What is the world, what is real?" Because what is real to many people's world really has no reality to it. It is just a perception based on delusion - on prejudice, preference and memories.

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That kind of mind is a mind that is conditioned to react in terms of despair and depression. The world that one is attached to and believes in is never satisfactory and one is never content with it. There is always something wrong with it and there is always going to be something wrong with it. So in the holy life we just realise that whatever happens, its just the way things move and change. We will learn from it, grow with it and open to it. And if difficult and unpleasant situations arise, than thats part of it; that's just the way things are. Sometimes its very bright and peaceful, sometimes its murky and confused. But if you begin to contemplate murky confusion and radiant bliss as just the way things are, there's nothing to get depressed or elated about, is there? Radiant bliss is that way, but its not me and mine, and it's impermanent. The muddy field or the azure blue sky, the heat of the sun or the cold wind of the north; whatever - it all belongs in the mind. There is room for everything, and so there is no reason to feel frightened.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

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July 1988

Mind Conditions the World; Ajahn Sumedho Amaravati Exhibition; Lay People's Practice View from Switzerland; Tiradhammo Bhikkhu Emerald Buddhas; Amaro Bhikkhu The State of America Out West; Ajahn Anando Old Insights in New England; Sucitto Bhikkhu

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Amaravati Exhibition Lay People's Practice The development of skilful means lies at the heart of Buddhist practice. In Buddhist countries there are everywhere sustaining reflections and support for practice: countrywide networks of viharas, the beautiful symbiosis of laity and Sangha, and the ever present nourishment of a Buddhist culture. Although the growth of the Sangha in Britain since the mid-1970'5 has been remarkable, Britain cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be regarded as a particularly nourishing ground for practice. All too often the dull deceit of habit and the pressure of social conventions point away from mindfulness. In this environment, lay Buddhists may at times feel dauntingly isolated, lonely pioneers swimming against the current. Â

The Exhibition is directed towards the heart of practice Â in lay life.

The realisation that there are friends on the path encountering the same problems, or developing skilful means for dealing with them, can be vital for the sustenance of practice. It must be remembered that "Sangha" as a quality embraces all those committed to the realisation of Dhamma in their daily lives, not just the community of ordained monks and nuns. Indeed, the conviction that the laity have much to share with each other has provided the initial inspiration for the Exhibition on Lay People's Practice now taking place at Amaravati. Conceived as an offering by lay Buddhists for lay Buddhists, the essence of the Exhibition is directed towards the heart of practice in lay life, a comprehensive and open-ended offering concerned with people and practice rather than institutions. Its key themes are: Society, Family Life Practice, Giving, Devotion and Ceremonies, Formal Practice, and Helpful Resources. Based on an extensive questionnaire circulated amongst some groups and individuals associated with Amaravati, the Exhibition has tended to develop in unimagined ways. A potentially very important development here has been Ajahn Sumedho's suggestion that the Exhibition be linked to the international effort for "Global Co-operation for a Better World" - of which he is one of the patrons, The Ajahn has suggested that the Exhibition might provide an insightful perspective on what the organisers of the Global Co-operation project are seeking to bring about, by providing a Buddhist reflection on the path of mindfulness in daily life. Such a reflection which might serve as an inspiration both for fellow Buddhists and for adherents of other https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/05/exhib.htm[02/10/2017 22:12:24]

Forest Sangha Newsletter

religions and likeminded seekers of Truth. The Exhibition will also undoubtedly receive a major new input of energy and reformulation at the time of the Summer Camp at Amaravati in the last week in July (25-31 July). By the time your read this, the Exhibition on Lay People's Practice will already have begun to happen in the Dhamma Hall at Amaravati. Its success very much depends on your continuing contribution. Please send gifts of photographs, quotes and artwork relevant to the themes of the Exhibition. When visiting, you are invited to make offerings which might further enhance the Exhibition's ongoing development. Already considerable gratitude is felt towards those who have shared the commitment of their practice so generously and have been willing to reflect so openly on their experiences. Your contacts at Amaravati are Barbara Jackson and Anne Pryor.

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July 1988 HOME BACK ISSUES

View from Switzerland The Swiss vihara opened on May 15th with Ajahn Tiradhammo as abbot. He sends us this brief report. When we come to a new country things are obviously different -new countryside new residence, new people, etc. If we hold on to a particular view of things we are left only with comparisons: this is better than that, that is better than this. Our way of practice though is about learning to see the view, learning to see the whole process of viewing. Whether it be English countryside or Swiss countryside there is still seeing, hearing, smelling ... liking, disliking, indifference. Our practice may be in a new place, but it is the same space!

So far we have met only welcoming and friendly gestures.

We have settled in to our second-floor Vihara flat of three bedrooms, kitchen and shrineroom-cumdining-room-cum-reception room, Work on two more bedrooms and a larger shrine-room progresses very slowly but we hope to be able to use them before the end of July. Our new situation is somewhat atypical of the Forest Tradition as we are close to the centre of a large village on a busy street. However, there is a pine and beech wood only seven minutes' walk away; and a half-hour's walk away is a hilltop viewpoint with spectacular panoramic views of the snow-capped Alpine peaks thrusting up into the sky and the wooded hills of the Emmental and Mittelland rolling off to the horizon. We have made many alms-round excursions through the surrounding countryside and villages, arousing much curious and friendly response. We have had a very cordial meeting with the local Catholic priest and the two Protestant ministers have come to the vihara. Two stories in the Bern newspapers appeared in a favourable tone and we will feature in next month's edition of a Swiss journal. So far we have met only welcoming and friendly gestures. Visitors have been appearing in a slow but steady stream. In our second week we were honoured by the visit of the Venerable Somdet of the Marble Temple in Bangkok, and last week the Meditation teacher Godwin Somaratana dropped by for dana and for Dhamma discussion. We have received the first spontaneous alms-offering on the Burgdorfstrasse from

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two Cambodians who journeyed several hundred kilometres just to offer pindapad. Already many people have come forward with offers of support and help. One young man turned up at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to put in a day's carpentry work; an architect has offered his services; someone else has offered building materials; others have offered help with graphic design, printing and translations-we are amazed at the many kind and generous responses! We also have invitations away from the vihara: Thai Wesak in Zurich, Vietnamese Wesak in Lucerne, talk in Bern, etc. The nearby Kalden Choling Tibetan Centre has offered the use of their centre for retreats and have arranged for us to meet His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, later this month. Several weekend retreats are planned for later in the year and monthly talks in Bern are being arranged. Even though we have been here only a month it seems like ages-so it goes when there are so many good things happening. With such an auspicious beginning the Forest Tradition is starting to sprout a few blossoms in Central Europe. Dhammapala Buddhistisches Kloster, Burgdorfstrasse 9, 3510 Konolfingen, Switzerland

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Emerald Buddhas Ajahn Amaro writes this account of a teaching tour made in Ireland in spring 1988, shortly after the funeral killings in Belfast He and Anagarika Jakob spent much of their first week in the company of Paddy and Linda Boyle and their four children. Things seem quiet in the city. After the uproar of the killings last week there was apprehension about our visit but once here we have found life carrying on regardless. There is tension and suspicion as ever. Nervous glances at the airport - eyes darting into the car as we drive past everyone is watching everyone, but in a situation of danger this is only natural. People learn to live with the stress or survival would be impossible. Paddy mentioned yesterday that Tommy, a member of the Buddhist group, and his family had been right by one of the grenades which went off in the graveyard, I asked him "How are they coping with all that?" "Oh I think they've forgotten it already. You just get hardened to it, you have to." The Buddhist group's little - centre, The Asanga Institute, is a symbol for the situation here: inside a tall ragged house on the Antrim Road - the ground floor windows barricaded with sheet metal - the door armoured as well - up the battered stairway, in a small room at the top, is a clean bright peaceful place to shelter. A symbol of the heart, it is a place of warmth and brightness amidst the forbidding icewalls of suspicion and fear. It is a place to go and remember the possibility of quiet and illumination, where the powers of goodness can be recalled and cultivated. The symbol of the Refuges is very vivid here.

I felt like I was with my oldest friends, which on reflection I guess I was - the presence of Truth, the great friend, how good to see you again.

Paddy played videos of the two incidents which had ignited Belfast over the last week or so. These were very disturbing and it was good to have Tony (who had been at the first funeral) right there to talk it over with. It had been pretty hard to cope and he and Tommy had both been quite caught up with it all "We know all these guys, we were at school with them, how can you not be involved? If you live there, to a greater or lesser extent you are in it; these are the people you share your lives with, they are your folk y'know." It is so easy to forget how much it is the tribal and protective instincts which keep driving this monster of destruction. A few days later I talked to Tommy about all this: he said the Falls Road area had exploded with rage that night - hooded men hijacking cars, throwing petrol bombs off motorway bridges onto the traffic below. He had ridden off to the mountains on his bicycle, hoping to burn off what energy and emotion he could. In trying to come to terms with it - and then the murder of the two soldiers - he said he kept thinking of Enniskillen, where an IRA bomb had killed eleven innocent people and injured many more on Remembrance day last year. He had never really accepted that his people had perpetrated that outrage - but he realised now that the people in that town felt just as he and his did in the Falls after the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/05/em-bud.htm[02/10/2017 22:09:50]

Forest Sangha Newsletter

graveyard killings. When he mentioned this to others most were sobered by the thought, realisinq that the situation was identical. A day or two later we went to Enniskillen to give a public talk. Once we arrived in town and met up with Bob Kelly, we were whisked off to his family's lovely house, perched on a steep hillock above the church of this village, Ballinamallard. He and his wife welcomed us with great respect and cordiality. Their daughters were very shy at first but after we had eaten, as I was talking with Bob over a cup of tea, I noticed a small furry creature edging across towards me. Silently it inched closer and I recognised it eventually as a skunk. It tilted its little nose up and cocked its head in greeting - doing the job for the little girl whose hand was animating it. I greeted it and asked its name "Flower," came the whispery reply soon my conversation with the skunk proved unnecessary as the two girls became brave enough to talk to us direct. This town has had a shadow on its name since the bombing here last year, but, far from being shot at - as some thoughts in England had predicted - the talk at the public library was a pleasant and calm event. About thirty people turned out, a massive number apparently, and the talk and questions seemed well received by all. These things are always a bit frosty at the start but if you keep pouring it out eventually things begin to melt. By the second hour I felt like I was with my oldest friends, which on reflection I guess I was - the presence of Truth, the great friend, how good to see you again. The morning after the public talk Bob drove us to a large forest on the southern shore of Lough Erne. We followed a narrow lane through several miles of pines to a cliff edge high above the water. Below us was spread the great stretch of blue with large islets scattered here and there. We wove our way back to Ballinamallard through the long rolling roads, rapt in conversation on Buddhist life. After packing up and farewells we took the long road back to Belfast, passing through Armagh and Newry down by the border with the South. Traversing this country there is the constant feeling of being in two parallel worlds: the land of perfect little hills and pocket-sized farms, ancient hedges, empty roads and crystal air; a land of unhurried and gentle folk, strong in heart and spirit. On the other hand it is a place of rain and black helicopters, police checks, barbed wire and bullet-proofing. We passed the church hall in Enniskillen where the bomb had exploded; like a headless corpse the whole of the roof and upper walls were as if they had been sliced off, the gaping innards of the place opened to the sky. Running up to the retreat there was often the feeling - "These people are depending on me, it's their first long retreat and I have got to produce the goods to help them. What if I fail? - If https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/05/em-bud.htm[02/10/2017 22:09:50]

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they all get fed up and leave? If it just becomes a crushing endurance test? Oh dear ... and it's all up to me!" - the proliferating mind burbling on. The sound of "I am", "me" and "mine", a resounding foghorn of wrong understanding. Listening to this kind of mental creation there comes a natural response of letting the self-centred elements dissolve. Why turn an idea about the future into a personal problem? I began to reflect: "I am not going to Ireland to zap these people with ethereal vibrations and entrancing Dhamma talks, nor to rescue a nation from the grip of savagery. I am not even going to try to teach anybody anything." I made the intention clear to just go and spend a week in the woods with some friends; the time would pass, efforts would be made to cultivate the good and what ever came out of it I would endeavour to learn from. As the retreat began I said all this to the retreatants and encouraged them to regard the forthcoming time in the same way - simply to be there and make efforts to learn from life, however it happened to be. It makes such a difference when life is viewed in terms of universal nature rather than self. Clumps of celandine and saxifrage border the wellbeaten tracks of this forest and, from the brambleburied mass of an ancient log, a colony of wood anemones peeks out. The air is dense and still, full of the growing light of an April evening as spring roars into its full spate. In this land Of spirited and powerful people the imagination soars to convey the wonderful balances, formless, vivid patterns that spin out of each moment as it comes. Ss simple yet so mysterious awesome, testing, frightening, beautiful and terrible - familiar and safe, the oldest friend, yet a yawning, hungry chasm of possibilities. When you can't go forward and you can't go back and you can't stand still, what do you do? Vanish - the Truth supports itself. I tried to guide the retreat so that there was not a "super-concentrate and get high" environment, but rather that of focussing the mind to see what is habitually done at the interface between the mind and the world. It seemed a crime to be on the edge of this lovely wood and not to take the chance to meditate amongst the trees: so, once people were well settled in, we spent most afternoons there. With the mind open - feeling the moment with the whole being - all positive and negative aspects would naturally fall into alignment. You would find yourself at the centre of some vast arborial mandala - a spread of projection, perceptions, proliferations, all strung together in a web of intricate harmony. Leaves glittering in unison as a billow of wind would stir the forest. Love and hate, anxiety and hope all shimmering in their individual perfection. The next couple of days were spent in and around Belfast, spending time with people from the Buddhist group. The presence of the troubles and divisions in the society made a continuous impact on the mind. During the afternoon we walked up to MacArt's Fort, on top of Cave Hill, which overlooks the whole of Belfast. It was a shining day of vivid blue skies, arcing over all the land and sea below us, The city seemed so innocent from that height. The slate roofs of the Ardoyne, combed like a well-ploughed field, the gentle blue haze settling in still air, the thrum of engines from the motorway - who would have thought that the human mind could have turned such a haven into a horror story. From above there was no sign of anything but charming busy-ness; drivers and pedestrians, workers and children, as blameless and empty as wooden dolls. This distance epitomised the principle of detachment - with aloofness you could see all the drives and strains, compelling strictures and values of the system, were nothing but human creations. But it also echoed the insensitivity of selfishness - a person distanced from the feelings at the heart of the city. North from Belfast the towns are more often decked with loyalist Union Jacks, red white and blue kerbs, well- tended murals of William of Orange, "1690" and "No Popery Here!", It is hard to believe how strongly we need to defend our identity against the foe; fear, suspicion, mistrust, centuries of aggression and catalogues of misdeeds all mingle to form the position-

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taking of today. Rays of hope get extinguished as fast as they are kindled; however, it is for sure that peace is possible - in the wake of all battles the flowers return. A day travelling around the countryside of the North softened the jarring images which had dominated the trip so far. This led us gently into the atmosphere of the retreat which was to be held in a woodsman's cottage, beside a large forest, at the southern end of Strangford Lough. This house could not be much more perfect: a lot of work is required to keep the wood fires in, there is no electricity and only gas-light downstairs - this lends itself to the rousing of mindfulness in getting around in the dark, conserving batteries and developing general care and sensitivity for the physical supports. Newcastle sits at the very foot of the Mournes so, after leaving Avril and family, we climbed solidly until we reached the tree-line below Slieve Donard, the highest peak. Next morning we aimed to break camp quite early and climb to the top. By then the cloud had dropped to swirl around us but we could see a peachy glow beneath, showing the lowlands to be sunny and clear. Through the cloud we reached the pass below Donard and, although it was in the direction opposite to the one we wanted to take, we decided to climb it anyway. Now and again a break would appear and a sudden flash of the valley and mountain-sides would strike us. We left our packs at the base, ascended through the thick white whisps and soon found ourselves at the summit. We sat at the foot of the cairn we had seen from so many miles away and could only make out a fifty-foot circle around us. This bore a striking resemblance to how it often is in the religious life: all the work can be done, but until the natural conditions come into line and support it, there need be no vision to bear witness to the Truth. It was curious how all through the day - and to be truthful through the whole journey to these mountains - a song about the Mournes that I knew from years before, rang through the mind more than the feel of the mountains themselves. When we get used to thinking about life all the time, all we notice is our thoughts, not life itself. This also appears as a perpetual search to know - "Where are we?". "What time is it?", "What is this thing called?" - seeking for names and knowledge to capture the hidden spirit and fix, in this uncertain mysterious world, same vestige of permanence and solidity it is more inviting to drift into some sentimental idea about the hills, than to absorb the rocks and heather, the mighty crags, the whispers of grass bending to the wind. It is strange how the mind goes: we are more ready to worship our images of the Buddha than to realise Buddhahood itself. "Don't you go followin' them fashions now Mary McRea, in the place where the dark Mourne sweeps down to the sea". Our journey ended safely with a long drive back to Belfast, a good bath and a softer bed for the night. The next day our flight to England was due so we bowed out, taking many fond feelings with us. Here, at the germinal stages of things is the promise of great goodness. I feel honoured in helping to set the seed and to cultivate the ground. As I leaned on the Mourne Wall up at Hare's Gap I felt my heart melting deep into this land - pouring in through the treasured jewel of these mountains, pouring through to permeate the nation. Ireland's good spirits have done us proud, this whole adventure has been a charmed and blessed event. In this land the spiritual life has long been valued and now this branch of the Sangha, having sprung from the forests of Thailand, has endeavoured to practise the Buddha's Way and offer it to the people here. This most precious of treasures now comes into Ireland, a fitting shrine for an offering from the land of the Emerald Buddha. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/05/em-bud.htm[02/10/2017 22:09:50]

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After the retreat Jakob, Nick and I headed off for a few day's walk, along the coast and up over the Mountains Of Mourne. The retreat had been good but I am sure it was hard work for everyone - as a first retreat, though, that hardly came as a surprise. To wish it otherwise would have been a frustration - what a relief we do not take unremitting success and happiness as our refuge. It is evening now on Dundrum Bay. I write this leaning on some dry seaweed perched on the edge of a sand-dune. Perhaps we set too much store by the examinations which we create with our thoughts and then feel we have to bluff our way through with hypocrisy and deceit maybe they do not mean so much after all. Does this cliff, this sea, these lichens, this seal who watches us at breakfast, do they really know or care about all the attainments and problems conjoured into being by the mind? Next morning the sky came clear and blue, the day warming to Mediterranean heat. The boots Paddy had lent me fitted well enough, but large blisters had appeared which I had swathed in padding protection - all to no avail - each step was painful. We turned off the main road, and joined an abandoned railway line which took us all the way to Dundrum town. Even though this was leafy and thick with the delights of new spring growth, I was quite blind to the bursting greens around me. I noticed my thoughts were becoming childlike and frustrated - a regression to simple self-hood followed pain, whining and complaining like a spoilt five-yearold. "My feet hurt. I want to stop. It's not FAIR!!" We reached Dundrum and, with a change into my sandals, the world took on a different face. The sands of Murdough Bay were completely empty. During the walk along the beach, amidst the vast open sunlit space, with the cloud-capped Mournes before us, all the negativity of the morning slowly played itself out. One step after another, the mind's additions to the moment became quite clear. Avril, who had been on the retreat, had invited us to stop by her parents' house in Newcastle. We spent a while with her mother who chatted with us with great interest. Avril was utterly delighted that we had come, it turned out that it was her birthday, and she glowed with gladness at this brief visit. As Nick pointed out, for many people interested in Buddhist life, to introduce their families to what is so significant to them is very important. Paddy and Linda Boyle 75 Knutsford Dr., Cliftonville Rd. Belfast BT 14 Tel,: (0232) 754623

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July 1988 HOME BACK ISSUES

The State of America Out West In March of this year, Ajahn Anando accompanied Ajahn Sumedho to California to teach a retreat and meet people involved with the prospective Dhamma centre, Insight Meditation West. IMW is inspired by and loosely affiliated to the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, and there has been talk about establishing a monastic community in part of the 400-acre site of IMW. The freewheeling views of Californian society have produced some debate around such an orthodox establishment, as these comments from Ajahn Anando point out. Seattle, Washington, apart from being Ajahn Sumedho's home town is the base of another group, the Heartsong Sangha, who have expressed a similar interest in a vihara, on a similar scale. The Angela Center in Santa Rosa is an Anglican retreat centre that many of the vipassana teachers who teach on the West Coast Use: Jack Kornfield, Jamie Baraz, Christopher Titmuss, Vimalo - all of them have taught there. Many of those who teach at IMS also teach at the Angela Center, so the nuns at the Center were quite used to seeing people walking around in a rather unusual way. The surrounding landscape, which was grazing land on the side of a hill behind, lent itself to meditation practice - there were many walking paths. So, our retreat was set up by the vipassana teachers and it was slotted in during a break in the retreat schedule that they have. And there were people who are very, very devoted to Buddhism and Buddhist monasticism, and, on the other side, people who were very sceptical, not at all sure about monastics and who think that perhaps our role and some of the things we do are questionable. One comment that a woman made to Ajahn Sumedho at the end of the retreat I found very inspiring, and I think to some extent expressed the feelings of many who were on the retreat in California, The woman said to Ajahn Sumedho that she came as a Vipassanini (Ajahn Sumedho had used that word): "I came as a Vipassanini, but I'm leaving as a Buddhist." And she found that that which had been lacking in her practice was discovered; and it had more to do with the ritual, the traditional forms, the practices such as chanting - which the people there were quite willing to participate in (once we got the sheets printed and the way of chanting was explained to them). The enthusiasm that many Americans can have was something quite unusual.

You know, they were just standing by the sidelines making some suggestions. So, personally, I didn't feel the need to take a lot that was said as being terribly important.

We saw Jack Kornfield after the retreat. On the way back down to San Francisco we stopped https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/05/states.htm[02/10/2017 22:08:00]

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to visit Jack at his home and he interviewed Ajahn Sumedho and me. He began the interview by reading a letter to us by a woman who wrote and said that with regards to the development of IMW, she felt that having Theravadin monks come and live there and be supported by the people who would be supporting IMW would not be really an appropriate use of funds, because we would be bringing into the country of America a sexist, Asian religious aberration that was not needed, not wanted in America. So that kind of set the tone for the interview, and Jack was playing the devil's advocate, because he's actually quite committed to supporting a monastic community in America, along with Joseph and Sharon Salzberg. But he, I think, felt -he needed to ask all the difficult questions - and he was very good at it. The questions were questions such as: couldn't we just have women taking ordination - have a precept ceremony that had the same number of rules as the bhikkhus? What was pointed out was: well, one could do that - but it wouldn't be in the Theravadin tradition. And I mentioned that there were such groups like Kennett Roshi's, who did follow that particular way of training, but in the Theravadin tradition of course there was a lineage and a tradition. I felt personally, after the interview that it was, a little bit like - here a model came to mind - that here we had a vehicle which we knew from personal experience was quite dependable, it had been going for 2500 years plus and no one was saying that it was the fastest, the sleekest, the most comfortable but it was dependable, it seemed to be suitable. And then someone comes along who starts suggesting modifications - you know - why don't you get a bigger engine, a different ratio in the transmission something like that. Maybe their suggestions might be quite right (they might be), but there didn't seem to be any reason for actually taking their advice because the vehicle was already suitable - and one wasn't quite sure that their suggestions would really work. And also one didn't know whether or not they were going to get on the vehicle anyway! You know, they were just standing by the sidelines making some suggestions. So, personally, I didn't feel the need to take a lot that was said as being terribly important. I commented that over the years there have been adaptations made, and there will probably be further adaptations made, from within the monastic community - but they've come from those who are living the life; and when the monks and nuns see for themselves that things need to be changed, and it's appropriate, it's timely, then it happens - a natural growing. So personally I didn't feel a need to be terribly concerned about what some of the people were saying. Ajahn Sumedho finished the interview by saying that he felt that it would be truly uncompassionate to give in to the women's demands; that that's not what they need. And Jack's comment to that was: "This is going to be a very interesting dance!" There was a woman there who Ajahn Sumedho respects as a mature person, who's been practising Buddhadhamma for a long time, and he asked her about the feminist retreats - what are they like. And she said that they have women who are mostly lesbians who, just by that kammic propensity, have a certain bias and a dislike, and sometimes a real hatred, of men; and it doesn't take too much imagination to see that monks are a real threat for them. Authority figures ... all of that ... And she said - herself she didn't find that the feminist movement ,had much to offer, and from her perspective what she felt was truly needed were wise virtuous people. She mentions later when we went for coffee, she was walking with her husband and she said to him: "It's so nice being around mindful people - why do we associate with any other type of person?" Very upfront, shall we say. There's more committed, really grounded interest in

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Seattle. The group that we met, who supported us and extended hospitality to us were in all ways delightful and seemed to appreciate very sincerely what Ajahn Sumedho was teaching. There seemed to be a real hunger for Dhamma and with that a sincerity and an attentiveness - to the point where, by the time we got back, we were both exhausted. Every waking moment there was someone to see, someone to be with, someone to talk to, some place to go, something to do. The only time we were in our rooms was to go to sleep. It was extraordinary - we were in Seattle about two or three days and of course we knew that some people from Vancouver were coming down and we heard that they would probably be coming down by coach. Well, a coach can be a minibus, or a tour coach, and it turned out to be a 56-seater tour coach which came creeping very carefully down a fairly narrow residential road. And out of the coach filed ... There must have been 47-odd people who came - including some children -- and filled the house. I couldn't imagine what the neighbours thought when suddenly all these people piled out of the coach into the house, stayed for about three hours, and then got back into the coach and disappeared. And I noted some of the people looked very surprised to see Ajahn Sumedho and me sitting on the couch. They came into the room not knowing quite what to expect. The room was actually packed out, people sitting very close to each other. After Nan (the organiser of the excursion) talking with Ajahn Sumedho, breaking the ice a bit. I asked people - was this a little bit like a magical mystery tour? Did you actually know you were going to meet Buddhist monks? There was general laughter and someone said: "Well we thought that that might happen but we weren't quite sure." Nan had said something like - if you're in such a place at such a time a coach will come and pick you up and we'll go and meet some very interesting people. And she's so well-loved out there that people just came along. And four or five days later when Ajahn Sumedho gave a public talk in Seattle about a dozen people drove the three hours down from Vancouver for the talk.

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July 1998 HOME BACK ISSUES

Old Insights in New England Ajahn Sucitto reflects on his travels through America I was invited to teach a nine-day retreat at the Insight Meditation Society's Centre in Barre (pronounced Barray) Massachusetts between May 6th and 16th this year. Bhikkhus had been coming and going to the States for years - I myself accompanied Ajahn Sumedho on his retreat at IMS in 1981, and he and Ajahn Anando have given retreats there subsequently. Since then new situations have arisen -more on the West Coast - including the Thai community in and around New York City who undertake to distribute this Newsletter throughout North America. Thinking to pay them a visit, and to be available for other invitations I reckoned a stay of three weeks - 4th to 25th May - would be suitable. Geographically, I glimpsed a mere fragment of the country, but approaching it through the minds of the people offered more extensive reflections: themes common to Western civilisation are more clearly portrayed on the highly responsive canvas Of the USA. Such responsiveness is in part due to American openness and enthusiasm, qualities that arise naturally in a country whose ideals are the freedom of the individual and the pursuit of happiness, and whose resources have always seemed inexhaustible. The materialism that blinds the West and has begun to encroach on Asian societies is given freest rein in America; mercifully that same enthusiasm makes it also a dynamic place for spiritual practice. In the brave New World, the crises underlying the sly Old World are manifest, loud and clear- and so are the possibilities for salvation. The United States has a history of aspiration; its favoured images reach onwards and upwards. What unites the States are such reference points as the Pilgrim Fathers, the Constitution, the pioneering spirit -the appeal of the Space Program may even be because it reaches up and away to the limitless stars. Aspiration and experimentation in terms of religion have also always been popular in the States. Buddhism is a fairly sober example, but I would estimate that, whereas its appeal to English people is because it takes them back to something fundamental, to Americans it's the possibilities for new growth and less limitation that immediately engage the mind. The European boggles with incredulity at the eagerness with which Americans pursue charismatic and visionary cults from evangelical Christian fundamentalism (which has to be seen to be believed) to Rajneeshism and way, way beyond, millions of people and dollars seem to cluster around outrageous fantasies without anyone investigating the spiritual roots.

Monastic community is not formed around everyone having the right to say and do as they see fit. Its unity comes from everyone letting go of their views and realising what is fundamental.

This is a key: America's not strong on roots, its aspiration has always reached to the sky, but rarely touched 'the earth'. After all, the emigres who established the nation didn't go to the New World to find their roots, but to get away from the restrictions of meaningless conventions. The new society grew up in the 18th century Age of Enlightenment when

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science and philosophy pointed to the absolute rule of the human intellect over Nature. Without cultural restrictions and with constant technological development, the emigres' engagement with the earth has been rapacious and manipulative. Native Americans (ironically distanced from their land by the appellation "Indians") were swept off the land, negro slaves planted onto it. Now that the frontier has been reached the emigres have nowhere to go; trying to consolidate into a society, they look for roots and find that they have none in common, Aspirations, yes, but those too are towards separation and individuality. So we have the Black community, the Jewish community, the Gay community, and many more - all asserting their own right to be independent and as good as the rest. In such a light, the Theravadin monastic community can seem like another divisive fragment, an imposition rather than a means of reflection. The monastic community is not formed around everyone having the right to say and do as they see fit. Its unity comes from everyone letting go of their views and realising what is fundamental. The homeless life helps you to reflect on what you need, and leave the rest behind. It gets easier with practice on simple things: the night before I left Awaravati I thought I'd take the evening to pack, It took about twenty minutes - bowl, robes, books to give away, travel documents, clock, some editing work for the plane-and ten minutes of thinking there was something to remember. Then I remembered, in that strangely disquieting space of the mind: what is outside this moment is only anxiety or desire. I don't enjoy aeroplanes, away from the earth you witness the frenzy of the rootless society as it tries to fill every moment. Ven Karuniko and I stoutly rejected the headsets, but being trapped in, seats right in front of the video screen with stewards bustling to and fro, imparts stressful rhythms on the mind. I flitted between screen, anapanasati and editing and was glad to see fingers of land extend to greet us and draw us into Logan Airport, Boston. In 1981 the immigration officer had been a squarebuilt woman whose gaze bored through my retina, swept the inside of my skull and found nothing of note, signalled that I could enter. This time the officer was a pleasant man who kept a constant patter of wisecracks as he amiably took us apart. A real professional, he made you enjoy being searched ... "So you're a Venerable, heh? ... Well I used to be able to sit in full lotus ... ! What's in here, then?" We moved on to topics of Dhamma before he apologised for keeping us waiting and ushered us into America. Dennis was there to greet us - a little nervously - and drive us out to the upstate rural backwater which is the setting for IMS. We eased into each other's presence on the way with conversation on practice and comparative environments. IMS was founded in 1975 by people who had practised Vipassana (Insight) meditation in the Buddhist meditation centres of Burma and India and wanted to establish a similar environment on American Soil. Teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzburg, Christopher Titmuss, Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield teach there regularly; most especially Joseph

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Insight Meditation Society's Centre in Barre Massachusetts

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and Sharon - who are the nearest one could find to being resident in a situation that is always in flux. IMS is directed by a Board of members who change, and administered by a staff of volunteers who serve for a year or two. Retreatants - called "yogis" - come for weekends, ten day courses, work retreats or on a long term basis. Such long term yogis - inevitably referred to as LTYs may stay for half a year or more participating in the taught retreats according to preference. It's quite a remarkable offer. Joseph and Sharon paid me a visit before the retreat. One thing that they commented on, and which I had already noticed, is the lack of reference to the Buddha in the Vipassana community of America. In fact the point is right there: one hears of Zen schools, Vajra empires and sanghas based on Vipassana meditation practice. Rarely does one hear of the Buddhist community - much less the Theravada - and some elements of the Vipassana community draw a veil over the tradition, or reject it altogether. This is because any further engagement with the Buddha's teaching necessitates a broader reflection on living the Dhamma, and at that juncture people find it difficult to follow the Theravada tradition. The Buddha's use of conventions and precepts for daily life doesn't go, down well in a society that equates freedom with lack of restraint rather than transcendence. People also confuse the heart of the tradition with its cultural overlays, or misunderstand the monastic training; basically because they haven't experienced anything like it. So in the absence of a tradition and a Buddhist way of life, aspirants earnestly follow contemporary teachers and practice tends to fixate upon SITTING (a term that gradually and irritatingly acquires capitals). Questions that the staff and retreatants put to me during my stay at IMS pointed to an uncertainty as to how to sustain practice outside the retreat situation. Without a structure for reflection and a Dhamma community, the staff tended to drift into a nether world. They lose touch with each other or a theme of practice, while attending to a constant flow of visitors and teachers who are SITTING. Bhikkhus are always welcome at IMS; there is a genuine respect and openness to what their presence can illustrate. As much of an Amaravati bhikkhu's day is one of activity, I felt that I might offer some helpful reflections on that topic. I realised that the last thing people needed from me was another set of ideas or techniques to add to, compare or conflict with previous sets. (Also I don't have any that are worth teaching.) But if there was a willingness to follow the Buddha's way of reflecting on the techniques, attitudes and aspirations that one already has, it could be a valuable retreat. So I thought I'd set up a situation for contemplating the Way Things Are, using the Eight Precepts and daily pujas as a structure and the Great Discourse on Mindfulness for meditation instruction. But we had a couple of days to settle in first. Barre is a village in wooded central Massachusetts with pitted roads, and white board houses (the norm in New England) spaced out alongside them. It's quiet; there's even a feeling of decline evidenced by tumbledown shacks, long-since abandoned agricultural machinery and stone walls in the forests that once divided cultivated land. They told me that these slender trees-white birch, maple, beech and conifers were all I could classify-have been here for less than a century. Now nothing much is happening on the land. I noticed a few sweetcorn patches, turned to stubble after the hard winter. The trees too were still stark and nearly naked. Numb from the shock of the winter, they were beginning to put on leaflets and buds for the spring season. We had a few walks around the countryside with Ven Gandhasilo, a young Thai bhikkhu who had booked on my retreat. He brightened visibly at our arrival, and immediately we became

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Sangha, did the pujas together and ate together. Within a day he was helping out by looking after my bowl and offering a nightly massage; all spontaneously and wonderfully unremarkable. Such is the experience of Sangha: so sensible and good you wonder why everybody doesn't pick up on it. It was a good retreat. I enjoy retreats for the most part: I like to have the teaching of the Buddha flowing through my mind, a supportive situation with people looking for guidance provides a steady focus for the heart; and my own energies get channelled in a calm and reflective way. I knew Americans would appreciate having their attitudes probed and commented on with straightforward good humour (I remembered the immigration officer) particularly in contrast to my threateningly formal appearance. So I could just let the retreat happen, and learn something myself. After a few days, smiles crept over people's faces, eyes brightened, features softened. People began bowing to the shrine and commenting in the interviews on the experience of gratitude. The Dhammic materialism that seeks to gain had been replaced by something more radiant. A sense of spirituality - a detachment from self and an opening to love had arisen where there had been just self-concern and the desire to gain; it was all a surprise, and yet totally normal. And the last surprise was on me when most of the retreatants voluntarily turned up after the retreat to formally take the Refuges and Five Precepts. That was a delight for me. What is important is what people leave with: with the Refuges and Precepts there's a foundation for life.

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JULY 1988

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EDITORIAL Off to Print

This Newsletter is principally for communication; hopefully it is also of some interest. Personally there are things I'd like to see in it that haven't appeared: I wish, for instance, that someone had written even a small piece to commemorate Ajahn Chah's 70th Birthday on June 17th. As it is, this reminder and the silence of that day's practice will have to serve. This is how, within a couple of weeks, the Newsletter is created. People send in material, sometimes with a little coaxing (no good Buddhist thinks that what they're doing is worth communicating); notices and last-minute articles are created and the whole lot is typed out by one nun; it is proof-read, edited and retyped; then handed over to David on the computer for "typesetting"; then it comes back for design and paste up by a couple of people-and goes off to the printers. We chose these printers because although their equipment is old, they use the Newsletter as part of a training scheme and don't charge for labour. They're not keen on photographs, though.

This periodical occurs through people getting together and giving what they can. It comes out of what comes in - the simplest law of nature.

After a week or so, during which time the typist has assembled the mailing list and prepared the envelopes, the Newsletter comes back for mailing. Postage costs affect the size of the Newsletter and how quickly we can get it to you; in North America a Thai community in New York covers the costs of printing and posting, and similar situations exist in Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia. Like all of this sangha's life, this periodical occurs through people getting together and giving what they can. It comes out of what comes in - the simplest law of nature. Recently we upgraded our out-of-print meditation booklet with a view to having something to offer wherever needed. We'd printed and given away about 10,000 of the first edition in the last couple of years, so it seems that people appreciate them. However, the new booklet will need to be sponsored, as publications expenditure has to be met independent of general funds. David Cowey covered the costs of the galleys; Barry Durrant heard about it and magnificently threw in GBP500, which sets the presses up and will produce 1,000; subsequent thousands cost about 9150 each - which compares favourably with The Daily Tabloid - so it makes sense to produce a few thousand at one run. A couple of other people have made a generous response, but a print run of less than 5,000 is not going to cover much ground. So if you've benefited from meditation instruction, you might like to consider what contribution you can make for the welfare of the manyfolk. The English Sangha Trust (Publications) at Amaravati will act as the bursar.

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And for the Newsletter, we're going to allow another week to work on it in the future, so contributions by September 3rd, please. Ajahn Sucitto

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October 1988 HOME BACK ISSUES

Ajahn Chah's Birthday; Viradhammo Bhikkhu Question Time; with Ajahn Sumedho Co-operation & a Different "Golden Rule"; Santacitto Bhikkhu To Arrive Where You Are; Conversation with Tudong Monks Keeping it Simple; Ayya Candasiri Ancient Meadows; Dr. Barry Durrant & Ayya Viveka Family Camp; Ayya Thanissara, Upasika Medhina, & Children State of America; Sucitto Bhikkhu

Question Time; with Ajahn Sumedho Ajahn Sumedho replies to the question: 'What is the citta?' This word 'citta' is used in the suttas for the subjective consciousness. If there's a citta from which the asavas (biases) are removed and a citta which is liberated, how does this fit in with the idea of self or no-self? How does one avoid self-view in thinking about the citta? If there's no self, who is it that's aware and what is it that becomes enlightened? Â

You want me to tell you? I mean you're aware aren't you? Why do you have to have a name for it?

Ajahn Sumedho: This is where Buddhism excels. It totally frustrates that desire. The Buddha wouldn't give an inch on that, because that's the non-dualism of the Buddha's teaching. It's psychologically uninspiring. You're left with just letting go of things rather than holding on to the feeling of a God or Oneness or the Soul or the Subject with capital S, or the Overself, or the Atman or Brahman or whatever - because those are all perceptions and the Buddha was pointing to the grasping of perception. The "I am" is a perception - isn't it? - and "God" is a perception. They're conventionally valid for communication and so forth, but as a practice, if you don't let go of perception then you tend to still have the illusion - an illusoriness coming from a belief in the perception of the overself, or God or the Oneness or Buddha Nature, or the divine substance or the divine essence, or something like that. Like with monism - monistic thinking is very inspiring. "We're all one. We are one - that's our true nature - the one mind." And you can talk of the universal mind and the wholeness and the oneness of everything. That's very uplifting, that's the inspiration. But non-dualism doesn't inspire. It's deliberately psychologically non-inspiring because you're letting go of the desire for inspiration, of that desire and need and clutching at inspiring concepts. This doesn't mean that those concepts are wrong or that monistic thinking is wrong; but the Buddha very much reflected the attachment to it. So, you're not an annihilationist saying there's nobody, nothing, no subject, but by non-dualism, you just let go of things till there's only the way things are. Then who is it that knows? People say: "Then what is it that knows? Who is it that knows the way things are, who is it that's aware? What is it that's aware?" You want me to tell you? I mean you're aware aren't

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you? Why do you have to have a name for it? Do you have to have a perception? Why can't there just be awareness? Why do you have to call it mine, or the eternal essence, or whatever? Why do you have to name it? Why not just be that, be aware. Then you see the desire, the doubt, wanting to label it, add to it. It's avijja paccaya sankhara (creating conditions out of ignorance). The process goes on of wanting to complicate it by giving it a name, calling it something. Just like the question "Can you see your own eyes?" Nobody can see their own eyes. I can see your eyes but I can't see my eyes. I'm sitting right here, I've got two eyes and I can't see them. But you can see my eyes. But there's no need for me to see my eyes because 1 can see! It's ridiculous, isn't it? If I started saying "Why can't I see my own eyes?" you'd think "Ajahn Sumedho's really weird, isn't he!" Looking in a mirror you can see a reflection, but that's not your eyes, it's a reflection of your eyes. There's no way that I've been able to look and see my own eyes, but then it's not necessary to see your own eyes. It's not necessary to know who it is that knows-because there's knowing. And then you start creating views about who is it that knows, then you start the avijja paccaya sankhara and on through the whole thing again to despair and anguish.

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You want me to tell you? I mean you're aware aren't you? Why do you have to have a name for it?

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Co-operation and a Different "Golden Rule" Ajahn Santacitto, one of the Sangha co-ordinators for the Global Co-operation Workshop at Amaravati in August, contributed this piece. Fittingly, his own description is interspersed with comments from those who participated in the discussions. Gotama Buddha: "So long as you will meet in concord, disperse in concord and tend to affairs in concord, so long may you be expected to prosper, not to decline.' This well describes the co-operative spirit of "A Day of Peace", the inspiring visit to Amaravati from the London Branch of the Brahma Kumaris -a spiritual community whose practice is founded on meditation, celibacy and community service. Even when the coming together is of different religious forms, when one shares a commitment to a life of spiritual practice, there is quite naturally a sense of mutual appreciation and friendship! A Brahma Kumari commented: "The spiritual atmosphere at Amaravati was such that it allowed both group members and co-ordinators to extend themselves. " The day also brought together members of many of the Buddhist meditation groups including Bedford, Billericay-Leigh, Brighton, Harlow and Reading-to explore the potential of the Creative Group Workshops as a means for developing the "quality of Sangha".

... create a 'positive' attitude rather than lingering with criticism on the negative aspects and facts of current injustices.

"As we are living in a rather big community, this workshop - concentrating on one's only way of relating to others and to oneself -becomes quite meaningful," wrote one of the nuns. Representatives of the groups met informally beforehand to explore possible links with each other and the Amaravati Sangha. Gathering for the workshop, there was a little hesitancy at first. A monk noted: "Not knowing what it would be like, my participation itself was included as a contribution for a better world:' The workshop involved over a hundred people dispersing into fourteen groups each guided by one of the Brahma Kumaris in the spirit of positive expression of one's vision, and cooperative effort. "One man of the Brahma Kumaris introduced us to the theme 'Vision for a Better World', which we were to elaborate on and contribute towards, in small groups of eight to ten people. The Golden Rule in these discussions was to create a 'positive' attitude rather than lingering

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with criticism on the negative aspects and facts of current injustices." Though this Golden Rule may have at first appeared to many as being a game, experience proved otherwise. A nun comments: "It could be a game. It is a game till your mind stops here: just where it hurts: just where it goes wrong. And you know you have to change the whole pattern. This is where the whole situation takes a completely different outlook. And you are alone -in the unknown -free to open up to whatever world, inner and outer you want to live in. This is all up to you. Was that a game" A Brahma Kumari: "The most satisfying experience I had was one of transformation not only in myself but also of the group. It became an automatic process. As a result of the Golden Rule people disciplined their thoughts words and into thinking and acting positively for myself there was growth in self-respect and self-worth." One first explored stepping into one's higher aspirations both for oneself, and in relation to others. The groups then considered how practically to better practise towards fulfilling these aspirations. A Brahma Kumari: "At the beginning of the group session the ideas and visions were often wordy concepts which protected the individual rather than extended them. Members of the group however, co-operated with each other and through mutual support amid respect guided each other towards realising more of what their aim could be." Upon reconvening after the workshop, a representative from each group shared the experience of the group. This was very inspiring and showed clearly that in all of the groups a high level of exchange had taken place. An anagarika: "I saw the vast yet timeless gap between how I conceived my present position of relationships in the world, and how I'd like them to be in my highest aspirations ... A 'flip' of attitude - a change of lens and there was no waiting for my highest aspirations, my 'ideal world' to manifest; it was already here. I had just not realised that it was." A monk: "It meant dropping and breaking through one's problems of thinking and using language. It actually felt a little like a 'breakthrough' because one feels so safe with all the vocabulary one is used to and one doesn't want to change. But the rules of the game allowed for that breakthrough to happen." The gathering of all the visions and plans of action was then offered as a donation to the "Global Co-operation for a Better World" project, which is being co-ordinated by the Brahma Kumaris on behalf of the U.N. and which Tuhn Ajahn Sumedho supports as a patron. In the Peace Vigil following tea, the communing in and communicating from silence seemed to conclude a very special day on a perfect note. However to our surprise, before breaking, Ajahn Sumedho requested the Sangha to chant the funeral chants for his father, of whose decease he had just been informed.

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For us it was truly a joy to communally direct the power of all the positive energy accumulated on this wonderful day towards the memory and well-being of Mr. Clarence Jackman. It is hoped that the Buddhist groups -both those participating and those unable to be present can Use the workshop as a means of developing the "quality of sangha" within and between groups. If there is sufficient interest, the Brahma Kumaris will happily arrange a day to assist group Members III developing the role of co-ordinator. For further information, please contact Barbara Jackson, "Creative Group Workshops", C/O Amaravati Buddhist Centre.

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Arrive Where You Are: on Tudong The practice of tudong, walking through open country on an extended pilgrimage, has long been a treasured aspect of the life of the forest bhikkhu: it presents many opportunities to live in insecurity and be confronted by difficult situations. In this country bhikkhus and siladharas have had opportunities to undertake this practice and found it a helpful way of deepening their understanding of the holy life. This year there were three tudongs: Ajahn Anando led fifteen bhikkhus and anagarikas from Chithurst and Amaravati along the South Downs Way: Ajahn Pabhakaro trekked in the Scottish Highlands with a bhikkhu and two laymen: and Ajahn Kittisaro and the rest of the Devon Sangha whose report will be in the next Newsletter made the pilgrimage from Devon to Chithurst. The walks differed in style, in accordance with cicumstance, but the fundamentals were the same - backpacks, tents, blisters and as the following comments illustrate, insights into the meaning of the homeless life.

"The aim of the walk is not to get somewhere, but to be where you are." Â Ajahn Anando

Ajahn Anando: When we began to plan the walk it was with a view of encouraging and inviting the lay people. So we first found places that would be suitable for stopping for the weekend, places which would be easily accessible and also having a pleasant ambience. From previous walks in Northumberland we found that it was a very inspiring way of meeting the lay people, who frequently went to a great deal of trouble to organise the food. I mean on this walk they were organising food for as many as fifteen people. (We wanted to see if it would be possible to go in such a large group). On the weekends, or if time and place permitted, we would organise some kind of walk around the area- some beautiful place perhaps to go to. While walking we would have opportunities to get to know people who may have been intimidated by the perceived formalities that exist in the monastery. Many people commented how pleasant it was, and the fact that people came day after day indicated that they were enjoying it also. The second week of the walk was a bit different than the first in the number of people that came to join us, because for the second week we were much closer to Brighton and the larger towns, and by that time the news media had found out about us. Newspaper articles had been published; the radio had broadcast a story about us and just as we got to Brighton the TV people found us. "The reporting was quite sympathetic in all cases, and more often than not correct -which is by no means always the case. That had quite beneficial effects an the last few days. One family read an article in the newspaper, The Independent, and was waiting for us. The South

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Downs Way runs right through their farm, and they came up to us and said: 'We've been waiting for you all day. Please come in.' And it ended up that the farmhouse had once been a monks' resthouse and so they were delighted to have the monks in the house. They were going to offer us dinner, and were rather disappointed that we could only have black tea (it was a dairy farm). They chatted with us, they were incredibly hospitable - showed all fifteen of us through the house, took photographs, invited us back. The final thing which happened because of the news coverage was that a man opened up his house to us at Burling Gap for our last meal of the walk. This turned out to be a rather wonderful occasion, and was certainly an unforgettable occasion for him. It was his birthday-I think there was a total of 55 people there! They'd come from Southampton, from Chithurst, Ajahn Sumedho from Amaravati - many more people than the man expected." "The support, the generosity was so touching that it was quite humbling, and brought up as a response a reflection, a renewed commitment, to live this life as well as possible -which I think is a side of mendicancy that few people understand. One of our reflections is to be worthy of alms, and to be worthy -the way we understand that is not to indulge in any ill-will or greed or selfishness. So when it tests you, you have lots of reflection throughout the day -it's very a good experience." Ajahn Pabhakaro: "It's really rugged country - you've got to have your wits about you out there. We were in a storm one day. We came down, and I was so weak I couldn't even open the paraffin bottle. It was about a quarter past twelve when we came down this glen, just completely shattered from the storm. It was only about two miles but it was through bog and heather in raging, driving rain and wind. "We planned originally to go from East to West to Iona, but then Iona turned out to be a bit much in the summer, so we packed that in as an idea, and just wove around to where the people were coming - like Jodi's cottage up by Loch Tag, and Venerable Sobhano's mother, and some other friends. If there wasn't anybody to look after us, then Ross who was carrying dried dehydrated foods would just cook up whatever. "Ross had a terrible time with his ankle - an old skiing injury - and so towards the end he had to drop out! So it worked out that on the last stage just Thanasila and I went on our own down the Highland Way. The Highland Way goes from North of Glasgow all the way up to Fort William, so people from Glasgow were able to come out and provide food. It's really quite challenging, but there's all sorts of people that walk it in the summer. When we got onto it we just came across and walked along the East side of Loch Lomond, and as soon as we set foot on that we were seeing people every hour, we were running into people, and people knew what we were. One guy said: 'Oh, I never thought I'd see monks out with all the high tech https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/06/arrive.htm[03/10/2017 00:23:34]

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gear,' and we met a chap and he said: 'Wow, it's was really lovely, people welcoming us to Scotland. Incredible country -I mean you can walk two or three days and not see anybody, there's just so much area up there to walk in, Scotland is so beautiful, even though we were in really pretty miserable conditions. "It was so bad we had to come somewhere every other day to dry out: it would have been suicidal to go on in those conditions. When you're out there and you're in the thick of this stuff, and the midges are at you -I had this real insight into the whole Tudonga wandering nomadic tradition. It makes life Miserable enough that you don't think it is worth staying around! The point comes home - that this is something that it is worth working to get out of! And so I'm really keen for us all to go tudong, because we're creatures of habit and tend to get into secure situations. "And a tent. A tent is the most lovely thing that's going. It's so lovely just to have a roof over your head for the night -a secure sort of little place out in the middle of nowhere. Venerable Thanasilo and I had a mountain tent that you could take up Everest. And you get that thing pitched - it's got about 10 guys on it and about 24 stakes to put in. Once you get the thing down, It's not going anywhere. We could actually squeeze four of us inside, we had puja in there-we did the itipi so and the karaniya metta in the morning and evening. I did 'mettancasabbalokasmim' as a mantra and the Refuges when it was really bad rain -it was a sort of focus. It is just so lovely to be out with the basics; life is so simple."

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Keeping it Simple The Buddha allowed four basic requisites for monks and nuns; these are robes, almsfood, shelter and medicine. Ayya Candasiri reflects on this as a way to learn contentment with a very simple life-style and considers that we don't actually need that much to follow the Way. For example with shelter: the standard for nuns is, a roof over the head for one night". The old paint store on Amaravati's campsite provides such shelter, and at the prospect of sharing this with another nun for a two-week period of retreat there was a wonderful opportunity to watch discontent - "What kind of retreat is this?" - arise in the mind ... to let it go, and return to the simplicity of NOW.

Sitting quietly, listening to the day begin outside - the dawn chorus, the sound of distant traffic -- it was very pleasant to be alive.

Well, the retreat began and it was quite delightful - to wake up at 3, 4, or 5 a.m., light a candle, bow, roll up the sleeping mat and replace it with a sitting mat. Throughout the procedure it was necessary to move very gently indeed to avoid disturbing my neighbour behind the thin partition ... (opening the door was always tricky), then walking out briskly in the clear night air to dispel the final traces of sleepiness. Sitting quietly, listening to the day begin outside - the dawn chorus, the sound of distant traffic -- it was very pleasant to be alive. Each day was punctuated by the monastery bell, which called the community to gruel, the meal and evening puja; the changing light, as the sun made its way across the sky, provided a more subtle and natural rhythm. Having determined to look at the time only on first waking, the periods of rest and meditation were determined by what felt right, rather than the compulsive desire to clock-up so many hours of formal practice ... what a relief that was! What a privilege to step aside - if only briefly - from the tyranny of the digital alarm clock! Some days were very hot; the well-insulated kutis became like furnaces. In the evening the air cooled but by closing the door, the stored-up warmth was preserved through the night. My kuti had a wood stove (the other had a basin!); on chillier nights newspaper, twigs and one or two small logs made a fire giving more than adequate warmth for several hours (it will make a marvellous sauna in winter). One evening a mosquito came to visit; I noticed how

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gently it settled down to feed, but the inflamed spots and itching remained for several days. On another occasion a large spider took up residence in my almsbowl; fortunately, we met 30 minutes before the meal offering. And I saw a lot of the cats; they seemed to like visiting the neighbouring cornfield: I'd notice one or other of them walking quietly by and through a hole in the high fence behind the shed, as I sat there at dusk enjoying the gradual transformation of the world as night fell. There'd be a sense of lingering sweetness as I stealthily rolled out the sleeping mat and prepared to rest. Then bowing to the Buddha, Dhamma -and Sangha, I'd see the photograph-, of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho deep in meditation; these provide a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to attend to the mind, to watch inwardly and attune to the silence. The heart resounds with wonder and gratitude -for those who brought me into the world, and my companions and teachers. May all beings be free!

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Ancient Meadows The principle of harmlessness seems present in the growing social awareness of how our activities affect the earth. As well as providing a very pleasant area for future visitors to walk in, the 'Wildflower Project" aims to reintroduce into the meadows adjacent to Chithurst Monastery some of the native flowering plants which have become rare in the area. The following are accounts by Dr. Barry Durrant, who moved to Chithurst early in 1988 and who kindly agreed to take on the project, and Ayya Viveka who helped organise the initial year of the project, final planting into the chosen site. This year saw the start of the second phase of a three year conservation programme initiated by the Abbot and community of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery; a project to gradually convert fields around the monastery, hitherto let for cattle grazing, into ancient pastures". In the good old days before farming became big - i.e., before the advent of "controlled environments , the intensive use of artificial fertilizers and herbicides, and grubbing up of thousands of miles of hedgerows to make way for the combines - the countryside was resplendent in many different wildflowers. Such diversity attracted a great number of insects, butterflies, birds and small mammals -all in a dynamic interrelated mini-world. Sadly, such is progress, that that which brought economy of effort and greater production (and profit!) also brought a concomitant loss of many wild-flower species. Many species cannot tolerate an over- concentrated pasture or too frequent cutting, and they have gradually succumbed to their more adaptable and robust brothers.

I tried to think of the seeds as living beings, to prepare them with affection, and to work from a sense of offering to the Sangha.

Orchids, Hay Rattle, Great Burnet, Meadow Saxifrage -to name but a few - were, and are, all under threat. Buttercups, Plantains and Dandelions are clearly far more resilient! Only in inaccessible or idle areas of farmland do small pockets now manage to thrive. It was therefore the plan to re-establish these meadows by the purchase and sowing of wildflower seeds, their nurturing over-the summer months and final planting into the chosen site. Initially the seeds (some 20 different species) were mixed with wet sand and placed in a domestic refrigerator at just above freezing for some 4 weeks. At the end of this time and by the early days of March, the seeds were thinly sown in compost in seed trays and placed in the walled garden. There were the obvious hazards from birds, rodents, wind and drought, but the boxes were kept covered by netting and regularly watered. Astonishingly, many species started their germination within 5-7 days and gradually the dull brown compost became speckled by the green of fine young seedlings. As the seedlings matured enough to be handled, so they needed transplanting into tomato boxes filled with soil

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and peat. This saw the start of a six-to-eight week challenge for those of delicate touch and keen eyesight. Each tender seedling was carefully lifted and replanted into its new home some 35 to a box -and in the process more and more boxes were moved from the coach house store, more and more earth was dug and sieved, and more and more peat purchased in huge bales from the local nursery. Anxiety ran high as to whether there would be enough helpers to complete this important and delicate stage, but with help from the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Local conservation groups supporters and guests of the monastery, and the nuns, most of the seedlings were transplanted. Some species ran riot (the clover!), others did poorly (pignut) but nevertheless a useful and significant number thrived and await the autumn. The ground became covered by rows upon rows of boxes each, as the summer months passed by, coming to display the especial characteristics of the plants within Ă&#x2018;Lady's Bedstraw, Rest Harrow, Viper's Bugloss, Cowslip and Devil's Bit Scabious. We shall be starting the final stage in September transferring each young plant into the field -and this will prove the most labour intensive part of the whole process. The boxes must be carried from the walled garden to the site, the many differing species once more disturbed and randomly mixed as an assorted group, and finally the turf must be cut and each plant tucked up neat and secure to weather its first winter in the fields of Sussex. Hopefully, enough volunteers will again miraculously materialise, each making their particular and vital contribution to conservation and posterity. Deliberately cultivating "weeds" seems slightly ludicrous, although people interested in conservation are generally more enthusiastic. However, my own view is slightly different from both of these: I started the project in spring 1987 on Ajahn Anando's invitation, as part of my monastic training. Saying "yes" did take a certain degree of faith, as I had no experience in such matters, but Ajahn Anando seemed to think that I could do it. So I trusted in his ability to train people - and in my own intention, the willingness to help. A rather bleak end of February saw the arrival of the seeds and I started working in the clammy darkness of the scullery at Chithurst, mixing them with wet sand. The Ajahn had been giving instruction on metta-bhavana, and looking at the sand the seeds and the scullery I wondered how I could relate such an inspiring meditation practice to this task. Then it became clear: maybe the energy of the heart could be put into this work. So I tried to think of the seeds as living beings, to prepare them with affection, and to work from a sense of offering to the Sangha. With this new attitude my perceptions altered: I noticed the differences in the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/06/meadow.htm[03/10/2017 00:20:03]

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seeds-some species were very fine dust, some nearly as big as lentils - and each had its own distinctive smell, scents reminiscent of summer hag meadows. And I found that I enjoyed working on the project, the physical resources to do it were there and were coming from spaciousness rather than anxiety. As they grew, there was a lot of work involved in tending the seedlings and it was essential to go back to that initial intention in the heart. More people had to join in and they needed to be organised. The year's plan which was in my mind did not allow for the moods that individuals might be experiencing so I had to learn to be more sensitive to others: to keep room both for what I thought had to be done and what was possible within the limitations of the human realm. We received help from many people: Nick Scott gave invaluable advice -information an which species to grow, how to grow them and where to buy the seed; Khun Mudita supplied hundreds of boxes; the community at Chithurst helped in whatever ways they were able; and friends of the monastery made special efforts to come and spend a day or so to help with planting. I remember almost surreal afternoons when the walled garden and lawn at Chithurst were filled with people moving silently about their work, sharing time, energy and space in harmony. My perceptions of the project are pleasant, and include a growing appreciation for the natural world's richness and power. Giving attention to the wildflowers each day I became aware of minute changes: the shapes of the leaves were familiar friends-, and tending and watering these plants I sensed the vibrant peace of the earth. Yet what stands out was seeing people draw together, working for no personal benefit other than the joy of giving, and the unity which arises when the compulsions of self are put aside. Cultivating the selfless heart, acting from inner stillness, is truly beautiful.

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Family Summer Camp Ayya Thanissara, Medhina Fright and several of the children report on events at this years family summer camp. The light and blessings of the triple gem gave rise to a kaleidoscope event this year at Amaravati. Although more ordinarily known as the Family Summer Camp, the numbers from last year had almost doubled, so this year's camp blossomed into something that had a touch of the extraordinary. During the last week of July, different shaped tents and a colourful array of people (Most1y small sized!) appeared at Amaravati - as if out of the void. As the camp quickly gained momentum, it had the potential for experiencing both the peace of Dhamma and the turbulent nature of the six realms (states of mind that arise according to the results of thought, speech and action that are based in greed, hatred and delusion). The six realms became the main theme of the Dhamma talks and workshops, and it was also the subject for this year's children's play. Besides this, there were a varied number of activities in which the monastic and lay community shared their knowledge and skills with parents and children. One of the on-going projects initiated at the camp was the building of a stupa from stones which people had brought from all over, including some from Buddhist holy sites in India. The stupa is something that anyone can contribute to at any time: so if you are visiting Amaravati, please bring some stones from your home.

A fertile field of paramita is cultivated, providing the right soil in which such wonderful events as the Family Â Camp can grow and bloom.

Around each camp so far there has been an aura of vibrancy and experimentation, this year was no exception with such an increase in numbers, it was very much an experiment. In previous years people who have come have known each other-, this year many new faces came. So as the camp moved into a slightly new dimension, those involved in its organisation found it helpful to meet several times throughout the week to reflect on this new direction and the growth of interest. There was a general agreement about certain guidelines and principles that would be helpful in future camps. These would ensure smooth running of practicalities; create more opportunities for children to have closer contact with the Sangha; enable more formal Dhamma teaching to take place; Provide more creative and physical activities for the younger boys; facilitate a better communication system. There were many other positive suggestions put forward that could be incorporated. The organisation of such a camp next year will need a co-operative effort of families with members of the Sangha. Meetings will be held in the Spring for those interested in helping. The dates for next year's camp are 20th-31st August. This longer stretch of time lends itself to spreading out the numbers of those attending, and also provides an opportunity for those who feel they would benefit from a longer stay. So as the practice in Sangha life quietly continues throughout the year, a fertile field of https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/06/camp.htm[03/10/2017 00:18:28]

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paramita is cultivated, providing the right soil in which such wonderful events as the Family Camp can grow and bloom. Many thanks to Tahn Ajahn, the monks and nuns and all whose help made this year's camp possible. Ayya Thanissara -oooOooo"You went where?" "To a monastery." "On your own?" "No, with about 60 other adults and 60 children."

"What on earth did you do with 80 children in a monastery?"

Well first of all one tries to accommodate and feed them all. This year the retreat centre was full of tents. A marquee had been erected into which the whole community poured three times a day in search of the giant pots of food prepared in the kitchen by half a dozen volunteers. Some sat at tables and many sat on a patchwork of carpets which had appeared like magic to cover the floor.

For many families it was a new adventure. The children participated in a number of workshops such as drama, nature, puppet making, Buddhist teachings, a Brahma Kumari Global cooperation workshop, needlework, yoga, calligraphy, cookery, kite making and printing. As people do, they responded in a variety of ways. Some wanted to sample every kind of activity, some chose a few on which to concentrate, and some wanted to do none. Some groups were large and some were small; some were quiet and some were noisy-, some worked for hours and some for a few minutes. A vitality bubbled throughout the place from the morning puja at seven-thirty to the dying embers of the camp fire at midnight.

Nor were the parents idle! Regular requests for practical help with washing up, carrying tea urns, cleaning toilets and looking after the babies creche competed with dhamma talks on the six realms and the four noble truths, conversation times with Tuhn Ajahn,

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yoga, massage, and meditation.

The pace changed on Friday, Asalha puja day, when the older children and some parents walked with six members of the Sangha the ten miles to Ivinghoe Beacon. A relative tranquility settled over the campsite while they followed footpaths through bean fields, woodland, villages and pasture. The tiny tots were brought with their parents by car to meet us at our destination with ice-creams and hot tea. Kites were flown and muddy feet rested for the last few minutes of clear blue sky before a cloudburst sent us scurrying home.

The week finished with the consecration of a new stone stupa the building of which was initiated during the camp; a presentation of the children's play, "The six realms"; a short melodic puja devised for the children; and the perennially propitious blessing.

"I thought a monastery was a quiet, solemn place."

"And so it is ... sometimes!" Upasika Medhina -oooOoooComments from the children: I arrive at Amaravati, the timetable is packed. I spend all day rushing from one activity to the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/06/camp.htm[03/10/2017 00:18:28]

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next, not wanting to miss any of them. So many workshops, so many things to do, the whole day flashes by at the speed of light. A late night from the campfire, and early rise for morning puja. I began to feel like an excited machine robot, collecting skill, knowledge and information as I ran at full speed.

The week comes to a sudden end, everything slows down. We say goodbye. We go home. We fall asleep. We rest. I read a book. I watch a film. I walk like a zombie. My mind is blank. I've forgotten the monastery after the first day. I can't think of anything, just push thoughts aside and fall asleep. I slowly try to get back into life routine. The clock gradually ticks away the minutes. I watch the grass grow.

The week begins to happen all over again in my mind. People's sayings haunt my memory. The play of "The Six Realms" acts itself again.

I watch it all come and go, and I take my Buddha rupa from the cupboard, dust it, and put it in its place in my room. I think the best workshop was calligraphy. It was great fun and I learnt it quite quickly. Somebody spilt some ink on a monk and he didn't lose his temper. Poems from "The Six Realms of Existence": Humans Where I am going others have been, What I will see, others have seen, What I will feel, has been felt before, others have been happy, others have been sore. This is the place where I make up my mind, to be evil or good, to be selfish or kind. This is where I choose my way to waste my life or to make it pay!

Gods Where has it gone? What happened? Flimsy paper palaces, collapsing at the slightest touch. Bliss while it lasted. I was so happy, R. 1. P. WHY? Responses by adults to the camp:

"There is a inherent beneficial quality about Amaravati, because people are practising here." "We especially enjoyed the children-orientated pujas." "Energy, space, inspiration: recharging spiritual batteries" 0 "The contact with monks and nuns is something the children can recall in the future, or come back to in the future" "From this clear place you can see through some of the problems and vicious circles you cause yourself at home" Improvements suggested for next year:

"The creche could use some more equipment" ~ "Know more about the etiquette between monks, nuns and lay people" ~ "I would like a more specific level of commitment to Buddhist practice. We are coming into a monastic community and our behaviour should tend to harmonise with it" ~ "There could be more of an approach to meditation for children"

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State of America Ajahn Sucitto continues his reflections on aspects of Buddhism in America The Way to Providence One of the women on the retreat at barre was from Providence, Rhode Island; she had heard of the retreat through her local meditation group, the Unitarian Universalist Church. She enjoyed the retreat, and it was through her enthusiasm that we received an invitation to visit Providence and give a talk to the group. The minister, Tom Ahlburn, phoned up, gave us a very warm and hospitable invitation, and came to drive us down to Providence the day after the retreat ended. He was not a Christian minister, nor was the Church (which actually meant the group, not the building) a Christian organisation. Unitarian Universalism is an offshoot of Congregationalism; which means that every congregation has the right to choose its own form of worship. In true American fashion, Unitarian Universalism allowed each individual to choose their own religion. In this case, Tom was a Buddhist as were most of his congregation. Although originally inspired by Master Soen Sahn of the Providence Zen Centre, Tom currently associated with Ven Maha Ghosananda, a Cambodian bhikkhu who had a small temple that catered for the Cambodian refugees of Providence. Although Ven Maha Ghosananada's English was patchy, his delightful presence, and the plight of the refugees, had motivated Tom to get involved with the Wat Khmer. And when I gave my talk to the group, Ven Maha Ghosananda was there beaming with delight, as was normal for him. The district of Providence in which the Universalist Unitarian Meeting House was situated was the old town; and Americans being quite proud of their history, the city had taken some efforts to maintain it much as it must have looked two or three hundred years ago. The buildings are all wooden, the streets are rather narrow with pleasant gardens and they even made the electric, lights look rather like old-fashioned gas lamps.

The problem, particularly for lay people, is not a lack of technique, but difficulty in finding a supportive Â environment. And people don't always know what to look for.

After the talk, Tom and his wife drove us over to the Wat Khmer on the "other" side of town where we were to spend the night. It was the rough side of Providence-broken-down streets, boarded up houses-and as we got out of the car Tom suggested that perhaps it wasn't such a wise idea to go pindabaht the next morning. In the Wat itself, which was just a simple tenement house, there were posters giving notification of the plans to purchase a centre which would be a place for meditation and Dhamma teaching, for medicine, for education and for Khmer culture - it was quite a visionary complex. Ajahn Maha had found a suitable area of land outside Providence and was https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/06/state.htm[03/10/2017 00:16:48]

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asking people to make donations to the tune of half million dollars - which, from the impoverished state of the Wat, seemed way out of reach. But Maha Ghosananda beaming with confidence was another story. Early next day he breezily suggested we go out on almsround, and despite Tom's initial apprehension, the matter was clinched when a local Cambodian man came in, lit up with glee and ran out to tell the nearby families that bhikkhus were coming. We put our bowls over our shoulders and walked out to the street - and things started to happen. People came tumbling out of their houses, rushing backwards and forwards bearing bowls of rice, loaves of bread, and fruit, and eagerly wedging them into our alms-bowls. Some people were putting envelopes with money in into our bowls, Tom was diligently collecting the money, the loaves of bread, and the things that wouldn't fit in or weren't suitable for monks to carry - and we chanted blessings and they chanted sharing of merit with the dead and we chanted some more, and all along this street in Providence, there occurred this Wonderful enactment of devotion to the Triple Gem. And for those few moments that back street in the rough side of Providence turned into something more like the Devaloka. Providence (the bounty of the divine) never seemed so rightly named as at that time. The refugees certainly weren't developing any great degree of tranquillity, there didn't seem to be much concern about practice, yet their lives had a foundation of faith in the Triple Gem that gave them a real strength. And one saw how it was going to be possible for them to get their half million dollars and establish their centre. I felt that if we, in our hearts, could learn from those people the transforming power of faith, it would have repaid the West ten times over all the foreign aid that has ever been given; because if we don't learn that, we will surely just wither away through lack of joy. One thing it made clear in my own mind was that my basic offering as a bhikkhu was to go out on pindabaht every day in these barren cities of the West. The least you can do is to present a reminder of the spiritual life. The Jungles of Massachusetts The next day we were taken into Cambridge where I had been invited to give a talk at the Insight Meditation Center. IMC is a refuge for city folk; there's a nice sense of community there with people coming in for periods of the day to meditate and help out with the chores. Larry Rosenberg, who is the resident teacher there, has quite a degree of faith in the forest tradition style of practice; one part of the centre displays large mounted photos of the forest masters - Ajahn Mun, Ajahn Sao, Ajahn Khao, Ajahn Lee, Ajahn Waen, Ajahn Fuhn. They have all passed away and their forests are disappearing, but still one always appreciates the reflection of such masters. The dignity of their simplicity, and their direct experience of Dhamma calms you in a society that values having a lot of exciting opinions. Our hosts in Cambridge, Hob and Olivia, gave us a characteristically American welcome: make yourself at home! And they meant it. The entire top floor of their house was ours; only too pleased to offer food, rest, showers, whatever we needed -and glad to have us to talk with. Over the next few days we had some good conversations with Hob and the people who came round. Hob raised some points that were worth talking about. Like many Americans, he had an uncertainty about traditional forms, particularly monasticism, and how that https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/06/state.htm[03/10/2017 00:16:48]

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works with the freedom of the spirit. He also pointed to a conflict in his life between a refined meditation technique and a need to integrate Dhamma into a way of living. It had been much the same with me until I made a real commitment to Sangha and the training entailed in that. But when circumstances and behaviour were no longer subject to my personal motivation it allowed me the freedom to respond to life with mindfulness rather than habit. So it had become simple (not easy); in fact simpler to do it than to talk about it. The problem, particularly for lay people, is not a lack of technique, but difficulty in finding a supportive environment. And people don't always know what to look for. Life is kinder to the choiceless: an chance invitation Venerable Karuniko and I found ourselves invited to the Wat Khmer in Lowell, and that presented a good perspective on our dialogue. There are thousands of Asian refugee families in Lowell because its an industrial town and there are jobs to go around. In one of its homely suburbs stands the Wat Khmer, a large refurbished hall of little charm. Apart from samanera Dhammagutto, who had invited us and who is American, there were five bhikkhus resident there of various Asian nationalities. The abbot - Ajahn Khan Sao -and another monk were Cambodian forest bhikkhus. Dhammagutto gave us some accounts of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge days (the second monk hadn't recovered get) but the monks themselves weren't talking about the past or the future, they were building the temple. Ajahn Khan Sao felt that his main practice was in helping the Cambodians to begin again. They would come to him with their problems, and sorrows and quarrels, and he would tell them to stop, forget and begin again -a very direct teaching. Dhammagutto talked about times when people would come for chanting on behalf of their dead relatives: the monks would start chanting at 6.00 in the evening and finish at 3.00 in the morning. It put some balm an the wounds. Of course a lot of responsibility devolved to Dhammagutto, being the only resident American there and an expert in mechanics, Chinese medicine and acupuncture as well. Apart from undertaking all manner of manual work in the temple, Dhammagutto had decided to be the night watchman. He walked around the Wat at night with a big stick and through his wits and his quick tongue bluffed and challenged the people who threw rocks at the windows or tried to break in. So the place, like Dhammagutto himself, was battered and not very tranquil, but had the features of a good environment for practice: commitment, morality, plently of opportunities for giving and patience, and not much chance to think about yourself. You felt a glow in the heart at being there. So on the next day when Hob took us to Logan Airport to fly to New York, I talked to him about the Cambodian temple, because it seemed to offer an excellent opportunity for the Cambridge folk to develop their Dhamma practice and help the refugees as well. He was certainly open to the idea, but the Khmer connection was not an obvious one to make; it only seemed obvious to me because I saw the Buddhist tradition as being a place for practice -and that's a rare view in America. Westerners can feel estranged from Asian conventions and the formalism of the Bhikkhu Sangha; and they can even look down on them as products of blind ritualism. How easy it is to dismiss it all as old tradition: we want the new, the improved; we don't want any of the old stuff. But the Asian tradition has preserved the teaching and practice of Buddhism for centuries, and one feels: isn't it time that we in the West repaid the nurses' fees for 2,500 years of custodianship? And isn't the concrete jungle a suitable forest for people to practise letting go in?

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The Juice of the Apple New York is the city that historically has absorbed the refugees and the emigres and reconstituted their national traits into a polyglot city state. There's plenty of juice in the big Apples earnestly materialistic, its mercantile energy seems to propel every building up to the sky and whittle its many nationalities into a shape that will fit. Or it dumps them on the street. Visiting Thai people in, and around New York gave some insights into the process: a few were trying to keep Dhamma practice going, but weren't optimistic about the community in general; many had only a cultural relationship to Buddhism (though still pleased to support bhikkhus); and the children were little New Yorkers, lacking the composure that I was used to seeing in Thai children. These are the emigres who have succeeded in fitting in. Ironically, the materialist conventions provide a more accessible common ground than the Buddhist ones. Asians tend to cling to Buddhist conventions as if they are Dhamma, Americans reject them as if they are obstacles to correct practice. The timelessness and restraint of a tradition would be wonderful if blended with American initiative, but right now that meeting can only occur around a monastic Sangha that relates to the old and the New World. Such a Sangha can create an interface for mutual reflection but in America at this time there isn't much sign of one. One such pilgrim was Ward, who had been on the Barre retreat. He invited us to a meal at his home in Manhattan, which was three storeys up in a warehouse building in the shadow of the World Trade Towers. Their blank and mountainous aspect added an eremitic touch to his environment - surrounded by concrete and glass, not a human being in sight. The staples of Ward's existence were: early morning and evening meditation; a small and specialised craft; and getting out into the country on the weekends. It kept him steady and clear -but he was asking himself: "Where do I go from here?" Looking for a place to grow together in Truth, the Pilgrim Fathers left home behind over two hundred years ago: their only mistake was not going far or deep enough. America's still big on aspiration and energy, but today's aspirants live in a world that has few places to start anew. They have to voyage beyond personal viewpoints, and in a country that promises you the freedom to choose, that's not easy. It only gets easier when you realise there's nowhere else to go.

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EDITORIAL The Changing Faces of Sangha Those attending this years upasampada at Chithurst may have noticed at the end of the mysterious and inaudible proceedings (Ajahn Sumedho has requested a PA system for next year) another earnestly attended process. It was the announcement of a samana labha avasa and if you're still guessing, that means that Amaravati, Chithurst, Harnham, Devon and the Swiss Vihara have agreed to act as a commonwealth, sharing greater and lesser possessions according to need. It formalises in material terms what has always been the spirit of our communities. Community consciousness -where the group is the reference point rather than the views of the individual - is an evolved state that one sees as the only way towards skilful relationship with each other and the planet. It does require a maturing through individuals conforming to standards and precepts, and a sense of trust for those who make that commitment. To not be offended by the world - Ajahn Sumedho's current resolution -is the prerequisite for compassionate response. Then the views of the individual can be seen in the correct light, as steps towards acceptance of differences, and cooperation despite them.

Glad responses come up when we can explore the aggrieved, the fantastic or the ordinary with an open mind.

Am I trying to justify another Newsletter assortment of perspectives that not everyone's going to agree with? Well, more than that. Sangha life in general received quite a boost from a series of Global Co-operation Workshops as mentioned below - which presented opportunities to relax the critical instincts, the indignation at the world predicament and resolution (often made by Buddhists) to be completely hopeless. Glad responses come up when we can explore the aggrieved, the fantastic or the ordinary with an open mind. Kathina season comes round again, so for Asian and Western lay people there is a special time to Co-operate around the themes of offering to the Sangha and helping to keep these monasteries going, for the welfare of the many. Then in January and February the monastic retreats bring the ordained community together around Dhamma on a moment-by-moment basis. This year, the Devon and Harnham sanghas, and we hope, Ajahn Jagaro from Down Under, will be merging into the Deathless at Amaravati. May we all learn to share what we have and accept each other's offerings with gratitude. Ajahn Sucitto

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January 1999

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THIS ISSUE Editorial: Returning Homeless: Working With Nature:

Number 7 HOME BACK ISSUES

Cover: Question Time; Tuhn Ajahn Sumedho Articles: Arrive at Where You Are; Kittisaro Bhikkhu

Desire to end Desire; Tuhn Ajahn Maha Boowa

Filling in the Dots; Sister Abahassara

Zeal and New Land; Subbato Bhikkhu

Kwan Yin & the Noble Elephant; Sucitto Bhikkhu

Thoughts From a Forest; Vipassi Bhikkhu

A First View of Buddhism; Arnold Handley

Question Time Questions presented to Tuhn Ajahn Sumedho during the January monastic retreat of 1988 Question: How do you practise contemplation of the citta*? Answer: Well it's just like a mood; vedana (feeling) is attractive, repulsive or neutral, but citta can be quite fuzzy - you can feel emotionally confused or hesitant, or muddled or just dull and very nebulous feelings of moods. If you're practising citta vipassana you're really aware of what your citta is like. But sometimes people in meditation develop a technique, and they do it no matter what. They aren't aware of their actual mood or what's affecting them. They become conditioned to a meditation technique: "It's 8.35 - time to do my anapanasati," and then they're not aware. They've just been on the telephone, and their Mother told them that their Father ran away with the secretary and that the electricity bill wasn't paid so the lights go out and there are all these things that make you upset -and then they wonder why: "I couldn't meditate last night, I was too upset; I just couldn't concentrate on my breath!" But if you're meditating properly, then if some horrible thing happens, you can watch your citta. Don't think you've got to do anapanasati at that time -I mean its not going to be much use. No wonder. There's a lot going on here that you have to accept and notice. You can do anapanasati when nothing much is disturbing you. *citta - approximates to "mind",except that it is not cerebral, nor is it located in a place in the body. The word refers to the sense of mind consciousness.

I found through obsessing my mind with those two words (let go) eventually the thinking began to still.

People ask me, they say: "I've been trying to do anapanasati for years, I haven't gotten anywhere" They have this idea that to do anapanasati is a good practice, but they, don't reflect on other factors in life: what kind of work they do, what kind of family situation they're in and all the things that are going to influence and affect their mind and heart. Maybe for a moment you might be able to suppress everything out, but it all comes exploding back into your mind https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/7.htm[03/10/2017 01:13:39]

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again. So the more quiet you get, the easier it is just to concentrate on the breath. When I first started meditating I couldn't do anapanasati at all. So I did mantras. Something like mantras I found very helpful to calm - like fighting fire with fire. My mind was such an obsessed thinker that I needed a thought. I couldn't contemplate on anything as subtle as my breathing, So I made up this mantra - "Let go" - and it worked. After a while, I just kept saying this mantra: "Let go" The first month of my meditation when I was a novice was an utter hell realm for me really. Suddenly I found myself living a very lonely life in the monastery, all alone. Nobody to talk to, nowhere to go. I'd just sit there and wait for them to bring me the meal. I became obsessed about the food - really ridiculous. And then try to do this anapanasati. In the end I thought, "Let go, just say: 'Let go'" So I did that, and I found through obsessing my mind with those two words eventually the thinking began to still - I'd get moments when I wasn't actually thinking; there was a moment of calm. And I'd notice it. And then the mind went back into obsession, and I'd say: "Let go, let go, let go" Eventually it was really like a machine gun! And after a while my mind became much more calm, so I could just more or less casually go about it. That's working with the mind. Then after a while mantras seemed ridiculous - I had no need for them - and then anapanasati became something I really enjoyed, I really liked to do. Question: If consciousness and the khandhas** cease in a Tathagata, in a Buddha, in someone who becomes enlightened, who exists, what kind of existence is there left? Is there anything, is there nothing, or what? Answer: There's no delusion, about it any more. There's consciousness -the buddha was conscious, he wasn't unconscious - and he had a body and he had perception. He had vedana and he had sanna sankhara, vinnara. He had sense organs, and could see, hear, smell, taste, touch, think, and he had vedana,- there was vedana but there was no desire from that, coming from, ignorance. There was the ability to respond, to teach out of compassion for other beings, but there was no self to do it: there was just the remaining of what was left of that lifetime. He lived over forty years after his enlightenment, for the welfare of others beings. Language gets very confusing, because cessation sounds like annihilation to us-but it isn't. It's the ceasing of ignorance, the cessation of ignorance. **Khandhas - body or form (rupa) and mind, which is made up of feeling (vedana), perception or recognition (sanna), mind creations (sankhara), and consciousness dependent on the six senses (vinnana) Question: If there is no desire, if there's parinibbana, doesn't that mean everything ceases? Answer: That's it. There's the nibbana of non-grasping while the bodies still living, and then there's the parinibbana the final relinquishment; there's nothing to get reborn.

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You see, when people die still unenlightened they desire to be reborn again. If you identify with the body, then you try to hold onto it as long as possible or there's the desire to be reborn into something else. You can see it just in a day here when you want something to stimulate you - that's rebirth actually. There's all this desire that will always take us to doing something, absorbing into something else. Well, apply that to when the body is dying. If you're frightened of death, and you've not really contemplated life and you're still attached to all these views about yourself, then there's a lot of desire going to come for rebirth. What you're attached to you tend to absorb into - the things you're used to, what you like, what you find attractive. You tend to go for that all the time; seeking people that you like, or seeking the place or the things, the thoughts and memories which are familiar. People will even hang on to misery and pain, because they're used to it. As I said last night, when you're miserable at least you feel alive. To feel persecuted makes you feel really alive. Hating people makes you feel alive, doesn't it? If you really hate somebody, then you know you're really alive and you feel energised. Some people get very dull when they don't hate people, when they don't have any lust or greed for something, or any ambition to get somewhere. Why do people want to climb Mount Everest, or be the first one to sit the longest in a tub of baked beans? (There is actually someone - it's in the Guiness Book of Records. Imagine the danger of being reborn from that one!) Taking revenge, seeking vengeance, is sometimes what keeps people alive. I've never been in an English pub because all my life in England I've lived as a monk -but in American ones, I remember you'd go and you'd argue. You can get very heated about political things that you really don't care about very much-, it makes you feel alive to win an argument, or to support and defend a particular viewpoint. Now contrast that to what we're doing here where the attention is on such ordinary things. There's nothing much: the passions are let go of - greed, hatred, delusion. You're conscious of breathing now, conscious of feeling - neutral feeling - Conscious of causes. You're bringing into consciousness the way things are. Now one doesn't feel this desire: the desire to go after extremes falls away. Most of us would really not want to argue about political views, or go to pubs, or climb Mount Everest, or sit in a tub of baked beans. So this is where most of our life is: it's the same for everyone really. The extremes are brief moments, but most of our life is like this: it's eating, walking, sitting, lying down, feeling, waiting for the bus, waiting for somebody to telephone, waiting for the bell to ring, waiting for the next event. And all that time we're breathing and there's feeling, and there's consciousness. In the practice of awareness, we're bringing consciousness to the ordinariness because we're not Usually conscious of that: Usually the ignorant person is conscious only in the extreme moments.

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Question Time; Tuhn Ajahn Sumedho Arrive at Where You Are; Kittisaro Bhikkhu Desire to end Desire; Tuhn Ajahn Maha Boowa Filling in the Dots; Sister Abahassara Zeal and New Land; Subbato Bhikkhu Kwan Yin & the Noble Elephant; Sucitto Bhikkhu Thoughts From a Forest; Vipassi Bhikkhu A First View of Buddhism; Arnold Handley

To Arrive at Where You Are The three bhikkhus and two anagarikas of the Devon Vihara walked from Devon to Chithurst in July. Here are extracts from Ajahn Kittisaro's letter, beginning with the time of leaving the Vihara. The unknown sharpens the mind and calls forth rejuvenating effort to meet the challenge. A quadruple rainbow heralded our departure and our initiation into the tudonga life was immediate. From our very first step it poured with rain, and we smiled wet and happy smiles as we strode along, exhilarated by the exertion itself, the movement, the utter simplicity ... Rhythmic footsteps became our good friends, along with the seemingly omnipresent pack. Its weight, pressure, , and burden was reassuringly familiar amidst the constant change of wandering. It staged with me wherever we went, encouraging me to develop energy and patient endurance: and it gathered together our requisites into a very small space, helping us to see clearly how simple (or complicated) our bodily needs were. Â

I thought it would be good for us to be available for mocking, ignoring, or offering, as the case might be.

Physically we still needed a place to rest our bodies for a night. Not wanting to take anything not given, we would put our tents down somewhere only with permission. Though often surrounded by vast tracts of lovely, spacious, empty, and alluring countryside, we remembered: "This belongs to somebody." People get annoyed when others take things for granted and use property improperly. So often as the afternoon began to fade we would look for someone to ask: "We are Buddhist monks walking on pilgrimage to our monastery in West Sussex. Do you know where we might be able to get permission to camp for one night?" ...In this way, drawn together by need and a kind heart, we met many wonderful beings who invited us into their space. Our bodies were offered abundant fresh air, shelter, and nourishment; our hearts found encouragement, gratitude and trust, and our minds were given many things to reflect upon. Those who welcomed us seemed to receive in the giving. Everyone glows. Once we approached the village of Mockbegger. We all wondered, will we be mocked. I thought it would be good for us to be available for mocking, ignoring, or offering, as the case might be. As it was late afternoon and we had no place to stay, I approached a house in order to speak with someone. Just as I opened the squeaky gate a man appeared out of nowhere, on cue, and he mocked me in a rather condescending tone as if he had caught me red-handed. "And what can I do for you, young man?"

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I answered honestly, and contemplated that praise is not a true refuge. To hear tones of blame sounding Dhamma truth is indeed liberating. Mockbegger is giving us some good practice, we thought. The local vicar, who was newly ordained, seemed rather shocked to see us, and said it was against the law to camp. He directed us a few miles away to a public campsite. This is not the kind of news you like to hear at the end of a long day when you are tired. Next door was a beautiful farm, Mockbegger Farm. We walked by, looked in wistfully, and went on. We'll take what has been given, I thought. The vicar has offered us his advice - not necessarily what we wanted - and we are capable of walking another mile or so with equanimity. Just as we were walking away I heard a cough. Turning around I saw a woman with a dog. I spoke to her amidst a barrage of unwelcoming barks. She warmly invited us to Mockbegger Farm and we were offered a place to camp. She said: "I feel you've been sent. I'd like to talk to you about your philosophy and way of life, but I suppose you'll be having dinner now:' "No," I said, "we don't eat dinner" "I can see that. You all do look very thin. Surely you must be allowed something..." Later that night, as it was raining, Christine welcomed us into the stable, and having been refreshed by her abundant offerings of tea and cheese, we sat on the straw-covered floor and talked and delighted in Dhamma with our kind host. As I went to sleep in the tent that night I realised that we are the Mockbeggers. Outwardly we are poor and in need. We have no shelter, no money, no food, no way to continue our bodily existence alone. In consciously living this apparently ailing and impoverished life, we allow the kindness of others to blossom, we allow our own trust and serenity to develop. Inside we are Mockbeggers indeed, for we carry the precious gems of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha in our hearts.

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January 1999 Question Time; Tuhn Ajahn Sumedho Arrive at Where You Are; Kittisaro Bhikkhu Desire to end Desire; Tuhn Ajahn Maha Boowa Filling in the Dots; Sister Abahassara Zeal and New Land; Subbato Bhikkhu Kwan Yin & the Noble Elephant; Sucitto Bhikkhu Thoughts From a Forest; Vipassi Bhikkhu A First View of Buddhism; Arnold Handley

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The Desire That Ends Desire Tuhn Ajahn Maha Boowa is one of the most highly respected meditation masters in Thailand today. He is a native of the North-East (Isan) and spends much of his time in his forest monastery, Mat Pah Ban Tard, in Udon Province. Along with Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Thate and Ajahn Lee, he is one of the few forest masters whose talks have been translated Into English. Several collections of his talks are available at Amaravati, Chithurst and the branch monasteries. Question: Tuhn Ajahn, sitting meditation because one wants to develop discernment and wisdom in order to transcend the defilements . . is setting up an aim such as this (itself) a kind of defilement? Answer: Setting up an aim is part of the plan to kill defilements, it's not defilement. For instance, (considering) how one is going to practise, or determining to practise in such and such a way so that the defilements will gradually die out until they are all gone ... that is our plan. Now we practise, we resolve ourselves to act accordingly: none of that is defilement. It isn't defilement to want to go to Nibbana, one isn't a corpse get. Wanting to go to Nibbana, this kind of wanting is the Path (Magga). It's the Path one must use to reach liberation. This wanting is the motivation to walk the path to liberation. Wanting to make merit, wanting to transcend suffering, doing good actions ... these are not defilements. If one didn't want anything at all what would one do? As soon as there is a little wanting (one thinks) its all defilement. So one simply "doesn't want" and just takes it easy, just like a tree stump or a corpse. Corpses don't have any wanting, so they must have reached Nibbana, right? Question: Sometimes I'm not sure what the defilements are. Answer: Not knowing what the defilements are: right there, that's defilement! Do you understand? YOU still don't know? That's defilement! Question: Well then, knowing what defilements are, that's defilement again. Answer: That's Dhamma! Do you understand yet? Do you understand this much?

When I read of the Buddha collapsing through exertion, I felt so sorry for him the tears fell right there as I was Â reading.

Question:

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Some people, ordinary lay people talking together, say that defilement is that which stains, then they go on to say that doing evil is defilement, doing good is defilement. ... Answer: Now do you understand this or not? Aspiring to virtue and practising virtuously: that's Magga, Do you understand yet? That is the desire to transcend suffering. Let's put it simply. Whatever is defilement has its own defining characteristics. Wanting is of two kinds: there is wanting as a kind of defilement, and also wanting as a part of Magga (Path). If one doesn't want at all then one doesn't have an aim in life, one just meanders and wanders around until one bumps into the wall, one doesn't walk along the path. Now there is this point of aspiration, the transcending of suffering. This is worth expanding on. Know which type of wanting to use, know both kinds. I've seen this clearly already and haven't forgotten it to this very day because it was so momentous. ... Let's talk about Luang Dtah Boowa* again ... Regarding reverence for the monks and the religion - sure, I was reverent, but I didn't particularly want to be ordained. It's just that certain events forced me to become a monk, so I did. Having been ordained I looked into the Dhamma books. Wherever I looked I was impressed. I was struck especially by the Buddha's life story and the lives of the disciples. Oh, it sent my mind reeling! When I read of the Buddha collapsing through exertion, I felt so sorry for him the tears fell right there as I was reading. Then when I read of his Enlightenment the tears fell again out of wonder. Reading the lives of the disciples would also fill me with wonder. When I read how they endured such suffering and hardships, the sympathy I felt caused such tears to flow again, and then again when I read how thou attained the superhuman attainments realising the Dhamma. So the lives of both the Buddha and his disciples were impressed into mg mind. Mg mind focused in on that, focused in on the Dhamma. Now as for external concerns, they gradually faded and lost their attraction as mg mind directed inwards. Reading the biographies of those who had realised Enlightenment, I wanted to be an arahant, I wanted to go to Nibbana. *Luang Dtah Boowa, a term the Van Ajahn often uses in referring to himself in conversation, is mildly comical. Unlike "Luang Por" Grand Father - 'Luang Dtah" approximates to "Grandad". So I had this single desire. It was not a normal one; the desire was so strong that if I didn't attain Enlightenment and Nibbana, I was prepared to die. Then this problem arose: now that I wanted Enlightenment and Nibbana with all my heart, were these things still available in our day and age**? Or were Enlightenment and Nibbana extinct now? If Enlightenment and Nibbana were no longer in existence then my practice, no matter how hard I tried, would be useless because there would be no fruit as a result of it. So this caused me to further determine: "May I meet up with a teacher who is able to reveal this matter of Enlightenment and Nibbana to me, so that I may see that those things still exist without a shadow of a doubt. Just this much .... When I am satisfied of this, I will offer myself body and mind to that teacher, and I will exert myself in the practice to reach arahantship and Nibbana to the utmost of my ability. It doesn't matter if I die, just so long as I find out this one thing. Just so long as I can believe wholeheartedly that Enlightenment and Nibbana exist, then I will practise for that Enlightenment and Nibbana just as wholeheartedly as my conviction:'

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** Literally, "in our religion". Now, having finished as much of my studies as I had determined to undertake, I set out to look for Venerable Ajahn Mun. Coming to Udon I found he had gone to Sakhon Nakorn, so I went up to Nong Khai first and stayed at Wat Toong Sa-Wahng for 3 months. Then I set out after him for Sakhon Nakorn and to where he was staying at Bahn Koke Nah Mon. That year he had spent the rains retreat there. I arrived there just as it was getting dark. He was walking up and down beside the tiny sala where he had a room. (That was the room where I had sat and listened in on him chanting.) Now as soon as I had arrived -it was as if he had recorded every single question that I had prepared to ask him -he answered all mg questions right then and there, just as if to say: "Here, this is Enlightenment and Nibbana, where have you bean looking? Don't you know? Enlightenment and Nibbana are right here, right here! Do you see?" The more I listened the more inspired I became, until I lost all doubts ... even though mg heart was still full of defilements, mind you ... but I lost all doubts concerning whether Enlightenment and Nibbana still existed or not. I was simply certain that Enlightenment and Nibbana were still replete, just as the Venerable Ajahn had revealed to me, as if from his own heart. It was as if he were to pull out an object and say: "Here it is, do you see it or are you blind? If you're not blind, then when I put it here on the palm of my hand you must see it. Do you see it or not?" How could I not see it when it was laid on the palm of his hand like that? Now I was convinced, I believed him because he had brought the truth forward from his heart for me to see clearly. Now concerning this desire of mine which was so strong ... As long as I still doubted about the fruit of the practice, then mg aspiration tion had not get ripened. As soon as he had explained about Enlightenment and Nibbana, 'I thought: "Now, the Venerable Ajahn has explained 50 much, are you convinced?" "Yeah, I'M thoroughly convinced." "Well now, are you going to really do it?" "I must really do it, I can't not really do it. I must, even at the cost of death:' And it really was like that. The practice of one who has thrown his life into it and ordinary practice are very different, even, in the one person. Ordinary practice is one thing, but the practice which contains firm conviction and dedication has overwhelming strength. The exertion to reach the goal must be like an almighty blow. If one dies, one dies. If one doesn't die, one will unfailingly reach the goal. It can't be otherwise, there can be no turning back. One will die on the battlefield. And here there is only wanting which can lead one! Let's take a look at this wanting. It was a strong kind of wanting 1 wanted to be liberated, wanted to know, to see' the Dhamma, Enlightenment and Nibbana. I wanted to be an arahant, I really wanted to. Even though I was only Luang Dtah Boowa, no bigger than a mouse, yet my desire was the size of a mountain. When I learned the truth from Venerable Ajahn Mun ... well, then, I was going to feed my hunger. Let's put it simply like that. To feed my hunger means to go to the limit! From that point on my practice was like a propeller, or like I don't know what. My mind wouldn't so much as flick outwards to my fellow monks or the lay people, it spun inwards. I wasn't interested in being -or even so much as thought that I would be - a teacher of monks. novices and lay people such as I am now, and get it has happened, I don't know how. At the time when my mind was immersed in the practice, engaged in hand-to-hand combat, I wasn't concerned with anybody elses life but my own. I couldn't come and live normally with others, I had to go

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off to the mountains and the forests. When I found that living with one or two others wasn't convenient for me I changed my way. I knew within myself that that I wasn't convenient for me so I lived alone. If I wanted to eat I did, and if I didn't want to eat, no matter how many days. I wasn't afraid of dying. Oh, I was only skin and bone. Then I was still young and strong, I was 27 when I first got down to the practice. How do you think it was to be only skin and bone, was I skin or wasn't I? Eventually, one day I came down to meet the others and they were all shocked to see me. Even Ajahn Mun was shocked! "OK, why are you like this? Coming down from the mountain all yellow like this ... what happened to you?" Then he countered himself immediately with: "Well, a true fighter has to be like this, eh!" He was afraid I'd get all faint-hearted and start blubbering! Do you get that? When he said: "What's happened to you?" I was ready to start blubbering, but when he added: "Its got to be like this before you can really be called a fighter," he knocked it out straight away. So practising on one's desire has a special kind of impetus. I dare to say this. I'm not bragging or boasting, I'm' just talking the truth. Actually I don't want to sag it, but when a reason arises for something to be said then I sag it, by bringing forth this kind of wanting to compare with that kind which is defilement. I've wanted wholeheartedly in the past. I wanted Enlightenment and Nibbana. And my practice was in proportion to that wanting, practising to the utmost of my ability and wisdom. Sometimes I just threw everything I had into it: "Hm! If I die I die, this is the moment of decision." There was no turning back, only either to die or to break through. Like a drill, one has to drill, one has to drill till it breaks through, or like a person who is tangled in the brush, ha must break through. There was no turning back because I had reached the point of no return, When one has begun the combat at close quarters like that there's 110 turning back. One has either to fight to the death or to victory. it was like this sometimes. I had already thrown my life into the practice, so that when it reached those times when the going got harder and heavier, I just kept on going. If I didn't I wouldn't find out, death was superfluous. And why? Because of this wanting to know, wanting to see. All the torment and hardship that I felt during this time of developing the kammatthana practice, was because of the power of that wanting, it was so heavy. I didn't think I would survive to this day as I have. I didn't have many companions in those days because I wasn't interested in others. I just staged in the forests by myself. No matter how many days 1 wanted to eat or to fast it didn't matter. When I felt like I was really going to die, I'd stagger out on almsround and eat for a day and feel a little stronger. Why did I have to do this? Because I'm a coarse fellow, I admit it. Whenever I had a decent feed Id just go to sleep like a pig and wouldn't want to get up. Was I raising a pig or something? This wasn't a pig farm! When I fasted and my body became wasted and thin, although the body wouldn't have much strength, the mind would be clear. I could see it clearly This is why I fasted, not for other reasons. When it came time to eat then it became a case for the "little court:' One voice would sag: "Hey. are you going to fast to the death or something? You're half dead already!" Another voice would sag: "Huhl Whenever you get something to eat YOU just sleep like a pig, that's even worse than death! You put your head on the chopping block and just wait for it. Why do you want so much to eat anyway?" The outcome of the trial. I was the judge, was: "Hm ... fast some, eat some, that's the best way." It probably wasn't wrong if I made up my own mind. Fast some, eat some, that's the way. So I kept to that continually until I reached the limit of my ability NOW I'M simply this Old Venerable Boowa that you see before you now. I don't want anything. You may wonder if I'm dead or something to say this, huh? I don't want, so 1 tell you I don't want. Regardless of what anybody says. If they say I'm crazy then I'm crazy ... crazy with "not wanting". Heaven, I don't want. Nibbana, I don't want. An arahant? I don't want to be one. I'm just simply Old

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Venerable Boowa, what more can I say? That's all there is to it. That's the end of the problem of wanting. So go and decipher that and think about it. When it was time to want, I wanted. When the wanting became so much that nothing could satisfy it, I couldn't be bothered wanting any more. So I just don't want anything, I'm just as I am. What more can I say?

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Filling in the Dots Sister Abhassara has been working on providing a way of chanting the Pujas in English for the past year or so. Here she comments on the process so far. As Buddhism gradually takes root in Western soil we see the traditional forms developing and changing as they adapt to the culture. One such change that has been introduced recently in our Sangha is the rendering of our morning chanting - into English. When chanted in one's own language the devotional quality of the words and the meaning of the Buddha's teaching become much clearer. I was asked to work out a way of chanting the English translation of the morning and evening puja over a year ago. At first I felt very uncertain as to how to go about this, and I spent some time listening to various other religious chanting styles and talking to cis many "experts" as I could find. But in the end I had to drop all attempts to contrive something or to rely on external help; all that was needed was to merely let the heart speak. The first recording was mostly spontaneous and improvised, and, although a little rough, it met with approval from the people.that heard d it. So then the lengthy process of cystallising the pure spark of inspiration into a solid form began. This process could also be called "filling in the dots"! - as I had devised a system of recording the tonal changes by placing a dot above or below the chosen syllable, to indicate the rising and failing of pitch. Â

These notes have a cooling effect on the mind and also Â serve to open the heart.

Sound and vibration have a deep effect on mind and body. My intention was to create a feeling of depth and devotion, without making an overelaborate sound or wandering into the realms of singing or sentimentality. The beauty of chanting lies in its simplicity of tone and its ability to set up a strength of resonance or vibration that has a calming and peaceful effect on mind and body. Bearing this in mind I chose the limitation of just three notes: the home note in the middle. the higher note being a whole tone above that, and the lower note a whole tone below. These notes have a cooling effect on the mind and also serve to open the heart. They are used in Gregorian plainsong, the ancient Christian style of chanting, and also in the Thai tradition, where these notes are still used in some of the chanting today. Having first settled on the notes, the hardest part was finding some sort of rhythm to use -the English language having a rather jerky rhythm to it. In the and I decided not to define it so closely in terms of long and short beats, as the Pali is structured; but rather to use the natural rhythm and flow of conversational English, with a few syllables lengthened at the ends of lines to provide emphasis and to give the sense of coming to a close. For example, in "you still had compassion for later generations" -the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/dots.htm[03/10/2017 01:07:59]

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lengthening is on the last word, third syllable, the rest of the line being chanted with the natural spoken rhythm. Finally, after a six-month gestation period, the English chanting was born, and a tape was played to the Amaravati community during the winter retreat. Later in the year I began to revise the Pali chanting in a similar fashion, giving it the same three notes as the English chanting and borrowing heavily from the old Thai style of chanting, which had been used in the early years at Chithurst monastery. The main difference between our Pali and that of the Thai style is the more clearly defined Pali rhythm and pronunciation that was introduced over four years ago. Hopefully the new Pali chanting strikes a balance between accuracy of rhythm and pronunciation, and devotional expression. After completing the revision of the Pali chanting, I was encouraged to merge the English and Pali together. This was done in a manner similar to the Pali and Thai chanting used in Ajahn Chah's monasteries - one line in Pali and then its translation. This intermixing worked suprisingly smoothly, as I had not intended to put the English and Pali together when working on them separately. So, with the help of Sister Siripanna, we made a recording of the Pali and English chanting in a gruelling three-hour recording session. From then on, it was played every morning to the community, and people gradually started to learn it. Hopefully there will be a tape made generally available towards the end of the year. The process of creation and transformation can be very inspiring, but there needs to be a lot of patience and letting-go of expectations and ownership, in order for something to manifest fully at the right time and in the right way. My original intention was to give the daily recollection and devotion to the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha a form that would most easily lend itself to devotional feeling and a sense of gladness and uplift. Also the idea was to make the Buddhas teaching more accessible to those not familiar with the meaning of the Pali language. I hope this will help your hearts to open in faith and trust in the Buddha-Dhamma, and to breathe fresh life into the traditional forms handed down through many generations since the time of the Buddha. I dedicate the blessings and good fortune generated through this work to Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Sumedho and all sentient beings.

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Zeal and New Land An interview with Venerable Subbato, a New Zealander by birth who spent about one year (1985-86) offering his services during the early stages of the development of the New Zealand Monastery, "Bodhinyanarama". :_: PS letter from Ajahn Viradhammo Question: What kind of interest and support is there for "Bodhinyanarama"? Answer: There is certainly interest and very good, willing support. The committee that invited the monks here is very keen to see that the monastery gets off to a good start, and are doing everything they can to establish it in 8' way that the Sangha feels will be beneficial. The pace of life in New Zealand is noticeably slower. and coming from England I could see that people have more time available to spend at the monastery; they seem to have more time to come in the evenings after work and at the weekends. Even right at the beginning of Bodhinyanarama when there was no monastery as such -just a couple of huts in the forest-peole would come regularly to meditate with us. They would also come to help with the work when the monastery was being built, and would regularly take part in "Working bee" weekends. The laity have put a lot of effort into raising funds - frequently holding charity dinners and food fairs - and a lot of support has been given in donations, enabling the expenses for land and property to be paid without the need for loans. Everyday, different devoted supporters would bring cooked alms-food for the monks -the anagarikas rarely have to cook. Question: Could you say a little about what the situation was like when the monks first arrived in New Zealand? Answer: When the monks first arrived they understood it would not be long before they would settle into the new premises, but they found the lag people were having a few problems in getting things moving. Although the Association had already purchased a beautiful fifty-acre property near the capital city, Wellington, there were still some delays with the architect's office. The property is in a lovely situation at the top of a valley bordering on a large range of bush-clad hills called the Rimutakas. Theres no flat land, it's just all either up or down. The first task was to clear some tracks s0 that we could move around on the property, because there was nothing there, just really thick bush, and the only way you could move around was by crawling on all fours along the wild pig tracks.

It wasn't long befor people warmed to the presence of the monastery.

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When the accommodation was eventually built, what did it consist of? Answer: The initial idea, when the Buddhist Association discussed it with Ajahn Sumedho and made their invitation, was to provide accommodation for two monks, and a guest house and meditation hall. But even when I was there, there were already three monks and one anagarika. It was quite obvious that the monastery was not just going to stay as a small vihara. There was a lot of interest, wherever we went in the country; people would ask about coming to. stay, and a few enquired about the possibility of ordination. Because in New Zealand you're such a long way from England or Thailand or anywhere else in the world, and to travel there from New Zealand is quite expensive. By early '86, the plans for building an accommodation block had all gone through and contractors had been employed, so the accommodation block went ahead as the first staye of the monastery g development. While that was being built, the monks and anagarikas started building a few huts, kutis, further up in the forest -which wasn't part of the initial plan, of course. That meant the accommodation block could be used as a temporary shrine room. Question: What about the relationship with the locals immediately around the monastery - was there any difficulty in the beginning? Answer: There was never really any problem. When the locals first heard about us - I think when the association initially bought the land - there was a remarkable article published by a fundamentalist Christian Group. But there was an immediate rapport with neighbours once the monks moved into the valley and began walking around and talking to the local people. As it's a warmer climate, people are outside more, so you walk down the road and you see your neighbours and talk to them - it's a much more out-and-about sort of place. It wasn't long befor people warmed to the presence of the monastery there. Question: What do you feel were the main difficulties faced by monks during the initial stages? Answer: Well the initial stay in which I was involved was really very demanding physically; having to carry bags of gravel, and put a lot of energy into the mundane side of things. It is quite hard when you are so involved with that to then stop, and relate with lag people and give teachings. We were actually criticised for working too hard on one occasion. It was one of those days when everything goes wrong; we had to move about 800 concrete blocks from the bottom of the drive up to the top on that one day, because the builder needed them by the next day. We organised a "working bee", but it was pouring with rain, so only about three or four people turned up,and we ended up working until some ridiculous hour carrying all these concrete blocks. A local truck driver came to help but after ferrying the first load of blocks, his truck went off the drive. We had stacked the blocks the wrong way and about one third of them were damaged. Then to top it all, we found out later that we were supposed to be at a Cambodian ceremony; we'd forgotten all about it. It was a complete disaster. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/nz.htm[03/10/2017 01:06:27]

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It's a very high-energy situation when you're moving tons of gravel up the hill and hauling logs down -the Sangha and those living with us were putting everything into it. That could be a bit overwhelming for outsiders who had come to share in the tranquillity and peace of the monastery, and instead we were tiring sacks of gravel at them faster than they could answer back. There were times when we felt people were perhaps a little intimidated by the situation. It was lovely to see, as things became established -and it was no longer just a building site - to see it begin to function again in a more traditional way as a sanctuary, a place for people to come, to be quiet. Question: Did you manage to have a traditional Vassa rains retreat during that year? Answer: Well, yes -it rained for three months, that was pretty traditional. We had to decide whether we were going to spend the Vassa in the town flat. As it was beside a very busy main road, we were very keen to' get into the forest, but that meant that all of us had to accept that we were going to live in one 8'x12' hut - because that's all we had. We'd all get up at the same time in the morning, and do the same yoga, and then sit together. We kept a very good routine just to keep us going, because as you can imagine, living so closely and then working all day together, we couldn't get away from each other. .It was quite a difficult time, actually being winter in New Zealand. Ajahn Viradhammo was away in Canada that Vassa. leaving the three of us: myself, Ven Thanavaro and anagarika Gary. We dug holes in the ground for toilets and collected rainwater for our supply of water. But we did have a microwave oven, which Was really a lifesaver. We had to decide whether we were going to use the microwave oven or not, some of the Sangha felt they didn't mind eating cold food, but I thought on top of everything else - that was going a bit too far, and if we had to have a 100-metre extension cord with a microwave on the end of it, that was perfectly all right by me! Question: Could you say something about the Ohara in Auckland? Answer: The monastery has really been supported by the New Zealand Buddhist Association - a combination of the Wellington and Auckland Association. Auckland is about 400 miles away from Wellington, and it's also the largest centre of

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population in the country. If you picture New Zealand as a country about the size of the British Isles, Wellington is in the middle and Auckland is near the top. It was difficult to decide where to put the monastery. As it worked out, they decided Wellington was the most central and so they went ahead there. However, the people in Auckland are very much involved, and I wouldn't be surprised if sooner or later they invite the Sangha to have a forest monastery near Auckland - mainly because it is such a large centre of population. A lot of Sri Lankan, Thai, Burmese and Western people are interested there. They have large gatherings for the Wesak and Kathina celebrations; hundreds of people literally, 200 or 300 people coming. Right from the beginning the monks would travel monthly by aeroplane up to Auckland to teach and meet with their supporters there. More recently the monks have been travelling all over the country, visiting a lot of small groups and holding retreats ....

Here in England now we almost feel it's part of the tradition, the Sangha here is very strong. But there they are such a long way away, just a handful of people. Even so, I'm sure the Sangha will flourish in New Zealand because although there are only a few people involved as get, the support there is really tremendous and the Sangha is very well taken care of. People really value the presence of the monks, and would also like to have nuns there one day. ... One of the most joyous occasions I remember there was after that quite difficult time when Ajahn Viradhammo was away in Canada with his family. After working very hard, at the end of the winter the Ajahn came back, the builders finished off the accommodation block and we were able to move in and stop for a month of formal retreat. Ajahn Sumedho and Tuhn Chao Khun Pannananda had promised to come for a visit in early '87. By January the carpets and curtains were offered for the shrine room and it had been decorated, so we had all the necessary accommodation and amenities. Then quite unexpectedly they came at the same time. Ajahn Sumedho with Ajahn Anando and Ven Bodhinando, and Tuhn Chao Khun was accompanied by Ajahn Pasanno of Wat Pah Nanachat. With eight bhikkhus and one anagarika it was a big Sangha in our terms, but we were able to accommodate everyone on what had until recently just been a bush-clad hillside. We had a formal opening ceremony for Bodhinyanarama and many people came to the monastery at this happytime. It was a really wonderful feeling and one had the sense that good things had begun to take root in this remote corner of the world.

Since this interview a few changes have taken place, most notably the acquisition of an adjacent plot of level land. Â Â A recent letter from Ajahn Viradhammo:

With only Tong to attend to anagarika duties it gets a bit difficult at times. Last week Tong had to meet Ven Thanavaro at the airport. It was a morning flight, so he also had to prepare the meal. Before driving to the airport he had all the food in pots ready to be cooked. All the pots were connected by electrical leads to one timer switch. As Tong was greeted by Ven Thanavaro coming off the plane the kitchen at Bodhinyanarama came alive, and by the time of Tony's return the meal was ready. Clever chap our Tong, but at times spread a bit thin! It is an inspiring time at Bodhinyanarama. The Vassa has begun and we've created space for a longish retreat. We've been using Tuhn Ajahn's tapes from the January retreat, and his guidance is much appreciated. In such a small sangha, guidance in right-view from an Outside source - especially Tuhn Ajahn - is very helpful. As long as the winter retreats continue in the UK I would like to follow suit during the Vassa here in New Zealand. We have also taken possession of a neighbouring property which opens up wonderful possibilities for this monastery. Hugh Tennent, our bodhisattva architect, has been here for the last four days creating ideas for the development of Bodhinyanarama. We have been crawling through the bush looking at potential sites for sala, kutis, stupa, paths and meditation groves. In October we shall submit a comprehensive plan (20 years down the road) to the town https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/nz.htm[03/10/2017 01:06:27]

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planners. This is a big step for us because at present we are classified as a domestic residence which happens to have bhikkhus at home. We wish to be classified as a monastery and therefore have the freedom to develop according to our forest tradition. As it stands, we are not quite anything, and the usual doubts about how much can or cannot be done keep arising. By Christmas our position should be more clear. A third bhikkhu, Ven Jotipanyo, has joined us for the Vassa, which makes a total of five people for these Vassa months. He is a most welcome addition and has kindly consented to give the vinaya readings each morning. He did this at Wat Pah Nanachat two years ago and has researched the work quite thoroughly. Although we have not been in Stokes Valley for very long, it is becoming apparent to more and more people that our tradition has a direction and a stability that are not dependent on the fashions and trends of ordinary society. Here in New Zealand one is forever hearing of redundancies, plant closures, unemployment and people shifting g to Australia. In Sydney they even joke that New Zealand is a welfare state of Australia. As well as economic uncertainty, there is also a lot of noise about racial issues involving Maoris, Pacific Islanders and Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent). The Maoris are making many land claims based on the Waitangi Treaty and are having significant successes in the courts. Finally, there is the usual dose of doom and gloom on the box and in the newspapers. Compared to the problems of Asia, of course, New Zealand has it very good. This is not much consolation to someone who has just been made redundant. Perhaps the real problem lies in the fact that this society offers little indication of an inner refuge. Thus, the inevitable changes of economics and politics take their toll in human suffering. Through it all, however, the Dhamma-Vinaya remains an impeccable source of guidance, admonishment and encouragement. Most of us need some social stability in order to contemplate the Buddha's teaching with any depth of penetration. Happily, the monastery provides standards for reflection based on Dhamma Vinaya - standards that provide our affiliated community with the guidance necessary for the development of stability in our own lives. Just being here, then, and practising the Buddha's way is important. Pointing out to people that there is an inner refuge independent of political parties and the price of lamb in Tehran, seems to be a vital task on this rather bruised planet.

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Kwan Yin and the Noble Elephant In the winter of 1986-7 Venerable Sucitto was in Thailand; during that time he went wandering (tudong) with Venerable Gavesako. Most of the time was spent in the Isan - the provinces of North-East Thailand - but in the following piece he reflects on another part of the trip, in Siraja and Ko Sichang ..... Siraja is not a particularly beautiful town. It's part of that urban overspill to the east of Bangkok that flows along the coast through Samut Pakhan and down to Chonburi, oozing along in the wake of the oil and shipping developments around the Gulf of Thailand. Ajahn Gavesako and I had decided to go there as part of our tudong trip in order to get out to an island called Ko Sichang - The Island of the Noble Elephant. This would be around Christmas time, which like most festive occasions in Thailand, is very noisy, at least in the more Western-influenced cities. Accordingly, we planned to stay a night or two at a small monastery that Ajahn Gavesako knew, and then go out to the island for a few days of living very simply away from the hustle and bustle. It seemed like a good idea: even before the festivities began, life in the city was noisy compared with the forests of the Isan The little monastery that we were staying in occupied a few acres squashed up against a hillside on the Outskirts of the city of Siraja; it wasn't exactly in the heart of town, but it certainly wasn't outside of it. There was a lot of noise from the streets and from Christmas music being played very loudly; so after the initial pleasantries with the resident monks, I for one was quite eager to get away. But of course one has to wait until someone gets to know of one's wishes and offers to buy a ticket - which may take a few days. So one evening we went down to the seafront and walked out to a small island that was connected to the mainland by a pier. Off this island there was one of those Chinese Buddhist temples of which there are very many in Thailand, which go in for the more ritualistic side of Buddhism. In order to obtain good fortune one can make offerings at shrines in such temples to the Buddha or to one of the bodhisattvas, particularly to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, The One Who Listens to The Sounds Of The World, or Kwan Yin as she is known in Chinese. I must admit this supplication to divine agencies has never fitted in with my ideas about Buddhism; my mind kept turning away from the painted images and the decorative shrines to the sea, bathed in sunset gold. The serene horizon hinted Of sublime planes, and I found myself more eager than ever to get out to a place where I could apply myself wholeheartedly to meditation. Â

"This is it:' I thought, "this is going to be the night when I really get into some samadhi."

By the next afternoon, unseen wheels had turned and we were able to get a ferry boat out to the island to Ko Sichang. We landed at a little harbour and walked along the coast of the island until we came to a more remote area. There we found a fantastic old ruined temple that had been built in the reign of King Mongkut. It wasn't like the Chinese temple. Its very decay https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/yin.htm[03/10/2017 01:04:28]

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gave it a certain air of sanctity: there was a bodhi tree growing up through the roof, and the cracked walls inside were bare except for a few photographs of tudong bhikkhus like Venerable Ajahn Mun. To be in the presence Of such images of austerity and dedication to Dhamma practice was very encouraging. This was the right place, sure enough! We walked on down to the rocky seashores the beaches and the sparkling water. We decided to make the best use of the situation by separating and practising on our own most of each day. I had resolved to fast for the five days that we'd be there, because whenever I fast then I find that there gives a clarity to my mind, and a greater refinement to my attention. The physical energies calm down and level out and there is less need to sleep. The weather was beautiful. December in Thailand a lovely time of year, hot but not stuffy and sticky: and then being on an island there were pleasant breezes' so it was quite idyllic. At night it was, warm and balmy and I would sit underneath the measure stars meditating with the moon as my only companion. Time stretched itself out and went to rest... After a few days of this I was getting pretty blissed out, Then, I think it was on the third day, I came across a beautiful old wooden palace structure that was half burnt down, set in grounds with frangipani trees - and that was quite amazing! I was near the ruined temple, and exploring further I found a cave which opened into the ground. You could walk down inside this great cleft in the ground, which then opened out to reveal long galleries where one could do walking meditation, and niches in the rock where you could sit and meditate. Then you could go down even further until you couldn't see or hear anything; so you could be completely enfolded in the earth's womb. A hermit's dream! I thought, "This, is amazing, this is really wonderful And it was the day of the full moon, My immediately constructed the evening confrontation with Mara: I was near the ruined temple' so I could sit there with Ajahn Mun, or I could go down into the cave and practise, or I could do walking meditation out under the frangipani trees with the coal evening breezes blowing and the full moon beaming down. "This is it:' I thought, "this is going to be the night when I really get into some samadhi." I was feeling very light, almost skipping up the slope with expectation, when I noticed some people along-which was kind Of strange. They were all dressed in white; then I recognised that it was one of the anagarikas from the monastery in Siraja we'd been staying at, and he had some lay women with him who were also dressed in white. I quickly realised that, they must have come to see us; but I didn't want to be bothered with polite conversation particularly as I couldn't speak the language. However, they'd seen me: I could'nt ignore that, so I decided to make the best of it, come over, be nice, and hopefully it wouldn't last too long. We sat down by a big bodhi tree outside the ruined temple and they had one of those refrigerated boxes with some Coca Cola in it so I accepted a bottle and drank some. They started asking questions and talking and I

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couldn't get very much of what they were saying. I just smiled and said I didn't understand, and thought that sooner or later Ajahn Gavesako would happen along. Then he would talk to them, and I could go off and sit and get into some samadhi. But somewhere in the back of my mind was an anxious voice: "Why have they come? I wonder what it is?" Then Ajahn Gavesako came along. I sat with him for a while, but he seemed quite at ease listening and talking to them, so I thought: "Well I'll just move off." I started to slip away: but as I was slipping away he turned around and said: "Oh, tuhn Sucitto, pack your bag, will you we're going back." My mind stopped: "Back, what?" He said, "We're going back to Siraja." And I said, "What for? What are we going back for?" Suddenly my evening of samadhi dropped away. "Oh, they've invited us." I looked at him questioningly, and he added. "I don't know what for. It doesn't matter. They've invited us we'd better go. It wouldn't be polite to refuse." At that point something in me stopped. I turned around and walked off and went to where my bowl bag was and packed my alms bowl with my mind going: "What do they want? What are we doing? I suppose we're going back to chant something or another, do some silly ritual. Why can't we stay here? We came here for a few days. We were going to go back in a couple of days anyway. We came here for a few days to practise and now we've got to go back to the town. What for? What do they want?" But I knew enough to recognise that resistance in the mind and not to follow it. So I packed my bag. We walked back from that haven to a road where they'd got a motorbike taxi to give us a ride and Tuhn Sucitto pack your bag, will youwe're going back." My mind stopped: "Back, what?" He said, "We're going back to Siraja." And I said, "What for? What are we going back for?" Suddenly my evening of samadhi dropped away. "Oh, they've invited us." I looked at him questioningly, and he added. "I don't know what for. It doesn't matter. They've invited us so we'd better go. It wouldn't be polite to refuse." At that point something in me stopped. I turned round and walked off and went to where my bowl bag was and packed my alms bowl with my mind going: "What do they want? What are we doing? I suppose we're going back to chant something or another, do dome silly ritual. Why can't we stay here? We came here for a few days. We were going to go back in a couple days anyway. We came here for a few days to practise and now we've got to go back to the town. What for? What do they want?" But I knew enough to recognise that resistance in the mind and not to follow it. So I packed my bag. We walked back from that haven to a road where they'd got a motorbike taxi to give us a ride out to the little harbour village. We waited there. I stared glumly at the sea, and then when the ferry came we all packed into it. The boat lingered for a few minutes, then turned and carried us away from the Noble Elephant back to the reeking harbour of Siraja. We returned to the temple in the city not knowing what for. I went to my kuti, unpacked my bag and sat there waiting for something to happen. And I sat and waited: and nothing happened except the sounds of the city swelled as the duskfall turned into night. Sounds of the traffic, sounds of the world - and I had to listen to it as night turned into day. And it being Christmas Eve and Thai people, Christians as well as Buddhists, enjoying loud music, there were lots of loud Christmas songs in english. Perhaps it was because they were in english that it didn't seem to matter what they were. In English it didn't seem to matter what they were about, because they weren't even Christmas Carols you could be inspired by. What came rolling into my kuti was christmas Muzak, like "White Christmas" and "Rudolph the Redhttps://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/yin.htm[03/10/2017 01:04:28]

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Nosed Reindeer" - again and again. I sat there in the night and I sat there in the morning: listening, waiting and listening to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", remembering the full moon, the ruined temple, Ajahn Mun and samadhi. But I did listen, and something in me got the point. Something in me stopped resisting and became at one with the way things are "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is quite a reasonable song actually, when you listen to it a few times; it's got a moral to it. And when something in me let go and listened to the sounds of the world, it seemed there was a vibrant silence behind it all. That silence behind the sound of the world seemed to encompass and listen to everything. Profound or petty or inane, no sound could stain the silence of the listening mind: and in that acceptance was timeless compassion. Nobody came for us; nor did anyone come to take us anywhere. They didn't want me to give a talk, do any chanting, bless anything, go anywhere, say anything. Maybe they were worried that we were getting lonely. Perhaps they thought we weren't getting enough to eat, I expect the whole event arose out of compassion. But in the end I was grateful. Whatever the Law or compassionate Bodhisattva that arranges these events - I have a lot to thank them for. They've always managed to catch me out; always turned me away from my attachments, and ideas of practice, and made me listen to the way things are. Their emissaries are everywhere. They never let up. And perhaps I learnt something about the Noble Elephant, the symbol of Dhamma practice. The Buddha himself is likened to the elephant: it's the symbol of the unstoppable aspiration to Nibbana that keeps going through anything. It is with such an aspiration that a tudong monk establishes his practice - he inclines to be enduring, to be resilient, and to be tested by wild and lonely places. In fact for me it's always been a great pleasure to go to remote places, where I could be alone and independent. Yet. I've also noticed that when I interpret the aspiration too literally, a mahout climbs on the back of the Noble Elephant. This mahout is always saying things like: "I'm going to get into jhana tonight. This is the real place for practice, if I could stay in this place forever, I'd really develop:' And he's always asking the practice to come up with something fancy; like a mahout that wants his elephant to dance and prance and perform tricks. He's always been a burden, this mahout; and as long as he's driving the elephant I've never felt that satisfied, even in blissful circumstances. Instead, my attitudes get caught up in trying to prove or attain or hold on to something - a rather self-conscious striving that finally does not lead to coolness, detachment or liberation. Of course, when one lives as a bhikkhu there are chances to undertake austerities and live alone sometimes, but the basic standard always entails a relationship with the society. The life is one of dependence; it's an interface. Yet if the Buddha established the bhikkhu life for liberation, then we should trust the opportunity for selflessness that it presents. It's a bumpy ride at times, but I've learned to appreciate the tests of Sangha life, and the enigmatic compassion of the Way It Is: they always create predicaments where I have to let go of my self-interest. When I came down from my kuti on Christmas Eve morning, Ajahn Gavesako was reading a newspaper. "It says here there's four babies born in the world every second!" "Better get used to group practice:" I commented. Sometimes we need austerities, sometimes we need isolation, and sometimes it takes a RedNosed Reindeer to awaken us from ourselves.

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Passing Thoughts From a Forest Venerable Vipassi was one of three bhikkhus to spend the entire Vassa on retreat in the Hammer Wood. He passes on these notes. Today has been still and overcast with intermittent showers of rain. The leaves on the trees around my hut are turning brown and have already started to fall. In the first few weeks of the retreat I came to appreciate the vast variety of shades of the colour green - from the subtle paleness of bracken to the deep, full richness of moss, I noticed often what a soothing affect it has upon one's whole being. Now the various shades of brown are beginning to display themselves too, from brilliant gallows and crimsons to the more muted colours of the leaves that have fallen across my walking path path. Of this three-month period in solitude there remain twelve days or so. One of the monks who did such a retreat last year told me that for him it began to feel a bit like a prison sentence towards the end ... another said: "That last month is a. bit of a grind." So far I haven't found this to be so, but there's still time! Of course there have bean changes in mood and a kaleidoscope of different mental states to work with, but I have kept referring back to a resolution made at the beginning of the retreat -to accept the unpleasant. Calling to mind this intention when things have turned uncomfortable or difficult has helped the mind to resist and judge less, and remember that suffering ceases through changing one's attitude towards the way things are, not in changing the things themselves. Thus loneliness turns into aloneness, boredom into quiet acceptance of inactivity and even depression and despair have a still, peaceful centre when one no longer judges or resists them. Not that it necessarily gets any easier though. For while the faculty of investigation becomes sharper, the delusions can become subtler and quite effectively camouflage themselves against recognition and acknowledgement. There always seems to be something to work with.

One doesn't look forward to retreat with a "now we'll really get down to it and get somewhere" kind of attitude, it's more of an openness to life as it unfolds.

I was quite surprised before the retreat began by how many people asked as about it. It became apparent that they were imagining how they would cope with such a prospect. Actually I hadn't given it a great deal of thought beforehand -not nearly so much as I would have done a few years back. Solitude and inactivity was once quite a fearful prospect for me even when I had begun to meditate, for it opened the floodgates to unacknowledged fears and desires, repressed emotions and restlessness. After five years or so of practising as a member of the Sangha, some of these energies have diminished considerably. but more than this one finds less of a distinction between being *on retreat" and "not on retreat", for the way in which we are taught to approach the practice is to work with whatever is happening. Some of the most important realisations have occurred in quite stressful and busy working situations where people aren't getting on well or there are a lot of demands. So one doesn't look forward to retreat with a "now we'll really get down to it and get somewhere" kind of attitude, it's more https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/think.htm[03/10/2017 01:02:24]

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of an openness to life as it unfolds and presents itself in the present moment. The idea of "three months" becomes just a thought which happens now, rather than a prospect to be got through. If one lives one step at a time, then "three months" will take care of itself. The generous and loving support we have received over this period gives one every incentive to apply oneself and be worthy of such generosity. Three or four days a week Ajahn Amaro, Venerable Vajiro and I receive food from people living nearby, who have committed themselves to supporting us for the three months. This never fails to be a quiet and beautiful event. However, although one tries to indicate that half a bowlful will be perfectly adequate, one can sense the anxiety in our donors' faces if they are not given enough opportunity to load us up with all the things they have spent the morning lovingly preparing. Some of my disquiet about wastage was allayed though, when I noticed that wherever I threw away the-leftover rice after the meal, it was gone by the next morning. One day I was washing my bowl and leaned out of the window to tip some water away and was surprised to -see it fall on two equally surprised small brown mice, who were just beginning to tuck in to the day's leftovers. From then on I would often watch them darting out of their little holes within minutes of my putting the food down for them. It was most amusing watching a mouse deal with a long piece of spaghetti, rather like watching someone eating a telegraph pole! One feature of the retreat which has taken up a great deal of time and attention has been learning the Patimokkha, the monks' 227 observances, which are recited in a formal meeting every fortnight. The rains retreat is the traditional time when the Vinaya, the monastic discipline is studied and the three month period of solitude is the time chosen by many monks to undertake to learn the Patimokkha. It entails some weeks or months of sustained effort to learn by heart several thousand words of the scriptural language, so I had begun to study a little Pali some months before, in the hope of being able to actually understand what I would be chanting. This was also to try to make it more of an interesting task than the grind it became for several of the monks who have already learnt it. At the Outset the prospect is really quite daunting. The speed and fluency that is expected and the sheer volume of material to be learnt make one seriously doubt one's, capabilities. I had learnt a little prior to the retreat, and had seen how what starts off seeming difficult changes as one progresses; so the thing to do seemed to be to begin, go steadily and not make any plans about when to complete it. Studying the context of each rule beforehand, reading the background stories in Pali and English than going through the rule itself word by word, sentence by sentence, until it was clearly understood; seemed to prepare the mind to receive and digest it all. Venerable Suviro, who had recently learnt it himself, gave generously of his time to discuss the process Of learning and give encouragement. Gradually it began to take shape.

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This manner of retaining information by rote learning preserved the scriptures for the first few hundred years and as things continued I began to reel a sense of partaking in something ancient, profound and very precious It is because Of the efforts of thousands Of unknown individuals who, out of love and respect for the teachings, took it upon themselves to protect and preserve them, that we can still practise with them today. There are others for whom one feels gratitude-the great 5th century commentator Acariya Buddhaghosa who revived the study of Pali in Sri Lanka, and the Pali Text Society, whose pioneering efforts over the last century have made available most of the Pali Canon in English. I was in fact using translations by Ajahn Amaro's cousin - I B Horner. After six weeks of quite concerted effort, the time came to lay aside the books and dictionaries; the 227 rules were all in place, and it remained to polish and practise them. It was also time to disengage the mind from so much thinking about things - worthy things though they had been -and turn back much more to silence, stillness, emptiness. Thoughts about the importance of Pali study, our tradition, the necessity of having a firm theoretical grounding before teaching and so on, which had all come to seem important, righteous, and real, started to fade in significance as this whole mental world which had come into being began to break up and pass away. From this I reflected again upon how interest and attention give things life, but there comes a point comes when it begins to turn compulsive - and your mental creations turn back upon and assail you with their urgency, importance and righteousness, and start demanding your attention. It's not that Pali isn't worth studying after all, but it seems right to keep a balanced perspective and treat our conventions in the same way a mountain climber would his climbing equipment -learning to understand, take care of and maintain it, but above all use it for what it's meant for, and not get caught up in taking pride in it for its own sake. So at this point, with twelve days left, that whole episode seems like a distant dream. Has this really been two and a half months? Just a few memories remain - mostly of moments of jog in people's kindness or of mistakes made and wrong turnings taken along the way, that turned into learning experiences. The times when the mind might have been perfectly composed and still leave no trace. There's no feeling of having attained anything or got anything - learning the Patimokkha is maybe the exception, There is simply the ever-new realisation that one has arrived again at this moment, now. Was there ever. will there ever be, anything else?

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A First View of Buddhism Arnold Handley works as a journalist, writing features for popular newspapers. His reason for coming to Amaravati was not primarily for any self-discovery or out of interest in Buddhism. He came to get a story. What he got was a little more.... I rise at 4 a.m. and walk under a fading moon towards the communal hall. The world is still and cold. I slip my shoes off in the entrance, go inside, then sit and wait. People come in: I can just make out their shapes in the darkness. By about 5 o'clock I know that there must be thirty people around me but there is no noise, no movement. Somebody lights a candle, and that's all. I am inside myself, yet there is the comfort of being in a crowd. The voices start to chant. It is a deep monotone that sets up sympathetic vibrations in my chest. I don't know what they are chanting but I like the sound. When it stops, I also like the silence. I am in a Buddhist monastery; one of the twenty or so that accept visitors in Britain. You can live there for a while or stay for a weekend or just drive over for an hour's lesson in meditation. There is nothing to pay: you give what you feel like. "I worked in a town centre," says Richard, a security guard, "but the noise got on top of me. So I've come here for a time. Living on my savings and, when I get my act straight, I'll go back and get a security guard job again." But there are Christian retreats: why not go to one of those? "Because I don't believe in God", says Richard.

I realise that the getting up before dawn, the listening to chants, the meditation, the very philosophy of Â buddhism itself...are no more than tools to help me sort myself out.

Neither did the Buddha. Two thousand five hundred years ago, maybe in a close parallel with our royal family, he gave up his role as a prince to find some purpose in life. Then, at the age of eighty, he died -- as we all do. No rising from the dead, no flying up to heaven: he just died, an ordinary man, and an extraordinary one. He was probably the only religious leader who neither claimed to be a god nor said that he was a mouthpiece of God. He certainly was the only priest who told his followers not to believe a word he said. You shouldn't believe something just because there are years of tradition behind it, nor should you blindly believe everything that you read in print. So why visit a retreat?

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Says architect, Marion: "I don't intend to become a Buddhist. I'm here this weekend because it's ..." and she seems to put capital letters on the words "a Good Place To Be." "It is to make some sense of our lives. There are things in life that we want and don't get, and things that we get and don't want," says Tom, a pharmacist - Then he shakes his head to deny that this is what he really means, and re-phrases it with a very Buddhist expression - "We are here because we choose to be here." And I realise that the getting up before dawn, the listening to chants, the meditation, the very philosophy of buddhism itself...are no more than tools to help me sort myself out. For instance, there is only one meal, at 10:30 in the morning, and it's eaten in silence. At first, this is disconcerting. Then I realise there is no demand to make smart, over-the-table conversation: no need to play a charming host. So I relax. After the meal, I can work if I like, and, as I emulsion paint a wall-it's not my wall, there's no deadline to finish it. So I relax still more. There is meditation in brushstrokes. Before meditation classes, it helps if you have done yoga. Because as soon as you sit cross-legged and compose yourself, your nose starts to itch. So you need a technique to focus your mind briefly on the itch, then...and this may sound daft to anyone who hasn't tried...to breathe it away. You find after a quarter of an hour, you are also having to breathe on agonised ankle joints! After the session, people ask questions that range from the magnificent. "What is the meaning of Self?" to the jokey, "Why do I keep getting a tune on my brain?" As the questions go on, you begin to think that, maybe, there are no answers. The aim of meditation, say the monks, is to get beyond thought. You can't think your way out of a persistent problem: you just have to empty your mind and set the problem free. Then it will no longer nag you. And as I walk and meditate, a great well of tears bursts inside me. Yet I am able to think: This is sorrow. I am not being harmed; there's no pain. If self-awareness brings happiness, maybe it can also bring sorrow. And I've met that before. So I cry and, when the tears stop, wipe my eyes and carry on walking. No bother. About the monastery there is such a silence that I am reluctant to destroy it. As I talk, I listen to the silence in between my own words. And when it comes to the end of a sentence, I hang on to that silence for a minute before breaking it with sentence two. And my listeners smile because they too know what I am feeling. "In my family, nobody listens." says P.E. teacher Jo, "I'll be talking to somebody but all they are doing, is waiting for a gap so they can jump in with their opinions. It is not talking: it is

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two monologues running simultaneously". "You have to be nice to yourself," say the monks. "Don't keep blaming yourself for things going wrong." "That's the opposite to Western ideas," says 80-year-old Muriel, "we are not supposed to praise ourselves. We are brought up to feel guilty." "Why run yourself down?" comes the reply, "The earth itself isn't a perfect circle; it doesn't keep perfect time going round the sun. We have atomic clocks that are more accurate than Time. So why should you worry about not being perfect?" So I recharge my batteries with a weekend of silence. I say goodbye to the monks and they predict: "This won't be enough for you. We don't run a crash course in self-awareness." I get into my car and find all the traffic on the main road going too fast. Then halfway home the car has a breakdown, which is annoying. Well...I think...there's no way I can repair a wheel bearing. But I can handle annoyance. I am beginning to think like a buddhist.

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Editorial: Returning Homeless: Working With Nature:

January 1999 HOME BACK ISSUES

Working With Nature Celebration of Faith and the Environment Humanity's relationship with the environment is an area in which there is a need for increased understanding, both for the welfare of the individual and of the planet. We'd like to draw attention to a forthcoming event that focuses on the relationship between spirituality and ecology. We have received an invitation from the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) to participate in a Celebration of Faith and the Environment, which is to be held in Centerburg from Friday 15th September to Sunday 17th September 1989. This is a follow-up to the Assisi Event of 1986, which saw the establishment of the Network on Conservation and Religion through an interfaith pilgrimage to Assisi in which, amongst others, the Pope, the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Canterbury took part. Since then, educational programmes and conservation projects - have been launched by the Network; the Canterbury Festival will be the major display of the Religion and Environment theme for 1989, and will receive extensive media coverage. Â

The restoration of a whole ecological network will, of course, take decades to accomplish.

Together with this invitation comes a request to present - through music, word, drama, exhibitions, workshops and worship - the Buddhist attitude towards Nature. Venerable Sucitto (at Amaravati) has been asked to co-ordinate contributions from the Buddhist community. Of particular interest are things that can be displayed, that create an immediate and accessible impression - for example, paintings, sculptures, or even some form of pageant, etc. September seems like quite a way in the future, but we'd like to be clear about what we're going to present by the spring of 1989. We hope that many people will participate, as it could be a very rewarding experience for the individual and also have a significant effect on the society in general. Meanwhile, in Sussex ... A Close relationship with Nature has always been a fundamental aspect of Sangha life: and over the years, projects at Chithurst have received a lot of support from people coming out to work on tree and wildflower planting. Last September saw the final stage of the "Ancient Meadows" project, whereby the former paddocks are being sown with native wild flowers, as part of the general plan for restoring the natural ecological balance of the 180-acre forest monastery Re-establishing wildflowers attracts butterflies, which attract birds and so on.

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Work in Hammer Wood continues to transform this area, which had become sterile through commercial forestry practices. There have been major tree planting drives in the past few years, and gradually birds and small mammals are returning to the forest: but the restoration of a whole ecological network will, of course, take decades to accomplish. Help with simple and sensitive forestry work is always very much appreciated.

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Editorial: Returning Homeless: Working With Nature:

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Returning Homeless Dhammapala, the vihara in Switzerland, was opened in May of this year with Ajahn Tiradhammo as Abbot, accompanied by Venerable Chandapalo, Sister Cittapala and Anagarika Ernesto. Sister Cittapala was born in Switzerland and has spent most of her life there, so she was the natural choice as a nurse for the baby monastery - at least until the abbot learns some German, and the locals feel at ease with the Sangha. Often I am asked how it feels to return to Switzerland as a Buddhist nun, after having lived here before as a mother and housewife, and as a nurse for nearly years. First of all I realised how much deep love there is in my heart for the Swiss, a love which is no longer concentrated only on family and friends, but towards all as being one big family. At the same time a lot of compassion arises for their struggle, and - I would say - almost unnecessary suffering.

Switzerland is a very rich, well-organised and beautiful country, with its impressive mountains, glaciers, lakes, forests and wildflowers, and has a high standard of living and apparent security. Crime is quite rare and one sees hardly any violence: there is no sense of danger in going alone through the towns in the evening in Switzerland.

When there is no higher goal in their lives than possessions and sense-pleasures, people feel lonely and Â depressed.

The Swiss are very diligent and hard-working; relaxation is only allowed on holidays or Sundays, when one is definitely not to do any gardening or house-cleaning. Activities for the preservation of nature are widespread, and there is an increasing awareness towards health food: smoking and drinking are less socially acceptable. The government is busy organising walking weekends and several programmes to educate people in preparation for their lives after retirement. However, the work ethic is so deeply ingrained that they are rarely able to stop; often they only exchange one form of activity for another. All kinds of sports, and gymnastic exercises, are highly praised activities: but if done properly one does not give up until completely exhausted. Of course, this kind of attitude becomes very obvious on retreats also: "Unless I sit and meditate hard I won't get anywhere!" Perfection is the upheld ideal. Generally people become very tense and distressed, their minds plagued with conflicts, worries, anxiety and depression, until they no longer notice the natural beauty that surrounds them. So Switzerland is spiritually quite poor. When there is no higher goal in their lives than possessions and sensepleasures, people feel lonely and depressed. The senses get over-stimulated, but the heart is often dried-up with a nameless longing, or feelings of boredom and meaninglessness. So, more and more people are looking for something higher without actually knowing what they are https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/return.htm[03/10/2017 00:58:23]

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searching for. Cerainly there is a gradual recognition of the need for change. The country does have many Christian churches and monasteries, but people are turning instead to psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and astrologers and trying to solve their problems through group therapy, astrology yoga, sacred dance, therapeutic touch, massage etc. The list is endless. What are people looking for when they come to the Vihara? Many of them have done several retreats, with different teachers. One of the common difficulties that people have is in extending their Dhamma practice from the specialised retreat situation of silence and minimal activity, into their normal lives in the outside world. Someone once said that a few days after retreat it felt like being enmeshed once again in a net of habits. The struggle between the desire to return to the peaceful retreat situation and the demands of the family and work, evokes frustration and despair. So what can a little monastery such as Dhammapala provide in such a situation? Well, it can serve as a source of refreshment and inspiration, a place to go for a breather. It may bring up the best in ones mind, perhaps a reflection on the structures and priorities of ones daily life, a reminder to live more simply and to give more time for meditation and contemplation. Association with those who practise the Dhamma supports one's determination, and creates an opportunity to rise above self-centredness. Noble qualities may arise, the wish to serve and to offer dana, which results in a more joyful life. One day, here at Dhammapala, I asked a guest who likes to come and stay for several days at a time, what this occasion meant for her. "I don't have to come here to be anyone, or to play a certain role" she replied, "I can just be as I am and feel accepted. Listening and watching how you deal with each other, and function as a group with different situations or difficulties is very pleasant to my mind. I can feel that there is no oppression, but just a relaxed and open, harmonious responding to whatever is required in the present situation." Along these lines she continued: "It gives a feeling of refuge,that whatever happens there is this peace-island to come to" Several years ago, when I was still a nurse and housewife, going to Chithurst monastery was each time a deeply moving experience for me. I was always very impressed that the Buddha did not want people to just believe anything he, or other teachers, said, but to investigate and find out for themselves. Part of the beauty of the Buddhist teaching is its clarity and simplicity. It points directly to the path of deliverance, leaving it up to us to make the necessary steps and to look closely where we put our feet. If my heart is open and sensitive, if there is composure and awareness, then I am able to see the truth of this very moment. Well, the fruits of the practice are obvious indeed: great joy fills my heart, and gratitude in being no longer bound by the endless search for happiness and pleasure. I experience that sense of freedom much more strongly here, where I am more exposed to old habits and memories than I was in England-, and this provides the necessary space to live in the immediacy of the present moment. So, although we are hoping that the Sangha will firmly take root in Switzerland, I feel that whatever else happens, if we practise "letting go" things https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/07/return.htm[03/10/2017 00:58:23]

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will take their natural course.

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Editorial: Returning Homeless: Working With Nature:

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EDITORIAL Ten Years On Nineteen Eighty-Nine sees the tenth anniversary of the establishment of Chithurst monastery. In 1979 there was enough support and faith to send fifteen of us down to West Sussex to begin work on building a place for men to live as bhikkhus. With that came the opportunity and the effort to focus on a detailed training in the ways of the Holy Life. Ten years later we're still working on those areas, but the project has broadened out. There's enough interest and need in Britain to keep at least the four of our monasteries busy. Monks are still up on the roof with hammers, but there are nuns up there too, and the Sangha is also contributing towards school education, Dhamma literature, and environmental awareness. And it's encouraging to notice that people are coming to these monasteries from all over in order to be part of a Dhamma environment.

Each new situation, culture or viewpoint creates a further exercise for body and mind.

The training in conduct has spread to include guidance and suppart for Ten-Precept nuns: meanwhile the monastic conventions have been slowly assimilated by lay people of different cultures. Each new situation, culture or viewpoint creates a further exercise for body and mind: this is the way that the Sangha is educated and strengthened by the world. The Newsletter, also entering its tenth year, has become part of the monastic environment. A newcomer to the tradition of forest monasticism it yet bears the same hallmarks as the dhutanga robes: it is made out of scraps. And like the rest of the Sangha, it aspires to support the practice of those with commitment and to encourage the interest of those who are beginning. Being portable and detachable gives it some advantages, 50 this time we made it bigger to help with the gap left by the Sangha's two month withdrawal into retreat. Admittedly it a meagre substitute, but may it serve you well. Enter freely and reject whatever is not suitable. Ajahn Sucitto

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April 1989

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THIS ISSUE A Guided Tour of Lay Practice Inside Freedom

Cover: Serenity, an Open Heart; Chithurst Anniversary Articles: The Four Brahma Viharas; Venerable Munindo

Hammer Wood Progress; Aj, Sucitto & Mike Holmes

Question Time; Venerable Kittisaro

Editorial: Thrift; Ajahn Sucitto

Number 8 HOME BACK ISSUES

Serenity, an Open Heart The Tenth Anniversary: Chithurst Buddhist Monastery To celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, the Sangha invite you to attend an Open Day on June 25th 1989. In the spring of 1978, as the result of a chance meeting on Hampstead Heath, the Sangha were given Hammerwood, some 120 acres of commercially coppiced forest in West Sussex. It was a wonderful gift, and when George Sharp - Chairman of the English Sangha Trust - heard of a house for sale in the hamlet of Chithurst near to Hammerwood, he drove down to investigate.... It was a brief visit on a rainy day in December. The owner, Mr. Hadley, wouldn't let Mr. Sharp into the house: "Just assume its derelict" he said; but considering the ideal location and the needs of the Sangha, Mr. Sharp made an offer. They agreed, shook hands and through the rain a rainbow shone forth.

...there was only one cold water tap for washing purposes and the woodwork was devastated by dry-rot.

An auspicious sign? Well there were a few more: Mr. Hadley, subsequently being offered GBP30,000 more by a rival bidder, turned the offer down as he had given his word. Like the donor of the forest who was also not a Buddhist, he seemed attracted by the idea that Buddhist monks would he taking over his property. Neighbours reported him dancing up Chithurst Lane to a friend to tell her of the glad news.... In June 1979 the Sangha eventually moved in and found that Mr. Hadiey had been quite honest in his appraisal of the house. Only four of the twenty rooms were in use, the electricity had blown; the roof leaked; there was only one cold water tap for washing purposes and the woodwork was devastated by dry-rot. The grounds were as bad: crumbling outhouses overgrown gardens, and thick brawbles through https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/08/8.htm[03/10/2017 01:27:56]

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which protruded over thirty abandoned cars. And so it began and much of the next ten years is well chronicled history. Daily life at Chithurst is the same in essence as in any of the forest monasteries of Ajahn Chah: an emphasis on meditation and training in the monastic life, and a steady atmosphere of work in the house and on the grounds. The meadows around the house, previously grazing land have been recently restored to a natural state by the planting of indigenous wild flowers. Hammerwood itself has been extensively replanted with native hardwood trees and is being managed by a lay warden as a nature reserve. There remains one major building project to undertake - the conversion of the derelict coach house into a temple building for accommodation and occasional large gatherings. The commitment to meditation and the quiet forest setting is reflected in the monastery's formal title - Wat Pah Cittaviveka - the Forest Monastery of the Serene Heart. But that serenity has also been made possible by the many people who have passed through Chithurst's open door. Some have come seeking a place of peace; some have come out of curiosity; many have come bringing their goodness with them as an offering Whatever category you see yourself in, we do hope that you will be able to come and join the Chithurst community and the Maha-Sangha of guest bhikkhus on the Open Day.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

April 1989

Cover: Articles: A Guided Tour of Lay Practice Inside Freedom

Serenity, an Open Heart; Chithurst Anniversary The Four Brahma Viharas; Venerable Munindo Hammer Wood Progress; Aj, Sucitto & Mike Holmes Editorial: Question Time; Venerable Kittisaro Thrift; Ajahn Sucitto

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The Four Brahma Viharas Ajahn Munindo is curently in Auckland, New Zealand. We expect him to return to Chithurst in April. Meanwhile, here is an extract from a talk he gave at the Buddhist Summer School in 1987. There is one teaching in particular in this Theravada tradition which really stands out for me: it concerns the Four Brahma Viharas, or the Four Celestial Abidings. In the beginning when I used to hear this teaching explained I would think: "Well, this is not really what I took ordination for - I'm not really interested in the talks about kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and serenity. I really want the hardcore; I want to go for the direct path of Transcendent Wisdom; I don't want to hear anything about kindness: its a bit wimpish really - the sort of thing we used to hear about in Sunday School" So in the beginning this teaching didn't make much sense; actually, it really irritated me. Yet as the years went by as a monk, I discovered how, through cultivating kindness, there was a new way of seeing the tendencies that before had made me wobble so much - tendencies like anger, greed, fear, confusion, anticipation, worry and doubt. I gradually began to realize the transforming power and wonder of kindness. Kindness is actually not insignificant: the Buddha didn't call it a Celestial Abiding, or a Wonderful Abiding, for nothing. One of the occasions I remember of waking to the power of kindness was when I first came to England. I was travelling on a train in a relatively empty carriage. About half a dozen people were sitting at one end of the carriage, and I thought I would sit down at the back of the carriage and be quiet. The guard came in and checked the tickets, went away, and then came back again and sat just over the aisle opposite to me. I thought: "This is strange - he is taking an interest in me; what does he want? I've got my ticket ... "

Here, sitting on the train, was this man generating a completely different energy - I sensed that he really cared about me.

Then he moved over and said: "What are you up to then?" I thought, well, that's an invitation to speak on the Dhamma, isn't it! You know, we are not allowed to speak unless invited. and that was an invitation so I said: "Well, I'm a Buddhist monk and I live in a monastery in West sussex, and have been living in Thailand for a few years" At this point he interrupted, saying: "Well listen, son, let me tell you ... " and he pulled a book out of his pocket and started waving it in my direction - and I didn't get another word in for about 25 minutes! He obviously had something important to tell me about. Initially I thought: "Well surely he asked me what I was about" and there was a little kind of ... "Why doesn't he give me a turn!?" But it suddenly dawned on me that he really cared about me. I think I noticed it because I had just been standing on a railway station in the centre of London where people had a different attitude towards me altogether: they had a lot of aggression, and a lot of resistance. Here, https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/08/four.htm[03/10/2017 01:26:53]

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sitting on the train, was this man generating a completely different energy - I sensed that he really cared about me. I left all of the argumentative carry-on in my head and came down to this sensitivity, to his really caring about me. I dwelt on that and I thought, "OK, well you care about me and I care about you. May you be radiantly happy, may there be no suffering in your life for you or your wife, or your children," He, of course, was going on and on, but I kept just this "May you be radiantly happy" going-and I really felt it. And after about 25 minutes he ran out; he stopped and said: "Well, tell me some more" And I started again and he started again; so I started, "May you be happy.." and it felt wonderful. I didn't really mind if he didn't want to listen to me ... "May you be happy ... " Then we pulled into my station and I had to get off. Suddenly I had this tremendous feeling of affection for him. I thought: "What a nice encounter on a train" I reached over - he was very into Jesus - and I touched him an the arm and I said: "Do you love me? Well I love you and I'm sure that is all Jesus wants from us" He stopped and looked, something really happened at that moment, we really touched each other; a potential situation for a lot of aggression had been really tamed. This is the taming power of kindness. This is why kindness is actually a Celestial Abiding, it can cut right through the aggression. When we can discover this attitude of kindness in the heart, this, the Buddha said, is like the attitude that a mother has for her only child when she says unconditionally: "May my child be happy" It doesn't matter what the child does, the mother still feels like that. This then the Buddha said, is a truly Celestial Abiding and it has a great transforming power to it. We've all seen this power; when we witness an act of kindness our hearts are melted and transformed. Just to realize the power of kindness is a great inspiration. But if we can't locate this feeling of kindness what do we do? The first factor of the eight-fold path is to wake up to the way things are, to see the way things are, to stay with the facts. The Buddha always encouraged people to be in touch with the truth. Now the fact is, often I would like to be kind. I think it is wonderful to be kind; I think the whole world should be kind. Yet a lot of the time I don't feel, that way. Sometimes I actually feel quite unkind. But the Buddha said: "Stay with the facts." So perhaps, in keeping with the Buddha's instructions to be aware of what is, there is a value in being mindful of any unkind feelings I might have. So in meditation practice we experiment with our unkind attitudes. Rather than sitting there pretending: I love everybody, I would sit there and think: "I really wish everybody would just disappear." How does it feel to feel that way? It feels awful; it really feels paniful to feel like that. If we actually feel the pain it causes us when we dwell in unkindness, it is possible to get a feeling for the state of awareness that is non-aversion. Aversion is a state, a feeling, and non-aversion is an awareness of that feeling. And non- aversion is a synonym for metta; nonaversion is actually the same thing as loving kindness. When we can get behind our aversion and abide in non aversion we have the seed for loving-kindness. So, rather than say: "Yes I think lovingkindness is wonderful, I should have lots of it, but I'm not that sort of person, I

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was born with lots of fire in my heart and my mother didn't love me. and well, that is how it is" We say: "Right, well this is how it is. Yes I have a lot of heat, a lot of fire, a lot of anger but I don't mind. I want to see it, I want to work with it, I want to be with it." Then we discover the workability of our anger; we discover we have access to loving-kindness by going through our anger. So cultivating the Brahma Viharas is not just a matter of saying: "Well I know how I should be" It is saying: "How am I? How does it feel to be this way?" Then we have access to these qualities of loving-kindness, of metta. Compassion, or karuna, the second Brahma Vihara, is that selfless sensitivity to the suffering of others -that quality a mother has for her only child when that child is writhing in bed with a fever, a deadly fever, terribly ill. How does that mother feel: "May that being be free from suffering; for that being's sake, not for my sake -not at all. May that being be free from suffering" When we can allow ourselves to sense suffering when we can open up to our own suffering and to the sufferings of others - our sense of isolation, worry, and loneliness can be transformed. A meditation that we do in the monastery that I've found very powerful, is to sit and simply contemplate the feeling and experience of suffering. Then we think about the person next to us and sense how they experience exactly the same suffering. Everybody is experiencing exactly the same suffering of fear, desire or ignorance, and the wanting to be free from them. Just as I really want to be free from suffering, so do all other living beings want to be free from suffering, To open up and know inwardly that this is a shared experience transforms that sense of isolation into a new way of seeing, a new sensitivity to the human predicament. In the time of the Buddha, a mother called Kisa Gotami became deranged by the loss of her child, and would not accept his death. It was only when the Buddha caused her to be aware of the universality of loss and bereavement that she came to her senses. From the isolation of her personal grief, her mind opened to the universality of compassion. Sometimes you look at the world - you watch what is happening on the television or read the newspapers - and it is too much to bear. It is just too awful so you don't want to know about it any more. And what do you do? You deny your sensitivity. When we deny our sensitivity, we also deny our humanness, we also deny our life. So dwelling an the fact of suffering in our lives, isn't a morbid and negative thing, this sensitivity actually opens us up again, it begins to melt those restrictions and limitations. When we've denied our sensitivity for so long, the heart becomes closed, cramped and isolated. We feel so lonely and afraid, that to open up to our pain seems like it is going to be too much. But that's just the way it appears; because we've turned ourselves off from life, it does seem that way in the beginning. But if we can bear with it, if we can use our intelligence to contemplate the way it appears and endure it a little bit, maybe we can come to experience a transformation of the heart. Maybe we can look at the world and the suffering of other beings: "Yes it really hurts" and not close ourselves off from it. We can do that - rather than looking at another suffering being with fear and loneliness. and saying, please don't be that way, I can't stand it. Please cheer up." Sometimes we do that when we see people suffering. Do we really want to cheer them up? Do we really want to help them for their benefit? Do we want this child to be free from suffering for the child's sake'? - or is it for my sake because I can't stand it? Now true compassion is that selfless compassion the wish that all beings be free from suffering, because we're all in this together. Theres a teaching which says: "Being born is like stepping on a boat that is about to sail out to sea to sink" That's how it is for all of us. If we lose touch with that fact and cut ourselves off from each other, then we lose touch with life. So the transforming power of compassion allows us to feel our own pain, and to be honest with the pain when we see it in living beings. So it transforms fear into understanding and

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takes us beyond our isolation. Mudita, the third Brahma Viliara, means sympathetic joy. When I first came across The Four Brahma Viharas in Thailand I thought: "Sympathetic joy, what on earth does that mean?" It took me a long while before I could even begin to get a feeling for it. When the feeling did come it came from looking at its opposite - I had a lot of jealousy -and it really hurt. So by somehow allowing myself to feel this pain of jealousy rather than turning away from it, there was a knowing that I really wanted to be free of it. With the willingness to honesty feel jealously, the letting go occurs naturally. Just as when we feel something hot, you don't have to tell yourself to let go, as soon as you feel the pain of it letting go happens immediately. It's the same when we turn towards the pain of our anger, loneliness or jealousy; already by feeling these things a little, letting go happens. When we have a feeling for that freedom from jealousy, there is the seed for sympathetic joy. We can actually look at someone being happy and say: "I'm really happy that you're happy." This, the Buddha said, is the feeling that a mother has for her only child when she sees the child doing well. If we can locate this abiding, then when jealousy comes along it doesn't get in. It's like a well-oiled raincoat, the water doesn't get in - it just runs right off. So the transforming power of mudita or sympathetic joy is this quality of being able to take a situation like jealousy. which is really awful, and work with it. So now to consider the transforming power of upekkha. Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and serenity: the first three qualities, or Celestial Abidings as they are called, are very much heart qualities. And yet if there is not a perspective on the whole process, if we don't understand what is appropriate according to time and place, we might go and dump our compassion right down on somebody who doesn't want it. So the quality of serenity (upekkha) comes from the cultivation of wise equanimity. We don't have that kind of control over life where just because we want somebody to be free from suffering, they're going to be free from suffering; it is really up to the individual. So the wisdom aspect of the Four Brahma Viharas is understanding the process of life. The compassion aspect is opening up the heart, and allowing ourselves to be sensitive. But if we're going through life with an open heart, and we don't have an overview of the cause and effect relationship - that everything arises depending on a cause, and that everything that arises will pass away - if we don't have that knowledge, then we don't have an understanding of what is appropriate according to time and place. The transforming power of upekkha means we can accept situations with understanding - we can work with our confusion. In the monasteries every morning we chant a reflection on upekkha which is that all beings, including ourselves, are: owner of their kamma; heir to their kamma; born of their kamma: related to their kamma; abide supported by their kamma. Whatever kamma is done, for good or for ill, of that they are the hair. So the teaching of the Four Brahma Viharas is a teaching of transforming power. pointing to the balance between compassion and wisdom. When we have a feeling for this balance, this Middle Way, then we see the workability of every moment. Rather than life being the continual struggle not to wobble, there's an inner stillness which knows the workability of everything. We can begin to contemplate what is meant by life after death in a totally different way. We begin to sense that what is True Life isn't born and doesn't die; doesn't need to be cultivated and can't be destroyed.

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April 1989

Cover: Articles: A Guided Tour of Lay Practice Inside Freedom

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Progress in Hammer Wood A conversation between Ajahn Sucitto and Mike Holmes, the warden of Hammer Wood. Ajahn Sucitto: Generally hows the work in the forest getting on? Mike Holmes: Well, this is not a straightforward question at all because working on conservation takes a long time, and because growth in forests is very slow. We could start with the planting of areas and clearance of chestnut. That's coming along very well and our plan is developing. The young trees that we planted are growing well; the clearance of the areas that we have in mind to clear is going as planned, quite nicely, and so that's fine.

Then the conifers: we got a good thinning this gear which should last for ten years. We haven't been able to finish that job, but the two main areas that have been done are fine now, and will last for another ten years before more work is needed. AS: How many acres, say long-term, are you thinking of clearing? MH: Well I can't give you an exact acreage yet. It looks like about 30 acres will remain as chestnut and the other 20 or 30 acres that are chestnut now, we will eventually clear and plant. I think we need to keep 30 acres of chestnut. The idea of this is that a certain amount of cutting is done each year. From the wildlife point of view, when you're working chestnut coppicing, you want to cut a little bit each year so you have a rotation of habitat and then your wildlife won't desert completely. Its always moving round from one place to another and you get a sequence.

Where we've cleared and planted, the life is starting. Insects have appeared and we are having success.

It's probable that a lot of our forest was heathland and that's showing up by the way that the vast amount of silver birch grow and by the heather appearing. However, there would have been oak forest before that. The heathland was caused by Bronze Age farmers who originally cleared the oak forest, so the oak forest that we plant will be the actual growth before the heathland appeared.

Birches are very good nurse trees for our trees, in that any wildlife that comes along and eats the young growth is going to have lots of birches to go to first. So we can expect a lot of our trees to be saved from deer and rabbits by the birch. Also it produces a weather screen around young trees. AS: Do they grow very quickly.? MH: They grow quickly, and then as time goes along they become much too dense for a forest, so we'll thin them and thin them gradually, as we do the pines, and then we'll get a mixed forest with what we've planted. It will provide a source of firewood for us in the future so we don't consider them to be the main weed; the thing that is really going to cause problems is bracken, which just swamps an area. No light can get to the soil, its very acid. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/08/woods.htm[03/10/2017 01:25:47]

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This is going to be a problem. Last year we did try pulling bracken, but it's a job that goes on and on. You pull bracken and you may have cleared a little bit, but you turn around a week later and there's a whole lot more growing. Also it's been discovered that bracken pulling, when the spores are alive, could cause illness with humans. So we just have to accept the bracken until someone comes up with a means of controlling it.

Where bracken hasn't taken, we can see heather beginning to take. There are some good patches of heather on areas that were planted about four years ago. This is marvellous. Heather is a very good thing to have. We don't want the whole thing covered in heather like moorland or heathland, but patches of it are great. Also brambles. Brambles are an important food plant for wildlife and they're taking quite well. So this is quite pleasing. We're getting a lot of growth. AS: You talked a bit about wildlife and animals. Do you see much wildlife coming back? MH: Yes. In a commercial forest, wildlife is absolutely at a minimum. You've got a state where there are no old mature trees, so you've got no holes: no trees where hole-nesting birds can make their homes. You've got no old oak trees, which support a tremendous amount of insect life and thus food for birds. This just doesn't occur: and in the monoculture that we had of chestnut and pine there was no life. Chestnut especially has nothing. The only life you find in chestnuts are the rabbits which live on farmland to which they move out when they're feeding; or they eat the young chestnut growth round the stumps. But thats all.

But where we've cleared and planted, the life is starting. Insects have appeared and we are having success. The first thing that i've seen hunting over our plantations are tawny owls. This year we've got nightjars, and not just one, but at least three I've counted chirring in the dusk - and probably more. This is terrific, because they're making their home in areas that we've planted. Young plantations are just what they like, where life is coming back, and there are insects. This is really good.

Last year we had nightingales, so I'm sure they're there this year. In young chestnut growth, there are warblers' nests, but they only stay there temporarily. They don't feed because there's no insect life for them to feed on in the chestnut, but there are always a few about. Where we've got young plantations and where there are little bits of chestnut left growing off the stumps, we get garden warblers, willow warblars. chiffchaffs nesting we're lucky in that way.

There's still a shortage and there will be a shortage of the woodpeckers, which one expects to see in forest growth, but as the pines grow up there's food for them. Improvement came from the thinning of pine trees that was done over the last few months. There was also damage caused by the storm in October 1987. A number of stumps I've left in the snapped-off state. They'11 rot and thus produce insect colonies, which will be food -

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

and so we can expect woodpeckers to find this and come back. This is all good planning.

Because of the valley and the bottom lands which are wet, and the lake in the woods, we have bats. It will take a long time for any tree to become mature enough for the cracks and crannies and hollow places that bats like, but we've put up a few bat boxes. However, so far they've been used by blue tits which nested there. We've got an invasion of mink, which is a bad thing to have. They come up from the River Rother, and of course they cause a lot of problems with water birds. They get through a family of moorhens or mallard in no time at all! The moorhens have been mostly eaten, attacked by the minks; few of them are left in a family. The one thing that has appeared this year for the first time are mandarin ducks. There's been one successful family of mandarin ducks, so we're very pleased about that. There's a little colony which formed in this country round Virginia Water, and they seem to be moving out and spreading now. This is a good thing because mandarin ducks are very nearly extinct in China. This country is now the mainstay in the world of mandarin ducks.

We have quite a few deer, so that makes the wood attractive to poachers. We can say probably there are about 12 roe deer living in the Hammer Woods. Poaching goes on and there's not much we can really do about that. Gangs come streaming out of Southampton and they will hit a wood and shoot up everything they can find there and be gone. We always will suffer from poaching. The more people we can have, amongst ourselves, about in the woods at any time the better, because if you've got people about, poachers won't come so often. AS: They're planting wildflowers at Chithurst. Is there any idea of actually planting anything on the forest floor-flowers, shrubs? MH: Yes. Wild flowers have been tried in some places to see what comes along, and last summer and the previous summer, I collected masses of seeds.

Foxgloves are the first thing appearing in the way of wildflowers, and some areas you can see are really beautiful now with a mass of purple foxgloves on the hillside. This is a start, but generally the wildflower schemes which are going on around the monastery aren't going to work in the forest because the soil in the wood is much too acid. So we've got to wait until the acidity left by the chestnut works out of the soil and then we can start trying to get wildflowers back. It is interesting to see, in the older parts of the forest -on the west bank of the Hammer Stream where there have not been chestnuts-that there's a tremendous world of wildflowers. All the woodland flowers that you would expect from old forest -like yellow archangel - are there. We are very pleased about this, but it will take years to get things like that working in the areas that we're trying to bring back to life. AS: Is there any work that needs doing on the lake? MH: Well, the lake is a difficult one. The lake is silted up and shallow. I've just bought a boat which I hope to go out in and dig around and see what the bottom is, how deep it is and that sort of thing. But to do a proper dredging job there would firstly mean building a road into the lake - and that's going to be difficult with the soft sandy soil, and because huge great working barges and dredgers have got to be brought in. When you think of the cost of that sort of machinery, it's way out of anything that we can come near being able to afford. Then what would we do with all the silt that we dredge out? There's nowhere really to put that except to make a mess somewhere, and that's not a good idea. AS: So will the lake tend to change and become broader and swampier? MH: Yes. The edges at the top will always begin to dry out a bit and we'll try and make reed https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/08/woods.htm[03/10/2017 01:25:47]

Forest Sangha Newsletter

beds. We haven't had sucess yet but this is one of the programmes - a reed bed round the edge, which is marvellous for wildlife. This is what we'll try and do in one or two of the corners.

I think the lake is as it is. But when you think of it, that lake is hundreds of years old. It was built for the old iron industry in the Middle Ages, and it's taken hundreds of years to silt up to the state that it is in, so it will go on for a long time yet before it dries up. I'm not worried about it unduly. I've got an archeological report for some work that was done in the fifties and it then talks about the lake, the Hammer Pond, which is completely silted up with leaves - if it was silted up then, its still silted up. That was a long time ago, so I think it's an endemic problem that's with us and we just have to accept it.

But it's a very interesting lake. It takes all the water that's drained off the Milland Valley and there is quite a bit of farmland in there, same of which is this modern agri-business. They use all sorts of chemicals. And of course all these chemicals are drained down. They all come out of the Milland Valley down through the Hammer Stream. So we get the lot, and there have been pollution cases lately. Up until the middle of summer 1987, the hammer Pond did give the appearance all the time of being polluted. There was a nasty-looking scum and the smell was wrong. It wasn't good water at all. However, suddenly that changed. Whether some farmer changed his pattern or not I don't know, but now its far less polluted. The water is much more natural, and cleaner than I've ever seen it before. We hope it stays that way. There are plenty of fish in there. With less pollution we should begin to see more life. AS: What about the work, does it require a lot of people? MH: Planting does. In December 1987 we were in competition with the work that was being done in the monastery. We had sufficient help because it was a small planting programme. We had a marvellous visit from 30 school children who came and helped, so we were all right that way. But obviously when we have a planting programme this needs a lot of people, it's really great when people come along. We have a lot of fun and plant a lot of trees, and the results can always be seen later. There we are-as the years go on, these trees grow up and people can come and say: "That's the tree we planted." That's always a nice thing. AS: So who comes? Ecology groups, Buddhists? MH: Well, yes. The local supporters of the monastery. There are a lot of interested people who support the monastery round about.

We're having good success over planting, so obviously we must be doing it right. Whereas commercial forestry organisations talk about low success rates sometimes in their broadleaf planting, we seem to get a success rate of about 95% and so, well - touch wood - everything's going well. AS: How are you doing? It's such a lot of work and you have a job as well. Are you enjoying it? MH: I think it's wonderful. I look upon it as my main job. The other job that I do is just the one that pays the gas bills. This is what I'm interested in. There's so much work to do here. You're doing something for the future and it's something that I'm interested in. Here I've got the job that I want. Now when you think about it, there are bat workers, ornithologists, botanists, foresters and many such aspects of conservation. Here it's all one thing. We have a situation where we clear an area of chestnut. Now in that area of chestnut there is nothing - no life whatsoever. The ground is absolute sand, it's toxic. All the humus is washed out, leached out, and so we're starting right from the word go. It's not just insects or flowers or bats or birds - it's everything! We're producing life, we're starting something. We're producing a life system. And this is great. It's the most exciting thing that I think I've ever done and I really enjoy it.

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AS: Sounds like it too! *Since the interview, Mike has retired from his salaried job.

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April 1989

Cover: Articles: A Guided Tour of Lay Practice Inside Freedom

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Question Time The following is taken from a public talk given by Venerable Kittisaro to an audience of approximately 300 people in Bath, 1986. Question: What does Buddhism teach about love? Answer: Buddhism teaches that love has to be understood. We attach to an idea of love: love is 'liking' something. Sometimes we use love very loosely and not very carefully; but to really love something in the Buddhist sense means to allow it, to know it as it is, and to be willing to listen and be attentive ... like when a mother loves a child and the child just is the way it is. The mother can be attentive to that child's needs. It doesn't mean that the mother always likes it when the child is screaming and not sleeping in the middle of the night - but she's willing to be with that being. So the Buddha taught - as I understand it - that the purest form of love is actually not fighting something, not struggling against - something, but allowing that thing to live, to be present in ones consciousness; then one can be attentive to it.

But then you say: "Well, gosh, that seems pretty cold - that won't change the world!" But when you give attention to something without demanding that it be different, that very attentiveness has a profound transforming effect. This is what I found with my own body and illnesses*. For some reason I didn't die and at last now I'm able to go around and meet people. All I could do for many years was actually be with the body, be with the discomfort, be with the pain as it was. I could allow that to be in the mind, just as it was ... just care for it! Doing that can give so much nourishment.

We find in physics now they don't talk about an "objective observer" and "the observed"; that's out-dated nowadays, Nowadays physicists have come around to the Buddhist way of seeing things as a participant". Just in the mere fact of looking at something, you start to change it. Now if you look at someone you love and you see something you don't like and you try to make them be different, You are actually forcing - and sometimes that can be quite cruel. And so the Buddha would say that hatred can never be stilled by hatred. Hatred or aversion can't cease by fighting it: only through kindness, through not hating something, can a condition then live its own natural life and then die naturally. So hatred has to die a natural death. As soon as we try to kill hatred we actually reproduce it all over the place.

We're talking about harmony, talking about peace, but actually haven't even begun from the very basic level.

Question: What is the Buddhist attitude to social work and engagement in social issues doing things to help, anything practical? 1s it entirely impractical? Answer: There's this idea that there's a great gap between action and contemplation. This is what we're beginning to see in physics: that the act of looking at something has a tremendous effect. How you look at the world creates your whole world, your whole attitude - of indignation, of liking it, of not liking it - it's very much from your attitude.

First of all, the idea that people who are just contemplating don't have any effect on the world: I think that needs to be considered. I know in our monastery when someone is peaceful

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that too has an effect on the others; when someone is being very irritable all the time, that has an effect on the others.

Now what about action of the kind that you're talking about? Of course Buddhists are encouraged to be open and see what needs to be done. But don't look too far away too soon. Doing something important can be very energising, we can really get fired up a bout doing something really important. And then the ordinary things: getting along with our family, getting along with our business associates; we can just not have time for that, and then our work becomes very misguided. We're talking about harmony, talking about peace, but actually haven't even begun from the very basic level.

So I say: yes, as one meditates and learns to get a perspective on things then one learns to do whatever one can do. Depending on your own abilities, your own situation, you dedicate your life to being of benefit to the whole. And so as a Buddhist monk I have certain things that I can do. I myself don't go around growing food for other people and things like that though I think that's a good thing to do -but my job as a Buddhist monk is to learn to live very simply on one meal a day, content with having three simple robes, to rely on whats offered, and to be always available to be interrupted, to be available for whoever comes.... That's just one tiny cog in this whole cosmos. Each person in the Buddhist Way, when they start to contemplate what Right Speech is, what Right livelihood is, when they start to find from their own heart what is the most appropriate way - they can be of benefit to the whole. While doing that they don't ignore being mindful and attentive, because that mindfulness will always see that what they do is kept in balance and is not misguided by Wrong View.

So its a slow process maybe; but it encourages each being to grow up, to use the wisdom that they have, and to open up from being just concerned with this body or this little family, or this country, or this political party - to just keep opening up to the whole. If you take sides with one little group, it can lead to so much trouble - but the open mind just senses Question: Is it really a question of understanding yourself before you can help anybody else? Answer: There's a problem in the logic in that. When you write it down in a sentence, it makes it sound like you have to do all that selfunderstanding first and then -after you've become a Buddha, or after you've become an arahant-then you can go out and help people; and before thet you can't do anything. Really it doesn't work out that way, both aspects work together all the time. Like myself: I felt really good going around helping all the monks do yoga, helping my teacher, running around always doing something; but then when I became ill and found myself unable to do anything, I was totally incapable of really being at peace with things as they were. There was no real Wisdom, and a lot of my action came out of desperation - desperation actually tainted and misguided some pf what I was doing.

So this is why there's always a balance in Buddhism, and some time for real quietude. How much time one spends being quiet is up to each person -a minute, or even just five minutes of sitting down and being still, not doing anything and just noticing what's racing through your mind, is useful. Then you

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

can notice the pull of what you think you have to do: the guilt of thinking you're being selfish - or whatever there is. Just to get those feelings in perspective, just to see that those are feelings which are running you around all the time, makes you someone who is at least more in a position of understanding life.

If we wait around until we're perfectly enlightened - I tell you what, I wouldn't be here tonight talking to all of you people! You'd have to wait until the cows come home, and they wouldn't be coming home! Because there's always another doubt that comes in ... maybe I'm not ready, yet.

When I think: "Am I ready yet?", if I'm meditating, I'm seeing that as a thought right now,* and seeing that thought has a beginning -"Am I ready yet?" - and that thought has an end; and noticing that when that thought ends there's peace in the mind. And when I can see that the thought is a thought which comes and goes, I can see it as a changing condition in the mind. I don't have to make a problem out of it any more, I don't have to wait for the time when there's no more doubting thoughts. I just know its a doubting thought and I can offer what I'm able to. So what we can do immediatelywith just one moment of waiting and of being patient with pain-this in itself brings forth an energy of equanimity and of patience.

So we start with the little things. If we want to be like Jesus and we want to save the world, that's fine. but where have we got to start? The Buddha started wth the little things, he said let's be honest, climbing the tree from the bottom, you don't jump into Nibbana, you don't jump into God: you first learn to be patient with a headache. And then one up mindfulness in this present moment.

what do you think? sounds OK to me.

Question: Is it going to lead to a universal impracticality if we take up Buddhism? ... How do you feel about going into our technological world and making the changes that are needed? Answer: One thing: it really isn't for me to make proclamations of what Buddhists think and feel - because there's no such statement. This whole Teaching is a path towards Awakening. Each of us is sitting here from a different position in this room, each of us has a different perspective. and for me to tell others what they should do and what they should see is difficult.

As a general reflection, though, I feel that we have tremendous power now to manipulate things and to create. We have the ability to create all sorts of things through science-, and we're beginning to understand some of the laws of how materials (what we call the aggregates of form). how these operate. We have great power to change, to move things, to move mountains, to dig up the earth: send people to the Moon, to blow up the planet. We have tremendous abilities to produce-, in fact our whole language and society there's a lot of emphasis on being productive.

Well, the religious impulse realizes that one has gone too far into the world of manipulating and changing. in the world of making life like we want it to be. There's an idea that if We just eradicate enough diseases with this marvellous science then we'll be diseasefree, pain-free, trouble-free, and then we'll be happy. So that's a materialistic extreme. And when we go to an extreme we're always seeing life how it could be. through concepts. There's a tremendous power in that because desire the desire of wanting to make it how we want it to be - is a power that's able to create things. But sometimes it can become very cruel: although we have tremendous power to manipulate life. We still have hardly moved anywhere in our https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/08/quest.htm[03/10/2017 01:24:49]

Forest Sangha Newsletter

ability to get along with one another - we're still blowing each other up, fighting, getting separated, misunderstanding each other.

So, many times the religious impulse tells us how to appreciate things. and talks about opening the heart Now when you're a child and you go out onto the Seashore and you look at this vastness, your eyes just go open: wind is blowing in, thousands of waves and the roar of the sea as it's rushing in, and the mind has no wag of trying to manipulate that - or at least, mine doesn't. It's too Vast when Someone's mind is open, you're just listening and watching. And in that state, the state of wonder, the State of awe,'the State of communion, one is actually appreciating. Now that's the state of love, the State of really being able to be with something as it is, whether it's horrible or pleasant. And in that state one is actually a part of the whole thing, one is connected to the whole. But then that can be an extreme too! If you're attached to just wanting to be in a State of awe all the time well. what are you going to do about all that needs to be done? If wisdom together with the appreciation and wonder, then action arises out of wisdom. So with this creation, understanding will be rooted in clear-seeing and in compassion.

There's nothing good or evil about any of these things, be it medicine or nuclear technology. But it's the human minds that are using these things that have become divorced from reality many times. And so, rather than make proclamations about what people should do in the active sense, I'd encourage everyone to open up to life ... and then we start to see that I feel pain, and I don't like pain, and we realize that other beings feel pain and they don't like to have it. Then compassion starts to arise in which you "Suffer with" - you actually vibrate with Someone else. You realize that they're Suffering, and then you're just not inclined any more to do things that hurt other beings. But if you just tell someone "don't do that"; "be compassionate", your whole voice is one of force, one of issuing proclamations, Then you might get people to act the way you want them to, but there still would be avijja, there still would be ignorance. So the Buddha taught that the Source of the whole problem is ignorance. We point at that, and out of awareness naturally starts to come forth compassion, being one with the whole. * Ven. Kittisaro almost died of typhoid fever during his initial training in Thailand. When he returned to England he experienced a three-year period of serious illness, and eventually was diagnosed as having Crohn's Disease. Since that time he has been learning acommodate and work with this condition. suffering wherever it happens to be and then makes an effort to alleviate that. Yes, its a crime that the world has so much suffering in it now and that we have so much power-yet we haven't alleviated a lot of the basic problems: that's very unfortunate. But the problem won't be solved by trying to force people to do it. It'll be solved by giving attention to it and each person doing what they can.

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April 1989

Cover: Articles: A Guided Tour of Lay Practice Inside Freedom

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EDITORIAL Thrift We undertook a thrift campaign at amaravati in the latter half of 1989 to substantially reduce overheads; it stimulated some ideas that were later taken up by other monasteries. Reduction in the use of electricity was the main target, this involved abandoning the use of electric kettles, washing clothes by hand and - elderly or sick people excluded - rationing the use of electric fires. Ajahn Sumedho encouraged us not to make an ascetic practice out of it, but to use Wisdom, and to frequent heated communal rooms. The sala's wood-fired heating system was to produce the communitys hot water and keep everyone warm, and we completed a major work project on insulating the men's from Chithurst. In fact residences with some help from bhikkhus we even had the energy left over to install a gas-fired boiler in the old people's quarters, thanks to some good hearts and late nights. There's a real willingness to allow our lives to be moulded in terms of rhythm and form by a sensitivity to resources. And there's an enthusiasm to investigate new possibilities: we are currently thinking of collecting rain water for washing purposes. As these resources eventually come down to what the earth is capable of providing us with, we hope that others may pick up on our approach and share some of their ideas with us; it's an area that should concern us all. Oh - and we strongly recommend community consciousness as a means of generating energy, inner warmth and good ideas. Â

I've got to be mindful, and cheerful too! Sound familiar'! Â Welcome to samsara.

After the great Magha Puja gathering of over fifty samanas at Amaravati the resource of people is thinning dramatically. By the time that you read this our winter guest, Ajahn Jagaro, will be on his way back to bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia, and Ajahn Sumedho will probably be in New Zealand after visiting California. After New Zealand he will, go to Australia and Thailand, so we don't expect to see him until June. With Ajahn Santacitto at the Devon Vihara, and Ajahn Kittisaro "on retreat" at Amaravati for the year, that leaves Ajahn Amaro and myself (feeling slightly orphaned) overseeing things at the Centre. Monks and nuns are going off to branch monasteries in Devon and Switzerland, and some to help with the preparations for Chithurst's open Day on June 25th. Then two of the anagarikas will be going to Chithurst in May to prepare for their bhikkhu ordination on July 9th - which all in all leaves us spread thinner than the butter on a cafeteria sandwich. So the mind can go into its panic - because there's the Lay People's Exhibition to prepare - and there's the work on the bhikkhu vihara unfinished, and the lay women's guest quarters could use some refurbishmant and there are the gardens, and the lawns to mow ... and we're getting so many books in the library that we need some more space and more shelves ... then there's the work for the Festival for Religion and the Environment - books, displays, paintings ... and there are retreats, meditation classics, workshops, parties of schoolchildren, people wanting advice.... and if all, that wasn't enough - I've got to be mindful, and cheerful too! Sound familiar'! Welcome to samsara. Where it begins is in the mind: and that's the only place it's ever going to

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end. What's the point of practising Dhamma except to know and experience that? So at times when there's so much to do, we have to remember to do very little. Do just a little at a time and let go a lot: that's the way out of samsara,and being open to the world makes it very easy: it really is too painful to indulge in proliferations, panic, anxiety and self-criticism. So we'll just live to be very sparing with what our minds create,and that's a campaign well worth contemplating! Ajahn Sucitto

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April 1989

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Inside Freedom Monks from Harnham Vihara regularly visit four prisons in the North. Here are some reflections on prison visiting from Venerable Nyanaviro Bhikkhu. On the last full moon day I had a dream. Shortly before retiring I read an article about the Durham "H" wing, and having visited this prison on several occasions was drawn to the description of the conditions there - a description which left a vivid impression on my mind. In the dream I found myself in prison - it began in prison. I can remember the eating hall, my own room, the area around the prison. The whole feeling of being there was like there was something wrong, there was something terribly wrong with the whole situation. One of the main things that plagued me was not so much the actual conditios - I wasn't experiencing anything that was grossly uncomfortable on the physical level - but in the heart there was an anguished feeling. I was wanting to know why I was there and then trying to accept the situation I was in: being condemned, limited - really limited - having a certain essential part of mg freedom taken away from me. I was very Sad, and on waking up the sadness staged with me. Â

To Sit in such an environment is somehow a supreme way of affirming the goodness of the heart.

The first time I ever went alone to a prison I noticed some oppressive feelings arising. I could not quite understand it. I had prepared myself and was feeling quite calm and positive, but just Sitting in the room waiting for a prisoner to come and see me I could feel a heaviness descending - a pressure. When I left, this stayed for a few hours and I realized that it was a pressure that had not come from within but outside of me - the heaviness of the environment. I notice that now; it seems to be a hallmark of prisons, this flatness in the feeling of the place. I think in my dream the prison was really my life situation. It Was not the walls of the cell, it was not the perimeter fence, but it was the prison of the mind which identifies with the human experience on the level of things, moments, birth and death; the inability of the stuff of the world to touch us deeply, and its fleetingness. This was the sadness which I wanted to shake off. When I'm with a prisoner I do not try to see him in the usual way as a man who has been locked up or put away for breaking the law, but rather as no different to me; like me someone who wants to free themselves from the prison of the ego-obsessed mind, mental habits - the prison world that we can create through our ignorance and through our lack of good heartedness.

Plant Life The plants in my room - all gathered together, on a chest of

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Forest Sangha Newsletter drawers. Protecting each other in a nest of still green.

Prison visiting is very rewarding: to simply cross one's legs and sit in the cacophony and seeming pandemonium of the cell block; men yelling, doors banging, kegs rattling, the strange light, the ugliness of the walls and the doors, the starkness and lack of colour, the lack of smiles, the rigid institutionalism. To Sit in such an environment is somehow a supreme way of affirming the goodness of the heart. It is like a great response or gesture that a human being can make: to just turn directly to the heart and be there, he with that, be fully human. In some ways it is very rich and vital, because so much is stripped away from are in that situation. One is - as it were - in isolation: a man is alone with the obviousness of his consciousness, he is pinned down with himself. In the midst of that if he can just stop still and be with himself, then there is meditation. So often on leaving a prison I'm struck; left with a definite feeling of "How about that?", and it almost brings up a sense of guilt about my own wrongdoings. Seeing someone paying for their crimes physically and realizing that I am equally guilty. I can't just see a prisoner as impure, having committed something wrong, some misdeed. It brings up the shadow side of oneself where one knows that one has had moments of darkness, albeit not serious enough to be judged by the law of the land, but still in one's heart there is a twinge of shame or sadness. There is an honesty about prisoners - that's what it is because their crimes are out in the open. Everybody knows about them, everybody. That's what they are in for: it's been declared public and somehow in that making publicness of their crime, there is a potential for heating. Whereas for so many of us our crimes and darkness are held in, locked deep within, even hidden away from ourselves. Many prisoners will talk openly about what they have done and admit that they have regrets-and this honesty is appealing. I think the image of a prisoner is a kind of negative archetype in the mind. It gives a chilling feeling. In different societies back through the ages there have always been prisoners, people locked up. What strikes us perhaps, is that we realize that we too are prisoners: it seems to go deeper than just thinking freedom means that we can run around this planet going places as and when we please. To know that that is not really freedom; just in the same way that locking up a man is not really taking away his freedom.

The young fuchsia has greenfly which it keeps to itself like an embarassing acne that everyone can see but is too polite to mention. Like a forgotten plateau at the top of an inaccessable mountain, photographs and emblems, saints and statues hide behind leafy mantles I view the fringes of fronds from the floor where I stretch out to sleep ...... what do they know of my dreams? Perhaps they mingle their potted plant language with my midnight meanderings. Sprinkling diamonds of plant vapour into the atmosphere of the slumbering body beneath. And If I'm in too much of a hurry on leaving the room how sad they all seem, my green friends, neglected in favour of swift passages of investigation into the drawers beneath. So my five

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Forest Sangha Newsletter leaf-friends have found an abiding on my chest of drawers for the winter. I promise no more than a moistening of water and the warmth of an occasional heater. And by thriving silently they humbly accept a refuge from the bleakness of winter.

Once I did a one-day retreat in a local prison; the chaplain allowed us to use the chapel for walking meditation and a room for sitting. In the middle of the afternoon I was walking up and down when a very distinct thought arose: "I'll be glad to get out of here and back to the monastery". Reflecting on this it seems to have a humorous side to it (as some people see the monastery as a prison), but anyway, prison. but anyway, "Where am I going. Am I going somewhere that has more freedom than where I am now, just walking up and down?" And this seemed to display the conventional attitude of my mind towards the prison. It's a place where there is no freedom. So, to find freedom in a place where it's so easy to believe it is absent is a great challenge-and it is just this that we encourage prisoners to do. We encouragc them to meditate in the most raw and direct way, no strings attached. no holds barred. We just sit down and do it: it's very real. The men are very direct and don't hold back so much - perhaps because they have nothing else to lose. They ask very straight questions and give you a look, very wide-eyed and deep, as if they are drinking you in and saying: "Who are you? Where are you really at?" And it goes right down to your boots (or sandals) and if you are straight with them then they will pick that up. Making prison visiting your offering means coming to terms with the frustration of feeling that on, is creating but a small impresion on an institution which acts primarily as a deterrent and punishment for men rather than a place of healing. But then how many human institutions are there which incline us towards true freedom, towards that clarity of vision which sees, and knows that the prison dream is just a dream? We received the following letter from Pat Griffiths. Dear Friends, I'm enclosing a request from a Buddhist who is currently serving a prison sentence in Chelmsford, He's a very true and sincere Buddhist and is using this time to meditate and deepen his study of the Dhamma. He's also compiling a book and would like as many people as possible to write and tell him how Buddhism has changed their lives. So if you could help, he - and I - would be very grateful. Any letters should be sent fairly soon, as he is quite likely to be released on parole in July. His name and address: Stan Leggett, MM 3900 HM Prison, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6LO If you are interested in prison visiting or corresponding with prisoners, please contact Angulimala. c/o The Forest Hermitage, Lower Fulbrook, Warwick, CV35 8AS.

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April 1989

Cover: Articles: A Guided Tour of Lay Practice Inside Freedom

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A Guided Tour of Lay Practice Ajahn Santacitto and Barbara Jackson have been working together at Amaravati on an Exhibition: "Lay People's Practice". For those who have not visited it yet, here is a brief tour... Anyone visiting the exhibition on lay people's practice with a view to casually browsing or merely to being entertained, might not get much further than the entrance. Opening the door to the spacious Dhamma Hall one immediately encounters giant brushstroke letters reminiscent of Japanese calligraphy and framed in gold: The way of Buddha in Daily Life: Living Your Vision For A Better World "Pleasant enough," one might think, "but what are they getting at?" A step further and the introductory statement in large bold type already seems to be asking us to make a decision. Just curious? Looking for information? or, Looking for something deeper? Those who are undaunted and decide to go on will find waiting for them a wealth of homespun wisdom, generously shared through the compelling accounts of everyday experience. These are people who have taken up the challenge of bringing into their daily lives the timeless teachings of the Eightfold Path as embodied in the ancient Theravadin Tradition -while remaining fully involved in the cross-currents of ourcomplex modern society.

"Provided the laity remain responsive and sensitive to the Sangha, and the Sangha maintain their high standards, all should be well."

Standing reading the introductory board, ones's peripheral vision may have already caught glimpses of Bodhi leaves dangling from overhead branches, and being drawn to turn around, one finds onself face to face with the Lord Buddha at the moment of enlightenment. As an example of many origins; Buddhist works of at this exceptional pairing symbolically connects ancient traditions to modern form and predominates ina gallery of over fifty 8-by-4-foot display boards. The painting of Lord Buddha brightly shines as the centrepiece of a full wall display, presenting both personal experience of practising alone, and an abundance of the Buddhas teachings which point to a clearer understanding of this. LONELINESS is portrayed visually as a leaf battered by the Eight Worldly Winds of gain/loss, fame/disrepute, happiness/sorrow, praise/blame. From here the Eightfold Path raises one up to the Bodhisattva's position of true ALONENESS. Beseiged by the armies Of Mara, both traditional and modern, one finds the Refuge that is impenetrable in the All-One-ness of the Tree of Bodhi. "You want to find Peace? When you are with others you just want to be alone. When you are alone, you miss your friends. But peace doesn't arise through being alone, Or through being with, others. True Peace arises from Right Understanding" (Ajahn Chah) https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/08/lay-prac.htm[03/10/2017 01:20:27]

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Directly ahead, beneath the rays of a rainbow, is the second of Family Life where one is warmed by the candid offerings of parents writing on practising with children. "The most important thing in dealing with children is honesty and example by parents and adults" Then three beautifully creative paintings focus our awareness on the theme of Giving. One of these paintings presents the theme of mutual offering between monastic and lay communities, with lay, people's views on the development and benefits Of mutual dependency as the Sangha flourishes in the West. "Provided the laity remain responsive and sensitive to the Sangha, and the Sangha maintain their high standards, all should be well." The Precepts Board seems to share people's secrets on how they do succeed with working with the Five Precepts while Living in Society-and how they don't. The "do's" encourage and suggest a fresh approach while the "don'ts" reminds us of the familiar sound of our common predicament. "I adore gossip and tend to exaggerate when telling stories. I know I Must be more mindful" "The Five Precepts are in my experience vital as a guide. Forget them and sorrow and suffering follow inevitably. Keep them and one is able to be more open, joyful, efficient and on the ball." Ahead we find favourite books and suttas as well as individual quotations and suggestions as to how these Helpful Resources may be wisely used. "It can be a problem that the teachings get stuck in the head rather than the heart. One doesn't need to read about suffering to know suffering." Sculpture, painting, poetry and song form a corner on Buddhist Culture. Bronze Buddha! Seated peacefully in your Temple of the Trees What words can paint the beauty of the carpeting of these Who surround your loving With the rainbow of the leaves. Next to that are valuable practical tips on how Formal Practice can reach out into our daily life situation. "I cannot separate the day-to-day life from the practice. Everything I think and do is the practice - mind you, it is not always skilful - especially the thoughts - but there's awareness and the effort" https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/08/lay-prac.htm[03/10/2017 01:20:27]

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Having reached the larger-than-life Thai Buddha image, benignly overseeing this vast array of lay practice, one encounters warmly encouraging perceptions of ancient Buddhist Devotion and Ceremonies as they are being practised today. Is this perhaps a place where East and West can truly meet? "There is a beautiful energy contained .in rituals that touches something very deep in our hearts.... I think in the West, many are rediscovering the value of rituals which connect us with a deeper reality." "Ven. Sumedho blessed my youngest child on request at home in the presence of a few friends.... Tremendous - wish there was more opportunity to have domestic milestones gathered into the tradition and practice" Across the aisle is a pictorial forum of the experience which has helped some Buddhist groups work well. "Being with like-minded people who do not judge you and do not expect anything from you, yet encourage you to continue on your path" And last but not least, in a final burst of energy, is the suitably flamboyant presentation of the Family Camp experience with all the little ones well protected by a hovering Tibetan dragon. "To be within a contemplative atmosphere and to, be among other people with similar ideas on child rearing" There has been much to take in and much to take away, and just before stepping out of the door, the large "STOP" on the introductory board may again draw our attention, perhaps now finding ourselves more vibrantly resonating with its final paragraph: " Basically we are all in the same predicament. in recognizing this, we may come upon life's challenge and the opportunity left us by the Buddha -to follow the Eightfold Path. To pick up this challenge and bring the path into our lives is our open ticket to freedom and Truth"

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July 1989 THIS ISSUE Question Time; Aj Sumedho Allowing Silence; Aj Sucitto

2533 Cover: Gratitude to Ajahn Chah; Jayasaro Bhikkhu Articles: Image of the Dhamma; Sister Viveka

Living in the World with Dhamma; Ajahn Chah

Part of the Lineage: pt.I; Aj. Sucitto interviews Aj. Jagaro

What is the Devon Vihara? Supanno & Pasadaka

Out on a Limb; Venerable Kovido

Editorial: Lineage is more than History; Ajahn Sucitto

Number 9 HOME BACK ISSUES

Gratitude to Ajahn Chah June 17th was the 71st birthday of, Venerable Ajahn Chah, spiritual teacher of over eighty forest monasteries in Thailand, Britain and around the world. As is customary in the monasteries in England, the day's practice was offered in gratitude to him and for his well being. In this Newsletter we present, through some reflections, an occasion for readers to recollect what he has made possible for all of us.

Luang Por's Way Venerable Jayasaro is one of the senior monks at Wat Pah Nanachat. In 1988 he visited the UK as a translator for Venerable Chao Khun Pannananda. The following reflections on Ajahn Chah's life are taken from a talk given at Amaravati Buddhist Centre in June of that year. My own first meeting with Ajahn Chah was on the full moon of December 1978. I had spent the "Rains" retreat of that year as an eight - precept lay person with Ajahn Sumedho at Oakenholt here in England. After the retreat I went out to Thailand. When I arrived at Wat Pah Pong, Venerable Pamutto, an Australian monk resident there at the time, took me to see Ajahn Chah. He was sitting under his kuti having a drink. He looked at me and smiled very warmly. He held out the drink he had in his hand, so I crawled over and took it. As I returned to my place I found there were tears welling up in my eyes. I was emotionally overcome for quite a while. Since that day I don't think I have ever wanted to leave the monastery or do anything except be a disciple of Ajahn Chah. People often presumed there would be a problem with language for Westerners who wanted to stay at the monastery, but this was not the case. Someone once asked Ajahn Chah: "Luang Por, how do you teach all your Western disciples? Do you speak English or French? Do you speak Japanese or German?" "No," replied Ajahn Chah. "Then how do they all manage?" he asked, "Householder," Ajahn Chah enquired, "at your home do you have water - buffaloes?" "Yes, Luang Por" was the reply.

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"Do you have any cows, or dogs, or chickens?" "Yes, Luang Por" "Tell me" Luang Por asked, "do you speak waterbuffalo: do you speak cow?" "No" the householder replied. "Well, how do they all manage". Language was not so important to Luang Por. He knew how to see through the exterior trappings of language and culture. He could see how all minds basically revolve around the same old centres of greed, hatred and delusion. His method of training was one of pointing directly at the way our minds work. He was always showing us how craving gives rise to, suffering -actually allowing us to see directly the Four Noble Truths. And for him, the way of exposing desires was to frustrate them. In his vocabulary, the words "to teach" and "to torment" were more or less interchangeable. Such training as this can only take place. if everyone in the monastery has great confidence in the teacher. If there is the slightest suspicion that he might be doing it out of aversion, or desire for power, then there wouldn't be any benefit. In Ajahn Chah's case everyone could see that he had the greatest courage and fortitude and so could trust that he was doing it out of compassion.

He realized mere sense restraint, although essential, was not enough.

Primarily he would teach about letting go. But he also taught a lot about what to do when we can't let go. "We endure:' he would sag. Usually people could appreciate intellectually all about letting go, but when faced with obstacles theg couldn't do it. The teaching of patient endurance was a central aspect of the wag that he taught. He continually changed routines around in the monastery so you wouldn't become stuck in ruts. As a result you kept finding yourself not quite knowing where you stood. And he would always be there watching so you couldn't be too heedless. This is one of the great values of living with a teacher; one feels the need to be mindful. In looking into Ajahn Chah's early life it was inspiring for me to find just how many problems he had. Biographies of some great masters leave you with the impression that the monks were perfectly pure from the age of eight or nine - that they didn't have to work at their practice. But for Ajahn Chah practice was very difficult; for one thing he had a lot Of sensual desire. He also had a great deal of desire for beautiful requisitesbowl and robes, etc. He made a resolution in working with these tendencies that he would never ask for anything - even if it was permitted. to do so by the Discipline. He related once how his robes had been falling to bits; his under - robe was worn paperthin so he had to walk very carefully, lest it split. Then one day he heedlessly squatted down and it tore completely. He didn't have any cloth to patch it but remembered the foot-wiping cloths in the Meeting Hall. So he took them away, washed them and patched his robe with them. In later times when he had disciple's, he excelled in skilful means for helping them; he had had so many problems himself. In another story, he related how he made a resolution to really work with sensual desire. He resolved that for the three-month "Rains" retreat he would not look at a woman. Being very strong-willed, he was able to keep to it. On the last day of the retreat many people came to the monastery to make offerings. He thought: "I've done it now for three months, let's see what happens" He looked up and at that moment there was a young woman right in front of him. He said the impact was like being hit by lightning. It was then that he realized mere sense restraint, although essential, was not enough. No matter how restrained one may be regarding the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, if there wasn't wisdom to understand the actual nature of desire, then freedom from it was impossible. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/09/9.htm[03/10/2017 01:48:56]

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He was always stressing the importance, of wisdom: not just restraint, but mindfulness and contemplation. Throwing oneself into practice with great gusto and little reflective ability may result in a strong concentration practice but one eventually ends up in despair. Monks practising like this usually come to a point where they decide that they don't have what it takes to "break through" in this lifetime, and disrobe. He emphasized that continuous effort was much more important than making a great effort for a short while only to let it all slide. Day in, day out; month in, month out; year, in year out: that is the real skill of the practice. What is needed in mindfulness practice, he taught, is a constant awareness of what one is thinking, doing or saying. It is not a matter of being on retreat or off retreat, or of being in a monastery or out wandering on tudong; its a matter of constancy. "What am I doing now; why am I doing it?" constantly looking to see what is happening in the present moment. Is this mind - state coarse or refined?" In the beginning of practice, he said, our mindfulness is intermittent like water dripping from a tap. But as we continue, the intervals between the drips lessen and eventually they become a stream. This stream of mindfulness is what we are aiming for. It was noticeable that he did not talk a lot about levels of enlightenment or various states of concentration absorption (jhana). He was aware of how people tend to attach to these terms and conceive of practice as going from this stage to that. Once someone asked him if such and such a person was an arahant - was enlightened. He answered: "If they are then they are, if they're not, then they're not; you are what you are, and you're not like them. So just do your own practice" He was very short with such questions. When people asked him about his own attainments, he never spoke praising himself or making any claim whatsoever. When talking about the foolishness of people, he wouldn't say: "You think like this and you think like that" or "You do this and you do that" Rather, he would always say: "We do this and we do that." The skill of speaking in such a personal manner meant those listening regularly came away feeling that he was talking directly to them. Also, it often happened that people would come with personal problems they wanted to discuss with him, and that very same evening he would give a talk covering exactly that subject. In setting up his monasteries, he took a lot of his ideas from the great meditation teacher Venerable Ajahn Mun, but also from other places he encountered during his years of wandering. Always he laid great emphasis on a sense of community. In one section of the Mahaparinibbana Sutta ["Dialogues of the Buddha," Sutta 16] the Buddha speaks about the welfare of the Sangha being dependent on meeting frequently in large numbers, in harmony, and on discussing things together. Ajahn Chah stressed this a lot. The Bhikkhu - Discipline - Vinaya - was to Ajahn Chah a very important tool for training. He had found it so in his own practice. Often he would give talks on it until one or two o'clock in the morning; the bell would then ring at three for morning chanting. Monks were sometimes afraid to go back to their kutis lest they couldn't wake up, so they would just lean against a tree. Especially in the early days of his teaching things were very difficult. Even basic requisites like lanterns and torches were rare. In those days the forest was dark and thick with many wild and dangerous animals. Late at night you could hear the monks going back to their huts making a loud noise, stomping and chanting at the same time, On one occasion, twenty torches were given to the monastery. But as soon as the batteries ran out, they all came back into the stores as there weren't new batteries to replace them. Sometimes Ajahn Chah was very harsh on those who lived with him. He admitted himself that

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he had an advantage over his disciples. He said that when his mind entered samadhi concentration for only thirty minutes it could be the same as having slept all night. Sometimes he talked for literally hours. Going over and over the same things again and again, telling the same story hundreds of times. For him, each time was as if the first. He would be sitting there giggling and chuckling away and everybody else would be looking at the clock and wondering when he would let them go back. It seemed that he had a special soft spot for those who suffered a lot; this often meant the Western monks. There was one English monk, Venerable Thitappo, whom he gave a lot of attention to; that means he tormented him terribly. One day there was a large gathering of visitors to the monastery and, as often happened, Ajahn Chah was praising the Western monks to the Thais as a way of teaching them. He was saying how clever the Westerners were, all the things they could do and what good disciples they were. "All" he said, "except this one," pointing to Venerable Thitappo. "He's really stupid" Another day he asked Venerable Thitappo: "Do you get angry when I treat you like this?" Venerable Thitappo replied: "What use would it be? It would be like getting angry at a mountain" Several times people suggested to Ajahn Chah that he was like a Zen Master. "No I'm not" he would say, "I'm like Ajahn Chah" There was a Korean monk visiting once who liked to ask him koans. Ajahn Chah was completely baffled; he thought they were jokes. You could see how it was necessary to know the rules of the game before you could give the right answers. One day this monk told Ajahn Chah the Zen story about the flag and the wind, and asked: Is it the flag that blows or is it the wind?" Ajahn Chah answered: "It's neither; it's the mind" The Korean monk thought that was wonderful and immediately bowed to Ajahn Chah. But then Ajahn Chah said he'd just read the story in the Thai translation of Hui Neng. Many of us tend to confuse profundity with complexity, so Ajahn Chah liked to show how profundity was in fact simplicity. The truth of impermanence is the most simple thing in the world, and yet it is the most profound. He really emphasized that. He said the key to living in the world with wisdom is a regular recollection of the changing nature of things. "Nothing is sure" he would constantly remind us. He was always using this word in Thai - "Mai nair!" meaning "uncertain". This teaching: "It's not certain" he said, sums up all the wisdom of Buddhism. In meditation, he emphasized, "We can't go beyond the hindrances unless we realliy understand them" This means knowing their impermanence. Often he talked about "killing the defilements", and this also meant "seeing their impermanence". "Killing defilements" is an idiomatic expression in the meditative Forest Tradition of NorthEast Thailand. It means that by seeing with penetrative clarity the actual nature of defilements, you go beyond them. Whilst it was considered the "job" of a bhikkhu in this tradition to be dedicated to formal practice, it didn't mean there wasn't work to do. When work needed doing you did it. And you didn't make a fuss, Work is not any different from formal practice if one knows the principles properly. The same principles apply in both cases, as it's the same body and mind. And in Ajahn Chah's monasteries, when the monks worked, they really worked. One time he wanted a road built up to Wat Tum Saeng Pet mountain monastery, and the Highways Department offered to help. But before long they pulled out. So Ajahn Chah took the monks up there to do it. Everybody worked from three o'clock in the afternoon until three o'clock the next morning. A rest was allowed until just after five when they would head off down the hill to the village an almsround. After the meal they could rest again until three, before starting work once more. But nobody saw Ajahn Chah take a rest; he was busy receiving people who came to visit. And when it was time to work he didn't just direct it. He joined in the heavy lifting carrying of rocks alongside everyone else. That was always very inspiring for the

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monks to see: hauling water from the well, sweeping and so on, he was always there - right up until the time his health began to fail. Ajahn Chah wasn't always popular in his province in North-East Thailand, even though he did bring about many major changes in the lives of the people. There was a great deal of animism and superstition in their belief systems. Very few people practised meditation, out of fear that it would drive them crazy. There was more interest in magical powers and psychic phenomena than in Buddhism. A lot of killing of animals was done in the pursuit of merit. Ajahn Chah was often very outspoken on such issues, so at he had many enemies. Nevertheless, there were always many who loved him. And it was clear that he never played on that. In fact, if any of his disciples were getting too close, he would send them away. Sometimes monks became attached to him, and he promptly sent them off to some other monastery. As charismatic as he was, he always Stressed the importance of Sangha - of community spirit. I think it was because Ajahn Chah was "nobody in particular" that he could be anybody he chose. If he felt it was necessary to be fierce, he could be that. If he felt that somebody would benefit from warmth and kindness, then he would give that. You, had the feeling he would be whatever was helpful for the person he was with. And he was very clear about the proper understanding of conventions. Someone once asked about the relative merits of arahants and bodhisattvas. He answered: "Don't be an arahant, don't be a bodhisattva, don't be anything at all. If you are an arahant you will suffer, if you are bodhisattva you will suffer, if you are anything at you will suffer" I had the feeling that Ajahn Chah wasn't anything at all. The quality in him that ore was inspired by was the light of Dhamma he reflected; it wasn't exactly him as a person. So since first meeting Ajahn Chah, I have had an unshakable conviction that this way is truly possible - it works - it is good enough. And I've found a willingness to acknowledge that, if there are any problems, it's me who is creating them. It's not the form and it's not the teachings. This appreciation made things a lot easier. It's important that we are able to learn from all the ups and downs we have in practice. It's important that we come to know how to be "a refuge unto ourselves"- to see clearly for ourselves. When I consider the morass of selfishness and foolishness my life could have been. And then reflecting on the teachings and benefits Ive received, I find I really want to dedicate my life to being a credit to my teacher. Such reflection has been a great source of strength. This is one form of sanghanusati "Recollection on Sangha"-recollection of the great debt we owe our teachers. So I trust that you may find this is of some help in your practice.

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July 1989 HOME BACK ISSUES

Cover: Articles:

Gratitude to Ajahn Chah; Jayasaro Bhikkhu Image of the Dhamma; Sister Viveka Living in the World with Dhamma; Ajahn Chah Question Time; Aj Sumedho Part of the Lineage: pt.I; Aj. Sucitto interviews Aj. Allowing Silence; Aj Sucitto Jagaro What is the Devon Vihara? Supanno & Pasadaka Editorial: Out on a Limb; Venerable Kovido Lineage is more than History; Ajahn Sucitto

Image of the Dhamma Sister Viveka reflects on the use of symbols and images For just over a year now a photograph of a much younger, Ajahn Chah has graced the shrine in the sala at Amaravati. Many of us junior samanas who were ordained in England have never met "Luang Por", although he seems the spiritual grandfather of our Western Sangha. This picture is one which I find quite uplifiting: he is seated in the lotus posture, touching, one above the other, eyes lowered; a human complete in the stillness of his own being. This seated figure the outline of a pyramid symbolic of the protection of goodness; the black and white photograph has a distinct radiance - the light of purity, intense white. The beauty of this image affects my own mind, as a sense of joy in spiritual beauty, provides a boost of energy which can be a great help in times of darkness. Â

Both images have their place: the beauty of selfless spiritual serenity, and the decaying body

0ccasionally we hear stories of time spent with Luang Por and one gets an inkling of the compassion and humour of his being - which could express itself quite forcibly by all accounts! I have also heard people who knew him well say they feel that his illness is a final teaching to us. One senior monk shared something which happened when he visited Thailand and had the opportunity to spend some time with Luang Por. He helped with nursing and looking after Luang Por's now sensitive body, which has no further means of communication or independent action. When the time came to leave he suddenly realized just how attached he was to Luang Por, and was overwhe1med with a sense of sorrow and grief, both at seeing him in this state and at the thought of leaving him. One of the most senior Thai disciples gave this reflection - that is not Luang Por Chah, 'that is an old sick body. Do you really think Luang Por is that? The monk said he was truly grateful. Both images have their place: the beauty of selfless spiritual serenity, and the decaying body - helpless in old age and sickness. As human beings, old age is our common and inescapable inheritance. Yet a place of unity is also found whenever we align ourselves to goodness and truth. Following Ajahn Chah's Dhamma teaching a whole Sangha of Western disciples headed by Ajahn Sumedho has grown re-seeded here in England, nurtured by Luang Por's support. Perhaps as you read this Newsletter you could reflect that it is very much due to him, and his effort to understand the Buddha's teaching and teach it to others, that there is anything to read now.

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Living in the World with Dhamma A translation of an informal talk given by Ajahn Chah to a group of visitors to Wat Nong Pah Pong. Most people still don't know the heart of dhamma practice. They think that walking meditation, sitting meditation and listening to Dhamma talks are the practice. That's true, too, but these are only the outer forms of practice. The real practice occurs where the mind encounters a sense object. That's the place to practise, at the point where sense contact occurs. For instance, when people say things we don't like, resentment arises. If they say something we like, we experience pleasure: now this is the place to practise. How are we going to practise with these things? This is the important point. If you just go chasing after happiness and run away from unpleasantness you can go on practising like that until the day you die, and never see the Dhamma. This is useless. When pleasure and pain arise, how are we going to use Dhamma to be free of them? This is the point of practice. Where confusion arises, that's where peace can arise. Where there is confusion we penetrate with wisdom, and there is peace. Some people cannot accept criticism: they are very conceited. Instead they turn around and argue - especially so with children. Actually there may be something in what the children say, but if you happen to be their mother, you can't give in. Perhaps you are a teacher and your students may say something you didn't know before. It may be true; but because you are their teacher you can't listen, you even dispute it. Thinking like this is not right. In the time of the Buddha there was one disciple who was very wise. At one time while the Buddha was instructing the monks on the Dhamma, he turned to this monk and said: "Sariputta, do you believe this?"

We study in the natural way; be it a sight, sound, smell, taste, tactile or mental impression, we should listen to it Â all.

Then Sariputta replied: "I don't yet believe it." The Buddha liked his answer. He said: "Oh, that's very good, Sariputta. You are one who is endowed with wisdom. One who is endowed with wisdom should not believe too readily. They should listen openmindedly, and then consider the validity of that matter before believing or disbelieving." Now this is a fine example of good Dhamma practice for a teacher. What Sariputta said was true, he simply spoke his true feeling. Some people would feel that to say that one didn't believe would be like questioning the Buddha's authority. They would be afraid to say such a thing; they'd simply go ahead and agree.

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The world is like this, but the Buddha said that you needn't be ashamed of those things which aren't wrong or bad. It's not wrong to say you don't yet believe what you don't believe, so when Venerable Sariputta said: "I don't believe it," the Buddha praised him: "This monk has much wisdom. He carefully considers before believing anything" This is the right course for one who is a teacher of others. Sometimes you can learn things from small children. Don't blindy cling to positions of authority. Whether we are standing, walking around or sitting in various places, these are the times when we can study the things around us. We study in the natural way; be it a sight, sound, smell, taste, tactile or mental impression, we should listen to it all. A wise person considers them all. In the real practice the adept practises to the point where there is nothing on his mind. * *Literally "No more stories/business" If we still don't understand like and dislike as they arise -as they really are - there is still something on our minds. If we know the truth of these things, we know that "Oh, this liking here ... there's nothing to it, It's just a feeling that arises and passes away." What else do you expect from feelings? If we think that pleasure is ours, suffering is ours, then we're in for trouble-we never get beyond the point of having some business or other on our minds. And these problems feed each other in an endless chain. This is how things are for most people. People tend to be like this, they don't appreciate the value of Dhamma, they don't talk about the Truth. If one talks the Truth, people even take exception. They say things like: "Oh, he doesn't know the right time and place. He doesn't know how to speak nicely" -or whatever. But when people speak the Truth, one should listen. When speaking Dhamma the true master doesn't simply speak from memory, he speaks the Truth. People in the world usually speak from memory and usually in such a way to exalt themselves. The true monk doesn't talk like that. He talks about the Truth, the way things are. Even monks these days are like this. I've heard some of them say: "I haven't become a monk to practise, I only became a monk to study" These are the words of one who has cut off the path of Dhamma practice. There is no way, it's finished, the end of the path. When they teach, they teach only from memory. Maybe they say one thing but their minds are in quite a different place. They only teach according to their memories, they don't teach to reveal the Truth. The way of the world is like this. If one doesn't live in that way and instead lives simply, practising the Dhamma and living at peace, they say one is weird, not like other people. They say people like this get in the way of progress in the world, in society. They even harass them. So a good person may start to feel there's something wrong with him and revert to following worldly ways. He gets sunk deeper and deeper in the world until he can't find the way out. You get the situation which brings People to say: "Oh, I can't get out now, I'm sunk in too deeply." People these days think too much. There are too many things for them to get interested in but none of them leads to any completion. Suppose we had a cart, and an ox to pull it. The wheels aren't long, but the tracks are. As long as the ox pulls the cart the tracks will follow. The wheels are round yet the tracks are long. Just looking at the stationary cart one couldn't see anything long about it, but once the ox starts pulling the cart, we see the tracks stretching out behind us. As long as the ox keeps pulling, the wheels keep turning; but there comes a day when the ox gets tired and throws off its harness. The ox walks off and the cart is left there. The wheels no longer turn. In time the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/09/living.htm[03/10/2017 01:46:50]

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cart falls apart. Its constituent parts go back into the four elements: earth, water, wind and fire. People who follow the world are the same. If one were to search within the world for peace one would go on and on like the cart-wheel tracks without end. As long as we follow the world there is no stopping, no rest. If we simply stop following it, the cart - wheels no longer turn. There is stopping right there. Following the world ceaseless1y, the tracks go on. Creating bad kamma is like this. As long as we continue to follow the old ways, there is no stopping. If we stop, then there is stopping. This is the practice of Dhamma. If we really understand the practice of Dhamma then, no matter what profession or position we may have in life - be it a teacher, doctor, government worker or whatever - we are training in the Dhamma every minute of the day. People think that one can't practise as a lay person. This is to be totally scattered and to lose the path completely. If one has sufficient desire to do something, one can do it. Some say: "I can't practise Dhamma, I haven't got the time" I say: "Then how come you've got time to breathe?" This is the point. How do they get the time to breathe? Breathing is something vital to people's lives. If you see that Dhamma practice is vital to your life then you will feel that breathing and practising the Dhamma are equally important. This practice of Dhamma isn't something you have to go running around for or expending a whole lot of energy on in order to do. You simply look at the various feelings which arise in your mind. When the ego sees form, ear hears 'sound, nose smells an odour, tongue tastes a flavour, and so on, they all come to this one mind, the "One Who Knows". Now when the mind recognizes those things, what happens? If liking for that object arises we experience pleasure, if dislike arises we experience displeasure. That's all there is to it. So now, living in this world, where can one find happiness? Do you want everybody in the world to speak only things which are pleasant and agreeable to you all your life? Is that possible? It's not. If its not possible then where are you going to go? The world is simply like this, so the Buddha said "lokavidu"- know the Truth of this world. The world is something we should understand clearly. The value of Dhamma isn't to he found in the books where they tell us about this and that. This is just the external aspect of Dhamma, it's not the knowledge that arises from deep within our own mind. If we have profound understanding we realize our own mind, we see the Truth there. When the Truth becomes apparent within us it cuts off the flow of delusion. These days people don't search for the Truth. These days people study simply in order to find the knowledge necessary to make a living, raise their families and look after themselves, that's all. They study for a livelihood. Students nowadays have much more knowledge than students of previous time's. They have all the requisites at their disposal, everything is more convenient. They have more knowledge than before, yet people these days also have a lot more confusion than before, they have more suffering than before, Why is this? Because they only look for that knowledge which is useful in earning a living.

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Part of the Lineage: Part I Ajahn Jagaro, the abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Australia, was a guest at Amaravati during the Winter 1988-89, Before he returned, he passed on some informal comments in an interview with Ajahn Sucitto. Ajahn Sucitto: What do you see are the similarities and the differences between the British monasteries and Bodhinyana? Ajahn Jagaro: Ajahn Sumedho and myself were established in the forest monastery tradition in Thailand, and in both cases found ourselves ending up in city settings which were unsuitable for the spiritual health of the Sangha. The differences which arise are in how it has: developed, due to the physical situation of each country. Perth is small city; it is easy to get permission to build, and the climatic conditions lend themselves to a forest monastery similar to the monasteries in Thailand. So we evolved in that direction. But the need for Western teaching made it obvious that we'd have to maintain a centre in the city. We tend to keep to the Thai form, because we have a very strong Thai community supporting us, because we're close to Thailand and because we have Thai monks visiting us. Here in England the conditions are very different. The situation lends itself to something like Chithurst: an old place that you do up. That means that the community has to live together under one roof and the monastic life style is considerably different from Thailand. There is an emphasis on meetings, and on community spirit. The climatic conditions are also very different here, requiring adaptations of dress: You need socks, boots and hats and jackets.

Going back to a traditional situation you see the beauty of gratitude, the beauty of respect, the beauty of Â generosity.

AS: Here you've got every kind of Buddhist convention and tradition, as well as many that are of no specific tradition. There are certain tensions with the conventions, because not everybody wants the Thai Theravada. AJ: Buddhism itself has been in England for so long. There has to be a much more ecumenical approach than we've had in Perth. Also you've got one million people in Perth and that's all, for two or three thousand kilometres around you; whereas in England you've got 50 million people and then the great population of Europe. This sense of being just a very small group only a couple of monks for the first three years - and an outpost, tends to make us more cautious. The monastery doesn't want to become too radical because that cuts you off even https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/09/line.htm[03/10/2017 01:45:39]

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more! AS: You live comparatively close to Thailand and you go there yourself every year or so. Do you see any advantage in being able to go back to a traditional situation? AJ: I certainly see great advantage in the exchange of monks between the different places so that they see slightly different situations in different countries. Going back to Thailand is an experience that can be very valuable for monks. It brought home to me that I was part of the big Sangha, the tradition, and that has a tremendous strength. It always gave me a reflection an what we were doing in Perth, and also how we were forgetting and maybe losing some useful things. AS: Such as? AJ: Well, in the monastic form some of the emphasis on what we call acariyavatta - and respect to seniority. Also that separation between the laity and the monks: sometimes its a beneficial thing to keep that, rather than just becoming "buddies". Going back to a traditional situation you see the beauty of gratitude, the beauty of respect, the beauty of generosity, and you remember how there are good things to encourage. The refuge of Sangha is needed for the monks and nuns - maybe one can go over-board with the propagation of Buddhism. I think for any monk, going back to Thailand is a useful way of re-establishing oneself as part of this lineage. It's not just your thing - you're a disciple of Ajahn Chah and you're part of the Sangha as a whole. *The duties of attendance on a senior monk.

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What is the Devon Vihara? Here are a few reflections from Supanno and Pasadaka, supporters of the vihara in Devon. When one leaves the city or large town and moves to the country to be "near the vihara", one tends to take for granted that one just slips into being part of the "vihara and its people". But what is the Devon Vihara, and who are its people? Starting from the humblest of beginnings in 1983, one monk and an anagarika bravely took up residence in an appallingly run - down, dilapidated "chalet-bungalow" at Raymonds Hill, near Axminster. The "building" was hardly inspiring - but the Sangha presence and the response to it certainly was. Some two and a half years later, the Devon Vihara moved to the still unpretentious but comfortably solid and homely Odle Cottage, near Upottery. But the vihara is not so much a place as a spiritual focus - not dependent on the building or its surroundings - the outstandingly beasutfiful countryside, winding narrow lanes abounding in wild life, and the little forest nearby but naturally interwoven with them.

There is a feeling of belonging, a sense of being part of Â something very important, where one can give according to one's means, talents, time and energy.

Of course the vihara is essentially where the monks and anagarikas live and practise, and where by their teaching, reflection and example, they interact with lay people - whether they be followers or interested enquirers, local villagers or passers-by. It is not dependent on any individual monk or monks, though it naturally reflects very much the ideas and personal preferences of the senior monk. There's something very reassuring about the compactness and familiarity of the small vihara; one has a sense of "home from home", and takes a special interest in all that is going on. We learn to accept the many changes that have to take place. At first we may feel a sense of loss or disappointment as monks and angarikas are exchanged, but in fact this helps link us with the larger Sangha family, when we visit the other monasteries and meet up again with those who have spent time with us here. There's a special feeling too, as we see anagarikas go forward for acceptance as bhikkhus, and remeber them as Devon's Brent, David, Jakob, Bill.... Some half dozen Buddhist groups spread over four counties meet regularly and maintain close connections with the vihara, receiving teaching from the Sangha. Several retreats are held each year - at nearby Golden Square, at Sharpham House near Totnes, and Resugga Farm in Cornwall. All this in addition to prison visits, baby blessings, house blessings and wedding blessings and the many personal visits and interviews in the normal course of events. All kinds of people come and go at the vihara - we see travellers from many parts of the world who call in "in passing" (how do they find it?). Sometimes they stay for a few days, in one of the two caravans on the "stupa" lawn. They seem amazed and touched to find a real live https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/09/devon.htm[03/10/2017 01:44:28]

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working monastery, faithfully following the ancient Theravadin traditions, tucked away in the heart of the English countryside, drawing to it love and support from ordinary people all over the South-West and beyond. What is it like to be a lay supporter, part of the support group of a small vihara? The term "support group" is often misunderstood, for it's not anything one joins in a formal way; it really comprises all supporters - everyone who consciously makes effort to help the Sangha, the vihara and each other. There is a feeling of belonging, a sense of being part of something very important, where one can give according to one's means, talents, time and energy. With this participation comes an open circle of friends: people who - because they are practising on the same path - are willing to allow one to be oneself, willing to forgive and forget any misunderstandings, seeing them all as the empty sankharas that they are. It's a group that one can always come back to - no matter what happens because even when there are difficulties, we can use them, welcoming them as opportunities for learning and growth. Knowing that the monks and anagarikas have to work with just the same things, we can take heart as well as guidance from their example. During the Ajahn's absences the vihara assumes a rather lower key, but the practice and helpful teaching continues, the slight shift in emphasis seemingly comfortably accommodated. But there is, naturally, a sense of loss when all the Sangha are absent together. True, many of the lay supporters know each other well; however - perhaps because of the smallness of the cottage reception room - there is seldom much opportunity for Dhamma discussion among lay people such as at Chithurst or in the sala at Amaravati, so then the focus is more on practical work and gathering for meditation. When the Sangha is absent on tudong, there's a real involvement in that for lay supporters, and everyone takes a keen interest in their progress - how they're faring with the weather, are they keeping well, getting enough to - eat, finding places to stay, and so on. Suddenly the awareness of one's responsibility to support becomes sharper and the phone rings non - stop at the homes of the coordinators! There's great excitement for those who go out in search of the bhikkhus, with a car - boot full of food to offer at some hopefully recognizable rendezvous spot. It always feels a special privilege to join the monks and anagarikas away from home, and to sit with them as they recount their adventures so far. Celebration days at the Devon Vihara are usually very well attended -an expression of faith and of spiritual togetherness, a sense of "big things" beginning to happen here. One's practice and energy receive a great lift; but we are very content too with the ordinary quiet times for, as is the nature of such celebratory events, they pass into the memory just the same as any other day! So the Devon Vihara is many things to many people in many places. The few lay Buddhists whose vision, commitment and dedicated hard work first helped bring it into being are still very much at the heart of its life and administration. That heart - the spirit of Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha - is really how the vihara and its people came to be.

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Out on a Limb Venerable Kovido recollects his time as a newly-ordained bhikkhu in Devon. Having spent several months at Amaravati, one of the questions I find that I am often asked is: "What is it like to live in a small vihara?" So having spent 18 months in the Devon Vihara, I thought I would try to jot down a few points. Firstly, for the time that I was there, the senior monk was Ajahn Kittisaro. As the focal point he gave his imprint to the routine and the feeling of the vihara, and so, not surprisingly, many people who were attracted by his teaching were supporters of Ajahn Kittisaro, rather than Buddhism or the Devon Vihara. However, as with many teachers, the greatest teaching occurs when they move on and one discovers whether one has absorbed the point of their teaching or not. Secondly, being a small vihara - three monks and two anagarikas - and because of limited space, relationships with people get quite personal. Some have described it as like being in a pressure cooker. Other people seemed to like it, including myself - but then, not having much energy, maybe I needed that pressure to heat up to normal. At Amaravati there is the space both for the monastic community and for lay visitors - to disappear, to be one of the crowd; at Devon there isn't. There is a lot of opportunity for meeting - gruel time and tea time being group events where the lag people are about ten feet away, at the most. In Amaravati it sometimes seems that you need a telescope or loudspeaker to make contact with people; at Devon you would have to make a special effort not to!

People can easily fall in and out of love with the vihara or the monks; but in staying with the love and hate, a Â lot can be learnt.

It can be quite demanding being in a small vihara because, although there's not so much work, there are fewer of you to do it and a lot of the day is spent in talking to people; this can be inspiring or bread war, baked by that person; you had seen them put it in your bowl when you went on almsround; and you know who pays your bills. This is perhaps one of the unique flavours of the Devon Vihara. Due to its position on Hartridge there are five or six villages within easy walking distance for almsround. Of the many almsrounds, quite a few are to people who aren't Buddhist, don't meditate and rarely come to the vihara; but they invite the monks to come and have a cup of tea and a chat, and like to support "the monks up on the hill*. I remember one conversation with an elderly lady, which started on the topic of why we don't work for a living or grow our own food: "You know we couldn't live like that - being waited on by other people, mildly telling us off. "Now you must have some more cake and tea, and remind me to give you some bread that I've made for you, before you go!" The concern is not only for our physical welfare, but also they let us know how something we are doing or thinking of doing would be viewed in the area. Even though one might not notice, https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/09/limb.htm[03/10/2017 01:43:17]

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people watch us: "You stay up late, don't you", said one chap who had been watching us through his telescope. Or once when we went out for the first time, after having been busy for a couple of weeks, two or three people whom we would only occasionally speak to said, "What have you been doing? Haven't seen you around lately" I think Devon Vihara is more like a big family, where most of the lay people are part of that family with a few distant cousins; whereas Amaravati is a big family - mainly monastic - where most lay people, excepting a few well-loved uncles and aunties, are like distant cousins. In Devon, because of that close relationship, people can easily fall in and out of love with the vihara or the monks; but in staying with the love and hate, a lot can be learnt. It provides a place for people of like mind to come together and chart, meditate and discuss the Dhamma. And soone sees that the whole thing is an opportunity for the cultivation of dana, generosity, sila, virtue, and bhavana, the development of meditation. Although it may seem that, as a monk, you are already a good way on the path, it is very much a two-way process. It's not just that the lay people provide the material food and the monks the spiritual food; its actually much deeper. Let me try to explain. As a junior monk you are still struggling, trying to learn how to use the Buddhist tools, and although geographically one may be at the centre of the Devon Vihara, mentally one can be wayout on the edge. And, just as the sight of a monk or hearing a talk on Dhamma may help a lay person to remember the way, so also the kindness and practice of lay people would often be the reminder and encouragement for me to remember and continue on that way. In the eighteen months that I spent there, there were a lot of comings and goings and ups and downs, but one also saw the transforming effect it had on people's lives. Certainly it affected me. Before I went to Devon I was a bit wobbly as a monk doubting whether I could do it, whether it was ruining my health, whether it really produced good results. However, nearly two years later, when one of the monks recently disrobed I felt so sad. Maybe I'm wrong, but having seen the benefits of this form - both for oneself and other people - it seemed to me that he was opting for a second best. Also, it is more important to be at the various events. At Amaravati, if you don't go to tea or miss a meeting it is hardly noticed, but at Devon it stands out. And you realize fairly directly that, just as your absence is noted, so your presence is appreciated and a help to the rest of the community. The third point concerns the interdependence between the monks and the lay people. This may sound funny, because all the monasteries are run on the same system, but somehow at Devon it is more obvious. In Amaravati food arrives in your bowl every day, the bills are paid and the requisites are plentiful, but you don't really know where it all comes from except that it is the "generosiy" of the "lay people". In Devon you know these carrots come from this person, these apples from that person and this Dhamma may help a lay person to remember the Way, So also the kindness and practice of lay people would often be the reminder and encouragement for me to remember and continue on that Way.

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EDITORIAL Lineage is more than history At the time of the year's full blossom in the gentleness of May, hundreds gathered at the monasteries to honour the All Enlightened One, the full flower of humanity that we know as the Buddha. What a quietness attends ceremonies that pay tribute to his birth, enlightenment and final release! The heart's silence in gratitude and respect; the measured salutations to Buddha images; the reflections on Dhamma and the resolute meditation vigil are all part of the homage. And Wesak apart, they are the foundation of everyday practice. Two and a half millennia separate the birthdays of the Buddha and Ajahn Chah, but in our time there's less than a month between the days when we commemorate them. Less than a month further on, we' can watch three men Going Forth as bhikkhus following the Buddha's Dhamma Vinaya in the monastic style set up by Ajahn Chah. How real is the sense, and the distancing effect of Time? As you read this, these events are separated by mere moments, whereas for those who participate, there can be the realization of nonseparation. The mind's Going Forth is actually not fixed to one event in time or place. It's a universally reiterated theme in all spiritual practice. So, as we honour the tradition, we can feel honoured that our practice is what gives the highest meaning to a traditional Path.

To leave self-consciousness behind and turn to Dhamma is to be part of the lineage of practice that we call Sangha. Â In that commitment to Dhamma, as the Buddha himself said, is the true veneration of the Tathagata.

A historical sense grants us the awe to be attentive. After that it can become a burden. Historg begins wherever you choose the events that are significant-and thereby remote, History can never include oneself or the present moment; so we may feel that the Buddhist tradition is apart from us. It's quite an ironysince the place of Dhamma practice is oneself at this present moment - yet how long does it take a monk or nun to feel that they are a real and vital part of Sangha? How many lay people feel that the tradition is outside them, that they can't even visit the monastery without a proper reason: "Don't want to be a nuisance, don't like to intrude" Veneration without insight can easily put the religion high up on a pedestal beyond our reach. To leave self-consciousness behind and turn to Dhamma is to be part of the lineage of practice that we call Sangha. In that commitment to Dhamma, as the Buddha himself said, is the true veneration of the Tathagata. It is significant for all of us, because it's the same for all of us: in effect we only exclude ourselves from the tradition when we maintain the isolation - and desolation -of self-view. And over the years one becomes very grateful, personally grateful, for the Buddha's final and unfailingly clear directive: "All compounded things" (monasteries, masters and the moaning mind) "break up - be mindful and keep going!" There's no history in that, and no promise for the future - just a supportive lineage of practice. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/09/editor.htm[03/10/2017 01:42:18]

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Ajahn Sucitto

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Allowing Silence A talk give by Ajahn Sucitto as part of a meditation situation at Cittaviveka. As we mature, there is an inclination, at times even a yearning, towards a place of silence where we will realize peace and harmony. The inner focusing of meditation, its direction towards calm and balance, seems to offer a means by which to enter silence, albeit through the patience and effort worthy of a saint. And it requires wisdom: with time one recognizes the need to be wise about the means, because beyond the techniques, meditation is a learning to listen deeply without bias or hesitation. Its fullest blossoming has to be cultivated, not through technique, but through living with a bright mind. Then we are moving towards harmony with everything. We learn to listen to everything: and our own personal "everything" will always include unresolved thoughts and feelings that we don't want to hear. A meditator soon witnesses the power of the resistances and preferences that the mind makes. In that colourful surge of impulse, thoughts, and feelings, our life as a mortal being is defined, confined and finally snuffed out: the unawakened being dies submerged in it. That compulsive tide is birth-and death, and it seems to stand in the way of peace and stillness.

"I" - the stream of personal experiences as it passes this Â moment - am meditated upon by an unlimited and benevolent silence.

But how to get beyond the sound and the fury? The practice of meditation is pure listening; and that listening has to be deepened by trust. We have to allow ourselves to be aware of our pain, our darkness, and our unfulfilled yearning, as well as our brilliance and our serenity. Such an awareness has to be allowed rather than forged through idealism, because whatever we create time will wear down. Only an awakened trust brings forth what cannot be consciously created - the boundless heart. that transcends our personal limitations. This is not inertia, but selfless response, the action of the uncreated, and it allows us to discover that the compulsions and certainties of the mind are impermanent and therefore ephemeral gestures. They are all the echoes of the habit of grasping, no real being at all. So who meditates? In that allowing, "I" give up all claim to attainment, salvation and damnation, and have no place or definition. "I" - the stream of personal experiences as it passes this moment - am meditated upon by an unlimited and benevolent silence. It is there at the beginning and ending of every thought and mood and happening - if I ease into allowing myself a little more time and patience to realize it. "My" worlds my heavens and hells and mundane realities are enacted in the theatre of the uncreated; I don't run this show after all. If I allow myself, I begin to hear and trust in the silence around sound, the silence that does not conceive or create, or destroy. It roars in different modes: a deep Pulse, or a

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higher steady tone, or an oscillating whisper like the murmuring of a billowing cloud. It embraces and suffuses all sounds, internal or external, and its mood is one of attention with no goal and no - stress. So the silence reveals itself as the mind's real home, and it is reached through being silently attentive to those endless wanderings of birth - and - death. The silence that embraces rather than resists sound has a healing touch. You can listen to the silence around anxiety or sorrow, and it will bless - you with serenity. It will remind you again, because our memories are shaky - that life has darkness as well as light, and is a process of change. Trying to find lasting comfort in the restless cycles of birth-and-death is the disease of the unawakened will. We have minds that can embrace failure and despair; that can sweep out to the vastness of the stars, or home in on an itch on our nose; that can create the most heart - stirring idealism, or the Most demonic brutality. We have minds that can travel through all phenomena. And most wonderfully we have minds that can hear the silence that goes beyond all phenomena. Hearing that, we realize the wholeness and boundlessness of our being, rather than become deluded by any passing form that it takes.

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July 1989

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Question Time Ajahn Sumedho answers questions put to him by lay folk at the end of a talk. Question: How would you describe the nature of the pure mind? This is where the Buddha was very careful, because when you're trying to describe the indescribable, or define the indefinable, or limit the unlimited, you can get yourself into a lot of delusion. The only thing I can say is that as you let go of things more and more, and realize that all that arises ceases - you realize the cessation of things - then you realize the Unconditioned. There's the conditioned, the Unconditioned; the created, the uncreated. You can't conceive uncreatedness. You have a word but there's no perception for it. There's no kind of symbol that one could grasp. You could have a doctrine about it, so religion tends to make these metaphysical doctrines that people believe in. But, since the Buddhist teaching is a nondoctrinal teaching in which you're to find things out for yourself, it leaves you without any real metaphysical doctrine in order for the realization to happen. The conditioned realm only arises and ceases. It has no eternality or infinity to it. It's only a movement in the universal. So that whatever word you get or concept you have can be very misleading. We've had dialogue with Christians, and I notice Christian meditators now are moving more towards the Buddhist position and saying quite outrageous things like: "God is nothing or no-thing." But yet, for Buddhists, we would understand that and that .. "no-thing" is probably a fairly accurate description: whereas trinitarian Christianity is always giving God attributes as a Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Â

But Buddhism is clearly stated as a convention. It's not Â an absolute. It's a tool to use.

So you're always having these conditioned attributes that you're looking for, you're perceiving as God. And yet, you know in mystical Christianity you transcend this trinitarian view very much; and that is where you talk about mystery, or not knowing. Christian mystics don't have the psychological vocabulary that we do in Buddhism, so they tend to put it in a different way, But if you get beyond the terminologies they use, it's very much the experience of the mind that is free from a self-view - and from a binding to the conditioned world. So one sees the potential in all religions to point beyond themselves. The danger is always in attachment to the conventions. Even with Buddhism, as beautiful and clear a teaching as it really is, not many Buddhists use it to be enlightened. They tend to attach to a certain part or a certain thing in it. But I think now there's more potential for awakening to this truth - which isn't Buddhist in fact - it is beyond conventions. But Buddhism is clearly stated as a convention. It's not an absolute. It's a tool to use. At least with Buddha-Dhamma you're not asked to support a convention in itself, you're encouraged to use it for mindfulness https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/09/quest-sum.htm[03/10/2017 01:40:04]

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and wisdom. And I can see that in Christianity also. Hinduism and Islam have this in some form or another. Then ther's the perennial philosophy. There's a lot of this really clear thinking going on now among human beings that is quite wonderful - the mental clarity and use of wisdom that is happening in different places on the planet. No matter how gloomy and pessimistic the newspapers sometimes are about the state of the world, I can't help but feel more optimistic. I can see that it is changing and that in just my own lifetime theres been a remarkable change in the development of a spiritual understanding and wisdom, compared with say twenty-five years ago. Question: Why do monks and nuns not claim attainments? The rules for the monks and the nuns were made for particular instances. From my own experience of being a Buddhist monk, I can see how wise that is because it really makes you quite careful about how you say things. Sometimes you can get very enthusiastic about your practice, or you have insights and the thoughts do come up: "Oh, I'm enlightened" And if you go round telling everyone, then that can be very misleading. In fact when monks would get that way my teacher, Ajahn Chah, would say- "OK, now you stay off in your little kuti and don't talk to anyone until you calm down" The tendency to interpret these experiences from self - view - "I am" - is the danger; not that the experiences are wrong but you really need to be non-attached to the memories of them or to an interpretation of them from this position of "I AM ..." There is suffering and there is the end of suffering: that's all the Buddha ever really said. The Brahmin priests were always trying to push him into making metaphysical statements, ultimate doctrinal statements about the I AM, or THE ONE and so forth. And he would always say: "I teach there is suffering, there is the end of suffering" Sometimes the Brahmin priests would say: "Well obviously he doesn't know, otherwise if he knew he could tell us" But then by telling people, as with all the metaphysical, doctrinal teachings of religion, what happens? People tend to just grasp the doctrine. So if you believe in a metaphysical doctrine, then how you tend to interpret life will come from that belief. The Buddha approached it from existential experience - experience of existence - suffering and the end Of suffering. However, the danger from that is to become nihilistic: to say that there's no God, nothing, that there's just the arising and ceasing, empty phenomena rolling on, meaningless nothing and so forth. That's the opposite of the eternalist view where there is a God and eternal life. The Buddhist approach is to neither extreme but to this penetration in the present, through the here and now, through mindfulness. And the key, the clue, is that suffering: the experience of suffering and the experience of non-suffering. Now how many of you realize non-suffering? You don't suffer all the time, but are you really aware when you're not suffering? Just question yourself in that way, because the unenlightened human being tends to assume that one is a person that has suffered a lot in one's life. This kind of basic assumption from the personality position, tends to colour everything that we do. We can be living in a situation where we're not suffering at all but assuming that we suffer - even when there isn't any suffering. But through mindfulness, you're noticing nonsuffering; I always bring to my attention as much as I can to the non-suffering. Before, I would assume that I was a person who suffered a lot. And so even in the most pleasant situations, if something was really nice and there was no suffering, then I'd tend to grasp: "Well what'll happen when I lose it?" Whenever this habit of I AM starts, you know "What'll I do if I lose this? What if it changes, or it's taken away from me, or I get sick, or something

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changes in a way that I don't want?" - with that habit, even when things are going along very nicely, one is creating suffering around the possibility of suffering in the future. What the Buddha's saying is notice now, be aware, and that even in situations that one might interpret as suffering - for example, physical pain, cold, hunger, disease, loss of loved ones, one needn't suffer. The more mindful you are, and reflective an that, then you're not creating suffering onto the actual misfortune, or the unpleasantness, or the pain that you're experiencing. Through this awakened mind you're not creating, not complicating the way life happens to be with this ignorance, this projection. Question: How does mindfulness become a reality in one's life in the world? Mindfulness is the ability to be awake and aware wherever you are. As lay people you don't generally have the supporting encouragement to practise mindfulness. People around you where you work may be not interested in Dhamma at all. Whereas in a monastery you have a conventional form that encourages you: thats the advantage of monastic life. But people need to be mindful of the way things are in their lives rather than making the assumption that they can't be mindful unless they have a lot of supportive conditions for that. What you can't expect is a lot of tranquillity and simplicity if you're working where there's a lot of pressure on you to be a certain way or do something. Then you'll find these things will not be very helpful in tranquillizing your mind or in leading towards simplicity or peacefulness with the external forms. But you can be mindful of it and through that you find something within yourself that is peaceful in spite of the agitation and stressful conditions that surround you. You can idealize monastic life: sometimes you have a very nice group around you where you get on well, and everybody's quite mature and sincere in what they're doing, and it's very, very pleasant to have people who you can trust and respect. And you get very attached to that. Then somebody comes in who is very disruptive, and you find yourself getting angry with them and you think: "I don't like this, we've got to get rid of this person so we can hold on to this nice community where everyone gets on. We don't want any disruptive, unpleasant things coming into it." That itself is a miserable thought. So we train ourselves to expand our minds to include disruptions. You can get very attached to silence, like on a meditation retreat. But in a silent room, where everybody's still, any sound is magnified. Just the rustle of a nylon jacket ... or somebody; gulps too much, swallows too loudly or something like that, you can feel very annoyed. You think: "Oh, I wish that person would stop making those noises." What you're doing is, you're creating anger in your mind, aversion towards the way things are, because you want this total silence and you don't want it to be disrupted. But when it is disrupted, You see that you're attached to that. Yet to include all possibilities for disruption within any situation doesn't mean you go out and try to have disrupting things happen; but you've already opened yourself to - the possibilities rather than held onto an idea of what you would like. Mindfulness allows us to open the mind to all possibilities, both for what we like and what we don't like. Then you can begin to more or less accept life's flow and movement, the way it changes, without being angry or fed up when it isn't what you want. In fact, you begin to feel quite at ease with life when you can accept the whole of it as it is. A lot of people become very fussy and cowardly and timid out of just not wanting to get involved in anything that might agitate or create unpleasant feelings in their mind. You think: "Oh, I can't go there because it'll just upset me" But when you're mindful then you don't mind being Upset. Being Upset is part of living! You don't go round seeking to be upset but it does

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happen. And you learn from it. It's a part of lifes experience.

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October 1989 THIS ISSUE Editorial:

2533

Cover: Letting Go is the Greatest Kindness; Ajahn Anando Articles: Walking The Way - Nuns' Tudong; Sister Thanissara

Unlocking Human Potential; Aj's Pabhakaro & Nyanaviro

Question time; Ajahn Sumedho

Extinguishing the Fires of Delusion; Ajahn Puriso

Number 10 HOME BACK ISSUES

Letting Go is the Greatest Kindness Taken from a Dhamma-desana (teaching), given by Ajahn Anando on 10th December 1988. A few days ago -a couple of us were talking about how important it is to be respected and feel appreciated: if people don't feel appreciated then they begin to feel depressed. When its brought to mind its so obvious; and yet why does it seem so difficult for us to stop and actually respond to people, particularly the people that we live with? I've noticed that it is quite easy for me to take some people for granted. In the monastery there are the efficient ones, the ones that I know are wise enough, the ones that, if I am a bit abrupt or grumpy with them, it's not going to ruin their day. They can get things done; and because of that, I can very well take them for granted. It's easy to take people for granted. Of course we love them, of course we care for them - but when was the last time that we actually let them know? There are many different ways of expressing affection, and "metta bhavana", the cultivation of loving-kindness, is a way of doing so on the more subtle level. It's the most beneficial way of using the intellectual or conceptual level of the mind, the world of thoughts and ideas that tends to get scattered into a myriad of things. With metta,we direct that in a very precise and beneficial wag. Over the years of practising this, I've noticed that one of the ways it manifests is in a greater patience and tolerance with adversity and with people who are annoying or unkind. Rather than taking some position as to how they should be, we can accept them and not contend. And when there is that lack of contention, then what we have to offer others is more tolerance, more patience or willingness just to be with them as they are, even if we are not particularly liking it. But not contending does not mean that we condone; "loving-kindness" does not mean that we like all things, all beings - some are quite evil - but we choose not to contend, not to take a position against them.

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Whenever we hold on to a particular view of ourselves as being one way or another, inevitably the "compassionate cosmos" comes along and presents us with just those sort of circumstances which shake us until we let go.

I have noticed over the years of being in the position of teacher and abbot of a monastery, what used to cause,me a lot of pain was my unconscious attitude towards some of the people in the monastery. I felt that I had to impose my ideas on them, and that they would probably deviate from what I thought would be right and proper. And it took a while of experiencing; the pain of that before I noticed that the source of the pain was my attachment to a particular view of myself in relation to them. I saw myself as one who is forced to train others, one who is forced to be an example, and whenever I held onto that particular view of self in relation to them, it always inhibited free flow of information, and real communication. I kept seeing them in relation to a view of myself, and it was not until I could start letting go of my own preconceived notion of who I was and what I was supposed to be doing with all of them, that I could let them be as they needed to be. And sometimes the way people need to be is not the way I think they should be. What I've found is that to just back off and give them the space to grow and mature and practise and live, brings about a great deal more peace within mg own mind and it seems to have quite a beneficial effect on the community at large. Whenever we hold on to a particular view of ourselves as being one way or another, inevitably the "compassionate cosmos" comes along and presents us with just those sort of circumstances which shake us until we let go. We are moved and we are disturbed until we see what it is that we are attached to; and then we let it go. Parents are frequently people whom we have had love-hate relations with. And even though in some cases they have been dead for a long time, still we carry them around with us and they can be very real, very much alive. We can cling to a particular idea of ourselves and to a view of them, how they were, or how they are. And that's a great injustice both to ourselves and others - we are changing all the time. How are we? Who are we? We've taken the idea of "me", as a particular person, to be true. "This is how I am:" "That's how they are:" "They were unloving, they were intolerant, they denied me some of the things I really needed for mydevelopment:" "If they were more loving, more affectionate, had more time for me, I would not have to experience this:" Can we see what the mind is doing then? Why do we believe that particular way of thinking? Why do we accept it as being valid, so completely true? Yet from experience with my own family I am amazed, absolutely amazed, at the power of family relationship, and how easy it is for one to get pushed back into an old role. It has taken years of very conscious effort on my part to be able to relate to my family in a more cool and less fixed position. But the benefits have been quite marvellous. I find that I can really listen to my mother, really listen to my brother and sisters instead of being impatient with them, anticipating what they're going to say, or assuming they know what I'm thinking or what I want - and getting annoyed when they don't. But to really be with them as other people, is a matter of allowing quietness to https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/10.htm[03/10/2017 01:58:03]

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pervade. Through quietening down we become really sensitive and can be with that person. All of us can develop the ability to listen, but unfortunately we do not give much time to it. I am sure that many of you have had that experience, when you are talking to someone. One gets the distinct feeling that they're just waiting for you to pause for breath so that they can say what is churning away in their mind. Of course, there is no communication there: it's people speaking at one another without listening. Ajahn Chah used to encourage us to learn to listen with the heart instead of the mind. That puzzled me for a long time. It sounded wooly, airy-fairy. Yet he was a meditation master, obviously one who had real skills and abilities in teaching people. It was not till later when we were being forced repeatedly, to be with people, and to listen to them, that it became gradually clearer that if I allowed the conceptual part of the mind to play less of, a dominant role, I became more quiet. When we let the quietness be what people become aware of in our presence, then as a natural and intuitive response to our quietness they feel freer, less pressurized by our preconceived notions about how it should be: and a real communication its much more likely to take place. People are more open in such an environment. I have noticed time and time again, when I suddenly react to what someone has said from -a preconceived notion of what I think they mean, or what I think is right for them, it doesn't really resonate. But when there's a quietness, then the response comes from the quietness. Then there is a certain feeling or tone about the exchange that tends to stay, and when that response is needed by the person it seems to be there. To let go of fixed views or positions about ourselves and others is a very charitable, a very kind thing for us to do. Traditionally, there are eleven benefits to the practice of Metta bhavana, meditation on lovingkindness. Of these, the first is that when we go to sleep, we wake up easily and happily. We are never troubled by unpleasant dreams. Some of the other benefits are that divine beings love and protect us, and also human beings love and protect us. But if we want desperately to be loved, the obvious connection is that to receive love, we must give it. That doesn't mean that we go out embracing people on the streets, but practise in the much more subtle ways that I have been explaining. In this practice joyfulness also arises naturally, and joy is one of the Factors of Enlightenment. When there is that joyfulness, then what accompanies it quite naturally is a physical ease, and these two factors lead on to greater tranquillity and concentration. Then the concentration which follows is the suitable condition for the arising of insight.

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Another benefit of metta is that we die without confusion, and if prior to death we have not developed insight, then metta bhavana will condition rebirth in a divine abode, or a very favourable state. Now, whether or not one wants to accept that there are all these benefits, I think we've all had some taste of what it feels like to infuse the mind with lots of goodwill. Imagine what it would be like if we made much of this practice, so that it became something that the mind turned to quite naturally instead of frequently being filled with negativity - which tends to be the norm for most of us. If we could put that aside: not feeding it and not denying it, no longer allowing the mind to dwell on it.... Metta bhavana can be very difficult at first. Much of my life has been doing what I did not want to do and it has just intensified since I have been a monk. Sometimes when the alarm goes off first thing in the morning I think, "Oh, my God, even the birds do not have to get up this early," and I'm too tired, and you know - we all know - what the mind is saying. The negative whine. So I try to turn that around a bit, not give it any room in the mind, and instead, spend a few moments focusing on the breath and on thoughts of goodwill. I've been doing that for a while now, and it has been a very fruitful and influential practice. Apart from other effects, it brings a clear intention for my life: to live in a way that brings benefit to the world. These strong influences help determine the way I respond to circumstances. When I was on retreat last summer, another senior monk was staying in the room I had vacated. One night I returned to get a book or something, and although it was quite late at night he still was not back. He was probably out teaching. I was about to leave when my eye caught sight of the bedding on the shelf so I decided to take it down and make up his bed, so that when he came in, a bit shattered from the day's activities, there it would be. I did it without thinking and on the way back to where I was staying, I started to feel quite happy about doing that for him. It surprised me a little bit because it was such a simple thing and it would have been just as easy to walk out and say, "It will only take him a minute you know, thirty seconds, to pull the bedding down, throw it on the floor and go to sleep" Yet some time later he mentioned it in passing, saying, "I don't know who did it, but it certainly made me feel appreciated." So these very insignificant little actions can have quite an impact on the person. This way of practising deals with the thinking mind in a very skilful way, whereby we can encourage thoughts that have a beauty and nobility. Then we can respond to the world from a noble viewpoint, taking care to closely observe those views of self and others that we cling to. So I offer this for your consideration tonight in the hope that it will be of benefit. The Blessings of Loving-Kindkness If, monks, the liberation of the heart by loving kindness is cultivated, developed, frequently practised, made one's vehicle and foundation, firmly established, and properly perfected, eleven blessings can be expected. What are these eleven? One sleeps peacefully; has no evil dreams; one is dear to human beings; one will be protected by deities; fire, poison and weapons can not hurt him; his mind becomes easily concentrated; the features of his face will be serene; he will die unconfused; and if he does not penetrate higher, he will be reborn in the Brahma World.

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Anguttara Nikaya

Visit to the Buddha-land On August 30th this year at the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Talmage, California, the ordination platform was set up for the going forth of seven bhikshus and twenty-eight bhikshunis. This is an extremely auspicious event by any monastery's standards, but the occasion was made even more auspicious by the harmonious gathering and unified practice of elders from Mahayana and Theravada schools. Venerable Master Hsuan Hua invited bhikkhus (and bhikshus) from all over the world, including many masters from China. the centenarian Cambodian Mahathera Bhante Dhamavaro and several other Mahatheras, as well as Ajahn Sumedho and ten bhikkhus from our monasteries. The Sagely City lives up to its name, comprising some seventy large buildings in 200 acres of Northern California countryside; but more important, it is a place where a dedicated and disciplined way of practice makes the bodhidattva ideal a tangible reality. Those of us who went and were strangers to the highly stylized conventions of Chinese Mahayana were nevertheless inspired by the hallmarks of good practice: sincere commitment and selflessness with their resultant tastes of freedom and joy.

Sunday at Chithurst My four year old son asks every morning, "What are we doing today?" All through the week there are a wide variety of answers but invariably, on a Sunday, the answer is the same, "We're going to Chithurst." Sunday at Chithurst, and every Sunday at that, could seem like a dull proposition to the uninitiated. To us it -is a joyful day when we gather together in harmony with all kinds of people - young, old, Buddhist, Christian, British and Asian. We never know whom we shall meet or how the day will turn out, but repeatedly sunday is a pleasant experience for us. The atmosphere at Chithurst is such a nonthreatening, supportive one that people are able to open up in safety. We talk to strangers as if they were our close relatives and we feel relaxed about our young child running out of sight in the grounds of the house (even though he often returns both wet and muddy). In the frantic age of the appointment diary, where friends scan their scribbled pages, squeezing each other into slots of time, where can one meet up casually with like-minded people? The monastery springs to mind. Here, we take care of both our social and spiritual needs in an atmosphere of generosity, peace, expressing our gratitude by offering food and other requisites to the monastic community. We are offered so much in return for our support, the monastery playing many roles in people's lives: that of social worker, psychiatrist, friend, spiritual advisor, to name but a few. I recently tried to explain to a friend why I like going to Chithurst regularly. I said that one could meet ANYBODY from ANYWHERE and that these meetings took me away from the mundane level of daily existence to a wider plane, where wider thought was possible and where non-judgement was the norm. Those of us with small children find it difficult to join in with concentrated discussions - is there a parent among us who can claim that uninterrupted conversation exists, let alone is possible? -or with silent meditation (unless we can get to an evening sitting), but we can and do enjoy the offering of food and the relatively manageable blessing afterwards. There is no rush at Chithurst. We don't need to reserve our seats or show an identity card. Credentials are irrelevant and the spirit of helpfulness and of giving are all-pervasive. Sunday is our day of renewal, a reminder of the "good life", and we are grateful for it. Collette Bradley https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/10.htm[03/10/2017 01:58:03]

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Our Visitor from Thailand His name is Ajahn Jun, or Chan, according to how you try to render Thai sounds in our spelling, and he is abbot of a monastery in North-East Thailand [having been a disciple of Ajahn Chah for many years). He is with us for the Vassa, and his benign presence is sensed so unobtrusively that if not specially noticed you might miss it, at least on the conscious level. His words of English are fewer than my words of Thai but verbal communication seems hardly necessary. Sometimes expression takes a different form, as in his vivid pantomime of a girl on the plane powdering her nose and applying lipstick! When he does deliver a brief discourse, interpreted by the faithful Venerable Javano who accompanies him, it is simple, clear and to the point, and we sense the underlying toughness rather, the inflexibility of purpose - which has made him what he is. And we are amazed and grateful for the blessing of his presence among us.

Part of the lineage; Part II The conclusion of an informal interview with Ajahn Jagaro,abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia. Ajahn Sucitto: What do you think a monk from Australia or Thailand might learn in a British monastery? Ajahn Jagaro: Well, when you go to a new place you get a perspective, you see things being done with a slightly different emphasis. This is because the monastic form is not a stagnant tradition, the whole thing's dynamic. Life within this tradition is alive with choice of how you respond to the environment, and the greater your overview the more it enables you to use that tradition wisely. I'm very, very keen personally to have an exchange of monks between the different monasteries -not just for a visit, but as part of their training. This will help to bind our Sangha together. While in Australia I had an idea of being in the same community as the monks in England, but I couldn't feel that bond of being one Sangha; this was because of the geographical separation, which sometimes prevents this for the smaller monasteries. In outposts such as mine, the feeling is that you are isolated, and there isn't anywhere else to go. So there can be a feeling of being stuck with no option -which is fine if the people can practise well, but if difficulties arise it can be very hard to work through. I'd like to suggest that, as part of the training for the Western monks in Thailand, they consider spending a couple of years in a Western monastery. This would have a lot to offer for their own practice; it would break the tendency to have preconceived ideas about other places. Through lack of contact, the monks trained in England can easily have the idea that monks in Thailand are very selfish, concerned with their own practice and not really into helping anyone. Monks in Thailand can have the idea that the ones in the West are just into building and socializing. But its our community, and this understanding brings the sense that we're willing to help each other, I see that that's the next step for this Sangha. Through this exchange I think that a new unity - a new bond - will emerge. AS: Do you have any long-term ideas about how things are going to go in Perth? AJ: Well, the monastery is set up for having nuns, so the natural progression will be to have nuns there. This will probably mean bringing a nun from Amaravati, because theres no example for the women in Australia. We have one woman who has been an anagarika for two years, but I see that the proper procedure will be to send her to Amaravati to receive the ten precepts and to train, because here at Amaravati there its a training already established, which is evolving and which is working. Then, later on, as siladharas they could go to Australia. The situation there is suitable for nuns, but its certainly a different environment and it would proabably be quite difficult. So I was thinking to begin with, maybe a nun could go for just a year to get a feel for it. Once we have nuns there, it may act as a catalyst for Australian women, and it would be an addition to what the Sangha can offer to the laity. As far as numbers of monks, this is the fourth year that we have had ordinations, which is very encouraging. Numbers have steadily grown; however, because of this exchange idea that I've already discussed, it means that the time is coming when our monks will have been in Australia long enough to https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/10.htm[03/10/2017 01:58:03]

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go to other places so we'll probably be losing some of the monks and sending them - over to Amaravati. We may gain one or two, either from exchange, or from ordination, but I think the size of the monastic community may remain steady. AS: That's six monks now. AJ: Yes. As far as expansion to new monastaries - I don't foresee very much of that until we have more teaching monks, but we may extend our teaching programmes within Perth. Up 'til now we haven't done much travelling outside of Western Australia, but that may change. We have heard that on returning to Thailand on route for Australia, Ajahn Jagaro was given the Silver Conch award. for public service by the Prime Minister of Thailand. As he is the first non-Thai to receive the award, we would like to congratulate him on this singular honour. *Recently one bhikkhu and two samaneras have taken ordination, and one bhikkhu has gone to Thailand.

Help Needed in Assam A letter to Amaravati. Dear Sir, This is to introduce ourselves, that under the aegis of "Jinaratan Buddhist Missionary Destitute Home and School" sponsored by International Brotherhood Mission, Dibrugarh was established in the year 1981. There are 75 destitute children both male and female at the mission and we received nine children from the Judicial Custody at Dibrugarh for their reformation. Apart there are staff members. The mission is providing all the basic needs of the destitutes. Having been registered under the Societies Act of Govt. of India, it has no regular and permanent sources of income to bear its heavy day to day multifarious expenditures. The mission is imparting general education up to fifth standard at the moment, and also imparting general vocational training like sewing, tailoring, knitting etc. to the children. Further, we have plans to take up some more projects to impart training in things like printing, photography, radio repairing etc. There is a plan also to own our own land and buildings in the very near future. The number of orphans are gradually increasing and we are in need of funds. Now, we invite your kind attention to help build this only Buddhist mission in the NE Region of India. Thanking you, With regards, Yours truly, Ven. Achariya Bhikkhu Karuna Shastry General Secretary. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD MISSION Naliapool, Dibrugarh-I Assam, India PIN-786001

Doris Doris, the Chithurst cat, passed away peacefully in August. Those who knew her may appreciate the following cartoon of Doris's daily routine at the monastery.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

Cover: Articles:

October 1989 HOME BACK ISSUES

Letting Go is the Greatest Kindness; Ajahn Anando Walking The Way - Nuns' Tudong; Sister Thanissara Unlocking Human Potential; Aj's Pabhakaro & Nyanaviro Question time; Ajahn Sumedho Extinguishing the Fires of Delusion; Ajahn Puriso

Walking The Way - Nuns' Tudong Leaving Chithurst on the morning after the Tenth Anniversary celebrations in 1989, a group of nuns spent two weeks walking ("going tudong") along the South Downs Way. Sister Thanissara shares some of her experiences. On return, at the completion of their tudong, they were just in time to witness the Bhikkhu Ordinations (Upasampada). After much careful thought and planning, the nuns were able to begin their tudong walk along the South Downs - setting out from Winchester Cathedral - and walking the 100 miles or so to Lancing College. To start out in such an ancient cathedral was the perfect beginning: Winchester is both the old capital of England and a place visited by many pilgrims. Before we donned our packs and set off we wandered around the majestic building. A touch of auspiciousness was added when a Deaconess read a protection prayer from the pulpit - one had the feeling that it was planned just for us. It took a few days for us to got accustomed to the weight of our backpacks, and to avoid following doubtful thoughts that crossed the mind about whether we could complete the miles that stretched ahead. After a while though, it seemed as if there was something missing if we did not have out packs strapped to backs. Comparing notes about blisters, aching knees and logs became another feature of the walk. It was interesting to see that when the physical body was stretched beyond normal requirements and one wall exposed to the elements the mind would naturally simplify and learn to deal with one moment at a time. In such a situation, without the demands of everyday modern life, it was easy to appreciate the life-style of monks of old who wandered for many years. This simple mode of living gave rise to a natural contemplation of Dhamma and I found myself lamenting over the way our modern life dislocates us from the very immediate and powerful teaching that is provided by being exposed to nature without the cushion of modern conveniences. How much our reality is based on the security and comfort of living within four walls, structures and timetable! To be able to sit and watch the sunset, to feel the rain drenching us, and then the wind blowing dry our wet garments, was both a joy and a luxury.

A good lesson learnt - watching a desire arise and pass is much less hassle than trying to fulfill it!

Throughout the walk we camped in fields and were offered our mid-day meals by various groups of lay supporters. The meeting places and times were arranged beforehand. Amazingly enough all the rendezvous were successful and nuns and lay people found each other quite easily. It was a humbling and enriching experience for us to realize that our lay supporters had gone to so much trouble to prepare food and to journey out with it - sometimes many miles from their homes. We would like to express our gratitude to all those who offered support for our tudong in one way or another.

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One of the places where we received hospitality along the way was at the Krishnamurti Foundation, Brockwood Park. Here we were very warmly welcomed; plentiful supplies of food were offered; showers and a simple wooden building with a wood burning stove were also made available to us. After settling in we were shown around the new building that had been erected after Krishnamurti's death. We were all rather awestruck by its beauty and the tasteful interior design. The central point was the octagonal quiet room. Wooden beams separated each segment and met at the top in a small circular shape giving the impression of a Dhamma wheel. A thick white carpet covered a sitting bench which encircled the room. Sitting in there, the mind became quiet very easily; the room itself seemed to emanate a powerful stillness that helped wash away any worries or anxieties leaving a sense of calm and centredness. During the guided tour we were taken into the publications room and were invited to take any of the books on the shelves. Not being used to just helping ourselves to things we stood a little amazed until eventually we were given a very fine selection of books to take away with us. When we left Brockwood Park we felt nourished spiritually with a renewed strength that came from glimpsing in the words of Krishnamurti something beyond the mundane. For the first few days of the walk the weather was very changeable but, as time went on, it started to get hotter and hotter. At certain camp-sites we would stop for a few days, wandering off to a nearby wood to meditate, or walking to explore the surrounding countryside. At one particularly beautiful spot we could see the blue sea twinkling in the distance. It was a very tempting sight in such hot weather especially after living inland and not having the opportunity to go to the sea for many a year. By the second day the temptation was too much and a few of us set off on the 20-mile walk to the sea and back. Needless to say it clouded over and the reality of arriving at a rather scruffy, deserted beach and having a dip in the chilly, grey, seaweedy water was a very different reality from the imagination of what the twinkling blue sea would be like when seen from a distance. A good lesson learnt - watching a desire arise and pass is much less hassle than trying to fulfill it! Towards the end of our walk the heat became almost unbearable, especially on one of the days when the air was muggy and thick. During our meal that day we were overwhelmed by thunder bugs; they crawled all over our faces, and dropped into our bowls and cups. As they became indistinguishable from the food we were eating we speculated whether we might have broken the first precept of not taking life or the rule about eating something which had not been offered! True to their names, the

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thunder bugs heralded the most extraordinary storm. We were camping out in an open field; it was a very interesting experience to be in small tents - supported by metal poles - in the middle of a stupendous lightning storm! There were times when we wondered whether we'd live to tell the story. The storm grew in ferocity and - after the initial joking about frazzled nuns - I began to feel fear that a primitive person might feel when faced directly with the awesome forces that surround us, but which in our modern society we are anaesthetised against. Somehow death felt very near, and in the face of that the ego shrank and showed its true colours flimsy and inadequate when confronted with its own mortality. The only thing that seemed relevant was to let go of everything, calm the mind and body, and open one's heart to universal compassion. After the storm, our spirits lifted, and, the next morning it was a relief to see the sure world of daylight. Yet, as the heightened awareness, of the previous night began to diminish, there was a sense of loss. One noticed a certain, fragility in the air as if all the plants, trees, animals and birds had been holding their breath throughout the storm and, with its passing, had been allowed to breathe again. Our last stop was at Lancing College, where we stayed in the garden of the headmaster's house. We were well received by his wife, a wonderful Christian woman, who showed us around the school and school chapel - an amazing building that was absolutely huge. The building of it was initiated over 100 years ago by a man called Nathaniel Woodward, who also founded several schools for poor children. His life's work made a very inspiring story, and showed how courage and faith could bring far-reaching results and benefits. As the walk drew to a close, I noticed that one had to be very careful not to attach, to the happiness that this experience had brought us. Contemplating the nature of mind, one sees that

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unwise attachment to any feelings of happiness that arise - when conditioned by circumstances - leads to depression and a sense of loss when those circumstances change. I found that the antidote to this was to bring forth a sense of equanimitiy by reflecting on the transient nature of all states. By contemplating in this way, I noticed - strangely enough - that after a few days back at the monastery, the memory of the walk had faded to such an extent that it was hard to believe it had happened at all. Walking together as a group of nuns we had an opportunity to get to know each other in a different context. When living so closely human nature becomes very transparent - both in ourselves and in others. Looking directly at all the likes, dislikes, ups and downs that a group goes through allows us to better understand our common humanity, practising Dhamma with such an understanding, we can transcend the limitations of our human condition. I found that I draw great strength from the nuns commitment to the Dhamma; their willingness to live within a demanding and limiting precept form, and to endure through the dying away of selfishness. It was also very good to share this commitment with our lay friends along the way, and to be reminded more intimately of our interdependent relationship. This was an experimental tudong walk for us, to see what worked and what didn't. As the years go on, we hope that such endeavours may continue so as to bring us closer to the spirit of the mendicant life, for the benefit of ourselves and all beings. Â Â

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Unlocking Human Potential The following interview was held in July of this year, when Ajahn Sucitto talked with Ajahn Pabhakaro and Venerable Nyanaviro about their work in prisons in North-East England. Ajahn Sucitto: Is there a general feeling of how prisoners have become interested and what attracts a person to Buddhism? Ajahn Pabhakaro: There are those who have become interested from a series of talks that we have done. Then our presence becomes known to the whole prison through inmates talking to inmates. AS: The prison authorities have actually invited you in to give talks? AP: The main encouragement initially has been from the appointed Chaplain at the respective prisons we have been going to, as well as the Governor of inmate activities and general senior staff. I have also been in touch quite regularly with Ajahn Khemadhammo, who is the founder and spiritual director of Angulimala, the Buddhist prison chaplaincy organization. He has a wealth of experience from visiting prisons in this country over the last ten years and has always been willing to offer sound advice. AS: So the authorities were always fairly positive and supportive? AP: Yes, very much so. When I first went with the main C of E Chaplain of Durham to meet the Governor of inmate activities, he asked about us coming to start a meditation class at the women's prison. Her response was to welcome with both hands anything that we could do to help the inmates use their time more constructively, calm them down and help them to settle in during their time there, and we had her full support; so you really cannot ask for anything better. She went on to say that it would be good if we could offer meditation to the officers as well, because they often tend to be scapegoats - whereas in reality they have a very difficult and stressful job. In the women's prison we have had a very positive response from the officers. To date two of them have actually participated, one on a very regular basis. Several have visited Harnham. Our relationship with the male officers has also grown and interest has been expressed, so all in all there is very little negativity, and a supportive and friendly feeling is the norm.

To present that quite radical image of peace and kindness in a place where there is an extraordinary lack of it.

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AP: Definitely so, because our robes and our shaven head is a very bold statement of something. So, either we are religious freaks or fanatics, or someone who is quite sincere and dedicated to what we are doing. Once they actually meet us the response is quite positive, there is a lot we have in common. Often people have never thought of how monasteries and prison are similar. The single cells and a cloistered affect give the feeling of a retreat situation. The whole day is structured, and there are times when you are locked up; in a high security prison, you are on your own in your cell for 12 hours at a time and that's a lot more time than we give our retreatants. AS: Do you find they ever "test you out" - where they check out whether they can rely on you? Venerable Nyanaviro: Yes. You have to search into yourself to present your life-style in the most immediate way - it's all about being peaceful and moral. So I found myself being very aware of my role as a monk.

There was a really good example the other day, when this woman on the "H" wing wanted to come and see Ajahn Pabhakaro. He had never met her before and she sat down in the room with us and said, "I would like to know all about what you do because I have seen people coming out of your meetings and they are always so happy and smiling, what is this about?" It's the kindness that draws them towards us. Also, some of the men have expressed their respect towards Ajahn Pabhakaro for his fearlessness walking around in his robes with his shaven head, to present that quite radical image of peace and kindness in a place where there is an extraordinary lack of it. Some men are attracted to that. They are very sensitive and aware of who comes into the prison - there is no one else they get to see - so they scrutinize people in that way, and it is very challenging to us as well, but in a good way.

What we can offer is something that we cannot offer into a lot of other parts of society. A prison is a total institution and monastics are used to that total institutionalization of life-style. We know what it's like to be with yourself a lot, and to have to experience unfulfilled desires, and to have a routine and discipline. The approach we have is in line with that of Bo Lozoff (Director of the Prison Ashram Project) which is to encourage seeing prisons as potential centres of kindness. A prison can be secure, but it needs the attention of a lot of caring people from our society, who are prepared to show inmates understanding, patience and kindness. With the development of trust, they can relearn - or maybe learn for the first time - what it is to be a responsible human being. I can't see any other way of dealing with the huge problem of rehabilitation. What we are doing is like asking, "Is such an approach possible?" One is saying, "Let's be human here, in spite of how awful this place is, or how awful some of your minds probably are as a result of kamma" That's something that brings you right back to what's essential. AS: There is a strong tendency in society to see their crime which may be something of a fairly brief duration - is actually their self. A very common view of someone who has not been in prison would be that these are people who have done harm, hurt people, and so they should be punished, "Why should you be kind to them, they haven't been kind to anyone else" Would you like to comment on that? AP: Obviously there is some crime involved to get them into prison, whether they are "ultimately" guilty or not: but I have been very clear from the beginning that it's not my business. What is my business is to make myself available and open, and to make myself trustworthy through being honest. What they did - for me - is not important; what is important is what their potential is. What I want to appeal to is that potential to transcend what they have done, and to encourage and support their https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/lock.htm[03/10/2017 01:55:45]

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highest qualities - of love and understanding. What they need is not to forget about their crime but, in their own time and space, to see clearly what they have done especially if what they have done has been harmful to others That's the only way it can be rehabilitating. Unless; you give those supportive conditions, all you are doing is reinforcing the crime and the criminal mind - and then it is just a perpetual going back. AS: Can you give us a couple of examples of how you notice a situation developing at prison with the teaching? AP: We'll talk about the women first. It started with an invitation from the Chaplain to go and show "Alms bowls to Newcastle" [a television documentary] about Harnham and myself, as a subject of interest, something different. They were interested and asked very good questions, and I offered to, come and start a meditation class. Within a fortnight we had started our first meditation class. None of them are Buddhists, none of them had ever been exposed to any Buddhism, only one had ever done meditation, and so we were starting from scratch. What that has grown into is a continuing Weekly Class. At first we tried to play the Buddhism down and just encourage the meditation, but the growth has been such that Buddhism has come into it more and more. I mean, how do two Buddhist monks teach meditation without saying something about Buddhism? We got permission to make meditation stools for their personal use and now all of them make an effort, at least once in the twelve hours that they are locked up, to sit for a period of time. Lately they have taken the initiative to meet on their own on weekends that we couldn't come in, and that went quite well. Now they are talking about trying to do that once during the week - as a group - in the little chapel that they have on the wing.

An idea came up for the Multi-cultural Fair, which was to have a prisoners' stall, with things that the inmates have contributed themselves, and they seemed to respond very positively to this. They have done things for charities in the past, so we are going to encourage that and see if we can get the support from the people who look after those areas for the inmates. It is rare in the inmates' lives that they have something that they can give to, be generous towards and support. There is never the encouragement or an appeal to their kindness. VN: I think the situation in Frankland with the men parallels that a lot. What really got it going was a series Of six lectures on "An Introduction to Buddhism", which brought in about 10-15 men, and out of that evolved a regular weekly group, which is like a Buddhist service. Now we are sitting, we chant, and we have a lot of talk because the prisoners like to talk a lot. It is very new to them, they may have had a little bit of experience with Yoga or TM or read a book, but nothing much really - so again it was starting from scratch. Now, after a period of months, we are getting to know the men more and some of them have opened up to us more

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about what they are going through. We are talking of some people who experience mind states of an intensity that a lot of us are not, used to.

They go through so many ups and, downs; some guy may not come to the group for a while, and it could be that he is going through absolute hell - its, not, that he's losing interest, but very extreme stuff may be coming up. One chap told me that every morning when he wakes up, he notices that his mind just moves straight towards depression; not just because of where he is, but because of the strong tendencies that his mind has. That's what he is up against - just to get up and try to meditate when everything is loaded against him. So in some ways, it's not quite the same as your average Buddhist meditator. AS: How long do they stay with it? You both mentioned that in some ways it is a situation in which there almost isn't any choice. When they get out, are they going to stay with it, or just forget it all? AP: Only time will tell, one really doesn't know. In Buddhist groups outside prison, there's a lot of ups and downs and comings and going's - how much do people stick with it in those situations and take it away? As a teacher, you're always sowing and nurturing seeds and so why should it be any different in prisons, and how far in the future do you want to see this? How much they get out of it is very much on an individual basis.

One of the things that I am encouraging very gently, and trying to demonstrate through their own experience, is the protection of the Refuges, and Five Precepts. The one thing that will keep them straight is if they can actually see the benefit of those, and adhere to them in their lives when they leave the prison-and, to the best of their ability, whilst,they are in prison. Dear Ajahn Pabhakaro Yes brother, 'tis I Jimmy. I'm not usually one for writing but - I just felt I had to write and say "thanks" for the last six weeks, and especially for last Tuesday which was fantastic. Please pass on my thanks to the other monks and to the lay brothers and sisters who treated us so kindly and for a brief time made me feel human again. I was right brother. I got some terrible stick after walking around the yard with those candles and flowers but I can handle it. If you can truck around in an orange dress and a bald napper I can do the same with candles and flowers. I somehow knew there'd be a price to pay for all that beautiful food and drink but it was worth it! ...

There's no doubt brother that since I first met you I've changed. Not in a way that anyone would notice but in a very personal way that only I am aware of. I feel that you are showing me the way to the answers though I'm not even sure what the questions are yet but rest assured that when they come to me I'll be firing them at you from all angles. So en garde brother.

Anyway that's it for now PB. I'll see you on Tuesday so till then take care and stay as cool as you are. Love, Jimmy Dear Editor, This letter is to indicate our appreciation for the instruction in meditation we've received from Brothers Pabhakaro and Nyanaviro. We're continuing to follow their guidance in this matter, finding their visits to the prison very encouraging. Meditating with them in a group has helped us not to "throw in the towel". It appears that all those attending these "sessions" pursue the practice in their calls alone. We recognize the potential in meditation to help us to live more calm,

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aware and progressive lives. We are still only at the initial stages and can't sag definitely what overall impact it will have. However, we have all concluded that it promises additional calm and contact with the less familiar aspects of ourselves. We are, simultaneously, being guided as to how best to deal with any potential overload of tension, an important technique when living in a highly contained environment like jail. There can only be advantage's for us in being reminded of the variety and multiplicity that is "life", because, in jail, there is the danger of seeing, days, weeks etc. as part of a routine. Our lives are enhanced by the warmth and affection we feel towards these two individuals, a feeling they initiated by their very positive approach to us. We believe they care about us and about those around them generally. This exchange of affection has added a happy and positive feature to our lives. Their good wishes towards us are not taken for granted, because jail life can be lacking in that respect. Obviously prisoners find themselves absorbed in personal problems and tend, therefore, to look inwards.

There is, as a consequence, a lack of community spirit and general caring. Plenty happens in prisons to cultivate the cynicism rampant in here; credulousness is not always helpful in these circumstances. But the cumulative affect of this cynicism is to distance us from the idea of sincerity in people. The arrival of the "Brothers" dented that wall of cynicism, reminding us that there will always be the human attempt to "improve" or "be better". Each reminder that such struggle exists and advances can only reinforce our sense of solidarity with the world, even if we're physically isolated.

Beyond any religious or institutional motivation, there will always be the common desire, however latent, to "be better". We wish to improve and progross to the maximum of our ability. Our values do not regularly adhere to the established norm, and we are not Buddhists. We are, nevertheless, very concerned to be, what we understand as, progressing people. We will be the ones to assess our own lives eventually, as now we are the ones to select, within the obvious constraints, what we deem useful pursuits. We consider ourselves critical enough judges of the worth Of most activities. In saying that, we want to indicate the value we perceive in meditation. We are still only at the stage Of 'Sensing" the extent Of its relevance, but the fact that we have not "flung in the towel" is an indication of how we estimate it, because, oddly enough, we are busy people. Yours sincerely, Three meditators Angulimala is the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy organization, which coordinates prison visiting and correspondence with inmates. Help and -support is always needed; to find out how you might help, please write to: Ajahn Khemadhammo Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy The Forest Hermitage, Lower Fulbrook Warwick CV35 8AS Telephone(0926) 624 385

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Question time with Ajahn Sumedho Ajahn Sumedho answers a series of questions on meditation and practice in lay life. Question: If one looks inward, too much, does one miss out on the lessons the outside can teach? Well, because of the sensitivity of this human form, you're impinged on by other people. But the emotional states and the sensitivity involved in being in this state are to be reflected on rather than taken personally. So you begin to see what selfishness is in your relationships. In monastic life, for example, you have to share everything everythings communal - so a good part of our experience of life are the reactions we have to each other. There are different types of characters and different ways of doing things; some people you find more attractive and others less attractive. All of this is observed, so that you're not just following these habits, but you're beginning to really see a lot of these selfish attitudes and biases -and feelings of being threatened by others. I remember experiencing this years ago with one of the monks. Intellectually, I liked him very much, but whenever he started coming near me I had this tremendous fear arise. He was a very kind person - never hurt me - but whenever this particular monk came into my field of vision I started feeling fear. And then, because I was puzzled about it, I started realizing that the particular way he moved and carried himself conveyed aggression to me. It was not his intention, but the actual movement of the way he walked and carried himself converged to this mind some aggressive force. I hadn't been aware of that because I tend to be very abstract about people: you know "this one is this way and he's good natured, he's kind"; but then you get confused by these irrational reactions that don't fit into your intellectual perception. The way people move sometimes has a very strong effect on us that we're not always aware of.

I began to see that even when everything is going right, once you are caught in this habit of worry, you still worry.

The convention of the Buddhist monk puts the male into a non-aggressive, harmless form; one of the important parts of the training is in harmlessness. The whole appearance - the shaven' head, bare feet, the robes - is to remind the individual man himself he is a monk, and also to convey harmlessness to the society around. This is why I think, once you get used to Buddhist monks as a perception, you feel devotion and respect: if the life is lived properly then it represents compassion, harmlessness, restraint - good virtues. Now if you take skinheads they don't convey harmlessness, do they? Their whole expression is to convey aggression and brutality. They develop a way of walking, and looking, and moving, and they put on things https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/q-lps.htm[03/10/2017 01:54:52]

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that make them look aggressive and mean. This tends to bring fear into the mind. The training of the Buddhist nun is to put the female form into a state where, it's not trying to attract men or arouse jealousy in other women. So the proper training of a Buddhist nun is one of not trying to draw attention to herself. By training in these ways, we become, aware of conditioned tendencies in ourselves. If I had no such convention I would probably never have thought of it much. In Thailand, as a monk, I became very aware of the reaction people had to me, and I began to wonder why they would jump back when I had onlly good intentions. I wanted to be friendly, and yet when, I came directly to them they backed off. Why? Then I began to see that, for one thing my size could appear overwhelming, and that it was also because of the habitual movement of the body. Living in Thailand for a number of years, I developed a genuine appreciation for that particular respectful way of living, where you're trying to bring out the best in people -rather than arousing things like greed, or anger, or aversion, or envy, or lust. You're no longer moving out into the society with the intention of arousing these kind of states of mind in people, but you're living in the soceity trying to - be that which is nonaggressive, harmless that which conveys to the mind the possibilities for the human being to be peaceful and awake, mindful, wise, and restrained. Question: You said that worry is what we produce when we don't have any faith in travelling beyond pleasure and pain, Can you say a bit more about that? I am a great worrier! When we first came to England everything was very uncertain: how would we survive as Buddhist monks in a non-Buddhist country? Would we be beaten up and attacked by people, would anyone give us alms-food, or what would happen? But in actuality my life here in this country has been a good one. I began to see that even when everything is going right, once you are caught in this habit of worry, you still worry. It became obvious that people were interested in the Dhamma and they were going to feed us and we were going to survive and monasteries were going to be supported; but then when there wasn't anything to worry about, one could find something else! And being in a responsible position - like the abbot of a monastery, you get into positions where you can't just hide behind someone else. In Thailand I could hide behind Ajahn Chah's robes, and because I wasn't a native Thai I could get out of a lot of things, so that there were certain advantages. But being here I always felt that I was the focal point, and so there were tendencies towards doubt and anxiety. In reflective meditation you go out to the feeling of worry. I would begin to open to that very feeling of worry or doubt, uncertainty, rather than try to suppress it through affirmation. but I found that the way out of worry was not by suppressing it but by totally accepting the feeling of it. The insight that came from that was that in the sensory realm there is an awful lot to worry about. It https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/q-lps.htm[03/10/2017 01:54:52]

Being Still Breathing was a raft ferrying inward Looking, I became Aware of thoughts Visiting spaciousness Of mind then, leaving, Still, like a tree, All weathers touched me, Cool and heat, Waiting as I was for new Verdance and deeper light. George Coombs

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wasn't just a neurotic hang-up! In this realm of pleasure and pain and personality and success and failure, there is a lot to worry about. You could trip and break your leg, you could have a heart attack, you could be beaten up or there could be a nuclear holocaust, there could be an IRA explosion and all kinds of things. Then because you have a memory you can hold on to things of the past: "This happened to me five years ago and what if it happens again?" A country like Britain has developed to try to give us a sense of security - you have a stable government, you have welfare, medical services, education, all these things laid in for us -and still we worry! So I've realized, that that sense of insecurity and uncertainty is just the way life is. But if you go to the actual feeling of insecurity, you find it peaceful. It's a kind of paradox: when you are reacting to that feeling, you get worried and frightened by it; but as you open to that uncertain, insecure feeling that you have and the violent reaction to it, and bear with it you will find its peacefulness. You will find a sense of peace with yourself. Worry, if skilfully used, takes us to serenity of mind; because when you're with that very feeling of insecurity, your thinking, mind - with its "what if this happens, what if that happens? - will stop operating. Then you will begin to recognize emptiness of mind, which is a state of mind which is very receptive to the way things are. Then you have perspective. You begin to have real faith that you will be able to cope with the problems of life that you experience. For example, I realize the potential at any moment for having a heart attack, or being beaten up, or the ozone hole growing bigger, or all the whales disappearing in the ocean, or being taken over by the Communists, or whatever.... But what I know now is that I trust that whatever happens I will respond to it appropriately, because these things are not the important issue any more. One is in tune with something transcendent, rather than thinking, "Well if I don't have this I'll just die, and if this happens I won't be able to stand it". I realize that whatever happens I'll stand it! Â Â

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Extinguishing the Fires of Delusion Wat Kern (The Monastery by the Dam) lies close to the Laotian border in a region of Thailand designated as a "red area", a danger zone where farming and 'monastic settlement is not generally encouraged. Nevertheless, Wat Kern is regarded favourably by forest monks because of its isolation. Ajahn Puriso, who was born in Australia, has been the abbot there for over two years now. In this interview with Ajahn Munindo, recorded earlier this year, he explains the practical difficulties and some of the ethical dilemmas that come up when trying to protect the forest in NorthEast Thailand. Ajahn Munindo: Perhaps you could explain how Wat Kern came to be here in the first place. Ajahn Puriso: In 2512 (1969) the dam was completed, and the waters had started to rise. The animals fleeing the water came into this area - which is about 1,000 acres. There were many more animals here than there would normally be in a forest of this size. So at that time the local people were having a hey day, slaughtering the animals - particularly snakes and wild geese -in great numbers. Then some villager living nearby who had heard of the forest monasteries of Ajahn Chah invited Ajahn Chah to come here, ostensibly to try and save a Buddha's footprint relic which was in part of the area which was going to be flooded. Ajahn Chah came here to retrieve this Buddha's footprint, which he did. And of course when he came here and saw the forest he thought: "This is a nice place" He saw the untouched pine forest and the high population of wild animals, and he also saw how it was being destroyed. I think he probably suggested that somebody put a monastery here. In any case what eventually happened was, the head of the Forestry Department for the district and the Head of the District invited Ajahn Chah to come and start a monastery here; and the idea was not only to start a monastery but also to protect the forest. This is one of the last remnants of this sort of forest-dry tropical forest. AM: So how long have you been living here as the abbot? Were you here from the beginning when Ajahn Chah was given the place? AP: I wasn't here until just five years ago. When Ajahn Chah saw the monastery, he sent one of his disciples - an energetic young monk - who had quite a thriving community here for a while.

Lighting fires is something like a national sport. The forest is something you burn.

AM: Would it be fair to say that if you hadn't been here the forest probably would have disappeared? AP: That would probably not be quite accurate, because if I hadn't been here I'm sure other monks would still have been here and keeping some hold over the place, just by being here. But if there were no monks here, everyone says there would not only be no https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/fire.htm[03/10/2017 01:53:39]

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animals left but no forest left - it would all be turned into fields. So the forest of 1,000 acres has been fenced off. AM: So the forest and the animals would have been destroyed by local inhabitants of the area - its not people coming from outside that are doing the damage. What do they do in the forest? AP: Most of the villagers round here are not the ones destroying the forest. It's usually criminal types, who steal and have no respect for the land or anybody. There has been a lot of antagonism, especially over hunting. They seem to have no real need to keep destroying the forest, but they slash and burn to clear an area, sell it, and start on another area. After I'd been here a year I saw three main categories of forest destruction going on. There are also many more milder kinds of destruction, which are important, but I decided not to worry about them. I decided to concentrate on three areas. First, lighting fires - which is something like a national sport. The forest is something you burn. The most damage is done by the burning of great areas of forest at one go - its complete destruction. It's hard to understand, because we live in the city and come to the forest and think it is a lovely place. But the forest to someone who lives in the forest is really an unpleasant place. It is primitive and burning it all down will turn it into nicely organized fields. I have been lost in the forest, and it is an incredibly unpleasant experience - I found it really inhospitable. There are vines which have thorns just waiting on the ground to get your feet ... there are ants .... I've felt like burning it down a few times myself! The second area is cutting down big trees changing the face of the forest to scrub. They even cut many small trees the thickness of your finger, taking hundreds of them to make grass thatching for their roofs. They'll cut trees the thickness of one's hand or arm - they always pick tall straight ones - and they keep those as a rail to hang their jute on. A lot of this is very wasteful. The third area is hunting and foraging. They'll burn the forest to make it more accessible and harder for animals to hide; the burning also makes animals run, so they are easier to shoot. They come at night and shoot these little flying squirrels, called "gliders" twenty to thirty in one night - to sell them. So the hunting and a lot of their activities are not for the survival of these peoples; they can get by without. When they come and look for fruit in the forest, they will cut the whole tree down just to get the fruit no idea how to preserve it at all. I remember last year a big tree was cut and it fell right across the main road to the monastery. The reason it was cut down was to get a bees' nest at the top of it. Sometimes they'll burn the forest to go in to find bees' nests or get resin out of certain trees - they

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will get the bees or resin but, not put the fires out! AM: So how do you actually go about protecting the forest? One person can't police the whole forest. AP: It's never been just one man; the monks all assume it as part of their responsibility. The main work we have to do is putting out fires, which is quite a heavy responsibility. The equipment is basically a beater - a long bit of bamboo with three lengths of fan belt attached to it - with which you smother the fire. Alternatively, there are water tanks and water pumps. Every year the monks have to fight fires, and in the height of the hot season, it's about 103 degrees F. You crawl back to your kuti [hut] after a meal and rest for a while - its so hot. Then you have to go out and fight a fire for a couple of hours; then you might rest for a while; then there's another fire, and you come back about dusk, have a bath before evening meditation; then there is another fire. It's very hard to just endure, it's very unpleasant. Last year it was the worst year for monks having to fight fires - we had, to go out every day for quite a long period. At that time there were actually eight monks and all the monks felt they had to chicken-out, it was such a difficult thing to do. Most damage was done last year - half the area of the forest was burnt down and a lot of other damage was done as well. The fires here often sweep through and damage the leaf coverage of the forest floor. The rain too is so extreme: there is no rain at all until May not one drop until May and the fires start in January. When I saw that, I thought, "This is the turning point." I could see much more clearly than in other years how the area was changing from dense forest to scrub. So I decided we needed help. The second year I was here we'd had a lot of trees being cut and we only had four to five monks at that time. So I had the water patrol police come and stay: I gave them one of the kutis and they stayed there for three months. They hardly had to do anything at all. It was just their presence here - there was no hunting or tree cutting for the whole three months. So I could see that was one way to get good results. People are not afraid of the monks - if they are caught doing anything, the worst they can get is upbraided. If it's the border patrol police they

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might get arrested or life made generally unpleasant for them - their guns might get confiscated - so they just stop coming. Fortunately there were some lay people who made an offering here - a lady whose husband was a Colonel, so I asked her if we could have the Army here to help. The Head of the Army for this Province came down with officials from the District, and they sent some National Guards. They're staying here now. We've had very good results. AM: I see you're also training Alsatian dogs to go round and check on poachers. Does that bring up anything negative from the village people? AP: I don't think there's any animosity. Although I'm going to be building a wall - walling people off from the monastery - I don't think it causes that much negativity among the villagers because they will have built the wall themselves and made money, which will bring them prosperity. They have a hard time trying to find any work. AM: It clearly needs money to build these things and to take these measures. How is the monastery supported if it's not by the local people? AP: Most of the financial support of course comes from Bangkok. As you know, all monasteries are supported by donations. This monastery is regarded as being very remote and uninviting generally, and so when they see a Western monk staying here for five years ... AM: Do you use the teaching to educate the people and bring about a sense of responsibility for the dwindling forests of Thailand? AP: Yes, it's something I've had to contemplate for some time, because there is very little sense of conservation at the moment. The forest is something you burn. I recognize this attitude - you can't say it's actually wrong, but you can try to point out the causes and effects. At one time the population was not very big and the forest was huge, so they could snatch a bit of forest and leave no serious effect. But now there are a lot of people and not much forest the whole situation has changed completely,so they have to change their attitude. Buddhism does not have a specific teaching for conservation, because at the time of the Buddha there were no conservation problems. There is no direct teaching about conservation except loving kindness and compassion. I tend to teach about being more heedful - the opposite of thinking: "Here I am, born in this world, and I'll get what I want - nobody shall stand in my way." So it's getting across the idea of asking, "Where do I come from, how can I manage to live on this planet Earth, .... How many forces are there, how many conditions are necessary for me to be here?" "Where does your body come from? If you have a strong body, it's because mother and father had good genes, gave you good food, so these are the results of causes...." This is something we can talk to villagers about. Then I say this can be applied also to Mother Earth. Everything we are is just a reflection of our attitudes, how we think and behave. The West is clever with science, making things grow faster by use of fertilizers, but is Nature really something separate from us that we can manipulate to our own ends? In actuality we are part of Nature. So if we are treating Nature with lack of respect, we are destroying our own environment, and that will assuredly backfire. So that's what I talk about in Dhamma talks. Everywhere I go now I make it part of a talk, and because it's a new idea people sit and listen to it, not having considered it before. There is a sutta in the Buddhist scriptures where the Buddha speaks very positively about the planting of trees, and the benefit of digging wells - providing water for others. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/fire.htm[03/10/2017 01:53:39]

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AM: Is this also something you aim to do? AP: Yes. I've had a plan to start re-planting - to get some rubber trees. We've planted these in North-East, Thailand, and they grow quite quickly and they don't deplete the soil. They planted eucalyptus trees in the past, and they are finding out now that they deplete the soil quite a lot. Rubber trees are shady, succulent trees but they are too expensive for villagers to buy - so we thought of perhaps planting a test area, then letting the villagers come and get their cuttings from there. We'd have to see how well they grow. Other monasteries are doing that. Some have acquired many acres of land around existing monasteries. Setting up monasteries is an ideal way to protect the forest. AM: From the latest developments in the relations between Thailand and Laos, it seems that you are going to share electricity with your local power generator here, and they want to cut a huge tract of land right through the middle of the forest to carry the electricity. How are you negotiating with the authorities concerned with this project? AP: What's happened is that they want to erect some high power lines which will come through the monastery. At first I was disappointed, but we had a professor and a journallist here from the West visiting, and when they learned of this, they said I should do something about it. I recognized this, but felt I was not going to got into a large campaign with newspapers, rallying and demonstrations - things a monk should not be getting involved with. I wanted to do it in my own quiet way. So I got in touch with a lady I knew, stating the case and saying I would appreciate it if the authorities would reconsider the path and find a different route. I was very mild and diplomatic, having no strong hopes of success - I'd just do the best I could. The lady who read the letter considered it worth doing something, so she wrote an official letter to the head of the judicial department asking them to help out the monastery as best they could.... Conservation, however, is still little thought about, except when there are national disasters. Logging companies should get formal permission to log certain areas, but on occasion they have been logging in an area where they shouldn't have been, leaving buffer zones but otherwise logging right, left and centre. So when the rain started washing down the hillside, the huge logs were also washed down, smashing into people's houses. It was a national disaster in which about 800 people died. It was seen that it was caused by timber companies, so now there has been a ban on logging all over Thailand. I've been trying to get Wat Kern recognized as an official monastery for over four years now it takes a long time. Part of the trouble is, that it is such a huge area of the Forestry Department's land. (I've a sneaking feeling it's also to do with the logging companies.) According to the law, the monastery can ask for about seven acres of this piece of Forestry Department's land, then the entire forest falls under monastery protection. It's almost like leaving the land alone for a period of time - say, thirty years. But that kind of arrangement is out of favour now, and the latest idea is to make a Buddhist Park. In this setup the monastery could actually build kutis in the area, and be recognized as a park or sanctuary.

The planters of groves and fruitful trees, and they who build causeways and dams, and wells construct, and watering-sheds, and (to the homeless) shelter give: of such as these, by day - by night, Forever merit give." Kindred Sayings, Vol. I

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

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October 1989

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EDITORIAL A refuge for the world Most, of the contributions to this Newsletter stress the attitude of kindness or concern for the welfare of the world in its variety of forms. In going forth one doesn't cease to respond to the world, but ,the training matures that response to one that is no longer limited big the biases of self-interest. Suffering is always ready to pounce whenever the heart moves, from the stillness of spiritual friendship into personal or emotional involvement. Wanting people to be a certain way, and having an expectation of results are the pitfalls. Currently the Summer Camp School is in full swing at Amaravati. It's a rather more structured event this year, and has required a full and sustained commitment from most of the senior monks and nuns, as well as those more recently gone forth. Having left the family life behind, the need for Dhamma for children engages us in it again - from a different angle.

True responsibility is when you can respond with wisdom and compassion.

Maybe the situation is new, but a willing response to the world is a traditional practice, not without its ironies. Having left home, most of us after all have spent considerable amounts of energy in rebuilding, preserving and taking good care of monasteries. Researching into the Buddhist relationship with the environment for the WWF "Religion and the Environment" event has increased my awareness of the part played by forest monasteries in the preservation of the forests-, in Britain this also includes reafforestation. Within the last generation, the forested area of Thailand has shrunk from around 80 to around 15 percent of the country, and bhikkhud visiting Amaravati from Thailand have been commenting on how lush and richly forested southern England is by comparison. Perceptions of the remote jungles of South-East Asia have taken quite a beating. Perhaps the forests are all vanishing. It's a time when the untouched paradises are all gone, and the sheltering lonely places disappearing. So the time is also ripe for an awakening to our true responsibility: to care for the world. True responsibility is when you can respond with wisdom and compassion. To reject the world, or to, be engrossed in it would be a lot easier than the precarious balance of love without attachment. The purpose of the gone forth life is to perfect that balance. Samanas train themselves to seek nothing - and expect nothing from the world: for any such seeking is the home of all suffering. When the very possibility of having a world that will fulfil one's wishes is renounced, the heart can open joyously and be a Refuge. Worldliness ends and true benevolence is the unbidden response. Through Dhamma we can become as cool and sheltering as the trees, offering a Refuge to whatever comes our way. It is our human responsibility. Ajahn Sucitto https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/10/editor.htm[03/10/2017 01:52:25]

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January 1990 THIS ISSUE

Three Poems:

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Number 11 HOME BACK ISSUES

Cover: Sangha & the Basis of Community; Ajahn Santacitto Articles: Accepting the Way Things Are; Sister Thanissara

Declan's Gift; Venerable Kovido

In the Footsteps of the Wise; Ajahn Liam

Question Time; Than Ajahn Sumedho

Editorial: The Dhamma of Relationship; Ajahn Sucitto

Sangha and the Basis of Community Ajahn Santacitto shares some reflections on the workings and nature of community. An order of monks and nuns is an example of a diverse community brought together by commitment to a shared aspiration. The aspiration is to follow the heart's call to discover the truth through unselfish living. This common intention, to dedicate oneself through service to what is true, is the key to the transforming power of community. Free of political devices and ideologies, a monastic community experiences on the one hand the communal purification which lies at the heart of communism, and on the other hand the respect for individual human potential that forms the basis of democracy. A monk or a nun discovers how peace within community arises from peace within oneself; and peace becomes real when there is a willingness to give up selfish impulses. In practice, this supports the harmonious sharing of food, clothes, work and shelter. In doing so one offers one's life as an experimental laboratory to creatively rediscover, in evernew conditions, the validity of Buddha's 2,500-year-old experiment in community living called 'Sangha'. This is my global vision for the future. I believe the ongoing, ongrowing extension of this Sangha experiment to ever wider human territory offers our mature human community a vision of hope. It provides practical guidelines on how to make this vision real through the creative power of skilful living.

The Buddha highly praised coming together to share our perceptions and experience of how to apply the skilful means of personal and communal development.

Being a monk in Thailand for 12 years was a constant source of reflection on what Sangha expressed and offered society. The relationship between the monastic Sangha and Thai society is based on mutual dependence - the Sangha providing spiritual support, teaching and guidance, and the society providing the material support of the Sangha's basic physical needs.

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One sees how beautifully Thai society has used the joy of giving as a means of training - both communal and individual. Children learn happily by joining in; as, for instance, when praised for their respectful putting of cake in a monk's almsbowl. It is heart-warming to see a whole cross-section of society encouraging each other in celebrating communal generosity. This social unblocking of the hindrance of greed, so especially relevant to our highly materialistic society, opens channels that lead to a society rooted in what we can offer each other, and can bring very real happiness and harmony. Indeed, the Thais' joy in giving is contagious. When they gather together with other SouthEast Asian Buddhists at Amaravati, the more reserved Westerners present are often drawn to share in this joy. Making a beautiful tradition a source of celebration is one of the ways the Thai people live the Buddha's ancient teaching for developing and maintaining a strong happy society. To help accomplish this, the Buddha offered a specific teaching, which would always lead to welfare and prosperity and never to decline. Paraphrased, and in words intelligible to Westerners, this instructs us: to meet together regularly and often, always meeting and dispersing in harmony, and to carry that harmony into all our duties ad dealings with each other; not to overthrow the established principles, or introduce new ones but to accept and abide by the original and fundamental ones; to honour and respect the elders and deem them worthy of being listened to; to ensure that women and girls can dwell in safety and without fear of being molested or exploited; to honour and respect shrines, images and other symbolic objects (of communal and individual devotion), and not to neglect or undervalue participation in ceremonies, which can help us reaffirm our right intention and establish our right effort; to provide rightful protection, shelter and support for those living the Holy Life and to be glad to be near them. The last one of these is another example of how Thai society uses the Triple Gem to socialise forces for peace and happiness. This is in the ceremony of reaffirming and mutually supporting the development of the unselfish heart, individually and communally - through the five precepts. These precepts are guidelines and principles for restraining unskilful impulses - of taking life; stealing; committing adultery; engaging in harmful speech; and indulging in intoxication. They open channels for the flowing forth of the unhindered human heart's nature to be kindly and loving to all life (empathy); to be generous and respectful of property; to accept family responsibility; to preserve and encourage harmony through speech; and to value clarity of mind. This is the fundamental basis for genuine peace and harmony arising in any human community.

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Sangha working well

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The Buddha highly praised coming together to share our perceptions and experience of how to apply the skilful means of personal and communal development. During the time I was preparing a talk on 'A Global Vision', with monks and lay guests of our monastery gathered together one day, a group discussion developed. From this shared offering came many worthwhile ideas - growing into a veritable edifice! This sincere sharing also showed, with quite unexpected vividness, how the human relationship of Sangha as community provided a real example of how we can actually live our vision. I offer some of the reflections that arose: How can we help people to go beyond self-indulgent pleasure to realise their potential for inner happiness? Can people be helped to appreciate or discover how the Five Guidelines (described earlier) can greatly aid accomplishing this? Selfishness seems to be strengthened by some of the unwholesome social values absorbed in the socialisation process. How do we encourage generosity, a universal humanistic and spiritual teaching? Generosity is the opening of a closed heart. It is the open heart that will communicate and transform. If we can somehow help others to taste calm and peace, then generosity naturally blossoms. In our honestly practising, and manifesting it (especially in the catalyst of the monastic environment) others can experience recognition in their own hearts of the joy, the peace and the generosity. I mentioned how contagious joy can be, such as when Thais offer food. This is an instance when lay people are reminded how they can nurture the quality of generosity in their children at home - particularly by encouraging them to serve food to others. Can education in such values be encouraged - how can more training in generosity and more guidelines be brought into the system? For example: could children be involved more in moulding the school environment (cleaning it up, contributing cooking and serving), so that they would respect it more? Can educators be encouraged to find practical ways of transforming an institution into a community? For example: by encouraging teachers as well as students to develop a sense of community; by giving attention to environment and aesthetics conducive to community values; by having the classroom better reflect the world (having handicapped children participate, for example); by setting priorities carefully (already there are too many pressures on educators to get children to achieve worldly goals). Interestingly, the discussion - in process, experience and in suggestions proposed - pointed very directly to a fundamental consideration in realising a global vision. As a Sangha, as a dynamic community, our personal responsibility to each other is in educating, encouraging and supporting each other towards practical manifestations of unselfishness, to experience the happiness and joy in generosity, in giving guidelines for conduct, and in developing the heart of kindness and a clearly alert and aware mind. In our innermost hearts we know, feel or sense that, from the enlightened perspective, everything is basically already perfect - so there really is no need to struggle for, or force change; nor a need to resist it. Yet a seeming paradox is that emanating from the heart of this perfect vision is the radiance of compassion, which manifests spontaneous purity (of behaviour and relationship). In practical terms, this means one is still continually functioning

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towards the well-being of all. This action is not motivated by hopes or expectations to make the world become like one's ideals, but by a totally selfless offering in response to the living need - a fluid vision of this living moment, evoking an immediacy of the spontaneous action. Through our ever stepping into the unknown - the future blossoming into The Now - we can be fully responsible for it; and we know what needs to be done, in the very act of doing it. Such wise living is the natural functioning of genuine faith. In Buddhism we call this awareness 'mindfulness' -'mind fullness'. This fills both the world within and the world around with that which heals our inner fragmentation and the false vision of our outer separateness from one another. The vision of this noble truth, and the way of manifesting it practically, is the Buddha's compassionate dispensation ('prescription') for the illusions of the world's problems ad the sense of dis-ease we experience through our being born, not just physically but also mentally and spiritually, into such problems. Through it we are given the grace of discovering ourselves and developing skill in mindful living. This enables us to serve more wholly the world without, while making more whole (more holy) the world within. Such a noble vision of mutual reflectiveness between the inner and the outer world is the keystone to our success in both inner and outer action. It is the natural root for the blossoming forth of personal responsibility and commitment to blessing the communion of our common humanity. In so touching each other, community becomes real and tangible, from the household up to the global family. In the well-rooted love, miracles and wonders arise in the ordinary. And in the mutually reflective vision, unifying the world within and without, self and other, the wondrous and the ordinary, we find the miracle of mindfulness has the power to dissolve all problems in our return to their source. Though I have offered reflections from the perspective of a monastic community, offering humanistic and spiritual reflections on a global vision for the future, obviously it is not special to Buddhism or monasticism. All the great religious traditions have a tremendous wealth of wisdom, and skilful means and experience from which untold benefit can be drawn. But each of us must be willing to strive, offering ourselves individually and communally, as a courageous experiment to explore how these timeless teachings apply. Only by our living them can they become relevant and be communicated to the people of the world, both present and future. Â Â

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Sangha & the Basis of Community; Ajahn Santacitto Accepting the Way Things Are; Sister Thanissara Declan's Gift; Venerable Kovido In the Footsteps of the Wise; Ajahn Liam Question Time; Than Ajahn Sumedho The Dhamma of Relationship; Ajahn Sucitto

Learning to Accept the Way Things Are Sister Thanissara offers some guidance and suggestions around the practice of acceptance. The Buddha taught us that hatred can never be overcome through hatred, but only through love. Perhaps one of the most difficult lessons for humanity to learn is that of compassion. Compassion arises when we have insight into 'way things are' - the Dhamma. Before we can see clearly, we have to accept life in a way that is free from reaction. People sometimes think that one will be totally ineffectual if one just 'accepts'. However, compassion is not necessarily 'weak', actually it is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. The following meditation is offered to help us work more consciously on this quality of acceptance. o o o ~O~ o o o Light some candles and incense, And then read this slowly to a friend ... Stop for a few moments, sit quietly with a straight back and gently close your eyes. Feel the rhythm of the breath as it enters ad leaves the body. Allow yourself to let go of the sense of past and future, and come into the present moment, being exactly with the way things are - now.

Accept all beings without the desire to change, dominate or manipulate them.

Bring your attention to the body. How does it feel? Accept - with kindness - the feelings and sensations in the body and thoughts in the mind, just the way they are. Breathe in deeply, feeling a sense of trust and well being. Breathe out, allowing any tightness and holding to dissolve. Do this for a while, breathing in a sense of well being and on the out breath - letting go into the space, silence and support of each moment. Allow the body to relax and the mind to calm. When different feelings, sensations and thoughts arise within yourself, just note them, allowing yourself to be fully at peace with their flow. Don't struggle to hold on or push away, just witness - seeing all things as Dhamma, as a part of nature. Now find a place within yourself where you can totally accept all aspects of your own being with kindness and love.... Your personality, the things you like about yourself and the things which you judge as 'bad'. As you move deeper into this place, allow yourself to accept fully all the people you know. The ones you love and trust and also the ones you find difficult or have bad feelings towards. Just allow yourself to accept the reactions that different people bring up in your mind, without judgement. Accept all beings without the desire to change, dominate or manipulate them. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/11/accept.htm[03/10/2017 02:09:52]

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Contemplate the thought -May all beings be truly enlightened, may their hearts be at peace. Being at ease with each moment, allow your attention to stay with the flow of the breath - with no force - breathing very gently and fully. Open your mind and heart to a sense of wholeness. There's nowhere to go, nothing to get and nothing to get rid of. All beings are a part of your own mind and share the same essence as you. Just be at peace with the way life is. Extend this sense of love and understanding to all beings as if they were your children - seeing the potential in them for enlightenment. As you sit and breathe, bring to mind a sense of connectedness with the Earth. Extend a feeling of peace and gratitude to this ancient and powerful planet who nurtures and takes away life. Your body has arisen from the four elements and in its own time will return to the four elements, it belongs to nature. Accepting the way of nature, allow yourself to feel protected, supported and at ease. Trusting the perfection of the way things work out, see that you are not this body or mind, these are conditioned and must unfold according to the Laws of Karma. In this sense of acceptance, allow yourself to trust in the refuge of Dhamma.

Turn your attention to the breath, feel the life force bringing you energy and love. When you breathe in - breathe in a feeling of acceptance for all that is painful - breathing out - breathe out peace. Let the sense of peace expand outwards, without limit, allowing the sense of 'me' and the 'world' dissolve into the stillness of the present moment. Stay with the breath for a while, and when you're ready, and in your own time, slowly open your eyes. o o o ~O~ o o o

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Declan's Gift Venerable Kovido offers some reflections on the events following thedeath of Declan Griffin, who was taken ill during the Family Camp School. He died in hospital of a brain tumour on the last evening of the camp, and his parents brought his body back to the monastery. At about 8.40 A.M., I put on my outer robes and walked over to the Dhamma Hall. When I entered, I was struck by the beauty of the scene before me. Declan had been placed on a small bier, at the base of the large Buddha-rupa with flowers all around. As I went closer to offer a plant, I saw that he was dressed in a simple white gown, with his hands by his sides. His skin had a golden hue about it and he looked like a beautiful doll. Altogether it seemed very peaceful. After offering the flowers, I went to the back of the hall. There were quite a few people there, either sitting or talking quietly. Someone was bringing in cushions, and Pam was talking to the nuns. Ges came in. He seemed beside himself with grief and shock. One realised that words were of no value and I just wanted to touch him. However, at that moment Ajahn Jun* came in, so I had to move with the events. Gradually all the people came in. The monks sat to the left of the Buddha Rupa, the nuns to the right and the lay people - who included about thirty children and parents - sat in a large semi-circle. In the middle, between Declan and the lay people, sat Pam and Ges. (Ajahn Jun is the senior Thai disciple of Ajahn Chah, ad was stayig at Amaravati for Vassa (summer 'Rains' Retreat)

It was obvious that for the children, 'Declan's dead' did not have any real unpleasant connotation.

So we began to chant the funeral chanting, the sonorous, even sounds filling the room and calming the mind. After this, Ajahn Jun suggested that we each offer a stick of incense for Declan. The monks went up first, and then the nuns, followed by Pam and Ges. It was quite a long process, and during the nuns' offering my mind went quiet, and I felt the silence of the place. Into that space came the sound of birds singing in the sunshine. During the whole ceremony, Ajahn Jun would direct the events in a natural way. I heard later that he had spent some time with Pam and Ges before the ceremony. Earlier on they had just been distraught, reminiscent of Kisa Gotami(#) not really knowing where they were or what they were doing. However, Ajah Jun just sat stroking the baby and gently closing its eyes, while talking in a calming and soothing way to Pam and Ges.

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(#) Kisa Gotami was a young mother who, beside herself with grief over the death of her child, was taken to the Buddha. He was able to help her by pointing out that death is atural and inevitable; every household at some time suffers the loss of loved ones. Then Sister Abhassara led us in chanting the English version of the Metta Sutta (The Discourse on Loving-Kindness). She had been practising it daily with the families, so we had a lovely rendition. And somehow, having Declan there gave it more meaning. I had been watching the children quite carefully - 'even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child.' I guess there were about fifteen children around the age of eight. Although a few of the nuns were a bit weepy, it was obvious that for the children 'Declan's dead' did not have any real unpleasant connotation. Then Pam and Ges made a traditional offering of candles, incense and flowers to Ajahn Jun, together with a big bowl of golden-wrapped chocolates. I noticed that whenever it was their turn to do something they had to be guided like little children, as they were still in shock. However, the ceremony and the peaceful presence of all those people seemed to have a calming effect on them, easing their condition. Ajahn Jun suggested that the children give out all the chocolates, and placed his own at Declan's head. So the children went around distributing the chocolates, which the people proceeded to eat. Then we did some more chanting: 'Anicca vata sankhara...' three times. The last line is translated as 'and when things pass away there is peace'. Certainly this was how it felt. Later that day, when nobody was about, I went to sit with Declan for a while. Again, the feeling of peace and beauty was intensified by the candlelight. I noticed in my mind a slight fear of touching him, but leant forward and touched his hand and his head. It just felt cool, that's all. So I lit two big candles and some incense, and sat down. To begin with, I was a bit restless, but after a while settled down. I noticed how there was a slight expectation that this should be a special occasion - dead body, night-time, being alone - however, once these thoughts had dissipated, I was able to relax and experiece a sense of peace and love. There was a realisation that you didn't have to worry about Declan anymore; he didn't need to be fed, or wrapped up, or whatever. And I was with a dead baby; all the stuff happening had to be happening in my own mind, which was a bit revealing! The next day, somebody said they felt sad at the unfulfilled potential - Declan having been only fourteen months old. It was strange, but I did not feel that way at all. I think I would have done, some time ago, but now I had the feeling that he had fulfilled his role perfectly. Looked at from outside, it would seem like just a chapter in an unfinished book, but to me it seemed that although the book was short, it was complete.

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Over the next few days Pam and Ges had the opportunity to be with Declan, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, some times weeping or touching him, sometimes sitting silently. And gradually one could see the assimilation of the facts by their bodies and minds, so that by the day before the funeral their eyes were clear and steady, their manner composed and their speech quite joyful and lighthearted. In fact, people who came only for the funeral, and had missed the proceding events, understandably thought that the fact of Declan's death had not sunk in, and that the grieving process had yet to begin. One evening I went there after watching a beautiful red sunset. The candles were lit and it had the feeling of a fairy tale, or the Crib. I lit some incense and just looked around. There were a number of cards from people, drawings and poems. There were also a few more flowers and some of his toys and a teddy. Also there were some lovely photos of him - a very happy child, smiling and contented. I saw what a gift Declan had given us, because now, for the seventy-odd people at this service, death - rather than being morbid or something to be feared - could be something endowed with great beauty and peace. Although he had only lived a short while, this teaching was probably far greater that anything we would be able to say, even if we live to be a hundred. Thank you, Declan, and thank you, too, Pam and Ges, for bringing him back to Amaravati and allowing us to be present in your time of grieving. May all beings be well. Â Â

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In the Footsteps of the Wise Ajahn Liam is the acting abbot of Wat Pah Pong. This piece, translated by Ajahn Jayasaro, is an exhortation he gave to monks from Wat Pah Nanachat who had come to pay respects to him before beginning the Vassa (Rains Retreat). The real peace, the real seclusion, is that of peace or seclusion from the defilements. It is not a matter of detaching oneself physically from unpleasant sensations or unpleasant experiences, but being able to maintain equanimity and peace in the midst of all sense activity. In the commentaries, there's a list of suitable conditions for meditation: suitable environments, suitable foods, suitable companions and so on, and advice that a meditator should seek to find an environment in which all of those suitable conditions are present. In fact, for someone who really understands practice, there isn't any sense of criticism and dissatisfaction with the place they are living in. Everything should always be 'grist for the mill', it should always be seen as something to be learned from. You'll notice that even the Buddha himself in his practice wasn't always looking for the place which was just right, and that he didn't always have all the appropriate or helpful conditions. He just went straight from his life as a prince to living under trees. Whatever the climate was, he just practised - it wasn't something that was so important, because he really understood how to practice. So we should also be willing to learn to look on all things that we come into contact with as things to be learned from, rather than trying to manipulate conditions to suit what we think is best for us.

The arahant is the one who has abandoned all clinging, who goes beyond all sankharas.

The practice in Buddhism is a practice of the mind. It's not particularly a practice of the body. We talk about the sankharas (1) and divide them into the physical reality and the non-material or formless reality, that which can't be seen with the physical eye. Then we divide those formless sankharas again into those which are positive, helpful and wholesome, and those which are harmful, painful and which lead to suffering or distress. We're learning how to look at these, and how to find skilful ways to develop the wholesome qualities in our minds and to abandon and eradicate the unwholesome. (1) Sankharas can here be understood to mean phenomena as experienced from the subjctive viewpoint, as distinct from dhammas, which corresonds to phenomena seen more impersonally. The mind, like anything else, is something which has both its positive and negative aspects. We have to develop skill in working with the mind, to develop an understanding of which https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/11/liam.htm[03/10/2017 02:07:48]

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sankharas are wholesome and which are unwholesome, and then learn to abandon or develop them appropriately. Even wholesome sankharas can cause us suffering if we attach to them, because the root of suffering is attachment. Goodness by itself can be a cause for suffering: the difference is that suffering which arises from the unwholesome sankharas is an open, obvious sort of suffering, whereas the suffering arising from wholesome sankharas is concealed somewhat. Often the appearance of something is very positive, but attaching to it causes us pain and distress. Learning to come to an understanding of these things, but then going beyond them altogether so that there's neither one nor the other - this is the arahant. The arahant is the one who has abandoned all clinging, who goes beyond all sankharas. What that means is liberation from both the positive and negative, the wholesome and the unwholesome sankharas which arise from ignorance. Both the good and the bad are conditioned by ignorance and have come to an end in the arahant. Because the arahant is living, the five khandas (2) are still present; however, he himself is one that is free of those sankharas. This is the nature of a samana - no sankharas infected by ignorance arising in mind; and just to come into contact with samana, a peaceful one, is great auspiciousness. (2) The five khandas - body, feelings, perceptions, volitions, and consciousness are the categories which the Buddha used to describe the components of the personality. All of us who have received ordination are Sangha in terms of convention, Sangha in terms of Vinaya. But the Sangha is of two sorts. There's the samutti Sangha, which we become a member of just by going through the ordination ceremony; and there is the Ariya Sangha, the Sangha by means of virtue, by means of attainment. 'Ariya' refers to the lessening and the eradication of defilements. Beginning with the sotapanna (3), the process continues up to the arahant. For the Sangha in the conventional sense, we need four monks or more to maintain the quorum, but any time there is a person, ordained or not, who is a sotapanna or further along the path, then the Ariya Sangha is already present. We come together as samutti Sangha in order to develop the qualities of the Ariya Sangha, in the footsteps of those great samanas who have gone before us. (3) Sotapanna is the first stage (of four stages) of the realisation of Nibbana. Arahant is the culminating fruition of that realisation. Looking at these particular qualities, one of the most essential is that of restraint, composure or care. On its most level, in terms of sila or morality, this is a way we have of maintaining harmony within the group. We come from many different backgrounds, and although at times we get on very well together, there may be times when some difficulty comes up to make us feel that we are adversaries. We can be full of irritation or aversion to other members of the community. It is here that we see the value of Vinaya. The discipline, particularly that of showing respect according to seniority, is a way of restraining those unwholesome dhammas. In terms of Vinaya, it is not possible to commit an offence with the mind https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/11/liam.htm[03/10/2017 02:07:48]

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alone: that is, just thinking unwholesome thoughts of feeling badly towards another is not yet anything too serious. Keeping unwholesomeness at the level of foolish thoughts is a way of maintaining harmony in the group. Even though we may feel certain things, we understand them as feelings which arise and pass away, and we don't let anything get out of hand. This is the value of sila - learning to develop that mindfulness of our actions and our speech. Before we say or do things we have the presence of mind to examine why exactly we wish to say or do them. 'Would saying this, in fact, be a cause of distress to ourselves or to others?' if we feel that it would be, hen we should refrain. Don't allow yourself to be guided by greed, hatred and delusion. These are the roots of pain and difficulty. We are looking to lessen these, not to strengthen them by acting on them. This is the sense of restraint in terms of the Patimokkha, patimokkha-samvara sila. Here, the most important condition for maintaining our sila purely is a sense of shame or conscience, learning to reflect on the nature and painful results of wrong-doing, until we feel repugnance for unwholesome actions and speech. With a sense of shame, keeping of precepts becomes much easier. There is also restraint in terms of senses, and sense restraint is another important aspect of our practice. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body - we should watch them all the time, being very careful and composed. Why did the Buddha want us to be restrained in the senses? Because it is right here that suffering arises; it is right here that contact takes place. There's contact, then feelings of happiness, unhappiness, indifference, craving, clinging. It all arises dependent on sense contact. If we can maintain a tight rein upon the sense activity, looking very closely and not allowing the mind to give rise to unbridled feelings of liking or disliking, then this is another virtue in which we follow in the footsteps of the Noble Ones. This is one of their most outstanding qualities - keeping that vigilance. When we can maintain that sort of mindfulness at sense con-tact, then the various things which used to sweep us away and used to really encompass our minds lose their ability to do so.

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Consider praise and blame. As long as we're alive, we live in a world of praise and blame. No matter how wise or stupid we are, we have to put up with them. They are natural to the world. We can, however, have mindfulness at sense contact, and then when we hear something, we don't feel compelled to react. Then praise becomes merely praise, and blame becomes merely blame. There is praise, but there isn't anyone to receive the praise; there is blame but no one being blamed. Things are just as they are. Things start to move into the realm of suchness. Things only become a problem when we take hold of them, proliferate and make something of them. If we maintain that very sharp, clear awareness of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, then before all those difficult problems can start to cause us misery, we have cut if off right there. This is another important aspect of practice - developing strong mindfulness, unshakeability of mind, strength of mind. This is developing samadhi, the stillness that remains unmoved in the midst of our experience. The third important quality is the quality of wakefulness. Look at the practice as a way of understanding. Look at the mind and yourself, study the mind, not in order to praise or criticise, but to be able to understand it. Thus we're able to lessen the causes for the arising of unwholesome dhammas and allow them to gradually decline and wither. Look at the body. We begin to notice things about the body. On one level we can just notice how, although we have very different personalities and characters, our physical existence is all very similar. All of us have been born into the world, we're all getting older, and we're all subject to sickness and death. Noticing that common nature of the body is a way of enabling us to feel a sense of community with others, to feel kindness, and to have a willingness, to forgive and generate compassion for others. Notice the change in the body. This characteristic is immediately obvious. When we look, we see the body constantly changing. There is heat and cold, pain and pleasure, constants movement o the physical process - the digestion, the blood circulation. Everything is moving, everything is changing. Come to understand the body. Cut through the concern, the possessiveness and attachment to the body by just noticing and understanding its actual characteristics. Cut through the very conditioned ways we have of looking at the body. Then there is the other aspect - looking at the mind. Notice the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts that are arising and passing away with time. Here, as with the body, the mode of contemplation, the important point, is the change and impermanent nature of things. It is from noticing and rely penetrating this truth of impermanence that wisdom starts to grow. Our being samanas, our moving towards the clear enlightened state becomes that much more peaceful and real. To see the changing nature and particularly the falling away, the degeneration, the ending of things - it is here that we start to give rise to that sense of dispassion and disenchantment. We being to see the thoughts and emotions like a child's playthings. As long as we are fascinated they just go on and on. Once we se their foolishness and lack of substantiality, they begin to lose their ability to fascinate us and to defile our minds. It's just like watching a play. If suddenly in the midst of he show we were to realise that every one of the actors was just playing a part, that they were all going to die someday, and the people watching the play were all going to die, we would lose interest. When we begin to see the nature of mental states and conditioned phenomena very clearly, seeing that they're constantly falling away, passing away, constantly leaving us, we too develop his disenchantment. Then we can start to let go. These are the different aspects of our practice - the different virtues and qualities of the Nobel Ones which we are trying to develop. Restraint in terms of sila, sense restraint, and wakefulness to the actual conditions, knowing the true nature of the body and mind. This is a way we have of following in the footsteps of the Buddha and his enlightened disciples. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/11/liam.htm[03/10/2017 02:07:48]

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Question Time Ajahn Sumedho replies to questions at the end of a dhamma talk. What advice would you give to somebody who has suffered a sudden calamity? To really accept he way it is; that is, to bring it to consciousness rather than to push it aside, or to just indulge in emotion, or to resist it. To just notice and accept that this is the way it s, and to bear the feeling of sorrow, or sadness that's there. Then you'll be able to let it go - which doesn't mean it will go when you want it to, but it means that you'll not be making any problems about it. Life is like that. All of us, all human beings, experience the loss of someone they love. It's just part of our human condition, and human beings have always experienced that. We have to watch our parents die. Maybe we have to experience the death of a child, or someone who dies prematurely - a good friend who is in an accident. Sometime we have to accept horrendous things in life.

You can just involve yourself in self-pity and blame. Or you can look at it as a chance for awakening to life, and to really look and understand.

But then when we are mindful we have already accepted all possibilities one still feels the anguish, but, one can accept that feeling. That has its own peacefulness too; the experience of life has a sad quality to it. Every morning the monks and nuns chant: 'All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will become otherwise...' You think: 'What a horrible thing to say.' But it's a reflection that what we love, what pleases us, is going to change. We suffer when we think it shouldn't and we don't want any changes. But in the mind that's open to life, it's often in the times when we suffer a lot that we grow a lot to. People that have had life too easy sometimes never grow up; they just become kind of spoilt and complacent. It's where you've had to really look and accept thingsthat are painful that you find yourself growing in wisdom and maturing as a person. I was invited to give talks to people with AIDS in the San Francisco area in California. Of course that is a very traumatic disease, and has all kinds of ugly things connected to it. It's like having leprosy; having your immunity system pack up is probably one of the most miserable things that can happen to a human being. So there is the tendence to take it all personally, with bitterness and resentment, or with a tremendous guilt and shame and remorse - because the homosexual communities are mainly the ones that have it. There is often self-hatred and guilt connected to it.

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But yet, this very thing could be seen as an awakening. You could determine it as 'God's justice', punishing you for living an immoral life - that's one interpretation. Or you can feel just terribly mistreated, and life has given you a pretty bad lot to handle and that you hate God because he gave you this terrible thing. You've always felt like a misfit or whatever. You can shake your fist at the heavens and curse them. You can just involve yourself in self-pity and blame. Or you can look at it as a chance for awakening to life, and to really look and understand. When you know you're going to die, sometimes that can make the quality of the remainder of your life increase considerably. If you know you are going to die in 6 months, then that's 6 months. If you have any wisdom a all you're not going to go around wasting 6 months on frivolities, where you might, if you're perfectly healthy, think: 'I've got years yet ahead of me. No point in meditating right now because I can do that when I'm older. Right now I'm going to have good time'. But if you know you're going to die in 6 months ... in one way that can be a very painful realisation, but also it can be what awakens you to life. That's the important thing, the awakening and the willingness to learn from life, no matter what you've done or what's happened. Every one of us has this ever present possibility for awakening, no matter what we may have done. I see our life in this form as a human being more as a kind of transition. We don't really belong here. This is not our real home. We're never going to be content with being human beings. But it's not to be despised either and rejected, but it is being awakened to and understood. You can say you've not wasted your life if you awaken to it. If you live a long life - say 100 years - following foolish ideas and selfishness, then 100 years have been wasted. But if you've awakened tom life - maybe the length of it's not so long but at least you have not wasted it. How about non-attachment within a relationship? First you must recognise what attachment is, then you let go; then you realise non-attachment. However, if you're coming from the view you shouldn't be attached, then that's still not it; it's not to take a position against attachment s a kind of command, but to observe: What is attachment? Does being attached to things bring happiness or suffering? Then you being to have insight, you being to see what attachment is, and then you can let go. If you're coming from a high-minded position of thinking that you shouldn't be attached to anything, then you come up with ideas like: 'Well I can't be a Buddhist because I love my wife, because I'm attached to my wife. I love her, and I just can't kind of let her go. I can't send here away. I can't throw her into the volcano. That's coming from the view that you shouldn't be attached. But the recognition of attachment doesn't mean that you get rid of your wife, it means you free yourself from wrong views about yourself and your wife. Then you find there's love there, but it's not attached; it's not distorting, clinging and grasping. The empty mind is quite capable of loving in the pure sense of love and caring about others, but any attachment will always distort that. If you love somebody and then start grasping them, it tends to go off; then what you love becomes painful for you. For example, you love https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/11/quest.htm[03/10/2017 02:06:38]

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your children - but if you become attached to your children, then you don't love them any more, because you're really with them as they are. You've got all these ideas about what they should be and what you want them to be. You want them to obey you, and you want them to pass their exams. And then you're no longer loving them. Then if they don't fulfil all your wishes, you feel angry and frustrated and averse to them. So attachment to children no longer allows us to love them. But as you let go of attachment, you find that you natural way of relating is to love, and you are able to be aware of them as they are, rather than having a lot of ideas of what you want them to be. Talking to parents .. they say how much suffering there is in having children, because there's a lot of wanting. You know, when we're wanting them to be a certain way, not wanting them to be another way and so forth, we create this anguish and suffering in our minds. But the more we let go of that, then we find out that we can have an amazing ability to be sensitive and aware of children as they are. Then, of course, that openness allows them to respond, rather than just react to attachment. A lot of children, you know, are just reacting to: 'I want you to be like this.' And they get to that stubborn stage: 'I'm not going to be what they want.' It's just reaction going on. The empty mind or the pure mind is not a blank kind of 'zero land' where you're not feeling or caring about anything. It's that effulgence of the mind, brightness, truly sensitive and accepting - an ability to accept life as it is. And then, because we accept life a it is, we can respond to the way we're experiencing it in appropriate ways, rather than just reacting out of fear and aversion.

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EDITORIAL The Dhamma of Relationship Ajahn Sumedho will be absent from Amaravati for most of the first half of 1990 (he'll be here for Wesak). While we are practising on our winter retreat, he will be taking up an invitation to have a retreat on his own in India - his first opportunity for more than a week of private practice in sixteen years. After that he will visit Thailand. One could have expected 'Ajahn Sumedho withdrawal symptoms' to manifest in the community, and to a certain extent this is inevitable; however, the response has mostly been a sense of happiness for his welfare. At such times, one recollects with gratitude the singleness of mind and tenacity with which he has pursued his aim of making the Dhamma available for such a wide rage of people. 'Dhamma' is a very useful word. Among its meanings are: phenomena as contemplated objectively; the essential nature of a thing - the wetness of water, for example; the order that encompasses all created things - e.g., that they are impermanent; the Totality that includes the created and the Uncreated; and of course the teachings of the Buddha in their conventional (sammuti) and transcendent (paramattha) aspects. Transcendent Dhamma is based on the realisation of not-self and emptiness, or Deathlessness; conventional Dhamma works within the apparent reality of someone experiencing suffering, practising, having skilful results and so forth. This is where most people have to establish their practice, and it is very fully expounded and supported by precepts, observances and conventions. At the bottom line, this Dhamma can be understood to mean 'proper or appropriate conduct'.

Taken purely from the personality viewpoint, mendicancy can make one feel either privileged (and unworthy), or powerless (and useless).

For those gone forth, this area is mapped out in great detail by the Vinaya - the Dhamma of the Holy Life. Whatever opinion one might have about the content of the rules and conventions for lay or monastic, their essential nature is to bring around a high degree of personal responsibility and sense-restraint. And in total, they create a form that can be used as a reference point against which to measure the impulses and conditioned values of the mind. In the practice of Buddhism all these dhammas fit together - if we practice the Buddha-Dhamma and live with proper conduct, we live in harmony with our essential nature and realise Truth in relative and absolute terms. Most Buddhists are familiar with the Buddha-Dhamma as it expounds the teachings on mindcultivation, but can leave their practice rather slack when considering the area of suitable lifestyle. The conventions that lay Buddhists should make use of are set forth in may instances: there is an example of the 'Vinaya for lay people' quoted below; you can find more of it in the Suttas, especially the Mangala Sutta and the Meeta Sutta from the Sutta Nipata. Such teachings stress the importance of the quality of relationship between oneself, relatives, duties and ideals.

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This Dhamma of relationship brings about a sense of interdependence, co-operation, and selfeffacement that is the basis of the Sangha as an Order and a way of practice. And it allows virtues to arise that incline the mind to Nibbana. Contemplated from the viewpoint of the personality, Buddhist conventions are not necessarily that attractive. They seem rather antiquated. It's not difficult to form critical judgements about the relationship of the Sangha to the laity: 'living off charity, not in touch with current trends, irrelevant to Western society....' Or, on the other hand: 'interrupting my meditation, always bothering me with worldly problems, not really interested in The Practice....' Taken purely from the personality viewpoint, mendicancy can make one feel either privileged (and unworthy), or powerless (and useless); deference and hierarchy can breed feelings of superiority and inferiority, power and domination. Someone in a senior position could feel: 'Why do we have to support these heedless scatterbrained people?' And someone in a junior position could feel: 'Why do we have to follow this rigid hierarchical power structure?' Or you could get caught up in gender issues; all based on the belief that you actually are senior, junior, male or female, as some true identity. All that and the ensuring aggravation is the world, isn't it? ''Grrr, incompetents; grr tyrants; grr, women; grrr, men; grrr, people, work, rules, traditions, responsibilities ... all set up to get in the way and annoy ME!' So the Dhamma of relationship goes against the grain. More credit to those monks, nuns and lay people who pick up their training conventions in the same spirit as Anuruddha with reference to his fellow bhikkhus:

... 'I think that it is gain and good fortune for me here that I am living with such companions in the Holy Life. I maintain acts and words and thoughts of loving kindness towards these venerable ones, both in public and in private. I think, "Why should I not set aside what I am minded to do and do only what they are minded to do?" and I act accordingly. We are different in body, Lord, but only one in mind, I think.' Mahavagga X or Mahapajapati Gotami, with reference to accepting the junior status of bhikkhunis to bhikkhus:

'Lord Ananda, suppose a woman - or a man - young, youthful, fond of ornaments, with head washed, had got a garland of lotuses or jasmines or roses, she would accept it with both hands and place it on her head; so do I accept these eight capital points not to be transgressed as long as life lasts.' Culavagga X Or the innumerable lay people who have sustained a commitment to the family or put something of their own aside to support a monk or a nun who they would hardly ever know. To the lay disciple Visakha the results of dana were quite obvious: 'When I remember it, I shall be glad. When I am glad, I shall be happy. When my mind is happy, my body will be tranquil. When my body is tranquil, I shall feel pleasure. When I feel pleasure, my mind will become concentrated. That will maintain the spiritual faculties in being in me and also the spiritual powers and also the enlightenment factors.' Mahavagga VIII The effect of allowing oneself to be guided by conventions can be witnessed in the example of the Sangha community. People come to envy the monastics' clarity and composure in a lifestyle that emphasises collectedness but is open to all kinds of choiceless impingement - and consequent frustration. (These are the aspects that people don't envy). There is even a grace and a joy about a samana who has fully trained in the Vinaya and practises it with mindful reflection. It's not a matter of resigned acceptance of a Rule. Someone who has realised the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/11/editor.htm[03/10/2017 02:05:45]

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highest aims of the conventions willingly upholds their training because they see the Dhamma of conduct as conducive to the Dhamma of Deathlessness. Dhamma practice always opposes the tendency to centre one's life on what is gratifying to the ego-personality; in fact its very goal is towards that transcendence where the blinkered personality is deposed from the mastery of our actions and perceptions. Seen in this way the conventional Dhamma presents wonderful and rare opportunities: to be co-operative, vulnerable, and exist in a relationship with others that is based on responsibility rather than on swings of mood. But the world does see things personally, and that's the difficulty. People can find conventional form intimidating, unfair or absurd - until they learn to approach it from the heart and see what virtues it causes to arise. Only then will the comparisons as to 'who's got the better deal' stop, and with it the irritation that life is not the way we want it to be. That dissatisfaction will be found irrespective of time, place or convention as long as there is selfview. To get past it, so that we can experience compassion, gratitude, and gladness for each other's well-being, seems to be vitally relevant and well worth the apparent sacrifice. Ajahn Sucitto Â Â

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Three Poems: Editorial:

January 1990

Three Poems Circle Still as a circle of stones We moved into quiet mind Ferried by quiet wind of breathing. Solitary observing the inner life Gives deep experience of present moment, Of the wisdom of non-contention, of Lettings thing be as they are. Meditation anoints the mind with clearity. The word sacred visits the circle, The circle is so special, Motionless pilgrims journey, To unending light, to peace. George Coombs Â Â

The Enlightenment In a deep calm forest, The sunrise beats down on The wise one. A sweet singing bird lands And hunts for food. All is peaceful and quiet, The wise one sits in silence, meditating. Thinkig of nothing, Feeling nothing but the truth of life.

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All alone he sits on lotus leaves. Coloured rays of light shine around his head, Glowing the forest, Animals come out of their homes, Curious to see this great event. This is my view on the Buddha's enlightenment. Sally

Child Gone Away Now he lay there, a still form, A person gone into final quietness, A child now with the realm of nature, Flowers, gifts, good wishes adorned him. In stillness he taught truth, he showed In a leaf-frail form the ceasing of What had arisen, the discourse of his Short life showed in final exhalation There is peace. George Coombs

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April 1990 THIS ISSUE

Obituary: Buddha Word:

2533

Number 12

Cover: A Leap of Faith; Ajahn Sucitta Articles: Practice after the Retreat; Sister Sundara

Observance Day at Wat Pah Nanachat; Ajahn Sucitto

The Way; Aj. Liam & City of 10,000 Buddhas monks

Almsround in Britain; Sister Viveka

Question Time; Ajahn Jagaro

Editorial: Advance is Based on Retreat; Ajahn Sucitto

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A Leap of Faith Ajahn Sucitto provides some background and perspective on another Theravadin monastic residence (vihara), which is taking shape in Italy. Ajahn Thanavaro will return to his native country to take up residence there, and around this he gives some impressions about his life as a bhikkhu. When Ajahn Sumedho returned from a visit to Switzerland and Italy last December, he brought back some news that created a blend of interest and enthusiasm mingled with appreciation - the possibe establishment of a vihara in Italy, about 120 km south of Rome. Ajahn Thanavaro, then in Italy visiting his parents, would be residing there, at least for awhile, as the senior incumbent. Not much else was certain, except the beauty of the situation on the Mediterranean coast, and the commitment of the lay supporters. Such impresssions, and the signs they leave in the mind, herald the opening of all viharas and are characteristic of much of Sangha life. The mind perceives a pleasant inspiring image, then looks around for something solid to base it on, and finds ... space. So it was with the establishment of Chithurst Monastry in a derelict miles away from lay supporters, by a handful of inexperienced bhikkhus and a penniless charity. So it was with Harnham - another primitive dwelling and impecunious Trust. And likewise with Amarawati - a Buddhist Centre for which we had no previous models, and whose purchase required an enormous bank loan. And now, with the sangha feeling rather stretched in covering the duties which have already presented themselves - it looks like there is to be another vihara, dependet largely on one bhikkhu. To redress the situation in spiritual terms, it Is time for another leap of faith. The chronology of this venture gives it a sense of inevitability. The supporters can be classified broadly as two groups: a large Sri Lankan community, and a group of experienced Italian Buddhists. The latter include Corrado Pensa and Vincenzo Piga, who have bee foremost, respectively, in teaching Vipassana meditation and Buddhist studies in Italy over the past decade. Yet, althought Zen, Tibetan and Nichiren monasticism are well established, there is no Theravadin monastic presence in Italy. The late Ven. Dr. Saddhatissa visited Italy

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quite often, and on learning of this situation, pased on the name of Ven. Thanavaro Bhikkhu, born in Italy, ordained by Dr. Saddhatissa, and living in New Zealand with Ajahn Viradhommo at that time. That was a couple of years ago. Ven. Thanavaro was then fully occupied with the Stokes Vally Vihara, but he nevertheless kept an open mind.

Brought up as a Catholic, he had abandoned that faith partly out of disagreement with the outer form that the Â Church expected of the laity, and partly due to an inner conflict.

Naturally, the situation developed. Ajahn Sumedho, visiting New Zealand in 1989, felt that it was time for Ven. Thanavaro to return to Europe after nearly fiuve years in the Antipodes. It would be a chance to pay a long overdue visit to his parents, and reconnect to a larger Sangha. But by the time that Ven. Thanavaro actually arrived in Italy, Ajahn Sumedho was also there having been invited to Rome by the Theravadin community - and a small monastic residence had been prepared in the hope that a Sangha might be able to stay. The two bhikkhus were introduced to the community, the residence and the spiritual need, and it was decided that in principle the necessary factors were there for an Italian vihara. Much of the rest of the story is Ajahn Thanavaro's. In some ways, this move represents an other stage in his practice as a bhikkhu, as he has only recently completed ten 'rains' as a monk, and now being being considered worthy to teach and train others. He spent the winter monastic retreat at Amarawati before going to the new vihara, and at that time, he reflected on his spiritual path as it has unfolded: 'My spiritual search was a result of inner values that I upheld as true to myself. And it became very apparent that in the world these are very difficult to realise: like harmlessness, nonviolence. All the violence in the world really hurt me. I remember reading a newspaper article about Buddhist monks starving in Laos due to a change in their political scene. That was at a time when I didn't know anything about Buddhism. Just reading about Buddhist monks not being almsfood, because people were discouraged from doing so, really brought tears to my eyes. Born near Trieste in 1955, and brought up as a Catholic, he had abandoned that faith partly out of disagreement with the outer form that the Church expected of the laity, and partly due to an inner conflict: 'My understading of the Catholic teachings was that there is a good, and that is what you should cultivate; and there is evil, and that is what shiould destroy and ger rid of. But it seemes to me that as you cultivate good, inevitably you are faced with evil, and you have to learn what that is, rather than run away from it. 'I kept praying until the age of 19 and using the prayer of "our Father', but eventually I had to stop, because every time I started the prayer of "our Father", this blasphemy would come into my mind and would represent the whole conflict between good and evil......I had to give up praying because it was too painful.' Nevertheless, a strong sense of spiritual urgency stayed with him, accompanied by the ability to go forth in faith. He arrived at Oaken Holt Buddhist Centre, Oxfordshire, in 1977, as a layman, having heard about Buddhism while undergoing military service in Italy, then finding out

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thatBuddhism was strong in Englad, and finally deciding to go there although he spoke almost no English. At Oaken Holt he met Ajah Sumedha and Ven. Viradhommo, who were teaching a retreat there. Through a translator he got 'a vague idea of what was talked about', and asked to syat at the Sangh'a Hampstead Vihara. On Ajahn Sumedho's return to the Vihara, he asked for Eight Precepts, and became an anagarika. Seven months later, on Vesakha Puja of 1978, he took the Samanera Precepta from Ven. Dr. Saddhatissa, who gave him upasampada as a bhikkhu on 27 October 1979. This was at the time that the Sangha were hard at work establishing Chithurst Monastry. The nature of the task in hand could be turned to advantage in one who had faith: 'For me, meeting the bhikkhus was a very inspiring experience. The element of devotion was sustained through the devotion to my teacher and to the Sangha... and through my willingess to serve the Sangha. And that was at a time when people needed to sacrifice themselves for a commo purpose. So although I wasn't able to actually have much time with, or speak to, my teacher ...nevertheless that relationship of service and devotion sustained me through my practice. 'My intention for being there was very well-defined in my mind. I wanted to be a Buddhist monk, and that was the way of doing it: just be around ad wait.' Faith in the reality of the spiritual life, as experienced and enacted, made his transition from Christianity and prayer to Buddhism and meditation remarkably smooth. Actually, Ajahn Thanavaro now sees his realignment of faith as a development in his practice rather than a rejection of values. 'I came to the coclusion that Jesus lived very similarly to a Buddhist monk, and strangely enough, this conviction seems to be quite reasonable! So although I had a lot of feelings towards Christianity, particularly to the Gospels and to Jesus, I felt I was doing the right thing. 'However, it was quite difficult to give up the idea opf God and the tool of prayer. So the practice of meditation, and particularly the letting go of the dialogue in my own mind, was quite a step - because I had to let go of ythat relationship with God. I just had to leave things alone rather than sustain them according to past models - to deal with the mind, rather than keep a bewlief going. So meditation seemed to be the best wayu of doing that : enter the mind and really see what's gopin on there. 'I felt the Buddhist teachings are particularly effective for dealing with defilements. Catholicism has given me an aspiration, an element of faith that has supported me. It's not that I have lost what I gained through Christianity.' Perhaps it is with this synthesis in mind that the Italian vihara has been named 'Santacittarama' - 'The Monastery of the Peaceful Heart' if you understand Pali, but very close to 'The Holy City of rome' to a Italian ear! In practice, the peaceful heart and the Holy City require a lot of work, not always characteristically spiritual. Sangha life in the West has meant applying the spirit of devotion to the physical task in hand. It is always a fine balance, dogged by workaholism and anxiety on one hand, and craving for solitude and tranquillity on the other. 'In a sense, I feel a bit of a pioneer. Like most of us, I have been mixing cement, carrying gravel, building places. For me that kind of giving of oneself to the situation has been a very strong element in the practice. 'When I was sent [to Harnham] with Ajahn Anando, we were really involved with a lot of renovation work. I remember that I had to take up my sleeping time for practice. So that was https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/12/12.htm[03/10/2017 02:23:36]

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the time when I started doing "the sitter's practice" (*) just to catch up with my lost meditation hours. So one has to find the time, in a sense. 'My priority was more in terms of focussing the mind and exoperiencing some tranquillity, and I was pretty good at it, I felt quite happy with it. But it's obvious that the practice is more than just getting into a tranquil state. The working situation was a confirmation of that - it doesn't allow you to be still for to long! So it was obvious that one hsad to deal with circumstances as they presented themselves.' During the first five years of monastic training, a monk is expected to stay with his teacher, but after this time he has some choice in the matter of where he lives. After Ven. Thanavaro's iitial training under Ajahn Sumedho, he offered to go to New Zealand to help Ajahn Vira dhammo start a monastry there. The building of that monastery is another story. However, in spiritual terms, Ven. Thanavaro here became acquaited with a familiar problem of the middle years of monastic training --a kind of dreariness of the heart, and estrangement from the vitality of the traditio. New Zealand was a perfect setting for such a sese of aloneness: 'My experience in New Zealand was very much an experience, in some respects, of "survival", because we felt so isolated. This is a common feeling for New Zealanders - being apart from everything.' However, compassionate forces in the universe presented him with the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to India, and then to Thailand, in 1988. 'I discovered for myself this conneection with a tradition, after the pilgrimage to India, because before that I couldn't really relate to the Buddha as my teacher... Going to India was establishing that connection not only for myself, but also for New Zealand Buddhists. 'There is a very strong pull towards a Buddhist country. Oe feels a great deal of gratitude for the Buddhist countries that have kept the teachings going, and I even started learning Thai when I was in New Zealand, just to feel a sense of connection again.' Having opened to the experience of visiting India and Thailand, Ajahn Thanovaro seems to have added that confidence to his powerful sense of faith, and returned to the West with a doubt. 'It becomes apparent that as a Western Buddhist, my place is in the West; and that is where the work needs to be and the practice has to go on. 'It came as a surprise for all of us, the establishing of this vihara [in Italy]. But I certainly can say that it has been a happy surprise. I feel very honoured to be in this position of taking back to my own coutry what I have been able to learn over the last twelve years.' As with any of the monasteries, all seekers will be welcome as visitors, whatever their religion, even if they don't speak the language. The vihara is in a embryonic stage right now, with just two residents, and the course of future developments cannot be predicted. However, one feels that if the vihara is founded on Ajahn Thanvaro's practice, all will be well. We would like to wish him many blessings and timely support. The contact address (this is not the address of the vihara) is: SANTACITTARAMA, c/o Maitreya Foundation, Via Delia Balduina 73, 00136 Rome, Italy.

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April 1990 HOME BACK ISSUES

A Leap of Faith; Ajahn Sucitta Practice after the Retreat; Sister Sundara Observance Day at Wat Pah Nanachat; Ajahn Sucitto The Way; Aj. Liam & City of 10,000 Buddhas monks Almsround in Britain; Sister Viveka Question Time; Ajahn Jagaro Advance is Based on Retreat; Ajahn Sucitto

Practice after the Retreat Extracts from a talk given by Sister Sundara during a ten-day retreat at Amaravati last year. There is line in the Dhammapada which says that the mind is the forerunner of all things: if one acts with evil thoughts the result is evil, if one acts with kind thoughts then the result is kind. Now to see this you have to investigate life, you have to investigate your mind. We call that process 'wisely reflecting'. When we talk about looking at thoughts, you may understand, and feel perhaps that you've got to stop thinking in order to be wise, instead of actually reflecting on your life, on your actions, your family, your job, your needs ... reflecting with mindfulness and attention, rather than just thinking about things, and being confused by your fear of ot being able to solve problems. So we can reflect on our feelings right now. We can know that they're changing and unsatisfactory, and we can also see that there is no need to identify with them.

All this nonsense about being a lay person or monk or nun ...these are the kinds of excuses we make for not taking that Refuge in mindfulness.

On a retreat like this we can see clearly the source of our agitation; we begin to notice the more subtle irritations, like the way people close doors or the way they pick up a pot of honey - we can be mindful of them. But when you go home ... it's easy to think you will lose all mindfulness - that the Refuges will completely go out of the window, and no way will you be able to be wise, no way will you be able to see things in perspective. This worry is what we call Mara - on a direct line! - telling you you'll be confused, that you can't do it tomorrow. So already you start thinking about the next retreat, about how you can go back to your nice, kid zafu, and breathe ... in and out ... sorting out your life on your meditation mat.! All this nonsense about being a lay person or monk or nun ...these are the kinds of excuses we make for not taking that Refuge in mindfulness. But if you really want to be free, then that's what you have to do, rather tha take refuge in your excuses for ot being mindful. Before the retreat I was reflecting on my position thinking, thinking, 'Well, you'll be talking to a group of lay people ... Now, what's good for lay people? What's good for monks and nuns?' But what's the difference? When I look at you, I feel that there isn't much diference. I don't think it's really a kindness to you to think, 'this is for lay people, this is for the Sangha - they do the advanced practice and you do the lay people's practice.' I don't think it's kindness, because one doesn't want to appeal to the idea that one ca make excuses - to feel that one can't do it because one is a lay person. If your aim is to be free, the keep that in mind, don't lose that intention in your heart. Then you can observe the amount of excuses one can come up with https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/12/after.htm[03/10/2017 02:22:46]

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just to forget about it. Or we make excuses because we think practice should be good; that if we practise rightly we should be OK. We should feel happy and contented, calm, peaceful, loving and compassionate. We think that this is the pactice - we mix our ideas about practice with our desires. But when we practice correctly, we reflect on desires, rather than mixing 'practice' with what we want and what we think it should be, what we think it should feel like. So if you're a lay person and the conditions you're living in are different from the conditioons here, there is no reason to think that you can't be wise, that you can't be mindful. There's no reason to think like that, that's just the voice of Mara - which we tend to follow quite easily, because that feels more 'home' than 'Yes, I can do it.' Sometimes we tend to be quiet disparaging about ourselves, not trusting our abilities, and it is this lack of trust that always makes us run away from that Refuge because we don't trust it. Maybe it's easier to put trust in someone else, or what somebody has written, than to reflect on things, cultivate wisdom, realsing that it is possible to see things really clearly and to know what eeds to be done. That we can live a life that we respect, that we like and feel good about. You can develop confidence in your practice by giving up certain things. It doesn't have to be anything much - just experiment with little things ...Can I give up talking for an hour? Can I give up smoking for a day? Can I give up grasping for an hour? Can I give being grumbly for two days? Simple things like that. Just making the determination is very strengthening, using the power of the mind. We can feel really depressed if we lose confidence; the mind starts feeling all floppy, like withering flowers - a bit miserablelooking. That's how our mind feels if we don't really nurture it and give it a little bit of sunshine, a little bit of water and a little bit of loving care, and help fill it with confidence. If we don't cultivate the heart, it just flops and withers like a plant. We're living with something alive that needs care and attention and loving and stregth. It needs to be given confidence, rather than saying, 'Oh I can't do it, I'm no good,' and looking for reinforcements from outside: 'It's so difficult when you've got so many responsibilities.' 'I quite agree with you - it's quite impossible.' That way of thinkig ca be very damaging ... 'I'll be wise tomolrrow, but today - just leave me aloner! Let me enjoy myself today, then when I get the right food or the right job - then I'll be wise!' When I speak about nurturing or cultivating the heart, we can see it as a relationship we establish with ourselves where we begin to see ourselves as a human being - not as somebody who's always doing wrong. We establish a proper relationship with ourselves, instead of being critical, nasty, demanding and complaining, anxious, angry and upset: inspired then upset because we don't feel inspired any more ... then we get depressed and we get annoyed because we get depressed! This is not a very nice relationship, is it? We have different needs, because we are different people, but what's good for all of us is to develop a very kid relationship towards ourselves. In meditation retreats you can observe meticulously how your mind works. You begin to see yourself as if you're someone else; you https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/12/after.htm[03/10/2017 02:22:46]

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can see how your senses, your eyes, ears, ose, tongue and thoughts create constantly all sorts of interesting things - and sometimes not-so-interesting things! So Mara is very, very clever, he knows how to trick you. The favourite trick is to create the kind of images you might have about tomorrow - he just says boldly, 'Here I am, and I'm tellig you tomorrow will be wonderful!' or 'Tomorrow will be awful!' But being reflective, you know that this is happening right here and now ... and tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. Rather than trying to find ways of sorting out your life, trying to change the conditions to make your life OK, we take the time to sit quietly and reflect. Suddenly the mind becomes open, rather than filled with all our fears and desires and anxieties; there is a spaciousness, we can allow things to be seen in a new way - we can see life in a non-distorted way, see it with a bit more truth. But we tend to be impatient - it doesn't seem to be so important for most people to go to that Refuge of mindfulness. What seems more important is to eat and to sleep and to talk and to have fun - looking for ways to satisfy 'me', rather than applying that Refuge we've been cultivating for the past week - that very knowing and clarity of the reflective mind which allows us to see what is necessary. If you reflect on your thoughts, you can see very clearly ... the changing ... they come and they go, and you see them beginning and ending, you see through the whole of your melodrama. It's as clear as a crystal. But then as you go back into your ordinary life, it gets a little bit more fixed, a bit more solid, and ... more solid! And finally you begin to believe it all again. It's such a lovely feeling - isn't it? - when you can see your difficulties and the things we get caught into as changing, as beginning and ending. There's a wonderful feeling about it, you can experiece the joy of seeing their true nature...that they're not what we are. But the world of igorance is pretty powerful and we are in the midst of it all the time bombarded with wrong views, wrong intentions, wrong thoughts, wrong understanding, wrong livelihood. Everything seems to be wrong, out of ignorance. But when we start to awaken and can reflect, then there's this possibility of finding the way out.

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Observance Day at Wat Pah Nanachat Ajahn Sucitto shares some of his experiences from his stay at Wat Pah Nanachat in 1987. The sound of the bell resonates through the dark forest at 3 a.m., as usual. They may have been up already, walking in meditation in the cool of the night, or awash in the land of dreams; but for the twenty or so residents of the monastery the bell is a reminder that it is time to begin another day in the conventional world of Wat Pah Nanachat, Ubon Rajathani, North-East Thailand. Soon it will be time for morning pooja and meditation for a couple of hours in the sala before dawn. The date hardly matters: dawn occurs with only a few minutes' variance throughout the year and the day follows a regular routine. As day breaks, we sweep the sala in silence; the junior bhikkhus and the novices come with their own and the senior bhikkhus' alms bowls; in threes and fours we go out for alms. It's another normal day for the Sangha. And for their supporters, the village folk of the Isan, it's another day with the land, the family, and the presence of Buddhist tradition. So it is on January 13th, 1987. It's the cold season and the rice has been harvested. The flat paddy fields are going brown, and sunrise has a welcome warmth; people asleep in the wooden plank-walled houses huddle in blankets; men squat by the side of the road, heads swathed in cloth, warming themselves by fires of dead leaves and twigs; the breath of the buffaloes beneath the houses is smoky. To a European it seems cool and pleasant to file along the grit and dust roads (when your bare feet have toughened a little) and to move silently through the waking village receiving morsels of sticky rice. Some of the people that you see kneeling before you with little rattan baskets of rice, you see every day, year in, year out; a little more wizened with time and the sun, faces either calm or cracked open in a toothy grin for a few words of greeting.

A few eyebrows have been raised when the 'novice' sits with womenfolk; however, Luang Por's disciples are held in great respect; and these are the Westerners.

It's all rather strange to me, a visitor of a few weeks only; yet as I am wearing the dark ochre robe of the forest bhikkhu, and carrying the large alms bowl that can hold my belongings when travelling, the key factors of my identity are well-known and trusted by the villagers. They've got used to Westerners now: it's been over twenty years since Phra Sumedho became the first Western disciple of Luang Por Chah, and nearly thirteen since he became the first abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat - the forest monastery for Western monks. NowadaysAjahn Pasanno is the abbot and he generally leads pindabaht line through Bung Wai village with two or three other monks, and - uniquely in North-East Thailand - one ten-precept nun (*). Eightprecept nuns wear white, and the ten-precept form is a rarity in Thailand, particularly in the

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conservative North-East; so Sister Sanghamitta in her ochre robe has been mistaken for a boy novice at times. A few eyebrows have been raised when the 'novice' sits with womenfolk; however, Luang Por's disciples are held in great respect; and these are the Westerners. Such factors smooth over any misunderstandings when tradition is enriched by practice. Today is a little special, although conforming to ancient tradition. It is the Observance Day, Wan Phra in Thai, Poya Day in Sri Lanka, or - if you use the Pali terms - the Uposatha Day. Such days, occurring on each lunar quarter day, were established as days for religious observance in Northern India before the time of the Buddha. They were days when people would observe the rituals and make sacrifices to the gods; and for such occasions a standard of moral conduct was adhered to by keeping the Eight Precepts, and symbolised by the wearing of white clothes. On such days religious wayfarers, ascetics, and yogis (known collectively as samanas) would also meet to debate on spiritual themes, often with householders. The Buddha felt that at least two of these days - the full and new moons - would be suitable for his samana disciples to gather together. But the 'sons of the Sakyans' were great lovers of silence and meditation; householders received little instruction, and King Bimbisara questioned as to why they sat 'dumb, like hogs' while the wanderers of other sects expounded their doctrines the whole night long. "Monks, I allow you to talk on Dhamma, proclaimed the Buddha, and he later made such occasions the time for the Sangha to recite the Patimokkha - the principles of their training. It is from regular observances of this kind that the Buddha's samana disciples evolved from a wandering sect into a monastic order. Nowadays in Thailand it is customary for devout Buddhist to take the Eight Precepts, wear white and spend the lunar quarter in their local monastery. The Sangha presents a focus for such observances by receiving alms, giving the Precepts and teaching Dhamma, while in many monasteries bhikkhus, nuns and laity will spend the night of the Wan Phra meditating together. To idealise the lay people - or the monks - would be a falsehood, and it would take away some of the meaning of their practice. Encouraged by human beings' recognition of human fallibility, something gracious appears in the world: a shared occasion for reflecting on and fully comprehending selflessness. Even the less devout may come out and to give alms; or at least recognise the pre-eminence of the Holy Life. (I remember reading that on one Wesak Day, the most important Wan Phra of the year, the bars and parlours of Bangkok's notorious red-light district closed down for the day -well, 'Little by little is the water jar filled.') So Observance Days are the focal point of a relationship that uplifts the ideals of a society and keeps the religion in touch with the earth. Having been travelling around the North-East for a month or so, I made a special determination to to get back to Nanachat for the Uposatha Day. A mixture of bus rides and short walks (walking is difficult for bhikkhus in the devout Isan; it's seldom that you can get more than a

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kilometre before someone offers a ride) took me from Sakhon Nakorn to Ubon on the 12th in time to shave my head and exchange news with Ajahn Pasanno. It was good to be back. Going to new places can give interesting reflections and present challenges, but for me the most useful practice occurs in the everyday and the normal. Nothing establishes my mind so much in the sense of the timeless norms of the Dhamma-Vinaya and the monastic life so well as the Patimokkha recitation and the all-night vigil. Observance Days make a lot of sense for people living in the 'go-out-and-grab-it-now world', but even in the contemplative life one needs that remainder to step back from particular events and problems and see them as just part of the flow of life. The first signs of the Uposatha Day (apart from the freshly-shaven heads) is the presece of a lot more lay people in the monastery when we return from pindabaht around 7 a.m. There are always a few village women in the monastery at this time, preparing food to augment the pindabaht offerings, but on Wan Phra there must be more than thirty villagers I the big openair kitchen near the sala. Some are clad completely in white, but most have at least a white shirt ober their workaday clothes, or a simple white wrap or sash worn over the left shoulder. As usual, the women outnumber men fivefold. As the food becomes ready, it is brought into the sala in one great enamel dish after another, for an hour or more, until everything and everyone is gathered together in the sala for the offering. The dishes are then handed one at a time up to the senior monk on the raised platform; he takes a spoonful of the food and passes it down the line of monks. This procedure goes o for up to thirty dishes, so it trains you to kow the measure of how much you need. Thinking about it takes too long, and is always biased by under-or over-estimation. Left I silence, the eye is more astute judge. This morning, Ajahn Pasanno has been called over to Wat Pah Pog on Sangha business, so I am the senior monk. This is fine as far as chanting a blessing goes, but obviously it will be Venereable Nyanadhammo on my left who will be giving the Dhamma talk. So when all the food has been passed out amongst the monastic community, Venerable Nayanadhammo leaves the platform, gets up ito the Dhamma seat, gives the Eight Precepts and talks on Dhamma fluently for aother half an hour. It's good to see an Austraian bhikkhu and a groupmof Isan villagers - such cultural stragers - gathered ytogether varoud the Buddha's teaching. It's also ice to know that after years of meditation, sitting with your daily meal beside you for an hour observing the proceedings without undeerstanding a word doesn't hurt a bit. Such are the small joys of patiece practice - there will be many more, I'm sure. The congregation of fifty villagers chant the morning puja in Thai and Pali while we eat, then go to the kitchen for their meal. When we have finished our meal, the junior monks and novices clean their own and the senior monks' alms bowls, and we all take part in a general sweep-up. After cleaing up the kitchen, some of the villagers go home; most rest, meditate or do minor chores; and towards noon the monastery becomes still. Exceptig Ajah Pasanno who has arrived back in the sala after the meal - the residets go back to their kutis ad get an hour or two's rest. The Ajahn spends noon break talkig with local villagers or visitors (today it's Sister Sanghamitta's parents); and he is still receiving guests I the sala when the afternoo work begins at 2.30. Then it's time to clean up the sala and haul water from the well to to supply the numerous water jars that are set around the forest for washing purposes. And so the day proceeds.

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At four o'clock we gather in the downstairs of the Ajahn's kuti for a hot drink before going over to Wat Pah Pong in an ex-Army truck. Luang Por Chah is critically ill, so it has become a regular practice for the Sangha to chant parittas outside his kuti. These visits offer us a clear reflection. To be reminded of frailty of existence - especially in the case of a beloved teacher wopuld be depressing if there were nothing beyond appearance; but the practice Ajahn Chah has examplified looks directly thropugh life's fragile surface to timeless peace. If you follow the teaching, there is serenity in the heart; if you don't, your eyes mist with tears. We return to Nanachat, as quietly as the darkening evening. There is time to bathe and then the bhikkhus pair off to acknowledge and clear any transgressions of the discipline before the Patimokkha recitation. The Uposatha Hall is still in the process of being built, so the bhikkhus assemble upstairs in Ajahn Pasanno's kuti. The recitation takes between 45 minutes and an hour in conventional time; but for me each recitation is a summary of my life as a bhikkhu. In its chattering incomprehensible syllables, all personalities dissolve, and the group of monks becomes the Sangha; issues cool into material for contemplation; and after the recitation there's talk on the practice of the religious life. The Patimokkha is something you love as would a father, even when you feel exasperated by the rules, irritated by the personalities, and disheartened by your shortcomings. I think it takes a lot of people that way - certainly there is no shortage of bhikkhus who learn to recite it. That even Ajahn Pasanno talked on contentment with little; on the avoidance ad abandoning of sorrow; and on the beauty of the Holy Life. I for one rejoiced at his words. They came from the heart and that's where they went. Meanwhile, the lay congregation are waiting for the Ajahn to give them the evening Dhamma talk. While we were absent, they have chanted the evening chanting (in Pali and Thai)ad are ow sitting I meditation: our return cues one of the village men to request a desana. This time it's Ajahn Pasanno who responds by getting up into the Dhamma seat, and talk seems quite informal. He speaks rather slowly (understandable, considering he's been talking the better part of the day), but the people are pleased. There are pauses and gently laughter and remarks or questions coming back until nobody has anything more to say. Then the silence which has been drifting into the desana is finally acknowledged: the lamps dim; the cool and darkness of the night enters through the huge glassless windows; and the monks, wrapping their robes around them, turn into silhouettes. At midnight things take shape around a hot drink. People come in from walking meditations; heads that were drooping pick up; the mind moves into functional mode. Just hold your mug out and the monk carrying the kettle fills it with something hot, sweet and brown. An enamelled plate with small slabs of cheese makes it way down the line. The monks lean back a little and rest their backs against the wall or gently stretch. Slowly and softly Ajahn Pasanno mentions playing a tape of a talk of Ajah Sumedho's; a monk pads out and returns with a deck and some cassettes. How bright Ajahn Sumedho's voice is! For an hour in our dark night, the sala glows with warmth and light. Then we are left alone in our minds, trying to leave our minds alone. When energy softens and subsides, the mind's focus blurs and contemplation gets tricky. Instinct looks for something to hold on to. There is the welcome firmness of the ground beneath my feet when I practise walking meditation; but sitting in the sala, the breath is too subtle; what to follow when it seems to fade out altogether? When thoughts get fuzzy, who can know what they are doing? An inquiry weaves through the pattern of mind: snagged on patches of unkempt memory, challenged by renegade passions, turned aside by shambling dullness, it yet half remembers itself. The observing takes over. We persist, we practise patience; and even when the certainties mutiny, the ship remains on course. I kept opening my eyes to re-focus attention, and in those glimpses the inner

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perspective is confirmed: though most are bobbing in their moorings, people are still afloat. A lone mosquito comes to keep me company and provides something to focus on - arm ...neck...wrist...cheek...But that goes too, and by 3 a.m. there's just patience and surrender; and something that would not exchange that peace for all the happiness in the world. The bell sounds and nothing happens. At 4 a.m. we begin the morning chanting (in Pali and Thai), this time borne along by the congregation, as the voices climb and plunge - and occasionally blend. It's perhaps not the most melodious chanting (and my toes sing their own laments after forty minutes of kneeling on them): however, the spirit is harmonious, to put it kindly - and what more can ask for in the religious life? And how impeccably the lay people complete their observance! Led by one of the older men, they ask forgiveness from the Sangha for any wrong-doings or offences they may have caused, and then ask permission to leave the monastery. Another normal day is about to begin, and there is work to do ...Ajahn Pasanno says a few words, and the villagers pay their respects and leave. The Sangha sits on until dawn in a benevolent afterglow: thus, our observance is completed in harmony. On the human plane, at this time, everything is All Right. As the light returns, we sweep up: everybody knows what to do. The junior bhikkhus and the novices come with their own and the senior bhikkhus' alms bowls. In threes and fours we go out for the alms. It's normal day. However, this evening there will be a fire lit in the monastery's sauna. Being human has its special joys. Â Â

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The Great Vehicle and the Elders' Way Towards the end of 1989 several bhikshus from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a large Mahayana monastery in the USA, came to visit Wat Pah Pong during a teaching tour of Asia. They were introduced to Ajahn Liam, the acting abbot since the onset of Tan Ajahn Chah's sickness, and the following is a brief account of the exchange between them. The monastery from which they come is noted for its strict standard of discipline and for the use of the dhutangas (bitter or austere practices), as skilful means for the cultivation of the Path. 'Austerities are valuable, they help us to strengthen our resolution to refrain from worldly ways and they encourage us to develop energy. With those practices which give rise to a lot of endurance, however - like the "sitter's practice", where one refrains from ever lying down - one has to be very careful not to allow different sorts of craving to affect them and thus cause them to deteriorate. Endurance is a very important virtue but it is a "hard" virtue, and a "hard" virtue like this has to be balanced by a "soft" virtue. The softness, gentleness and refinement of the wisdom faculty is that which has to govern austere practices at every stage. This enables us to always remember what the purpose of austerity is: the overall aim is freedom from suffering.

Sila is the basis and virtues, such as filial piety, act as a foundation for samatha and vipassana meditation.

'There is a need for us to establish the criteria for what is, and what is not Dhamma-Vinaya. One of criteria is that any dhamma which leads to craving, or even a "colouring" of the mind, is not Dhamma, is not Vinaya. It is easy, when one is doing very strict practices, for our efforts to become affected, "coloured" by vibhavatanha - to try to be rid of, or to annihilate defilements. 'It is thus important for us to notice any desire to become, or any desire to get rid of, as these can easily distort our practice; for of course there are defilements of strict practice - looking down on people who are not as strict as oneself, for example. 'The conditioning process which disables us from penetrating the nature of Dhamma can take many forms. The Venerable Ananda's practice, for example, was always influenced by the Buddha's forecast that he would defenitely attain arhantship in this present life. Therefore, when he was putting forth effort meditating that memory would be there, so of course he was never actually able to let go. It was only when he was able to completely put that down and be in the present moment, that he could be free himself.' Ajahn Liam then asked them, 'What are the principles of your practice?' Heng Chi replied, 'Sila https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/12/way.htm[03/10/2017 02:20:09]

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is the basis and virtues, such as filial piety, act as a foundation for samatha and vipassana meditation.' Heng Shun (who, incidentally, had been a novice at Wat Bovornives and had spent time with Ajahn Pasanno at Wat Pleng many years before) then went on to talk about the four Bodhisattva Vows, which are: *'Living beings are numberless - I vow to save them all. *'Defilements are limitless - I vow to cut them all off. *'The Dharma doors are endless - I vow to enter them all. *'Enlightenment is supreme - I vow to attain it.' When this was translated for him, Ajahn Liam then said,'This is good, but someone with a lot of meeta like that tends to suffer heavily - if one is not very careful meeta can cause one a great deal of pain, again necessarily so if the wisdom faculty is lacking.' He then went on to say, 'There are different emphases or motivations in Buddhist practice but, effectively, the Theravada and Mahayana approaches don't really differ - they are both concerned with the mind in the present moment. It's very important to remember that everything arises from Mind, and that a practice based on compassion which neglects that fact will just cause one a lot of suffering. With the fact that everything arises from Mind, whether one's motivation is saving all sentient beings or creating ultimate benefit for oneself and for others (as is more the Theravada formulation), in actuality one is doing more or less the same thing: putting forth effort to identify and remove unwholesome mental states, bringing into being and perfecting wholesome mental states, purifying the mind.' The bhikshus were very impressed by this, and said that it corresponded with the teachings in the Surangama and Avatamsaka Suttas. Originally translated and recounted by Venerable Jayasaro. Â Â

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Almsround in Britain In Britain, the almsround is hardly a means of gathering food; nor, a few loyal supporters excepted, is it a response to householders' desire to make offerings to the Sangha. Still, as Sister Viveka points out, it is a purposeful feature of the monastic day. Although it is frequently only symbolic here in the West, we still walk on almsround. It can be quite lovely walking through the Hertfordshire countryside. This area has a certain gentle beauty with its small hills and ancient woodland, and has a myriad of footpaths which seem to be well-marked. I like to go out as often as possible and walk for a couple of hours. It is a satisfying thing to have done with your morning: having finished cleaning up, we collect everything we will need for the meal - sitting cloth, spoon, knife, lap-cloth - and leave them by the places where we will eat the meal. Then, bowing to the shrine, we arrange our outer robes over both shoulders and leave the monastery in single file. We try to walk unhurriedly (save those occasions when the time is miscalculated and we are late back!), often keeping to the footpaths rather than the busy roads.

as sight meets unfamiliar objects and views, the mind seems to become naturally expansive and accepting.

Personally, I find that walking has a good effect on the mind, as well as the body. As we live a fairly sedentry life, this form of exercise ca be very helpful: the natural rhythm of the body walking has a calming effect on any lurking mental preoccupations. After a while things slow right down, and it is easier to be attentive to the sky meeting the horizon, fields of corn, the forest greens, the sound of the wind, the pressure of your feet walking.... One favourite walk is to Little Gaddesden Church, a few miles away. This place is a sanctuary, a place of stillness. Greeted by this note on the porch: Visitors: You are welcome in God's House Please feel free to put on the lights... If you are thirsty you will find squash in the vestry Please help yourself (no charge) and rest there May God bless your visit ...we always feel welcomed by such an open-hearted invitation. To be able to sit in the church for a few moments seems a gift of communion with spiritual

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seekers from a different religion. It's a reminder that the movement towards goodness is an integral part of human societies, although the forms taken by that movement vary dramatically. Theravadin Buddhism is essentially nomadic, and the Thai forest tradition from which our Sangha has grown adheres to this quite closely - keeping up the practices of tudong wandering and almsround. Long walks give one a slight taste of this aspect of our inheritance. It is delightful to explore, and as sight meets unfamiliar objects and views, the mind seems to become naturally expansive and accepting. Walking with one or two other nuns several miles away from Amaravati, where people don't necessarily know who or what we are, and we have nothing but our alms bowls and robes with us, the vulnerability of being an alms mendicant in a nonBuddhist country also becomes more apparent. We've had a few adventures: I got bitten by a mischievous foal one morning; another nun was bitten by a dog, and cows especially young bullocks - love to chase walkers, it seems. So far, thankfully, the bulls have regarded us with disinterest. I've felt a growing appreciation of our immediate environment - a greater sense of belonging to this area - arise from getting to know it better. From comments made by local people, our walking through the countryside seems to provide an interweaving between a monastic tradition, which can appear puzzling to onlookers, and the peacefulness which is characteristic of the Buddhist discipline. Rather than being 'those strange people up there' we are suddenly accessible - just walking along. Of course, pindapada in this country is not limited to this type of wandering. Many supporters of Amravati invite monks or nuns to walk to their homes, to talk about Dhamma over a cup of tea. Such invitations take us into the towns of Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted, both within walking distance. Pindapada to Hemel Hempstead is a good walk; depending on who you're going to visit, it can take two hours or so. Walking through the Marlowes, Hemel's High Street, on Sunday morning provides a very different view of Hertfordshire. On the morning after Saturday night, Marlowes is a desolate realm holding echoes of fruitless searches for fulfillment. The streets, void of people but littered with empty beer cans and wrappers from Wimpy Bars, present what is most hollow in our society. It leaves a lingering sadness. It is quite a contrast when we arrive at john and Angela's house to join their Sunday morning family. After such a waste-land, it is gladdening to know that there are people who find joy in being able to support others, and in investigating the nature of our human existence. Â Â

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Question Time Ajahn Jagaro is the abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, Serpentine, Western Australia. Question: In terms of my lifetime, it's relative permanence that will count, not absolute. For example, a brick is unlikely to break down in my lifetime, so one can assume it's permanent. Ajahn Jagaro: You are assuming that the brick will last for the rest of your life. This is where the problem arises, because things are not reliable, there is no 'permanent'. In our quest for happiess, we are continually frustrated, because it is not for the rest of our lives. It's not for one life; it's quite often not for one moment. Look at anything ...like relationships, your body, your health. I could say, 'Well, OK, my body's impermanent, but if it lasts for this lifetime it'll be good enough!' sure, it's good enough, but it doesn't just do that; it's breaking down, it gets sick, it gets old. And with relationships: we can think, 'It's all right. Everything is impermanent, but we'll be in love for the rest of our life. We'll die at exactly the same moment and blissfully for the rest of our time.' But you know it doesn't work out like that. One party gets bored, the other doesn't - relationships often don't last.

If there was something truly permanent, you could at least hold onto that!

Material things, certainly, they don't last. There is no guarantee that they will last for even one moment. You may think this building's going to last - it's impermanent, but it's going to last for another twenty years - but you don't know. We're building a monastery in Serpentine, and we're building it as well as we can with the idea of making it last. But at the back of my mind I always have what they call the perception of impermanence. During summer, it would only take on really hot day, one careless match somewhere in that vicinity, and whooom - there goes the monastery! And we'd all start again from the scratch. It's not necessarily going to last my lifetime, that monastery. Things are flux, change - there is no guarantee for any length of time. Life is but one moment. If there was something truly permanent, you could at least hold onto that!. But you too are permanent. Your body's impermanence, your perceptions are impermanent, your thoughts are impermanent. Everything is inter-related. However, our desire is to seek for security, and that is where the crux of the matter lies, that's where the frustration arises. Psychologically, emotionally, we are unable to accept the truth of impermanence. We are operating from this firm convicxtion that there must be permanence. That is our frustration, that is our suffering. Knowing it intellectually doesn't help. It does not bring about a radical change in being. Q:If everything is 'not self', what is reborn? Just the conditions?

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A: It is a flow, a process of causes and results. It is operating now. You ask what is there to be reborn; I ask you what here now? Who is here now? If you can tell me what is here now, that is what is going to happen at rebirth. The way we describe rebirth is very similar to what is happening now: a condition of causal arising, in other words, a present condition. At this moment, this physical/mental state is the result of the past. The past has still got potential to express. Our volition in the present acts with the potential from the past to create the next moment, the future. So there is a dynamic process operating. At the moment of the death of the body it cannot be a vehicle any more, it is breaking down. The mind and mental faculties also break down, but in the mind there is this basic drive, a desire to experience gratification. There is the conviction that there can be gratification. So in the last conscious moment, this desire driven by ignorance is still there. The body can't operate, but this desire conditions the next conscious moment in a new body. Q: If there was no desire there would be no rebirth? A: If there was no desire there would be no rebirth. Q: What happens if someone commits suicide? A: That person wants to escape from the preset conditions, which are so awful that they feel that they can't cope. They want to end it all but, unfortunately, it doesn't end, it just starts again. Nothing is lost because the new conscious moment is conditioned by the past, and within it are the imprints of all the previous tendencies, kammic tendencies. The moment of the present is conditioned by the past. Q: Before you started the session, you bowed down. What are the reasons for doing this? A: The teaching of the Buddha is not really to do with superstition, ceremonial ritual sacrifices of any sort. It is based on reason, logic and understanding. However, form, like anything we do, is a convention. Take the example of shaking hands. You could say: 'Look at that superstitious practice these Western people have. They have to shake hands all the time.' It is a custom. Now, in the time of the Buddha they did not have Buddha statues. These came into existence about three or four hundred years after the Buddha, I think. The purpose of a statue is to act as a reminder. It is not a Buddha. No statue, no body, no matter, could ever become Buddha. No conditioned thing can be Buddha. So this statue is just brass, not sacred. It is a symbol, though - just like a picture of your wife when you see it brings up certain feelings, depending upon what sort of relationship you have! And so what I see this statue, I reflect on the Buddha: the person who lived 2500 years ago, what he did, how he lived, the impeccable person, the peaceful person, the compassionate person. I have a sense of gratitude, respect, for that being. Also, I can consider the Buddha as the quality Buddha - wisdom, that quality which is within myself to be realised, to be cultivated. And again I have inspiration to work towards. Then I bow three times as a way of paying respect. It is not worshipping anything. It is paying respect to the historical Buddha and to the Buddha within. The second value of it, which is even more important in many ways, is an act of humility. Being able to humble yourself: to get this thing that we hold up so much, that is so much associated with me, that is what we relate ourselves to - and put it on the ground. There is

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humility in being able to bow to another - be it the memory of the Buddha, or to another monk - and humility is very good. The third and very important reason for the exercise is one of mindfulness, or collecting oneself. I've just been talking to people, doing things. When I come into this room, I stop physically stop, verbally stop, mentally stop. I bring my mind into my body, collect myself, and then I bow mindfully - mind and body together, a silent bow. Just three bows has a wonderful effect for calming the mind, stilling the mind. So that it is an exercise in mindfulness ad centring oneself. So I centre myself before I begin to talk again, or before I meditate, before I undertake other activities. So bowing serves three purposes: as a way of paying respect, for humility, and for centring oneself in the practice of mindfulness. Â Â

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EDITORIAL Advance is Based on Retreat We begin this newsletter with the account of a new vihara opening in Italy. This comes as a surprise, it is a happy one and a fitting way of supporting the aspirations of Buddhists in Italy. There are those who will assume that Ajahn Sumedho is trying to accumulate a monastic emprire, but actually this is far from the case: our efforts to slow things down and keep our ventures within limits are so constant that we even win the reputation of being rather stingy and unco-operative! One has to keep reminding people that we need a good presence in the monastries to keep them functioning, and that monks and nuns generally don't teach for their first five years in the Sangha, to ensure that theur wisdom is matured and held with the humility of anatta. It is a similar story with publications. It was interestig to note that the books of Venerable Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho have been, or are being, translated into Italia. There are also editions in German and French, and a constant stream of requests for articles, and books to be prtoduced. I expect much the same story prevails in any Buddhist organisation. One comes to the simple conclusion that the world is indeed hungry for Dhamma, a Dhamma that has bee experienced persinally in this life and human form.

Devotion and service are a time-honoured training of the heart in the spiritual life, not purely reserved for samanas but available to all.

Seen in this light, the Winter Retreat is actually part of the Sangha's offering to the world. Whe the activities die down and conversation ceases, there is a chance for the mind to see very clearly into its own nature: compassionate service is based very accurately on the foundation of relinquishmet of self. The two are necessary alternate faces of the same coin. This deepening insight into anatta is the proper way to establish the Dhamma and Sangha. Then the motivation is not based on missionary zeal but rather on a willingness to add whatever little one can to this Way out of Suffering. Despite the suffering of the world in general, one certainly sees the best side of human ature in a monastery. Apart from the efforts of fellow samanas, one derives a lot of inspiration from the commitment of the lay people who come to look after the Sangha during such retreats. The lay people, for their part, are very grateful for the opportunity to help the Sangha, and they comment on its benefits. Devotion and service are a time-honoured training of the heart in the spiritual life, not purely reserved for samanas but available to all. It is so joyous and peaceful to be able to give oneself to the Triple Gem. That is where we find our true advancements: in turning back from conceit and views, and from the demands of the me and mine. Ajahn Sucitto https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/12/editor.htm[03/10/2017 02:16:28]

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April 1990

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Buddha Word 'The Great Lion's Roar to the Udumbarikans,' verse 23 from Thus Have I heard, the Digha Nikaya as translated by Maurice Walshe (Wisdom Publication). Nigrodha, you may think: 'The ascetic Gotama says this in order to get disciples.' But you should not regard it like that. Let him who is your teacher remain your teacher. Or you may think: 'He wants us to abandon our rules.' But you should not regard it like that. Let your rules remain as they are. Or you may think: 'He wants us to abandon our way of life.' But you should not regard it like that. Let your way of life remain as it was. Or you may think: 'He wants us to establish us in doing of things that according to our teaching are wrong, and are so considered among us.' But you should not regard it like that. Let those things you consider wrong continue to be so considered. Or you may think: 'He wants us to draw us away from things that according to our teaching are good, and are so considered among us.' But you should not regard it like that. Let whatever you consider right continue to be so considered. Nigrodha, I do not speak for any of these reasons ...

If you practice accordingly, these tainted things will be abandoned, and the things that make for purification will develop and grow.

There are, Nigrodha, unwholesome things that have not been abandoned, tainted, conducive to rebirth, fearful, productive of painful results in the future, associated with birth, decay and death. It is for abandonment of these things that I teach Dhamma. If you practice accordingly, these tainted things will be abandoned, and the things that make for purification will develop and grow, and you will attain to and dwell, in this very life, by your own insights and realisation, in the fullness of perfected wisdom.

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April 1990

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OBITUARY Venerable Dr. H. Saddhatissa: a memorial Venerable Dr. Hammalawa Saddhatissa Mahanayaka Thera passed away, aged 76, on February 13th this year, (1990) and was cremated at the orth London Crematorium on February 17th, 1990. Although personally he had not wanted any ceremony, such an event was inevitable at the funeral of Britain's most senior bhikkhu. Dr. Saddhatissa had received upasampada in Sri Lanka in 1926 and had been resident in the U.K., mostly at the London Buddhist Vihara, since 1957. The Venerable Mahanayaka was a scholar of distinction, having served as either professor or lecturer at the universities of Benares, London, Toronto and Oxford, as well as being president of the British Mahabodhi Society and member of the executive council of the Pali Text Society. We remember his gentleness and humility, and his willingness to serve the sansana. Here is an extract from his translation of the Sutta Nipata, published by Curzon Press. 10: PURABHEDA SUTTA 'Qualities of a Muni (Sage)' 1 'Gotama, sir,' a questioner said to the Buddha, 'I want to ask you about the perfect man. There are those people whom we call "men who are calmed" - can you tell me how they see things and how they behave?' 2 'A man who is calmed, who has extinguished all his cravings before the time his body disintegrates into nothing, who has no concern with how things began or with how they will end and no fixation with what happens in between: such a man has no preferences.

Nothing disturbs his composure and nothing gives him cause for regret. He is the wise man who is restrained in speech.

3 'He has no anger, no fear and no pride. Nothing disturbs his composure and nothing gives him cause for regret. He is the wise man who is restrained in speech. 4 'He has no longing for the future and no grief for the past; there are no views or opinions that lead him. He can see detachment from the entangled world of sense impressions. 5 'He does not conceal anything and there is nothing that he holds on to. Without acquisitive or envy, he remains unobtrusive; he has no disdain or insult for anyone. 6 'He is not a man who is full of himself, or a man who is addicted to pleasure; he is a man who

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is gentle and alert, with no blind faith; he shows no aversion [to anything]. 7 'He is not a person who works because he wants something; if he gets nothing at all he remains unperturbed. There is no craving to build up the passion to taste new pleasures. 8 'His mindfulness holds him posed in a constant even-mindedness where arrogance is impossible; he makes no comparisons with the rest of the world as "superior", "inferior" or "equal". 9 'Because he understands the Way Things Are, he is free from dependency and there is nothing he relies on. For him there is no more craving to exist or not to exist. 10 'This is what I call a man who is calmed. It is a man who does not seek after pleasure, who has nothing to tie him down, who has gone beyond the pull of attachment. 11 'It is a man without sons, a man without wealth, without fields, without cows - a man with nothing in him that he grasps at as his, and nothing in him that he rejects as not his. 12 'He is a man who receives false criticisms from other people, from priests and hermits, but who remains undisturbed and unmoved by their words. 13 'It is a man without greed and without possessiveness; it is a man who, as a man of wisdom, does not consider himself "superior", "inferior" or "equal". It is a man who does not enter speculation, a man who is free from speculations. 14 'It is a man who has nothing in this world that he calls his own and who does not grieve for not having anything. He is calmed who does not take speculative views.' Sister Thaniya Â Â

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July 1990 THIS ISSUE Editorial:

2533 Cover: Consciousness and Sensitivity; Ajahn Sumedho Articles: Making Our Minds Up; Anagarika

Self-Training; Ajahn Chah

Living with Luang Por; Several Reflections

Number 13 HOME BACK ISSUES

Consciousness and Sensitivity Extracts from a talk given to the Theravada Class at the Buddhist Society in London, September 1989 by Venerable Ajahn Sumedho. Sometimes we approach meditation too much from an ideal of trying to control the mind, and get rid of unwanted mental states. It can become an obsession. Meditation can be just another thing we have to do; and this worldly attitude tends to affect what we're doing. See meditation, not as something to measure yourself as a person with, but as an opportunity to be mindful and at peace with yourself and with whatever mood or state you happen to be in at this moment. Learn to be one who's at peace with the way things are, rather than trying to become something, or to achieve a state that you'd like to have. That whole way of thinking is based on delusion. I remember when I started meditation in Thailand, all my ambitious and aggressive tendencies would start taking over. The way I'd lived my life affected how I would approach meditation. So I began to notice that I began to let go of things and to accept even those tendencies, and to be attentive to the way it is. The more you trust in that, the more quickly you will understand the Dhamma, or the way out of suffering. Notice how things affect your mind. If you've just come from your work or from your home, notice what that does to your mind. Don't criticise it - we're not here to blame, or to think that there's something wrong with our profession if our mind isn't tranquil and pure and serene when we come here. But notice the busyness of life: having to talk to people, having to answer telephones, having to type, or to travel across London in the rush hour. Maybe we're having to work with people that we don't like in difficult, aggravating situations. Just notice not to criticise, but just to accept that these things do have an effect on us. Recognise that this is the experience of consciousness and sensitivity. That's what being born as a human being amounts to, isn't it? You're born, and you have to live a lifetime as a conscious being in a very sensitive form. So what impinges on you, what comes to you from the objective world is going to affect you. It's just the way it is, there's noting wrong with it. But then as ignorant human beings we take it all personally, we tend to make everything very

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personal. It's as if I shouldn't be affected by these things that impinge on me. I shouldn't feel anger, or aversion, or greed, or irritation and frustration, envy, jealousy, fear, anxiety - I shouldn't be feeling these things. If I were a normal, healthy man I wouldn't have any of these problems. If I were a normal, healthy man I wouldn't be sensitive at all - like a rhinoceros, with a tough hide that nothing could ever get through!

I got quite irritated, and wanted to throw that person out of the meditation hall. But then reflecting on it, I realise Â that the fault was in me, not in the person.

But recognise that being human, we have these extremely sensitive forms. So then you realise there's nothing really wrong with you. It's just the way it is. Life is like this. We live in a society that is just the way it is. Living in London or in suburbia, or in villages or whatever, we can spend our time grumbling because it's not perfect, or there are many things that are irritating, or not very nice about may aspects of our lives. But then being sensitive is like this, isn't it? Sensitivity means that we're going to, whatever it is - whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, pleasurable, painful, beautiful, ugly - we're going to feel it. And so the way out of suffering is through mindfulness. When you're truly mindful, there's no self. You're not taking life's experiences from the assumptions of being a person. You can try to make yourself insensitive - close your eyes, put ear plugs in your ears, try to be totally insensitive, shut everything out. That's one type of meditation, sensory deprivation. If you stay that way for a while then you feel very calm, because nothing is demanded of you at that time. There's no kind of harsh or stimulating, exciting or frustrating, impingement. If you're mindful, you have an awareness of the purity of your mind which is blissful. Your true nature is blissful and serene and pure. But then, if you still have the wrong view about it you think, 'I have to have a sensory deprivation experience all the time. I can't live in London any more - even the Buddhist Society is too noisy!' If our peace and serenity depend upon conditions being a certain way, then we get very attached. We become enslaved, we want to control, and then we become even more angry and upset if anything disrupts or gets in the way of our peace. 'I've got to find some place, a cave. I've got to get my own sensory deprivation tank and find the ideal situation - set up all the conditions where I can keep everything at bay, so I can just abide in the blissful serenity of the purity of the mind.' But then you see, that's coming from desire, isn't it? A self-view - wanting to have that experience because you remember it, liked it and want it again. I remember one time on a retreat I got so attached to being peaceful that I heard this person - some person was having trouble swallowing. So I was sitting there, and that person would go 'gulp, gulp.' They weren't very loud, but when you're attached to total silence, even a gulp can upset you. So I got quite irritated, and wanted to throw that person out of the meditation hall. But then reflecting on it, I realise that the fault was in me, not in the person. But mindfulness and understanding the Dhamma allow you to adapt and accept life - the total life experience - without having to control it. With mindfulness you don't have to hold on to bits and pieces that you like, and then feel very threatened by the possibility of being separated from them. Right meditation really allows you to be very brave and adaptable, to be flexible

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with your life and all that that implies. We don't have all that much control, do we? Much as we would like to be able to control our lives, we recognise we really don't have that much control. Some things just get out of our control. Things happen and Mother Nature has her ways of letting us know that She's not just going to follow our desires. Then there are fashions and revolutions, changing conditions, population problems, and airplanes, televisions, technology, pollution. How can we control it, and make it so that we are not being affected by any of it - or only affected in the ways we like? If we spend our lives trying to control everything, then we just increase the suffering. Even if we get a measure of control over things, we're still going to be like me with the person gulping in the meditation hall; getting very angry when the neighbour turns on the radio too loud, or the airplane flies low, or the fire engine goes by.

Where is mindfulness?

Amongst all this space and conditions to be embraced, A breeze sweeps across my Face Yet the heartbeat cannot be traced.

Now one thing you can recognise is that when you have a body, you have to live with your body for a lifetime. And these bodies are conscious and sensitive forms. This is just the way it is, this is what being born means. Bodies grow up, then they start getting old, then there's old age, sicknesses, diseases - this is a part of our human experience - and then death. We have to accept the death and separation of loved ones. This happens to all of us. Most of us will see our parents die, or even our children, or spouse or friends, loved ones. Part of all human experience is the experience of being separated from the loved. By knowing the way it is, then you find yourself quite capable of accepting life and not being depressed and bewildered by the way life happens to be. Once you understand it and you see it in the right way, then you're not going to create any wrong views about it. You're not going to add to it with fears, and desires, and bitterness, and resentments and blame. We have the ability to accept the way life happens to us as individual beings. Even though we're terribly sensitive, we're also tough survivors in this universe. You look at where human beings manage to live, like Eskimos up in the Arctic and people in deserts. In the most uninviting places on this planet there's usually human habitation. When forced to, we can survive anywhere. Understanding Dhamma then allows us also to have a fearless attitude. We being to realise that we can accept whatever happens. There's really nothing to be afraid of. Then you can let go of life; you can follow it, because you're not expecting anything out of it, and you're not trying to control it. You have the wisdom, the mindfulness, the ability to roll with the flow, rather than to be drowned by the tidal waves of life. When you learn to take time to be silent, listen to yourself. Just use the breathing and the body, just the natural rhythm, the feeling - the way your body feels now. Put your attention onto the body, because the body is a condition in nature - it's not really you. It's not 'my' breathing any more, it's not personal. You breathe even if you're crazy, or sick - and if you're asleep you're still breathing. The body breathes. From birth to death it will be breathing. So breath is something that we use as an object to focus on, to turn to. If we think too much, our thoughts get very convoluted and complicated, but if we bring attention just to the ordinary breathing of the body at this moment, at that moment you're actually not thinking - you're https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/13/13.htm[03/10/2017 19:20:45]

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attentive to a natural rhythm. Then you might start making problems out of it, 'Oh, I can't concentrate on my breath, blah, blah, blah ….' Then it becomes 'me' again, trying to be mindful of my breath. But actually in any one moment where you're just with the breath, there's no self. Your self will arise when you start thinking. When you're not thinking, there's no self; and when you're mindful, then the thought isn't coming from the wrong view that 'I am a self.' So thought can be a way of reflection, a way of focussing attention on Dhamma, rather than creating problems, criticism or anxiety about myself and humanity. Just contemplate, when you get angry you have to think, don't you? If you stop thinking, the anger will go away. To be angry you have to think, 'He said that to me, how dare he. That dirty so and so!'' But if you should stop thinking and just use the breath, eventually the feeling of the body that comes with anger will fade out, and then there is no anger. So if you feel angry, just reflect on what it feels like as a physical feeling. It's the same with any mood: contemplate, reflect on the mood that you're in. Just work with it - not to analyse it or criticise it - but merely to reflect on it how it is. Sometimes people say, 'I get very confused when I meditate - how can I get rid of confusion?' Wanting to get rid of confusion is the problem. Being confused and not wanting it is just creating confusion. So what does confusion feel like? Some of the more stimulating passions that we can have are quite obvious. What we tend to not pay any attention to or dismiss are the more subtle states like slight confusion, or hesitation, or doubt, insecurity and anxiety. And of course, one side of us just wants to get rid of it, just stomp it out - how do I get rid of it? If I meditate, how can I get rid of my fears, anxiety? With the right understanding, we see that the very desire-to-get-rid-of is suffering. We can bear with the feeling of insecurity if we know what it is, and that it changes, it's impermanent. So you begin to feel more and more confident in just being aware and mindful, rather than trying to develop your practice in order to become an enlightened person. The assumption is that right now you're not enlightened, you've got a lot of problems, you've got to change your life, you've got to make yourself different. You're good enough the way you are right now, so you have to meditate, and hopefully some time in the future you'll become something that you'd like to become. If you never see the delusion of that way of thinking, then it just carries on. You never really become what you should be, no matter how much effort you put into your meditations. After years of trying to become enlightened, you always feel like a failure, because you've still got the wrong attitude about it all.

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Consciousness and Sensitivity; Ajahn Sumedho Making Our Minds Up; Anagarika Self-Training; Ajahn Chah Living with Luang Por; Several Reflections

Making Our Minds Up Six anagarikas will be requesting bhikkhu-ordination at Chithurst on July 1. One of them reflects on some of the doubts ..... Once upon a time i knew what I wanted out of life. I knew where I was going. I was going to be a great inventor. And I reveled in that sense of confidence and purpose. I felt sorry for those I saw flopping around, not knowing what they wanted or where they were going. In fact, I was secretly rather scared of becoming like one of those floppy indecisive people. Just how do we stop flopping around and make our minds up? Well, we simply use common sense - don't we? Consider the options and arguments, and aim at gradually reaching a clear and unshakable conviction in what we are doing. There is nothing like being convinced. It's like falling in love. We are on top of the world. Unfortunately, any conviction for or against is horribly questionable, doubtable, suspectable and threatenable. The more we get a hit out of conviction, the more we fear the first slight tremors of doubts. The first shake and we panic. There's nothing worse than doubt and indecision. It's the dejection of having fallen out of love ...having fallen out of inspiration. And once it starts, it won't stop. It spreads. Everything is doubtable.

Peace lies in choosing what has already been chosen.

We can build our lives on an apparently unshakable conviction, prop it up with arguments, cement it with passion and seal it with a cool intuitive knowing that it's right. For a day, for a week, for a year, for a decade. Until we see through it. And then the world rocks and we panic - and leap to the conclusion that we had it all wrong. Then we doubt that too. We don't know where we are. In desperation, with no option left, no way out, we can decide to stay with what is happening now - not believing we're right or wrong - and resolve to face the doubts and fear. However, unhappily, that resolve is also doubtable, shakable and collapsible. We are forced to the choice that all of us have to make eventually. Finding no safety in a decision, or in the resolve to stay with 'what's so', then we simply have to stay with what's so. But not as a second-hand resolve about the future; therein lies only danger and threat. We stay directly with what's so, choosing it at first hand, immediately. We don't decide to do it. We do it.

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I am lost.

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That's the choice none of us can ultimately avoid. It's the choice the universe inexorably forces us to make. And we will keep spinning around in the world of conviction and doubt until we make that choice. Most of our other choices are attempts to avoid making this unavoidable choice. For deciding 'I want such and such' is failing to make the only safe choice. Any package of arguments, reasons, intuitions and convictions is threatenable, doubtable and insecure - and it is unsafe because it is a construction. We are building on sand. Peace lies in choosing what has already been chosen. We learn to stop making our minds up - to see through the Great Inventor. A mind made up will be made down. There is safety where there is no made-up mind, no inventions, no fabrications, no lies.

In the beauty; in the drifting of the mind As it travels afar, in fantasy - with the wind. Leaving the reality of this paradise far behind:

The truth that speaks; But cannot be heard.

So how do we choose that uncertainty which we compulsively avoid choosing by making our minds up? Firstly, we need to be honest and acknowledge how unbearably thirsty for certainty and safety we are. See the thirst which makes us make decisions. Secondly, we need to look closely at those decisions and see that they are inherently unsafe, because they are made up. We might decide to do one thing, but that decision is unsafe. We can decide to not decide and just watch it all - but that decision too is unsafe. If we really see how unsafe it all is, and are honest about how desperately thirsty we are, then that thirst starts to burn. Despair burns. With nowhere to go, no way out, it turns on itself. The flame is turned right up and turned in on itself. It burns until it stops, until it is burnt out. And what is left? What is left is what is not made up, what is not put together, what is not constructed. A mind that cannot be 'made up'. The safe choice. Real faith, true conviction is not a construct. It is trusting what is before construction. However, in a particular situation often a decision has to be made. We have to be practical, don't we? So we decide on something as a working hypothesis. But if we cling to that, for even one moment, we become afraid of the doubt. And because we fear the doubt, it comes to get us. As it comes to get us, we cling all the more. And so we get hammered. The thing that would end the doubt and fear would be to let go of deciding to do what we want to do. But we are terrified: if we let go of our decision, we might not get what we want. So we hammer ourselves. Wanting and doubting flare up, until we are hammered into letting go. In making our minds up, we set them up to be broken down. We create the conditions for doubt by trying to create certainty. For we are afraid of doubt to the degree that we are trying to be certain. We might feel that if we don't hold fast to our decision, the doubt will win over. But actually, if we do that, then the doubt wins over precisely because we are afraid it would. If we are afraid doubt will win, it already has. In trying to invent certainty for myself, I invent my own doubt. 'I' am the Great Inventor, https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/13/minds.htm[03/10/2017 19:19:48]

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obsessively struggling to construct the perfectly made-up mind ....and instead I invent the Frankenstein Monster of Doubt. In reality, 'I' can't make a secure decision for or against. 'I' can't go one way and 'I' can't go the other. Nor can 'I' form a secure resolve to stay unmoved watching both. There is no room for any of 'my' constructions at all. When 'I' struggle, 'I' burn up. 'I' burn in my own desire. Finally, the whole vain building project crumbles and one abides in the foundation of real experience, where nothing is made up. Once one has seen the builder, That Great Inventor, and his labouring, the corner-stone is pulled out, the construction collapses and one stands quietly in the peaceful empty ruins.

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July 1990

Consciousness and Sensitivity; Ajahn Sumedho Making Our Minds Up; Anagarika Self-Training; Ajahn Chah Living with Luang Por; Several Reflections

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Self-Training On June 17th, Ajahn Chah was 72 years old. At our monasteries, we use this day each year to remember our teacher with gratitude, and to re-dedicate ourselves to the tradition of practice he has passed on. In this spirit, we offer a teaching which he gave to a new monk at Wat Pah Pong, Vassa 1978. We come here to practise to bring about changes - we change from our old ways. And this is the meaning of asking for guidance (nissaya) - it is asking for guidance in this changing. That is what the Buddha and all the Noble Ones were practising for - to change their ways. There are of course those things that we do not change - they are called residual tendencies (vassana) - but our personality, our behaviour can be changed. Like in the story of Venerable Sariputta, who would skip over puddles when he came to them. He had been a monkey in his past life and this tendency remained. Even as an Enlightened One he would go skipping over puddles, but this doesn't mean he was being heedless. As disciples of the Buddha, we cannot remove vassana - only a Buddha can do that. Venerable Sariputta liked hopping from time to time, but he was also full of profound wisdom. It was merely vassana in this case. When you come to take dependence under a master, it means you are taking an example of what is appropriate behaviour. It's a way of letting go of pride and conceit. The manner of speaking and behaving for all monks is the same; even though we exist as different individuals, we all have the same manner of behaviour. In taking on this training, you are asking for a means of working with conceit. Also, the comfort and suitability of our monastery for the practice of concentration meditation (samatha kammathana) is dependent on everyone's willingness to be harmonious. If everyone is practising differently and following different routines, it is not at all suitable. So we have practice and one routine and everyone benefits.

When you hear the teachings, then the next step is to train yourself accordingly. Study yourself a lot, because the Truth can only be seen in ourselves.

Here, I only occasionally give interviews and formal instruction to my disciples. Actually, instruction given daily can be altogether a waste of time. Soon you don't want it any more. If I kept telling you about virtue, concentration and wisdom .....impermanence, suffering and nonself ....you'd soon have all you wanted. You'd become bored with it - not because you're full, but because you've lost interest. So it's up to everyone to help themselves. Nobody can give us true goodness - the Buddha cannot give us reality. The Buddha is the instructor, but it's up to his students to use the instructions to learn to understand themselves. When you hear the teachings, then the next step is to train yourself accordingly. Study

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yourself a lot, because the Truth can only be seen in ourselves. If we see it, we see it here; if we don't see it, then it's here that we don't see it. Whatever you do, do with total concentration. When you sit samadhi (contemplation), put yourself into lotus posture and sit! Train in this posture. Don't think if you can't do it, then you won't do it - you must train. The practice requires a great deal of perseverance and this quality of mind is necessary to be able to do the work you need to do. Sitting samadhi means being concentrated in body and mind - not allowing hindrances (nivarana) to carry you away. The purity and goodness of our mind is continually clouded by the hindrances of desire, aversion, laziness and drowsiness, worry, and restlessness and doubt. If we are not disturbed by these things, then that is what is called samadhi. But when these hindrances are in control of our minds, our experience of reality is completely blocked. Take doubt, for instance. If you think you will go into the village today, but then you think that maybe you shouldn't ....then you change your mind again and think you should ....then you shouldn't and on and on - doubting is blocking your getting anywhere. Being caught in sleepiness is the same. When you sit, don't slouch! This can be like a magnet pulling you down into drowsiness. If you feel like lying down, open your eyes wide stare at something if necessary. Take any point and just stare at it - this can develop samadhi just the same. Don't allow yourself to be caught in drowsiness. When you sit, you must keep your back straight - not all bent. Even though you're not really tired, don't close your eyes, and your mind will become clear and bright. If all you're doing is sitting there sleeping, you're doing nothing at all. These hindrances need to be investigated for us to tell what is what. For instance, yesterday and last night being Observance Day, we didn't sleep: so today when we sit we feel sleepy. That's natural - nature requires that we rest. But even if we've slept enough at night, when we come to sit samadhi, we can still feel sleepy - that's the killer. Be careful! Open your eyes. Make your mind bright and clear - don't be caught up in drowsiness. If you're caught in it, it obscures all goodness and all reality - you just don't know anything. If you stay with it for a long time you can become addicted. If, having tried everything, you really can't break it, then sleep. But know the right amount. Personally, I've had very little problem with this one. Provided that it doesn't become too extreme a practice, the thing to do when tired is to enter into deep samadhi for a while. When you open your eyes, the tiredness is completely gone. It's called refreshing your body in an instant. Back in the early days of Wat Pah Pong with my first disciples, I would use samadhi like this instead of sleeping. About one or two o'clock in the morning, I would drop into stillness of samadhi. Thirty minutes later when I opened my eyes I felt fully refreshed and awake. The disciples I had then nearly died trying to follow me - they didn't know how to rest properly. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/13/train.htm[03/10/2017 19:18:09]

Going Away

Afternoon becomes evening. You are going away with the passing of light. Soon you will leave your Tired body where sunken eyes Are closed in quietness. Flesh gently covers protuberant Bone. Breathing is slower. Now there is only waiting for Your final exhalation into The gathering night of peace. George Coombs

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This is why I require that you develop your samadhi practice properly. Don't go saying, 'I want to do it another way' or 'I want to do it differently'. If you live with me, you train according to the way I teach. If you have never trained in this practice, how can you know what we are talking about? This applies to all the practices we do - you cannot appreciate them until you've developed them. You must train. Sitting samadhi in the lotus posture has been the practice ever since the time of the Buddha - nothing has changed. This is how it's done. The more correct your posture, the better your samadhi. The practice of Dhamma (Truth) and the practice of Vinaya (Discipline/Precepts) go together. The Vinaya is our body and the Dhamma is our mind. That's all there is. We train ourselves our body and mind. Our body and speech - that's the precepts; and our mind is the Dhamma. They go together. And there are means of training for each level. Just as a fruit has skin, flesh and pith, the Way has precepts (sila), concentration (samadhi) and wisdom (panna). Following the Vinaya means we are contained in our speech and action, and accordingly the mind is contained - it is collected. If we are skilled in disciplining speech and action, then the faculty of knowing - mindfulness (sati) - is sharp. The mind is as skilled as speech and action, and speech and action are as skilled as the mind. This is religious practice - training of body, speech and mind. There's always something happening in the mind, and if we are doing this practice properly, we are always developing wisdom. We're always studying - constantly knowing what's happening at the ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. All we can do is train ourselves in this kind of knowing - the knowing will not come from constantly hearing Teaching. When you have firmly developed The One Who Knows (Buddhabhava) in your minds, then whatever comes to you, you will know. When you know, when you are mindful, you are able to contemplate - investigate. This is the self-training. So on the external level we simplify our life. If your life is too complicated, you'll lose yourself. Speak simply, work simply - simplify everything you do so you will be able to see clearly. If you arrive at wisdom, it will be because you've learned to understand your own body/mind processes and vise versa. Lokavidu* means to see though the world - this is what I am talking about. If you don't know yourself, you don't know the world. And if you don't understand the nature of the world, then you do not understand yourself. When your mind is clear and bright you are able to see clearly, and in this clarity we study - we study discipline, study samadhi, study wisdom. Whatever comes along, we study. * lokavidu - 'Knower of the Worlds', i.e. one who understands the nature of all conditioned existence. An epithet of the Buddha. If we are studying wisely, we know for instance that a tree we look at has the same nature as we have. We see the process of arising, sustaining, decaying and dying in the outside world, and in 'turning inwards' we can know that same process in our own mind and body. The birth and death of the tree, if seen properly, gives rise to understanding. If we are constantly mindful, then we are constantly developing wisdom. We apply to internal world what we understand through our experience of the external. The internal understanding can likewise be applied to our study of the external. Mindfulness and wisdom come easily if you practise in this way. At this point internal phenomena and external phenomena have merged. Internal and external are the same. That means that when we understand ourselves, we will understand everything in the world. So you must keep on with this practice of knowing yourself. If you forget yourself, if you are not knowing yourself, you will become careless - you do not https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/13/train.htm[03/10/2017 19:18:09]

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know what is going on. Keeping on with this uneven kind of practice makes things very difficult. The very activity of our mind and body is our teacher. If the One Who Knows is constantly present, then you know correctly - all that arises passes. Sometimes there's pleasure, sometimes there's pain; sometimes you like it, sometimes you don't. This is our study material - liking and disliking - not something somewhere else. Study is constant. If you are not able to establish mindfulness constantly, then you are wasting time - not doing anything. It's that fast -- practice can cease just like that. You've got eyes, but it's like you haven't; ears, but it's like you haven't. You've got everything, but it's like you've got nothing - because you don't know yourself. For this reason, the Teaching is to turn your minds inwards - watch your own mind. Don't go doubting by thinking that following something 'outside' or somewhere else can help you overcome doubt. All doubts start and finish in our own minds. It is the same with all the hardships, your sleepiness and all the other difficulties you have. The Buddha taught us to know this very mind and body. He said to know, according to reality, the arising and passing away of nama and rupa - that means this mind and body - not something else. You may go visiting many places and hearing many Teachings, but it always comes back to your putting an end to your own doubts through your own practice. Everyone who practises has to go through this.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

Cover: Articles:

Consciousness and Sensitivity; Ajahn Sumedho Making Our Minds Up; Anagarika Self-Training; Ajahn Chah Living with Luang Por; Several Reflections

July 1990 HOME BACK ISSUES

Living with Luang Por A series of recollections from some of those who trained with Ajahn Chah, or had occasion to meet him during his active teaching years. Paul Breiter (formerly Ven. Varapanno) writes of his early contact with Ajahn Chah (c. 1970)

One cold afternoon as we swept the monastery grounds with long-handled brooms, I thought how nice it would be, what a simple thing it really was, if we could have a sweet drink of sugary coffee or tea after working like that, to warm the bones and give us a little energy for meditation at night. I had heard that Western monks in the forest tend to get infatuated with sweets, and finally the dam burst for me. One morning on pindapada, from the moment I walked out of the gate of the wat to the moment I came back in about 1 1/2 hours, I thought continually about sugar, candy, sweets, chocolate. Finally I sent a letter to a lay-supporter in Bangkok to send me some palm sugar-cakes. And I waited. The weeks went by. One day I went to town with a layman to get medicine. We stopped by the Post Office and my long-awaited package was there. It was huge, and ants were already at it. When I got back to the wat, I took the box to my kuti [hut] and opened it. There were 20-25 pounds of palm and cane sugar cakes. I went wild, stuffing them down until my stomach ached. Then I thought I should share them (otherwise I might get very sick!), so I put some aside and took the rest to Ajahn Chah's kuti. He had the bell rung, all the monks and novices came, and everyone enjoyed a rare treat. That night I ate more; and the next morning I couldn't control myself. The sugar cakes were devouring me; my blessing started to seem like a curse. So I took the cakes in a plastic bag and decided to go round the monks kutis and gave them away. For a start I fell down my stairs and bruised myself nicely. The wooden stairs can get slippery in cold weather, and I wasn't being very mindful in my guilty, distressed state of mind. The first kuti I went to had a light on inside, but I called and there was no answer. Finally after calling several times and waiting, the monk timidly asked who it was (I didn't yet understand how strong fear of ghosts is among those people). I offered his some sugar, and he asked me why I didn't want to keep it for myself. I tried to explain about my defiled state of mind. He took one (it was hard to get them to take much, as it is considered to be in very bad taste to display one's desire, or anger). I repeated this with a few others, having little chats along the way. It was getting late, and although I hadn't unloaded all the sugar cakes, I headed back to my kuti. My flashlight batteries were almost dead, so I lit matches to try to have a view of the path - there were lots of poisonous things creeping and crawling around in the forest. I ran into some army ants, and https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/13/living.htm[03/10/2017 19:17:13]

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experienced my first fiery sting. I got back to my kuti, feeling very foolish. In the morning I took the rest of the cakes and gave them to one of the senior monks, who I felt would have the wisdom and self-discipline to be able to handle them.

It was a foot in the door and a privilege. Through it, I was to start seeing that there was a way of life in the monastery which is rich, structured, and harmonious.

My heart grew heavy. I went to see Ajahn Chah in the afternoon to confess my sins. I felt like it was all over for me, there was no hope left. He was talking with one old monk. I made the customary three prostrations, sat down and waited. When he acknowledged me, I blurted out: 'I'm impure, my mind is soiled, I'm no good....' He looked very concerned. 'What is it?' he asked. I told him my story. Naturally he was amused, and within a few minutes I realised that he had me laughing. I was very light-hearted; the world was no longer about to end. In fact, I had forgotten about my burden. This was one of his most magical gifts. You could feel so burdened and depressed and hopeless, and after being around him for a few minutes it all vanished, and you found yourself laughing. Some times, you only needed to go and sit down at his kuti and be around him as he spoke with others. Even when he was away, I would get a 'contact high' of peacefulness as soon I got near his kuti to clean up or to sweep leaves. He said, 'In the afternoon, when water-hauling is finished, you come here and clean up.' My first reaction was, 'He's got a lot of nerve, telling me to come and wait on him.' But, apart from being one of my duties, it was a foot in the door and a privilege. Through it, I was to start seeing that there was a way of life in the monastery which is rich, structured, and harmonious. And at the centre of it all is the teacher, who is someone to be relied on. Finally, he asked why was I so skinny? Immediately, one of the monks who was there told him that I took a very small ball of rice at meal-time. Did I not like the food? I told him, I just couldn't digest much of the sticky rice, so I kept cutting down. I had come to accept it as the way it was, thinking that I was so greedy that eating less and less was a virtue. But he was concerned: Did I feel tired? Most of the time I had little strength, I admitted. 'So', he said, 'I'm going to put you on a special diet for a while - just plain rice gruel and fish sauce to start with. You eat a lot of it, and your stomach will stretch out. The we'll go to boiled rice, and finally to sticky rice. I'm a doctor.', he added. (I found out later on that he actually was an accomplished herbalist, as well as having knowledge of all the illnesses monks are prone to). He told me not to push myself too much. If I didn't have any strength, I didn't have to carry water, etc. That was when the magic really began. That was when he was no longer just Ajahn Chah to me. He became Luang Por, 'Venerable Father' Ajahn Munindo describes a visit from Luang Por.

There was a very difficult period in my training in Thailand after I had already been a monk for about four years. As a result of a motor bike accident I had had before I was ordained, and a number of years of sitting in bad posture, my knees seized up. The doctors in Bangkok said it was severe arthritis, but nothing that a small operation couldn't fix. They said it would take two or three weeks. But after two months and three operations I was still hardly walking. There had been all kinds of complications: scar tissue, three lots of general anaesthetic and the hot season was getting at me; my mind was really in a https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/13/living.htm[03/10/2017 19:17:13]

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state . I was thinking: My whole life as a monk is ruined. Whoever heard of a Buddhist monk who can't sit crossedlegged.' Every time I saw somebody sitting cross-legged I'd feel angry. I was feeling terrible, and my mind was saying, 'It shouldn't be like this; the doctor shouldn't have done it like that; the monks' rules shouldn't be this way ....' It was really painful, physically and mentally. I was in a very unsatisfactory situation. Then I heard that Ajahn Chah was coming down to Bangkok. I thought if I went to see him he might be able to help in some way. His presence was always very uplifting. When I visited him I couldn't bow properly; he looked over me and asked, 'What are you up to?' I began to complain: 'Oh Luang Por,' I said, 'It's not supposed to be this way. The doctors said two weeks and it has been two months ....' I was really wallowing. With a surprised expression on his face he said to me, very powerfully: 'What do you mean, it shouldn't be this way? If it shouldn't be this way, it wouldn't be this way!'

Reflection

Petals of perception Tenderly unfurl Over tranquil waters Of a reflective mind Where thoughts ripple And ebb Into stillness John B. B.

That really did something to me. I can't describe how meaningful that moment was. He pointed to exactly what I was doing that was creating the problem. There was no question about the fact of the pain; the problem was my denying that fact, and that was something I was doing. This is not just a theory. When someone offers us the reflection of exactly what we are doing, we are incredibly grateful, even if at that time we feel a bit of a twit. Ajahn Sumedho recalls an incident from his early days with Ajahn Chah (c. 1967-69)

In those days I was a very junior monk, and one night Ajahn Chah took us to a village fete - I think Satimanto was there at the time. Now we were all very serious practitioners, and didn't want any kind of frivolity or foolishness; so of course going to a village fete was the last thing we wanted to do, because in these villages they love loudspeakers. Anyway, Ajahn Chah took Satimanto and I to this village fete, and we had to sit up all night with all the raucous sounds of the loud speakers going and monks giving talks all night long. I kept thinking, 'Oh, I want to get back to my cave. Green skin monsters and ghosts are much better than this.' I noticed that Satimanto (who was incredibly serious) was looking angry and critical and very unhappy. So we sat there looking miserable, and I thought, 'Why does Ajahn Chah bring us to these things?' Then I began to see for myself. I remember sitting there thinking, 'Here I am getting all upset over this. Is it that bad? What's really bad is what I'm making out of it, what's really miserable is my mind. Loudspeakers and noise, distraction and sleepiness - all that, one can really put up with. It's that awful thing in my mind that hates it, resents it and wants to leave.' That evening I could really see what misery I could create in my mind, over things that one can bear. I remember that as a very clear insight of what I thought was miserable, and what really is miserable. At first, I was blaming the people and the loudspeakers and the disruption and the noise and the discomfort, I thought that was the problem. Then I realised that it wasn't - it was my mind that was miserable. Sister Chandasiri first met Luang Por Chah while still a lay woman, during his second visit to England in 1979.

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For me one of the most striking things about Luang Por Chah was the effect of his presence on those around him. Watching Ajahn Sumedho - who hitherto had been for me a somewhat awe-inspiring teacher - sit at his feet with an attitude of sheer delight, devotion and adoration lingers in the mind as a memory of extraordinary sweetness. Ajahn Chah would tease him, 'Maybe it's time for you to come back to Thailand!' Everyone gasped inwardly.....Is he serious?' Later on a visitor, a professional flautist, began to ask about music, 'What about Bach? Surely there's nothing wrong with that - much of his music is very spiritual, not at all worldly.' (It was a question that interested me greatly.) Ajahn Chah looked at her, and when she had finished he said quietly, 'Yes, but the music of the peaceful heart is much, much more beautiful.' Ajahn Santacitto recollects his own first meeting with Ajahn Chah.

From the very first meeting with Ajahn Chah, I couldn't help but be aware of how powerful a force was emanating from this person. I had just arrived at the monastery with a friend, and neither of us spoke much Thai, so the possibility of talking with and hearing Dhamma from Ajahn Chah was very limited. I was considering taking ordination as a monk mainly in order to learn about meditation, rather than from any serious inclination towards religious practice. It happened that, just at that time, a group of local villagers came to ask him to perform a certain traditional ceremony which involved a great deal of ritual. The lay bowed down before the Master, then they got completely covered over with a white cloth, and then holy water was brought out and candles were dripped into it, while the monks did the chanting. And, young lad that I was, very science-minded, rather iconoclastic by nature, I found this all rather startling and wondered just what I was letting myself in for. Did I really want to become one of these guys and do this kind of thing? So I just started to look around, watching this scene unfold before me, until my eye caught Ajahn Chah's, and what I saw on his face was very unexpected: there was the smile of a mischievous young man, as if he were saying, 'Good fun, isn't it!' This threw me a bit; I could no longer think of him as being attached to this kind of ritual, and I began to appreciate his wisdom. But a few minutes later, when the ceremony was over and everyone got up and out from under the cloth, all looking very happy and elated, I noticed that the expression on his face had changed; no sign of that mischievous young lad. And although I couldn't understand a word of Thai I couldn't help but feel very deeply that quality of compassion in the way he took this opportunity of teaching people who otherwise might not have been open and susceptible. It was seeing how, rather than fighting and resisting social customs with its rites and rituals, he knew how to use it skillfully to help people. I think this is what hooked me. It happened countless times: people would come to the monastery with their problems looking for an easy answer, but somehow, whatever the circumstances, his approach never varied. He met everybody with a complete openness with the 'eyes of a babe', as it seemed to me - no matter who they were. One day, a very large Chinese businessman came to visit. He did his rather disrespectful form of bowing, and as he did so his sports shirt slipped over his back pocket, and out stuck a pistol. Carrying a pistol is about the grossest thing you can do in coming to see an Ajahn in a Thai monastery! That really took me aback, but what struck me most of all was when Ajahn Chah looked at him, there was that same openness, no difference, 'eyes like a babe'. There was a complete openness and willingness to go into the other person's world, to be there, to experience it, to share it with them. Ajahn Sumedho recalls an incident during Luang Por's visit to Britain in 1976.

When Ajahn Chah first visited England, he was invited to a certain woman's home for a vegetarian meal. She obviously had put a lot of effort into creating the most delicious kinds of

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food. She was bustling about offering this food and looking very enthusiastic. Ajahn Chah was sitting there assessing the situation, and then suddenly he said: 'This is the most delicious and wonderful meal I have ever had!' That comment was really something, because in Thailand, monks are not supposed to comment on the food. And yet Luag Por suddenly manifested this charming character in complimenting a woman that needed to be complimented, and that made her feel so happy. He had a feeling for the time and place, for the person he was with, for what would be kind. He could step out of the designated role, and manifest in ways that were appropriate; he was not actually breaking any rules, but it was out of character. Now that shows wisdom and the ability to respond to a situation - not to be just rigidly bound within a convention that blinds you. Paul Breiter

On his visit in 1979, he related that once a Westerner (a layman, I think) came to Wat Pah Pong and asked him if he was an arahant. Ajahn Chah told him: ' Your question is a question to be answered. I will answer it like this: "I am like a tree in the forest. Birds come to the tree, they will sit on its branches and eat its fruit. To the birds, the fruit may be sweet or sour or whatever. But the tree doesn't know anything about it. The birds say 'sweet' or they say 'sour' from the tree's point of view this is just the chattering of the birds."' On that same evening we also discussed the relative virtues of the arahant and the bodhisattva. He ended our discussion by saying: 'Don't be an arahant. Don't be a Buddha. Don't be anything at all. Being something makes problems. So don't be anything. You don't have to be something, he doesn't have to be something, I don't have to be something ......' He paused, and then said: 'Sometimes when I think about it, I don't want to say anything.' Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

Cover: Articles:

July 1990

Consciousness and Sensitivity; Ajahn Sumedho Making Our Minds Up; Anagarika Self-Training; Ajahn Chah Living with Luang Por; Several Reflections

HOME BACK ISSUES

EDITORIAL To the Spiritual Friend This issue of the Newsletter is dedicated to Venerable Ajahn Chah (Than Chao Khun Bodhinayana Thera). On June 17th, the occasion of his 72nd birthday, many of his disciples will have gathered at the monasteries founded in his name to express their gratitude and respect in chanting, in Dhamma reflections and in the stillness of meditation. At Amaravati this day was also the occasion for three women to receive the Going Forth (Pabbajja) as ten-precept siladhara, in the presence of a Sangha from five of the monasteries in our immediate 'family'. In Going Forth into the Sangha one is seeking to live in a mutually supportive relationship, which is an opportunity for us all to reflect on the qualities of the Kalyanamitta, the spiritual friend. Bearing with the difficulties of an untrained mind requires faith and a strong heart. At first glance the monastic life can seem emotionally sterile, with no feeling or warmth, but its support is of a practical rather than showy nature. The finest quality of spiritual friends is not that they are particularly effusive, but that they understand from their own experience that the defilements are not-self. From such detachment, compassion as well as wisdom naturally springs. And as we live in relationship, these qualities in others catalyse and strengthen them in ourself. On the path of insight, it is through detachment and dispassion that we become a good friend to others - and, most remarkably, to ourselves. It is because Ajahn Chah so exemplified the qualities of a spiritual friend, and could give birth to that friend in one's own heart, that he is referred to as 'Luang Por'. The term means literally 'Venerable Father', but it can convey untranslatable dimensions of affection, devotion and respect.

It's just as well that I'm not perfect - otherwise you might think that the Buddha was to be found anywhere outside of your mind.

The formation of a cult around a teacher would be very much against the way of the Buddha and the wishes of Ajahn Chah himself. He always regarded himself as a simple forest monk who, aware of his many human weaknesses, had surrendered himself to living under the Vinaya discipline to become one of the many disciples of the Buddha. His practice had great faith in the Buddha and a devotion that brought forth immense effort and resourcefulness. As a teacher he imparted these qualities to those who wished to receive his guidance, but without making any personal claims. Jack Kornfield, who trained as a bhikkhu under Ajahn Chah, tells of an occasion when he was having a lot of irritation with Wat Pah Pong, himself and Ajahn Chah. Going to see the Master, he let forth a diatribe against the monastery and the style of practice, finally criticising Ajahn Chah for some of his 'unenlightened' idiosyncrasies. Ajahn Chah was not living up to what Jack felt an enlightened master should look like. Luang Por laughed and replied: 'Good. It's just as well that I'm not perfect - otherwise you might think that the Buddha was to be found anywhere https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/13/editor.htm[03/10/2017 19:15:12]

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outside of your mind. Go back to your kuti and meditate.' With wisdom and humour, Ajahn Chah could even use his own limitations as a means of pointing to where the Dhamma is to be found. It was also the case that his means of causing someone to review their own attachments could be stern. Just as it's not always so right to be strict, it's not always so kind to be sweet. A spiritual friend points out that the highest form of refuge is not any person, but one's own practice, independent of circumstances. Although not-self, there are loving-kindness, joyousness and wisdom in the heart. We should aspire to grow beyond seeking them elsewhere. As long as we take even the Kalyanamitta to be outside of ourselves, eventually we're going to suffer when they leave, die or fail to live up to our image of them. The Kalyanamitta is always present in the pure and compassionate heart that is the result of years of letting go - in the detachment, dispassion and that cessation of self-view that allows the mind to rest in inner stillness. For those going forth, one can have no higher wish than that they realise that for and in themselves - and bring it forth in the hearts of others. Kindred Sayings Vol. V: Chap. XLV; 1 (ii) Ajahn Sucitto

'It is the whole, not the half, of the holy life - this friendship, this association, this intimacy with what is lovely. Of a monk who is a friend, an associate, an intimate of what is lovely we may expect this - that he will develop the Ariyan eightfold way, that he will make much of the Ariyan eightfold way. 'And how, Ananda, does such a monk develop and make much of the Ariyan eightfold way? 'Herein, Ananda, he cultivates right view ...right aim...right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration, which is based on detachment, on dispassion, on cessation which ends in self-surrender.... 'It is by this method, Ananda, that you are to understand how the whole of this holy life consists in friendship, in association, in intimacy with what is lovely.'

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October 1990 THIS ISSUE Editorial:

2533

Cover: Dhamma: Naturally Delightful, Additive-free; Ajahn Amaro Articles: Living Vinaya; Ajahn Sucitto

Question Time; Ajahn Sumedho

On The Path; A Tudong Special: varied experiences

Number 14 HOME BACK ISSUES

The Dhamma: Naturally Delightful, Additivefree The following is an excerpt from a talk given by Ajahn Amaro during a retreat he led at Amaravati in June of 1988. Practising meditation is very much a way of learning, of understanding the ways of nature. One of the meanings of the word Dhamma is 'nature' - just the way things are - the nature of things. We can consider why it is, particularly on a day like today when the sun is warm and bright, why it is that the trees, the singing of the birds, the beautiful clouds, why do they delight us? Why is that something that pleases us? The waving of the trees in the wind, the movement of the clouds across the sky - why is this something that is lovely to us? The natural beauty of the world is something which pleases us because it gives an echo of Dhamma, of the true nature of things, of the sense of balance and form, of fruitfulness, of the harmony which lies at the very heart of our lives. These qualities in the physical world help to remind us, or lead us inwards to touch that within us which appreciates the beautiful, which loves the harmonious. And the opening of the mind to Dhamma, to truth, is learning to recognise the place of all our experience in the whole pattern of nature, so that we appreciate more and more from the depths of being that this is the way things are - this is life working itself out. One of the qualities of the Dhamma, of the truth, is that it's attractive. It draws our attention to it, it draws all things to it. And it is this quality of turning towards Dhamma, turning towards truth, that we are using this work of meditation to cultivate. Now the enlightenment of the mind is in itself a natural process, it is not something that has to be introduced from outside. It's the discovery of the mind's own nature, and this discovery works according to natural laws. The process of this awakening, of this enlightenment, is something that first of all is founded on our conduct, on action and speech, so that once we begin to live in a restrained and modest way, careful of what we say and do, and respectful of the effect we have on other people, this then leaves the mind free from any kind of self-criticism, free from remorse, free from negativity. We don't have to keep remembering all of the foolish things that we've said and done.

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The natural result when there is enjoyment of the present moment is that we tend to stop looking elsewhere for our enjoyment, so that the mind is more rested.

The result of this restraint is a sense of contentment, a sense of ease in life - what is called joy, a pleasantness, a warmth of heart. And this develops as time goes by; as we further our efforts this becomes more of a sense of real enjoyment - a sense of delight, of enthusiasm for life. A lot of our negativity and depression comes from living in very self-centred, self-concerned, self-important ways, and as that is laid aside depression tends to lift. Self-respect arises. Even the very comfort of the body, the health of the body, is affected by our ease of mind, our positivity. The natural result when there is enjoyment of the present moment is that we tend to stop looking elsewhere for our enjoyment, so that the mind is more rested. It will not rush off into the past and the future. It doesn't seek. So this means that the development of samadhi (or concentration) comes much more easily. The mind will naturally rest, and settle upon an object that it's directed to. Now the quality of samadhi doesn't have to be upon a single fixed point. It also means the concentration upon the moment, upon the whole field of experience. When the mind is resting easily with the whole experience of the moment, then intelligence naturally come into play - the wisdom, the intuition of the mind has a bit of room to operate. It begins to discover the patterns that are at work, how things are shifting and changing, what is arising from what, what is affecting what. The understanding of the patterns of life that are at work naturally leads to a sense of 'disenchantment'. There's no longer the tendency to grasp on to life, or to push things away. When you see the nature of things, when there's an openness to the way things are, then there's a direct insight into change. You notice that every quality which you experience has the nature of beginning and ending, it comes and it goes. Whether it's part of your mind, or whether it's inside you, or outside you, whether it's mental or physical - you see that everything is changing and that there's no sense of ownership, no sense of possession of any kind of quality, any memory, or feeling or idea in the mind. This is a direct perception, a knowing that: 'Well, that's not me, that's not mine, that's not what I am.' And the assumptions that you've made about yourself as being a particular kind of person - 'I am an English person, I am so many years old, I am like this. I am an introvert, I am a happy person, I'm a hungry person. I'm hot, I'm cold' - there's a very conscious knowledge that these are only half-truths only relatively true. This is not ultimately who and what we are. There's a sense of purity and a sense of stillness - a distance from the patterns of experience arising in the mind. This is the relinquishment, the disentanglement from the world of senses, of eyes and ears, nose and tongue, body and mind. It is important to understand, however, that this is not an act of rejection. It's not pushing away, it's not a denial of feelings of beauty in the world, but it's the recognition of them as being part of the conditioned world, imperfect, and not an absolute abiding place. There's no solidity, no real permanence or security that can be found there. As this practice is developed, the heart finds its freedom. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/14/14.htm[03/10/2017 19:27:35]

Who scattered these leaves in thickly trodden piles that, spreading carpet-like, lull the crispy crack of winter's cold approach?

Who scattered these leaves with clear, grand gestures, that, so generally falling, ochre the sullen mud of our woodland paths?

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It's very helpful to understand that this pattern is something which is within our ability to put into action in our lives in order to be enlightened. It's simply a matter of learning to develop this natural process. It is also important to recognise that to be enlightened doesn't mean to say that the mind is completely empty of any kind of activity - empty of emotion, empty of feeling or perception - that there's no longer a fraction of aversion, no longer love or hate, that the mind becomes a bland empty space where nothing happens. On the contrary, the practice of the Buddha's Way is simply understanding and knowing things as they are. All the feelings, thoughts, doubts, worries that arise in our minds - there's a direct knowing and appreciation of their nature.

Oh who was it who scattered these precious leaves that, with quiet radiance, mirror the softening glow of our golden sun? Sister Satima

'This is not me. This is not mine. This is not what I am. This is not something which can truly trouble or invade the mind, nor is this something to try and hold on to.' Because no matter how beautiful or dear it might be to us, if we try to hold onto an emotion or a memory, a feeling, we can only grasp it for so long ...and then it changes. Now if you are mindful, if you are awake to the mind in a state of say, confusion, if there's just that acknowledgement, the knowing that, 'Here is confusion, here is the feeling of agitation in the mind,' then that is an enlightened moment. This is important to appreciate: that even though there might be a lot of feeling or activity in the mind, as long as there is awareness present, then there is direct knowing and appreciation of that mental state, no matter how black and confused, or bright and delightful it might be. It's like having the Buddha present. If the Buddha is there - the One Who is Awake - if the knowing is there, then you're safe, no matter how much confusion and difficulty there is. Our practice is the development of this understanding; that to be enlightened is not to try to exclude every thought and feeling from the mind, or to only think positively, never have any kind of violent or chaotic or vulgar thoughts. But it's simply to be awake to the way things actually are, to the pattern of things as we experience them. Reflecting upon the changes through the day, you can see how sometimes there are feelings of ease and happiness. Sometimes there are feelings of discomfort. And that it's by adding to it all that the trouble begins. So what I have been encouraging today is the learning of how not to make additions, not to add on to the ordinary nature of life. To encourage this attitude, the quality that is most helpful for us to develop is that of kindness, benevolence - and this is a very powerful force. It is something which has a tremendous healing capacity for the mind. But it's also something that it's very easy to lose track of. Our minds easily slip into criticism and judgement, and the subtle negatives of what we like, what we don't like, and our tendency to pick and choose amongst our experiences. So what helps, in many ways, with meditation practice is to ground our minds in the attitude of benevolence, of well-wishing towards all our experience. I remember, not that long ago, I had been developing a meditation practice upon the heart; just focussing the mind in the area of the heart and trying to develop the attitude of kindness, wellbeing, well-wishing in a very specific way; to make a point of generating that sort of attitude. I was finding this very helpful and it was working very well. But then I noticed that there were still some things in my character, the way my mind worked, that I was tending to push aside, saying: 'Look, don't bother me now, I'm trying to be benevolent. Just get out of my way. Can't

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you see I'm meditating?' And these were subtle attitudes - feelings of insecurity and childish, complaining, moaning, selfish irritations going on in the mind. Just little nagging complaints about this and that; wanting to be patted on the head, wanting people to say they loved me and to give me those little affirmations that jolly up your day and make you feel good. I could see these little moans going on in the mind - wanting to be pampered, supported and have every thing affirming me. And then complaints about other people - just on-going criticism of various people in the community that you would habitually have as a scapegoat in your mind. I would see these petty and childish negativities swirling around, and I could see that there was a tendency to brush them aside. I remember talking to Ajahn Sumedho one day and saying: 'I can manage a whole-hearted kindness towards people - but as far as the petty, childish, mental activities go, I can manage a tolerance but I can't really get the love quality going.' To which he replied: 'Well that's exactly what you have to put your heart into! That's what matters most of all. The very things you tend to dislike about yourself, you have to consciously learn to welcome them - to generate the heart of kindness for them.' So I thought: 'Well , O.K. I'll have to do something about this.' For the next few days I made a very definite point, as firmly as I could in my mind, that as soon as I noticed any one of these annoying qualities of mind that I tended to criticize, instead of pushing it away, I would consciously welcome it and appreciate it. So I had this funny little tune going for a while where, as soon as I noticed, say, a feeling of conceit I'd say: 'Oh, welcome. Hello. Conceit, yes please, come in. Sit down. Make yourself at home - yes, yes. Now don't go away. Don't leave. No, no, no, no. Please stick around. You're most welcome to stay as long as you want. Have a cup of tea.' There were these absurd dialogues going on, but I found it very helpful because it made it possible to be clearly conscious of, and to pinpoint, that which we habitually reject, push away - the ugly qualities of our character that we don't like, that we don't want to be. If you're a Buddhist you don't want to be arrogant and conceited, you don't want to be selfish or irritable, or greedy or lustful - you don't want to have these qualities around in the mind. And I found this strange alchemy occurring whereby, as soon as there was this attitude of direct welcoming and fondness, a real readiness to accept those feelings, then there was a conscious appreciation that there never had been any real danger from them. Those weren't actually me at all, anyway. As long as there was a rejection, a pushing away, I realized that the negativity, the pushing away was implying, 'Here is something that is really able to affect my mind. This is something that can poison my mind. This is something which is me, which is my character, a frame of mind which is corrupting me and which I don't want to have around.' But as soon as there was that open-heartedness, that welcoming, then there was a recognition that these were qualities which did not touch the mind, which couldn't affect the true nature of the mind. They cannot reach it, they cannot touch it. They're not of the same dimension. They're not of the same order. So there was a direct knowledge that no amount of ugliness or coarseness, of any quality, could ultimately poison or disturb the mind. This is something that you see portrayed in Buddhist scriptures, in the depictions of the night of the Buddha's enlightenment. Here you see the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree surrounded by the hordes of Mara: the daughters of Mara, all decked out, trying to allure the Buddha; the frightening forms of ugly demons with battle-axes mounted on terrible warelephants; and then the last of the things which Mara sent to test the Buddha, an image of his old father - King Suddhodana - with tears running down his cheeks, begging the Buddha to come back and take over the kingdom. 'You would have made such a good king, son. Such a fine lad, so bright, so strong, intelligent. You would have done such a good job, I don't know

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what I'm going to do. I haven't got any other children. The kingdom will just fall apart.' The Buddha is not fooled by any of these forces. His response is simply: 'I know you, Mara.' And the hordes of Mara are always at a distance. They can't reach the Buddha. They can't touch him. They cannot enter his zone. And he's just sitting there calm, unintimidated, bright. This symbolises the mind's own true nature - when there is that awakenedness, that full appreciation and openness to the way things are, then nothing, nothing whatsoever, nothing from the mortal world can reach in and touch the mind which knows - that which knows, the Buddha mind, the Buddha quality of your own mind.

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October 1990 HOME BACK ISSUES

Dhamma: Naturally Delightful, Additive-free; Ajahn Amaro Living Vinaya; Ajahn Sucitto Question Time; Ajahn Sumedho On The Path; A Tudong Special: varied experiences

Living Vinaya During the Vassa or Rains Retreat, it is customary for the monks and nuns to have instruction in the Vinaya - the training that the Buddha laid down for his ordained disciples. Training in bodily action and speech is an important aspect of the BuddhaWay, so much so that in Theravada the teaching of the Buddha is typically referred to as 'Dhamma-Vinaya' (rather than simply 'Dhamma'). Understanding the themes and attitudes of the Vinaya is therefore certainly relevant to all followers of the BuddhaWay. Below is an edited extract from one of the talks given by Ajahn Sucitto to the bhikkhus at Amaravati during Vassa 1988. We are using this vassa for recollecting the focal point for our community, which is to live in accordance with the Dhamma-Vinaya. The Vinaya needs to be constantly refreshed, because its vitality depends upon it being exercised by a living Sangha of people who practice it. We have these meetings in order to consider wisely how to use the frames of reference, the rules, the regulations and the observances in accordance with the spirit and the aims of the Buddha's teachings. Using this training, the Sangha has been able to keep going for two and a half millennia after the Parinibbana. The Vinaya and the Sangha support each other if the teaching is practiced in the right spirit. Much of the way that we live is not purely defined by the Patimokkha-discipline, the training precepts which we recite. There are a lot of small points in the day-to-day occurrences where clarity is needed. Besides, the Patimokkha-precepts often relate to particular situations that do not happen in this time, so a lot of the training in Dhamma-Vinaya is to understand how one can reflect on these training-rules. We can also refer to the accounts in the books of the Vinaya and the commentaries to see what are the standards which form the basis of the training rules. The Buddha said in the Mahaparinibbana-Sutta that the Dhamma-Vinaya would be the guide after his decease, and the interpretation of Dhamma-Vinaya should be by reference to four authorities: the authority of the Buddha's word, the authority of the Sangha, the authority of a Thera-council for the community, or the authority of a single Thera. One should refer to these in times of uncertainty. Also one can use 'Great Standards' (mahapadesa), which say that if something that did not exist at the time of the Buddha resembles something which did, we can regard it in the same way.

The Lord Buddha himself seemed to take into accont the fact that, human nature being what it is and rules what they are - there is no rule that can cover every possible circumstance.

So there are those things which agree with what the Buddha allowed, although they were not around at the time of the Buddha. Many of our foods or medicines agree with things that were used at the time of the Buddha; so we can use them. The cloth that we use in our robes is not

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that which was specified by the Lord Buddha, but agrees with the standards established; so we can use those. Then there are things which were not available but which agree with things which were forbidden. For example, in the Lord Buddha's time people had alcohol, which he forbade; so, quite clearly, narcotics should not be used. These are fairly obvious and easy examples, but many are not quite so easy. So we have to discuss and make decisions as to what things are allowable and what things are not. In considering matters of our discipline in this day and age it's good to recollect the Lord Buddha's reasons for establishing the Patimokkha at all. He gave ten reasons: for the excellence of the Sangha; for the well-being of the Sangha; for the control of the ill-controlled bhikkhus; for the comfort of well-behaved bhikkhus; for the restraint of the asavas (the biases, the fundamental hindrances in this present life); for protection against the asavas in the future; to give confidence to those of little faith; to allow the firm establishment of those who have faith; to establish the true Dhamma; to support the Vinaya. Notice that they allow a Sangha to be equipped to live long; and they aim to support the faith of newcomers and give faith to those who have not yet had faith in the Buddha-Dhamma. So when lay people come into contact with a well-trained Sangha, they see people who are trying to live a life of composure, clarity, and benevolence; who are trying to live as manifestations of Dhamma. This gives them confidence. Then we also use these training rules so that the true Dhamma and the Vinaya itself, the way out of delusion, is constantly kept strong. For example, using the Patimokkha-training rules and the obligations at this time gives us a clear role in our society. It would be quite easy, I think, for us - just acting with good intentions - to handle money, to take up jobs or work, to involve ourselves in social causes, without feeling that what we were doing was grossly wrong. But it's not what we are about. Something, say, as simple as not being able to handle or store one's own food (which doesn't seem to be a moral issue), has a far-reaching effect. If that training was abandoned we'd no longer be dependent on alms, we'd no longer have to go out, we'd no longer need to relate to lay-people. This is one of the great differences between Buddhist and Christian monasticism, where one may become more and more isolated from lay-people (as a hermit), or not much different from one (as a teacher). The relationship is not so well-defined. Something else to consider is a question raised by the elder Ananda about the survival of the Order after the Parinibbana. The elder Ananda commented that after the decease of the Niganatha Nataputta - the leader of the Jains - all the Jains

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Dusk-Light

Looking from this seat the Field is calm in fading light. A breeze is an anointing hand Gently touching as I wait for night. Day is going, birds no longer sing. I wear a robe of quietness just being here Beneath a tree whose branches gently bow. Here is freedom from all fear. The scene will be changing, in each Moment of life there is death. In leaving there is peace with The final offered out-breath. Here where day of going Where birds chant no more Life may be seen as a journey

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began quarrelling and wrangling and arguing amongst each other, with the result that the laity were disgusted and disaffected. Naturally he was concerned whether this would happen after the decease of the Buddha: 'It occurs to me revered Sir, that we should take care that lest after the Lord's passing dispute arises in the Order, dispute for the woe of the manyfolk, for the grief of the manyfolk, for the misfortune of the populace, for the woe and the sorrow of devas and mankind.' The Buddha pointed out that at that time, of course, everybody would agree on the practice of Dhamma: the four applications of mindfulness, the four right efforts, and so on. But he went on to say:

Seeking a peaceful shore. The breeze came soft and gentle Dusk a friend wise and dear. This time was a loving kindness Where special true light was near. Just to be still and receive What life had offered to me In a time like this was to feel That a person could truly be free. And who is sitting here? I asked In my mind there was no strife. Here in original beauty in Dusk-light came newness of life. George Coombs

'That dispute which concerns either the mode of living or the obligations is a trifle, Ananda. But , Ananda, if there should arise in the order a dispute either concerning the Way or concerning the course, this dispute would be for the woe of the manyfolk, the grief of the manyfolk, the misfortune of the populace, the sorrow of the devas and mankind.' So the Buddha felt that the most important principle was to keep the Way out of suffering and the practice (of eliminating the asavas) firmly in mind. And then he went on to talk about the different ways in which the Sangha can have internal dispute and how this can be settled by what are called the adhikarana-dhamma, the 'means of settling disputes and quarrels.' So the Lord Buddha himself seemed to take into accont the fact that, human nature being what it is and rules what they are - there is no rule that can cover every possible circumstance - that there were bound to be certain slight differences of opinion about interpretations, and over what the Buddha actually had said. He took that into accont; so such differences of opinion are not a problem, provided that the Sangha would always get together and come to harmonious agreement. He laid down six different causes for disputes: 'A monk is angry and bears ill-will, ....a monk is harsh and unmerciful, ... envious and grudging, ....crafty and deceitful,....of evil desires and wrong view, ....infected with worldliness, is obstinate and stubborn, he lives without deference and respect towards the teacher; he lives without deference and respect towards Dhamma; he lives without deference and respect towards the Order and he does not complete the training.' These are the six sources of dispute, and they are all based on corruptions in the heart, rather than flaws in the Dhamma-Vinaya. Then there are various legal questions arising due to a dispute or because a monk has been accused of wrong-doing; or because there is uncertainty over what constitutes an offence; or over what constitutes a monk's proper duties. There are seven rules for working with these, all of which require the presence of the community, the Sangha - which doesn't mean every single monk in the world, but all the Sangha dwelling within what is called the sima or 'boundary, the area of one monastery. All of the bhikkhus dwelling within the area where a dispute arose should gather together. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/14/liv-vin.htm[03/10/2017 19:26:30]

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Firstly, the verdict must be given 'in the presence of', so if there's a dispute about a bhikkhu he himself must be there. Then, a 'verdict of innocence' may be given, which means that someone is recognised of being of such a moral standard that it would be impossible for him to have committed that offence: if someone is an arahant, then just by recognising that, the whole issue can be quashed. Or, a 'verdict of past insanity' may be given, which means that if somebody was mad at the time they would not be held responsible for their actions. Or a verdict may be carried out on his 'acknowledgement of what occurred'; the very presence of the Sangha will often make a person own up to where he was going wrong or to say, 'well, actually I think I was wrong, I am sorry about that' or, 'Yes, that was an offence'. The Sangha reflects the aspiration and the direction of the Lord Buddha's teaching; so in the presence of the Sangha, people will generally do what is most honourable. There are some issues which can be decided by majority; for example; whether we should build some buildings. And the 'decision for specific depravity', means the Sangha can formally censure a monk who has done particularly foolish or blameworthy things. 'Covering up with grass' is a way of making amends: say, if one monk has fallen out with another monk, and they start arguing. Then the friends of monk A side with him, and the friends of monk B side with him, and then they all start quarrelling. 'Covering up with grass' means that one of the members of the group A would get up, and say to all the bhikkhus of group B, 'Venerable sirs, for whatever offences our party has caused, we want to confess that, we want to acknowledge that.' Then somebody of group B does the same and the whole matter is dropped, rather than getting into mutual recriminations. Lord Buddha felt that these guidelines would be adequate for sustaining the true practice of the Dhamma-Vinaya even when, from time to time, there might be a dispute over the exact interpretation of the letter of the law. Such legal procedures can only be carried out when people are acting with right intentions, clarity and peacefulness. So the critical factor is the Sangha's aspiration to live in purity, and to interpret the meaning of the rule with wisdom. Now compassion is a major aspect of that wisdom. The Buddha continues: 'And furthermore, six things are to be remembered: A monk should offer his fellow Brahma-farers a friendly act of body, both in public and in private; he should offer a friendly act of speech, a friendly act of thought. 'And whatever are those lawful acquisitions, lawfully acquired (this means whatever he has received on almsround) if they be even but what is put into his begging-bowl - a monk should be one to enjoy sharing such acquisitions, to enjoy them in common with his virtuous fellow Brahma-farers. 'And whatever are those moral habits that are faultless without flaws, spotless without blemish, freeing, praised by wise men, untarnished, conducive to concentration, a monk should dwell united in moral habits such as these with his fellow Brahma-farers, both in public and in private. 'Whatever view is ariyan, leading onwards, leading him who acts according to it to the complete destruction of anguish - a monk should dwell in such a view as this with his fellow Brahma-farers. 'These are the six things to be remembered, making for affection, making for harmony, which conduce to concord, to lack of contention, to harmony and unity. If you, Ananda, should undertake these six things to be remembered, should practice them, would you, Ananda, see any way speech, subtle or gross, that you could not endure?'

'No, revered sir.'

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time it will be for your welfare and happiness.' This is from the Samagama-Sutta in the Majjhima-Nikaya. The Buddha referred to 'DhammaVinaya' and he also said, according to the Mahaparinibbana-Sutta, 'that the standards should be placed against what was written in the Suttas and the Vinaya'. If everything agreed, then you could be confident that this was what the teaching was. It seems that after the Buddha's Parinibbana there was a tendency to divide the Dhamma and the Vinaya into separate pitakas - but this was formulated after the Buddha's decease. One can, of course, take Dhamma without Vinaya - 'Just follow the way of the spirit, follow the heart, conventions are just trouble, picking and fiddling around ....We just need to meditate' that attitude. Or one can take the Vinaya without Dhamma, which produces a legalistic attitude about the training-rules, whereby one can end up using the training without reflecting on it. Sometimes, when one looks at some of the commentaries on the Vinaya, one does feel that they have extended the principle of logic beyond the bounds of what is reasonable. But Sangha practice is to put Dhamma and Vinaya together. One of the fundamental principles that determines what are called offences or transgressions is the quality of intention. With the most serious offences (parajika), intention is very important: they all entail intention, effort and completion of that act. This word, 'intention', is something to consider and get in touch with. Of course, a mind that's completely full of thought doesn't know intention; intention is a much deeper mainspring of mental volition than just a surface burbling of the chattering mind - and certainly we can have all kinds of foolish thoughts. But to get in touch with intention, to understand Vinaya from that standpoint, you have to practice meditation and understand Dhamma. So Dhamma and Vinaya support and deepen each other. It is this that makes the Buddha's teaching so alive and dependent on the effort of those who practice it. Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

Cover: Articles:

October 1990

Dhamma: Naturally Delightful, Additive-free; Ajahn Amaro Living Vinaya; Ajahn Sucitto Question Time; Ajahn Sumedho On The Path; A Tudong Special: varied experiences

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Question Time Ajahn Sumedho replies to a question on attachment and self-view. Grasping is the problem. If you see grasping and understand that, then you have solved life's problems completely. If you really reflect, it's the grasping of the sensory world that makes it all go wrong. In itself the material world is all right. There's nothing wrong with humanity or the universe. It's the grasping that makes us suffer from it. The Buddha pointed to this grasping. In the first Noble Truth he said: 'There is suffering.' He stated the problem that we all have: there is this suffering, this dukkha that we all experience. Then the second Noble Truth is that we suffer because of grasping. Then the insight is to let go of things; and then the realization of non-attachment follows. So if there's peacefulness and calm, then you're aware of non-grasping. The sense of 'me' and 'mine' depends on grasping things. When you think back in your life, the memory part is from being able to remember moments of grasping. You can't remember the moments you were not grasping something. So then you're always having to do things to remember. That's why excitement, romance, adventure, all these things are so powerful for us because when we grasp them then we have these memories. We feel alive. Human beings identify with and grasp memory as self. You feel alive when you're angry and you hate somebody. Indignation makes you feel alive that you are somebody. Greed makes you feel you're going to get something you want. To want something and get it gives you a sense of being alive. Envy and jealousy: to be somebody who other people are jealous of is important, isn't it? To have a better car than the neighbours or to have a beautiful house, or lovely clothes, or be someone who has status in a community - the grasping of that ....

You always know when you're attached, because you're suffering.

You suffer because you're always in this position of being somebody. And then there's always going to be a reaction from somebody else. So if I am a rich and famous person, then the grasping of that perception means that there are going to be a lot of people who want either to challenge me, or take away my wealth, or criticize me. Or people are going to try to delude me, flatter me and make friends with me because they want the things that I have. So that whole form of grasping leads to suffering. But actually, having status and wealth and a new car and all this - there's nothing intrinsically bad or wrong with that, but it's the grasping of it that will bring the suffering. And conversely, with poverty: grasping the idea that I'm a poor person, I'm low class, I'm worthless - grasping that view is suffering. At least when you think: 'Well, I'm poor and I'm the lowest, meanest, most unlovable person

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in the society' - at least nobody's going to envy you for that. But it's still a position that one's going to suffer from attachment. When the attachment is seen through, then it doesn't matter. What your status is, whether you're at the top or the bottom, or in the middle - these are not the important issues of our life or spiritual development. They're not important to us. The Buddha established the Sangha in a way that avoids all that. If you're from the aristocracy, or if you're from the working class or whatever, when you come into the Sangha it's of no importance. You're just Sumedho Bhikkhu, Sobhano Bhikkhu, Sucitto Bhikkhu - you're just bhikkhus, and you don't know whether they were Lord so and so, or Prince of Princess, or any of these things. Such things are of no importance in the holy life. But in worldly life, to have a Ph.D., to be someone who's well-educated, or who comes from a good family: these are highly valued by people in the society. Or they're criticised. You can be an egalitarian, thinking: 'I hate the aristocracy - Lords, Ladies and Counts and Countesses - it's all rubbish.' But that means that you still think it's something. To call it rubbish means that you actually believe it is something important - because as a condition, it's just what it is, you don't have to call it rubbish. It's nothing bad in itself or wrong to be a Lord or a Lady, or a Count or Prince, but it's the attachment to any view about it that leads to suffering. With something you really love, then attachments form quite easily. And you always know when you're attached, because you're suffering. One time, I'd become very devoted to Ajahn Chah. I'd become very attached to him, actually. This gave me a lot of happiness, because I hadn't had anyone who I really felt that love for in my life. So it all went to Ajahn Chah, and it was a very inspiring and wonderful feeling for me. But then I noticed that I was suffering a lot, because if anybody criticised Ajahn Chah or implied that there was a better teacher somewhere else, I'd get incredibly angry about it.

Under Beech Wood Beneath the pollarded beech grove I sit in a perfect crescent of root, on a bed of autumn's leaves and beech nut husks. The air is soft to the skin, a gentle breeze carries the echoes of bird song. It is too hot to walk far in the open. I am grateful for luxuriant green shade offered by these long branches, sideways extensions into space. Drinking apple juice from a tin mug, there is nowhere to go this aimless afternoon. Resting in the stillness of the forest, back to where I came from. Sobhano Bhikkhu

And so I'd watch this. At first I believed it. I'd say: 'If you think the other teacher's better than Ajahn Chah, go to that other teacher' - that kind of thing. But then I'd reflect and see that it was not a very nice mental state, and I'd watch the suffering that was coming from that. And then I'd realise the attachment. Then the tendency was to think, 'I shouldn't be attached.' So I'd say: 'I'm not really attached. Other teachers are just as good as Ajahn Chah. They're all the same ....' But I was still attached; out of idealism I was just pretending not to be attached. So you still suffer, though you're pretending to be completely tolerant and non-attached. Then you realise the attachment is an emotional one. So you begin to go to the feeling of attachment and really study attachment, rather than just trying to suppress it and say: 'I'm not attached.' You go to that place in yourself and you investigate it. You learn from it; and through that you https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/14/qa-sum.htm[03/10/2017 19:25:30]

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let go of it. Because once you see it, then attachment's gone. The attachment is out of ignorance. You're never attached out of wisdom. So once there's wisdom then there's no attachment. You can be attached to the idea of not being attached. Krishnamurti, for example, would always emphasise not to be attached to anything. He would say, 'Monks, this is all wrong. Religion, monks, all this is wrong. It's not the way.' Then people listening to that would attach to his view, and they weren't aware of the attachment they had to Krishnamurti's view. So the problem is not the view, but the attachment. A view is a view. You can see if you're attached to a view, for or against it. Then the actual practice is to not being attached to any view, and you are very much investigating what's going on. With wisdom you're free to be a monk or not to be a monk, but you're not attached to it. You have no opinion. I can see if there's an attachment to being a monk, then I suffer from it, from being a monk. But when there's no attachment, then one feels that it's an offering. One presents this monastic form to others as an offering. It's a gift, it's a beautiful form in itself. It's not me. It would still be an attachment if I felt, in order to prove I'm not attached to being a monk, I should disrobe. That's still an attachment from the self, isn't it? To prove that I'm not attached, I'll have to disrobe to see what happens to my mind when I'm not a monk. That's attachment. But if you're just with the moment as it is, then being a monk, the form itself, is just a beautiful form, a beautiful convention that one feels is of great use and can be a great offering to the society we're in. Beginning with ignorance, there's this imposition, this going out, out of fear and desire and ignorance. So that is the compounding of the whole process, and then attachment comes from that, and one builds a whole realm of attachment in one's mind. Now when there is the ending of ignorance, then the world that is created out of ignorance falls way. Then there's what we call Dhamma - the way things are. So then monks and nuns and lay people, and Buddhist conventions and all these things, are what they are. They're dhammas for us, rather than attachment. The Western mind tends to assume that non-attachment means 'getting rid of something'. For example, a woman said to me once: 'I could never be a Buddhist because I'm attached to my children.' I'd say: 'Well, what do you mean, not be attached to your children? Throw them off a cliff or something to prove you're not attached to them? Or just desert them so that you won't be attached to them?' That's not Buddhism. But the ability to not be attached to your children means that you can love your children. When you're attached to your children, you can't love them any more - because attachment destroys that. Any love you have is destroyed by attachment, because attachment blinds and is painful and is suffering. Whereas love born from wisdom is joyful. Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

Cover: Articles:

Dhamma: Naturally Delightful, Additive-free; Ajahn Amaro Living Vinaya; Ajahn Sucitto Question Time; Ajahn Sumedho On The Path; A Tudong Special: varied experiences

October 1990 HOME BACK ISSUES

On The Path page: 1 2 Several groups of monks and one group of nuns had the opportunity to go wandering 'on tudong' this summer. Although the experience is generally a pleasant one, going tudong also implies a degree of insecurity. It allows the movement of faith - the stepping into the unknown, relinquishing hope or expectation. One of the greatest blessings of the Holy Life is that it forces one to encounter situations where the only choice is to let go in faith. And then this letting go seems to give space for the wonderful to arise. The following reflections are accounts by different monks and nuns of their tudong experience. Sister Viveka was among the nuns who walked west from the Devon Vihara ... A poem by Sister Thanissara, inspired by nuns' two-week walk in Devon. Ven. Kovido walked with Ven. Attapemo from Amaravati to Chithurst. Venerable Nyanaviro writes on his four day walk in Teesdale. Venerable Subbato offers this part account of the Devon to Amaravati tudong. Venerable Chandapalo reports from Switzerland.

Sister Viveka was among the nuns who walked westwards from the Devon Vihara ... Our tudong in devon was auspicious from the very first evening when we were blessed by the Devon Vihara, and offered vihara-made candles in bundles of incense and flowers to carry with us. As we arrived at the vihara, a double rainbow was spanning the valley, its incredible colours drawn out of nowhere.

The walk was full of such wonders - rainbows, and exquisitely sweet honeysuckle scents drifting from the hedgerows, the wildflowers dazzling in their beauty and the intricate wildness of the roadside foliage; the streams rolling and tumbling - sometimes seen through rainy days. One becomes more aware of the elements: water, which takes on the characteristics of whatever it contacts; and earth - how one clings to feeling solid and so dislikes feeling tired and shaky as if about to collapse, until you let go into the motion, the movement of the body; and the radiance of a quiet mind which starts to accept all experiences equally - open to the generosity and exhaustion alike, allowing the universe to unroll as it will.

Although we walked through lonely and deserted places - across moors dotted with barrows, over Tors on Dartmoor - yet there was often the sense that many beings were walking with us. And each day we were met by Devon supporters, always with beaming, welcoming smiles and hospitality. It was a great opportunity to open to a sense of faith in the benevolence of the universe towards those who renounce.

It was my experience to be very aware of one's vulnerability as an alms-mendicant - having only what you could carry with you. Long walks planned and no control over food or shelter. So one has to surrender to the body, to walk, to walking, and trust that what you need will appear at the suitable moment.

There is such a joyful willingness in the lay community to support the life of renunciation.

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In the end, food, shelter and medicines were abundant. Cath, who organised the support for the walk, said that everything came together almost on its own - although I would not underestimate the effort which she put forth to encourage that result. Together with the sense of being profoundly grateful for the care and generosity of our friends - many of whom had not met before - there was also the startling relief in realising that we were welcomed as Sangha. There is such a joyful willingness in the lay community to support the life of renunciation. No matter who you are and how good or bad you think you are, the aspiration and commitment to live under the Vinaya is respected and supported. This BuddhaDhamma is powerful stuff.

Â Â A poem by Sister Thanissara, inspired by nuns' two-week walk in Devon.

Tudong in Devon

Between hello and goodbye that echo in lost valleys, we meet in dreams. From the mountain peak we try to see so that we may know from whence we look. On waking this day, and in the silence I remember a dream of that old and beautiful land which they call Devon. Red earth green hedged fields and heath lands that roll with the hills. Cows and sheep grazing small farms with dogs barking and howling into the night. Beautiful stones underfoot each holding some mysterious essence. Mud tracks and cow pats, wild flowers, dotted like stars proclaiming their simple state of being. Woods and forests whispering through the leaves stories of travellers and old history. Listen carefully. Green foliage bursting with life and shadows falling at twilight, following streams and rivers that trickle and course their way to the sea which seen in the distance beckons and calls. Walking near, the smell --salt, seaweed, seagulls that glide so naturally. Its might and infinity washing

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away the limited as each wave breaks. Dartmoor pouring rain and biting wind majesty and power radiates stirring the depths. A primitive note struck and a long-forgotten call that haunts. Stone circles tumuli, tors ancient dwellings and lost folklore. Maybe we lived here years ago. So just so just as it is. Nature, ordinary, extraordinary and beautiful to behold. In the depths of the dream a mirror is held a kaleidoscope of people reflecting facets of one's own mind. Where's the separation? So diferent so similar. Each in their shy beauty veiling the light with visions and despair confusion and insights the human plight. How strange to be nobody to be everybody - tell me - do you know who we are as we dance, move and weave our way through space and time? Yet nothing really happens no fixed views or rights and wrongs just looking and sensing the heart beat of every living being - their life's song. Totnes

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green capital of the West. Curiosity like a trapped bird being drawn down many corridors to where? It's hard to know what freedom really is In a world of shadows that people call reality. In the silent empty night dark alone awareness shines bright for a moment shifting the shadows and dispelling the dreams. The heart fully appreciates the triple jewel as one who had travelled far would appreciate the long lost love of a friend. Perhaps that too is just a dream a dream ....

Ven. Kovido writes on his walk with Ven. Attapemo from Amaravati to Chithurst.

The actual sensations of walking became the background flow of the stream that kept reemerging during the walk: the feeling of the pack which seemed to get heavier during the day; the interplay of the heat and the cold - finding out that it is preferable to walk in gentle rain rather than hot sunshine; and the effect that a small change in gradient could make to walking. Then the coolness of the trees and the immense relief of taking off the pack and having a break in the late afternoon. How quickly we cooled down when we stopped walking! Late in the afternoon, or early in the evening we would approach a village where we planned to spend the night. It is strange how different it is to walk somewhere rather than to drive. Driving, basically, is going from A to B. You may see a few things whizzing by, but the general experience is: leave A, drive, arrive at B. On the other hand, walking is a very gentle, gradual way to approach a village. As one walks in, consciously or sub-consciously one absorbs the surroundings: the type of terrain - woodlands or fields, buildings and footpaths, the farm animals, the type of architecture. Then, feeling something of the history - the age of the place, the church, the duckpond, the village green, the house names. And then, there you are at somebody's house and somehow you are part of the surroundings - not really an intruder. Quietly, gently, walking in. The door opens and the scene changes and for a while one enters into a different world, like water in a stream coming to a pool, slowing down and curling around for a while. And one undergoes that ritual of getting to know somebody. Having walked helps, because at the end of a day one is tired and thirsty and dirty. So if somebody gives you a cup of tea and a chair to sit down on you are immediately grateful and responsive. Being made helpless by our rules (and also by what we could carry), one cannot get these things for oneself, so a gap is created and during our walk it was generously and regularly filled to the full. Getting to know somebody and being allowed to come into their space for a while is to get a glimpse of a non-monastic world. What are the values, the ideas which make people do what they do? What do they actually do? And the idea of one's work - not so much the breadwinning stuff although not necessarily separated from that - but the work which is the purpose and the fulfillment of a life, its relationship to the society and environment that one lives in. How does this equate with life as a Buddhist monk? Surprisingly, we found that people who may regularly visit the monastery really know very little about the monks and think we (Ven. Attapemo and myself!) are quite formidable or intimidating. And so, partly through the etiquette and the rules about what we can and can't do as monks, and also through the exchange of ideas and thoughts, we would get a glimpse into each others' worlds. And in the midst of all this we take tea and refreshments, a bath, a rest and breakfast and https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/14/tudong.htm[03/10/2017 19:24:25]

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then off we go again. And after about a hundred yards of leaving comes up that feeling of "Oh yes. Remember. This is what it's all about.' That familiar feeling of the weight of the pack on one's back., and the legs stretching out like being back with an old friend. Back walking again, leaving that other world behind, and leaving gently with no traces left behind. And so we'd go on walking, flowing down the stream - stopping for a while, entering another world - and then walking on again.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

Cover: Articles:

October 1990

Dhamma: Naturally Delightful, Additive-free; Ajahn Amaro Living Vinaya; Ajahn Sucitto Question Time; Ajahn Sumedho On The Path; A Tudong Special: varied experiences

HOME BACK ISSUES

EDITORIAL Dhamma is the Centre of the World It is a commonplace observation to note how unnatural our society's ways are; to a great extent, high-speed electronic machines and rhythms pervade our daily life in the West. To one who investigates the mind it is equally apparent that being connected to energies that ignore the mind's rhythms, needs and limitations brings some unhappy consequences on the individual consciousness. Furthermore, even when we are not actually working in such an environment, the predominant worldly values of achievement and efficiency take their toll on the available space of heart and mind. Meditation itself is not immune to achievement attitudes, and even in a monastery life can become measured in terms of how much one has accomplished. It's so obvious, and as such accepted as the way things have to be; the world seems to be too vast and powerful for us to change it.

Rather than trying to get out of the world, or expecting something in it, the way out of suffering is based on a very full appreciation of the moment.

However, using the teaching of the Buddha, it is always possible to work on suffering by understanding and purifying the connection to the world: relaxing the hope and despair, the need for achievement and any position in or out of the world. Rather than trying to get out of the world, or expecting something in it, the way out of suffering is based on a very full appreciation of the moment; only that will bring the mind out of the spinning realm of time and cause and effect. A training that emphasizes care for each thing in itself, and awareness of how one affects others, is a great help - and this is the key to the aspect of the teaching that we call the Vinaya. Vinaya is generally understood to mean the monastic discipline, but its principles of frugality, modesty and responsibility form an excellent basis for family life also. This discipline teaches one to be clear about one's motivations and to appreciate other beings and the requisites of life as they are. In that way, our intentions move away from achieving results in the future - whatever the means - towards purifying the means and the approach to life. It makes it possible to live life from a Dhamma centre, a real human centre, rather than spinning like a lost spirit around the vortex of samsara. It would be quite splendid irony if the ancient themes of Dhamma-Vinaya proved to be the most progressive means towards the improvement of the quality of life in this over-sophisticated age. Ajahn Sucitto

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January 1991 THIS ISSUE Editorial:

2534 Cover: The Real World; Ajahn Sumedho Articles: Beginners' Minds: From newly-robed bhikkhus

Guidelines for Cultivation; Master Hsuan Hua

The Golden State; Amaro Bhikkhu

Sanghapala: an introduction; Marc Lieberman

Number 15 HOME BACK ISSUES

The Real World This is adapted from a teaching given by Ajahn Sumedho during the 1988 winter monastic retreat at Amaravati. Tonight we will once again reflect on the way life is as a human being. Birth in the human form means there is a feeling of separateness, consciousness works within the limitations of the body, so each one of us has to see things from that particular position. Right now I'm sitting right here, I have to see things from this position. Sister Kalyana is way over there in the corner, and Anagarika Bill is here in front - but no matter how far away or close, there is this sense of division or separation. Consciousness is the discriminative function of the mind, so if we attach to consciousness as our identity, there is always the sense of isolation and separation. There are romantic views of finding someone to have communion with. There's a longing in all human beings for some kind of communion or sense of oneness, yet that is a totally impossible thing to have on the level of the discriminative mind - which is where most people seek it. If I am this body, this consciousness, then how can I ever be one with anything? Even though momentarily there may be a sense of oneness - through physical union or emotional unity - there is also separation, because that which comes together must separate. This is the inexorable law. If one is attached to an idea of union, unity or communion, and one feels a moment of it, that conditions the sense of isolation; there is always a sense of loss. So the more we seek communion and oneness in terms of body and consciousness, the more we feel alienated and lonely. Even when there isn't physical or emotional aloneness, we can still feel lonely, because of the existential problem of ignorance - the illusion of separation which is created through identification with consciousness. One can be sitting in a room full of people and feel totally alone. In fact, I think one of the loneliest experiences of my life was when, at about age 24, I went to New York City to live. I was surrounded by millions of people, yet I felt so lonely. Where did the loneliness come from? It was due to the longing, the attachment to the belief in 'the real world' and the feeling

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of not having entered "the real world' in the same way others had. I didn't realise that everyone had the- same problem, actually. I used to think it was a personal flaw in my character, that somehow I was a misfit and that everyone else fitted in - only to find that most people felt that they were misfits.

Meditation isn't an escape from the instinctual world, but an opening up to it; it's a way of understanding the world, apart from the reactions of indulgence or suppression.

This sensory world doesn't fit us, really. It's a kind of passage that we take in order to learn a lesson. (Hopefully we will learn it!) We don't fit into these roles - we are not realty people; you are not really women; you are not really men. These forms are like costumes, they're temporary things that we have to learn to live with. We have to learn how to accept them and know them. We have to learn from this suffering, this sense of alienation that comes from ignorance. It probably starts from the moment you're born, from the time you are thrown out into the world. Babies usually cry when they are born - they don't come out laughing. I've never heard of one doing that! You are one with your mother, and then the umbilical cord is cut. That is the end of chat relationship and then you are a separate being; that must be very traumatic for every baby. You see so many people longing to get back into that relationship again. We'd like a mother to nurse us and take care of us, protect us, keep us warm and all that. I've seen that myself - wanting to have some nice warm womb to crawl back into, some safe place where I'll be protected and be told, 'I love you dear, forever, no matter what you do, and everything's going to be all right. There's going to be plenty of everything - warmth, food and comfort - forever more.' If you practise meditation and develop insight into the Dhamma, you can investigate to see the real problem. Is there any real separation, or is it merely an appearance of separation, brought about by attachment (through desire) to the five khandhas*? *five khandhas: the five components or "heaps of human psycho-physical existence, i.e. form, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. Consciousness implies desire, because as a result of consciousness there's feeling. There are feelings of attraction, repulsion or neutrality and we tend - until there is enlightenment - to react to feeling with desire. We incline towards beautiful, pleasurable things. We try to get rid of, to run away from, ugly or painful things. And the whole range of neutrality is usually unnoticed - unless you write poetry or do something to be more mindful. Usually we're caught in the more extreme reactions to the attractiveness and repulsiveness of sense experience. There is culture, refinement and beauty in the sensory realm, and we can appreciate celestial and ethereal planes of mental creativity. However, it is the lower elements which tend to be the easiest things to absorb into: violence, sex, survival, which are the instinctual functions of the animal world. If

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you want to turn on masses of people, you have to appeal to that level. We must learn how to touch the earth and accept instinctual nature, the four elements and planetary life as it is. Meditation isn't an escape from the instinctual world, but an opening up to it; it's a way of understanding the world, apart from the reactions of indulgence or suppression. We are not trying to deny the animal functions or instincts - or reject them, suppress them - or identify with them as 'me' or 'mine'. But we can reflect, we can note, we can accept them for exactly what they are, rather than for what we believe them to be. Then we can appreciate the intelligence and creativity of a human mind too, without becoming attached to it. This attachment(upadana} is really the crux of the matter. Identification is attachment: 'I am this person, this personality.... I am this body, this is "me". ... I am this way. ... I should be ... I shouldn't be. . . .' And because of "I am' and 'me', there's 'you' - because on this level of consciousness there is separation. We are separate, aren't we? I'm here, and you're there. If we understand this separation to be simply a conventional reality, there is no attachment. We are merely using it for communication and for practical reasons. But for most people that separation is the real world: "Look after yourself. You have to look after yourself first.' 'I have to protect myself. I only have one life, and I've got to see that I can get everything I can out of it.' Parents say, 'Now, Sonny-boy, you've got to be careful, you are not getting any younger. You've got to make sure that you have your pay cheque and your social security, your insurance, your hospital and medical insurance.' People think, 'When I get old, I don't want to be a burden.' The elderly can be perceived as burdensome and they see themselves as burdensome, because of identification with the age of the body. Contemplating this, we can observe all that we create out of these illusions: 'I don't wane to be a burden. ... 1 should, I shouldn't. ... I would like to be ... You should be, you shouldn't be ... You ought, you ought not to . . .' and on and on in this fashion. Views, opinions, identifications, preferences, attachments of all kinds - this is what we call 'the real world', this is what we believe in as reality. If you pick up a London newspaper you'll find all about "the real world'. You can read about the financial problems and the business world, the economic problems of Britain, the United States, the problems of the Soviet Union, and the problems of the Third World countries. Problems of individuals: who's divorcing whom, who's having an affair with whom. Who's being a burden, who's not being a burden, and all kinds of advice over what you should or shouldn't be. That's "the real world', encapsulated in a few sheets of paper, with photographs.

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Now that 'real' world is a poverty stricken world. It's meaningless. If one believes in that and attaches to it then life is a very depressing, increasingly depressing experience - because the world of separation, alienation and division is a world of despair. It's anguishing. Most of it is not particularly joyful - it's dukkha, it's suffering. So what does it mean to be fully human? To be fully human is to be moral: you can't say you are fully human unless you keep at least the five moral precepts - otherwise you are only human some of the time. Now moral responsibility, willingness to be responsible for one's actions and one's speech, is not instinctual, is it? Instincts don't care about speech and actions. In instinctual nature, if something is in your way then you just kick it out or kill it. The animal kingdom doesn't have very much to say; the animal world doesn't seem to have developed highly complicated speech patterns like humans. It's survival of the fittest in the animal kingdom, because there's not the ability to rise up to a moral commitment. To be responsible on the moral plane is a uniquely human opportunity. So, in Buddhist terms, it's only when we rise to that moral plane that we can say we are fully human. This is fulfillment of our humanity, not a rejection of it. Note that so much of the violence and murder is done in the name of something noble: 'Kill the Heretics! . . . Kill the Communists!' But this is all from the position of a 'not-quite' human, isn't it? It's non-humans that do all this - because to be human, you have to be moral. The first precept - Panatipata veramani, to refrain from intentionally taking life - is actually applied, for us, to all beings. It is not for us to decide who is going to live and who isn't. Other beings have as much right to be here, to live on this planet, to breathe, as we do. So this is the beginning of Humanity, because this is something we can choose - instinct doesn't choose to do this. If somebody is being a threat or a bother, our instincts tell us to get rid of them as quickly as possible. But the human side says, 'Would I like to be treated like that? Is that fair, is that right, is that a proper thing to be doing?' My instincts say, 'Kill the mosquitoes! They're a nuisance, they give you malaria. . . . Kill those blasted midges; get rid of them as quickly as possible!' But then the human side says that they have as much right to be here as I do. Who am I to think chat I, somehow, am more important or have more right to breathe and to live my life than midges do? So then from that position, I'm a little kinder, aren't I? I'm not so quick to destroy that which I don't like - which bothers me or is a nuisance - and I am much more willing to give it a chance, to try and understand it, to respect it for what it i?, even though I may never like it. I can't imagine myself ever liking midges - they are just not likeable to humans. But one can accept them for what they are. When you contemplate the amount of irritation they cause, then it's not that much; one can put up with it, one can bear it - it's just the way things are. Their lives are as important to them as my life is to me. That is rising up to the plane of humanity. But I'm sure that the midge doesn't reflect like that; I'm sure the midge doesn't say, 'Look, there's Venerable Sumedho - he keeps the moral precepts, I'm not going to bite him!' They are not human; they cannot rise up to the human plane. But we can sink down to their's very quickly. They are pain of the sensory realm and following the instinctual tendencies of those bodies with their survival mechanisms and all that. What we are doing in Buddhist practice is rising beyond mere human existence towards the refuges of Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha - towards the transcendent, the Death-less, Nibbana. For this, the human foundation is necessary; we have to be fully human before we can expect to get beyond that. In order to transcend it, we have to fully accept the instinctual plane and respect it for what it is; we no longer condemn it or identify with it. We can respect the midges, and the mosquitoes, and all the other beings. So we are not judging the instinctual plane, or exalting it. It is what it is - it's like this. We refrain from doing evil - from intentionally doing cruel, unkind, selfish, mean things, or using our ability to speak for harming others. Then from that human plane we can aspire to the transcendent Deathless

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Realm, Amaravati. Our bodies will die when it is the time for them to go; they die - that is their nature. The human realm is not an end in itself. We have to learn from the human experience - to know it, and rise up to it - but no longer attach to or identify with it, because humanity is not what we are. We are not really humans either! But, paradoxically, we have to be fully human to realise we are not human. From the human plane we can contemplate the instinctual plane. When you are caught in the instinctual plane you can't very well contemplate it, because you are just caught into that level of activity and reaction. But going to the human plane, one can be very much aware of the instinctual one for what it is. Then, from the transcendent plane, we can understand the human one. Much of our meditation is on seeing our own human limitations for what they really are; that's why morality is such an important part of our training. Daily reflections are also very important. We take time to consider what it is to be human, and what is necessary for human survival: 'What do we really need?', rather than 'What do we really want?' 'What is necessary for living in the society in the right way?' As a Sangha, we must consider how to be living examples for the society to see the beauty of humanity, the gentleness, the kindness, the propriety of it - the wisdom of the human realm. However, we are definitely not just pointing to the human realm, but also beyond it. 1 find it very helpful to just be able to contemplate what it is to be a human being to be conscious. What is it to be born and to age? All the things-that are affecting each one of us are to be contemplated; none of it is to be dismissed or rejected. The instinctual realm, the realm of survival and procreation, the emotional realm, the intellectual realm, the ability to feel and to love and to hate and so forth - all these are natural phenomena (dhammas) for us to reflect on and to understand. Then as you awaken more and more, and contemplate and understand more of the Dhamma, you can understand why this world is the way it is. Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles:

Editorial:

January 1991 HOME BACK ISSUES

The Real World; Ajahn Sumedho Beginners' Minds: From newly-robed bhikkhus Guidelines for Cultivation; Master Hsuan Hua The Golden State; Amaro Bhikkhu Sanghapala: an introduction; Marc Lieberman

Beginners' Minds: Newly-robed bhikkhus Three of the six men went forth as bhikkhus this past summer offer their reflections after their first Vassa ('Rainy-season Retreat). My final year as an anagarika was spent at Harnham, and Luang Por Sumedho spent most of that year abroad. I had already determined in my own mind that I would take the Going Forth at the earliest opportunity, but it remained very un-certain when Luang Por would make the invitation. Some two months before the ordination day word came: Would I like to join the Bhikkhu Sangha? My immediate response was just, 'Wonderful! Yes, of course!' - no hesitation. For the next three weeks I gloried in the thought, 'At last my anagarika days are coming to a close!', and I bathed in this amazing sense of uplift that I had been invited to become a bhikkhu. That soon changed. Later on I found myself anticipating just how difficult life could become for me. Old fears arose like phantoms: 'Supposing I don't get on with this monk or that monk? There must be an easier way. . . . Maybe it won't work out how I want.' I determined to relinquish, to put down, all these fears and anticipation of the future and to give up this old self, who was about to die and be reborn as a monk - a new start! I had been a terrible anagarika; now I had this opportunity to start anew. When I was ordained I experienced an extraordinary sense of good-will and support from everyone. The Ordination event itself was infused with a deep sense of uncertainty of the future, a genuine sense of burning one's bridges, of relinquishing the past. I thought of my mother, who I knew was dying. In any heart I thanked her for all the support and goodwill she had given me, knowing that my best offering to her was this Going Forth.

A natural response is to ask, 'What can I offer in return?'

So, having become bhikkhus, we six undertook to study the discipline regulating the conduct of monks - the Vinaya. I expect I will always be learning what it is to be a monk - I am sure the appreciation for the lifestyle grows as the years pass by Half-way through the vassa I had an urgent letter from my brother recommending a visit to my mother before she died. I was fortunate to be with her the day before she passed away. I made my offering to live this Holy Life to its fullest. I know she was happier for me now that I had been fully accepted into the monastic community. I felt certain this would be our last meeting, so I made my farewell very final, thanking her for all the kindness and support she https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/15/begg.htm[03/10/2017 19:35:01]

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had given for a lifetime. On hearing of her passing away the following morning, I could only marvel at my good fortune to have been able to speak with her - so there was nothing left unsaid, no regrets. Two days later I returned for a retreat in Chithurst Forest. It was a time to contemplate just what it meant to Go Forth from the home life into homelessness. In the forest there is just nature, nothing outstanding to distract the mind. I found living amongst the trees for two weeks very conducive to just abiding in the present moment, with this quality of relaxation - relinquishing any concern or anxiety I had of past and future. I felt a greater appreciation for the newness of the present moment, which is always now.

Gandhasilo Bhikkhu ooo0ooo ONE of the most striking impressions soon after the ordination was the increased respect and devotion shown by the laity. As an anagarika I had received some of this, but a considerable change seemed to have occurred. The realisation was, and continues to be, a powerful one. Whereas, from one perspective, the Going Forth appeared as personal experience - concerning me solely as an individual I see that inevitably the repercussions, and responsibilities, are much broader. In a sense, I went forth not just for me but also for others who share a similar aspiration. The monastic form reminds me of this relationship continually, as my daily material requisites depend on the kindness and faith of the laity. A natural response is to ask, 'What can I offer in return?' The main emphasis as a junior monk is to become acquainted with the Patimokkha discipline and related duties. Primarily this means paying close attention to those senior, who act as guides and teachers. Fortunately, we are not asked to go out immediately and teach Dhamma - normally this doesn't occur until one's fifth year - but we do have the opportunity to speak with guests and visitors in the monastery. However, I see this as happening incidentally, during informal moments. So what can I offer? Firstly, I can make the earnest effort to learn and live by the training rules. The experience as a junior monk is a humbling one; continually one makes mistakes, as the focus of one's attention is refined to so many new areas. An attitude of beginning again becomes necessary. Laity who witness this process can be inspired; it is an important reminder that the virtue of morality requires cultivation - we aren't simply born with good conduct. Helpful guidelines are necessary, too, for lay life to https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/15/begg.htm[03/10/2017 19:35:01]

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establish a useful and suitable moral code. The five precepts can be interpreted broadly, and the monastic discipline - which is essentially an expansion on these - offers skilful means on how one can apply them in one's life. Secondly, I can act as a symbol of quietness which makes the monastery such a precious place. Such quietness is a rarity in a world which does not encourage restraint regarding action of speech and body. I believe that stillness and peace of mind are greatly facilitated by a quiet environment. One is not obliged here to maintain certain social customs, like casual chatting or even making eye-contact with others. Of course one is welcome to do so if one wishes, but there is the opportunity to refrain. Possibly this is confusing, even intimidating to people - especially new-comers. I hope that there is a minimum of misunderstanding in this. I can honestly stare that other people's presence needn't be a distraction or disturbance for me. In fact, I am greatly uplifted in being with other people who, I feel, equally treasure quietness - from this a lovely kinship comes about. So for those who similarly seek refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, I hope that I can act as encouragement and live honourably in this life of mutual dependence.

Suriyo Bhikkhu ooo0ooo THIS summer I was given a small jade plant to look after in my room. I was glad both for the life and colour it brought to an otherwise barren room, and for the associations jade plants have with my mother who tended, took cuttings, and kept many of them around our house while I was growing up. It became a focus for attention, something to care about, watch grow, and attend to its need for water and sunlight. It was a rather small plant, and after a few days I noticed that there was a clump of hearty, fast growing grass in one corner of the pot. 'That's not very nice,' I thought, as I reached to yank it out by its roots. But then I remembered, 'Oh yeah, I can't do that any more. It's an offence to damage any living plant.' And my hand stopped in mid-pluck. A little peeved at that moment of mindfulness and conscience, my next thought was to go straight out and beckon an anagarika to perform the task. I wouldn't have told him exactly what to do, but a rather strong hint surely would have gotten the job done - and after all hinting is permissible for bhikkhus, and it's only a weed and it doesn't look very nice and why shouldn't I. . . ? I watched my mind race down this course of justification, gathering momentum and conviction with each successive argument. I stopped, and laughed at myself for having worked myself up into a lather over a blade of grass. This led to a very important insight into how the Vinaya actually works, and to a deeper appreciation for the refinement of training that this bhikkhu life offers. It also increased my respect for the value of restraint, which enables one to see more clearly the subtleties and complexities of the motivations and impulses within one's own mind. Had it been any other occasion that clump of grass would have been gone in a flash. But, due to the prohibition against harming or destroying plant life in the Patimokkha rule, I was forced to restrain my impulse and conditioning, much to my chagrin, but much for my benefit. For I saw the complete arising and passing away of an aversion event. How just upon merely seeing that grass, my mind immediately went through the programme: "It's a weed, get rid of it, do anything you can, just get rid of it, it's spoiling MY jade plant, the rule is get an anagarika, https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/15/begg.htm[03/10/2017 19:35:01]

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GET RID OF IT!' Our minds do this - more often than we'd care to admit! There are so many things we don't like, can't stand, or can't be bothered with, and this fact causes us much irritation and pain. But a clump of grass is just a clump of grass, you might say; unwelcome perhaps in a potted plant, but certainly not worthy of a moral dilemma. But does that excuse the feelings of indignation, aversion, and violence that took shape in my mind? Are petty irritations really any different, other than in degree, from more tangible and volatile thoughts of anger towards animals, other people, ourselves, or nations - no matter how solidly justified? Or are we each individually responsible and accountable unto ourselves for such thoughts of ill-will and malevolence that arise in our minds? Not that we shouldn't have them and should try to get rid of them (does that sound vaguely familiar?), but because we really do have the potential to understand and be free from our identification with all thoughts of harm and reproach. That seems to be the point of Vinaya: to stop one's habitual reactions; to lead one away from harmful influences and compulsions; and to yoke one to a practice through which one can see clearly that which leads to harm, and thereby train oneself not to move in that direction. The Vinaya forces us to bring awareness into the mundane aspects of our lives - into the watering of plants and the washing-up. We bring our attention to observe and learn how we relate to the things and the people around us. By witnessing how this works on the small and ordinary scale, we familiarise ourselves with the mechanisms and movements of our habits. Through understanding how they function, we can begin to hold in check and dismantle those forces that cause so much disruption and conflict in our lives as well as in the world. The grass is still growing. It's taller than the jade plant now. I water them both equally and they continue to be my teachers. Sugato Bhikkhu

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January 1991 HOME BACK ISSUES

The Real World; Ajahn Sumedho Beginners' Minds: From newly-robed bhikkhus Guidelines for Cultivation; Master Hsuan Hua The Golden State; Amaro Bhikkhu Sanghapala: an introduction; Marc Lieberman

Guidelines to Success in Cultivation The Sangha at Amaravati was privileged recently to receive the Venerable Master Hua and the Dharma Delegation from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Our esteemed visitors stayed for nearly a week, providing many occasions of inspiration. By way of tribute, the following teaching is presented, from Master Hua's Herein Lies the Treasure Trove, Volume II. If you don't intend to seek the good, then the ghosts seeking revenge for offenses don't come to find you. But the more you want to be good, the more they come looking for you to get their revenge. This results from the karma you have created from limitless kalpas until now. Although you can't really say that there's any noticeable amount of good within our past actions, there's certainly a whole lot of bad karma that we have created. Where good and bad karma are mixed together, if one tries to cultivate the Way, then all of one's creditors will come and demand repayment. It's like someone who was originally very poor and who borrowed a lot of money that he hasn't managed to pay back. When he was poor and had no way of paying them back, his creditors didn't demand payment. But then that person strikes it rich, and his creditors know there's no better time to ask. Therefore, when you cultivate the Way and run into some kind of adverse state, you should progress forward with greater vigor and courage. Never retreat from your resolve for Bodhi. And you should certainly repay all of the creditors who arrive demanding repayment. How are you going to repay them? You can take all of the merit and virtue that you are creating and transfer it to those seeking revenge. When they receive that merit and virtue, they will escape from suffering and attain bliss, escape from birth and cast off death. You can't try and declare bankruptcy to avoid paying back what you owe. And so it is said that when you want to be a good person, your creditors will seek revenge. All those creditors are people to whom you owe something. Life after life, time after time, this process of creating debts has been going on, brought about by a variety of causes and conditions. You have no way of knowing for sure how much wrong you have done in the past. Disregarding past lives, just look at your present life how many lives of other beings have you taken in this very lifetime, and how many unjust things have you done? You may say, 'I haven't done any major killing.' Well, maybe you haven't done any killing to speak of, but still, each and every person could easily have killed without being aware of it. If you haven't done any killing, you must still have taken many small lives. And even if you haven't done any large-scale killing, you still have thoughts of killing in your mind. Large lives would include cows, horses, pigs, dogs, chickens and the like. Then there are smaller living creatures, like frogs, mice, mosquitoes, ants, gnats - can you say that you have never killed any such little creature?

If you want to become a Buddha, You must first undergo the demons.

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Even if you took life without realizing what you were doing at the time, so your offense was unintentional, still you have harmed living creatures and robbed them of their lives. Therefore, as soon as you decide to cultivate the Way, it's very possible that they will come and demand repayment. And there aren't just one or two debts like that - there's no way of knowing how many there are. They have mounted up day after day, month after month, accumulating lifetime after lifetime for limitless kalpas until now. It's impossible to describe them - they are so many. But you can't be unfair about it and say, 'Well I am cultivating, and I just won't recognize all those creditors who are seeking repayment for all the wrong I have done in the past.' If you think that way, you will never be able to accomplish the Way. You have not yet established a sense of justice within your own heart. How can one establish justice in one's heart? By recognizing that one has debts that must be repaid. If you recognize what you owe, then you will understand and repay those debts; when all your debts are repaid the account will close. And so it is said: If you want to learn to be good, The resentful enemies from your past offences will seek you out. That is because now you are a 'fat cat', and so all your poor friends are going to look you up; they all want to gain advantage from you. If you want to become a Buddha, You must first undergo the demons. Who helps Buddhas become Buddhas? Demons help them. If there weren't any demons, there wouldn't be any Buddhas. And it's just because there are demons that there are Buddhas. They come to test you. They help you to progress and take another step forward. Because, as it's said:

If you wish to see another thousand miles, Then go up another flight of stairs. They come to see if you are really up to it - whether you've got true spirit. If you've got it, then in the face of a hundred hardships you won't retreat from your Bodhi resolve. The harder and more difficult it gets, the more determined you will be to cultivate. Then no matter what difficulty or opposition comes your way, you'll get through it with ease. you'll never feel there's anything unfair about your predicament; you'll never find fault with heaven or blame others. If you can be that way, then whether things go your way or not, you will be developing your skill in the Paramita of Patience. And if you perfect your skill in patience, then whatever demonic obstacles come along, you will own up to them, accept, and recognize them. You won't have enmity towards the demons. You will feel that if you yourself undergo a little bitterness, it won't matter. You will even make a vow to rescue the demons, so that they too will take refuge with the Triple Jewel and set their minds on Bodhi. Never think that anything or anyone is an enemy. Don't harbor the least bit of vengeance in your thoughts. Then you can: Change lances and spears into jade and cloth. That is, change enmity and hatred into kindness and compassion. Look for the good side of everything, and don't just consider yourself as all-important. Don't always

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Bowing

How can I be a grassblade? Delicate but strong, firmly-rooted yet always ready to bow to the Universe when asked by the slightest gust. How might I be a blade of grass? Yielding and receptive but immovable from my chosen spot in the garden of earth. How can I not doubt, not cry? enduring darkness and drought, forgetting defeat to serve the sky and grow in the light. I honour the fields and the flowers, my hosts, the birds who drink dew from my arms, the food I am when I offer myself

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be arguing in your own defense, saying, 'Look at who I am. You are being so impolite to me!' We shouldn't have that kind of thought. If your affairs aren't going right, you should examine yourself and underhand that the problem lies within yourself. Always look for your own mistakes, not other's wrongs. Truly recognise your own faults And don't discuss the faults of others. Other's faults are just my own - Being one with everyone is called Great Compassion.

in complete surrender To insects, a friendly cow or some other hungry beast. They will chew and be nourished and I will disappear without a trace.

Sister Medhanandi

Being one with everyone includes all living beings, not just Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. or Sound Hearers and Those Enlightened by Conditions. It also includes demons. It means being of the same substance with demons, too. Cultivators of the Way here, most of all, must not be selfish or seek for self benefit. Benefit others; do not harm others to benefit yourself. This is extremely important. And don't always look down on other people, being discontent with what others are doing and feeling that only you yourself right. Many people here in the past were like that, people who had that very fault. They didn't make it. Their failures can act like mirror for us all. Each of us should examine ourselves. Take a look at our past, at what we are doing right now, and consider the future. If we can be mindful in this way and never forget our good heart and virtue in the Way, then over time, very naturally our good roots will increase. And if our good roots increase, then our resolve for the Way will deepen. And if we make a big resolve for the Way, we will be able to practise the Bodhisattva Way and benefit all living beings. It is all connected. You need not fear demons. When a demonic obstacle comes along, you shouldn't give up retreat, saying, 'I have been a left-home person for so many years lave been cultivating for so long, and I have accumulated so much merit virtue - how can I still have demonic obstacle?" You can't say that. Demonic obstacles are your tests.

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The Real World; Ajahn Sumedho Beginners' Minds: From newly-robed bhikkhus Guidelines for Cultivation; Master Hsuan Hua The Golden State; Amaro Bhikkhu Sanghapala: an introduction; Marc Lieberman

The Golden State This is the first of two pieces by Venerable Amaro which describe a visit made by members of the Sangha to the United States earlier this year. The first part covers the broad spectrum of spiritual life which was encountered; the second part (to follow in April) will dwell more specifically on seclusion and monastic practice in the USA. Part I: A Fertile Sea It is said that in the past - before the Europeans came - the San Francisco Bay area was so thick with wild life that the sky would be darkened by flocks of birds as they rose 'with a sound like that of a hurricane'. Streams were filled with silver salmon; the hills covered with forests of oak and berries, fields of flowers and bunch-grass; seals, grizzly bears, foxes, bobcats and coyotes abounded. It was 'a land of inexpressible fertility'. In the last 150 years of 'civilization', much has changed. But by some strange alchemy the fertility of the area persists: transmogrified from the rich life of local tribes and that of soil and beast, into the inner life, the hearts and minds of the people who now live there. The USA, a land of opportunity, grew out of a revolution against European values. It was to be a country of freedom and equality. This ideal still pervades American society and probably nowhere more so than on the West Coast, where the majority of 'free spirits' have gravitated. Here especially is a place of freedom of expression, where dreams of all kinds are pursued. ooo0ooo In May of 1990, Venerable Ajahn Sumedho, Sister Sundara, Sister Jotaka and myself were invited to the USA to lead some retreats, participate in a conference on monasticism, and to give Dhamma talks to a number of groups on the West Coast. The invitation came from two groups: Insight Meditation West (IMW), founded to promote Vipassana meditation, mostly in the form of silent retreats and local 'sitting' groups; and Sanghapala, whose aim is to help establish a monastery in California under the guidance of Ajahn Sumedho. These two groups represent, to a large extent, the main sources of interest in our presence in the USA. The two aspects of our life which they embody - serious meditation practice and traditional monastic form - are in fact closely linked, although the latter is less widely appreciated. It was to help people in the Bay Area have a fuller understanding of monastic practice, its methods and its results, that Jack Kornfield, the principal meditation teacher with IMW, convened the conference 'The Joys of Monastic Life' which we attended.

Spiritual practice is shaped around formal sitting and walking meditation, and blended with a Western psychological vernacular to describe the inner world being investigated.

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The practice which Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho have advocated involves taking Vinaya the monastic code of discipline - as the basic life style, and from that foundation learning to appreciate whatever you are with. Putting this teaching into practice, we actually found ourselves able to feel at ease in a bewildering variety of environments: from the Esalen Institute to The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas; from the Zen Center AIDS hospice to a seminar with Huston Smith and a dozen academic philosophers; from a gathering in Chicago of all the Thai monks in the USA, to days of silence spent high in the hills of Northern California at the Bell Springs Hermitage. The people we seemed to meet the most had been practising Vipassana meditation for a number of years - often through retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts or on the West Coast, with teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzburg, and Christopher Titmuss. In many of the West Coast urban areas - notably Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Marin County, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver - fairly large groups of people meet regularly to meditate, listen to Dharma talks and discuss any problems in their spiritual life. These loosely-knit groups of people hold their focus around their teachers and meditation groups, and around Insight Meditation West. In addition to running retreats, IMW is in the process of establishing a sizeable meditation centre, Spirit Rock, in the countryside just north of San Francisco. A prominent feature of this group's style of practice is the conscious movement away from traditionalist Theravada Buddhist forms. Spiritual practice is shaped around formal sitting and walking meditation, and blended with a Western psychological vernacular to describe the inner world being investigated. This has worked well - very many people have found inspiration and benefit from this approach - but it seems that for some we met, there are areas of spiritual practice left unaddressed ... or, at least, some potential in their hearts which has not had the opportunity to flower. One area where this difficulty appears is in the basic premise which motivates the practice: i.e. what is assumed at the outset. By couching spiritual work in a psychological idiom - even though it is thereby more accessible - the practice can be construed in terms of "me and my problems, which I have got to get rid of. This is fair enough - "me without problems' is much more attractive than 'me with problems'. However, the longer this premise is followed blindly, the greater is the resulting anguish. According to conventional Buddhist understanding, the person doesn't have problems, the 'person' is the problem. It is because of conceiving everything in terms of 'me' and 'mine', in an absolute sense, that we continue to suffer and fret. So, as Ajahn Sumedho pointed out over the weeks, we have to make a paradigm shift: from 'me and my problems', to 'the Buddha seeing the Dhamma'. Buddha wisdom is the ultimate subject - The One Who Knows'. And Dhamma - 'The Way Things Are', Nature - is the ultimate object, which can have no owner. As this shift is made, the heart is liberated. The world still is the way it is, but it's no longer a problem, and it's certainly not 'mine'.

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A second area of hazy misunderstanding was devotional practice. As with all our retreats, at the ten days organized by IMW at Santa Rosa we had a period of chanting and bowing before the shrine at the start of each morning and evening meditation. We made it clear that joining in was not compulsory, and it took a good few days for many people to get a feel for the role of puja in relationship to meditation and self-knowledge. However, by the fourth or fifth day we noticed more and more vigour coming into the pujas. Ritual and devotion can be a way of reasserting, on the emotional plane, the aspiration to enlightenment - a way of engaging the faculties of the heart, along with those of the head, in empowering the practice of the Path. Likewise, the Sangha embodies an archetypal principle, which can help unite one with the lineage of all who have ever practised as disciples of the Buddha. The pujas were done in English, to lend a little more to their relevance, and they became a key-note in the practice for many people. They made such an impact, in fact, that by the end of the retreat some of the sceptics professed themselves to have been thoroughly sold'. Several Buddhist groups that we subsequently visited particularly requested that we do some chanting, or that I speak on the subject. There is a natural need in us to honour that which is good, higher, more noble, and it seems that people realized that making appropriate gestures of respect on the material level can be something beautiful. In our hearts we are bowing to wisdom, truth and virtue, to purity, radiance and peacefulness, not to a golden idol. Balancing the intellectual and emotional elements in harmonious measure is also developed outside the shrine room through the work of serving others. In the Bay Area, service is found particularly in the area of hospice care. The growth of Buddhist involvement in care for the dying has been seeded from the long-standing efforts of such people as Steven Levine and Ram Dass. In the last few years, however, it has taken shape as a full-blown hospice programme in three locations under the auspices of the San Francisco Zen Center. The two doctors looking after the hospice ward in a local hospital are Zen Center students and much of

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the daily care and counselling, assistance to the nurses, etc, is given by a team of some forty volunteers, most of whom are with the Zen Center or IMW. The joint involvement of Zen and Vipassana students is something that has actively been encouraged by the groups. Not only is the burden of work shared, but meditators are also able to engage their talents in helpful service. Formal meditation and silent retreats can lend a somewhat introverted tone to spiritual life. Generosity and service impel our attention outwards and, to our surprise, we often find that simply by not thinking about ourselves so much many of our mental terrors vanish. Not only do others gain but we do also - the wondrous arising of the 'win / win situation'. ooo0ooo The last week that Venerable Sumedho and the nuns were in the USA was spent visiting Seattle. It is quite a cosmopolitan city and very reminiscent of San Francisco. Liberal and environmentally conscious in atmosphere, it too was a place to which people interested in Buddhist meditation had gravitated. The public talk which had been arranged attracted quite a large number, about half of whom had come down from Vancouver for the occasion. Our hosts, aware of our full schedule in San Francisco, were keen not to exhaust us with too many 'events'. Thus most of the days were spent quietly, talking informally with the local Buddhists or travelling around the area. When not obscured by cloud, Mt. Ranier is a vast volcanic snowy bulk which dominates the city. On the day we went to visit it, the dense cover broke just long enough for us to glimpse the peak. All around, and across thousands of acres of Washington countryside, evergreens carpet the land. In sharp contrast to California, the 'Golden State' (don't say 'brown' when looking at its meadows in the dry season), Seattle is aptly named 'The Emerald City'. Bearing the brunt of a huge rainfall off the northern Pacific Ocean, it is thus blessed with a dripping lushness all the year round. The others bade farewell and took off for England. After a brief but very fine visit to Portland, I returned to San Francisco. ooo0ooo The people we visited in the Pacific North-west, as well as those we met around the San Francisco Bay, live far from the 'shop-til-ya-drop' mentality of materialistic America. If America does have any spiritual hope, one feels it will be through the likes of these people. America is a young country, and just as youth can be obsessed with intense sensuality and materialism, it can also have an intense spirituality, openness of mind, eagerness to learn and readiness to change. This maturing of values resonated through all the established groups we visited, and also amongst those who came along to the regular talks and retreats that I was invited to give around the Bay Area in July: twice-weekly evening talks, and three evenly-spaced week-end retreats. During this time I was based in San Francisco, in a small apartment just around the corner from 10 Arbor Street where the meetings were held. The aim was to have something of a 'temporary monastery', where those who were interested could come and talk with the monk, meditate, or just step out of the momentum-driven world for a spell. Being in residence, I was also able to receive people who wished to offer alms, accept invitations to eat at people's houses and conduct blessing ceremonies for babies, houses and rhe newly-opened Bell Springs Hermitage. A small amount of publicity had quietly filtered through local Theravada Buddhist circles. At https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/15/gold.htm[03/10/2017 19:32:50]

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first the numbers of folk coming were low, but it was encouraging to see how, in just a short span of time, the level of interest reached 3 or 4 a day and, by the time I left for England in early August, the shrine room at Arbor Street was getting to be too small to contain everyone. ooo0ooo The Bay Area is truly a hot-house of spiritual seekers, yet the people we met did not seem to be those searching for the quick, hassle-free solution to all life's problems. (Local advert: 'Free credit - pay nothing 'til April!') Many had been steeped in one kind of spiritual medium or another - from psychedelia to therapy and meditation - since the late Sixties. These approaches had all promised freedom; many had helped but not quite succeeded in bringing the carefree fulfillment longed for. While it is true that people will always come and check out a new product on the market, the interest directed towards us seemed to be more than just skin-deep. Buddha-Dhamma is not a cosmetic teaching. It was apparent that the example of the renunciant life, the surrender that comes from participation in a traditional form and the power and directness of the teachings, provided people with something that made a difference. In this respect, the time I spent at the Esalen Institute is of interest. I was invited to spend a few days there, about 150 miles south of San Francisco, on the Big Sur coast - one of the most beautiful spots on earth. Esalen has been the birthplace of much Californian spirituality - in particular, most of the novel approaches to psychotherapy were hatched there. The spiritual and terrestrial influences mingle at the institute very much like their statue of the Buddha, almost hidden amidst a swarm of flowers, sitting serenely at the heart of the garden. Quite by chance my visit coincided with a concerted move by the staff to establish more of a daily meditation practice for themselves. They were keen to invite monks and other meditation teachers to come and give them more consistent guidance. Like so many other spiritual communities, they had been through struggles and conflicts, and now felt the need to establish more clarity and cohesion. The Director and other staff expressed their hope to me that, should a monastery be established in the area, we would come and teach there periodically. Therapy is not enough any more! ooo0ooo American culture, for the most part, dispenses with the old, and renews/reforms/progresses. This theme carries on as strong as ever, but it is significant that the current problems of illhealth pollution and waste-disposal are reaching impossible proportions and people are waking up to the need to readjust their values. The adjustments have an American flavour, of course, which was evident in the large billboard advertising a bio-degradable throw-away camera, or the poster for a new low-fat yoghurt-based ice-cream substitute proudly promising 'All of the pleasure, none of the guilt'. The few weeks we spent in the USA brought home the realization that the rising sensitivity to nature, and respect for the origin, substance and fate of the things we use, was reflected in a true change of attitude in the American Buddhist world. For, rather than just trashing the traditional ways of doing things - leaving classical monasticism and devotional practices entirely behind for the sake of a new, rational and hierarchy-free Buddhism - some people are finding it worthwhile to recycle the old. After all, like other things we try and dump, the old doesn't just go away - it has an annoying habit of hanging around for a long time before it decomposes. What if it turns out that there is a lot there that's still of use? - Such a waste just to sling it out. People seem to be looking at traditional monastic practice with a fresh eye; its relegation as a https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/15/gold.htm[03/10/2017 19:32:50]

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culturally antiquated, worn-out form is being revised. At the end of the 'Joys of Monastic Life' conference, when Jack Kornfield asked 'How many of you would consider entering a monastery, say for a period of at least a year?', 70-80% of the assembly raised their hands. Certainly, some aspects of Buddhist custom are redundant and inapplicable to Western society. But, as our experience in Europe has shown, these elements are not related intrinsically to the Dhamma-Vinaya as described by the Buddha. And, as many eminent teachers in Asia point out, it might be good if such aspects of Buddhist custom were discarded in Asia as well. This visit to the West Coast was arranged in order to provide access to the Sangha and to see if the traditional unit of monastery and lay-supporters had a useful place in American society. The impression that has lingered is not one of friction with people, or of materialistic and violent horrors - even though these perceptions were plentiful enough. These impressions fade, and what fills the heart is a quiet delight, echoing with endless highways of space and light, thick with oleanders. . . or islands rising in the early morning, out of miles of opal fog. This is a rich land, there is goodness here - goodness in the land and in the hearts of the people - and it has been a joy to help the sincere find that which is truly golden.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial:

Cover: Articles:

January 1991

The Real World; Ajahn Sumedho Beginners' Minds: From newly-robed bhikkhus Guidelines for Cultivation; Master Hsuan Hua The Golden State; Amaro Bhikkhu Sanghapala: an introduction; Marc Lieberman

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Sanghapala: an Introduction Marc F. Lieberman, one of the founder members of Sanghapala, presents this account of the initial steps being taken to establish a branch monastery in the USA. Sanghapala is the name of a very hopeful and dedicated group of Buddhists in the United States who are working towards establishing a permanent monastic presence here: specifically, a branch monastery of the Sangha centers established by Ajahn Sumedho in the United Kingdom and elsewhere these past ten years. Inspired by the initial scale of Lord Buddha's successful discourse of the Turning of the Wheel to only five ascetics in an ancient Indian deer park, we hope our own modest numbers will eventually translate into widespread support for a facility that preserves and teaches the Dhamma to as many as possible. Ajahn Sumedho chose the name Sanghapala - Pali for 'Guardians of the Sangha' - when he met with a few of us in Northern California after a retreat in 1989. Some of us had heard of Chithurst or Amaravati on the 'international Dharma circuit', had visited England, and returned to America intent on helping establish a monastic enterprise here. Others had first encountered bhikkhus while sitting on meditation retreats that they had led in the U.S., or had met the monks and nuns for the first time only during their comings and goings. For all of us, the aspiration is to provide opportunities in this country for this precious tradition to flourish. ooo0ooo The specific background leading up to our first event this year contains too the broader story of how we think Sanghapala fits into the fabric of Buddhism today in America. Our first task formally began with an invitation to Ajahn Amaro to remain as our guest in the San Francisco area for eight weeks, from mid-June through early August, 1990. He had come with the party of Ajahn Sumedho and Sisters Sundara and Jotaka; all had been invited by Jack Kornfield, James Baraz and their group, The Dharma Foundation (also known as Insight Meditation West, or Spirit Rock), both to jointly conduct a 10-day meditation retreat and to attend a weekend Conference on Monastic Life. The perceptions that led to the organization of the conference bring into focus the issues that we see Sanghapala addressing.

They strove to present the essence of the Buddha's teachings on meditation and the Path in as 'culture-free' a fashion as possible, intended for lay persons to practice themselves.

Ostensibly, the Conference was designed to expose the American Vipassana Community to monastics from both the Buddhist and Christian traditions - specifically to introduce and educate the lay students of Vipassana about the world-view and experience of monks and nuns. Though the term 'Vipassana Community' may strike some non-American ears as odd,

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here in the Dharma circles of the United States it has a distinctive sociological connotation. It specifically refers to a wide and vast group - probably more than 100,000 over the past ten years - of lay persons who have at one time or another been taught and practiced Vipassana meditation. These teachings of meditation, however, have rarely been imparted by Theravadin monastics. Ordained monks in the United States have been for the most part confined in their following and influences to specific ethnic communities. Instead, the meditation and Dhamma teachings were taught by lay Americans - e.g. Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzburg, Sujata, Jack Kornfield - who had been trained in the monasteries of Burma, Thailand or Sri Lanka in the 1970s. Inspired by Theravadin teachings and steeped in particular meditation techniques, these teachers usually taught in ways that emphasized experience, rather than faith or logic or inspiration. They strove to present the essence of the Buddha's teachings on meditation and the Path in as 'culture-free' a fashion as possible, intended for lay persons to practice themselves. This approach deeply resonated with a generalized antipathy towards traditional religious forms and customs among many spiritually hungry - but religiously alienated - Americans. These meditation courses and retreats became (and continue to be) enormously popular. For many, this was a first exposure to calm and clarity, affording the opportunity for at least a glimpse of the true nature of things. People didn't attend because they wanted Buddhism as a new religion - they simply wanted the Buddha's experiences. The extraordinary accessibility and success of this meditation practice ,was because the Dhamma was presented in as generic a fashion possible. Classic Asian manifestations of the teachings in general - and devotional forms in particular -- were sometimes viewed with scepticism or even condescension, as being culturebound historical accretions extraneous to the Buddha's teachings on Liberation. Lacking the charismatic Buddhist authorities found in Tibetan and Zen practice, Vipassana meditators informally aggregated into a democratic and egalitarian community of lay teachers and practitioners, intent on integrating the householder's life with the Path of Insight. Without exposure to traditional practicing Sangha communities - who seek to ground their spiritual experience in the traditional discipline of the Vinaya - the practical value and role of committed monastics largely remained outside the purview of the American Vipassana community. In America in general (and California especially) the idea of a life of voluntary renunciation and celibacy is fairly alien. At worst, it resonates with a negative implication of repression and blind submission to authority. Unlike England or Europe, where the medieval traditions of Catholic monasteries, nunneries and hermitages persist in the mental landscape as viable adjuncts to lay communal life, there are no such architectural or intellectual associations for the American mind. In fact, when the idea was raised several years ago that perhaps Ajahn Sumedho's Sangha could be offered land to establish a monastery north of San Francisco, there was strong resistance and reservation expressed by the laity.

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Venerable Ananda tells the Buddha of the passing away of Venerable Sariputta: 'Indeed, Lord, when I heard this, I felt as though my body were quite rigid; I could not see straight, and all my ideas were unclear.' 'Why Ananda, do you think that by finally attaining nibbana he has taken away the code of virtue or the code of concentration or the code of understanding or the code of deliverance or the code of knowledge and vision of deliverance?' 'Not that, Lord. But I think how helpful he was to his fellows in the Holy Life, advising, informing, instructing, urging, rousing and encouraging them; how tireless he was in teaching them the Law. We remember how the Venerable Sariputta fed us and enriched us and helped us with the Law.' 'Ananda, have I not already told you that there is separation and parting and division from all that is dear and beloved? How could it be that what is born, come to being, formed, and subject to fall, should not fall? That is not possible. It is as if a main branch of a great tree standing firm and solid had fallen; so too, Sariputta has finally attained nibbana in a great community that stands firm

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Some of this apprehension was rooted in a widely-shared feminist perspective that is suspicious of traditional Asian monastic forms, which historically have favored the male in perpetuation of religious power structure and access to spiritual training. Traditional hierarchies were felt to be inherently anachronistic and sexist. In contrast to this substantial theoretical objection, there were others who had actually known first-hand of the qualities that the renunciant life can uniquely foster. For these people too, it was imperative that spiritual opportunities be gender-blind. But it need not mean that the ancient form of Sangha monasticism, rooted in the very Suttas themselves, be abandoned. In an attempt to air these two important perceptions, Jack Kornfield arranged for the Conference to be a symposium, allowing monks and nuns from several traditions to speak for themselves and with the interested laity.

and solid. How could it be that what is born, come into being, formed, and bound to fall, should not fall? That is not possible. Therefore, Ananda, each of you should make himself his island, himself and no other his refuge; each of you should make the Law his island, the Law and no other his refuge.'(Kindred Sayings XLVII, 13; from The Life of The Buddha by Nyanamoli Thera, Buddhist Publication Society)

Those of us who comprise Sanghapala quite obviously have been profoundly moved and inspired by those who strive to impeccably cultivate the Path in the steps of the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah. We welcomed the coming to America of Ajahn Sumedho's party as an opportunity for this Sangha's mature members to be widely seen and heard. Having the indefatigable Ajahn Amaro stay on for two months allowed the shy, the curious and the inspired to come and share in the rhythms of a monk's life. After the Conference's successful conclusion and the departure of Ajahn Sumedho and the nuns, Ajahn Amaro returned from visits outside California and dove into a full and energetic schedule. With the help of a resident layman, he lived in a rented flat in San Francisco, easily accessible to highway and public transport. This was but three blocks from the temporary home of Sanghapala, a private house with a large room dedicated as a meditation hail, complete with a large Buddha rupa and altar. Every morning there was 6 a.m. chanting and meditation; every Wednesday and Friday nights there was a 7.30 - 9 p.m. chanting, sitting and Dhamma talk. Five or six stalwarts actively volunteered to coordinate the provision of the daily meals, which were offered by people for whom meeting and offering almsfood to a monk was a novel experience. Augmenting this weekly schedule, upon which people came to depend, were many other arrangements. Sittings were arranged at various Vipassana meditation groups across Northern California. Visits were made to Theravadin and Mahayana Temples, as well as to a hospital chaplaincy program and a Zen AIDS hospice. Every other weekend during Ajahn Amaro's stay, facilities were rented (at Stan- ford University to the south and a Dominican College to the north of San Francisco) and two-day, non-residential meditation retreats were conducted. The common theme of all these many activities was the exposure of hundreds of lay people to an articulate, generous-hearted and accessible Western-born bhikkhu. By conversation, sharing meals and learning to observe the etiquette of the Discipline, many people who never before had any experience of the monastic life now at least had met with a happy and nonintimidating monk for themselves. ooo0ooo Sanghapala's purpose, then, really has two aspects. First is the laying of the groundwork and support base to be able to invite and sustain a monastic presence in the United States. For now this is done by simply arranging for as many monks and nuns to come to the States for as long as they can: the inspiration and support spontaneously arises. Thus it was with the extended visit of Ajahn Amaro in 1990. And such is the intention for next year's plans as well.

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We have invited two monks (including Ajahn Sumedho) and two nuns to come as Sanghapala's guests for three weeks next spring. By the gracious hospitality of the Sagely City of 10,000 Buddhas in Ukiah, California (2 hours' drive north of San Francisco), facilities have been offered to provide for a two-week 'Amaravati Retreat'. Rather than exclusively emphasizing focused concentration on sitting and walking, as found on many Vipassana retreats, this retreat will simulate the daily life of a monastery, with mindful interaction among the laity and the Sangha. It remains to be determined whether the format will be based on the schedule used for monastic meditation/contemplation retreats, or on the typical daily-life/work schedule of the British monasteries. Tentative dates are from June 21 through July 5,1991. After that, Ajahn Amaro will again stay on for an extended visit, allowing the nascent group of Sangha supporters here to grow and nurture these important symbiotic habits of the heart. Which brings us to the second aspect of Sanghapala's purpose. It is simply to make available a holistic vision of Buddhist practice: embracing not only meditation, but devotional practices and the eventual establishment of a Buddhist community, capable of sustaining itself and a formal Sangha. Such a community is seen as enriching and complementing the larger and less formal Vipassana community. By facilitating the support of women and men who have chosen to live their lives in accordance with the Buddha's dispensation, and who realize in their demeanor and being the cultivation of the fruits of the Path, all beings can be inspired and enhanced in their own perfection of the Way. ooo0ooo For more information regarding the 'Amaravati Retreat', please write to Sanghapala, 10 Arbor Street, San Francisco, California 94131. (Telephone: 415-334-4921). Of particular value will be people experienced in organizing and sustaining a retreat community There will be minimal distinctions between staff and retreatants, with ample opportunity for all to practice together. Â Â

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January 1991 THIS ISSUE Editorial:

2534 Cover: The Real World; Ajahn Sumedho Articles: Beginners' Minds: From newly-robed bhikkhus

Guidelines for Cultivation; Master Hsuan Hua

The Golden State; Amaro Bhikkhu

Sanghapala: an introduction; Marc Lieberman

Number 15 HOME BACK ISSUES

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Meditation isn't an escape from the instinctual world, but an opening up to it; it's a way of understanding the world, apart from the reactions of indulgence or suppression.

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April 1991 THIS ISSUE The Golden State: A. Amaro Editorial:

2534

Number 16 HOME BACK ISSUES

Cover: In Doubt We Trust; Ajahn Munindo Articles: On Messiahs and Other Matters; Ajahn Sumedho

Why Did I Become a Nun?; Sister Sundara

Pilgrimage in India; Aj. Sucitto & Sr. Thanissara

Another Part of the World; Ajahn Anando

In Doubt We Trust This title doesn't imply that doubt is divine, but it alludes to - and challenges - our tendency to avoid the state of doubt, even when it has lessons to teach us. This article is taken from a talk given at a retreat at Amaravati. One of the major hindrances in this practice is doubt, or vicikiccha in Pali. It's a wavering in the face of uncertainty. When uncertainty manifests, instead of just being able to say, 'Oh, this is uncertain', we desperately struggle to try and make it certain. We want to be certain, we want to be sure of the right thing to do. What is the right solution? 'Where am I at? Can I dare go on to another type of meditation, or should I stay with this type of meditation? Should I concentrate on my nose, or should I concentrate on my heart, or should I concentrate on my belly?' Some monks will tell you to concentrate on the nose, and this is what it tells you to do in the scriptures. Other monks will tell you to concentrate on the heart and say, 'Well, you're so emotionally repressed you need to concentrate on your heart.' Other people will tell you to concentrate on the belly. And you think, 'Well, whom should I believe?' Now the Buddha didn't praise blindly believing - which I find to be a lovely aspect of his teaching - but that doesn't mean we're meant to disbelieve, either. Disbelief is another form of believing. He said that we should not take a position for or against, based on speculation or even logic; neither should we establish our practices and our life on mere belief or disbelief. He said that only when you've taken something up - when you've investigated it for yourself, tested it and seen it to be true - only then accept it; then, and only then. And this is the Middle Way: that point between belief and disbelief, accepting and rejecting, pushing and pulling. The place of mindfulness is the place in the middle, being with things as they are. So when it comes to doubt and uncertainty, we have to be mindful of that doubt.

If we're trained without any religious perspective, we tend to identify with our conditioned mind, our

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conditioned intelligence. What is doubt? What actually is doubt like, as a condition in the mind? 'The last retreat I did I had such-and-such an experience, and this retreat I thought I'd have the same experience again. Am I doing something wrong, or am I doing it right? Perhaps it should be this way perhaps it shouldn't be this way ....' We can get caught in doubt. Well, the fact is that we can know, if we're mindful of the mind, that there's uncertainty in the mind and the mind is wavering, and that we're afraid of uncertainty. When we're not able just to acknowledge uncertainty, and we're afraid of it, this fear makes the mind wobble and tremble. This is a rampant disease for many who have received a Western education. Because, if we're trained without any religious perspective, we tend to identify with our conditioned mind, our conditioned intelligence. The more often we say, 'I know, Sir', the more points we score, the more praise we get; we really become accustomed to feeling very secure and very good about saying, 'I know'. I really like to say that: 'I know'. That's me, I'm the one who knows everything about everything; you ask me, and I have an opinion on it. There's a sense of confidence that feels really good. But the fact is - and this becomes more apparent as the practice proceeds actually, I hardly know anything at all, and what I do know is not of any great consequence. This conditioned mind has a very, very relative function. We give a lot of positive value to intellectual certainty, so when we're faced with uncertainty we're unable to accept it. So we have this terrible tension. We come across uncertainty, we don't know what to do next. We can't just sit there and say, 'I don't know what to do', and listen to it. It's very difficult for us to do that. Because of what? Because we're desperately trying to get away from the pain of uncertainty. But it's very important in meditation practice that, when you do start to find uncertainty - and this comes very soon in the practice, uncertainty about your ability to do the practice, or about the teaching or the teacher - that when it arises, you don't dismiss it. Remember the Buddha's instructions: 'Don't believe in logic; don't follow disbelief; don't believe in something because everybody else believes in it. Really find out for yourself - be a refuge unto yourself, know for yourself.' And so what you know at this moment is: 'I'm uncertain, I'm uncertain about the practice.' In the beginning, when we first start to acknowledge this, we usually find that we've got a whole backlog of fear and uncertainty. This is because we've been dishonest about our fear regarding uncertainty, and so when we do start to open to it, we find it difficult to deal with. 'This is very important. I mean, this isn't just small doubt - this is a very important doubt, a very important doubt!' 'Should I be a Theravadin, or should I practise Zen? This is very important, very important.' I wavered with this one myself for about seven years. I was really infatuated by the aesthetics of Zen Buddhism. I really thought that I should be a Zen monk. Thai Buddhism did not appeal aesthetically at all, but somehow I found myself ordained as a Theravadin bhikkhu. And there was this uncertainty, 'Should I be here, or should I be in Korea?' Well, if it weren't for my lousy knees, I would have gone to Korea -

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I would have followed my doubt. So if you have bad knees, don't discard them. I am really grateful, I can't say how grateful I am for what my knees have taught me! It can take one into a lot of doubt and pain; you can think you've got your practice together until pain comes along, and then you start to doubt. If at that point you can apply mindfulness and do the practice - keep doing the practice when doubt arises - you can make some real progress. You can start to find out where trust and faith lie. Trust and faith are found inside of doubt. Doubt is like the packaging around faith and trust. If you want to get into something, like a package of cornflakes, you open the box, right? You've got to open the package before you can get inside - no one wants to eat the package! You've got to open the package and get in there! This is what it is like with doubt. Doubt is obscuring our faith, our confidence, our trust. All of us have some faith and trust - otherwise we never would have started this practice. But sooner or later it becomes obscured by doubt. If we don't have mindfulness at that point, we just never get any further. Our faith, our confidence will never really develop. It will always be dependent on other people telling us, or books, or hopping around trying this practice or that practice, or this technique or that technique. So, sooner or later in practice, we come to the point where we actually have to open up to doubt and say, 'Come on in, I'm interested in getting to know you. Let's be friends, let's get to know each other.' Talk to it, don't fight it any more, spread lovingkindness. The power of loving-kindness is very important in dealing with something like the fear of uncertainty. If we have this habitual negative reaction to things when I don't get 'my way' - then if doubt comes along, that definitely doesn't accord with 'my way', because 'I' like to be sure, 'I' like to be sure about things. So when doubt and uncertainty come along, if I reject them then I also reject the opportunity to develop and practise - and that's a great shame. So we need some encouragement in this area, to contemplate the phenomenon of doubt: what is actually taking place, why are we so afraid of uncertainty? Why do we always struggle to make things that are uncertain certain? On of the most valuable teachings Ajahn Chah ever given me was when I went to him once, totally beside myself with doubt and worry. After we talked awhile he looked at me and said, 'If something is uncertain and you want to make it certain, you are going to suffer.' Well that's obvious. But he really knew what he was talking about, he really knew. If it's uncertain, you've got to see it as uncertain - why try and make it certain? It's only because of our attachment to certainty that we can't learn from uncertainty; yet it's only when we're uncertain that we learn. When we're uncertain, we can wake up, and look around and say, 'What's going on, what's happening?' We can be alert and attentive when we're uncertain; when we're sure, we just sit back and get fat and lazy. People who are really certain don't have this sense of openness and vitality and investigation of life, everything's very closed and sure. So what we develop in practice is not a sense of certainty, but an ever-increasing sense of the uncertainty of everything. We're nor trying to find our if we're a sotapanna ['stream-enterer', a stage on the path to enlightenment] yet: If you're a sotapanna, you're a sotapanna, what do you https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/16.htm[03/10/2017 19:46:58]

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have to worry about it for? We worry about it because we want to be certain -- we want it 'my way' But then we're nor really going for refuge in the Buddha's way, we're singing, 'I did it my way ...' Even in the Dhamma we like to try and do it my way. 'I'm going to become certain. I am going to be a sotapanna by the end of this retreat. I'm just going to get rid of all my doubts.' Well, you're guaranteed to fail. So open to doubt, bring mindfulness to bear on the mind. What does the mind do when it's faced with uncertainty? In this way, when we've stopped fighting it - when we've worked through our backlog of resistance to it - the intelligence can function normally. It's like the intelligence that tells you that if you're too hot, it's because you've got too many clothes on. If you're in touch with your body, if you're mindful of your body, then intelligence will tell you to take some clothes off. Nobody else has to come along and tell you, your natural intelligence will tell you. Likewise with fear of uncertainties. If we work through the backlog, we're able to be clear, to be with it in its raw condition as it arises. And then natural intelligence says, 'Hanging on to doubt with fear is not helping you.' You feel that, you know that. And then letting go happens. You don't have to tell yourself to do it, it happens. This is insight. You understand the nature of doubt, you understand it for what it is. This understanding came because of doubt, and this understanding gives us trust. This is where faith lies: it's through investigating confusion, and investigating doubt with mindfulness. Try to keep it simple. Don't let practice become too complicated. So, for this evening, I offer these thoughts for your consideration. Doubt may be an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is ridiculous! - Voltaire

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Cover: Articles: The Golden State: A. Amaro Editorial:

October 1990 In Doubt We Trust; Ajahn Munindo On Messiahs and Other Matters; Ajahn Sumedho Why Did I Become a Nun?; Sister Sundara Pilgrimage in India; Aj. Sucitto & Sr. Thanissara Another Part of the World; Ajahn Anando

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On Messiahs and Other Matters The following was taped during a community tea break with Ajahn Sumedho at Amaravati. The questions were not recorded, but the answers are worth reading. In response to a question about the human spiritual longing that manifests as hope in a Messiah to come. You can contemplate that whole wish for a Messiah. It's very attractive to think of a Messiah coming and saving us, because there's a feeling somehow that that's the only thing that can do it now. One can be quite depressed with so many things going wrong and with so many problems. You know that feeling: 'Please let the Messiah come and straighten up the mess we've made.' But I realise that I really have to straighten up the mess I've made in myself. Wanting somebody else to come and do it for me seems to me a sign of immaturity. I remember as a child making a mess and then getting myself into trouble, hoping my parents would come along and straighten it out and make everything right; it's that kind of mind, really. It's not that I'm against the idea of it - it would be very nice to have a Messiah come - I'm all for it. But I don't demand it, or even expect it, because I realise that it's more important to learn how to do it yourself - to learn to be your own messiah - rather than to expect some external force to come and save you or the world. There are different ways of looking at our current situation. There's the 'gloom, doom' way of: 'Everything's hopeless! We've polluted the planet and we've made a mess; there's nothing much we can do, it's too late.' And there's the New Age approach, which is full of hope: 'It's all changing; consciousness is changing - human beings are becoming aware of totality and the oneness of all sentient beings.' There's that kind of thinking - which is very positive and inspiring to the mind. It gives a direction of hope and optimism to one's life - that we aren't just stuck in a cold universal system that we've made a mess of, and it's just pollution and misery until the whole thing collapses! Certainly being positive and optimistic about things will make life more pleasant for you, but the way out of suffering - which to me is the whole perfection of our existence as individual human beings - is through the realisation of truth. Rather than choosing one approach and rejecting the other, both sides are seen for what they are; one is transcending, no longer identifying with the conditioned realm or expecting anything from it. In the mind that isn't attached is an ineffable understanding of truth, beyond words; something that you can only realise for yourself.

Since we can't solve the mystery, the only thing to do is either reject the mystery and busy ourselves with trivial Â and foolish things, or open ourselves to the mystery.

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So there's the view that we've passed the Golden Age when everything was perfect . . . but there is still an aspiration of the human heart - for individuals, communities and nations - to somehow get back to that perfect paradise on planet earth, where everything is fair and just and beautiful and true and perfect for us. When we reflect on Dhamma, it allows us to see that even the earth itself is impermanent. So while we can point to the mess the humans have made, we recognise that Mother Nature is also good at making messes on this planet. There Are hurricanes, the volcanoes. . . the whole geological history of planet earth is, in human terms, pretty horrendous - just the way things change and move in nature. There's a mystery to it all: a planetary system existing in a universe. Our curiosity is taking us towards the furthest reaches of the solar system, but all we can say - even with all our cleverness - is that it's very mysterious and wonderful. All we can do as human beings, really, is to wonder and open ourselves to this mystery, because we can't solve it with the puny little minds we have. Since we can't solve the mystery, the only thing to do is either reject the mystery and busy ourselves with trivial and foolish things, or open ourselves to the mystery. That's what we mean by the ineffable realisation of Truth. It's the opening of an individual's mind to the mystery; there's no demand for any answer. Just opening your mind and surrendering with total openness and receptivity - that's what we can actually realise within this human form. When you're at one with the mystery there's no suffering, but as long as you are frightened by it, or seeking to solve with the puny perceptions of your mind, you'll just end up in doubt and despair, fear and anxiety - terror, even. But we can contemplate our own existence. We can contemplate the mystery of life and the universe. What is that about, anyway? One can dismiss it as much ado about nothing, or one can actually investigate and open to it Then there is the realisation of true peacefulness that you can never have when you're trying to find peace in some thing or somebody or some place. Looking for a peaceful place . . . maybe you've got the idea that once you find Shangri-La, you'll live happily ever after. But then you find Shangri-La, only to find out that the American Air Force has low-flying jet practice over Shangri-La these days! There's always a snake in the garden, or a worm in the apple, or the people in Shangri-La are so highminded they never clean the toilets! There's always going to be something unpeaceful about the conditioned realm. It's the same with the idea of finding Prince Charming or Cinderella: 'Once I meet the right person, then I will live happily ever after!' That's an illusion too. So with no place to go, nobody to save you and fulfil you, and nothing you can do about it, you could end up creating a world all of your own living in a kind of mental state, where they lock you up in a mental hospital. The way out of suffering isn't through any objective https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/mess.htm[03/10/2017 19:45:49]

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realm - through either thought or through perception, or through the material realm - but in transcending it. Transcendence doesn't mean escaping or rejecting it, but moving to that still centre of being, where there's perspective and receptivity to the conditioned realm. There's no longer any self identity with the objective conditioned realm. ooo0ooo Developing wisdom and balance in an imperfect world. I've had to work through great problems with indignation - I've always been indignant by nature! I get really indignant at the injustices and stupidities of the world - and it's righteous indignation. 'They shouldn't do those things! ... He shouldn't say that .........She shouldn't be doing that!' Look at the newspapers; there's so much to feel indignant about, so many things not right, terribly wrong. They shouldn't be that way, and people shouldn't do such horrible things. One can really get caught up in indignation. But if you contemplate that experience of righteous indignation, you find great suffering in your heart. Because even though you're right, you're not wise. You're creating suffering about the way things are. You know ... and you're right, they shouldn't be that way - but they are that way! Or the opposite can happen, where you think, 'It doesn't matter.' And you close your eves and plug up your ears, and try not to see or hear anything wrong. That's one way of handling the problem, but it tends to be a very inadequate and miserable thing to have to do.

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Now there is an expression which Ajahn Buddhadasa [a very well-known Thai monk] uses as a reflection on life, which translates as: 'This is the way it is' or, 'The world is this way'. This isn't dismissal - not caring when there's unfairness or such things - but it's a kind of acceptance. 'The world is like this. It's always been like this.' If you look at the history of humanity, there have always been greed, hatred and delusion, jealousy, atrocities, horror. Read the Greek legends -- they're full of cannibalism and rape, gods doing dreadful things to innocent goddesses - yet this was immortalised in Greek mythology. The archetypes of humanity are recorded in legends and myths, Asian as well as European. So we realise that this is the way it is: human beings can be like this. We can be vengeful and jealous. We can be very selfish, and we can get angry and murderous - we can do all these things, or we can be stupid and indifferent, or full of doubt and worries. Or we can transcend it all. Then I used to contemplate, 'Well, what's the good of asking anyone else to transcend all that if I don't?' I can see that being righteously indignant about the state of the world is a way of saying: 'I want you to not be that way. I don't want you to be the way you are. You shouldn't be angry, and you shouldn't be jealous, and ... I'd look at myself and see how, really, all these things 'me' demanding that 'you' not be that way - are kind of childish: 'Please, be something that I want. Don't say things that upset me. Then the insight comes: whether anyone does it or not is none of my business, but I can move in that direction in my own life. 'That's the way it is' isn't pessimistic indifference: 'What can you do? So what! That's the way of the world. Put up with it.' Rather, it's a skilful reflection: 'The world is like this, and human beings are like this.' It's not judging humanity as bad, but recognising that human beings do these things - they've always done these things; and I've done these things too. One can stop doing such things oneself, but to expect it of everyone else is only going to make you miserable, because that's beyond what you can do in this life. But how I practise with that is to see what I do have control over, and what I'm capable of working with and doing with this creature. It's none of my business what you do. I can't follow you around and make sure that you are perfect. It's being aware and knowing what you can do as an individual being - within the limbs of this form here, with its characteristics and qualities - rather than thinking: 'If I were stronger, or more intelligent, or healthier or better looking, or this or that . . . then I would be able to do something.' Wisdom, in the Buddhist sense, is being able to see how to work and use what you have, the way it is, even if what you have isn't very good. If you're crippled, or have some disease, or you're old, or you've had a miserable life, or whatever - that isn't the obstacle. That doesn't mean that you can't be enlightened, you can't be awakened no the truth. With wisdom we learn how to use what we have. If you're someone who thinks: 'For me to do it, I have to have the best,' then you'll never get anywhere; while a wise person can use even rather inferior equipment and get a very good result. So one thinks. 'This is the way it is. The conditioned realm is flawed, its nature is to be flawed.' It's imperfect - which is not a condemnation: it's not that it's bad because it's flawed. But this points to a truth: everything has something wrong with it, something you don't like. A snake in the garden ... a worm in the apple ... a fly in the ointment.

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For example, in any community, There's always somebody who's disillusioned, or who isn't doing exactly What they should be doing. You think, 'It shouldn't be like that. In an ideal community, everybody should be working hard and practising hard.' But in saying, 'That's the way it is', the mind accepts and allows things to be the way they are. In that acceptance you can understand and, through understanding, you can guide things in a better way. With a community like Amaravati, accepting it the way it is, you begin to look and investigate and maybe see ways of improving it, of making it a better place. Or if there's nothing you can do, you just patiently wait until the right rime for improvement comes. Accepting other people in your life doesn't mean you like everything about them, but you accept the whole of them for what they are. Then you can see that a lot of your irritation is your own problem -- it's not that there's anything particularly wrong with them, but perhaps you're someone who's easily irritated by certain things. Or if they've just got very bad habits you can, through your acceptance and patience, find an opening in which improvements and directions can be given in a suitable way. There's wisdom operating in that openness.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles: The Golden State: A. Amaro Editorial:

April 1991 HOME BACK ISSUES

In Doubt We Trust; Ajahn Munindo On Messiahs and Other Matters; Ajahn Sumedho Why Did I Become a Nun?; Sister Sundara Pilgrimage in India; Aj. Sucitto & Sr. Thanissara Another Part of the World; Ajahn Anando

Why Did I Become a Nun? The following is taken from a talk given by Sister Sundara at the 'Joys of Monastic Life' conference, held at The Spirit Rock Center in Northern California in May 1990. I studied the programme of this conference when I arrived in America and looked at the different issues - which is a word I have never heard used so often before as in the last few days! - and I discovered that actually as a Buddhist nun, I probably would cover all of them just by talking about the life that I lead. It is about monasticism, and issues of men and women, and issues about the lay community's relationship with the monastery, and so forth. One of the first things that led me to the possibility of awakening the mind - and being in a wakeful state rather than a dull one - was the need I had to understand. To see clearly what my life was about - what our lives are about, I suppose - and I wanted to find the tool that could help. So I read and I listened to people, but somehow it never really did much to my understanding. I could memorise what was said, but I never felt any sort of transformation. And at the time I wasn't aware of the process of transformation, but I felt the need for finding some place within, that would help me understand. I think this is the case for all of us. There are many tools, many paths, many teachers that are available to us, but in my case I felt that my mind was already cluttered with many views and opinions about things and issues and, really, the most urgent thing to do was to empty it all out. I didn't know how to do it, though.

We didn't even have to be our own authority, we just had to look clearly, and see distinctly, and focus our attention.

When I heard Ajahn Sumedho for the first time, he talked about simplicity - and this really spoke to my heart. In out society, simplifying our lives isn't an easy thing to do even if we want to. We tend to clutter our minds and our houses with all sorts of things. So, when I went to Chithurst Monastery for the first time, it wasn't to become something; in fact, I was yearning to not be anything at all. It was difficult because, in the world, we all train to become something, usually something very special. To become nobody in a dignified way was very appealing! I went to Chithurst to see how Ajahn Sumedho and the monks were doing - they had moved out of a flat in London to the countryside, and I was keen to keep in touch with the Sangha. I really didn't know very much about Buddhism; neither had I seen monks before I met them in London. I had little knowledge of the tradition - which I'm grateful for; I really didn't like tradition very much. As an independent character I had very structured ideas about how I should live and didn't want to be told what to do. The only authority I followed was my own, so I was relieved to find that the teaching was pointing to self-realisation through one's own

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experience. We didn't even have to be our own authority, we just had to look clearly, and see distinctly, and focus our attention. The questioning, or the inquiring mind, must be recognised; in Buddhism, this is what the practice is about. Then, through attentiveness and mindfulness, you begin to explore things in a different way. You question things and see they are not always as they appear. Before we argue what is right or wrong, we must question: who is looking, who is thinking, who has these views? Is it my view? Who is this 'my'? This is something I found very important to come to terms with. Inquiring about the human mind seemed a very important thing. We have to discover that we have a mind, a heart, intellect, feeling, within this wonderful tool called a human being. Do we want to find out if it is working properly or not? One of the first things one becomes aware of by exploring this is; No, the human tool is not working very well. Before entering the monastery, I thought I had trained myself to be a smiling and attractive, socially acceptable personality. I had convinced myself of this. Before entering the monastery, I thought I was a nice person - I had no doubts about it. Then I joined the community ... In the community, one recognises the strong views one possesses about oneself and others, especially under this sort of restraint, when you cannot do what you would like to do and your habits become frustrated. There is a lot of boredom in a monastery due to the lack of distractions. You see the mind desperately trying to be fed on something. You find the slightest things irritating and annoying, whereas before you were really tolerant and accepting of others. Encountering the same people on a day-to-day basis, you find even the nicest people can become annoying. Why does this happen? Why do you harbour grudges or criticism about someone you previously liked very much? Is it me? It's worth investigating; otherwise, we would believe everything we thought and felt. Actually, I really like to have fun, so I began to take my fun seriously. I didn't want to go on suffering forever. The mind has its way of following the path it should take - when you really want something, you find it. It became clear that the only way of enjoying life was to live it the way that felt right, and we must all discover this for ourselves. Whatever gives one a sense of fulfilment and joy, and respect for others, as well as a sense of freedom -- that's what most people want to do. However, one doesn't usually think of finding joy and fulfillment in an environment where distraction and entertainment seem absent. So I didn't want to become a nun - I didn't think women did that until they were really old and no-one really wanted them any more. When I went to Chithurst to live I was asked to take the Eight Precepts and wear white. I didn't mind too much, as long as I could stay with people I respected and who lived a joyous life. Taking precepts was really what I had been looking for all of my life, and there wasn't any sense of being

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Winter Meditation Listen - the wind has died in the night. - Listen again; can you not hear Your own quiet breath. Look - the dawn has not come - Perhaps you should look From another place. It is dark; the whole world is asleep. - Never again; one Eye is always open Watching.

Martin S. Kaufman

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bound by them; it was just an awareness and focus of attention on what I said and did and thought. I couldn't dance or go to the theatre, watch television or indulge in entertainments. The precepts became really good friends to me. I was able to stop acting unskillfully, and then remorse over my behaviour ceased. This is because I was living in a place where the precepts were upheld and I could cultivate trust. The beginning of my monastic life was very new for everyone, including my teacher. He had just established a new monastery in the West with monks trained in Thailand - and then four women turned up. The women didn't know each other, you couldn't have put together more different characters. We had an interesting time together living in an environment where everything was experimental. The house itself was falling apart. In lay life I had always lived in comfortable situations, where cooking and cleaning for myself just weren't part of my lifestyle. I had never lived with monks before, either. It was cold and damp; I had to cook every day, and do many things that were new and unusual. A kind of joy began to develop that took away many obstacles. When we arrived, none of the four of us had any idea about anything, other than being there to practise and live the life as everyone was leading it - not to be anything special or have any particular privileges. I just wanted to be as ordinary as possible. to be a nobody; I had insight into being a nobody, and realised it was the best way to be. It's not something many people can relate to, and at the time I didn't see this with a Buddhist perspective. I didn't know what a nobody was or how to become one. It really came home when I took refuge in mindfulness and clear awareness, whilst looking for the one who knows. You can ask the question, but you can't ever find anyone who is constant through the impermanent mind-states -- there's just a silence, a space. At the beginning there was no space in my mind at all. It was full of miseries, ups and downs, me, you, the others, the world, life, yesterday, tomorrow, etc. This was the conditioned mind, conditioned by time and memory, thought and feeling. This was the only perspective I had then and I soon began to see that this conditioned mind was not really a satisfactory tool. It seemed to create problems about everything. One can take problems very seriously and believe, 'Yes, this is MY prohlem'! But you practise, you see that discontentment and dissatisfaction are the nature of the conditioned mind. I used to worry about everything. I could spend an entire lifetime describing my worry. And then I began to understand worry: it is like a boomerang - you throw it, and it comes back to you. If you believe in it, this is what worry does to you. Living in this situation, you just can't get away from yourself - wherever you are. You can't get rid of yourself. Living in the monastery, you begin to really see very clearly what this means. You have this person, 'yourself' who creates these problems and you are allowed to be with it. The catch is learning the results of the way you think, feel and act. The absolute and the relative world are not separate. The relative world is only your mind, and it seems as though it's 'out there', because that's where you believe your mind to be. This is where the confusion arises. The absolute and the relative world come together, like confusion and liberation. If you weren't really confused, there would be no need for liberation; there would be no problems, then, would there? How could you let go without knowing that you were attached to something? It's paradoxical. I remember thinking, 'Must I really suffer just to be able to let go of suffering?' it seemed an unbearable process to be free of ignorance by being truly ignorant. It's painful, as many of us don't want to question that. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/y-nun.htm[03/10/2017 19:44:47]

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Do we want to question what ignorance is about? How do we find a solution from a mind that can't even think clearly? For me, this is an important issue. Can we find clear answers from a place that is confused? Feeling unloved and rejected, frustrated with the sense of not getting anywhere made me think I wasn't practising - but something in me knew that I didn't have to believe that. Even if I was confused, I didn't have to believe it, because ultimately I knew it was not really 'me' - my ultimate nature. I could see these problems end, and realise there was no need to try and solve them. They would just go. Look back at a situation that was based on a very unstructured form (though it was based on the Dhamma and the Vinaya) I can see that most of the things that have since evolved for the Sangha happened when the community was able to let go. Development has come not from creating issues and problems but from purifying the heart and seeing clearly. Looking for personal clarity within the monastic situation, we realise that letting go was the only freedom from the conditioned mind. There is a sense of trust that our limited view of self is not what we are. Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles: The Golden State: A. Amaro Editorial:

Aril 1991 In Doubt We Trust; Ajahn Munindo On Messiahs and Other Matters; Ajahn Sumedho Why Did I Become a Nun?; Sister Sundara Pilgrimage in India; Aj. Sucitto & Sr. Thanissara Another Part of the World; Ajahn Anando

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Pilgrimage in Mother India In the synchronistic way things sometimes work, it happened that two members of the monastic communities received invitations to visit holy places in India this past winter. Ajahn Sucitto is still there, in fact, on a six-month walking pilgrimage with Nick Scott; Sister Thanissara returned to Britain at the end of January, after travelling for two months with a laywoman. Here are extracts from their letters, and from Sister Thanissara an essay as well. go to

Ajahn Sucitto Sister Thanissara

Ajahn Sucitto

Vaisali, December 1990

My respects and greetings to the sangha from Vaisali. We are staying at a small temple of Nipponzan Myohoji on the side of the ancient coronation tank at Vaisali. It is the only Buddhist establishment in this small, quiet village that was once capital of the Vajjian confederacy, the place of Mahapajapati's Going Forth and the site of the Buddha's last Rains Retreat. Here, he left his almsbowl and announced his forthcoming Parinibbana before going to Kusinara. We have travelled in the opposite direction to his. After making our way to the Nepali border, we walked to Lumbini and Kapilavastu, spending a week or so at those places, then turned back into India and in 5 days made it to Kusinagar near Kasia in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Subsequently we ferried across the Gandah river and turned South towards Vaisali. Much of the journey has the predictable qualities of tudong: the great spirit and freedom of it, and the blistered feet, grime, sweat and fatigue. The route is not particularly strenuous, as from the Himalayas to the hills in the south of Bihar the terrain is flat and level. Paddies and sugar cane everywhere, broken by rivers, canals, clumps of mango and banyan/bodhi tree groves, temples, villages of thatched straw, mud dwellings and the maelstroms of the towns. There is a profound regularity to it all that reminds me that from this cradle arose the vision of the endlessness of samsara and the cyclical dance of life. That's how it appears. Everything is out in the open - all life stages and conditions enacted like a morality play. And this human comedy moves to the regular passage of season, and harvest. Human rhythms adopt the same regularity - the trucks are all the same, going at the same speed with the same insignia and the same horns. Bicycles are the same, going at the same speed; the oxcart could be the same one brought out time and again. But the pilgrimage is far from tedious: against this backdrop, the vivid actualities of people and incidents stand out. There are too many encounters to mention - everyone takes an interest and this is a very populous area, diffused to the extent that it resembles a vast city park on a summer

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day. In this image, we have the effect of an ice-cream truck! Â

To meet Buddha images and revere them brings an immediate bliss and sweetness to the mind.

Speaking some Hindi has been very helpful - one touches again and again the deep concern that people have to be of some service to us. Often it is to advise us again about catching a bus (but we are walking), often it is an exchange that can be very heartfelt if one responds to it, then there are the many offers of food and tea. Our almsfaring has been adequate - once people understand what is required. We have eaten alms ranging from the meagre to the abundant, mostly in villages, offered by Brahmin farmers or by poor workers. The spirit has been very touching. If Buddhism were to come back, I think it would be through the kind of contact that pindapada establishes. My Hindi stretches to a few sentences of Dhamma and the response is always one of quiet attention and the request to stay or return. We have regular pujas on the roadside, and chant at the mealtime or on visiting Hindu shrines: I wanted to encourage the dharma that people have, so we have blessed many people and temples en route. Devotion is quite fundamental. What is needed is the investigation faculty, and in some way the presence of Western pilgrim Buddhists arouses the innate Indian curiosity towards investigation. As devotion is a main theme of my practice at this time, the practices and reflections I have undertaken make the holy places shine. To meet Buddha images and revere them brings an immediate bliss and sweetness to the mind. I have sprinkled some of Sister Rocana's ashes, Luang Por Chah's hair and made offerings on behalf the Sangha members. In fact, I feel I am bearing much of the Sangha's aspiration, as well as its blessings with me and celebrate these in my acts of offering. The monk and devotee here (at the Japanese temple) have just started a week of food and water fasting with 13 hours mantra and drum every day: a practice I respectfully declined. ooo0ooo Greetings to the sangha from Nalanda, ancient Buddhist university town from 3rd-l2th century AD. We entered Nalanda yesterday morning, after a night under a tree, along a dirt road that a local farmer had indicated as a short cut (and one that avoided the honk and clatter of the asphalt road). We have had some success at cross-country routes, using the old detailed maps - from the time of the Raj - that Nick brought. Such routes take you into the benevolent simple heart of village India: water buffaloes and oxen munching straw from the rice harvest, goats capering through the huts, women carting huge bales of straw on their heads, people squatting to dry the rice, talk, weave baskets, cook, urinate; the earthy smells of buffalo dung, burning straw, soil being turned for the new crop to be sewn, whiffs of cooking. Our entry to Nalanda, as to other holy places, is signaled by an ironic change of mood: from being interesting strangers who are responded to with hospitality, or Dhamma pilgrims who are seen with respect, we become tourists, sources of revenue. Everyone is out to sell - tea, food, trinkets, guidance. Someone rubs some ash from a Kali temple on our foreheads and demands 10 rupees. However, a burly monk in maroon Tibetan robes and blue laceless sneakers - a member of a contingent from Zanskar and Ladakh - indicates that the Thai temple is down that road. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/pilg.htm[03/10/2017 19:43:35]

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...Most of the time we are on the road, in the huge plain of paddies and sugar cane and mango groves where the many villages of this region are situated. Unlike tudong in England, there are few remote or quiet places. It is like walking across an enormous farm in which everyone is working in the fields. There are a few groves. Buddhist Indian people are very interested in us. It must be rather like having two Eskimos, one dressed as a vicar, turning up in the middle of the Fens. As their own routine is so unvarying, the seasons and the landscape totally predictable, the social and religious order established over centuries, we are a kind of challenge to normality and must be fitted in. 'Where is your house? Where are you going? Where have you come from?' are the continual questions. Sometimes if we sit down - DOING NOTHING! - people will gather and just stare, trying to figure out 'What . . . ?' It must also be said that they are an immediately caring and hospitable people. Much attention comes from a kind of anxiety that we must be lost, and a common wish to be of help. So alms-food, tea and company have not been a problem. And when you think of it, it is only Westerners with their buzzing psyches who yearn to be alone. Indians look horrified or unbelieving when you mention sleeping under a tree rather than surrounded by people in a village. They are constantly fearful of our safety when walking at night, and one has encounter after encounter with saviours trying to get you to stay in some howling chaos of a town. They are very bandit-conscious, too. Nick met some bandits - 10 of them, with rifles, bands of bullets across their well-dressed chests, fine waxed moustaches, and on push bikes. But they were very Indian bandits - rather nonplussed by this red-bearded smiling giant, fascinated by his binoculars, which they all took turns at looking through; and when he said they couldn't look in his money belt, accepted that politely and rode off. With so many people and encounters, many delightful and touching (or humbling in their respect and immediate offers of service), practice of Dhamma has to be very expansive, a constant metta-bhavana and opening beyond one's own perspectives. So I am very grateful for all of this and for the Dhamma-faring that has brought me to this blessed place. In due course we plan to be in Bodh-Gaya, and from there go on a long walk in the southern Bihar hills before turning to Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his First Sermon... Burmese Vihara, Bodh-Gaya, December 28 After Vaisali, we strode very purposefully towards Patna. Our entry there was via the Gandhi bridge over the Ganges. It's very impressive and extends for about 3 km before it actually reaches the river. Over it trundles every kind of vehicle, and there is a pavement for https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/pilg.htm[03/10/2017 19:43:35]

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pedestrians and ox-carts. We had a morning puja where the bridge began to soar over the river itself: in India it is OK to do a puja anywhere, though you may find an ox-cart ploughing through the middle of your devotions. ooo0ooo Throughout the pilgrimage the Buddhist teaching on emptiness has been very useful for responding to the ambiguities of the holy places. At these sites, one's mind perceives both the inspiration and the devotional savour of walking in the land of the Sutras and the Vinaya, and the less gladdening news on contemporary Sangha-pracrice and the commercial exploitation of these venues. More swift and insightful than reflecting on the cultural, pragmatic and sociological forces at play, is to contemplate and abandon one's own insistence that the inner metaphors of the spiritual world be enacted before one's eyes. After all, the Buddha lived, was enlightened and remained joyous and compassionate amidst a scenario of false accusations, corrupt monks, and attempts on his life. And what finer teaching can there be to not linger in expectation, bliss or despair than the ever-changing carnival of Indian life? Wat Thai at Nalanda was an excellent place for recuperation, thanks to the ministrations of Maichee Ahlee. Maichee was ordained at age 13, studied Abhidhamma and Pali to doctorate level for 14 years, and then put that aside to manage the temple. She has been a resident for 17 years and is on the go all day; she admits that it is very hard, but no one else will do it, and she has no more interest in learning. Monks come and go as is Thai custom; she caters for them and for all the Thai travel groups, turning up at whatever time, with a high standard of service and good humour. Quite an exemplary being. The monastery is a good place to rest after the effort and hardship of the walk; my feet have some minor infection from the abrasions of the tudong, and it's good to get clean. Rich food restores the energies and the tissues that get depleted on a long journey and the humble diets of village alms-food. It is also a chance to repair my ancient sanghati, though it is rather like trying to sew up the splits in an overripe tomato. I don't think it is going to survive the trip. I feel more optimistic about my feet. ooo0ooo From Nalanda it is only a morning's walk to Rajagir. When the haze is minimal, you can see the hills rising out of the plain. They are the first hills we have seen in 500 km, since we left the view of the snow-capped Himalayas in Northern Uttar Pradesh. The eye rejoices at having a finite horizon that doesn't keep moving away at walking speed; it explores the dimension of height, and the mind speculates on views, aloofness, and being above the teeming plains. How the Buddha must have loved Rajagir! This was the place where royal patronage of the Buddha began when king Bimbisara gave him the Bamboo Grove, and where the Elders recited the Surtas and Vinaya after the Parinibbana. I couldn't help recalling that it was also a place of treachery - Devadatta rolling down a boulder that shattered and drew the Tathagata's blood; and Ajatasattu beginning a family tradition of patricide by murdering that pious old king, his father, Bimbisara. Rajagir had some fine moments, but never felt quite right. It is also a resort for Jain pilgrims with numerous temples on the hills; and, on account of its hot springs, a popular place for Indian holiday-makers. After a few days at the Burmese Vihara in the modern town, we decided to weave within the circle of hills and take up residence on Vulture's Peak. We had a very fine evening by the Buddha's kuti on the Peak itself. As in the other holy places, whatever the commercial accretions that have accumulated around it, the kernel of the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/pilg.htm[03/10/2017 19:43:35]

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holy place always fills the mind with a sense serenity and poignant reverence, love and encouragement from the Buddha. The hills of Rajagir are truly lovely and have also been preserved (as much as is possible) as a Nature Reserve. A dirt road runs through the forest that clothes the hills, so it was quite idyllic, but, with one of these illuminating changes of mood that tells you that all moods are mind-made - it was also the place where we were attacked by six men with staves and axes and robbed of everything we had. Well, at the end of the whole crazy episode I had my sabong [lower robe] and angsa [upper robe/shirt] being used as a belt to tie it up - the bandage around my foot, an empty pouch and my sandals. Nick had his footwear, trousers (in tatters), underwear and a rosary along with a mass of cuts and a few bruises. But were very grateful and relieved to have each other alive, relative health and well-being, and a vihara to go to. A strange elation sets in after one has been overwhelmed with violence, and even the loss of the bags was compensated by the lightness of having nothing to carry. It is interesting to reflect on what kamma arises at such highly-charged times. I have had a strong inclination towards 'atonement', to accept what happens on the pilgrimage as a way of paying off karmic debts; it has had some helpful results. In this case, when the bandits threatened to kill me, I found myself offering them my head - one should repay willingly, it seems. That and some Refuge chanting seemed to calm them down, and they left me alone. Nick tried to fight his way out of it, escaped, realised that he couldn't abandon me, returned, got thrashed and pursued through the forest, eventually saving himself by jumping over the edge of a ravine and tumbling through the thorns and scree. Hence he was pretty cut up. As he ruefully reflected, if he had died, it would have been with the mind of an animal. The mind reruns such incidents many times with 'If only. .' and of course the principal regret on my part is that all the lovely things that people asked me to keep have gone, and to no good end. Nick has lost some 15 rolls of film with memorable scenes of the pilgrimage, plus the list of people who have helped us so far and to whom we wished to write. It seemed that the best thing to do was nothing. We returned to Nalanda to a quiet place for meditation. Maichee gave me a robe and some toiletries, and 2000 rupees (GBP58) for our use, enough for our immediate needs. After that, everything has turned around. We filled in our reports for the police, and walked off to Bodh Gaya, travelling very light and meeting many good people on the way. We plan to go to Calcutta, where we should be able to get new passports and visas, and where Nick will probably renew his travellers cheques. Meanwhile, the days unfold. I borrowed an almsbowl from the vihara to go on almsround in the morning. This is my offering to the holy places - to be a monk who goes for alms, just because the Buddha did, and established that as the norm. Any other motive apart from to offer an opportunity for generosity, any concern about getting anything, or self-consciousness as one stands by a fruit stall or snackbar with an open bowl; any time that I fall away from offering myself is suffering. How perfect, and how precious an opportunity this Dhammafaring is! Well, letters, unlike reality, come to an end and need conclusions; I don't know what to make of it all. We may very well meet Sister Thanissara and Nada [her companion] in a day or two, if their plans have come to fruition. ooo0ooo https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/pilg.htm[03/10/2017 19:43:35]

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Greetings to the sangha from Calcutta, where we have gone to get new passports, travellers cheques, visas and airline tickets. By and large, we are having a fortunate time and the pilgrimage is showering us with benevolence, compassion and insight. Even the robbery helped us to remember that nothing belongs to us. Everything was given, and yet gradually over time the illusion grows: this stuff is 'mine'! Then it all goes, and - well, here we are, and all the essential things - the sleeping bag, almsbowl, malaria tablets, water filtration kit, clocks, clothes, etc., etc., that we couldn't do without and had been carting around on our backs - we could do without. At a pinch. Walking to Bodh-Gaya was easy, travelling light for 2 1/2 days. There at the Burmese Temple, Kate Mitchell and friends gave us sleeping bags, a Swiss Army knife, a water container and mugs. A stainless steel bowl comes from the 'Root Institute for Wisdom Culture', another robe from Wat Thai and financial contributions from many directions. So the forces of destruction and nourishment have worked together to keep us humble, open and seeing things as they are. We arrived at Bodh-Gaya, having walked from Lumbini in 7 weeks, living mostly on almsfood and sleeping under trees en route. The bodies were a bit worn, but the holy places generally provide good facilities for rest, food and a clean-up. The walking has been a good practice; often we used a mantra to firm up energy and guard against the 'diffusion effect' of the high-contact degree of sensory impingement in India. We walked generally from about 4-10.30 a.m., with morning puja and sitting at dawn; tea/snack at around 8; 10 a.m.-12.30 p.m. almsround, meal and chat with villagers. Then lumber off and find a place for a brief nap before being discovered by curious locals. Afternoon walk until about 4 - time for tea; 5.30, evening puja; at 6, it is dark. Then an hour or so, depending on energy, in the darkness; set up for the night. Meditate at will until excessive slumping signals beddy-byes. People have been a major aspect of the pilgrimage - there are about 100 million in the area we travel through. It has been very wonderful opening to it all, and remembering Master Hua's advice to the Amaravati community: When you go to practise in the place of the Buddha, you must not find fault with anyone. As long as you find fault with anyone else, you have not found peace in your own heart.' It was a 'general' remark, but you can imagine how I pricked my ears up at that. And it has been a good theme. India does not obey mind-wrought laws. It is under the sway of a female goddess who allures, nourishes, and destroys, in order to liberate the mind from having any views about samsara. (Once one has no views, there is no samsara!) Life obeys the same secret rhythms as rivers and moons: you have to follow. And all you can do is to keep cause-and-effect clear in the mind and come from purity. So I put my hands together in homage to the Triple Gem in all places and forget about holiness. After this, our intention is to walk south through forest and then west to Sarnath. I think of you all with metta; Yours in the Dhamma, Sucitto Bhikkhu

go to

Ajahn Sucitto Sister Thanissara

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Sister Thanissara Driving through the streets - amazement. I'd forgotten how mind- blowing India is. We pass a large dead cow, on its back, legs extended, mouth wide open as if the spirit had been knocked from its throat. It was in the middle of the main dual carriageway into Delhi. No one seemed bothered about it. Dusty sidewalks, rubbish strewn everywhere, people milling amongst cows, dogs, even pigs. Erratic driving with horns tooting: motor rickshaws, taxis, colourful but tatty buses and lorries crammed with people. Brown eyes staring at us with curiosity, need and sometimes bewilderment, sometimes friendliness and interest. Chai shops and whallas squatting, selling anything that's saleable, dusty grey-looking beings, thin and wrapped in rags, sometimes carrying bundles on their heads. Motor scooters with whole families perched precariously on top... ooo0ooo I feel a happiness well up inside and a smile transform my face. I'm just happy to be back in India, I really don't know why I love it, it's a total affront to my Western conditioning - our slightly uptight, neurotic, pre-packaged, tidy and neat and usually subliminally negative approach to life. It's hard for me to fathom why I feel so much at home here, but I recognise the feeling after a few hours. I realise how, on some imperceptible level, I find it a strain to live within the Western psyche, where somehow we've forgotten to be what we are. ooo0ooo The chai shop whalla sits at our table we're outside, two cows are sitting very peace fully next to us a man's chopping sugar cane and is surrounded by a group who can't help staring at us, a tiny puppy places himself at my feet. The chai whalla starts telling us about his guru and gives us some reflections on Dhamma (as we'd put it!). It was extraordinary having this very pure-hearted man share his thoughts on spiritual life. We felt enriched and refreshed listening to him. I realised I should let go a little more of any ideas of how Dhamma arrives at one's doorstep, and also what I'm doing in India, and just be more open. I ask him if he has any children. He's married, but says it's not given to him to have children: it's God's way of teaching him to see all children as his own. He follows by talking very beautifully on unconditional love. He really seems to be trying to live it as he serves people in his humble little chai shop. We leave, saying he's made us feel at home on our first day in India. His 'don't worry, the world is ours!' certainly makes one feel less paranoid. ooo0ooo There are about 120 monks and a large group of nuns that live in Mcleod Ganj. Except for the market, the whole place is like one huge monastery. The maroon coloured robe is seen everywhere and from our room it's possible to hear the drums, trumpets and bells of the monks while they do their pujas. Also one can witness them debating in the courtyard of the temple, a very vigourous way of testing each other's insight. Almost all the lay people, whatever age, seem to carry mala beads and walk round saying mantras to themselves. It's good to see many of the old Tibetans wearing the traditional dress. Their faces are bright and friendly. There's no doubt they're a special people, they live and breathe Buddhism, it's very refreshing; one feels quite at home here up in the mountains in a Tibetan atmosphere. Just going to town (a short distance), one passes a couple of lepers always calling 'anila' or 'sister' as we pass, a sweet-looking but rather gnarled man who has set up business with a bathroom weighing scale on the side of https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/pilg.htm[03/10/2017 19:43:35]

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the road (have your weight told for a rupee or two). A family which seems to live on a slab of muddy concrete 3'x6' - the man's blind, a young baby and mother with a bundle of wretched looking clothes, a samosa whalla, a few groups of building workers shoveling mounds of mud with very primitive utensils. Although it's taking a while to adjust, I value the experience immensely. Witnessing the terrible poverty makes one appreciate how much we do have in the West. Just to have a warm jumper and a roof over one's head . . . . can't imagine what that small family does when it's cold at night. Today we're invited to have our meal with a neighbouring Tibetan lady. We sit in her small room: there are three beds (made into seats during the daytime) for herself and her two children. The most obvious part of her room is the shrine, which extends across the length of one wall. As all Tibetan shrines, it's ornate and colourful, with pictures of the Buddha, and the inevitable picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, statues of Tara or Manjushri, offering-bowls, candles, incense, food offerings (a little of our meal is offered) and various thankas. It's nice to see the shrine as the most obvious thing in the room. Nada and I are amazed how neat, tidy and simple the room is, considering there are three people living in it. It was explained to us that as it's the moon day today, she'll fast after noon; she does this every week on the observance days. Her two sons are monks and her third young son also aspires to be a monk. She's obviously quite happy about this. She also shows us her handicrafts, very beautifully woven carpets and bead work. Almost any time of day or night one can see the Tibetans, monks, nuns and laity alike, doing prostrations. There's a strong sense of integration between Sangha and laity here (probably similar to Thailand). The refinement of Vinaya in not so much observed, however; one has to appreciate that different schools emphasise different aspects of Buddha-Dhamma. One aspect that is strongly emphasised is the approach of bodhicitta: everything should be undertaken with the view of benefiting all sentient beings. This notice hangs over the entrance of the gompa, the main temple:

'All dharmas (existences) are like a reflection, clear and pure without turbulence, unsizeable and indescribable, purely derived from cause and action, without self nature, without location. You, by understanding the dhammas that way, work for the welfare of sentient beings without compare, and you shall be born as the son of the protectors (Buddhas).' ooo0ooo Haridwar is one of the Hindus' 7 holy cities. It's on the Ganges, and driving in on the bus, we pass over the river. Every third Kumbal Mela (a Hindu religious festival which happens every 12 years) takes place here; millions of Hindu people attend. The high point is the ritual bathing in the Holy Ganges at an auspicious time. Quite often many people lose their lives in the crowd. As it's nearer its source here, the Ganges has a purity to it, the colour is bluey turquoise and it flows surprisingly rapidly; also it's very wide. There are quite a few temples and Ghats on the river bank.

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ooo0ooo Arriving at the ashram at Jarharikal [recommended for a visit by an English Christian nun], a notice at the entrance says: 'Please leave your shoes and your ego here'! A good reminder to relax and trust. A sister shows us a simple room each and brings us tea and water for washing. We attend the communion service, given by an elderly Austrian Father. The service is familiar to Nada and me with our Catholic backgrounds, though its mixed with prayers from the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita. It's a very nice service, the Father and sisters make us feel welcome. We talk and they ask questions about my life in the monastery. One of the sisters also talks to us about her life as a missionary school teacher in Uganda. That night alone in my cell, the presence of the Himalayas becomes all-pervading. The silence is most profound, overwhelming my little thoughts, concerns and anxieties. The silence rings and has a peace that I've rarely felt. Surely, the highest expression of transcendent reality is this silence and peace. It's clear to me at this moment that the Dhamma belongs to no religion. How can it? - it's everywhere, within and around, in all beings. It's immense and allpervading, the pure, the immortal, beyond knowledge, beyond concept, the source of all, the ending of all: Holy and Blessed Himalayas, you are immovable In your lap dwells the eternal Shiva Through your peaks roams the breath of Ram From your heart gushes the Holy mother Ganges Descending to the valleys below, she brings purity Faith and hope to the suffering humanity. You, holy mountain, are beyond grasp, removed Inaccessible, you listen to the sounds of the world You see all things with an equal eye All sounds are absorbed into your immortal silence By your divine grace, timelessness Pervades my being, my mind is rendered useless Only can it look in devotion. . . how could I forget . . . how could I doubt Your everlasting Grace. We have been offered these different spiritual paths so that we may know and not doubt the ever-present beneficent Dhamma. Don't get too caught in the distinctions it's a real pity to do so. All beings, all life is sacred, only our egos blind us and bind us to mortality. We should have no fear: haven't we been looked after so far? Why not put our total heart and trust in Dhamma, the source of purity? - it cannot fail us. Even at death, it cannot fail us. For my death is only a dying into true life. ooo0ooo Rishikesh is a special place. The river is not so wide here and it flows even more rapidly. In

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the evening we return to our lodging, walking amongst chai shops, lit, up bazaars, little fires cooking up this and that, occasionally treading round bundles of rags that hide a sleeping person. We do a short puja and sit quietly. Images of the Ganges flow through my mind; the mind and the Ganges feel inseparable. I understand why this river is venerated, there's a power to it, as there's a power to the Himalayas. As it's flowing through my mind, I feel the consciousness expanding, leaving behind the narrow confines of who I think I am; flowing, loosening attachments and fears, the river courses its way to the sea as the individual consciousness must merge with the universal. Who am I when there's no identity with friends, family, nationality, sex, religion, status? Allowing ourselves to let go of each other is the holiest thing we can do. Because it means only then can we trust Dhamma. Faith is all important, with faith we can offer ourselves up. She flows on and on, this Holy Ganges, purifying all indiscriminately. I feel I know this river, these mountains.. .. .. .. Full Moon of December at Bodh-Gaya By the time we arrived, it was the morning of the 31st, a full-moon day. Nada and I had been travelling in India for about six weeks. As the bus pulled into Bodh-Gaya, we saw the obvious signs of a temple town: crowded streets with rickshaw wallahs touting for custom; market stalls selling mala beads, Buddha statues and religious artifacts; a colourful array of Tibetan pilgrims; Indians going about their daily business; a variety of shops, chai stalls and roadside vendors; a row of shoe wallahs squatting on the side of the road, plying their trade; beggars, lepers and a long line of widows beseeching a pittance outside of the temple compound. In England, we'd made a tentative agreement to meet up with Ajahn Sucitto and Nick here on the full moon of December. That night we found them in the grounds of the temple to observe the Uposatha night, meditating at this tremendously holy and auspicious site. The main Maha Bodhi Stupa is quite extraordinary; it reaches up to the sky, its flat sides housing images of the Buddha. In the soft light of the full moon I could hardly remove my gaze from its splendour. Backing onto the west side of the stupa is the renowned Bodhi tree, which sheltered the Lord Buddha on that significant night long ago. It is said that, out of gratitude for this remarkablc tree, he stood staring at it for one week with eyes unmoving. Between the tree and the side of the great stupa is the Vajra diamond seat, the place of Enlightenment - a most holy, and perhaps the most powerful spot on this earth. For me it is a symbol for the transcendent mind, where all time, all dualities and all concepts cease - totally leaving that unfathomable peace which is expressed so beautifully by the serene smile of the Buddha. Surrounding the main stupa is a myriad of small stupas, and three walkways for the continual circumambulation of pilgrims around the central point. The whole site is saturated with an aura of devotion the result of faith and pure-heartedness, brought there over the ages by countless beings who come to pay their respects to the Tathagata. I felt such a power of attraction there, as an iron filing to a magnet. That night the entire area was lit up by thousands of oil lamps - the work of that unique people, the Tibetans - giving the effect of a fairy land. We started our all-night vigil with a puja in the small shrine area inside the Maha Bodhi Stupa. Miraculously, all other pilgrims vanished, and the four of us were left alone to absorb the power of that spot. My thoughts evaporated. I sensed time had stopped. An extraordinary quality of devotion towards the Buddha, and awe at his accomplishment welled up in my heart. I felt him seated at the centre of the universe - the point where all time, all birth and death cease - with an infinite mind, unlimited compassion and surrounded yet unmoved by the forces of samsara.

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After leaving the inner temple, we sat outside in the grounds. At about 11 p.m. it starred to pour with rain - the first rain we had seen in the six weeks we had been in India. I thought of it as a blessing on this fortunate night. We found shelter under some archways at the edge of the temple compound, looking out over a lotus pond, in the centre of which is a large Buddharupa canopied by Mucalinda, the serpent king. It marks the spot where the Buddha was protected by Mucalinda during a violent storm, after his Enlightenment. As the night proceeded, we watched the rain lash down. Occasionally a streak of lightening would light up the pond, enabling us to catch a glimpse of the magnificent Buddha. Sitting, wrapped up in blankets, under the shelter, I felt a sense of other-worldliness: the misty pond, a mysterious atmosphere and, in the distance, the occasional call of night watchmen and the bark of a few stray dogs. From time to time, I'd circumambulate the stupa - feet splashing through the puddles, the mind drinking in the atmosphere, and eyes gazing at the beauty of the stupas - contemplating the dedication and determination that is needed to be free from ignorance. How can we ever express our gratitude to our teacher, the Buddha, for showing the Way so clearly? I saw that the Dhamma/Vinaya is like a map left for us; we may not always understand why the map is as it is, but I find that it's important to trust it until, through insight, one finds the truth of it for oneself. We left the temple before dawn, feeling both inspired and fairly exhausted: we had spent the previous 36 hours just travelling to make it to our rendezvous with Ajahn Sucitto and Nick. As the temple was now locked, we climbed over the gates, feeling very reluctant to go. I was so tired that I was beginning to hallucinate, but walking back to our lodge I felt glad at heart to have spent the New Year and our first 24 hours in Bodh-Gaya in such an auspicious way.

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Cover: Articles: The Golden State: A. Amaro Editorial:

April 1991 HOME BACK ISSUES

Another Part of the World Ajahn Anando writes from New Zealand To my surprise, people were waiting for me at Auckland airport. I only had two hours before my connecting flight to Wellington, so the thought never entered my mind that people would he waiting to offer me some food. 'But Bhante, everything is arranged. My friend will let us use one of the offices here in the airport. He is the airport manager.' Once again, the world is a kind, generous, if somewhat mysterious place. There is something special about old friends. There is a lack of demand in their greeting that allows us to be just as we are. The sense of acceptance we feel in their presence can be a tangible experience, which can dispel anxiety and open the way for true communication. Ajahn Viradhammo and I were (somewhat mischievous) novices together in Thailand almost twenty years ago. Over the years we have watched with some amazement the developments of the Buddhist Sangha in the West. I remember at Chithurst many years ago, V. telling me, in an almost ex cathedra manner, that we had reached the crest of the wave of interest and (the eternal optimist) it would then be all downhill from then on. Little did we know that this cosmic dance we call life would unfold in such a manner.

Wearing robes is a fairly strong statement about one's commitment to a spiritual discipline which has often been supported by the tacit 'Good on ya' from the people I have met.

The invitation to go to New Zealand for three months came as a surprise. But the thought of helping an old friend was very pleasing to me although I was concerned that I would have to take some responsibility for a major building project that was well under way. However, Ajahn V. assured me that would not be the case. I would simply have to take care of the monastery while he was away. The Sala is an aesthetically pleasing building. The ambience created by the careful attention to detail invites the mind to pause and reflect and is a wonderful sign of the determination, dedication and generosity of the community in New Zealand, both lay and monastic. This life as a monastic is a privileged existence. The people I have had the fortuity to meet here have impressed me with their open friendliness and good humour. There seems to be something of a pioneering spirit in this country which manifests in a refreshing willingness to accept the novel. 'Good on ya!' is a Kiwihttps://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/ajan.htm[03/10/2017 19:42:16]

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ism which expresses encouragement for someone doing something that that person feels is important and fulfilling. Wearing robes is a fairly strong statement about one's commitment to a spiritual discipline which has often been supported by the tacit 'Good on ya' from the people I have met. I have had an opportunity to teach at most of the Buddhist groups around the country that support the monastery. It is inspiring to encounter such interest, sincerity and gratitude towards the teachings of the Buddha. I feel confident that, with the wise and compassionate guidance of Ajahn Viradhammo, the Dhamma will continue to flourish in this exquisitely beautiful country.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles: The Golden State: A. Amaro Editorial:

April 1991 In Doubt We Trust; Ajahn Munindo On Messiahs and Other Matters; Ajahn Sumedho Why Did I Become a Nun?; Sister Sundara Pilgrimage in India; Aj. Sucitto & Sr. Thanissara Another Part of the World; Ajahn Anando

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The Golden State Ajahn Amaro concludes his reflections on a Sangha visit last summer to the West Coast of the U.S., and on his own time alone there, staying on for a few months after the others in the party returned to Britain. Part I of the article appeared in the last newsletter, January 1991. Part II: A Still Life It is an oft-recognised fact that, once a religion is established in a society, over the centuries its original values tend to be obscured. Cultural overlay, empty intellectualism, assumed importance and conceit all contribute to a process of corruption. When a religion enters a new country, however, there is an opportunity for a reclarification of values - particularly if it has not arrived through missionary zeal but through the interest of the local population. Against the background of new culture, whatever does not relate to the basic spiritual paradigm becomes illuminated - and can be questioned. Most religious traditions employ similar 'tools' - self- discipline, kindness, devotion, contentment with little, contemplation, meditation - which historically have often been formulated into monastic institutions. As Buddhism enters Western (and particularly American) culture, however, these basic spiritual qualities are being cultivated via variety of approaches. Some are conservative, traditional and origin-based; others are novel, unorthodox and based more in the effort to fit with present cultural values. ooo0ooo During our teaching tour on the West Coast of America, Ajahn Sumedho, Sister Sundara, Sister Jotaka and myself moved amongst groups of both sorts. On the 'traditionalist' side, we spent time at The Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, near Ukiah, northern California, and at the Buddha-Dharma Meditation Center in Hinsdale, Chicago. We also visited the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Catholic monastery on California's Big Sur coast, and Taung Pulu Kaba Aye, a forest meditation monastery in the hills south of San Francisco, established by a Burmese Buddhist master of the dhutanga or 'austere' tradition. On the 'modernist' side - if that is the right word - we visited Spirit Rock, the centre being established by Insight Meditation West (IMW) and the Vipassana meditation students of the West Coast; Green Gulch Farm, a community associated with the San Francisco Zen Center, and Cloud Mountain Retreat Center in northern Oregon, also mainly used by Vipassana students. We also conducted an inaugural blessing ceremony for the Bell Springs Hermitage, a retreat centre particularly for those with life-threatening illnesses. Their approach has been - right from the start - not to

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dilute the monastic form to make it more palatable to Americans, but instead to make clear what the teaching Â and discipline offers, and to give people the opportunity to rise up to it.

Perhaps these two attitudes are extensions of the psychological tendencies of primacy and recency: either trusting what was first experienced as most important, or trusting what has been experienced most recently. Both approaches are, naturally, blessed with benefits and problems. Traditionalism (primacy) derives from a respect for one's origins. On the spiritual level, for Buddhists this manifests as respect for the fundamental, unconditioned Truth (SaccaDhamma) as the Source. On the conditioned plane, it means a respect for Gotama the Buddha, the whole dispensation which arose from his accomplishments, and the lineage of all who have lived according to the teachings over the centuries - keeping them alive and vibrant to the present day. Such devotion to the roots of one's faith has a tremendous supportive quality: one is participating in a form which has existed for millennia, with the power to buoy one up and carry one along, like the flow of a great river. One has the right to enjoy the inheritance of one's ancestors, living in the way extolled by them. Traditional monastic institutions automatically inherit the faith and devotion of the people of their country, and Can rely on a stable Sangha to back up any efforts in a new land -- which often receive financial support from the laity. Adherence to the trusted standards of the 'old country' draws in those who already have confidence in that form. The principal difficulty is that, inevitably, these well-established forms of Buddhism carry a cultural overlay. This can make their transplantation to another social milieu a very delicate operation. If those bringing it over have little conversancy with the new environment, the precious seeds of wisdom can remain trapped within a capsule of Asian custom and language. Or - like a rare and fragile orchid - it might take root as something exquisite and exotic but basically infertile, unable to withstand for long the rigours of its new location. ooo0ooo The Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is, as its name suggests, more than just a monastery. Alongside the facilities for the hundred or more resident monks, nuns and novices, there are also elementary and secondary schools and the 'Dhamma Realm Buddhist University'. It is the main centre for a group of orthodox monasteries spread along the West Coast of America and Canada. The spiritual guide and founder of these monasteries is the Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua, a bhikshu (monk) of Chinese origin who began teaching in San Francisco in the early Sixties. Although the main interest and support has so far come From the Chinese community, there is a strong emphasis on making the teachings available to the English-speaking Americans. Indeed, many American men and women have gone forth as bhikshus and bhikshunis under the Venerable Master's guidance, and are now in the forefront of administrative and teaching duties at the monasteries. Their approach has been - right from the start - not to dilute the monastic form to make it more palatable to Americans, but instead to make clear what the teaching and discipline offers, and to give people the opportunity to rise up to it. The monasteries still have a strong Chinese flavour - all the religious objects, rituals, etc. retain the form developed in

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China over the centuries - but Master Hua has consistently pointed our the original forms established by the Lord Buddha. Thus his monasteries adhere more closely to the Vinaya and observe a number of Sangha procedures more strictly than is done in present-day Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. Along with translating all scriptures and rituals into English, this approach makes it possible for those attending retreats, ceremonies and Dharma talks to tie in the practice directly to the Lord Buddha's own Way, rather than just to the obvious Chinese tradition. Despite attempts to make the teaching more accessible, Sangha members commented that the average interested American still finds perhaps understandably their form of practice somewhat impenetrable. However, things are constantly in a state of adaptation. In being faithful to a tradition, one starts out by sticking with the known and wellestablished - and makes changes later, to fit the time and place. It is a dodgy business to design ideal reforms from scratch; one does better to see what changes will be suitable often by seeming to blunder at first! Americans, however, are used the opposite approach: the ideal is laid out on paper and approved beforehand - rather like the U.S. Constitution. This may be fine in principle but, to be ruthlessly practical, one has to start from where one actually is. So, getting back to the problem of importing a monastic form, although there might be all kinds at great adaptations that could be made, it is only by using what is there already that one finds out what really needs to be changed. In making changes in this usually painstaking manner, the trust and confidence of Buddhists in the country of origin is happily retained. Pioneer monasteries are much in the public eye back home, so if too much is altered too quickly, disaffection can set in on a dramatic scale. Once a community is well-established, however, important adaptations can often be made without such negative repercussions.

Waving the hands like clouds (Spring Equinox) Bright sharp light go now don't stop Wind is young, just born Emptiness can SNAP into creation you've no time for regret, winter waster This is touch and go Touch, deeper deeper

Nyanaviro Bhikkhu

It was very encouraging, therefore, to see that these monasteries have recently instituted some Pali chanting with English translations in their morning and evening recitations, and have made it optional for the monks and nuns to wear 'Theravada' robes if they choose. This is in order to further the recognition of unity between the different branches of the Sangha and to stress connectedness with the Buddha rather than with China. At the Buddha-Dharma Meditation Center on the outskirts of Chicago, the experience is similar. Established much more recently (1988) by Phra Ajahn Sunthorn Plamintr, the centre has aimed to be a resource as much for local Americans as for the immigrant Thai population. In June of 1990 I was invited there to attend the demarcation of an ordination precinct (sima), and the ordination of several men as novices and bhikkhus. Despite being quite a junior monk I was accorded a place of honour amongst the many Maha-theras, and was asked to give one of the Dhamma-talks to the whole assembly. The efforts and sincerity of the resident Sangha, and also the lay supporters, were immediately

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striking; so also was their concern to be more of use to English-speaking Americans. So much was this on their minds that, from the drive from the airport right up until my departure time, I was repeatedly asked for advice on this. The barriers of language and culture, I was told, meant that more than 99% of the people coming were Asians. They had been trying very hard. On this week-end, for example, they had ensured that most of the Dhamma-talks would be in English. At the Center, they held regular meditation classes; they had formed links with other local Buddhist groups in the Mid-West Dharma Association and had invited well-known teachers of other Buddhist traditions to speak on their festival days. However, many felt that there was an inexorable inclination of the centre towards becoming little more than a Thai cultural centre, with all the trappings of Thai 'city' monastery. The future is, of course uncertain but my feeling was that this outcome is quite unlikely. These are the early days when, as mentioned above, one tends to stay close to the mould from which one has recently emerged. Gentle transmutations will come withtime. Since the determination of the abbot and his closest lay supporters is to establish a monastery for all people, and a place where meditation is taught and practised, that east be the dire; ion it will take. ooo0ooo Our contact with Brother David Steindl-Rast at the 'Joys of Monastic Life' conference led to a visit to the monastery at which he now stays. Although professed in a different order, he has been at the hermitage of New Camaldoli for the past eight years. When the Camaldolese Order was set up in the 11 century by St. Romuald they were even then something of a reform movement. Eschewing leadership by abbots (who already had an aura of power and worldliness), they established a unique pattern in Christian monasticism. Their life is divided into three basic styles: that of the Hermit; that of communal life in the monastery; and that of a house in the city. Each monastic spends varying periods of time in each situation according to their disposition. it was this unique blend that moved Father Thomas Merton to urge the Camaldolese to establish a monastery in the USA. In his eyes, his own Trappist order was too isolationist and rigid to fully serve the American people as he felt a monastic community could. Unfortunately, by the time the New Camaldoli monastery was founded, he was too valuable to be allowed to leave his own community. Thus he never got the chance to live with them in the stunningly beautiful place they found, nestled on the hillsides overlooking the Pacific. However, that the monastery exists today and is one of great vitality and ecumenicism, would probably please Father Thomas more than his own getting to live there. On their 800 acres they have a number of hermit monks living in the woods, and a main community of about 25 monks, novices and lay people, most of whom are a lot younger than the average resident of today's Christian monasteries. They have a small house in Berkeley as well, where a couple of monks reside whilst engaging in studies at the University of California. They still retain their traditional monastic habits and follow the Liturgy of the Hours, but they have also made a number of adaptive changes - particularly in providing ample facilities for men and women to come on solitary retreat, and in the ecumenicism of their services and literature. Their emphasis is strongly towards contemplative and mystical aspects of religion, and towards religious unification. The Prior, Father Richard, was instrumental in bringing about the recent meetings between the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury. And Tibetan Buddhist prayer-flags could be seen flying in the little garden behind his cell!

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ooo0ooo As contrasted with traditionalism, the modernist way takes its cue more from the current attitudes and understanding of those interested in the teachings, than from the way the teaching has been presented and lived out in the past. The present environment is of primary importance. This derives from the quality of ultimate Truth as 'apparent here and now, timeless', just as traditionalism derives from its quality of being the source and foundation of all things. Here one finds, in the main, middle-class raised, educated white Americans. The teachings are presented in their own language, by teachers from their own kind of background, and in a familiar cultural context. The advantage of this way is that it is easily adopted and used by people who have grown up in the West. It slips into their value system and is absorbed comparatively painlessly. It is naturally more understandable to many people, being of Western appearance and less alien than forms with an Asian veneer and decidedly conventional 'flavour'. Also, the vocabulary used to describe the world of the mind accords much more with contemporary psychological ideas than classical Buddhist expressions do. A big disadvantage is the disconnectedness from the historical Buddha that naturally arises. Through claiming Buddha-nature as one's reference more than Gotama Buddha and his whole dispensation, social links with the rest of the Buddhist world are weakened. Moreover, skilful means, teachings and traditions that the Buddha established - which serve the whole spectrum of human life - tend not to get used to the full. On the practical level, the separation from Asian forms also means that devoted Asian people, who might be delighted to support the efforts of others in their cultivation of the Path, often do not recognise these groups as 'real Buddhists'. The spirit of generosity, so much to the fore in Buddhist countries, is thus disabled from helping to nourish these efforts. Another, and perhaps the most important, disadvantage is that in adapting to the surrounding culture, some moral aspects of the teaching which are crucial to wholesomeness and liberation get passed over. Without the reflection of the larger Buddhist community, and without the standards established by the Buddha being given prominence, these groups are vulnerable to incidents which can have grave consequences. ooo0ooo For a long time the Zen Center has been the most prominent Buddhist institution in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally established by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi - whose collection of transcribed talks in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind graces many a Buddhist bookshelf- the centre was guided, after his death in the early Seventies, by Richard Baker Roshi, his Dharma heir. The centre went from strength to strength, establishing both Tassajara - a retreat centre for more rigorous training - and Green Gulch Farm - a more informal community of Zen students, based around a market garden as a means of livelihood. In a Sixties-Seventies spiritual environment characterised by distrust of most traditions in favour of a 'direct-experience spirituality', this Soto Zen group had managed to strike a remarkable balance that allowed for tradition-based and disciplined practice to be integrated with the idealistic lifestyles of the rime. For many, it seemed the perfect blend, which gave birth to much confidence in Buddhism as a spiritual path. In 1984, however, the Zen community, and all Buddhists in the U.S., were stunned by the news that Baker Roshi had been relieved of his post as abbot, because of a number of serious transgressions against community standards of proper behaviour. When I visited Green Gulch, the main interest expressed to me was in Vinaya and community

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discipline. Zen's customary approach to the Precepts has been - in contrast to the rest of the Buddhist world - more as 'themes for contemplation', which you bear in mind whilst going about doing what you do, rather than clear guidelines to be followed wherever possible. This overly liberal approach was clearly one of the causes of Baker Roshi's downfall, and for the distress and confusion of their community resulting from it. Norman Fischer, the head of Green Gulch, spent as much time as he could with me, discussing the establishment of a more solid basis of moral conduct for his community. He pointed our that they now better appreciated that they were not monks at all, but should look upon themselves as lay- priests. It was quite a relief, he said, to recognise their proper role, and to establish their values accordingly as a lay community. It was his hope - even though some other leaders of the Zen Center group were at variance - that they would at least establish the Eight Precepts as the standard for practice at Tassajara. This came not from a disaffection with his own tradition but from the obvious need, within the spiritual life, for a basis of restraint and trustworthiness. ooo0ooo IMW and Spirit Rock have had no such catastrophic incidents. The plans for their Marin County site focus around a retreat centre, but also include a teaching area where people can come to learn meditation and to hear Dharma talks, and an area set aside to be a monastery or hermitage. This group's style is based around lay practice, and is guided by teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Borstein and James Baraz. It is a group that has served thousands of people, organising silent retreats and leading local Vipassana meditation groups on the West Coast. Because of its simple approach and absence of 'religious' trappings, it has been an inroad into the training of the heart for many whose interest was, initially, in a more effective kind of therapy. Its form of meditation practice is, however, akin to the methods of mind-training contained within classical Theravada monasticism. Because of this, and of Jack Kornfield's time spent as a bhikkhu with Venerable Ajahn Chah, it was no surprise that IMW should convene the Monastics' Conference, and that Jack was the Moderator of the event. His affinities with both approaches described here, together with the growing interest in morality and traditionalism aroused by the debacles of Baker Roshi and Osel Tenzin [Chogyam Trungpa's successor, who recently died due to AIDS], made the conference both pertinent and timely. The event was not so much for monastics to meet and discuss with each other, but more for Bay Area students of Buddhism to have an opportunity to contemplate such questions as: What is monasticism for? How does it work? What are its results? Is it still a valid approach? What should be changed? - and to hear from the mouths of monks and nuns themselves the accounts of their vocation. ooo0ooo Those invited to speak and lead discussions were quite carefully chosen - not for their eloquence or attainment, but rather for their years of commitment to a communal, contemplative, orthodox monastic life. There were Buddhists and Christians; all of us were Westerners. Approximately 150 people attended, most having had little if any contact with traditional monasticism. Although largely of Vipassana and Zen Center background, there were also a fair number of Christians. Of the main talks, even though all were fine expositions, probably those of Sister Sundara and Sister Columba were most memorable. At the beginning of the second day, Jack Kornfield invited everyone to suggest issues that they would like to see covered. The list began: celibacy, equality for women in Theravada Buddhism, adaptability of rules, vegetarianism, differences between Buddhism and https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/16/goldy.htm[03/10/2017 19:41:01]

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Christianity . . . and on and on it went. It seemed that everyone had a pet issue. After about half an hour, Ajahn Sumedho and I looked at each other - it would take months to deal with that lot! Just then one of the audience announced that she had just had an insight. Silence fell and we waited.... 'We want it all! We don't want to give up anything. This is real American Buddhism!' Everybody laughed and, for that moment, could see the tendency to search for a perfect Buddhism that matched one's own particular biases. Ajahn Sumedho turned towards her and applauded. Nevertheless, the suggestions kept on coming, and with the question of equality for women well to the fore. It was Sister Sundara's turn to speak next and Ajahn Sumedho leaned over to me with a concerned look: 'I would not like to be in her position right now.' After a short break, she gave the talk reprinted elsewhere in this newsletter. In many respects, she had taken the most tricky of issues and clearly pointed out the way to work with such things: there are no simple answers, only ways to practise wisely. Sister Columba was deeply impressive, and probably less for the wonderful words she spoke than for the purity and light that imbued all she did and said. She described her entry into her convent, and the life that she and her sisters led. She fielded questions with directness, humour and honesty. Here was the result of a lifetime given up to pure conduct, simplicity and Truth a being radiant, clear and sublimely happy. For many people at the conference this said more than all the words for, despite belonging to the most orthodox and austere of traditions, she had arrived at a state of being that freewheeling Californians have combed hills and beaches endlessly to find. ooo0ooo At the close of the conference, Jack Kornfield asked the assembly how many would now consider entering a monastery, say, for at least a year. It was a testimony to the insight in convening such a conference, and to the capacity of the speakers to put their lives into words, that 70-80% of the people raised their hands. A monastery's purpose is to provide opportunities for such interest to bear fruit. Even though, as some suggest, the future of Buddhism in the U.S. might lie with lay groups, the monastery remains a unique and invaluable environment for the development of the spiritual life - not only for those within the enclosure, as it were, but also for those for whom it is a reminding and encouraging presence in the world. So how will things develop? Who knows? What can be seen for definite, however, is that there is already a tremendous fellowship among Buddhist people in the West. During this visit I experienced only warmth, hospitality and respect from those I met. What we are experiencing here is a cooperative effort towards a common goal, rather than a contest to see who is right and best. Traditional forms and the spirit of the present can work together like an old, well-used tool in a skilful hand. The too1 and the hand on their own cannot achieve very much, but in concord we can bring great beauty into the world. Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE

Cover: Articles: The Golden State: A. Amaro Editorial:

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EDITORIAL Doing What We Can The words and images in this newsletter are offered as reflections on the Way beyond suffering. This Way is not some kind of bypass, but a challenge to acknowledge and face up to suffering one's own and that of all beings in existence. There was a perfect opportunity for us to take up this challenge during our two-month winter retreat, which began during the last agonising weeks of negotiations attempting to avert a war in the Gulf, and which ended on the full moon of Magha Puja, the day that the cease-fire was formally announced. Day by day during the retreat, Luang Por Sumedho presented us with the latest developments. 'Right now they're bombing Baghdad', one evening at the end of puja, brought a sickening, leaden feeling to the pit of the stomach.

Are our lives so filled up with alluring and beguiling 'refuges', towards which our habitual responses catapult us?

The many hours of meditation - and minimal opportunities for distraction meant that the mind was particularly receptive. One observed fear, anger, despair and an overwhelming sense of helplessness - and compassion for all those whose lives would be shattered by the events of those weeks. But the reflection, 'This is the way it is', brought the mind to a standstill - and we were reminded constantly of what we, as human beings, can do to ameliorate conditions in the world, to make a contribution towards peace. Being at peace within ourselves . . . although it's not especially grand - in fact it's incredibly simple - for most of us, most of the time, it turns out to be incredibly difficult! The theme of Refuge offers some valuable help. Buddhist teachings provide us with three perfect Refuges, which are there to be turned to at any time; day time, night time, wherever, whoever you are ... Do we really turn to them? Or are our lives so filled up with alluring and beguiling 'refuges', towards which our habitual responses catapult us, that before we know it we are flailing about in yet another quicksand? So we listened to the violence and confusion going on in the Gulf, and turned in, too, to the violence and confusion in our own minds ... not that much difference, when we really look. Can we make peace with it? Can we really take refuge in knowing: 'This is the way it is'? Can we refrain- just even for one instant - from responding to it all with denial, or further hatred and violence? That's all we have to do - but we need all the help we can get to do it! May what is contained in the pages of this newsletter provide a measure of encouragement and

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inspiration towards the realisation of that Way beyond suffering. Sister Candasiri

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July 1991 THIS ISSUE

2534 Cover: Sense Contact; The Fount of Wisdom; Ajahn Chah Articles: Another Going Forth; Joseph Kappel

Why I Became a Nun, Pt. II; Sister Sundara

Harnham Monastery Anniversary; various impressions

Number 17 HOME BACK ISSUES

Sense Contact - The Fount of Wisdom The following piece is an extract from a talk given to monks and novices at Wat Ba Pong in North-east Thailand. The entire talk will eventually be published as part of a collection of Ajahn Chah's talks, entitled Seeds of Understanding. We look for peace in peaceful places, where there won't be sights, or sounds, or odours, or flavours . . . thinking that living quietly like this is the way to find contentment, that herein lies peace. But actually, if we live very quietly in places where nothing arises, can wisdom arise? Would we be aware of anything? Think about it. If our eye didn't see sights, what would that be like? If the nose didn't experience smells, what would that be like? If the tongue didn't experience flavours, what would that be like? If the body didn't experience feelings at all, what would that be like? To be like that would be like being a blind and deaf man, one whose nose and tongue had fallen off and who was completely numb with paralysis. Would there be anything there? And yet people tend to think that if they went somewhere where nothing happened they would find peace. Well, I've thought like that myself, I once thought like that. When I was a young monk just starting to practise I'd sit in meditation and the sounds would disturb me. I couldn't get peaceful. I'd think to myself, 'What can I do to make my mind peaceful?' So I took some beeswax and stuffed my ears with it so that I couldn't hear anything. All that remained was a humming sound. I thought that would be peaceful, but no, all that thinking and confusion didn't arise at the ears after all. It arose at the mind - so right there is the place to search for peace. To put it another way: no matter where you go to stay, maybe you don't want to do anything because it might interfere with your practice. You don't want to sweep the grounds, don't want to do any work - you just want to be still and find peace like that. The teacher asks you to help out with the chores or the daily duties but you don't put your heart into it because you feel it is only an external concern. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/17/17.htm[03/10/2017 19:54:57]

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If we think that peace lies where there are no sensations, would wisdom arise?

I've often brought up the example of one of my disciples who was really eager to 'let go' and find peace. I taught about 'letting go' and he accordingly understood that to let go of everything would indeed be peaceful. Actually right from the day he had come to stay here he didn't want to do anything. Even when the wind blew half the roof off his kuti [hut] he wasn't bothered. He said that that was just an external thing. So he didn't bother fixing it up. When the sunlight and rain streamed in from one side he'd move over to the other side. That wasn't any business of his. His business was to make his mind peaceful. That other stuff was an interference, he wouldn't get involved. That was how he saw it. One day I was walking past and saw the collapsed roof.'Eh!? Whose kuti is this?' Someone told me whose it was and I thought, 'Hmm. Strange. . . .' So I had a talk with him, explaining many things, such as the duties in regard to our dwellings. We must have a dwelling place, and we must also look after it. 'Letting go' isn't like this, it doesn't mean shirking our responsibilities. That's the action of a fool. If we think that peace lies where there are no sensations, would wisdom arise? Would there be causal and resultant conditions? Would we have anything to practise with? If we blame the sounds, then if we sit where there are sounds we can't be peaceful. We think that place is no good. Wherever there are sights we say that's not peaceful. If that's the case, then to find peace we'd have to be one whose senses have all died, blind and deaf. I thought about this... 'Hmm. This is strange. Suffering arises because of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. So should we be blind? If we didn't see anything at all maybe that would be better. One would have no defilements arising if one were blind, or deaf. Is this true?' But, thinking about it, it was all wrong. If that was the case, then blind and deaf people would be enlightened. They would all be accomplished if defilements arose at the eyes and ears. Actually, the sense bases of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind are all things which can facilitate the arising of wisdom, if we know them as they are. If we don't really know them we must deny them, saying we don't want to see sights, hear sounds, and so on, because they disturb us. If we cut off the causal conditions, what are we going to contemplate? Think about it. Where would there be any cause and effect? This is wrong thinking on our part. But most of us are afraid of contact. Either that, or we like to have contact but we develop no wisdom from it: instead we repeatedly indulge through eyes. ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, delighting and getting lost in these sense objects. This is how it is. These sense bases can entice one to delight and indulgence or they can lead to knowledge and

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wisdom. They have both harm and benefit, depending upon the person's wisdom. So now let us understand that, having been ordained and come to practise, we should take everything as practice Even the bad things. We should know them all. Why? So that we may know the truth. When we talk of practice we don't simply mean those things that are good and pleasing to us. That's not how it is. In this world some things are to our liking, some things aren't. These things all occur in this world, nowhere else. Usually whatever we like we want even with fellow monks and novices. Whichever monk or novice we don't like, we don't want to associate with - we only want to be with those we like. You see? This is taking only what one likes. Whatever one doesn't like, one doesn't want to see or know about. Actually the Buddha wanted us to experience these things. Lokavidu* - look at this world and know it clearly. If we don't know the truth of the world clearly, then we can't go anywhere. Living in the world one must understand the world. The Noble Ones of the past, including the Buddha, all lived with these things, they lived in this word, among deluded people. They attained the truth right in this very world, nowhere else. They didn't run off to some other world to find the truth. But they had wisdom. They restrained their senses, but the practice is to look into all these things and know them as they are. *Lokavidu: One of the nine epithets of the Buddha that are chanted as part of the regular service in Theravadin monasteries. It means 'the Knower 0f the World'. Therefore the Buddha taught us to know the sense bases, our points of contact. Where awareness arises is where we should look and see things as they are. If we don't know these things as they really are, we will either fall in love with them or hate them. Where these sensations arise is where we can become enlightened, where wisdom can arise. But sometimes we don't want it to be like that. The Buddha taught restraint, but restraint doesn't mean we don't see anything, hear anything, smell, taste, feel or think anything. That's not what it means. If those who practise don't understand this, then as soon as they see or hear anything they squirm and run away. They don't deal with those things. They run away, thinking that by doing so those things will eventually lose their power over them, that they will eventually transcend those things - but they won't. They won't transcend anything like that. If they run away not knowing the truth, later on the same stuff will pop up to be dealt with again. So we understand with wisdom right here and now; we don't run away anywhere. We must https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/17/17.htm[03/10/2017 19:54:57]

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work, must associate with things. For instance, living in a big monastery like this we must all help out to look after the place. Looking at it in one way, one could say that this brings about worldly defilements. Living with lots of monks and novices, with many lay people coming and going, many defilements arise. Yes, I admit it . . . but we must live like this for the development of wisdom and the abandonment of foolishness. Which way are we to go? Are we going to live in order to get rid of foolishness or to increase our foolishness? Really contemplate. Whenever eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body or mind make contact, be collected and circumspect. Then investigate when suffering arises: who is suffering? Why did this suffering arise? One must know suffering when it arises. If we are afraid of suffering and don't want to face it, where are we going to do battle with it? If suffering arises and we don't know it, how are we going to deal with it? This is of utmost importance - we must know suffering. Escaping from suffering means knowing the way out of suffering. It doesn't mean running away from wherever suffering arises. Doing that you just carry your suffering with you. When suffering arises again somewhere else you'll have to run away again. This is not one who transcends suffering, it's one who doesn't know suffering. So the practice must be unwavering and persistent. They call it viriyarambha - putting forth effort constantly: when suffering arises in our hearts we must have the unwavering resolve to try to uproot the defilements, to give them up. This resolve is constantly there, unremitting. Eventually the defilements will fall into our hands where we can finish them off. Before I started to practise, I thought to myself, 'The Buddhist religion is here, available for all, and yet why do only some people practise while others don't? Or if they do practise, they do so only for a short while, then give it up. Or again, those who don't give it up still don't knuckle down and do the practice? Why is this? I don't really know.' But I resolved to myself: 'Okay, this life of mine . . . . I'll give up this body and mind for this lifetime, and try to follow the teaching of the Buddha down to the last detail. I'll reach understanding in this very lifetime, because if I don't reach understanding I'll still be sunk in suffering. I'll let go of everything else and make a determined effort. No matter how much difficulty or suffering I have to endure, I'll persevere. If I don't do this then I'll just keep on doubting.' Thinking like this, I then got down to the practice. No matter how much happiness, suffering or difficulty I had to endure I would do it. I looked on my whole life as if it was only one day and a night. I gave it up. 'I'll follow the teaching of the Buddha, I'll follow the Dharnma to understanding - Why is this world of delusion so wretched?' I wanted to know, I wanted to be adept, so I turned to the practice of Dhamma. The Dhamma is paccattam, meaning 'one must know for oneself'. If you want to know for yourself that means that you must also practise in yourself. You can depend on a teacher only fifty percent of the way. Even the teaching I have given you today is completely useless of itself, even if it is worth hearing, if you were to believe it all just because I said so, you wouldn't be utilising it properly. If you believed me completely then you'd be foolish. To hear the reaching, see its benefit, put it into practice for yourself, see it within yourself, do it yourself and cultivate relinquishment yourself . . . this is much more useful. You will then know the taste of Dhamma for yourself. Our sense organs must be constantly working. Know content and discontent, be aware of like and dislike. Know appearance and know transcendence. The Apparent and the Transcendent must be realised simultaneously. Good and evil must be seen as co-existent, arising together. This is the fruit of Dhamma practice. Â https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/17/17.htm[03/10/2017 19:54:57]

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Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, I thought it might be worth drawing your attention to a leader by Professor Marks in the British Medical Journal for 4th May 1991. It describes a form of treatment of phobias and anxiety by what is termed 'behavioural exposure'. In this, 'the patient is persuaded to confront the hitherto avoided situations that bring on his or her typical fear, panic. . . . Exposure may also have to be to avoided thoughts. . . .' Professor Marks says that this procedure allows 'irrational automatic thoughts' to decline spontaneously. About three-quarters of those who start a course of treatment complete it, which is much better than in many other methods, and most experience benefits. It all sounds very familiar to any one who has attended meditation instruction or retreats at Amaravati! Could it be that modern psychiatry is beginning to rediscover something that has been known to Buddhists for the last 2500 years Yours sincerely, Anthony Campbell

Swiss Vihara's New Home Extracted from the Dhammapala Newsletter: On May 4th we celebrated our third anniversary in Switzerland, and this year there was much to celebrate! After nearly five months of negotiations, we have now purchased a new monastery - a 22-bedroom, 85-year-old former hotel, situated in the Alps, 65 km south of Bern. The nearby village of Kandersteg is served by direct trains from Bern, Basel and Zurich, as well as from northern Germany and Italy. The monastery is only one kilometre from the train station in a very quiet corner of the valley. Purchase of this property was made possible by several generous donations (from HRH the Princess Mother of Thailand and from two of our long-time supporters), as well as other donations from close friends. Nonetheless, the Dhammapala Association has undertaken a substantial bank loan to cover the remaining costs. This is indeed a 'leap of faith' for us. Our intention is to convert seven of the bedrooms into a large meditation hall which, together with the already fully-equipped three kitchens and nine toilets, will provide facilities to serve the needs of greater numbers of people. We now have the ideal external environment for a fully-fledged 'forest' - or 'mountain' monastery; together we can continue to establish the right inner environment for the realisation of Dhamma. We cordially invite all to join us in this new venture and welcome everyone to visit or stay awhile in this peaceful place. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/17/17.htm[03/10/2017 19:54:57]

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July 1991 HOME BACK ISSUES

Sense Contact; The Fount of Wisdom; Ajahn Chah Another Going Forth; Joseph Kappel Why I Became a Nun, Pt. II; Sister Sundara Harnham Monastery Anniversary; various impressions

Another Going Forth Ajahn Pabbakaro, formerly the abbot at Harnham Monastery, disrobed in March, a few months before he would have begun his twentieth Vassa as a bhikkhu. Disrobing, especially after such a long period of time, can be very traumatic for those staying as well as for those leaving. In the following interview, Joseph Kappel (as he now is) talks about his decision. You've been a monk for nearly 20 years. What are the things that made you want to disrobe? When I first came in contact with the teaching of the Buddha, it had a powerful effect on me, and I had a strong desire to pursue it in as whole and complete a way as possible. I was aware that one could become a monk and that was something that I was really inspired to do. Thinking back, that inspiration always carries you for a time and then there comes a time when that starts to fade and you're dealing with the problem of the struggle to live a life of restraint, restriction and a very high standard of discipline.

I think that's when you really begin to practise and are challenged with the discipline and I feel that if that isn't happening, certainly from my personal perspective, there would be room for concern. I see now that the discipline entails nothing less than complete and total surrender of your personal preferences, worldly pursuits, pleasures, everything. The beauty is, of course, that we have the space and time to go at our own pace, to see what level of commitment we feel and so a gradual deepening of the commitment can occur. I remember in Thailand people used to ask me about disrobing and would say, 'Do you want to disrobe?' and I would answer, 'I don't want to disrobe.' That didn't mean that I was committed for life. I never felt right in saying in that way; one, because I didn't really know and, two, because it just didn't feel like an honest thing to be saying.

So, as time goes on there is constantly this challenge. You have to see whether your level of commitment is deepening. It's easy once you've learnt the form and how to fit in; you can get along quite happily and kind of stagnate - especially this last year Ajahn Sumedho has been really clobbering people for settling in to this kind of stagnation.

As the years have gone by, staying as a monk has always been the right thing for me to be doing and the staying power and the strength has almost been a daily renewal - although it wasn't like I had to sit down every day or every morning and think, 'Can I make it through another day?'. It wasn't that kind of thing. It was more like 'This is the right thing for now' - and that in itself had a momentum of a daily renewal. Then, of course, I was challenged.

It was just too painful, so I had to put it all down and wait. And it was after that that the decision just appeared.

We're all challenged - having doubts and problems with certain aspects of the discipline and so on - and, of course, it's in coming through those periods of great struggle and difficulty that

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one gains great strength and staying power. So this constant renewal and deepening of commitment is something which has really carried me through all 20 years. Things had never come to the point where I had to ask myself whether it was right to leave. I was never challenged or backed into a corner where I really had to make such a decision.

Things only came to a head during the last six months, when I was faced with having to make a decision. I feel strongly that every monk and nun is faced at some point with this decision in monastic life. I'm sure it applies to other lifestyles - commitment in marriage, occupation or whatever. You come to a point of 'This is it'. I think it is much more intense in monastic life, because it is such a complete commitment. Your focus is very clear. You know why you're living this life and that there's nothing else that really interests you. And that has such strength that doubts and longings are really peripheral, and not seriously pulling you in any direction.

During the very challenging period of this past winter retreat I was pushed into a corner, and I forced myself to stay in that corner until something gave. It was either I had to stay or I had to leave. There could no longer be a 'one foot in, one foot out' kind of situation. It hadn't always been that way, but it came to where I saw that I did have one foot in and one foot out, and I had to either get both in or both out . . . there could no longer be this vacillation. I was wobbling with indecision and looking back at all the time I had invested ... and then looking ahead, 'What will I do?' And at the end of the day, I could nor consciously make this decision. I couldn't do it. But I had to struggle for a good month, and go through a stressful and really horrendous period of trying to decide and it was the pain of that trying to make a decision that took me to a place of surrender. It was so painful, it was thrashing me so severely that I could no longer follow that doubt. It was just too painful, so I had to put it all down and wait. And it was after that that the decision just appeared. It kind of unfolded, as it were; I quit trying to rationalise and look at the benefits of staying - all the time I had invested and all the people I would be letting down. And in the end I realised that I had to take responsibility and that I couldn't be staying because I wanted to keep people happy. I had to be staying because my heart was in it. And with that, everything took care of itself.

So, over a 24-hour period, the solution whether to stay or to leave just unfolded. I had a meditation and it just said, 'Yeah, it's right. I'll be all right.' I just needed to feel that I would be all right, because there was such a kind of . . . guess a fear, of stepping into the unknown. I'd be leaving something I feel very secure in and something I have given 20 years of my life to, this institution that I really love and respect - and a part of me didn't want to leave. But overall, the rightness in leaving overruled everything else, because this was the next phase of my life.

This is now. . . .

I have certain skills in life that I can now take and use in something else. Looking back to 20 years ago when I left America to go off to Thailand to become a monk: all I knew then was that it was the right thing to be doing and I really trusted that - even though I didn't have a clue what I was letting myself in for. And with this move there's that same kind of confidence and faith that this is what I should be doing but, then again, not knowing what I am letting

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Life is truly a dream. All of its trouble I alone create. When I stop creating, the troubles stop. With a single mind, with an unbounded heart, we can wake up to the wonderful existence in true emptiness that we are in the middle of right now. When all in the world ceases to exist, only the wonderful remains.

Bhikshu Heng Ch'au (City of 10,000 Buddhas)

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myself in for. So, how do you feel about the Sangha? Do you feel that you deserted them or that some kind of gulf has appeared between you and the monastic community? Maybe I could answer that by relating an experience I had on the first morning after I disrobed. I was doing the breakfast dana in memory of my father's suicide, and I got into puja at 5 o'clock in the morning and I was at the back, for the first time. It was quiet, just a nice time of the day. Sitting there . . . the chanting started, and I was really feeling good, and as I started to chant, I just started to look at the Sangha and I wasn't seeing personalities . . . I was seeing human beings in robes. I was looking at the Sangha and the Buddha-rupa, and all of a sudden I just started to get incredibly emotional, and it was a combination of sadness and joy. A very profound and deep sadness and joy welled up in me, and it was like I was seeing the Sangha for the first time. By the end of the Recollection of the Buddha [the first section of the chanting], I lost control, and I ended up on the floor weeping. The whole profundity of what this community means, with its lineage going back to the Buddha, the Enlightened One, just started to overwhelm me . . . and it was like - if this 20 years has been for this moment . . . if that's it, it was enough. There was a second aspect that was a bit more mundane, but just as profound in its own way: I was crying, really weeping, and all of a sudden I was completely uninhibited, I wasn't self-conscious, it was not bothering me at all, and I thought, 'Until you can cry, you're not a man' - and it reverberated in me. There are these things that are a sign of manhood - you know, strength, with fortitude and aggression - but here was the softness, the more yin side of a male that softens men and makes them into sensitive human beings. So for me this weeping experience was one of the true signs of manhood. So I had these two things just come up spontaneously in the first morning puja, and I think they sum up my feeling about the Sangha. Now it's like I've got this family, and it's like I have a 'lifetime membership'. You know, I've been a part of this community, and it's been such a part of me, that I feel I'm a member of it for life. There's no way that you can, after 20 years, say: 'So long, it was nice knowing you. See you around some time.' These are my brothers, my sisters, my friends for a lifetime. And that really sums up how I feel. It's still very early days, but having severed myself from the Bhikkhu Sangha, in some ways I have rejoined it in a way that gives me a perspective. I can only feel a great sense of gratitude for having invested this time in my life to something of such nobility and profundity. One of the things Ajahn Sumedho put his finger on was when he said to me: 'Well, now you have a proper education to go into the world.' And that really rang true, because we go to university, or we do different apprenticeships, or get a trade, or whatever but what do we have in our culture that actually prepares us for life itself, and its knocks and its difficulties? So I have a great sense of gratitude. I guess it's early days, but I just feel this strength, in everything that I do. There's something in me that has grown, been cultivated, blossomed. It's really lovely to know what these ordained people are about. If I'm anywhere and I see a bhikkhu or a nun its like you know that these people live in a way that they require help. So that immediately triggers the response to help them. And it's so lovely to know how to help these people. You know, I will probably be the best kind of supporting lay person because I will know all the subtleties of what monks and nuns need and like!

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July 1991 HOME BACK ISSUES

Sense Contact; The Fount of Wisdom; Ajahn Chah Another Going Forth; Joseph Kappel Why I Became a Nun, Pt. II; Sister Sundara Harnham Monastery Anniversary; various impressions

Why I Became a Nun, Pt. II This is the continuation of a talk (originally given at 'The Joys of Monastic Life' conference last year) that appeared in the lost issue. Unfortunately, this concluding section was not printed because of an editorial oversight. Here, Sister Sundara is reflecting on her experiences as a nun durine the early days of her monastic life. I have found a wonderful sense of gratitude has developed over the years that was not apparent at the beginning. At the beginning, whenever I would hear the word 'gratitude' I could say to myself that it was a wonderful thing to feel, but it never dawned on me that it was supposed to be a constant practice. It was not a practice of becoming somebody who is grateful but a matter of recognising when gratitude was present - and it was, most of the time. The thing that kept me going through the difficulties, the trials and errors, the desert plateaux and valleys of despair was this lovely sense of gratitude. We can't always acknowledge that gratitude because we believe so much in the stuff that is going on at the surface level; we forget that we have a heart right here that is peaceful, grateful and compassionate. We need to tune into it. Sometimes this is painful because we have to die to a lot of ideas; and dying is not the most easy thing to do.

Nature balances itself harmoniously and you begin to know its flow. You don't mind going up and down because you know that is how Nature works.

Sometimes I would be so resentful of people and of situations, even of my teacher and the reaching . . . I could be really horrible. At first I felt that I should not be a resentful person. It was a struggle because although I knew how to practise, my mind was so identified with the idea that I should not be a bad person who has nasty and awful thoughts about life that I automatically believed what I was thinking. To recognise the feeling of gratitude and peace in the heart, I would question myself: 'What do you want to do, Sundara, carry on living resentfully - or die to yourself in a dignified and beautiful way?' It was for me a real existential question. Ajahn Sumedho named me Sundara ('the beautiful'). It is fortunate he gave me that name: I had such horrible mind states sometimes that I had to attune to my name and remember: 'Yes, I do want to live in a beautiful way and to die to myself gracefully.' This sense of gracefulness arose from devotion, from bowing, from gratitude and being thankful for what had been given. I knew that the only way to lead this life was not because 'I' decided it. This 'me' that was always screaming away had some restful time too. Nature balances itself harmoniously and you begin to know its flow. You don't mind going up and down because you know that is how Nature works. It is important to recognise that the mind and body have a life of their own. To feel good or bad, to have what you like or dislike,

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is nor a problem anymore. To be with the way things are is to be with the enlightened mind. To come to that place of 'not knowing', I would ask myself: 'What am I going to do? I don't know what's going to happen to me.' People would ask me: 'What about the bhikkhuni order?' And I would say: 'I don't know.' I did not know; and that felt very peaceful. I did not come to the monastic order to become anything anyway, so it was not a problem. To be free is what is important. It is not important to become somebody, because becoming is suffering, and it is clearly stated in the teaching: becoming anything becoming happy or unhappy, becoming a monk or a nun is suffering.

Realisation You've got to be stabbed to the heart by babies hands. Stopped in your tracks by the brooms flame glow. And deafened by the green shouts of praise At the tips of the pine boughs. There is as much symmetry In the thousand mares tail fronds As in a tiger. And quite as fearful.

Sue Yardley

So you bow, and feel a real sense of devotion towards a teaching that speaks directly to you and to the truth that you know from your own experience. You do not have to believe the Buddha or what he taught. He himself said: 'Inquire, find our for yourself.' When you go beyond doubt, it's because you see the suffering of ignorance, and of holding onto ideas, views and opinions. Even when I could justify and feel right about what I thought 'It should not be like this. It is not right' -I could surrender to that reality. I would be really frustrated because I knew that the teaching did not give me the space to be ignorant or stupid any more. I could hear these voices and feel really hot. . . . I had a real issue, a real problem that needed to be solved. Yet I knew that I could bow to what I had heard and trust what would happen when it had ceased. Trusting the heart, the silent mind that does not know, brings us to the point where things are transformed and renewed. Then we are freed from the idea that we are endlessly bound by our fears, desires and insecurities.

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Sense Contact; The Fount of Wisdom; Ajahn Chah Another Going Forth; Joseph Kappel Why I Became a Nun, Pt. II; Sister Sundara Harnham Monastery Anniversary; various impressions

July 1991 HOME BACK ISSUES

Harnham Monastery Anniversary Ten Years on the Hill: An Anniversary for Harnham Buddhist Monastery 'Ratanagiri', the monastery at Harnham in Northumberland, was established in June 1981. Here are a few impressions of that first decade. go to

Richard Hopkins Nyanaviro Bhikkhu Ajahn Sucitto Ajahn Munindo Ajahn Tiradhammo

Richard Hopkins lives in Newcastle, and was one of the original supporters of the monastery. He is the chairman of Magga Bhavaka, the charitable trust which looks after Ratanagiri. Ten years ago the first bhikkhu came to live at Harnham, and brought the teachings of the Buddha to Northumberland.It all started with a small group of about five people who used to meet weekly for yoga and meditation. Two of the group went to a retreat being held by Ajahn Sumedho at Oakenholt near Oxford in the spring of '78 and decided to invite him to lead a retreat in the North. From this contact with the Sangha, the group gained a unity of direction, and an appreciation of a lifestyle based on Dhamma practice. But most of all it gained an appreciation of the need for a teacher.

They talked with Ajahn Sumedho, and made a formal request to be allowed to support a small branch monastery in the North-East. He gave his consent in principle, saying that the type and condition of the building was unimportant, the only essentials being adequate shelter, a water supply, and sufficient lay support to provide the other requisites of the simple monastic life.

After six weeks of fruitless searching for the 'perfect place', an advert was placed in the local paper: 'Retreat house wanted, will accept repair lease.' There was only one positive reply, from John Wake of Harnham, with the offer of a semi-derelict cottage. When it was viewed on a wet May Saturday, the prospect of the cottage seemed dismal and disheartening

But the unique character of the hill was impressive. As a fortified hill farm, people have lived at Harnham since the twelfth century or earlier. In its atmosphere, time seemed to stand still, bringing both an awareness of the present moment and a strong feeling of the history of the hill. There was even a tomb inscribed with a particularly Buddhist message: My time has passed as now you see I viewed the dead as you do me 'Or long you'll lie as low as I And some will look on thee. Two weeks later, Venerable Sucitto was passing through Newcastle, and was invited to give his opinion on the prospective site. He pointed out the obvious; 'It's perfect; I don't know what

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you're waiting for!'

Ratanagiri ... has developed from a simple vihara into a monastery, becoming the centre of a strong spiritual force in the Worth.

For most of the following year, the little group met at Harnham on weekends to try to bring the cottage up to the required minimum living standard: laying a proper floor in the kitchen over the previous dirt floor, installing a toilet and sink with drains, repointing the stone walls and carrying out basic repairs to the roof. The most difficult thing was the uncertainty - not knowing whether a bhikkhu would indeed come, whether the group would get enough support, or even if they would be able to negotiate terms of rent and be able to stay on the hill at all! Slowly they gave up worrying about it and decided that it didn't matter. It was a lovely place to meet each weekend and they could use it for retreats for themselves.

Of course, just as the sense of acceptance came, there was a phone call from Chithurst to say that a bhikkhu and an anagarika were on their way. As fate would have it, it was Venerable Sucitto, to be the first to test his own judgement. It was far from perfect! But his stoical patience and great sense of humour helped him to endure the austere conditions. Through the Sangha working with the supporters and providing guidance, they gradually learned how to work and live peacefully with insecurity. Harnham Vihara was formally opened by Ajahn Sumedho on 23rd June 1981, although two important secular formalities were still to be completed. Firstly there was the need to obtain a proper lease on the property. This finally happened in May 1982 with signing of a fifty-year lease. Secondly there was the need to form a charitable trust as a framework for the administration of the Vihara. The trust deed, appointing eight lay trustees with Ajahn Sumedho as spiritual director, was signed in August 1984.

Since then there have been many changes. Most important has been the change from being a vihara towards becoming a proper monastery. As a vihara, Harnham provided a place for one or two bhikkhus to live and serve the increasing interest in the teachings of Theravada Buddhism in the North of Britain. Bhikkhus from Harnham have been invited to teach at many meditation retreats in Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and there are now many well-established lay groups in these areas which are associated with Harnham. An important development at Harnham for these distant groups was the renting of the cottage next door to the vihara itself, to provide accommodation for lay visitors, and also to allow lay retreats to be held at the vihara.

Over recent years, Ajahn Sumedho has emphasised Harnham's suitability as a location for a 'monastery', that is, a place for the training of monks. Taking on that role, whilst continuing to provide a source of teaching for lay groups and a place where lay people could stay, would be dependent upon substantial physical expansion. It would be necessary for Harnham to house a larger monastic community, of both junior bhikkhus in training and more senior bhikkhus, to undertake the teaching commitments. It would also be necessary to have a separation between public and private areas of the monastery.

The movement in this direction started about five years ago. There was clearly sufficient support to sustain a larger monastic community, and the 'Sanghamitta Project' was instigated to raise funds for the required developments. The generosity of supporters in donating funds, and of Farmer Wake in offering properties at bargain basement prices, enabled the purchase of three properties on the hill. One of these is the 'byre' which was being used as workroom/coalshed and has now been converted to provide the main accommodation for the resident Sangha. Next to this is the long barn and the land behind, on which the new Dhamma Hall has been built. Finally, further down the hill is a row of completely derelict buildings, one of which was the birthplace of Farmer Wake.

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well on its way towards becoming a reality - much to the amazement of those who had doubts about support being forthcoming to sustain two residents in a £10-a-week semi-derelict cottage!

This rapid growth and establishment could never have happened without the great generosity and devotion of people from traditional Theravada cultures, who are now living in Britain. These people, mostly Thai and Sri Lankan, have also helped the British supporters understand that they too are part of a living and continuing spiritual tradition of more than 2,500 years. We come together each year in November to celebrate our diverse unity with a Multi-Cultural Fair, which also raises funds for the monastery.

There have now been five senior bhikkhus guiding the growth of Hamham, and inspiring the lay supporters each with their own individual perspective or emphasis on how the Buddha's teachings can be used to enrich our lives. From Venerable Sucitto - patient endurance and faith; Venerable Viradhammo - loving-kindness to ourselves as well as others; Venerable Anando - awareness of the karmic effects of our actions; Venerable Tiradhammo greater intellectual understanding; Venerable Pahhakaro - appreciation of the form in Theravada practice. It seems as if each teacher has come at the time we needed their particular message.

From its small and humble beginning, Harnham - or 'Ratanagiri', as Ajahn Sumedho now calls it - has developed from a simple vihara into a monastery, becoming the centre of a strong spiritual force in the Worth. The little group who first met on this hill has grown to such a number as have come together today in celebration of the first decade. There is a strong sense of history in the making, and of gratitude for the opportunity to participate. go to

Richard Hopkins Nyanaviro Bhikkhu Ajahn Sucitto Ajahn Munindo Ajahn Tiradhammo

Venerable Nyanaviro spent six months at Harnham as an anagarika (1982-1983), and three years there as a junior monk (1987-1990).

It's very enjoyable to call up images of Harnham in my mind. A warmth accompanies that memory, which goes beyond mere affection or longing.

The first time I visited the Vihara was as a layman for the opening ceremony -June 1981. A friend offered to drive, and when we got to the other side of Newcastle and the view of Northumberland opened out before us, I thought: 'Wow, this place is really out in the sticks, in the absolute middle of nowhere!'

When we finally got to the monastery it was almost like we had made a pilgrimage; the sense of arriving was quite strong, having got all the way to the top of this hill and finding the tiny cottage. In those days it was extremely simple, with no real decorations, just the original structure or a shepherd's dwelling - thick stone walls, rather dusty, a bit dingy because the windows were small, and hard floors.

But on entering I knew that this was no ordinary cottage. My contact with the Sangha had been minimal, yet on coming into the hastily-made shrine-room I was struck by the presence of the monks, the colour of their robes contrasting with the dark grey stone walls. With these orange-brown robes, the sense of calm and peace was immediately obvious. There was also a perceptible desolation to the place, a wildness, an almost other- worldly quality, which I found not a little disturbing at the time. It was not something that I knew how to be at ease with, and it reflected back to me that unknown side of myself.

Harnham was the first monastery that I visited regularly, and it eased me into the Buddhist way of life. One had to get used to being simple, and relinquishing one's comforts. It was rather cold. Everything was basic: a naked light bulb hanging from a ceiling, a toilet, wash basin, the food, the smell of the place, the barrenness of the shrine-room and the almost ghastly simplicity of the monks. Long periods of meditation, sounds from an occasional https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/17/harm.htm[03/10/2017 19:51:26]

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tractor outside, or Farmer John Wake walking by in his wellington boots. The dry stone walls, the greenness of the grass and always, always, the long view that dropped away from the hill stretching off to the horizon. It was an environment which did not encourage complexity. And all these became wonderful constituents for the beginning of my Dhamma-practice. Returning the following year to stay as an anagarika, the experience continued to develop. It's a very elemental place. The ruggedness of Nature feels unspoilt, and this feeling calls you back to your heart, to the source. Ajahn Anando, shortly after his arrival as the new abbot, remarked that if you made an effort you could hear the sound of silence during the course of the day, just being there and going about one's duties. One was always close to the edge of that silence.

To be honest, when I was an anagarika there I sometimes felt like I was doomed, that it was all too much. Once during a 10-day retreat, I had a glimpse into the emptiness of things. But rather than being an inspiring insight, it was like the bottom had dropped out of my world - I was nobody, my life was nothing, and this truth hit me so hard it was undeniable. For a while after that, getting up every day and going through the anagarika's duties was a weighty experience, like having a death sentence. Only after a long time did the understanding dawn that it was just a reaction thrown up by my ego, which could not bear to gaze into the depths of the open mind - that signless expanse was too frightening. But I had been shown and there would always remain the dark remembrance - that all the creations of my mind and belief about myself were based on nothing.

And yet the nothingness, the spaciousness which Harnham's environment seems to reflect is not cold or harsh. It doesn't punish us. Rather it turns one back to the source, the rhythms of nature. The light and dark are very noticeable at Harnham, much more extreme than in the south of England. The sharp chill of the winter, the busting out of the spring, the length of the summer days when you are going to bed in the light and getting up in the light.

If you live on the hill for any length of time, you can't maintain the feeling that you are somehow separate. You're standing on the Earth and that energy flows up and moves through your body and mind, impelling thoughts and moods which are aligned with Nature; you become part of the landscape. Awareness can open to this, and there is nowhere I have found which is more conducive to that than at Harnham. The thick walls of the cottage can absorb everything, all of your pain, all of your loneliness, all of the petty struggles - they are nothing compared to the age and strength of the stone. It just takes everything and muffles it all in quietude. And that's a support, it

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becomes a friend.

I think over the years the monastery has softened. It's like the presence of the monks has humanised those stones, that landscape, because of their willingness to be human, which is what the practice asks. The monks and anagarikas who have lived there over a ten-year period, along with the efforts of many sincere lay- supporters, have made this offering of human heart-energy, which is what has bestowed a sense of sacredness on the Vihara as a physical environment.

Sacredness comes from sacrifice, and many people have sacrificed time and energy in responding to the physical work that has had to be done, and the work of giving up; giving up of the anger, sadness and passion of our individuality. Just offering it all to that lonely little place on a hill in Northumberland. Richard Hopkins Nyanaviro Bhikkhu

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go Ajahn Sucitto to Ajahn Anando Ajahn Munindo Ajahn Tiradhammo Ajahn Sucitto was Harnham's first senior incumbent.

Wind blowing through the stone walls and driving snow into the house under the decayed front door; one cold water tap; snow on the toilet seat: some memories of the old days at Harnham a decade ago. We three incumbents felt like castaways, occasionally visited by Virginia with food and building materials during her lunch hour.

I drilled 700 14-inch-deep holes in those granite walls to provide a damp course. My stomach vibrated into the evening sittings from pushing on the drill. Those holes are the only remaining visible signs of the toil of that first incumbency. I point them out (with pride) as the signs of the humble hard work at the foundation of what is now a beautiful maturity.

The bleak looks have also disappeared off the faces of the Sangha and the Trustees during that decade, to be replaced by something more welcoming. A place of Dhamma is such a clear mirror! go to

Richard Hopkins Nyanaviro Bhikkhu Ajahn Sucitto Ajahn Anando Ajahn Munindo Ajahn Tiradhammo

Ajahn Anando was abbot during most of 1983 and 1984. We don't have to do anything. I just want you to take it easy and settle in.' I was grateful to Ajahn Viradhammo for being so considerate. I was feeling very tired, from the long drive up to Harnham and as a result of the many things I had to finish before leaving Chithurst.

We were planning a leisurely walk, when the telephone interrupted. Ajahn Viradhammo came back looking a little embarrassed and concerned. 'That was Pete. He has a week between jobs, so he will be coming tomorrow to start plastering the meditation hall.' So, the next week we spent stripped to the waist working like Trojans trying to keep up with this giant-of-a-guyPete while he transformed the hall with rapid and expert strokes of his trowel. Ajahn Viradhammo had to leave during our plastering experience, which added to his discomfort at the way things had unfolded. Thus started my stay at Harnham.

Compared to Chithurst, Harnham is small - which has a wonderful effect on certain types of people. Interestingly, those people weren't always part of the community there, which naturally added to the richness of my experience, the first rime I was ever in charge of a monastery. But by far the most cogent and poignant memories are of the many, many times people helped and encouraged us through their gifts and acts of generous support. go to

Richard Hopkins Nyanaviro Bhikkhu Ajahn Sucitto Ajahn Anando Ajahn Munindo Ajahn Tiradhammo

Ajahn Munindo took over the duties of senior monk in the spring of this year.

Settling in at Harnham in its tenth year feels something like moving into a house with an already established garden: the soil is well dug, the stones have been removed and a good variety of things have been planted. All sorts of fresh food is available. Some of what is

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appearing is familiar and some is not. Some plants are large, strong and healthy, and some so small that one can't quite tell what they will turn out to be. Occasional weeds are easily pulled or dug back in, and with pleasant anticipation one waits to see what will come up next.

Monasteries, like gardens, change with the seasons and at Harnham I would say we are going through spring - there is quite a lot happening. It seems these days that the psychological distance between here and the rest of the U.K. has lessened. Although we are regularly at least seven rest- dents, we are usually more. Friends from other parts, Sangha and laity, often come to visit. As senior monk I try to be here as much as possible whilst Venerables Vipassi and Khemasiri conduct the meetings at groups in Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Also the visits to the prisons continue. In any traditional Buddhist culture monks at their age would be testing their samadhi by wandering in tiger-infested forests and mountains. Here in the North-East of Great Britain it's the frustrations of British Rail and city thugs that serve as their teachers.

One clear source of recent enthusiasm has been the opening of what is variously referred to as 'The Newcastle Buddhist Centre', 'The City Centre', or 'Pink Lane Group'. A weekly Wednesday gathering takes place in a large room above the Loy Krarhong Thai Restaurant in central Newcastle (Pink Lane, opposite Central Railway Station). The meeting begins with chanting and meditation, then offers time for group discussion on how to apply the teachings in daily life. Along with the yoga classes on Mon- day and Friday nights, there are stronger links forming between the complex 'worlds' of the city and what is happening here on 'the Hill'. For some, the differences are disappearing

As we have often been told by our teachers, when we are awake we see things as they are, when we are asleep we dream up all kinds of problems. Consciously sharing a recognition of the predicament of unawakened beings can be a major step on the path to making that Right Effort which brings about awakening. The Dhamma discussion groups and the pujas at the monastery are circumstances where this kind of acknowledgement is taking place. Ten years of hard work by a good many people is showing how daily life practice is possible; it is worth the effort to see everything in terms of Dhamma. When this kind of effort is made, things flow smoothly. Even the mundane details of running this place are further aspects of practice. These days, the Trustees oversee the developments from the perspective of experience, and a 'Monastery Committee' attends to the day-to-day details. The committee .three monks and three lay people - meets every two weeks to talk over matters ranging from how to get the council to replace the 'Harnham' road-sign (missing for five months) to the moral implications of our contract with the Electricity Department.

So, going back to gardening, anyone who has kept one knows that as it matures the gardener need no longer be so concerned with what to plant or whether things will actually grow. In this garden one feels the roots are well taken, the fruits are plentiful and those eating from it are well nourished. go to

Richard Hopkins Nyanaviro Bhikkhu Ajahn Sucitto Ajahn Anando Ajahn Munindo Ajahn Tiradhammo

Ajahn Tiradhammo was Harnham's abbot from autumn 1984 to spring 1987. I remember Harnham as an exceptionally peaceful and spacious place. Its isolation and wideopen vistas provide an ideal contemplative environment. However, my time there was also very challenging for me - both I and the Vihara were going through a sort of spiritual adolescence: I was 'growing up' into the role of the senior monk of a Vihara, while the Vihara was 'growing up' as the centre for a Buddhist community stretching from Yorkshire to

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Scotland to Northern Ireland. Due to the labours of my predecessors, I had inherited a very well-renovated and comfortable residence. Most of the 'building work' was building up a support group of interested people throughout the North. Teaching engagements increased considerably, and, as Harnham became appreciated by more and more people, an organised effort - the Sanghamitta Project - gathered momentum to develop the facilities on Harnham Hill. However, any kind of growth has its highs and lows. One can ride high on the enthusiasm of dedicated people, and then the practical matters of organisation and planning quickly bring one back to earth! I look back to this time with genial and lively memories, thanks to the support and encouragement of the many Sangha members and dedicated lay people with whom I shared the friendly, open spaces of Harnham.

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October 1991

2534

THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

Cover: Working with Love; Three reflections Articles: The Life of a Forest Monk; Luang Por Jun

Visiting the City of 10,000 Buddhas; Ven Vipassi

Amaravati's Child; Sandy Chubb

UK Buddhist Education: a Dhammic Perspective

Samatha Meditation; Aj Brahmavamso

Number 18 HOME BACK ISSUES

Working with Love Love is one of the ways in which wisdom manifests in the world. In the following three pieces, love is investigated in the light of the Buddha's teachings. Ajahn Sumedho go Venerable Nyanaviro to Veronica Ferry A Mature Balance; Ajahn Sumedho Enlightenment is nothing more than growing up, being a mature human being. It is the perfection of human kamma, in other words: maturing, being responsible and balanced - being a moral, wise human being, who is no longer looking for 'someone to love me.' Maybe we can't find love in someone else, so we want God to love us. We say, 'I believe in God, and he loves me - nobody else does, but God loves me.' But that's still immature - to want love from 'out there', from someone else. A lot of religions just appeal to that level of emotional development: God loves you if you do good, and gets angry if you do bad; when you're naughty you go to hell, and when you're good you go to heaven. So you do good, not because it's the right thing to do, but because you think that if you do bad, God is going to punish you and send you to hell. Now enlightenment is something really practical that each one of us can realise: each one of us is capable of being awake. When you're a child and emotionally immature you have to have love from someone else, because you can't love yourself yet. But when you're mature and balanced, you can love - you don't need to be loved by someone else. It's nice to be loved by others, but it's not necessary. You're not going around, saying, 'Please love me'. When there's wisdom, you can love - you don't need to be loved any more. That is the maturing of a human being, and there's no rebirth in that.

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Love is the natural radiance from wisdom. When there's wisdom, it's the natural way to relate to others - but when there's no wisdom, we tend to corrupt love with lust, possessiveness, jealousy and fear of rejection. All these things distort any kind of love we might be able to generate from our own mind, unless we love through wisdom rather than through desire.

He was a very lonely person, but it had all been masked by the enormous defences which he had developed over the years.

Ajahn Sumedho go Venerable Nyanaviro to Veronica Ferry Nobody Is Beyond Help; Venerable Nyanaviro One aspect of the life in our monastery at Harnham is the work we do in prisons. There have been times when prisoners have opened up and shared with me the most painful aspects of their personal life. Many have had a whole history of violence going back to early childhood. Never having received any affection in their lives, they turned to crime and violence as teenagers and inevitably ended up in jail. One very moving experience took place when I was in Frankland, a top security prison. There is a high proportion of 'lifers' there - a term usually applied to murderers, rapists and bank robbers. I was with a young man who had quite a record of violence and was in for having very nearly killed somebody. I was alone with him in his cell. We had come to know each other over the weeks - he was a registered Buddhist who had become interested through the martial arts. He was very, very tough! He stood as tall as myself (about 6'3") but had a much sturdier exterior, and he could look you straight in the eyes. Quite intimidating! I was alone with him in his cell, when he told me that his deepest desire was to kill another person. He had the idea that if he could actually take somebody else's life, the feeling that would arise would be an extremely powerful one - and he felt the need for that experience. I was at the time sitting cross-legged opposite him on his bed. I gulped! I had never sat with anybody before who had told me in all sincerity that they would really like to kill someone. I felt completely useless, and made an effort to breathe through my heart, staying with this person, just allowing him to come out with his story. When he had finished, he asked, 'Well, what do you think of that, brother?' (They call each other 'brother' in the prison.) I didn't know what to say. What do you say to someone who feels that level of anger and violence in himself? I was sad. It was a very strange experience. I thought to myself, 'I feel so utterly empty... useless. . . what on earth can I offer this man?' My mind had completely given up. I was totally astonished by what he had told me. Then something just came out from of my heart, I asked him, 'Have you ever felt love in your life, have you ever felt love towards anyone else?' He said, 'No, no, there's none of that in my life'. He went on to say that his earliest memories were of his father regularly beating him up, knocking him to the floor. He could never stand up to his father, so when he got older he decided to take on other people instead. Then I asked, 'Have you ever even thought that relating to others with kindness rather than violence and anger might be a more wholesome way of carrying on, a nicer feeling for yourself?' I left it at that, as I had to go on and see someone else, but I recall feeling very sad as I left him in his cell. I thought to myself, 'I don't think Billy can make it. He's really beyond

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help.' The next time I saw him, some weeks later, it was a very different experience. He had been meditating on his own, and told me that one night while he was sitting, he suddenly had the realisation that inside he was very lonely. He was a very lonely person, but it had all been masked by the enormous defences which he had developed over the years. The world for him had been a very painful place and he had learned how to shut himself off. Of course, as a result, he had emotionally incarcerated himself within a very small lonely space. Once he realised that for himself, he gained some insight into his predicament, which was wonderful to witness. He was already making the effort to see the results of acting kindly to others either through a smile, or through being more patient and letting some of his fellow prisoners just be who they were. He said he was working on it, taking one step at a time. This was very rewarding for me. It gave rise to a feeling that these people are worth of every effort one can make. If I had believed my first impression, maybe I wouldn't have bothered with him any more. It gave me confidence that in even the most extreme kind of human being, there is still something there that is feeling. It might have been denied and repressed, but it's there and you can point to it. For those people who are prepared to be still enough to look, and tune in to their inner being, it's very rewarding - regardless of how painful an exercise it may be. None of us in this monastery have to go through such heavy kamma to reach our hearts (I don't expect). Through leading more moral lives we generally have more ready access. But being with people who have not been keeping the Precepts one sees the inevitable results. One realises that nobody gets away with anything. But you also realise that nobody is beyond help. Â Ajahn Sumedho go Â Venerable Nyanaviro to Â Veronica Ferry Healing and Metta; Veronica Ferry May i be well....... Metta meditation became an invaluable part of my life five years ago. I first started using it as part of a healing process, in the very concrete form of literally willing myself well again after a chain of events which had nearly led to a breakdown; neither tranquillisers nor various https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/18.htm[03/10/2017 20:08:17]

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forms of complementary medicine had been the answer. I felt the disease was not entirely mental or physical, but to do with the heart. I needed something that I could do for myself to relieve the sense of impatience over the whole situation - something which, once learnt, I could do on my own without reference to anything or anybody else. Since then, I have continued to use the meditation in my work as a nursing auxiliary on a radiotherapy ward. I usually use it silently. The meditation provides me with a confidence in any situation - often by providing a calming rhythm to my actions which appears to transmit to the patients I am looking after. Ultimately, it allows me the confidence to sit quietly and remain fully with people, even as they die. Occasionally, if it feels appropriate, I have the opportunity to work with it more directly. When dealing with pain, some patients respond better to having the words: 'May I be well, may others be well', to say or think, rather than using breathing techniques. Sometimes these words provide a breakthrough in understanding; a patient may realise and acknowledge that he or she has cancer, and is no longer going to be 'well' in the physical sense of the word, but may have the ability to be more 'well' in mind and heart than at any time prior to the illness. I keep the use of the meditation very simple, without reference to 'meditation', 'metta' or 'Buddhism'. I find that after a busy shift I am able to leave the ward more calmly if I have individually, however briefly, wished each patient well particularly when I know there is nothing more that I can do for them at a practical level. At home in formal practice, whilst finding other forms of meditation beneficial, I frequently return to metta. In a busy life it enables me to go some way towards accepting my limitations as a wife, mother, nurse and member of the human race. It helps me to cultivate the qualities of patience and endurance - qualities which I find so elusive, and so very necessary. Sometimes I use a guided metta meditation tape with headphones in order to lock out the sounds of family life; it is not always possible to find a quiet time in a day, with shift work and growing youngsters! The use of the tape can overcome the feelings of isolation that meditating on one's own can bring. Practice in the morning allows me to open to the day even if it only lasts minutes! The important thing is that this time does seem to increase as the years go by. Similarly, evening sitting encourages me to let go of the debris of the day. It's by no means perfect: as a chronic insomniac, I still resort to sleeping tablets and use herb teas but there is a significant improvement in my attitude towards insomnia. Other forms of meditation obviously can be used to the same ends; it simply depends on one's nature which is more suitable. In my case, time and metta meditation have allowed the healing process to reach a point where it is possible to resume what had previously been a mutually destructive relationship with a parent; to lead a happy family life; and to hold down a job - all of which was unimaginable a few years ago. I am enormously grateful that I was in the right place at the right time to receive instruction in this form of meditation. May others be well. . . . Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

October 1991 Cover: Articles:

HOME BACK ISSUES

Working with Love; Three reflections The Life of a Forest Monk; Luang Por Jun Visiting the City of 10,000 Buddhas; Ven Vipassi Amaravati's Child; Sandy Chubb UK Buddhist Education: a Dhammic Perspective Samatha Meditation; Aj Brahmavamso

The Life of a Forest Monk Phra Iridaviro Thera, better known as Luang Por Jun, was our guest at Amaravati from July 1989 to June 1990. Sangha members and lay guests will long remember his warmth and vigour, and the clarity of his teaching. Luang Por is one of Venerable Ajahn Chah's most senior disciples, and he is spiritual head of several monasteries in Thailand While in England, he kindly consented to be interviewed by Ven. Pabhakaro. Here is the first part of that interview. Please Luang Por, would you tell us your life story, as best you can, in brief?

Before I became a monk, my life was primarily concerned with ways of making a living to support myself, the way people in the world do. I went everywhere, did everything, and when I contemplated these things in my mind I felt that it would be very difficult to find the Dhamma. Worldly life seemed to be about seeking things externally through having a good time, with no real end or completion in sight. People sought entertainment by drinking and looking for a good time without realising that these things had no real substance. During one rainy season I went to Bangkok to find a livelihood there. I observed the different types of people in Bangkok - the very rich, the very poor, beggars - the full range of human existence within a city. I knew a rich man who had many wives. One day one of his minor wives came to the house and had an argument with his major wife. He tried to persuade them to get on together and pacify the argument, but to no avail - they continued to argue amongst themselves. Having many wives he also had many children, so he would spend time moving from household to household. He never found any happiness in any of them, despite his immense wealth. I felt a sadness and weariness with the situation of the world. How old were you, Luang Por, at this time?

I was 23. I continued my search in the world and began to notice people in the positions of authority. Often they were not fair or just, and would even exploit and take advantage of others. Quite often people took the blame for things they did not do, and so were punished unjustly. I began to see that the world was very uncertain and I made up my mind that I would return to my village at the end of the rainy season, and use the money I had made to buy robe material and a bowl. So I began to inform my friends of my plans. My friends didn't believe me or support what I wanted to do. Fine. I let them think what they wanted. When they realised that I was serious, they decided to offer me bowl and robes and the requisites I would need as a monk. I finally returned to my village and told my family my plans. They had no objections and were quite pleased.

Now put all of these things aside for the time being, so

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that you can put them behind you.

So I took Upasampada [bhikkhu ordination] and began to think that I would like to become a forest monk and seek the quietude of a cave or the forest. I sought the life of a wandering forest monk, but my preceptor didn't think this to be a good idea. He thought it selfish to just go off on my own, and encouraged me to stay and support my Dhamma brothers and sisters. 'What would happen to you if you went off and then fell ill? Stay here, close to your friends and family so that you can be cared for.' My preceptor said it was a rare occurrence to have someone in the village who had made such a firm determination to give his life to the Dhamma and to the robe. He said I would be of great value and benefit to the monastery if I stayed. My preceptor did promise to send me off to the city where I could learn to study the scriptures. I realised that even if I never went away and learned to study the scriptures, I would still benefit by staying with my preceptor and learning how to serve him and help look after the monastery and the junior monks. So I agreed to follow his advice and stayed in the village monastery for two or three years and became involved in building works and things of this nature. After my fourth Vassa [Rainyseason retreat] I still hadn't been sent anywhere to study, so I approached my preceptor about going to the city. He agreed - and so I went off to Ubon city in the year 2500 [Buddhist era, or 1957 C.E.] to study Pali. I had already completed my three-year study of the scriptures. When I arrived at the monastery in the city I commenced my Pali studies, memorised the Patimokkha [bhikkhu training rules], and learned the different sorts of chanting. We wouldn't even have the same chant twice in just one month, and my mind begin to spin with all the new knowledge. This verse, that verse, I became caught in a chaotic cycle of turbulent thought. I did manage to learn and complete quite a few things that first year, but by the second Vassa, I was absolutely fed up! I had headaches from studying so much. The monastery was beside a noisy cinema that often didn't close until after midnight. I began to wonder what to do. I couldn't study and memorise the scriptures for much longer, so I thought maybe I could become one of these monks who is a professional speaker and give desanas [Dhamma talks], if I studied the fancy language and intonation that they used. I couldn't come to a decision, and I would have been too embarrassed to return to my own village as I had not achieved what I had set out to do. My mind was very upset and confused. I also began to experience a lot of lust and desire. An old man that I knew - he was actually the grandfather of a friend of mine - came to the monastery to take ordination. I began to question him and asked him if he would like to study the scriptures after he was ordained. 'No,' he replied, 'I'm too old for that. I'm going to stay with a forest master at Wat Pa Pong. All you have to do is meditate in the forest close your eyes, adopt the right posture - and everything comes to you. It sounded like just the thing for me; I wanted to go as well! He was leaving after his ordination, in 10 or 15 days, so I went and asked the abbot if I could go to Wat Pa Pong. 'Have you given up, then?' he asked me. So I had to tell him that my heart was no longer in studying, and I had come to the conclusion that I should go to live in the forest. He gave me his blessing and his support, so I began making preparations to go. I didn't know what the routine of a forest monastery would be, but I bought a mosquito net and new robes together as well as Ovaltine and milk powder to drink https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/life.htm[03/10/2017 20:07:21]

On a Visit to a Buddhist Monastery

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before going pindabaht [alms round] in the morning. I made sure that I had enough money with me as well, just in case*.

*The irony of Ajahn Jun's 'preparations' is that according to the discipline that forest monasteries lay emphasis on, possession and use of money, and storing and consuming Ovaltine and milk before dawn (the time of the alms round) are forbidden. The day came to go and so we were off. I hadn't contacted Luang Por Chah before I left my monastery to ask if I could come. When we arrived at Wat Pa Pong monastery we went to pay our respects to Luang Por Chah. He was expecting the old man that I had travelled with, and told him that a kuti [hut] was ready for him. The old man introduced me to Luang Por Chah and told him how I had become fed up with my studies and wanted to live in the forest as his disciple. Luang Por Chah responded by saying he wasn't sure if there would be room for me; he was surprised to have someone turn up at the last minute like this without asking beforehand. Ajahn Chah turned to me and began asking about me: which village had I come from, when was I ordained, how many Vassas did I have, and so on. I told him that I was sincere about being a monk, that studying hadn't been very fruitful and that I was ready to entrust my body and life to him as my teacher and train as a forest monk. Ajahn Chah was sympathetic, but told me he regretted there was no space for me to stay at the monastery. I offered to stay in the kitchen or the sala, but he would only allow me to stay if I had a hut of my own. The lady who had given us a lift to the monastery asked Ajahn Chah if she could offer 120 Baht [about ÂŁ2.50] to the monastery to cover the costs of building a small grass kuti for me to live in. Ajahn Chah was silent for a moment or two, and then gave his consent. 'All right,' he said. 'Let's give it a try.'

Half in novice-white, half priestly saffron. Her welcome wide-eyed, immediate, direct: 'How glad I am it's you!' I feel the warmth of being chosen, select. On soft and gentle feet Acceptance, confident, complete, from this small source flows out. Our spirits meet. Bubbling her melodious song All the meditation long Warm in my lap The Amaravati cat.

Mrs. Rosemary Stevens

After puja that same evening, Luang Por Chah sent for me. I went in, paid my respects, and he asked me what I had thought of the monastery after my first day there. Did I miss the monastery I had left? 'No,' I replied. Did I think I would be able to stay at Wat Pa Pong? 'Yes, I think so.' He didn't really say much to me that first night, just told me that the practice was right there in the monastery, just as things were. The next night he asked the same questions again: it was only a few days before we would enter the Vassa, and he wanted to ensure that I would stay for the Rains. 'Yes,' I told him, 'I'll stay.' 'Good,' he said, 'but if that's the case, all of your requisites and possessions will have to be examined.' Ajahn Chah's background was similar to my own. He had lived in a village monastery for eight years before he started to live strictly by the Vinaya and practise in this way. And so he began to question me and cross-examine me in the presence of the other monks there were about four or five other monks at Wat Pa Pong in those days. I opened my case and the Ajahn began looking through. 'Did you buy this mosquito net?' 'Yes,' I replied. 'Then put it over there,' he said. 'Did you buy this new sabong?' 'No,' I said, 'They offered it to me.' 'In that case put it over here.' And so we went through my whole case, item by item, with Ajahn Chah

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

asking where each item had come from. 'What about the robe you are wearing? Did you buy that too?' 'No.' I told him. 'Did you wash it with soap that you bought?' 'Well, yes, Ajahn.' 'Then take it off and put it over here.' And so it was with my angsa [shoulder cloth], until finally my sabong [lower robe] was the only thing I had on after surrendering my other robes. 'You can keep the sabong,' Luang Por said. I breathed a sigh of relief. I realised by then that Ajahn Chah meant business and would have no nonsense. Of course I didn't dare say anything. After I had given up my robes, one of the other monks went and got some robe material and made the appropriate markings on the cloth. Ajahn Chah saw me eyeing the pile of robes I had just given up. 'This is nothing to be sad about,' he said, 'Those things didn't come to you in a pure way, and in our practice we are developing the path of purity. This same thing was done to me, and I had even more things taken away. They set fire to them. But I won't do that to your robes. We'll send them back to your home village.' Luang Por Chah then asked if I had any qualifications or worldly experience that would be useful at the monastery. I told him about my building and brick-laying experience and my study of the scriptures. Could I give desanas? 'No, I didn't learn any of that.' He saw the various tattoos that I had and wanted to know if I knew any magic charms or spells or incantations. 'A few,' I said. He made me write them on paper and them throw them away as a sign of giving them up, and then made me relinquish the charms and amulets I had as well. Ajahn Chah went on to say, 'Now put all of these things aside for the time being, so that you can put them behind you. I want to teach and train you to practise in the way that we do at Wat Pa Pong. And whether you think it is right or wrong, I want you to do your best to train in this way, to trust and follow the teaching.' I knew that it was important to do as I was asked. I was nearly at the end of my rope after the route I had taken via my village monastery and studying the scriptures. There was no other place I could go, so I was quite happy to surrender and give myself to the practice. But after we had finished that evening, Ajahn Chah still hadn't given me any guidance or instructions on the practice. When he left that night, he just told me to come over to the sala when I heard the bell the following morning and we would practise together. The next morning Luang Por Chah gave a talk on training the mind (bhavana) after we finished the chanting. Afterwards we got ready for alms round. I wasn't used to wearing two upper robes together as they did on alms round, and a novice had to help me put them on properly. They were old and tatty, quite a dark colour and well worn, but I was quite pleased to have them. Time passed by, and soon there was only a day or so left before the Vassa began. We began building the little thatched-roof hut I would occupy. One of the novices was having a difficult time digging out the foundation, so I took the shovel from him and began digging away. Ajahn Chah just looked on and smiled, but didn't say anything. When the foundation was finished, we needed some vines to bind things together. Ajahn Chah sent the same novice to get some, and thinking I would save the young novice some trouble, I went to give him a hand pulling them down and cutting them up. Ajahn Chah still didn't say anything, he just watched smiling**. I didn't have a clue what he was smiling at, and I thought he was smiling with approval at my work, that I must be showing him what good handyman I was. The kuti still wasn't finished before the Vassa began. Ajahn Teeang was invited to spend the rains in his home village, so he left and I was offered his kuti.

** More transgressions of the training! Bhikkhus are forbidden to dig soil or damage plants. I gradually settled in at Wat Pa Pong. Everything was different than I had previously imagined it would be. But I was earnest and resolute in my practice, very sincere, and determined to be

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

a good example, particularly since Ajahn Teeang had left and I was the monk immediately junior to Ajahn Chah. I was very cautious to present a good example, and some nights I wouldn't even sleep. I was very keen to practise. I would wake up in my kuti worried that I was late for morning puja and make my way through the dark forest without a torch, stumbling over everything, to reach the sala and discover it was only midnight or 1 a.m.! So I would stay there, and practise meditation, even though it didn't seem to be producing fruitful results. But I was earnest in my pursuit and persevered.... to be continued

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

October 1991 Cover: Articles:

HOME BACK ISSUES

Visiting the City of 10,000 Buddhas Earlier this summer, along with four other bhikkhus, Venerable Vipassi had the privilege of being invited to serve as a Precept Master in an ordination ceremony for bhikshus and bhikshunis held at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, Northern California. In recent years, our Sangha in England and the Sangha of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas have developed a very cordial relationship. It began when Luang Por Sumedho was invited to meet the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua while visiting California several years ago, and has since continued through the exchange of visits by various members of our communities. It has been surprising and delightful to discover that there is so much common ground. The apparent differences fade in significance when one considers that both our sanghas place great emphasis upon strict adherence to Vinaya, and practise Dhamma within traditional (Thai or Chinese) monastic conventions. We also both stress a high degree of commitment to community life - which requires the relinquishment of personal freedoms and viewpoints. The similarities of aspiration, of trials undergone, of lessons ground home, of insights discovered, all serve to create an empathy of spirit. One can readily understand how Chinese pilgrims, travelling in India in the centuries after the Buddha's parinibbana, could report that monks of differing Buddhist schools, adhering to widely differing interpretations of the teachings, could often be found living in harmony together in the same monasteries. In 1989, a dozen of our bhikkhus - along with Theravada and Mahayana monks from various parts of the world - were invited to participate in a large-scale ordination ceremony at the City, it being Master Hua's intention to stimulate auspicious occasions when the two traditions would work together. Last year, the Venerable Master led a delegation of monks, nuns and lay people to Europe, which visited Amaravati and Chithurst. During this visit the Master again expressed his view that it was high time that the Northern and Southern traditions took more opportunities to work together amicably as disciples of the Buddha, rather than feeling separated by their differences. In the light of this developing spirit of co-operation, I looked forward with special interest to our visit. One of the most surprising first impressions we had upon arriving at San Francisco is the fact that it's cool and foggy! So much for the eternal sunshine images of California. In fact, San Francisco has a climate all of its own. During the summer months sea fog is drawn through the gap in the coastal mountain range (which forms the Bay Area) by the warm air inland, and then recedes a few days later when the land cools again, allowing the sun to reappear. On the night we landed, the Golden Gate Bridge was shrouded in mist, and people strolling across it were bundled up in down jackets and ponchos. Yet Venerable Heng Jau, who met us at the airport, warned us that, although it might be cool down here, 120 miles north at the City of Ten https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/visit.htm[03/10/2017 20:06:22]

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Thousand Buddhas they had been having a heat wave, with temperatures as high as 117 degrees F.

The monks live in what was the area for the criminally insane, and since they have not had time to renovate their own quarters there is a certain oppressiveness to the atmosphere, which their presence only barely softens.

Our first couple of days at the City were spent resting and getting used to our new surroundings. We arrived just at the end of a two-week retreat being given by Ajahn Sumedho, assisted by Ajahn Amaro and Sisters Thanissara and Abhassara. The retreat had gone well - about forty people had attended, with another ten or so residents from the City sitting in (and reportedly appreciating the opportunity very much). The atmosphere at the City is very surprising. Down at one end of the main street of an ordinary little North Californian town there is an enormous yellow Chinese temple gate. It is as if beyond this point one has entered China: besides the largely Chinese monastic population of a hundred or so monks and nuns, there is also a large number of Chinese lay people living on the campus. Hence English is more of a second language here. The feeling of the place is not unlike that of Amaravati. At first it is easy to get lost! There are over seventy buildings set in nearly 500 acres, and, as the site was once the State Mental Hospital, many of the buildings have a strongly institutional feeling about them. In fact, the monks live in what was the area for the criminally insane, and since they have not had time to renovate their own quarters there is a certain oppressiveness to the atmosphere, which their presence only barely softens. Elsewhere, much has been done. The main Buddha Hall, where most of the ceremonies take place, is very impressive. The central figure is a huge statue with a thousand hands and eyes the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara - flanked by statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other deities. The hall is also lined with, literally, ten thousand Buddha images. After the comparative simplicity of the shrines in our monasteries, this can at first be rather overwhelming. The atmosphere of devotion that pervades the City is palpable. Devotional practice points the mind and heart in a tremendously positive direction - and strongly counteracts feelings of selfdoubt and negativity that can arise at certain times in one's spiritual life. I felt uplifted and energised by many of the ceremonies. The chanting is ethereal - one hundred or so voices tunefully chanting together to the accompaniment of many varieties of bells and drums. Namo shurangama assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The wonderfully deep dharani, the unmoving honoured one, the foremost shurangama king is seldom found in the world. It melts away my deluded thoughts gathered in a million kalpas, so I won't need to endure countless aeons in order to attain the Dharma Body. I wish now to achieve the result and become an honoured king, who then returns to save as many beings as there are sand grains in the Ganges. I offer this deep thought to the Buddhalands which are countless like motes of dust, to repay the kindness shown me by the Buddha. I pray that the World-Honoured One will not witness as I vow to enter the five turbid realms. As long as a single being hasn't become a Buddha, at death I won't seek the leisure of Nirvana. May

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forward forward is the way to go

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the exalted hero's awesome strength, his kindness and compassion, search out and dispel even the most subtle of my doubts, causing me quickly to attain the Supreme Enlightenment and sit in the Bodhimanda of the ten directions. Should even the shunyata nature entirely melt away, this perpetual vow will never wane. . . . Thus begins the morning chanting! The ordination proceedings were somewhat different from what we are used to in the Theravada, but there are many similarities also. Acceptance into the Bhikshu or Bhikshuni order is preceded by a two- or three-year novitiate period. As the date of the ordinations draws near, the candidates enter a 108-day preliminary formal training period during which their suitability is assessed. The beginning of the ceremonial proceedings is then marked with a formal announcement of the names of the candidates who have been selected: this year, 7 men and 45 women - all Orientals except one, a middle-aged American man. (Some of the candidates had come more recently from the Far East and will return to their home temples after a period of post-ordination training). The proceedings span several days and have three main sections (this is referred to as the 'Triple Platform'). These are, firstly, the examination by the Karma Acariyas (teachers who examine the candidate to ensure that he or she is suitable), then the Upasampada (acceptance into the Order), and finally the bestowal of the Bodhisattva precepts. At each stage there is a formal request for the Masters to instruct or bestow the precepts, a ceremony of repentance for past offences, then the requesting of the Sages, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Ten Directions to come and bestow blessings and to bear witness, and finally the enactment of the procedure by the officiating Acariya.

in the light of dark and so alone together is the way in the light of dark and sway without yet giving every all to crooked strong to weak, or tall forward is the way to go in the light of dark and so Jacqueline Fitch

About twenty-five monks acted as Precept Masters: eight from our sangha (including Ajahn Sumedho), Ajahn Pasanno from Wat Pah Nanachat, some Vietnamese elders, some Chinese elders, Ajahn Khantipalo from Wat Buddha-Dhamma in Australia, some monks from Wat Dhammakaya in Thailand, and our old friend, the 103-year-old Bhante Dhammavaro - as well as the monks from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. The Venerable Master Hsuan Hua was too ill due to a kidney disorder to officiate at most of the proceedings and only appeared briefly; he requested Ajahn Sumedho to stand in for him as Upajjhaya (preceptor), which must have come as rather a surprise to Luang Por! And, no doubt, as a great honour. The Precept Hall (sima boundary) is a carpeted platform, bounded by mirrors, around which the Precept Masters sit. The assembly circumambulated the hall three times, chanting the Great Compassion Mantra to purify the place before the ordination could be carried out. The candidates had to make their requests in Chinese, English and Pali. At one point they were asked: 'Are you a great hero?' - to which they replied with gusto, 'Yes, I am a great hero!' Apparently this is the high-point of the ordination ceremony - a demonstration of the heroic nature of the Bodhi resolve. The proceedings took up most of the day, and after the final formalities had been completed, we were asked to walk in single file back to the Buddha Hall for a group photograph. As we left the Precept Hall, I noticed what at first I took to be large bundles of yellow cloth piled up on either side of the path every ten feet or so. I suddenly realised that these were the new monks and nuns in full prostration, reciting 'Na mwo ben shr shr jya mu ni fwo' (Homage to https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/visit.htm[03/10/2017 20:06:22]

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Fundamental Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha). Forming a corridor lining the route all the way to the Hall were prostrating chanting figures - monks, nuns and hundreds of black-robed lay people - all prostrating and chanting. The whole thing was breathtakingly beautiful. Further inspiring occasions followed. That evening the monks reconvened for a 'Triple-Recitation' Patimokkha, a recitation in Pali (by Ajahn Amaro), in Chinese, and in English of the code of discipline that is more or less identical in the two traditions. Such 'Concord Observances' have traditionally been used as a symbol of harmony when fraternities within the Sangha have branched off into different ways of practice. So, in terms of our monastic frame of reference, that was a very moving event. The following day the newly-ordained monks and nuns received the Bodhisattva precepts in a long and solemn ceremony that enshrines the Mahayana aspiration. The ceremonies concluded with the transmission of the lay Bodhisattva precepts to a large number of lay people. Besides the inspirational qualities of the occasion, and the moving atmosphere of devotion in which the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is bathed, I found that one of the most impressive aspects of the whole situation is the level of commitment of the monks and nuns to their monastic life. The day after it was all over, the four hundred Taiwanese visitors and most of the visiting precept masters had left; the bhikshunis had changed from their ceremonial canary yellow robes into workaday grey and brown, and the City had the familiar atmosphere of Amaravati after Magha Puja, when Ajahn Sumedho has flown off to Australia and our visiting monks and nuns have all left. There's a certain feeling of coming back to earth, back to the ordinariness of daily life. When things are unspectacular, one has to go beyond reliance on inspiration and get down to the steady re-application of effort, patience and dedication. This is where true cultivation occurs. Venerable Master Hsuan Hua offers some reflections. This meeting between the Theravada and the Mahayana traditions deserves celebration and commemoration. What is important is that beginning from today, the Southern and Northern traditions will no longer have to be separated into different schools. We are neither in competition with each other, nor will we be distinguishable one from the other. My policy is that not only should Buddhists heal the divisions in our family, but we should also unite with other religions in the world. I don't reject any one; I want to be unified with them all. In the past, Asian Buddhists clung to their separate, tiny states, not recognising the importance of co-operation. The various ethnic groups and cultures knew only their small scope, and usually paid no attention to other schools or traditions - content to spin inside their own little sphere. Now that Westerners are beginning to take part, a new spirit of co-operation is possible. With this meeting, Buddhism has reached its proper international standard. We have different cultures and races joining together, and finally, we can make the meaning of 'Sangha' a reality. As you know, 'Sangha' means 'the harmoniously united Assembly'. This is a true Sangha gathering. Moreover, our gatherings are free of contention and strife, and also there is mutual esteem and cherishing. This is just the way the original spirit of Buddhism should be. We should sustain our energy of co-operation at this level. Now I know the measure of my mind has its limits, but if your generation of disciples from the Northern and Southern traditions can unite in a single body, then we can realise our promise of making Buddhism expand and grow great. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/visit.htm[03/10/2017 20:06:22]

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If someone wanted to return to lay life, what would you say to them? With me everything's OK, no problem. If you want to advance, you may; if you want to retreat, it's up to you. I only speak the teachings - whether or not you listen is your choice. Living people can die, and the dead can return to life. Who tells you to be that way? Who's in charge of this process? Who tells you to return to lay life? In cultivation, there are two major obstacles for left-home people - two things that make us upside- down, and unable to stand firm: money and sex. If any one of us can see through these two things and put them down, then that person will be a successful cultivator. In the Theravada style, not holding money is a very wholesome Sangha practice, a good dharma. And as for sexual desire, it is just a residual habit. If, when that energy arises, one can remain unattached to it and not follow it, it will disappear, and that is true liberation. Money and sex bind us so tightly that it is really hard to get free. That is all you need to know in a nutshell. I don't give gifts on the occasions of good-byes, nor do I want to receive anything. However when people want to give me something, I tell them to leave behind their afflictions. I'm not greedy for them, but the more the better! People would be much better off without them. That's one thing I want you to leave with me; I will receive that gift willingly.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

October 1991 Cover: Articles:

HOME BACK ISSUES

Amaravati's Child Sandy Chubb, with her husband and two children, spent a week in the company of the Sangha and other families at this year's Family Dhamma Camp. 'Mixing up the ages in a wholesome atmosphere, free from all the innuendo games we normally play - the children respond to that as well - that's the best part about coming here.' Secretary and co-ordinator Keith Errey was talking about his feelings on this year's Family Dhamma Camp at Amaravati Buddhist Centre in August. 'There's a lot of activity for the children which at first they don't think they'll like, but as soon as they sign up, they love it. Undoubtedly, the aspect of all people having to muck in and help in the spirit of dana is what makes it. You could get these services at Butlins [a commercial holiday camp for families], but with an entirely different result. 'The presence of the Sangha, and the fact that we are within a monastery, is the key. There's a sense of gratitude in being offered a share in the facilities of the monastery: the sala, the library, the space.' Keith, a scientist from Oxford, was a good reminder of dana to everyone during the week, dealing with endless questions each day with easy-going, smiling patience. He and his wife Lynn, who taught a packed early-morning yoga class, brought their two daughters, Olivia and Jessie (who played the title role of Prince Vessantara in the play the children performed.) This play was a re-working of a much-loved Jataka tale: the story of the Buddha's previous life as Prince Vessantara. The Prince's faith in the practice of dana was so great he gave away his entire kingdom, his beloved wife and children, and his magic white elephant. Eventually they are returned to him. The play formed a natural climax to the week, and all the gifted adults involved in helping, the children, and the audience enjoyed the build-up of excitement and the fun of the performance with its dazzling colours, masks, music and flowing costumes. This was the sixth annual camp for families who want to explore ways of living, teaching and sharing the Dhamma, in the peaceful setting of Amaravati. Some camped in tents, others were housed indoors. Days were divided into unique Dhamma teachings for the children (each class taken by a different nun or monk), morning and evening chanting and pujas, meditation, art, crafts, lots of different workshops, and - throughout the day and evening, with everyone down to the small children joining in harmoniously - the cleaning and kitchen jobs.

We all thought puja would be boring, but it isn't - the chanting makes you calm and peaceful.

There were camp fires with toasted marshmallows under a full moon. Venerable Shingo, a https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/child.htm[03/10/2017 20:05:21]

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visiting Zen monk from Japan, ran classes in calligraphy. There were 'tribes' meetings in the afternoon in the huge marquee and, on three unforgettable evenings, Apahn Sucitro's extraordinary accounts of his travels in India, full of insight, modesty and humour. These bedtime stories made an impression on everyone, cropping up in discussion nearly every day. The theme of this year's camp was the Paramitas, the ten powers of goodness which are cultivated on the path to enlightenment by all living beings. The spirit of the paramitas ran through everything, from the Dhamma explanations after morning puja to recreation and workshops. 'I've enjoyed the Dhamma classes more and more, and feel I need even more of them. So do lots of us older ones,' says Manita, who is a 16-year-old ballet student. 'The monks and nuns told us things about Buddhism we hadn't heard before, and everything we heard seemed to be directed at us personally.' For Sujata, aged 13 from Manchester, this was her first camp. 'A lot of us used to be really shy talking to the nuns and monks, and now it's not so bad. We saw that many of them were shy of us, too. They seem to really understand what it's like to be our age. We all thought puja would be boring, but it isn't - the chanting makes you calm and peaceful.' 'Usually you think of religion as dead serious and boring,' said 14-year- old Kikhil from Wigan, 'but the Dhamma classes are put across in such an interesting way. It's loads of fun.' Sister Cintamani worked out a perfect day's walk half-way through the week: several miles of changing terrain, a hot countryside of baking cornfields changing with dark, pungent forests, culminating in a sensational view over Ivinghoe Beacon. Nine members of the Sangha joined us, and added their gift to the day by taking and blessing lunch with us on the hill-side, where an impromptu shrine was assembled by the children, who brought special offerings to lay on it. Not everyone had a family with them, but Julie-Ann from Manchester - who ran the juggling classes - thought it was good to be in a family context. 'The meaning of the family has become quite different. I liked working the paramita theme into the juggling, and discussing patience, determination and energy with the children. Best of all, I liked getting to know the Sangha better, finding out how the life of the monastery can help a lay person. There were lots of little things in my mind which have come up and been cleared.' Tony Bruni, who looked after the bookings and finance, brought his daughter Francesca along. 'The best part of the week for me was sitting with the Sangha in the morning at 4.30. I was teaching T'ai Chi three times a day; funnily enough, I didn't get tired. It was a very tight schedule, but if I found I was losing my relaxation, I got out a bit, then came back in later.' The organisation ran like clock-work. Medhina, coordinating the activities and timetable, always had time to help anyone who needed her (I saw her running up a rota on https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/child.htm[03/10/2017 20:05:21]

First Born First born, first seen, new born unseen. Today is the first day of a new life. Not yet overfilled with personhood. Womb fresh softer than the breath of sleep. How precious Two priceless eyes that look for the first time at everything. A pure mirror for our stale seeing A blessing of light, human BEING Venerable Sobhano

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her word processor at 5.30 one morning). Sally cooked delicious, imaginative wholefood meals, three times a day, for over a hundred people; and Beryl was a skillful housekeeper. For Venerable Sobhano and Sister Cintamani, it was the fruition of hours of work, running the camp so very well, yet allowing their monastic lives - concerned at this time of year with the Vassa retreat - to remain as undisturbed as possible. 'We had a lot of preparation for this week, and we both did a lot of our own personal preparation,' said Venerable Sobhano. 'The camp isn't considered to be a threat to us, but something to open to. All the monks felt that they have learned a lot, having to teach the children. Also, it happens within the context of our discipline, which develops the strength to contain this kind of energy without our being overwhelmed by it. Take the noise, for instance. Children aren't trained to be still and sensitive, so their parents like to bring them into contact with the Sangha, so they can see how to be composed and still be happy. It is important for young children to feel there is something in their life which is sacred - something to revere otherwise, the world becomes a drab place.' There is a subtle distance between the Sangha and ourselves, which over the week is woven together into a fabric. Whenever a lay person 'connects' with a monk or nun in discussion, that sense of separation dissolves. Afterwards - with infinite delicacy - the distance is re-erected, but in a way which makes that encounter even more acute and precious. One morning, passing a carpentry group who were outside in the sunshine painting some shelves for the camp toilets, I overheard two boys discussing metta. Chetan, aged 11, explained: 'We painted the back of the shelves, and the others (Heather and Anne, 13-year-old twins) asked us, "Who is going to see that?" 'Nine- year-old Edwin chipped in: 'We said, "The wall sees it. Loving-kindness to the wall! That's metta!" ' After breakfast on the last day of the week, when everyone was scurrying to do their dishes, my 12-year-old daughter Georgia stopped me in mid-flight, saying: 'Mum, there's a Dhamma class I want to tell you about.' It was the first time she'd commented directly on anything in the week, so we sat down again, and she told me this: 'Sister Abhassara was telling us about when she became a nun. She had with her this beautiful porcelain statue of the Chinese goddess of compassion*. In her hands was a bottle of sweet dew, which she sprinkles like rain over all beings, out of compassion for their suffering.' Then Georgia related the story of a tragic death which occurred at that vital moment in Sister Abhassara's life. I don't want to go into it here, as it was Sister Abhassara's own story, meant only for her Dhamma class.

*Kwan Yin, from Mahayana Buddhism. However, Georgia went on to say: 'After the accident, Sister Abhassara was sitting with the Sangha, desperately trying to compose herself and make sense of it all. After a long time, the monks suddenly started to chant a blessing on loving-kindness and compassion. The sound was so piercing and sweet, that it made Sister Abhassara think of the goddess of compassion. She had never heard anything like it. 'And Mum, afterwards she sang it to us, and I just can't describe it, it is so lovely. And then it started to pour with rain; it just teemed down.' We sat there amid the dirty breakfast plates and looked at each other. And nothing more needed to be said. Â https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/child.htm[03/10/2017 20:05:21]

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

October 1991 Cover: Articles:

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UK Buddhist Education: a Dhammic Perspective A report on a weekend conference held at Sharpham House, Devon, 6-9 June 1991. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the role of education in unlocking our true potential as human beings is coming in for ever-closer scrutiny. Shorn of its moral dimension in the West by the triumph of a secular society, education has increasingly stressed technical virtuosity at the expense of nurturing the whole being. 'We are producing human beings with minds as sharp as razors and about as broad,' lamented the last Archbishop of Canterbury, and the results of that imbalance are only too plain to see in the ecological degradation of our planet and the violence and intolerance apparent in human societies. In the traditional Buddhist countries of Asia, especially those societies where the Theravadin form flourishes, the symbiotic relationship between Sangha and laity, monastery and school, has long lain at the heart of Buddhist practice. Although that relationship has been attenuated by the spread of Western influence, the underlying importance of values and ethics is still acknowledged - and where more appropriate to start in fostering those values but in the home and the classroom, the twin nurturers of childhood potential? The Sangha of Western monks and nuns in the UK is now over a decade old, and we are beginning to explore new ways to develop its relationship with the wider lay community. The great success of the Family Dhamma Camps at Amaravati over the past six years has underlined one of the practical ways in which the creative energies of Sangha, parents and children, can work together in harmony for the welfare of others. The inspiration of that example has led, over the past two years, to the establishment of a Working Group of teachers and lay supporters of the Sangha, whose purpose is to explore ways in which a Dhamma School for 9 to 16 yearolds could be founded. The ligaments of what such a school might entail have already been fashioned through the drafting of a trust deed for charitable registration and consideration of both curricula requirements and the means whereby parents, teachers and Sangha can make contributions.

School is where we are taken out of life to learn about life. What we learn is usually associated with where we learnt it

Given these developments, the opportunity to meet for a long weekend at Sharpham House in Devon to discuss the wider issues raised by the Dhamma School initiative was very welcome. The conference brought together twelve individuals who have been intimately involved in the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/buded.htm[03/10/2017 20:04:01]

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related issues of education and Buddhist practice - either as members of the ordained monastic community, or as participants in the Dhamma School Working Group, or as scholars, teachers and writers. Discussions were based around six presentations which were given more as informal reflections than as written papers. Stephen Batchelor (Sharpham Community) spoke about the Buddhist philosophy of education as manifested in the great classical universities of Buddhist India - Nalanda and Vikramashila - and the relevance of their curricula for the instruction of present-day children. Colette Bradley (Education Otherwise) and Lynette Gribble (Chair of the Management Council of Park School, Dartington) talked from their personal experience: Colette discussed the way in which parents have developed skilful means in terms of home-based education for their off-spring, while Lynette gave some trenchant reflections on the practical problems inherent in the establishment of a new school. Barbara Jackson (Amaravati) and Guy Claxton (Schumacher College) brought the discussion back to matters of principle. Barbara asked us to consider the relationship between morality and education, while Guy looked at the nature of the learning process and the sort of qualities of resourcefulness, resilience, and reflectiveness (the new 'Three Rs') which he would hope to see manifest in any Dhamma-based education. Hazel Waddup (Head, Hangleton Primary School, Hove) then talked about her own attempts to introduce an awareness of ecology and wholeness of being in her own state-funded school. Much of the value of the meeting lay in the informal discussions which took place around the presentations. These discussions ranged over highly practical considerations of the most appropriate way to select teachers and the nature of the relationship between the Sangha and the school, as well as rather more philosophical concerns - such as whether the concept of anatta (non-self) was suitable as a subject for investigation for children who were in the process of coming to an understanding of themselves as separate individuals. The conference was also lucky to be able to hear Michael Young (Lord Young of Dartington) speak about his interest in educational initiatives - particularly in presentday South Africa - which can bring the benefits of education to those who have never experienced school or who, for various reasons, cannot travel to school and have to study at home. It is intended that a synopsis of the conference proceedings will be published by the Buddhist Publishing Group at Sharpham, and a more detailed record is available from Peter Carey, Trinity College, Oxford OX1 3BH.

the relentless search for truth

Those participating in the conference are very grateful to Maurice Ash and the Sharpham Trustees for their generosity in making the facilities of Sharpham House available, and to Jan Hartell, the local conference organiser, and Heather Campbell, who took minutes of the entire proceedings, for their invaluable and cheerful assistance. It was a memorable weekend. from notes compiled by Peter Carey Colette Bradley: It is an odd notion that school is where we are taken out of life to learn about life. What we learn is usually associated with where we learnt it: we do not always recognise that our skills https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/buded.htm[03/10/2017 20:04:01]

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are portable. Stephen Batchelor: Traditionally, Buddhists have seen education as encompassing whatever skills are needed to function in the world of one's time. Likewise, in China and Japan, monasteries became not only places for the study of the Dhamma but of many of the classical arts, brush painting, geomancy, calligraphy and gardening. Buddhism has adapted its own learning environment to whatever skills are within our world; to educate ourselves and our children in ways that enable us to function within society while at the same time remaining true to our Buddhist principles. To find a balance between these two needs is the challenge of the Buddhist educator. Barbara Jackson: A Buddhist School is a school run on Buddhist principles, not an elitist or exclusive school for Buddhists.... It is our personal responsibility to incorporate Buddhist standards into our lives, recognising what we will and will not tolerate; where we stand on the questions of violence, sexism and racism; questioning how we impose decision-making on our children: whether we can allow them to be free; whether we expect or deserve to be respected.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

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Samatha Meditation Ajahn Brahmavamso is a senior monk at Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia. The following piece has been extracted from a talk given prior to an allnight meditation vigil, during which meditators have the opportunity to develop and learn about concentration. Samatha meditation is about calming the mind down, calming the bodily activities, calming the speech and calming the activities of the mind. It's quite interesting to notice that when one faces a retreat situation one looks for activity: sitting in meditation one looks for things to do, for things to occupy the mind, rather than just being peaceful and quiet. It's very easy to see that if my own mind thinks in a certain way, my body acts accordingly. That is a very useful reflection, because it means that there is more than one way to quieten the mind. Rather than just quietening it down in formal meditation, one can practise samatha meditation by restraining the speech and the actions in one's daily life. If one can restrain oneself in those situations - whether it is cleaning, washing up, walking, coming and going then, when it comes down to sitting cross-legged on the meditation cushion, it is much easier to restrain the activities of the mind. ooo0ooo To develop samatha, first of all get hold of the breath - so you can see it. In order to do this you have to restrain other activities, the things that come up into the mind that tear you away from your object of meditation - whether it's thoughts or plans, or feelings of pain in the body, you have to restrain your mind from going out to those things, and stay with the breath. Once you can see the breath clearly, then you can actually calm it down and find what effort is required to make it smooth and light and the mind peaceful. This is the first practice in traditional anapanasati. You may have noticed that whenever the mind is calm, the body doesn't give you so much of a problem. If you can get into a quiet state of mind quickly when you first sit down meditating while the body is at ease, before the knees start to ache and the back becomes sore - then the body won't disturb you throughout the rest of the meditation. So quieten the body first of all, and then go to the breath and get hold of it wherever it is. It doesn't matter where the breath is where the sensation is - wherever it is, see it there and catch hold of it and don't allow it to disappear. It is an effort - it's attaining or going towards something, doing something, rather than just letting go too quickly and doing nothing - rather than just watching the mind wander here there and everywhere; that's really not what the practice is all about. Quietening the mind down first of all is a prerequisite for any wisdom to arise.

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When you really start to practise, you feel physical happiness, just by refraining from doing all those things Â that cause dukkha.

There is a sutta which is the extension to the Paticcasamuppada. It extends what happens after dukkha; it doesn't stop there. According to that sutta, dukkha is the cause of the arising of faith, the arising of confidence in the teachings - the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths. Once one sees dukkha, then one realises that there is something to be done. I often find with teaching that people don't practise. They don't do anything, for the one reason that they don't see any dukkha - or rather, they don't recognise it in their lives. They don't see the suffering or the cause of the suffering - the place where the suffering is - and therefore they never do anything. So it's obvious that dukkha is the very cause for people to arouse themselves and say, 'Right, I'm going to do something about this!' That's the confidence saying, 'No longer am I going to run around, going to other places, looking for other teachers, doing other things - here is the problem. I'm going to stick to this spot, and sort it out!' That's when that link happens, that's the start of doing something about the problem of human existence. That's really recognising dukkha, recognising where it comes from, and doing something about it. Once one has that fundamental faith - that confidence - to stop, to stay in one place and face up to the problem, then the next step is joy. This joy comes from understanding that here is the problem, and here is the way out of it; there is something you can do. Joy gives rise to interest (piti), which is really wanting in one's heart to do something about it, and this fuels the energy for the practice. Then comes happiness (sukha). When you really start to practise, you feel physical happiness, just by refraining from doing all those things that cause dukkha. That much gives happiness. This is where the transcendental dependent arising starts to get interesting, because the factor of sukha is the cause for the arising of samadhi. If one hasn't got happiness, then there is very little chance for sarnadhi to arise. If one is having a very hard time - an unhappy time - and the mind is very closed, there is no way that samadhi can arise. Samadhi can only come from the basis of happiness. This is where talks can be really useful - they can inspire you and give you that interest, and from there you can gain samadhi and see for yourself. The next step from samadhi is seeing things as they are. Now this factor comes after sarnadhi, not before it; it's not the cause of samadhi, but the result of it. The only way you can see what is going on is when the mind is quiet, concentrated. The reason that one doesn't see things the way they are outside of a quiet clear mind is because the mind is under the influence of defilements - greed, hatred and delusion. These are the things that distort our perception. You all know that when we are angry it distorts our perception of a person or a place. If we are angry, this monastery is the last place we want to be. Then the next day, when we are happy and the sun is shining, it is a wonderful place! The same monastery, but the defilements distort our perception - desire distorts our perception. When one doesn't see clearly, how can one see things as they really are - how can one understand what is going on? Avijja [ignorance] distorts perception. So to see things as they really are, one has to clear the mind of these things that distort the perception - if only for a short while. In that short while, one can see the way things are. I've always felt that the idea of insight meditation can be a misleading one. Often it has been the custom or the fashion to say that samatha meditation is 'dangerous', because you can get stuck in jhanas [meditative absorptions]. But how many people do https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/samd.htm[03/10/2017 20:02:56]

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you know who have got jhanas - let alone are attached to them? At least if you have a jhana, if you are very peaceful and getting blissed out, you know one place where the defilements have temporarily subsided. At least you are getting somewhere, you are doing something. Also, it is the nature of jhanas - of the quiet mind - that after one comes out of these states, the mind is clear, and nine times our of ten wisdom will arise. There is a danger there that you can get attached to jhanas, but the danger is not that much. But where there is a danger in this Western world is in vipassana, because you can get notions about vipassana from a book. You can read an idea and straight away you think, 'Now I understand.' This is where one really attaches. You think, 'This is the way it is. I've seen the way things are' - when the mind hasn't been clear enough to get beyond the defilements. Delusion is ruling the day, the defilements have caught you again. Vipassana which comes outside of a quiet clear mind is not to be relied upon. That is the danger of vipassana. So, often it is more dangerous to be stuck with a view, than to be stuck enjoying a jhana. If one is pracrising samatha, at least one knows if it is being successful or not. One can tell very clearly, very easily if the mind is quiet or not. With vipassana it may be difficult to know if the insight that has arisen in your mind is true or not whether you really are seeing things the way they are, or whether you are deceiv- ing yourself. That is the big danger with delusion - delusion is delusive! It tricks you.

life is like a ...

So one does the practice: one cultivates happiness, cultivates samadhi, cultivates seeing the way things are - this basic insight. You will know if it is insight, if it gives rise to dispassion. You can ask yourself if you still get angry, if you still get irritated; if you still have desire and greed, and really want things whether it's personal attainments, or fame in the monastery for being the great meditator, the best cook . . . if these are the things you really want, then you still have not really seen the way things are. If it really is insight, it creates dispassion (nibbida) in the mind. Nibbida gives rise to a more intense form of dispassion, called viraga. Raga means lust, that which attaches you to the things of the world, or things of the mind: viraga is the giving up of that desire or delight in the things of the mind, or things of the world. The next step up from that is freedom, vimutti - liberation. That's not the last step, actually. Interestingly, the last step after vimutti is the knowledge that one has been released - not the sort of dithering about if one is enlightened or not, but knowing clearly the state of your mind. Like in the suttas, the monks didn't say, 'Well... um. . . yes.. .I think I'm enlightened'! The monks who were enlightened just said so. The Buddha just said so: 'There's no more birth, nothing more to be done.'

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ooo0ooo So when it comes down to reality, one does need to do something. One does need to put forth effort into practising - to quietening the mind down: in daily life, and also when one is sitting. If you try, and it doesn't become calm straight away, it's because one is pushing in the wrong places. People say sometimes that they have been trying to calm the mind down to make it peaceful, and it doesn't work - but there is a way to calm the mind down. Just because a person does it wrongly - doesn't know the way to quieten the mind - doesn't mean it doesn't work. One can calm the mind down, but to be able to do that you have to know when to push and when to pull; if you do all pushing and no pulling it doesn't work. You have to know the state of your mind, and also what you are doing. You have to know how much to hold on to the breath - to know when you are holding on too tightly to the point where you become tired and tense. If you find that you can't calm down, investigate the reason why. One of the reasons may be because you haven't invested the time or the effort. How many hours are there in the day, and how many of those hours do we spend sitting watching the breath? One may be sitting, but how often does one watch the breath? It's quite easy to see the reasons, although it might not be a particularly nice thing to admit or own up to - but there it is. So one tries to be quiet in the day, and in the mind - to quieten down the external activity as well as internal activity, to be peaceful. To actually practice samatha - to have success in meditation - not only do you need effort but you also need right view, a bit of wisdom or panna. It's panna which teaches quietness, and quietness that teaches panna. The two go together, like friends walking along a path hand in hand. Indeed, you cannot just practise samatha through an effort of will; you have to know where that will is to be directed. If you just direct it haphazardly, it is not strong enough - it's never sustained long enough to have any effect. The will needs to be directed through panna, knowing the right place to push - how much, for how long, and where. So to say that the practice is just mindfulness is to miss the point: it's the whole Eightfold Path. Sometimes these days samadhi is the poor relation in the Eightfold Path. That's why I'm emphasising it here. The other ones can be overestimated. So it's really good to be honest with oneself, and ask just what is going on: is one's mind quiet, or is it noisy? When you are listening to a talk can you shut up inside, can you be peaceful? Can you listen to words without arguing about them? These are just ways of seeing where one is - then one can do something about it. It's not that hard to quieten the mind down, and it's really worth doing! ooo0ooo Paticcasamuppada is the Buddha's teaching of 'dependent arising'. This teaching occurs in several places in the Sutta Pitaka and describes how suffering is engendered dependent on supportive conditions. The process is initiated by ignorance and wrong views in the mind. In the Upanisa Sutta, the analysis goes further: the Buddha points out that for those who wish to awaken, suffering itself is a supportive condition for the arising of commitment to a spiritual path, and eventually to liberation itself. The normal formulation is of twelve linking factors; from the twelfth, suffering, the Upanisa Sutta proceeds thus: "Suffering is the supporting condition for faith, Faith is the supporting condition for joy, Joy is the supporting condition for rapture, Rapture is the supporting condition for tranquillity, Tranquillity is the supporting condition for happiness, Happiness is the supporting condition for concentration, Concentration is the supporting condition for the knowledge and vision of things as they really are, The knowledge and vision of things as they really are is the

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supporting condition for disenchantment, Disenchantment is the supporting condition for dispassion, Dispassion is the supporting condition for emancipation, Emancipation is the supporting condition for the knowledge of the destruction of the asavas (the most deeplyrooted obstructive habits)." Samyutta Nikaya II, 29 Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

October 1991 Cover: Articles:

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California Dreaming Venerable Amaro, fresh back from his four-month, almost non-stop teaching stint in California, offers a scout's report on the terrain ahead. I had felt quite positive about the level of interest and support which was shown during my extended visit last summer. However, these last four months that were spent on the West Coast served to dispel any lingering doubts I might have had that the time was not yet ripe for the foundation of a monastery there. Despite little advertising, there were between forty and sixty people coming along to the evening talks and meditation week-ends that were given around the San Francisco Bay area roughly double last year's numbers. Furthermore, this interest was not founded merely on the basis of this being 'a new thing', but seemed to come from a deep respect for the place of renunciation, integrity and tradition in spiritual life.

To have so many people respond with such respect and gladness brings a bright glow to the heart.

In many ways, this visit was simply an expanded version of what we did last year. It had a slightly different emphasis, however, in that the centrepiece of the trip was a two-week retreat held on the premises of The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Ven. Sumedho, together with Sisters Thanissara and Abhassara, came from England to lead this, and a third of the sixty retreatants were members of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas community - including the abbot, Ven. Heng Chi. The retreat was followed by a three-day conference entitled 'Sila and the Modern Age', which, in turn, was followed by the ordination ceremonies of a large number of men and women as bhikshus and bhikshunis. Another five bhikkhus came from our monasteries in Europe to participate in these events. During these months, many friendships with Buddhist and other spiritual groups were deepened, and it gave me great delight to have the honour of performing such an ambassadorial role with them. Naturally one feels very positive towards the lifestyle and ethic one has chosen to live by; however, to have so many people respond with such respect and gladness brings a bright glow to the heart. The presence of our community and its values were received by a great variety of people all along the West Coast with an enthusiasm befitting some fabulous elixir. It is not certain how many invitations we will be able to respond to in the https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/dream.htm[03/10/2017 20:01:44]

this hovering in this hovering of emptiness without surface contour

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future, but there have requests for us to teach on a regular basis at: The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Green Gulch Zen Center, meditation groups in Vancouver, B.C., Seattle and Portland, Vipassana groups associated with Spirit Rock Meditation Centre, The Esalen Institute and Thai monasteries in San Francisco, Freemont and Los Angeles. In order to assist the foundation of a monastery in this area, a small committee of lay people has been formed, called 'Sanghapala'. For the last couple of years they have sponsored the visits made by members of this community to teach on the West Coast, and it was they who organised and managed the retreat at The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Their task in hand now is the search for a place in San Francisco which will be suitable to be set up as a vihara. As has been the case in other countries where this community has planted roots, we expect to begin by establishing a small centre in the city. Later it is hoped that a monastery will be developed in the countryside - to offer a more quiet environment to those who wish to live as monastics, as well as for those who wish to experience life in a spiritual community more temporarily.

edge thought is wandering in slowest of motion timelessly through a mysterious ocean in this hovering of emptiness thought is the visit of a stranger arriving and leaving being born and ceasing

Jacqueline Fitch

Since it is scheduled for me to lead a retreat at Amaravati over Easter 1992, 1 expect to depart for the USA shortly thereafter. It is the nature of all things to be unpredictable; however, "If the Good Lawd is willin' 'n' the creek don't rise" a monastery should be opening in San Francisco around May 1st next year. We will keep you informed of developments.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial: California Dreaming; Ven Amaro

October 1991 Cover: Articles:

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EDITORIAL Another Normal Day Assessing the contents of any recent Newsletter, a reader might assume that the greater part of monastic life is spent wandering on foot in this country or overseas, or that it is a sequence of grand occasions liberally bathed with heart-to-heart debate. Far from it. Mostly it is a matter of routine. It is difficult to savour in words the bread and (little) butter of monastic life. A description of a normal day would sound arid: no entertainment, and a full commitment to the duties of the monastery, in which personal relationships are a secondary concern. To say the monastic life consists of morning pujas, chores, alms rounds, a meal, work, tea and evening pujas often without Dhamma talks would have some truth in it. But it would miss out the heart of the experience: the ever-shifting blend of kamma within each person, of inspiration and struggle and much subtler movements, let alone the patterns and vortices of mind stuff that result from a group of ten to fifty individuals 'going forth' with varying degrees of faith and energy. Being in the presence of such an intermeshing presents plenty of grist for the mill. Communally as well as individually we can be touched by the turning of our personal worlds and deepen in accordance. Monastic life is not fixed in form, nor is it formless. When clearly defined principles of behaviour and intention are set in a situation that is unstable, the effect is kaleidoscopic: fragments of mind/body stuff get tumbled into seemingly random patterns. Any Buddhist monastery exists in a relationship with an indeterminate and fluctuating community of lay people - and that openness stimulates an aspiration to respond to whatever the next moment may bring up. That can be varied. A place like Amaravati, established to accommodate large numbers of visitors for a variety of occasions, registers and responds to the flow of input hour by hour. This is the way it's supposed to be: instability presents a great opportunity to be flexible and give up self-seeking. But it means that if we wish to respond to the flux of life, a lot of personal drives and moods have to be abandoned. Too much engagement on the personal level clogs the flow of compassion; hence the coolness of manner and the group silences. A sacrifice of personality is freely made in order to attune more fully to life.

In unstable circumstances, uncertainty gets plotted against faith and effort until a mindful line appears.

Moreover, humdrum routines can serve as accommodating frames for some poignant configurations of human behaviour. One day a young woman presents a special food offering on behalf of her mother who committed suicide more than a decade ago; local townspeople touch into their unplumbed depths in the meditation classes; the Vinaya teachers describe the finer points of handling an alms bowl; and meanwhile someone is still taking the bucket of leftovers down to the local farm, and yes, every few days people carry buckets of water out to the newly-planted trees while they settle in. Normal events in a normal week; all rather wonderful https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/18/editor.htm[03/10/2017 20:00:34]

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gestures of care and sensitivity that would find difficulty in arising, or in being noticed, in a more stimulated situation. When I returned to Amaravati from India, the community was different from the one I had left six months previously: new arrivals, disrobings, so-and-so off to Italy, etc. It has continued to fluctuate with new arrivals and departures by the week: during June and July the total number of bhikkhus and nuns was effectively halved by engagements outside the monastery, with most of the remaining senior bhikkhus being relative newcomers to Amaravati. Another significant development is that Luang Por Sumedho has redefined his role at Amaravati as being less connected with the day-to-day activity, to empower the rest of the community with a fuller sense of responsibility. It also allows him to be available in a broader sense to the whole Sangha for spiritual direction. Meanwhile, the nuns community is also undergoing a realignment, having been encouraged by Luang Por to function more autonomously. What these changes of emphasis actually amount to - apart from adding another degree of torque to the kaleidoscope can't be predicted or defined. In unstable circumstances, uncertainty gets plotted against faith and effort until a mindful line appears. In its power to avoid dogma, the holy life has always been a beautiful reflection of a Truth that is difficult to define in conceptual terms. Comings, goings, fragmentation and concord, strong, gentle, and even deluded individuals - variability has kept spiritual initiative and spontaneous response alive through the long history of the Sangha. In what it responds to and in what it is, Sangha is an unfolding record of the stuff that gets born in people with their passions, habits and aspirations when they aim to touch Ultimate Truth. It is a reassuringly cool channel - at least in its conventions - for a startling and vibrant experience. That experience, that true life, has its own order; an order that is reminiscent of the wonderful patterns that have been plotted by computing the rhythm of a dripping tap or such apparent chaos as the weather. The same motif recurs the deeper you go into any element of the pattern, though the pattern is ever-changing. What appeared at first to be random is actually operating according to laws that are beyond our conceiving. And that's the way it is in this human realm. The moment is unique, yet the law is immutable: wherever you go and wherever you're coming from, all conditions are variable and all things are beyond self. That humbles a few drives and ambitions. But for those who wish to awaken, it means that right here we can insightfully know the qualities of the human world: reflected around a mug of gruel, a silent sitting, or a washing-up session. Ajahn Sucitto Â Â

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January 1992

2535

THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

Number 19 Cover: Committed to Freedom; Ajahn Thanavaro Articles: Crossing the Green Divide; Sister Candasiri

One Day of Practice; Venerable Varado

The Life of a Forest Monk: Pt II; Luang Por Jun

Greetings from Switzerland; Venerable Jayamano

Responding to the Sick and Dying; Barry Durrant

A Light in Confinement; prison letters

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Committed to Freedom Sustaining commitment in whatever field - be it in spiritual life, marriage, or one's profession - is one of the challenges of life. The following two pieces by Ajahn Thanavaro offer different perspectives on how we can give something back to the world through developing the strength that comes from making a commitment to Dhamma. Understanding our Commitments

Ajahn Thanavaro is senior monk at Santacittarama, our branch monastery in Italy. Here he reflects on the meaning of commitment, both in lay life and within the monastic form, in the light of his twelve years as a Buddhist monk. Much of the confusion and suffering that we experience is caused by the lack of commitment in our lives. Nowadays, as in the past, people have gone beyond the boundary of their commitment. In other words, their commitment is not in accordance with Truth. Understanding nature is to know the Dhamma, to be the Dhamma, the Truth; this is our true commitment, this is what we are here for. In the attempt to find happiness, we have sought experience of all kinds in the field of our senses. In our ignorance we have entered a minefield. This ignorance is not new, it is the same old veil that has always obscured the Truth. When directed by the sense of self, consciousness - through the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind - dictates the ups and downs of our moods and emotions, and causes the happiness and unhappiness in our lives. No matter how much we suffer, if we do not see this at the root, we will not change. We are like a man who, having entered a minefield, loses his legs and arms and still tries to walk in the wrong direction. This is what identifying with our body and mind is like. The feeling of 'I' and 'mine', the holding to views and opinions, likes and dislikes, the craving for things, the clinging to sense objects, the following of our emotions, the acting out of our loves and hates, the abiding in doubt, worry and fear - these create the whole mass of https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/19/19.htm[03/10/2017 20:24:09]

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suffering in our minds. We simply don't know the Truth, the Dhamma. We don't know that radiance and peace, the purity of our mind in its true nature. This Truth has to be experienced - here and now, by each one of us individually. It can be discovered if we are willing to understand our suffering - if we are willing to make a commitment.

We must remember clearly that our commitment is to understanding, and we are bound by it, until we are free Â in Truth alone.

Let's look at what kind of commitment can go into a relationship, for example: between a man and a woman. In life, it is natural for a man and a woman to become a couple. If there is a commitment, they will work to support each other, and grow in care and understanding - their relationship won't be based upon blind passion. They will carefully consider the two aspects of making a commitment. Firstly, the resolution to continue in one's effort to respect that commitment and secondly, the practical responsibility that the commitment entails. Actually, most times people don't even realise that they have made a commitment, they just follow their passions and inspirations - but of course there is much more. As my father puts it: 'After the honeymoon is over, somebody has to clean up and pay the bills!' So a couple living together needs practical experience of how to run as a unit. Who will do the shopping? How will the accounting be done? Who will work? . . . and so on. Common sense has to be present in their commitment, and also tolerance and forgiveness which will help them in those areas of conflict where they may feel stuck. When a couple is able to surrender to one another, their resistance to life's situations lessens, and they come to feel more united and in harmony, less selfish. In this way, they can be capable of becoming parents as a further step in their development. Then for the woman, the experience of pregnancy presents an opportunity for even greater commitment. If she is supported in this by her partner, she can joyfully accept the many changes that occur in her body and life. Allowing nature to take its course, she embraces her commitment to motherhood and, at the same time, the new organism forming in her womb is committed to life. A new living being is ready to enter the world for the journey into human existence. The commitment of the couple to parenthood is what provides the security needed for the child to develop and grow. Wisdom is a key factor for raising a family in a harmonious way: without it, everyone suffers. Through commitment to their children, the parents can develop wisdom. It is important that they should try to maintain their peace of mind, neither worrying continuously, nor assuming that providing everything for their children will prevent them from suffering. Having or not having is not the cause of suffering. Rather, the cause is found in our ignorance of the effect of craving and clinging. Much of the confusion in our society is the result of this ignorance. The confusion within our families and in our relationships with others is at the base of our social maladies. It is regrettable that so many people fail to acknowledge the responsibility in their lives because they do not know the nature of their commitments. We must remember clearly that our commitment is to understanding, and we are bound by it, until we are free in Truth alone. Commitment is the preliminary condition for entering the Path of Wisdom; the supportive condition for carrying on the practice of understanding; and the essential condition for the fulfillment of the Path. As human beings we are very fortunate. We have a psycho-physical organism endowed with a great

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capacity of expression. With our body and mind we can work and be creative; with our reflective abilities we can meditate, know our condition and contemplate. This life in the human form should be cherished as more precious than the rarest gem. We don't know how long we have to live. We are not in full control of our body; we would like it to be always healthy, but too many external factors control it. Therefore, we should make good use of our time. We should ask, 'What are my aims? What am I committed to?' - these questions are very important. In my own life, when I asked these questions, they gave rise to a strong feeling of urgency. I wanted to understand what life was all about and live in the right way. When we ask these questions, we enter the path of learning. Now we can listen, study and practise the Dhamma. This is our top priority, our true commitment which will give us freedom. For me, my commitment lies in the practice of the Buddha-Dhamma and in the bhikkhu form. The bhikkhu is a religious seeker supported by alms; a wanderer on a spiritual journey, a devotee on a pilgrimage to the interior holy places to be found in one's own mind. Many wonderful and difficult things can happen on this journey, but one should not be afraid of or fascinated by them. Through continuous investigation, we will realise their emptiness, and in that state there will be freedom from the suffering arising from attachment, aversion and ignorance. The life of the bhikkhu may also provide other people with a living example of the religious quest. In the old days, the admission into the Order was very simple. In fact, the Buddha himself would welcome the new aspirant with the Pali formula: Ehi bhikkhu, svakkhato Dhammo caro brahmacariyam samma dukkhassa antakariyaya. 'Come, bhikkhu, well-expounded is the Dhamma. Live the Holy Life for the complete ending of dukkha.' No doubt, the sense of commitment of those bhikkhus to the Holy Life was enhanced by the fact that it was stated in the presence of a Buddha. We have a very interesting story in the suttas illustrating this point. On one occasion a bhikkhu expressed the wish to become a universal monarch, in the presence of the Buddha. The Blessed One, having perceived in his mind's eye the wish of this bhikkhu, reprimanded him by saying that because that wish was made in his presence it would become true, but this was regrettable since if he had expressed a much nobler aspiration - for instance, to become a Buddha - this would have also been possible. From this example, we can see that our aspirations expressed in front of a highly realised teacher may be enhanced by the power of realisation of that person. This is true also for the places of pilgrimage - centres of great spiritual energy that, throughout the centuries, have been visited by innumerable pilgrims who would pay respect to the holy shrines and reassert their religious commitment. Today, as in ancient times, we use celebrations, ceremonies and rituals to create a special occasion, and an atmosphere in which

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the statement of our commitment will be empowered by our own clarity and resolution, as well as by the acknowledgement of those present. Once we have made a commitment, we have to sustain it through our own continuous application - in other words, we have to work at it. Often I am asked what work I do as a Buddhist monk. Well, my commitment lies in the monastic discipline and the teachings of the Buddha, so I feel that my work is to uphold that teaching and discipline. This practice is threefold, comprising morality, concentration and wisdom. For the bhikkhu, there are the 227 Patimokkha rules, wherein morality is cultivated by following a code of ethics demonstrating unsurpassed gentleness and refinement. For a lay Buddhist, there are five basic moral precepts: to refrain from 1) killing, 2) stealing, 3) sexual misconduct, 4) wrong speech (slander and lying) and, 5) the taking of alcohol and intoxicating drugs. These can provide every human being with guidelines drawn on the basis of the profound discovery of the Law of Cause and Effect. The old saying: 'If you do good, you will receive good; if you do bad, you will receive bad,' reflects a universal truth. Today in our culture, there is the tendency to devalue everything. Much of morality has been surpassed by our desire for self-determinism. We don't want to be told how to behave or what to think. We prefer the free expression our feelings to courtesy and respect. While it is true that we have acquired a greater freedom of expression, unfortunately, through selfishness, this has often given rise to permissive and licentious behaviour. In a sense, we have sought a more responsible and mature position, but we often lack the wisdom to exercise such a freedom of choice. In the process, we have also destroyed many of the points of reference for true discernment. The practice of virtue and restraint is an expression of our commitment to understanding, in all the areas of our experience. It will facilitate calmness and concentration, preparing the ground for insight and wisdom. Impeccable discipline will be possible if we are mindful of our intentions. Our motivation has to be clear: 'We shall end all ignorance. We don't need to doubt the usefulness of such an effort; when doubt arises, we can see it as another opportunity for a leap of faith.From our courage and determination, a new understanding of the way things are will emerge. Let us not fall by the wayside. Let us continue to be responsible to our commitment, with mindfulness of the way of Dhamma.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

January 1992 Cover: Committed to Freedom; Ajahn Articles: Thanavaro Crossing the Green Divide; Sister Candasiri One Day of Practice; Venerable Varado The Life of a Forest Monk: Pt II; Luang Por Jun Greetings from Switzerland; Venerable Jayamano Responding to the Sick and Dying; Barry Durrant A Light in Confinement; prison letters

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

Crossing the Green Divide Sister Candasiri, having made several teaching visits to Ireland over the past couple of years, offers these reflections on the continuing growth of interest in Dhamma there. Over many centuries the Emerald Isle has provided a home ground for men and women who have given up their lives to follow a religious calling. No doubt today there are still saints, holy people, living there quietly and earnestly striving for inner and outer peace. However, we tend to hear more often these days about unholy occurrences - notably in the north-eastern corner of the island - designated Northern Ireland, in sharp contradistinction to Eire, or Southern Ireland. I was extremely surprised when, almost two years ago, I was asked if I would like to lead a retreat in Northern Ireland. 'Fine,' I thought, not realising that this was to be the start of a twoyear 'posting'. Ajahn Tiradhammo, then based at Harnham, was the first of our community to go there, responding to Paddy and Linda Boyle's request in 1985. In 1987, with the realisation that the Harnham 'parish' had perhaps become too large, it was suggested that someone from Amaravati be the next regular visitor - so Ajahn Amaro took over. Although much of the teaching was given in the North, interest was also growing among Buddhists south of the border in having teachings from the Theravadin Sangha. Once over the initial surprise, I was pleased and mildly daunted at the prospect of visiting a country where people were obviously in need of some clarity and kindness: would I be able to come up with the goods? I felt honoured in a humble way to be able to serve in such a situation. I was also apprehensive; one has only to hear of a car bomb or other terrorist act to believe that it is an extremely dangerous place to visit. Ajahn Amaro tried to reassure me, 'Oh, as a Buddhist nun you certainly won't be a target...' I still felt a little bit worried.

Oh, that's a brave hercutt yiou've got therr!

Security checks at the airport were noticeably more rigorous for passengers on flights to Belfast, but there were still unexpected moments of friendliness and humour. When it was my turn to be searched, the woman security officer, looking at my shaven head and brown robes, exclaimed in horror: 'What on earth are you!' And once on the plane, a young man sitting beside me turned to me with a grin and said in a broad Irish accent, 'Oh, that's a brave hercutt yiou've got therr!'

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On arriving, one has the feeling that people have simply grown accustomed to the violence, like a constant ache or running sore - one would like it to go away, but what can you do? It's there. Driving in the countryside, there'd be groups of young soldiers, barely out of school, walking in the lanes with all their equipment of war, and we'd be stopped - regularly by armed police or soldiers checking who we were, where we'd come from and where we were goingtheir interest was not particularly friendly, but on each occasion I felt the inclination to be as helpful as possible, and in my heart I wished them well. In Belfast, on a wintry afternoon, armed soldiers walk among Christmas shoppers; police stations and Court rooms are well barricaded; and each day one hears on the radio news of the latest violence, somewhere in the city. . . . It's there, but what can you do? As a Buddhist nun, I realised that all I could offer was my practice; the effort to view all experience from the perspective of Dhamma, to live in accordance with that, and to encourage people who are interested to do the same. ooo0ooo My first meditation retreat was held at Castleward a large estate owned and maintained by the National Trust. Amid hundreds of acres of glorious woodland, the 'base camp', as it was aptly named, provided shelter -- basic, rather grubby, but definitely adequate. We were grateful. Together we applied ourselves to watching the flow of conditions in Nature. Within, our doubts, fears and anxieties and our obsessional habits of thinking mingled with times of ease, calm and happiness. Externally, there were high winds, lashing rain and snow which were interspersed with warm sunshine, clear, clear night skies and the gently changing light of dawn and dusk. Cultivating refuges in simply watching, knowing how it is moment by moment, a sense of Sangha evolved naturally as we supported each other, both in the stillness and silence, and in the more active aspects of living together: chopping wood for the log fires, the daily cleaning duties and taking care of the cook who invariably took very good care of us. Driving south to Dublin after that first retreat, we crossed the border which people had made, corrugated iron and barbed wire forming a high fence across the land. A radar station on the top of the hill could, I was told, pick up conversations in cars a hundred yards away. It was interesting to notice that the undercurrents of stress, arising from what are euphemistically referred to as 'the troubles', were strangely absent as soon as we crossed over. The people of Eire speak of what is happening in the North as though it was a million miles away, although I noticed in conversation a distinct reluctance to visit there - especially at night - unless

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for some very special reason. Theravada Buddhists throughout Ireland, while having a definite interest and appreciation for that particular form - many of them have visited Amaravati and Chithurst Monasteries as well as attending retreats given by bhikkhus or siladhara - are also on extremely good terms with Irish Buddhists of other traditions. Marjorie Cross, who is in touch with Theravadins both north and south of the border, is actually a long-standing disciple of Lama Panchen Rimpoche. Her gracious mansion in Cocavan, where he normally resides, provided the perfect venue for an autumn weekend retreat. In Dublin, the meditation group still has signs of its Zen sitting-group origins, and public meetings where I was invited to teach took place at the Tibetan Centre in Inchicore. John O'Neill looks after the centre with great care and devotion; and in 1991 The Wheel - Ireland's first Buddhist magazine, containing news and articles from Buddhists all over Ireland - came into being, thanks to the impressive efforts of his wife, Vawn. Regular visitors to the centre, newcomers, and members of the Theravada meditation group attended on a number of occasions, and I was always made to feel very welcome. Photographs of visiting teachers adorn the walls of the reception area; it was touching to see various members of our Sangha there, alongside His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other eminent Tibetan lamas. ooo0ooo Currently, the Theravada groups in Ireland are considering establishing their own centre, where they could meet and offer accommodation to visiting Sangha members on a longerterm basis, and perhaps hold retreats. As with all such ventures, much groundwork would be needed. That sense of dis-ease, so prevalent in the North, takes its toll and it seems that there is not much of a reserve of energy for establishing anything new. Just keeping going, meeting regularly, organising the Easter retreat and other teaching visits for monks or nuns is as much as the group in Belfast can manage at present. A waiting time . . . waiting patiently, watching and allowing the way forward to become apparent, as individuals allow their own ideas and preferences to fade, and they consider what can realistically be undertaken for the benefit of all. I found it a real pleasure to meet people who, while practising their chosen way with integrity, are yet free to acknowledge and be open to the ways of others without a sense of fear, competitiveness or the inclination to convert. One might make an unfavourable comparison with what is happening elsewhere in the religious life of Ireland, but perhaps that would be unfair. The history of strife existing between the Protestants and Catholics is complex, going back hundreds of years. It is also only a part of the common problem of human ignorance, presenting a stark reminder of the harm which is perpetuated when we cling to an identity. On the other hand, when our refuge is in Dhamma, God, the Truth - whatever name we choose our common humanity comes into focus. Protestant, Catholic, Irish, English, Theravadin, Tibetan are mere labels for a national or religious identity; in the context of life, death, pain and delight, they have no meaning. But who can see that? Change which happens in accordance with Dhamma is not always obvious - like a plant, it may take a long time of patient cultivation before the blossom appears. However, I found it very heartening to be among people who are simply keeping at it, and to observe the arising of that clarity and compassion which may quietly challenge those positions to which human beings can cling with such tenacity and desperation. Hatred does not cease by hatred; hatred ceases by love. This is the eternal Law, as it says in the Dhammapada. May all beings everywhere be free from suffering.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

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One Day of Practice Ven. Varado was one of the bhikkhus invited to spend the three months of Vassa on retreat in Hammer Wood, Chithurst, this year. Here is an account of one of his days on retreat. Orion, the Huntsman, had marched across the pitch black of the night, and had vanished across the leafy horizon, probably many hours ago. Ursa Minor was high above my head and pointing with eternal faithfulness to Polaris, the Pole Star. Meteorites raced like tracer shells through the constellations, and satellites tracked smooth paths through the vast seas of space. My alarm clock, having lain patiently all night above my head, bursts into sudden life at 3.30 am. From my sleeping bag, under the open sky, my hand reaches out reluctantly into the cold night air and the buzzing is stopped. Opening my eyes, my first view of the new day is of the infinite cosmos. The light show to end all light shows. Stars beaming through light years of space. And as I listen - nothing. Not a breath of wind. Not a chirp. Not a rustle to be heard. The orchestra of the forest, now, at this early hour, completely still. And how blissful it is to be able to lie for just a few more minutes in the midst of all this. But the proddings of conscience don't let me lie long; soon I burst forth from the warm cocoon and hurriedly roll my bedding into the forest tipi, stepping gingerly round tree stumps and odd half-burnt pieces of log. It takes twenty minutes on a good run to reach the monastery, and morning chanting. Racing down steep inclines and down, down to the very depths of the forest. My torch light picks out the bright white domes of toadstools scattered over the forest floor, poking through last year's autumn leaves. And just to stand for a few minutes. Oh! The dark trees are silhouetted high against the starlit sky, and all around the penetrating deep, deep silence. And in that instant even thought stops, suspending for a moment its relentless commentary.

As a teaching it is as old as the hills. In application it illuminates with mind-bending freshness.

At midday in Captain's Wood [part of Hammer Wood], the burning sun, high in a clear blue sky, beats mercilessly down upon my freshly shaven head. The sweet chestnut coppice all round me has grown to above head height now. Innumerable crickets, large and small,

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rejoicing in the high summers day screech out love's message. Chestnut leaves glint and shimmer in the warm breeze. Sabbe sankhara anicca Yad aniccam tam dukkham Yad dukkham tad anatta Yad anatta tam netam mama, nesoham asmi, meso attati. All conditions are impermanent That which is not permanent is not happiness That which is not happiness is not a self That which is not a self, is not me, is not mine, is not myself. This ancient enigma goaded me frequently during the retreat. As a teaching it is as old as the hills. In application it illuminates with mind-bending freshness. That which we have unknowingly manipulated and reacted to, turns out to be really nothing. Like a dead leaf. A lost cause. Around me, birds chatter and chase in and out of the chestnut bushes. Dragonflies on seekand-destroy missions hum relentlessly up and down, and then swoop suddenly, to land on a rotten branch or a stone, and gently bathe their outstretched wings in the sun. High overhead and to the south two crows were badgering a kestrel. In appearance crows are so ugly, in flight so completely graceless and their incessant cawing is a brutality in the serenity of the forest. The kestrel seemed hardly to notice his aggressors and, again and again, swept easily out of their reach. 'There is, monks, this one way to the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and distress, for the disappearance of pain and sadness, for the gaining of the right path, for the realisation of Nibbana - that is to say the four foundations of mindfulness. What are the four foundations of mindfulness? Here, monks, a monk abides contemplating body-in-body, feeling-in-feeling, mind-in-mind, dhamma-in-dhamma, ardent, clearly aware and mindful, having put aside hankering and fretting for the world.' I walk up and down visualising the bony white skeleton; the dull red flesh; the sticky, bright red blood; the green viscous bile; the long tendons in the arms and legs; and in the head a brain the colour and texture of blancmange. Slowly the light changes, and harsh blue turns slowly red and orange. Blackbirds squabble and screech with great excitement. For them nightfall is some kind of emergency: a hurried scramble to find the best bunk for the night. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/19/day.htm[03/10/2017 20:22:18]

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Soon dark shapes zigzag silently through the evening sky. Bats! Scooping up the pestering midges. And then owls begin their triumphant hooting, calling each other to secret rendezvous. Night falls like mortality, dropping like death. Why do I take it so deeply to heart? Reflect! Look at the pain. Each day is impermanent. That which is impermanent is not happiness. That which is not happiness is not me. Ah! That's it! Nothing has changed, but inwardly peace has burst a bubble of despair. In my tipi two candles burn lopsidedly beside the makeshift shrine. Along the canvas earwigs scour the place for food. Outside, I can hear mice scuttling in dry leaves. Through the moonlit forest, perhaps no-one hears my Bhaddekaratta-gatha* The past should not be followed after, The future not desired. What is past is got rid of and The future has not come. But whoever has vision now here, Now there, of a present thing, Knowing that it [the vision] is immovable, unshakable, Let him cultivate it. Swelter at the task this very day. Who knows whether he will die tomorrow? There is no bargaining with the great hosts of Death. Thus abiding ardently, unwearied day and night, He indeed is 'Auspicious' called, Described as a sage at peace. *From the Bhaddekaratta ('One Day of Practice' ) Sutta, Middle Length Sayings [vol. III] 131.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

The Life of a Forest Monk: Pt II This is the continuation of an interview with Phra Indaviro Thera - better known as Luang Por Jun - which began in the last issue of the Newsletter. It was conducted during his visit with us at Amaravati (July 1989-June 1990). Luang Por Jun then returned to Thailand to resume his duties as the spiritual head of several of the forest monasteries started by Ajahn Chah in north-eastern Thailand. At the start of this article, he is continuing a general overview of his life as a monk. The first few years passed and looking back, I remember that it wasn't until the second Vassa I spent with Ajahn Chah that he pointed out my mistakes by showing me the Vinaya rules I had transgressed. He pointed out very clearly the difference between theory and practice, that only now was I doing the actual practice. You can understand things theoretically, but that isn't the same as practice. During that first year, the lay people there watched me, and formed their own opinions about me. When I first arrived they were betting among themselves to see how long I would last. Some thought I was a village monk used to having a good time and would leave; others thought I would stay and be a good monk. Overhearing these things gave me inspiration to stay, particularly when life was difficult and there were many hardships. I had a very sincere earnestness to stay and practise. I had quite a nice bowl that I was very proud of, and sometimes I would wake up during the night and look at it and hold it. Everything it represented was a great inspiration. During those early years, I insisted that I not be told any news of my home village so that I could be completely removed from things happening there. Ajahn Chah was keen to give me all of the support he could so that I could stay with him and further my practice. The hardships and difficulties just increased my faith and determination to stay on. I stayed very close to Ajahn Chah during the day, and spent much time in his presence. I was very dependent on his strength for my practice. My faith and pursuit of the practice was unremitting. I let it be known that I didn't wish to hear any news of my home village, as I realised that getting caught up with things there would inhibit my progress. Then one day a man came to pay respects to Ajahn Chah from my village, and he recognised me. I talked with him, but was very reserved when speaking so as not to get caught up in news from home. Even when I was seriously ill, I asked Ajahn Chah not to send word to my village, even if I died.

You don't think this will kill you, do you? And so what if it does? Go to death. That which is good is still

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found, even beyond death.

Luang Por, when was the first time that you went on tudong? The first time was in my fourth year with Ajahn Chah. He and I went on tudong together in Ampher Bundalik with a group of other monks and novices for about two and a half months. A year later I had another opportunity to go tudong again, this time as the senior monk and leader, with Ajahn Sinowin and Ajahn Toon. We just kept going for five months, not trying to see any other teachers or stay at any particular place. Our determination was to have the opportunity to be on our own and utilise the teaching we had received from Ajahn Chah. We pressed on, feeling quite secure with the practice given to us by Ajahn Chah, and had no doubts. In these five months we visited many provinces, and walked along the Mekong River for a time. My feet became quite swollen and cracked from all the walking. Luang Por, I'd like to ask about those early days with Ajahn Chah. Please share some of the anecdotes and instructions that he gave you regarding practice and the Vinaya. One of my strongest memories of Ajahn Chah is his firm emphasis on the Vinaya and the sila. His desanas always pointed out the importance of practising and keeping the sila. He encouraged a sense of honesty and integrity by acknowledging any breach of the discipline and confessing the offence. Ajahn Chah was a great example, because he practised this with us in all that we did. At meal time and chore time his punctuality and his presence created a sense of harmony, because he worked together with us. So there was a great emphasis on keeping the form, doing the chores, and the daily routine at the monastery? Yes, that's very true. Ajahn Chah placed a lot of emphasis on keeping the form and the routine. What about the bhavana and practice of sitting in meditation? Did Ajahn Chah give much instruction and advice on that? Ajahn Chah led us in meditation instruction and guidance, and would frequently put us to the test. He would tell us to sit inside our kuti, with the doors and windows closed and bundle our robes around us. This was during the hot season, and sometimes he would call us together during the hottest part of the day to meditate in the sala. When we asked him why he wanted us to do these things, he said to help us go against our defilements. During the hottest time of day, we wanted to go and sit in a cool place, and this was Luang Por Chah's way of helping us go against our natural tendency to get away from the cause of suffering - in this case the extreme heat - by going against our desire to keep cool. In the cold season we had to do just the opposite and bear the cold. Ajahn Chah was right there doing it with us. Any time the monks would whimper he would shout at them, 'Just endure! You don't think this will kill you, do you? And so what if it does? Go to death. That which is good is still found, even beyond death.' And we were all very content to do these things. Sometimes after the food had been passed round at the meal, he would get up and give a long desana on greed and desire, while the monks sat there looking into their bowls and salivating. What was he teaching? What did he say? He would talk about greed and desire, and the craving for food, giving details of what would happen to the food after we ate it - how it turned into flesh, blood, and bones, and excrement. He would talk about the

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pindabaht duties, the correct manner of carrying the almsbowl and receiving food, as well as the distribution of the almsfood at the monastery. Some of us may not have enough, others would eat too much. Would he do this often, Luang Por? No, not often. Only two or three times each month. Oh yes in those days we smoked cigarettes. Then Ajahn Chah decided to stop it. Were you smoking too? Sure. We all smoked. Ajahn Chah heard a desana given by Ajahn Pannananda that discouraged smoking. He said if one couldn't let go of a tiny defilement like smoking, how could one be liberated from the big ones? Ajahn Chah contemplated this, and decided to forbid smoking on these grounds, as well as because few other Ajahns in the district smoked. He thought the resources of the laity could be put to better use. It wasn't easy for the local villagers to get cigarettes. In those days, factoryproduced cigarettes weren't available and we only had the local hand-made roll-ups. Some of the monks and novices would directly ask the laity for cigarettes without a being asked if they needed anything, and this went against the bhikkhu Vinaya. He could see problems and difficulties arising because of this. How did you decide to quit? How did the decision come about? A meeting was called and everyone discussed it. We trusted Luang Por's advice and wanted to do whatever he wished, so the Sangha unanimously gave it up. What year was this? Was it after you went on tudong by yourself? Oh yes, I remember smoking when I was on tudong in Chiang Mai province. This reminds me of the time when I took the other monks on tudong without Ajahn Chah. We met some lay supporters one evening who kindly took us to a good place to stay the night in the forest. They took their leave - to go home to supper - but said they would return later to hear a desana. I was asked to give a talk and told them I would if I was still in the same spot when they returned, or they could call out to me if I had moved. All of us were tired and, to tell the truth, I didn't feel like giving a talk. So we moved to another place, and all of us agreed not to light a fire and keep quiet if the lay supporters came looking for us later. Then I thought, 'When the lay folk return, they're bound to bring some cigarettes, and I'd quite like a smoke to perk me up a bit.' Sure enough, the lay people came along. They began calling for me through the forest, and I broke my agreement with the other monks and called to them, surrendering because of my desire to have a cigarette. Some good came out of it, and after my talk they departed respectfully. Afterwards Ajahn Sinowin came creeping over. 'Did you get any tobacco?' he whispered. We had a smoke together. This is the nature of defilement and

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desire. Before leaving on this tudong Ajahn Chah had told me to be wary of arguments and disagreements among the monks while we were away. Sure enough, we had a disagreement. About a month after we had left the monastery a dispute arose regarding which trail to take. I wanted to go one direction, and Ajahn Sinowin suggested another route; there was no one around to give advice. We continued along the route I had decided, but the other monks were disgruntled because they thought we could get lost or end up at the wrong destination. We finally met someone on the trail, and sure enough it was the wrong route, but the other route the monks suggested was wrong as well. Eventually we found the right trail, but both of us were somber and still steaming from our disagreement. Throughout the next few days Ajahn Sinowin constantly disagreed about where we should stay, or how long we should rest. Another monk began to move so slowly that we had to leave him behind to catch up later. One day we got separated but found him in the next village the following day. We were happy to find him again, but I rebuked him for being so slow and lagging behind. He didn't reply and became angry. When we returned to Wat Pa Pong, Ajahn Sinowin told Ajahn Chah that he and Ajahn Toon had been on the verge of leaving me and returning to the monastery before the tudong had finished. I never knew this at the time, but at least everyone stayed together throughout the tudong. Luang Por Chah just said that's how it happens, that's how things go. Luang Por, what was it like the first time you went tudong with Ajahn Chah? What did he advise and instruct about living in the wilds and in the forest? What guidance did he actually give? Ajahn Chah advised us to stay in ancient burial grounds and cemeteries whilst on tudong especially places of ancestral burial, where spirits are believed to live. Get permission from the local villagers first, he advised, and don't stay in any place longer than seven days. Don't get attached to any particular place or its villagers. Keep the sila, and be wary of dangers around you. Some places may be haunted by spirits or ghosts, so be careful. And sleep right down on the ground, where your mindfulness and sensitivity is at its best; I found this to be very true. Take care not to destroy plant life, insects or small creatures, and be aware of your surroundings. If you don't have a novice or lay supporter to prepare a place in the forest, do the best you can within the sila. Look around you and make sure there aren't any dead branches overhead that could fall down on you. Stop during the day when it's still light to prepare a place to camp, so you can get a feel for the place where you are resting. Also, you can see things for what they are in daylight, and not create them to be apparitions in the dark. It's important to be sensitive to the people where you are staying. Don't do anything offensive or say anything that may offend the local village monastery. Be mindful of speech - say the appropriate things to the villagers, if they want to hear a talk. Be flexible and receive them graciously. Often the villagers would ask me what would happen to an arahant's consciousness when he dies. I would quote Ajahn Chab's answer to them, which was an analogy of a candle. 'As long as three conditions exist - the wick, the wax, and matches - the candle continues to burn. The flame can be extinguished and relit, as long as these three things are there. But when all of the wax has been used, and no more matches are available, where does the flame go? This flame is like the consciousness of the arahant.' I used this simile from Luang Por Chah whenever presented with this question. We maintained a sense of deference. Even though Ajahn Chah wasn't with us on tudong, his teachings were, and no matter what I was asked I could give an answer by drawing on what I had learned from my teacher. Ajahn Chah taught that you could hear a desana of the Buddha under any tree, in any place,

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because the teaching of the Buddha would be right there with you. He compared being on tudong to being a soldier who had left his training camp to fight in the open field. We had to be prepared for anything - alert and ready within ourselves. This attentiveness must be maintained wherever we are. Some of the things the Vinaya discipline trains us for never really have the opportunity to manifest within the monastery. It's when we spend time outside the monastery that we are confronted by these things, and must solve them for ourselves. Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

Dhamma Greetings from Switzerland It has been six months since the welcome move to our new monastic residence in Kandersteg. It is a small and beautiful village at 1200 metres altitude, surrounded by the impressive features of snowcapped mountains, which rise these days into a cloudless sky. Venerable Jayamano shares some of his impressions. During the summer and winter, thousands of tourists from all over the world are attracted to venture along these mountain tracks to look at the still, turquoise lakes and waterfalls which are fed by the melting glaciers. For over ten thousand years, torrential streams have patiently carved their courses, cutting deep gorges through the rocks. The old glaciers have left their imprint of immense power upon countless layers of rock; crushed into shape, they were later revealed by the retreating of the ice. A long belt of pine forest stretches along the valley to the 'Unterland', and during spring and summer many wild flowers decorate the alpine meadows. With the picturesque traditional architecture of wooden log houses built upon sturdy natural stone walls, it makes quite a mesmerising visual feast. On the gable ends of the chalet roofs one can often see proverbs born from mountain life. All the typical smells of rural life are present, joined by the symphony of cow bells ringing throughout the valley.

We were asked to sign an agreement at the local community hall that we would immediately evacuate the house on notification of impending doom.

The monastery, fortunately, is situated on the side of the village that is not frequented by tourists. There is only one neighbouring house, about 70 metres away. Although there is hardly any more land to the monastery property than can be used to park a dozen or so cars, the house is surrounded by fields in front and woodland at the back. This provides plenty of space for people to find walking meditation paths. The house itself is a former hotel and typical chalet. Built in 1905, it provides 22 rooms on three stories. On the ground floor are a large hall (our present shrine room) and a very wellequipped industrial kitchen, larder and laundry. Below is a big basement - which could well https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/19/greetz.htm[03/10/2017 20:20:19]

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turn into a swimming pool during the spring thaw if the pump should ever fail. We are in the process of transforming four bedrooms on the attic floor into a shrine room, and there are various small renovation projects which include double glazing all the windows - so we will be kept busy for a few years to come. One minor 'Buddhist extra' to the house is that it stands in avalanche danger zone I. In 1968 there was an avalanche in which a partially connected restaurant and a separate neighbouring building were swept away by the tremendous pressure of air it created. Records show it to be the third of its kind in several hundred years in this area, so the chances that it might happen again soon are not too likely. Nonetheless, we were asked to sign an agreement at the local community hall that we would immediately evacuate the house on notification of impending doom. It is encouraging to see how much interest and support has come forth from Thais and Westerners alike - both in helping financially (there is a big bank loan to pay off), and in lending a hand on the work projects. The monthly meditation weekends and longer retreats are well attended. Venerable Javano, who joined us at the start of Vassa, and Venerable Mahesi, who came recently, bring the community of bhikkhus here up to four. So we are, for the moment, technically a Sangha which can gather for recitations of the Patimokkha training rules each fortnight. Vladam from Yugoslavia and Roget from Switzerland are anagarikas, the first to take the precepts here. It is a conducive environment for monastic training: support with regard to requisites is more than sufficient, and the relationship with locals is friendly and open.

to that distant posters to raise consciousness well designed but nonetheless crystal balls to look away beyond the present of this day and sounds to lift your chakras high what's wrong with your own sea and sky and now you seem to think you need the cut of corn within some field when all you need to do is be still upon the silent sea and there do only need to stay within the rhythm of its sway and only do you need to see that all arisen will cease to be and only do you need to ask who is it in this looking glass and all you need is who you are to take you to that distant star and so that distant distant star is here where you already are Jacqueline Fitch

Having recovered from the initial dropped jaw of wonderment at the sneer scale and magnificence of the alpine setting, the rumble of falling rocks, the fiery sunsets which bathe the snow-capped peaks in pink light, and the deep blues of the winter sky, one settles down to the rhythm of monastic routine. The qualities of patience and clear reflection on Dhamma become the basis of fulfilment, over and above the enchantment of sensory experience. Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

Responding to the Sick and Dying Barry Durrant - who lives near Chithurst - reports on dialogues on helping the sick and the dying that have been taking place in the monastery. Byadhi-dhammomhi byadhim anatito, I am of the nature to sicken, I have not gone beyond sickening. Marana-dhammomhi, maranam anatito, I am of the nature to die, I have not gone beyond dying.* *These lines are part of the Sangha's daily morning chanting. To many of us, this timely warning is all too apparent and needs little emphasis! Furthermore, at this time of the year, the beautiful colours of the autumn leaves add an additional reminder of the omnipresence of change and the inevitable end for all conditioned things. Perhaps it was such subliminal impressions exerting their subtle influences which gave rise, one morning, to a discussion with some bhikkhus on the topic of lay Buddhists visiting those who are sick and/or dying.

The idea not only brings one's own mortality into sharp focus, but raises doubts and fears in the mind as to one's suitability or preparedness for the task.

It was agreed that, however slowly, the climate of opinion in society is changing. People have become more open to the topic of death - be it that inescapable experience which awaits us all, or the misery and stresses of personal bereavement. Until relatively recently death has been 'shunned', disguised and detached from the living process. Now, however, the especial problems, and conflicts it can occasion through taboo and misconceptions (whether in the dying or their relatives), and the particular needs of all those involved in this quintessential aspect of life are all becoming increasingly recognised.

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The Hospice Movement has flourished and prospered in the twin roles of specialist care and education. There are counselling services for the bereaved. Seminars on death and dying are organised, and many books on the subject have been written (for an excellent reading list, see Raft [No. 3], the journal of Buddhist Hospice Trust). Societies such as The Natural Death Centre have been launched, and the hitherto unchallenged procedures and practices of the funeral business are being scrutinised and questioned. Following these exploratory chats, it was decided to contact all members of those Buddhist groups which looked to Chithurst Monastery for spiritual guidance, and to seek their views and opinions about such visiting. In addition, as some lay Buddhists looking to Amaravati had already had experience in this work, they too were contacted and their views ascertained. Inevitably, (unless members were already engaged in such social action), the initial reaction tended to be one of caution, anxiety and perhaps rejection. The idea not only brings one's own mortality into sharp focus, but raises doubts and fears in the mind as to one's suitability or preparedness for the task. What could one say? What should one say? Would one's reactions be helpful and appropriate, or would the situation ruthlessly expose one's own vulnerability, insecurity and confusion? In point of fact, the responses were divisible into two schools of thought. Some members felt the need for specific training in preparation for such an encounter; maybe a guided exploration of this threat to their equipoise and comfort. Others felt that such a situation demanded a spontaneous and intuitive response from a heart unencumbered by outworn views and predetermined expectations; through silent acceptance, allowing the response to another being to come naturally. The necessary motivation and commitment was seen to be not only supportive to the patient, but also invaluable as a practice for the individual. The Buddha after all had declared, 'If you will not take care of each other, who else, I ask, will do so? Brothers, he who would wait on me, let him wait on the sick.' (Vinaya Pitaka). ooo0ooo Having learned of these conflicting views, it seemed to be important to offer an opportunity to share and discuss such thoughts, so a meeting was arranged at Chithurst to which all interested parties were invited. Ajahn Anando kindly agreed to take the chair and to offer the necessary spiritual guidance and direction to the debate, which took place on October 26th, and was attended by nineteen members. The discussion ranged widely and embraced such topics as: 'living wills'; the clinical ethos found in hospices and intensive care units; the need to develop an acute awareness to the needs of the patient, and to avoid the imposition upon them of one's own views and opinions; the value of physical contact as an expression of caring and concern; the evolving attitudes in society towards a greater participation in the daily nursing care, the laying out of the body, and even organising the funeral and disposal of remains.

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Ajahn Anando reported the opinion of one doctor who was working in the hospice movement, which was that Buddhists would bring their own particular qualities of serenity and quietude. He also commented that in his view, if someone felt the need for guidance and 'training', then that need should be met, while those without such reservations would be able to enter the relationship spontaneously anyway. All those present felt the meeting to have been most useful and the likely forerunner in a series devoted to various themes relating to death, dying and bereavement. All interested in these topics are welcome to contact the monastery for information on the times and themes of the discussions. Readers wishing to obtain further information can write to the following addresses: The Buddhist Hospice Trust, P.O. Box 51, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 6TP The Natural Death Centre, 20 Heber Road, Cricklewood, London NW2 6AA 'Funerals and How to Improve Them', by Dr Tony Walter. Hodder and Stoughton, (58.99) The Ananda Network (no relation to Ajahn Anando!); a nationwide network of volunteers who have expressed a willingness to visit and offer companionship to those who are dying or bereaved - particularly, but not exclusively, Buddhists. Networkers are kept in touch with each other through local meetings and the occasional publications, "Ananda Network News" and "Open Heart Communication". Contact: Ananda Network Facilitator, Ray Wills, 5 Grayswood Point, Norley Vale, Roehampton, London SW15 4BT.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

A Light in Confinement Recently, a devoted lay meditator who has been a friend and supporter in Thailand became involved in someone else's unskillful kamma. As a result, she finds herself serving a prison sentence in Australia. Despite difficult and oppressive conditions, she remains undaunted in her commitment to practise the teachings of the Buddha in her daily life. She writes this letter from her prison cell. 30-10-91 It is my 10th day in mahamoha naraka - hell of big delusion. I did not have a jury trial but I had to plead guilty. That's what the barrister and lawyer suggested. I'd have to be here many more years if I pleaded not guilty. My letters could prove my innocence but why didn't the lawyer want to get them back? Sometimes I wonder whether they'd been sincere and truthful to me. I keep the same precepts as you in heart. I think I'd work towards a renunciant's life even after my release. I've suffered so much, I don't want to go back to more suffering but walk on the Dhamma path to end suffering. It's very difficult to be here, not physically but mentally. The minds here are so confused and muddled. A lot of jealousy, pettiness and anger. Their self-images and mirrors reflect a distorted picture. Hard to understand their speech; it has very little truth in it. They can't relate to goodness and wholesomeness. To be good is a big bad joke, I guess. Their minds refuse to grow up but they keep denying their own stuff and resisting any goodness that might arise. It's so bizarre and pitiful. How I long to be with the good monks and nuns again. Compared to the monastery with its peaceful vibrations, this is real hell. I don't have to go to hell to realise what hell is like.

When the heart and mind is soft, it's easy to have loving-kindness and compassion for the suffering beings in this jail.

1-11-91 About one and a half hours ago I was moved from my cell to a protection cell. Relief! That means that I don't have to be with those deluded minds - I can meditate as much as I want here. No duties and no smoke from their cigarettes. Dhamma is strange, isn't it? I'd been pretty sick the last few days - very stressed-out from fear because they used some violence on me.

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The officers here are very understanding and the Dhamma always protects those who protect it, right?? I know there are many devas protecting me. Pray for me so I could see my Dhamma teachers again soon. I've an inkling that the golden land of the Buddha's teachings could perhaps receive me as a nun for a few years. You know, I've so much samvega - urgency to practise. I just want to meditate and meditate. You know the merits that you all transferred to me will see me through all this anicca- dukkham - impermanence and suffering - that I am experiencing. I know Dhamma will help me. I pray for only Dhamma protection and that comes from having a pure mind and heart that is mindful and full of mettakaruna. When the heart and mind is soft, it's easy to have loving-kindness and compassion for the suffering beings in this jail. They are so deluded and so angry. They are caught in a vicious cycle - do bad, be bad and change for the worse. They have very low self-images and hate themselves but they can't see it. You see how they sink deeper and deeper. Once wrong, how difficult to be straight - the mind is so tricky. It can have so much selfdeception and hypocrisy. I don't despise or dislike them. I know they are suffering so much deep down - but I can't help them as I am afraid. Trying to be helpful has given me so much trouble. I can only have compassionate thoughts for them. There's so much suffering in this world - I really don't want to waste my life doing trivial and petty things but to meditate and cultivate a really pure mind and heart and to be released from all sufferings. Please let go of all. Meditate a lot. Hope you all don't mind transferring some merits over so I could get mokkha (liberation) soon and be united with my venerable teachers and wise ones again. I keep 10 precepts but I have lots of hair; that's also O.K. - the whole cosmos is empty - just have a light heart and mind and be empty. That which is hollow is useful. I write you something from Stonehouse, a Chinese Zen monk who lived a few hundred years ago: Look for what's real and it's gone, Wipe out illusions and they increase. But bhikkhus have a place that's serene. The moon in the sky shines on the waves. Becoming Buddha is easy But ending illusions is hard. So many frosted moonlit nights I've sat and felt the cold before dawn. Stripped of reason my mind is blank. Emptied of being my nature is bare. At night my windows often breathe https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/19/lite.htm[03/10/2017 20:17:42]

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white The moon and stream come right to the door. 22-11-91 All the photos, cards, leaves, feathers that you all so kindly sent, and the Buddha-rupa in this cell B28, are ittharammana [lovely objectsl for those who come to this room. For in future, they might have the opportunity to come into the Buddha Sasana too. However, please do not send me anything any more - I only need one thing, which no one can give me - SATI mindfulness. Anything external is still dukkha, ultimately. Only sati is sought now. Be happy and peaceful. Lots of gratitude to you all. Anyone wishing to write letters of support or encouragement, please contact Venerable Samvaro or Sister Medhanandi at Amaravati.

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January 1992

THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

Cover: Committed to Freedom; Ajahn Articles: Thanavaro Crossing the Green Divide; Sister Candasiri One Day of Practice; Venerable Varado The Life of a Forest Monk: Pt II; Luang Por Jun Greetings from Switzerland; Venerable Jayamano Responding to the Sick and Dying; Barry Durrant A Light in Confinement; prison letters

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

Obituary Reg McAuliffe (1910-1991) During the somewhat fraught period of my chairmanship of the English Sangha Trust (ca. 1964), somebody said to me, 'You ought to resign!' I replied, 'Certainly, on two conditions: not under duress, and not till I am sure I can hand over to someone who won't make a worse mess of the job that I have done.' It was not for several years that I was able to hand over to Reg, a man infinitely better fitted for the job than I was. He was not only a serious Buddhist and a man of great personal charm, he also had what I conspicuously lacked - a good business head and understanding of practical affairs - indispensable qualifications in his job as secretary of a large company. He was a great support to the Ven. Kapilavaddho in re-building the organisation after the traumas of the '60s. It was not his fault that the Hampstead Vihara had finally to close its doors, but he did much to ensure that the physical and financial assets of the Trust remained intact for the upsurge of the late '70s to justify the seemingly wild optimism shared by a few of us in those apparently arid times. After his wife's death, Reg lived at Seaford. He was able to pay a brief visit to Amaravati about a year before death, which must have been a gratifying experience for him. His cremation took place at Eastbourne on 17th October, with Sangha participation and attended by his daughter Anne, who now lives in America. May he attain Nibbana. Maurice Walshe

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

Caring for the Earth Many readers will be aware of the complex problems that currently beset the environment. Recently, a consortium of environmental organisations put together a detailed strategy for a global environmental policy for the next century. This plan, published in a 228-page book called Caring for the Earth, was launched in some 65 countries on 21st October this year. Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Sucitto were among those invited to the launch in Westminster. Religion, as the principle that encourages the qualities of wisdom and compassion, has always played a part in establishing a balance between humanity and nature, although this aspect of its scope hasn't always come to the fore. Established religions easily become moral stamps for the self-seeking attitudes of the societies that support them. However, an authentic religious spirit dissolves the barriers of material self-interest and provides a common ground. Before we are fishermen, industrialists or housekeepers, we are humans whose bodies depend on the Earth, and who are endowed with love and intelligence. The many social and environmental crises that face the world, together with the increasingly global nature of human consciousness, is helping to push established religions towards greater vision and interfaith co-operation. In 1986 the Network on Conservation and Religion was established by the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) at Assisi, through an interfaith gathering that included H.H. the Dalai Lama, the Archbishop of Canterbury and H.H. Pope John Paul II. It is now supported by eight major world religions. The function of the Network is to bring awareness of conservation to people in ways that relate it to people's religious faith, and to report on environmental projects that are supported by religions in different parts of the world. Apart from such 'practical' work, one of the features of the Network is that it does attempt to represent a quality of commitment that is not just based on human self-interest. That religions should take on environmental matters is a kind of healing of the split between matter and spirit that has allowed the material world to be used in a heedless and unethical manner. A major world religion can express the aspiration to live in fully human, wise and loving ways, at a level where it becomes politically significant. Governments seem remote and unresponsive, yet it should be remembered that they can be steered by popular opinion. Notably in the past few years, pressure from environmental bodies brought into awareness the damage to the ozone layer of the atmosphere caused by CFCs (gases present in aerosols and refrigerant gas). When this layer is reduced, harmful quantities of solar radiation penetrate the earth's atmosphere. Increased awareness of this danger led to the Montreal Protocol of 1987,

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which is an international agreement to reduce the use of these gases globally.

The general effect of all four speeches was to indicate a more total review of the global situation, including Â trade, debt, and population growth than is normally presented as of environmental concern.

On a broader front, three international bodies - IUCN (The World Conservation Union), UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and WWI (World-Wide Fund for Nature have been working together for more than a decade to establish a World Conservation Strategy which would provide series of principles to guide more specific environmental action. 'The World Conservation Strategy was published in 1980. It emphasised that humanity, which exists as part of nature, has no future unless nature and natural resources are conserved. It asserted that conservation cannot be achieved without development to alleviate the poverty and misery of hundreds of millions of people. Stressing the interdependence of conservation and development, the World Conservation Strategy first gave currency to the term "sustainable development".' (Caring for the Earth) Subsequent to the publication of their report in 1980, more than 50 countries have prepared conservation strategies based on it. The Strategy has been reviewed and revised recently to form a more comprehensive plan which takes into account sound economic and ecological factors. The Caring for the Earth strategy is a follow-up to the previous work. At the London launch, H.R.H. Prince Philip (International President of WWF), Rev. John Hapgood the Archbishop of York, Sir Crispin Tickell of Green College Oxford, former Ambassador to the U.N., and Tony Baldry, Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, gave speeches on aspects of the strategy. Prince Philip pointed out that the situation was not one of 'conservation versus development' but one in which there was no way forward for humanity without conservation. The Archbishop of York brought up the point that 'conservation' was an unpalatable concept in the poor areas of the world if it meant retaining their current poverty. The onus, he felt was on the more affluent nations to provide funds, or improve economic relations with the poor, to make it unnecessary for them to further deplete their natural resources. The general effect of all four speeches was to indicate a more total review of the global situation, including trade, debt, and population growth than is normally presented as of environmental concern. Broadly speaking the strategy is divided into three parts: 1) Nine principles of sustainable society: i) to respect and care for the community of life, ii) to improve the Quality of human life. iii) to conserve the Earth's vitality and diversity, iv) to minimize the depletion of nonrenewable resources, v) to keep within the Earth's carrying capacity, vi) to change personal attitudes and practices, vii) to enable communities to care for their own environments,

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viii) to provide a national framework for integrating development and conservation, and ix) to forge a global alliance. 2) Actions that nations, businesses and individuals can undertake to reduce use of energy, create less pollution, and conserve, manage and increase forests. 3) Implementing the strategy through the use of existing political and economical structures. This section deals with the use of local, national and international environmental bodies, and funding. With reference to the last item, it is estimated that transferring a $47 billion from 199l's $900 billion global military budget would cover the cost of that year's environmental policy - and still leave a considerable sum available for military purposes. Next year, in June, world leaders will meet at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, in order to discuss a global policy for the environment. Many environmentalists consider this to be a crucial meeting as it represents a chance - while there is still the possibility of rectifying the ecological situation - of coming to an international agreement. This is important as it is only a global policy that will have a great enough effect to improve the situation.

a window of opportunity

Part of what the Caring for the Earth launch is about is to inform the general public and encourage it to make its wishes known to governmental bodies. It is felt that if there is large enough response it will help to move the wheels of power further along the road towards sustainable developments, in particular via the Rio de Janeiro conference. To encourage this process, WWF have published a small pledge* which can be obtained from Susanne Briggs, WWF-UK, Panda House, Weyside Park, Godalming, Surrey GU7 lXR [tel: (0483) 426444]. Further copies of the Caring For The Earth book or its Summary can be obtained from Ms. Cindy Craker, IUCN Publications, Avenue du Mont Blanc, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland. [Tel: (41) 22 649114] Closer to home . . . As is sometimes the case, the individual can feel irrelevant and helpless in the face of such global visions of vast problems and the huge resources needed to check them. However, the spiritual viewpoint is one in which each skilful action is of value, because of the innate value of mindfulness and wisdom. We cannot be certain about the future of the material world, but we do have the freedom to live in a sensitive and discerning way. Our actions vis-a-vis the environment are an aspect of the practice that we undertake to dismantle the egocentric values that the Buddha saw at the root of all suffering. In the forest monasteries referred to in this

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Newsletter and elsewhere, conservation projects are normal, as well as such measures as frugality and recycling. In Britain, the Sangha has been engaged in restoring and conserving the Hammer Wood in West Sussex for several years now, under the direction of Mike Holmes; there are, moreover, many other small things that we undertake as community practice that can be carried out by most families who wish to make a certain commitment for their own reflection and the welfare of others. Replace ordinary lightbulbs with energy efficient ones (7 watts in an energy efficient bulb gives the light of 60 watts). Store hot water in thermos flasks (reducing the amount of energy needed to heat water for drinks, etc.). Use thermostats (and timers) on heaters. Use communal heated rooms; turn off heat when not needed. Wear more clothes! Insulate buildings. Warm a bed rather than heat the room. Wash clothes by hand; use non-electric push sweepers if vacuum cleaner is not absolutely necessary. Reduce vehicle use: walk/cycle short distances; use public transport; share car with fellow travelers (work out rota for workmates). Recycle - bottles, paper, cans. Ask for purchases not to be bagged or wrapped. Save water that has been used once (e.g. for rinsing) for watering the garden, washing the floor or car, etc. *The pledge Caring for the earth - a campaign for change I pledge to care for the earth by doing everything I can to live with nature's limits. I will turn off lights in rooms not in use. I will replace light bulds with energy efficient ones. I will cut my car mileage by 25 % this year. I will lant ten trees and I will help organize recycling at work, school or wherever I live.

Name:_________________________ Address:______________________ POSTCODE:_____________________ Our civilizations are at risk because we are misusing natural resources and disturbing natural systems. We are pressing the earth to the limits of its capacity. Since the industrial revolution, human numbers have grown eight-fold. Industrial production has risen by more than 100 times in the past 100 years. This unprecedented increase in human numbers and activity has had major impacts on the environment. The capacity of the earth to support human and other life has been significantly diminished. In less than 200 years the planet has lost six million square kilometres of forest; water withdrawals have grown from 100 to 3600 cubic kilometres a year. Atmospheric systems have been disturbed, threatening the climate regime to which we and other forms of life have long been adapted. Pollution of air, soil, fresh waters and the oceans has become a serious and continuing threat to the health of humans and other species. from the Caring For The Earth book When people are caught up with wrong desires, overwhelmed by selfishness, obsessed with foolish ideas, the rainfall decreases. It is hard to get a mel. The crops are bad, afflicted with mildew and grown to mere stumps. Accordingly, many people perish. Gradual Sayings (Vol.1) Threes; 6, 56 Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

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which is an international agreement to reduce the use of these gases globally.

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a window of opportunity

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

Down Lay-life Way Finding a firm foundation among the sinking sands. Barbara Jackson shares her thoughts. Standing in a rush and push long queue supermarket cash-out? One packet, one tin, one jar at a time; moving to standing with worn out feet waiting, children tired, mind fraught - patient endurance practice. WALKING the crowded pavement to work? Walking where? Nowhere. Just one foot placed in front of the other in a 'one-step-at-a-time' practice. SITTING cramped, squashed by humanity against a beat-music ear-plugged stranger who reduces the mind to nothing more than 'Who is sitting?' practice. LYING DOWN exhausted at the end of the day with intense desire to sleep, but children still shouting, dog barking, phone ringing, wife starts talking brings about a 'go away, the lot of you' practice! A recognisable tread-mill of lay-life - or can it all be opportunities for practice following the Buddha's basic instruction 'standing, walking, sitting or lying down, know yourself.' Practising the Buddha Way in a speeded up Western society elevates places like the greenhouse, car, garden-shed, compost heap, the toilet, chair beside the sleeping child, from what they seem to be, into sacred corners for mind contemplation. These sorts of places offer momentary silent stillness, or base for on-going practice of 'being in the world but not of it'. Snatched moments of looking as though 'asleep' on the train, even for five minutes, are really being used to cultivate inner peace and stillness among the rattling, jerking, ceaseless thoughts.

In using restraint offered by the Precepts to reverse the desire outflow, inner contemplation of how things are within us RIGHT NOW

In lay life, a formal sitting time each morning and night can require the stamina of a samurai, physique of Superman and organisation of an airline schedule. But it can all start AND continue with that precious, guard-with-your-life accumulative five minutes' practice throughout the day. A practice of not always knowing where it's all going, sometimes 'why bother?', yet it seems just right to be doing it. Doing what? Merely breathing in and outanapanasati - mindfulness of breathing - the foundation of mindfulness. Simply taking 'one breath at a time' brings emptiness of mind within which reflection can arise - reflection, a bringer of wisdom.

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Conventional aspirations impel us to seek perfection in the perfect place, perfect practice, perfect lay friends and perfect sangha support. Some of the Buddha's perfections, however, are found in subtleties of sila practice, a few precepts pushing us towards a morality largely unacceptable, 'out-dated' and shunned by shimmering images of current popular success. Only five pointers for life, which say: no killing, no taking what is not given, no misuse of sexuality, no speaking wrongly, no use of mind-clouding drink and drugs - often a boring reflection, all thought about before, and met with a 'I don't do these things anyway' attitude. However, the survival of practice, when going forth daily into worldly seas of samsara, can depend upon application and reflection of the precepts. It is almost a 'mini-asava' practice, restraining energy outflows going into the garden-shed to the 'killer-shelf for bugs and beetles', or killing another's reputation; restraining compulsive collection of leaflets or the mental pull of advertising; guarding against indulgent gossip or easy 'white lies'; drawing back from relationships with a potential to harm another; containing desire for 'drugs' of sense pleasure or thought-diversion techniques. 'Refrain from evil and do good. Purify the mind,' said the Buddha. In using restraint offered by the Precepts to reverse the desire outflow, inner contemplation of how things are within us RIGHT NOW can be effected - and maybe also a little peace of heart and quietude of mind. Precepts, people, personal relationships offer a mirror for inner qualities needing investigation. Day in and day out, year in and year out, circumstances beyond our control bring inescapable contact with those we would NOT choose to be with - and those we DO choose to be with change. Rather than a lifetime of practice in solitude, the Buddha advocated contact with others as an essential part of the Way. Whilst meeting with others for physical alms-food is not required by lay practisers, it is possible to go forth for alms for the mind. This alms-food is found in every home, street, shop, city-square, market-place, same faces, different faces, teeming with complaining minds, doubting minds, desire minds. Thus, when my mind complains, doubts and desires, it is the same as everyone else's - no different - it has joined one whole mass of complaining, doubting desiring mind, offering food for reflective thought. Sometimes the office bore is me, sometimes somebody else. 'They', the angry customer is also me; similarly with 'they' who dart through the changing traffic lights - plus the myriad other things I would rather not let myself think about. When this inextricable relationship between us all is realised in the innermost recesses of the mind, no blame can be placed upon another; the quality of forgiveness, requiring me to yield so much of myself, now comes from understanding. When the mirror in someone else irritates me, there is something for me to learn, to burn away a few more of MY imperfections and make space for giving, offering, and reflecting upon the whole scenario of life. Solitary or partnered, with family or with friends, the lay practiser of the Buddha Way can go forth daily for alms for the mind. (To help me

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with this: the English translation of the Metta Sutta makes a good 24-hour mantra practice; the Gihiti-Patipatti* on relationships is good to contemplate; and the Christian Anglican marriage service, seen from a Buddhist perspective, is worthy of reflection.)

*'Practice of family life': For example, in the Sigalaka Sutta (Digha Nikaya [III] 31) mentions five ways in which a husband should relate to his wife: 'by honouring her, by not disparaging her, by not being unfaithful to her, by giving authority to her, by providing her with adornments'; and the wife in return, responds 'by properly organising her work, by being kind to the servants, by not being unfaithful, by protecting stores, and by being skilful and diligent in all she has to do'. (Translation from Thus Have I Heard, by M. O'C. Walshe, Wisdom Publications). Our homes are our viharas, the Triple Gem is our Refuge, right livelihood sustains our practice. From this we can choose to offer a little of what we have to sustain and maintain a living vehicle for the Buddha's Teachings in a vihara/monastery of ordained sangha. This offering can apply to any of the major Buddhist traditions. Mutual dependence between ordained and lay sangha was encouraged by the Buddha, and the example each offers the other is worthy of examination. The presence of lay people who meditate and practise Dhamma, as well as support a Buddhist monastic community, is an innovative aspect of Theravada Buddhism in the West. Is our lay-life practice of the Buddha's Way as we struggle to maintain our diligence, impeccability and endeavour, a sufficiently polished mirror to offer the ordained sangha and society as a whole? Can each one of us find a firm foundation within ourselves, irrespective and independent of personal circumstance, to support a commitment to practise the tangible and intangible teaching expounded by the Buddha? The Buddha said, 'In this fathom-long length of body, with its perceptions and consciousness, is found the world.' May we discover the world within us which is at peace with itself, and be truly grateful for the Buddha's teachings. Having mused on all this, and having divulged some of the weaknesses in my practice - I also like chocolate croissants at the moment - I really must remember to make a greater effort NOT to talk to my husband just as he is going to sleep!

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January 1992

THIS ISSUE Editorial; Aj. Sucitto Down Lay-life Way; B. Jackson Caring for the Earth; Aj. Sucitto View from the Hill; Ven. Vipassi

HOME BACK ISSUES Obituary:

EDITORIAL The Real Thing Some time ago, a reader wrote asking if we couldn't occasionally put in some news of what was happening to individual bhikkhus and siladhara; having known them as postulants, and seen them go through ordination, there is a personal interest in their welfare. That personal contact is part of what the Sangha offers within the limitations of the monastic conventions. It helps to know that these samanas are individual humans as well as religious icons; their character enriches and breathes life into the form, brings the Dhamma into a three-dimensional living and feeling reality. However, it is always the case that bhikkhus and siladhara get transferred to other monasteries, go overseas, and people lose touch. Currently Ajahn Chandapalo has just returned from a year's stay in Thailand, during which time he stayed at Wat Pah Nanachat and also in a newly-opened forest hermitage near the Lao border where Ajahn Jayasaro is the senior bhikkhu. Prior to that, he spent some years in Switzerland at the monastery in Konolfingen, before it moved (earlier this year) to Kandersteg. At Kandersteg now with Ajahn Tiradhammo is Ven. Javano (who came over to Britain from Thailand with Luang Por Jun in June of 1989) and Ven. Jayamano; Ven. Mahesi has also just joined the community there after several years at Chithurst. What else? Ven. Kovido, after abiding for several years with an enervating syndrome called ME (no double-entendre intended), regained his strength, and was invited to Western Australia. Prior to going Down Under to practise with Ajahns Jagaro, Brahmavamso and the rest of the Sangha at Bodhinyana Monastery, he went on a marathon Harnham-to-Cornwall tudong walk. He appears to have got into his stride - we hear that, after the Vassa, he took a few monks off for another tudong in the hills in the Perth region. Meanwhile, Ven. Nyanaviro has left Devon and gone to Thailand for a while, to be replaced by Ajahn Chandapalo (shades of musical chairs). Nothing much is changing at Harnham - with regard to the nominal identities of the monks at least - which is just fine, as the monastery, with its new Dhamma Hall nearing completion, is in a blossoming stage.

... there is still the endless moulding and crafting of the heart through the means of giving up personal freedom.

More temporary movements are that Luang Por Sumedho has gone to Thailand, and is expected back in the middle of February. It seems likely that Sister Candasiri will be moving down to Chithurst. . . . But now we're entering the 'realm of the indefinite future', and people get

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annoyed when reports of future activities prove inaccurate. So I'll say not say much about Ajahn Anando's projected tudong walk in France next spring. More roads and trails going somewhere, more dawns and forests and rain and blisters and sunsets and friends and departures. It doesn't come across so well in print. There are also the appearances of gains and losses in the community. A steady trickle of aspirants have come forward to take the anagarika precepts; some of the previous ones have taken higher ordination, and a number have left the community altogether. A thinning of the postulant population is not unusual or discomforting - if everybody stayed, one would feel that the lifestyle wasn't challenging enough. Sister Rocana (the second of that name) disrobed after a few months of siladhara life, but as she had not fully adapted to the style of the monasteries in Britain, perhaps this is not so surprising. More poignant are the disrobings of people who have spent many years in the Sangha. Ajahn Pabhakaro left us in the spring, Ven. Bodhinando and Sister Kalayana in the summer, Sisters Thanissara and Satima in the autumn, and this winter Ajahn Kittisaro has indicated his wish to disrobe. In some cases, people come in expecting something that isn't here, or without fully knowing the tests that the life will put them through. After all, it's not just clear sailing after adjusting to the Eight, Ten, or 227 Precepts; there is still the endless moulding and crafting of the heart through the means of giving up personal freedom. Not being able to determine who you will live with, or to a great extent what you will do in a day, or where you will go, as well as minor things like what you will eat or drink, are all aspects of the giving up. It's not easy. Then again there are the changes one goes through, as hitherto unfathomed areas of the mind or powerful inclinations get revealed through insight. In the reality of the way things are, you can't always apply the simple equations: staying = good; leaving = bad. People do place a lot of faith in individual monks and nuns, and so can get disappointed in them, or disillusioned with the ideals and practice of the Sangha, when they disrobe. It's all 'good practice' (as they say) when someone leaves, to see whether your faith is dependent on another person's presence - or on your own insights. One would like to think that a monk or a nun had resolved any doubts within their first few years, but reality often refuses to work in terms of rational principles. Any life, the Holy Life included, is a totally subjective experience. The convictions that arise within it are not always accessible to someone else. We can conform as an act of faith, or out of the wish not to upset or disappoint anyone, but that's hardly the grounds for a life of insight. In the long run, the freedom to leave can be seen to be a precious one, and it helps to define the grounds that commitment should rest upon. The Buddha wanted to encourage virtue, insight and wisdom - not a monastic order per se. If monastics recollect that they can leave, even after twenty years, it helps them to examine their motivation and thereby strengthen their practice. After all, shouldn't we encourage people to take personal responsibility for their commitment? To get back to the starting point of this article, the authenticity and subjectivity of the life, the fact that it is lived by human individuals, is one of its sources of inspiration.Meanwhile (from the monasteries' perspective) another sad note: David Babski, our typesetter/publications manager has run out of visas and H.M. Government will no longer grant an extension. So he will be returning to the United States in the New Year. As David has become largely responsible for the conversion of the Sangha's words into published form, it is not clear how we will continue to publish Newsletters and other material. If nothing from the Sangha comes through your letterbox in April, be assured that we're still alive and trying. As yet there is still the opportunity to express our gratitude to David for all his diligent (and monetarily uncompensated) work. And also to those leaving the monastic life, for the support, encouragement and companionship over the years. May they all receive the blessings of their practice! It certainly wasn't always easy, but it was the real thing. Long may it continue to be so.

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April 1992 THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

2535 Cover: Ajahn Chah Passes Away; Venerable Thitapanno Articles: 50th Day Commemoration; Ven. Nyanaviro

A Noble Life: 17.6.1918 to 16.1.1992

A Niche in the Woods; Aj. Viradhammo

Life of a Forest Monk (Pt III); Luang Por Jun

Work in Hammer Woods; Mike Holmes

Editorial: Staying Alive; Ajahn Sucitto

Number 20 HOME BACK ISSUES

Ajahn Chah Passes Away Venerable Thitapanno sent us an account of the events at Wat Pah Pong immediately following Luang Por Chah's death. On the morning of 16th January, the Sangha in Britain received a brief message from Wat Pah Nanachat to inform us of the death of Luang Por Chah. The Venerable Ajahn had been critically ill, paralysed and rendered completely incapacitated by brain damage and numerous strokes over the past ten years. Our winter retreat offered us an ideal opportunity to pay honour to his example, reflect upon his teachings and further our practice in the way that he made clear. Venerable Ajahn Sumedho, who was in Thailand at the time, will be leading the formal commemoration for Luang Por Chah in Britain at Amaravati on April 25th. It is an event that we hope all of Luang Por Chah's disciples in the West can attend. It was during a retreat at Wat Keuan that Ajahn Sumedho, and the Western Sangha who had gathered there, heard that Luang Par Chah had been admitted into Ubon Hospital. Malfunctioning kidneys and heart complications had proved to be beyond the medical skills of the monks nursing him. During the ten years of his illness Luang Por had entered hospital many times, yet on each occasion he had recovered miraculously. However, reports soon began to reach us that his body was refusing to take food and the general state of his health was deteriorating. Early on the evening of the 15th January the doctors at the ICU realised that Luang Por's condition had deteriorated to the extent that he was beyond medical assistance. At 10 pm Luang Por was taken by ambulance to his nursing kuti at Wat Pah Pong in compliance with his previous request that he might pass away in his own monastery. It was at 5.20 am on the 16th January that the body of Luang Par Chah breathed its last, and in an atmosphere of peace the life of a great Buddhist master came to its end. But really this mind of ours is already unmoving and https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/20.htm[03/10/2017 20:50:49]

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peaceful - really peaceful! Just like a leaf which is still as long as no wind blows.

The attendant monks chanted the reflections that death is the natural consequence of birth and in the cessation of conditions is peace, then prepared Luang Por's body for the funeral services. As the news of his death spread, people began to arrive to pay their respects. Soon government officials, as representatives of the King, came to perform the initial ceremonies necessary for a royal funeral. Within hours the corpse was moved to the main sala, where it was laid in an ornately decorated coffin. The coffin was then sealed, and a picture of Luang Por was placed to the left along with different requisites such as his bowl and robes. Wreaths from the King, the Queen and other members of the royal family were placed to the right. In front of the coffin, extensive flower arrangements created the finishing touches. As the news of Luang Por's death spread, his disciples rushed to the Wat to pay their respects and to offer their support with the preparations to receive visitors to the monastery. It was decided that for the 15 days following Luang Por's death a Dhamma practice session would be held, as an offering of remembrance and as a focal point for the many incoming lay and monastic disciples to collect themselves around. The Sangha from Wat Pah Nanachat would come over every day at around 5 pm and stay until midnight. During this period of 15 days, about four hundred monks, seventy nuns and five hundred lay people resided at Wat Pah Pong, practising meditation until midnight, listening to talks on Dhamma themes and participating in various funeral ceremonies. Most of the Sangha were living out under the trees of the forest, using their grotes (mosquito net umbrellas) as protection from the elements and insects. The monastery became a grote village. Soon a huge open-air restaurant complex sprung up at the entrance to the monastery, serving free food and drink to the enormous numbers of people that began to make their way there from all over Thailand. As the days passed, I began to feel a sense of awe as people streamed into the monastery, from early morning to late at night: people of all ages - families, school groups and individuals. In those first few days over 50,000 books were distributed, which gives some indication of the numbers coming. By the 14th and 15th day, the number of people coming was steadily increasing to over 10,000 people per day. As the people entered the monastery they filed quietly down the road leading to the sala, waited for an opportunity to enter and bow in respect, then to sit for a short while before making way for the next group. Meanwhile the monks, nuns and resident lay people would be sitting in meditation, chanting or listening to a talk. Luang Por Jun led the funeral chanting and various senior monks gave talks. Ajahn Maha Boowa, the renowned forest meditation master, came over from his own monastery near Udorn to give a Dhamma talk and https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/20.htm[03/10/2017 20:50:49]

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commented on the quiet, harmonious atmosphere of the Wat in contrast to the confusion and noise he had experienced at similar funerals. A visit from the King's sister at this time seemed to presage the arrival of the King for the 50th day ceremonies on the 6th of March. As always in Buddhism however, especially in Thailand, nothing is certain. The 100th day after the death of Luang Pot will also be a day of considerable importance. Because of the arrangements for the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend the actual burning of Luang Por's body (at similar funerals for famous teachers, up to a million people have attended), and also to find a day suitable for the King, it was decided to hold the funeral early in 1993. For each of us Luang Por Chah has a personal meaning depending on our contact with him. Yet, for me, I will always wonder and be inspired at the sight of tens of thousands of people coming to Wat Pah Pong, to pay respects to a person who had not spoken for ten years and with whom most had never had the opportunity to speak. They came to bow before the body of a being whom they recognised as personifying our highest aspiration - a life free from the blindness of self-centred action. Freed of this delusion, the goal of the Buddhist path is fulfilled. For me, the whole occasion demonstrated the breadth and power of the influence of such a being. ooo0ooo But really this mind of ours is already unmoving and peaceful - really peaceful! Just like a leaf which is still as long as no wind blows. If a wind comes up, the leaf flutters. The fluttering is due to the wind - the 'fluttering' (of the mind) is due to those sense impressions; the mind follows them. If it doesn't follow them, it doesn't 'flutter If we know fully the true nature of sense impressions, we are unconcerned. Ajahn Chah

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

Cover: Articles:

Editorial:

April 1992 HOME BACK ISSUES

Ajahn Chah Passes Away; Venerable Thitapanno 50th Day Commemoration; Ven. Nyanaviro A Noble Life: 17.6.1918 to 16.1.1992 A Niche in the Woods; Aj. Viradhammo Life of a Forest Monk (Pt III); Luang Por Jun Work in Hammer Woods; Mike Holmes Staying Alive; Ajahn Sucitto

The 50th Day Commemoration Ven. Nyanaviro sent us a report of the commemorative services at Wat Pah Pong fifty days after the death of Venerable Ajahn Chah. At 1 pm 300 lay people and 200 monks and nuns gathered in the new sala. The floor is polished granite and the walls are partially marbled. Four huge chandeliers hang from the high ceiling. Large garlands of flowers hang from the walls and the shrine is covered in artificial lotuses which look beautiful. The cry of the wild chickens breaks into the silence - they are all over the Wat! Ajahn Jun gave a desana at 2 pm mentioning the debt of gratitude we all have to Luang Por Chah. He exhorted us to make an effort to keep up the practices that Luang Por Chah taught. He also talked about the benefits of keeping good standards regarding sila and the monastic conventions, and reminded us that the practice was not in the forest or the Wat, but is the work of the mind in the body. 'So all of Buddhism is right here in this body/mind. Don't let the practice become perfunctory - put life into it.'

Even though Ajahn Chah is dead, the goodness and virtue that he embodied is still alive.

At 7 pm about 3000 lay people and 300 monks and novices gathered in the new sala for the evening chanting. At 9 pm Luang Por Pannananda gave a desana: He started by praising Ajahn Chah as one of the great monks of this era who taught a pure kind of Buddhism, with nothing extraneous. Ajahn Chah had trained a Sangha which could continue, most notably overseas where monasteries had arisen from his inspiration. They represented an historic occasion in the development of Buddhism. Luang Por Pannananda commented that Ajahn Chah had taught people to be wise. The way the Pah Pong Sangha was handling the proceedings was a good example: in Thailand some degenerate practices had crept into funeral services, making of them an excuse for a party with gambling and alcohol. Yet the purpose of a funeral is for the study of Dhamma, not for distraction! It's a lesson, a reminder. Even though Ajahn Chah is dead, the goodness and virtue that he embodied is still alive. We must maintain that which he gave to us all: we have to be 'mediums' for Luang Por Chah, channelling his goodness and virtue through our hearts. If we reflect on Luang Por Chah's metta, sila and panna and

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internalise them, then it's as if he is in our hearts, far better than hanging a medallion with his picture on it around our necks. Luang Por Pannananda concluded by reflecting that the Buddha left the Dhamma-Vinaya, not an individual, as our teacher, and that his teaching was one of sustaining compassion, wisdom and purity. So our practice is to wish all beings well, refraining from harming others or the environment. Then to have wisdom - whatever we're doing, inquiring as to why are we doing it, what our purpose is, and what is the most skilful means. And to dwell in purity honouring goodness by making body, speech and mind good; associating with good people, and frequenting places of goodness. Luang Por Pannananda had witnessed a decline in most monasteries after the teacher died, with schisms occurring between the disciples. So we should be careful not to get attached to views, or to wealth and gains, and agree to have regular meetings in order to maintain harmony. Sangha and laity should support all the things that are in line with the way Luang Por Chah taught - and refrain from the things he cautioned us about. We must all help to do this. The evening continued with different senior monks giving talks. Ajahn Santacitto was next and his memory of Thai was excellent. They were still talking when we left at 4.45 am - but probably finished at dawn with morning puja. With respect and anjali Wat Pah Nanachat, 6th March

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

April 1992

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A Noble Life: June 17, 1918 to January 16, 1992

Venerable Ajahn Chah was born on June 17, 1918 in a small village near the town of Ubon Rajathani, North-East Thailand. Between the ages of 9 and 17 he was a samanera (novice monk), during which time he received his basic schooling before returning to lay life to help his parents on the farm. At the age of twenty, however, he decided to resume monastic life, and on April 26, 1939 he received upasampada (bhikkhu ordination). Ajahn Chah's early monastic life followed a traditional pattern, of studying Buddhist teachings and the Pali scriptural language. In his fifth year his father fell seriously ill and died, a blunt reminder of the frailty and precariousness of human life. It caused him to think deeply about life's real purpose, for although he had studied extensively and gained some proficiency in Pali, he seemed no nearer to a personal understanding of the end of suffering. Feelings of disenchantment set in, and finally (in 1946) he abandoned his studies and set off on mendicant pilgrimage.

The emphasis was always on surrender to the way things are, and great stress was placed upon strict observance of the vinaya.

He walked some 400 km to Central Thailand, sleeping in forests and gathering almsfood in the villages on the way. He took up residence in a monastery where the vinaya (monastic discipline) was carefully studied and practised. While there he was told about Venerable Ajahn Mun Buridatto, a most highly respected Meditation Master. Keen to meet such an accomplished teacher, Ajahn Chah set off on foot for the North-East in search of him. At this time Ajahn Chah was wrestling with a crucial problem. He had studied the teachings on morality, meditation and wisdom, which the texts presented in minute and refined detail, but he could not see how they could all actually be put into practice. Ajahn Mun told him that although the teachings are indeed extensive, at their heart they are very simple. With mindfulness established, if it is seen that everything arises in the mind . . . right there is the true path of practice. This succinct and direct teaching was a revelation for Ajahn Chah, and transtormed his approach to practice. The Way was clear. For the next seven years Ajahn Chah practised in the style of the austere Forest Tradition, wandering through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for

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developing meditation. He lived in tiger and cobra-infested jungles, and even in charnel grounds, using reflections on death to overcome fear and penetrate to the true meaning of life. In 1954, after years of wandering, he was invited back to his home village. He settled close by, in a fever-ridden, haunted forest called 'Pah Pong'. Despite the hardships of malaria, poor shelter and sparse food, disciples gathered around him in increasing numbers. The monastery which is now known as Wat Pah Pong began there, and eventually branch monasteries were also established elsewhere. The training in Ajahn Chah's monasteries was quite strict and forbidding. Ajahn Chah often pushed his monks to their limits, to test their powers of endurance so that they would develop patience and resolution. He sometimes initiated long and seemingly pointless work projects, in order to frustrate their attachment to tranquillity. The emphasis was always on surrender to the way things are, and great stress was placed upon strict observance of the vinaya. In 1977, Ajahn Chah was invited to visit Britain by the English Sangha Trust, a charity with the aim of establishing a locally-resident Buddhist Sangha. He took Venerable Sumedho and Venerable Khemadhammo along, and seeing the serious interest there, left them in London at the Hampstead Vihara. Another two of Ajahn Chah's Western bhikkhus, who were then visiting their families in North America, were invited to stay in London to make up a small resident Sangha. He returned to Britain in 1979, at which time the monks were leaving London to begin Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in Sussex. He then went on to America and Canada to visit and teach. After this trip, and again in 1981, Ajahn Chah spent the 'Rains' away from Wat Pah Pong, since his health was failing due to the debilitating effects of diabetes. As his illness worsened, he would use his body as a teaching, a living example of the impermanence of all things. He constantly reminded people to endeavour to find a true refuge within themselves, since he would not be able to teach for very much longer. Before the end of the 'Rains' of 1981, he was taken to Bangkok for an operation; it, however, did little to improve his condition. Within a few months he stopped talking, and gradually he lost control of his limbs until he was completely paralysed and bedridden. From then on, he was diligently nursed and attended by his bhikkhu disciples, grateful for the occasion to offer service to the teacher who so patiently and compassionately showed the Way to so many. ooo0ooo The Buddha is to be found right in the most simple things in front of you if you're willing to look. And the essence of this is finding the balance which doesn't hold and which doesn't push away. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/end.htm[03/10/2017 20:48:50]

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Ajahn Chah

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

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April 1992 HOME BACK ISSUES

A Niche in the Woods Ajahn Sucitto talks with Ajahn Viradhammo, the senior monk of Bodhinyanarama Monastery, New Zealand. Ajahn Viradhammo stopped over in Britain for a few days in December. Normally based at Bodhinyanarama Monastery in Stokes Valley, New Zealand, he is invited every year to Canada by a group in Toronto who are interested in setting up a forest monastery nearby. That gives him a chance to visit his mother in Canada, the Sangha in Britain (he was one of the first bhikkhus to come over from Thailand in 1977) and the Sangha in Thailand on his way back to New Zealand. Such contacts with the larger Sangha are essential he feels, in order to learn from different approaches, keep up with developments and keep things in perspective. 'I miss the feed back,' he commented in the course of our brief conversation at Amaravati. With characteristic vigour and straightforwardness, 'Ajahn V' was gathering feedback from all corners in his brief visit to Britain. Visiting Chithurst, Amaravati and Harnham, and conversing with their resident Sangha and guests in the space of a week, takes some enthusiasm and stamina; but remembering him from the strenuous years spent in establishing Chithurst Monastery, this hardly seemed unusual. Having trained in Thailand, helped establish Chithurst, worked in the early days at Harnham, and now living in New Zealand with a yearly world tour, have your perspectives on the role and responsibilities of a bhikkhu developed? One thing I suppose is. . . I realise now what my niche is. I see the value in going around and meeting people. I didn't see the value for the world at large when I was in Thailand; I just saw the value for myself and I never had the vision of having value for society. And in travelling around I see there is a lot of misunderstanding of what a bhikkhu is and why this tradition is needed. Why not have money, a car and a brown suit? Why do you have to hassle people with all your rules? Why don't you adapt to the times?

If one does not have a kind of mind which likes to research the text and language, then perhaps it is helpful to have more formalised ways of study in our tradition.

So that's one misconception I see: people don't understand that the bhikkhu life offers a way of training - the teaching is secondary. And then I also see there are very few places that have a spiritual centre that they can plug into - whether it's Sangha or lay people - and always have the practice and be able to talk on Dhamma; values of non-competition and non-becoming. Competition and ambition are so https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/niche.htm[03/10/2017 20:47:48]

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strong in society. But one thing I realise we're offering is that very rare kind of situation which is of such great value. However, many lay people don't understand that they can share in it. Also, I suppose I see that very few people have a philosophy of life where they have some kind of direction in their life. Many people just make do or try to be happy or think of things like feeding the poor - but finally, what's the point, if they're just going to watch more television, more Dallas? I recognise we're also offering people a life philosophy. More specifically then, how are you going about creating situations for fuller understanding? In the past I've been more involved with building up situations in terms of organisation, though of course I teach as well. Now I want to offer formal situations for Dhamma. Lay people do ask to be given formal structures to study. So, I want to learn how to create Dhamma situations which will bring lay people to the monastery. Like at Amaravari, where you have afternoon talks by Luang Por, you have children's summer camp, different kinds of publications, you study and have sutta discussion groups - the kind of things which I've never done much of because I've always been busy with organising things. Also I want to give the Sangha more formal training in Dhamma. If one does not have a kind of mind which likes to research the text and language, then perhaps it is helpful to have more formalised ways of study in our tradition. So those are the kinds of things I would like to see happen also as a challenge to myself... because I'm the kind of person that tended to have no confidence in my own ideas - or I tended not to have any ideas! Does Buddhism have a fairly good image in New Zealand; or is it seen as a strange cult? No, I think now, especially in Stoke's Valley, we're treated with great respect. We've helped the police with some refugee matters, we've been active in the community centre, we donated excess food to them and got involved in communal things. We've had quite a high profile I suppose, because it's such a small community, with so few people doing spiritual things, and everyone seems to know about everyone else. So I feel very much involved with this. And there are other Buddhist groups in New Zealand? There's a few Asian bhikkhus, and a supportive Tibetan Sangha. I'm on the committee that is helping organise the visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I'm on the national committee, and we have regional committees. Two of the national meetings have been in our monastery and we have a senior Tibetan Rimpoche coming with four nuns, and some of their monks. Lay people also. it's been a very harmonising situation with all these different traditions coming together.

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I suppose, when you're at a big place like Amaravati, set up to hold a lot of active functions, you can fantasise about a quiet little place like New Zealand. New Zealand is really romanticised as being the ideal place where there is no suffering! But yes, there is a lot more personal space because of the kutis; and because the bulk of the work now of establishing the monastery is done. So up until last year it was hard to get in a longer retreat, it was just getting stuff built, but that's done now. Now the building work is about adding facilities for the Sangha, so there is more space. But what the difficulty is, is the isolation. It can get quite claustrophobic because it's in a tight valley and you're always with the same seven people. There is nowhere else to go. But each monastery has its challenges, and you figure out what the challenges are. I try to create some sense of space for people - that's possible now. We've also been given a summer cottage. One of the original founders of the monastery died at the age of forty. His family gave us this. It's close to the sea. He was a Zen practitioner; he got involved with us to help set up, though his love was Zen. He had a brain haemorrhage two months before he was due to become a Zen monk in up-state New York. He was just about ready to sell his house, he was organising everything, and he just died in forty-eight hours. We had our first funeral at the monastery. So we have a good involvement with the Zen people. Feels quite good. During the Rains Retreat we have three months of formal practice. Two of the senior bhikkhus are involved with the teaching duties, so we don't have as strict a retreat as you do. Every Sunday twenty to thirty Lao people come to the monastery; someone is involved with running the place. So it has its challenges. One thing we really miss is that sense of a larger Sangha. With a larger Sangha, the younger monks can see what Sangha is about as distinct from the characters that are here. I reckon that each monastery has its own variables, has its own lay people and monks, and you figure out what this place is about. You get on with helping it and helping your practice. New Zealand has had a lot of experiments with communities, because it is that kind of romanticised place, but very few have lasted. I think a lot of people want the Dhamma but to practise as a spiritual community is very rare. I do not hear of many communities that are able to stick together and have a good Dhammic philosophy and good Vinaya. Very few people want to live as monks, or practice at all. So I find it inspiring and important that in some way we're actually doing it: that's our niche. So I'm more and more confident about the value of what we're offering. Just look at what's happened at Amaravati, compared to 1977 when we were four bhikkhus and three lay people in a house in London. Because what's happening in New Zealand is what's happening everywhere. We're at the end of a suburb and we have lay people buying houses near us and a community has been able to form. So the society changes from the roots, rather than through the government changing society. And we're beginning to in our small way create a different kind of society. Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter

Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

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April 1992 HOME BACK ISSUES

Life of a Forest Monk (Pt III) The continuing account of the life and times of Luang Por Jun, a senior disciple of Ven. Ajahn Chah. On tudong there were many opportunities and experiences to facilitate the arising of wisdom. In mountains, forest, caves, and all different places one can see and experience Dhamma. The insights, and understanding that arise through seeing different provinces and different people shows how everything is really the same everywhere - it is only the outward appearances that differ. Ajahn Chah always gave me the opportunity to consider this reflection wherever we were. He always encouraged me to be open to dhammas that revealed the true nature of all things. My own nature was not one that was peaceful, and I didn't find it easy to sit in meditation and examine my mind states. My strength was more from learning from the observation of external stimuli, like seeing the things that happened outside the monastery and then contemplating it. In this way the mind gained peace without any turmoil or chaos of investigating these things directly. We develop concentration and then wisdom arises. Regarding myself, I had to search for this peace by using wisdom to bring things inward for contemplation to see truth. Once we begin to know and realise things for ourselves we can understand the Dhamma in all places, no matter where we are. Ajahn Tongrut* once said, 'The Dhamma isn't in the forest, it isn't over there in a cave, it's behind you.' Now I know what he meant. The Dhamma is often passed over because we go off looking for it elsewhere and pass over it. It's right here, right now, the very place where we're at. *one of Ajahn Chah's mentors, known for his eccentric means of demonstrating points of Dhamma. The Buddha was the same. He travelled around in the beginning looking for teachers. He starved himself and practised extreme asceticism. One can't say that this was wrong, because these things were the Buddha's teachers before he realised the truth. Making a mistake can teach us. We have opportunities to rectify our mistakes and learn from them if we are shown the right way to do it.

He wants to be finished but he will never finish. Let him keep at it!

How many times did you go on tudong with Luang Por Chah? Only once. Not all of Luang Por Chah's monks had the opportunity to go tudong with him. Ajahn Teeang lived with Ajahn Chah before I did but never had the opportunity to go tudong https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/jun3.htm[03/10/2017 20:46:37]

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with him - I was very fortunate and learned a great deal. I remember how my feet split open on that first tudong. We came to a village with a very stony road and he offered me his own sandals to wear until we got onto a better road. On my second tudong I went with several other monks. Did you have any novices or pahkows with you, Luang Por? No, just the monks. We went to a mountain Ajahn Chah had spoken about called Lang Kuh mountain. It was very high and not an easy climb. When we got to the top the clouds were around our knees. What province was that, Luang Por? It was in Nong Kai province in Ampher Beung Gan. We stayed there for three days, though we had planned to stay for four or five days. We had to fast. Weren't there any villages nearby, Luang Por? No, it was too high up. We were afraid we wouldn't have enough strength to climb down. The first day we climbed up when we finished our meal. It took the entire morning to get to the top. We wanted to stay longer but because of the problem with alms we could only stay for three days. My third tudong was through some of the districts in Ubon with a novice and a Cambodian boy. So I only did three tudongs - two on my own and one with Ajahn Chah. Enough to know what it was about and understand how to practise outside the monastery. My nature is to keep busy and stay active. I had done some building work and always had plans going around in my mind. Ajahn Chah understood this, so he put me in charge of the work in the monastery. I wasn't ready for this responsibility but Ajahn Chah let me get on with it. 'Just let him go, let him do it.' Ajahn Chah laughed, 'He wants to be finished but he will never finish. Let him keep at it!' Normally Luang Por Chah would have one do the opposite of what one wanted to do. Isn't this right, Luang Por? Yes, always the opposite. If we followed our wishes, Ajahn Chah would say that was the way of the world, and we were always encouraged to go against the way of the world. He would use the old example of the five basic precepts as guidelines for not following desire, and therefore going against what the flow of humanity. Going against that flow is like going upstream. After the Buddha's enlightenment he established the five precepts as a way of going against desire. Learn to resist. If you want to go, then don't go. If we want to lie down, we should stand, if we want to stand we should start walking, and so go against the defilements. This is called the period of training. Once we have this training, then we are free

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to live by conventions without being affected by the ways of the world. If we don't have this training then we continue to follow our defilements. Wishing to separate ourselves from the world isn't the right training either. In ancient India the caste system divided people from each other and this didn't make the world a better place. In the early development of Wat Pah Pong it was only accessible via a narrow path that was just big enough for one or two people to pass through at a time. As time progressed the fruits of Dhamma and sila begin to manifest, with Ajahn Chah leading us in the practice and training our lives. The lay supporters began to come more often, some of them even came from the surrounding villages to hear the Dhamma. Pretty soon they built a wider road to the monastery and supporters in a nearby village asked Ajahn Chah to establish a branch monastery there. I trained with Luang Por Chah at Wat Pah Pong for seven Vassas. A family from my home village came to Wat Pah Pong to practise and later asked me to return to my village for a visit. I was quite enthusiastic to go back and tell them about Ajahn Chah and his way of practice. Looking back I think this must have been quite courageous, because I genuinely wanted to sort things out and train the monks in my home village to understand the discipline as Ajahn Chah had trained me, and get them on the right path. Did you want to go back because you thought about changing things at the village monastery? Yes, that's right. The different ceremonies and traditions were being done for the wrong reason and I wanted them to see the right practice. Remembering my past life with these people I had a feeling of metta towards them and hoped I could show them something beyond the empty rituals and ceremonies they revered so deeply. The time came for me to leave, and Ajahn Chah said to me: 'I really don't want you to go. You're one with lots of saddha (faith) and are very useful to have around. By staying with me here, we become partners in cultivating the paramitas (transcendent virtues). But it's normal to want to go away. I was the same after understanding the truth - as I began to think of my home village, I too wanted to take the teaching back there and cultivate the beautiful. It doesn't mean that one has begun worrying about one's village, it means one wants to correct https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/jun3.htm[03/10/2017 20:46:37]

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things that are wrong. When we see the beautiful then we are moved to want to help in this way. I can't forbid you from going, you'll be useful to others. So go, we will be separated eventually by death anyway, and here we have the opportunity to be separated in a different way. Cultivate the Dhamma for those still submerged in darkness. I will learn to manage without you. Do your best, keep the Vinaya, and if you run out of bullets you can always return here to replenish your ammunition.**

**Ajahn Chah often used military metaphors to express the sense of powerful application to eliminating ignorance and attachments. At this time Luang Pot Ginerlee*** visited and I told him what I was intending to do. He replied, 'Is that really a good way to think? When you go back to your village it will be really difficult. Even the Buddha waited a long time before he went back to his own village, are you sure you can handle it?' I wasn't sure, but I felt quite courageous and wanted to give it a try, and if it proved too difficult I was prepared to come back. The Ajahn then warned me: 'Be careful of your old friends that you used to have a good time with. These are the ones that can lead you to ruin. Whatever you love, whatever you hold near and dear, these are the things that will cause you the greatest suffering.' He was right. Returning to my home village was a constant challenge. I gave my life to the village, and the constant contentiousness sometimes caused me to have thoughts of resentment. But it became a part of my practice, helping others and myself at the same time. At first, they didn't understand anything about my way of practice. A hundred years earlier, a forest master who had lived with Ajahn Sao**** lived at this monastery, but his disciples from that day had all died out. ***Another one of Ajahn Chah's mentors ****the teacher of Ven. Ajahn Mun The monastery had a history of being deserted and re-established several times. My way of doing things was completely opposite to the way the village monks did things, they asked where I had studied my way of practice, and wondered why I had learned this sort of teaching. They accused me of being a Dhammayut and belonging to another sect, and then blamed me for trying to destroy old customs and rituals as well as the peace and harmony in the village. I did my best to explain myself, and fortunately I often had the opportunity to go and consult Luang Por Chah. He was a source of encouragement and support. I went in the year 25O9 (1966), and had Ajahn Toon with me that first Vassa. How many monks went with you that first Vassa, Luang Por? I had taken two other monks and a novice with me. Ajahn Toon was with me, and he had been around for some time and knew the routine and the practice quite well. He was a good companion. He offered good support and helped when we had conflicts with the monks in the monastery. Which monks were those, Luang Por? The monastery where I was staying had previously been a village wat. Three monks were there when I arrived, and I tried to explain the discipline and the practice to them, and gave them the opportunity to train and practise as we were practising. I also gave them the opportunity to go elsewhere, too. We got on with living there, and I gave talks and desanas [Dhamma talksl. Of course our practice went against their ways, and this was noticed by the lay supporters. It created turmoil for the village monks and became increasingly difficult for them. They complained to the village chief, telling him that they just could not live with me and accused me of criticising them. I told the village chief that I wasn't criticising anyone https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/jun3.htm[03/10/2017 20:46:37]

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that we were just living as specified in the Vinaya, and leaving it up to the other monks to decide how to practise. I explained how I had once lived the same way myself, and had learned to correct my old ways. It was entirely up to the monks to give up their old ways if they wished to do so. The two junior monks decided to disrobe, and the third, the abbot, who was actually my cousin, stayed on to train and practise with us. We asked to extend the monastery's boundaries to include a small forest and ancient burial ground, and at first the laity agreed. When they heard desanas against their defilements, they began to resist and became contentious. There was also a large lake nearby that we asked to be annexed to the monastery. Some people sided against this, and this became another bone of contention for them. The sala was too small so we tore it apart and built another. We received criticism for this also. I told them to neither blame nor praise us, and continued to make alterations where necessary. Many saw the good of these changes and continued to support us, but others would tear down the fence around the monastery after they went out drinking, or steal the fish living in the pond. They would come at night and we would chase them away sometimes I had to pretend to be really fierce and would brandish a large samurai sword at them. I would wave my torch at them and yell, 'Let's get em! Let's get 'em!!' It was just a threat, I wouldn't have really hurt them, but the novices and I gave them quite a fright chasing them through the dark! At first, there was nothing but contentiousness and strife. It took ten years before the village monks would live with us harmoniously. We continued to be kind to them and treat them with respect. Ajahn Chah had a similar problem with the abbot at the village monastery near Wat Pah Pong, who was critical and abusive. He just endured it. to be continued.... Â Â

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

April 1992

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Work in Hammer Woods, Chithurst An update by Mike Holmes It was in 1987 that Ajahn Sucitto and I were stuck in a traffic jam on the M25. The Ajahn produced a tape recorder and interviewed me about the Hammer Woods at Chithurst. That interview appeared in the Forest Sangha Newsletter. I would now like to tell you a little about the work that has gone on since. You may remember that the basis of the management plan was to change areas of non-native tree species to those that grew in the old English oak forests. This entailed getting rid of large areas of our commercial chestnut coppice and replanting.

All through the South, the old Woodland Management ways, which disappeared after the Second World War, are beginning to start up again.

We now have about sixty acres of chestnut remaining, which is just right for our needs. Apart from producing our firewood, it is an important industry in the local area. It provides work for a number of people, who make fence posts, tree stakes, bean poles and many other forest products. I have been able to find local workers who are interested in the monastery, respect the woods and have a love of nature. These people are great to have around and very different from those who worked here when I first arrived. We even have a 'bodger' who makes besoms from the birch saplings that grow so vigorously and often swamp the trees that we plant. We have plantations of non-native conifers, which consist of Japanese Larch, Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock and Spruce. This winter, a market has been found for such timber and many of these trees are being felled. The area of Japanese Larch has already been re-planted with native broad leaves, part of the over one thousand trees and shrubs that I alone will have planted this winter. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/woods.htm[03/10/2017 20:45:38]

Sunlight on Water The turning earth obscures the sun, night comes over England. Vixens bark, badgers trundle out, mother calls the children in. A breath of sleep and then a skyful of stars as dawn comes. Wake! Again!! Begin!!! Hollow-legged, blinking; emergence from oblivion and the strange dream-logic wherein vague feelings, and half-remembered characters balloon into huge reality then fade without a murmur.

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In the forestry world we are being told that a market is starting in Sussex for the products of hazel coppicing. Such a market has existed in Hampshire for the last few years and it is growing. We have an area of derelict hazel coppice and with the help of the local British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, I am getting this into working order once again. All through the South, the old Woodland Management ways, which disappeared after the Second World War, are beginning to start up again. This is great for wildlife and the countryside. We have various schemes to help wildlife, which I shall list at another time. Suffice to say now, that we have in general been successful and things are well in the Hammer Woods.

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Owl-calls echo through the woods; dew drips, clattering softly on chestnut leaves. Pale violet, rose, the sky fills with light, amethystine. Venus and the crescent moon have given up their sparkle to the dawn. Colour and birdsong wash through the hills, the dark is over. Amaro Bhikkhu

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

April 1992

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Being Nobody Ajahn Sumedho, reflecting on his own training under Luang Por Chah, concludes that what was most significant about the life in the austere forest monastery, with its accomplished master, was its ordinariness. The first year that I practised I was on my own and I could get into highly-developed concentrated states of mind, which I really enjoyed. Then I went to Wat Pah Pong, where the emphasis was on the way of life, in accordance with Vinaya discipline and a routine. There one had to go out on alms-round every morning, and do the morning chanting and evening chanting. If you were young and healthy you were expected to go on these very long alms-rounds - they had shorter ones that the old feeble monks could go on. In those days I was very vigorous so I was always going on these long, long alms-rounds and then I'd come back tired, then there would be the meal and then in the afternoon we all had chores to do. It was not possible under those conditions to stay in a concentrated state. Most of the day was taken up by daily life routine.

Reflecting on life in this human form: it is just like this, it's being able to sit peacefully and get up peacefully and be content with what you have.

So I got fed up with all this and went to see Luang Por Chah and said, 'I can't meditate here', and he started laughing at me and telling everyone that, 'Sumedho can't meditate here!' I was seeing meditation as this very special experience that I'd had and quite enjoyed and then Luang Por Chah was obviously pointing to the ordinariness of daily life, the getting up, the alms-rounds, the routine work, the chores: the whole thing was for mindfulness. And he didn't seem at all eager to support me in my desires to have strong sensory deprivation experience by not having to do all these little daily tasks. He didn't seem to go along with that; so I ended up having to conform and learn to meditate in the ordinariness of daily life. And in the long run that has been the most helpful. It has not always been what I wanted, because one wants the special, one would love to have blazing light and marvelous insights in Technicolor and have incredible bliss and ecstasy and rapture. Not be just happy and calm - but over the moon! But reflecting on life in this human form: it is just like this, it's being able to sit peacefully and get up peacefully and be content with what you have; it's that which makes our life as a daily experience something that is joyful and not suffering. And this is how most of our life can be lived - you can't live in ecstatic states of rapture and bliss and do the dishes, can you? I used to read about the lives of saints that were so caught up in ecstasies they couldn't do anything on any practical level. Even though the blood would flow from their palms and they could do https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/no.htm[03/10/2017 20:43:15]

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feats that the faithful would rush to look at, when it came to anything practical or realistic they were quite incapable. And yet when you contemplate the Vinaya discipline itself, it is a training in being mindful. It's about mindfulness with regard to making robes, collecting alms food, eating food, taking care of your kuti; what to do in this situation or that situation. It's all very practical advice about the daily life of a bhikkhu. An ordinary day in the life of Bhikkhu Sumedho isn't about exploding into rapture, but getting up and going to the toilet and putting on a robe and bathing and doing this or that; it's just about being mindful while one is living in this form and learning to awaken to the way things are, to the Dhamma. That's why whenever we contemplate cessation we're not looking for the end of the universe but just the exhalation of the breath or the end of the day or the end of the thought or the end of the feeling. To notice that, means that we have to pay attention to the flow of life - we have to really notice the way it is rather than wait for some kind of fantastic experience of marvelous light descending on us, zapping us or whatever. Now just contemplate the ordinary breathing of your body. You notice when you're inhaling that it's easy to concentrate. When you're filling your lungs you feel a sense of growth and development and strength. When you say somebody's "puffed up" then they're probably inhaling. It's hard to feel puffed up while you're exhaling. Expand your chest and you have a sense of being somebody big and powerful. However, when I first started paying attention to exhaling, my mind would wander; exhaling didn't seem as important as inhaling you were just doing it so that you could get on to the next inhalation. Now reflect: one can observe breathing, so what is it that can observe? What is it that observes and knows the inhalation and the exhalation - that's not the breathing, is it? You can also observe the panic that comes if you want to catch a breath and you can't; but the observer, that which knows, is not an emotion, not panic-stricken, is not an exhalation or an inhalation. So our refuge in Buddha is being that knowing; being the witness rather than the emotion or the breath or the body. This way you begin to see a way of being mindful, of bringing mindfulness to the ordinary routine things and experiences of life. I have a nice little picture in my room that I'm very fond of - of this old man with a coffee mug in his hand, looking out of the window into an English garden with the rain coming down. The title of the picture is 'Waiting'. That's how I think of myself; an old man with my coffee mug sitting there at the window, waiting, waiting.. watching the rain or the sun or whatever. I don't find that a depressing image but rather a peaceful one. This life is just about waiting isn't it? We're waiting all the time - this experience of waiting. So we notice that. We're not waiting for anything, but we can be just waiting. And https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/no.htm[03/10/2017 20:43:15]

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then we respond to the things of life, to the time of day, the duties, the way things move and change, the society we are in. That response isn't from the force of habits of greed, hatred and delusion but it's a response of wisdom and mindfulness.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

Cover: Articles:

Editorial:

April 1992 Ajahn Chah Passes Away; Venerable Thitapanno 50th Day Commemoration; Ven. Nyanaviro A Noble Life: 17.6.1918 to 16.1.1992 A Niche in the Woods; Aj. Viradhammo Life of a Forest Monk (Pt III); Luang Por Jun Work in Hammer Woods; Mike Holmes Staying Alive; Ajahn Sucitto

HOME BACK ISSUES

Why Are We Here? A talk given at the remote Turn Saeng Pet Forest Monastery, North-east Thailand, in September, 1981. This talk was one of the very last that Luang Por gave before he lost the ability to speak. Today all of you - both lay people and monks - have come to offer flowers as an act of reverence. Making offerings to, and showing respect towards our seniors is very auspicious. This Rains Retreat I don't have much energy; I am not well, so I have come up to this mountain to get some fresh air for the Rains. People come to visit, but I can't really receive them like I used to because my voice has just about had it and my breath is nearly finished. You can count it as a blessing that there is still this body to sit here for all of you to see now. This is a blessing in itself. Soon you won't see it. The breath will be finished, the voice will be gone. They go according to the supporting factors of all compounded things. As the Lord Buddha called it, KHAYA VAYAM, the decline and fall of all conditioned phenomena. How do they decline? We can compare this to a lump of ice. Originally it was simply water; they freeze it and it becomes ice. But it doesn't last many days and it's melted. Take a big lump of ice, say about as big as this tape-recorder here, and leave it out in the sun. You can watch the decline of this lump of ice, much the same as this body. It will gradually melt. In not many minutes or hours the lump of ice is gone, melted into water. This is called KHAYA VAYAM, the decline and cessation of all compounded things. It's been like this for a long time now, ever since the beginning of time. When we are born we bring this inherent nature with us: we can't avoid it. On being born we bring old age, sickness and death with us. So this is why the Buddha spoke of KHAYA VAYAM, the decline and cessation of all compounded things. All of us sitting in this hall here, without exception - laymen, lay women, monks and novices - are simply 'lumps of decline'. Right now the lump is hard, just like the lump of ice which was previously water. It becomes a lump of ice and then it melts again. Can you see its decline? Look at it. This body of ours is declining every day; the hair is aging, nails are aging. Everything is declining. You probably weren't like this before, were you? You were probably much smaller than this. Now you have grown and matured. From now on you will decline, following the way of nature. One declines just like the lump of ice. Soon it's all gone: the lump of ice becomes water. Our body is like this. All bodies are made up of the elements of earth, water, wind and fire. When there's a body the four elements of earth, water, wind and fire come together, and we call that a 'person'. Originally it's hard to say what you'd call it, but now we call it a 'person'. We get elated over it, saying that's a male person, this is a female person; we give them names - Mr. This and Miss That - so that we can identify each other and perform our functions more conveniently. But actually there isn't really anybody there. There's earth, water, wind and fire. When these are all brought together as a body we call that a 'person'. Now don't get all excited over it. If you https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/why.htm[03/10/2017 20:42:09]

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really look into it there isn't anyone there.

They're so busy looking at other things that they never see themselves. To be honest, people are really pitiful. They have no refuge.

That which is solid is the body - the flesh, skin, bones and so on - is called earth. Those aspects of the body which are liquid are the water element. The aspect of warmth in the body is called fire and the winds coming and going throughout the body are called wind. At Wat Pah Pong we have a body which is neither male nor female. It's a dead body from which all the flesh has been removed, leaving only the bones. It's the skeleton which hangs in the main hall. Looking at it one can't tell if it's a man or a woman. People ask whether it's a man or woman, and all they can do is look blankly at each other because it's only a skeleton. All the skin and flesh are gone. People are ignorant of this. They go to Wat Pah Pong, go into the main hall and see the skeletons . . . some people can't bear to look: they run outside again. They're afraid . . . afraid of themselves! I figure these people have never seen themselves before. Afraid of the skeletons . . . they don't reflect on the great value of the skeleton. In order to get here they had to ride in a car and walk ... if they didn't have bones how would it be? Would they be able to walk about? They sit in their cars and go to Wat Pah Pong, walk into the hall, see the skeletons and run straight back out again! They've never seen such a thing before. They're born with it and yet they've never seen it. They sleep in the same bed with it yet they've never seen it. It's really fortunate that they have a chance to see it now. Older people, 50, 60, or 70 years old, see the skeletons and get scared. What's the fuss about? This shows that they are not at all in touch with themselves, they don't really know themselves. Getting home they can't sleep for three or even four days and yet they're sleeping with a skeleton, nothing else! They get dressed with it, eat food with it, do everything with it... and yet they're scared of it. This shows that people are really way out of touch with themselves. How pitiful! They're always looking outside, looking at trees, looking at other things, saying this is big, that's small, this is long, that's short. They're so busy looking at other things that they never see themselves. To be honest, people are really pitiful. They have no refuge. When I conduct ordination ceremonies the ordinands must learn the five basic meditation objects: kesa (hair of the head), loma (hair of the body), nakha (nails), danta (teeth) and taco (skin). Students and learned people probably snigger to themselves when they hear this: 'What's Tahn Ajahn trying to teach us here? Teaching us about hair when we've had it for ages. He doesn't have to teach us that. We know about it already. Why bother teaching us something we already know?' People who are really dim are like this, they think they can see hair already. I tell them that when I say 'to see the hair' it means to see it as it really is. See body hair as it really is; see nails, skin and teeth as they truly are. That's what I call 'seeing'. It doesn't mean just seeing in a superficial way, but to see according to the truth. We probably wouldn't be so sunk up to the ears in this world if we could see things as they really are. Hair, nails, teeth, skin . . . what are they really like? Are they pretty? Are they clean? Do they have any real essence? Are they stable?

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No . . . there's nothing to them. They're not pretty but we imagine them to be so. They're not substantial but we imagine them to be so. Hair, nails, teeth, skin . . . people are really hooked on these things. The Buddha laid these down as the basic objects for meditation. He taught us to know these five things. They are impermanent, imperfect and devoid of self; they are not 'us' or 'them'. We are born with these things and become deluded by them, but they are in truth foul things. Suppose we didn't bathe for a few days, could we bear to be close to each other? We'd really smell bad. When we sweat a lot, such as when working hard together, it really stinks. We go back home and rub ourselves down with soap and the smell abates somewhat; the fragrance of the soap replaces it. Rubbing soap on the body may make it seem fragrant but actually the bad smell of the body is still there, dormant. The smell of the soap just covers it up. When the soap is all gone the smell comes back as before. Now we tend to think that these bodies here are pretty, delightful, solid and strong. We tend to think that we will never age, get sick or die. We are deluded and charmed by the body so we don't know how to find the real refuge within ourselves. The true place of refuge is the mind. The mind is one's true refuge. This hall here may be big but it's not a true refuge. It's simply a temporary shelter. Pigeons take shelter here, geckoes take shelter here, skunks take shelter here. Anything may come and take shelter here. We may think it belongs to us but it doesn't. We live here together with the rats and everything else. This is called a 'temporary shelter'. Soon we must leave it. People tend to take these shelters as a refuge. Those who have small houses are unhappy because their houses are too small, but those who have big houses are unhappy because they're impossible to keep clean. In the morning they complain, in the evening they complain. . . . People take things and leave them around, never putting them away.. . the lady of the house ends up having a nervous breakdown! Therefore the Buddha said to find your refuge. That means to find your real heart. This heart is really important. People mostly don't look at the important things, they spend all their time looking at unimportant things. For example, when they sweep the house, wash the dishes and so on, they're aiming for cleanliness. They wash the dishes to clean them, they want to clean everything . . . but they fail to see that their own hearts are not very clean. This is called 'needing a refuge but taking only a temporary shelter. They beautify house and home, beautify this and that, but they don't think of beautifying their own hearts. They don't examine suffering. This heart is therefore the important thing. The Buddha urged us to find a refuge in

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our own hearts: attahi attano natho - 'Make yourself a refuge unto yourself'. Who else can be one's refuge? That which is the true refuge is our own heart, nothing else. One may try to depend on other things but they aren't a sure thing. One can only depend on other things if one already has a refuge within oneself. We must have a refuge first. Before we can depend on a teacher, depend on family, friends or relatives, one must first make oneself into a refuge. So today, both the lay people and monks who have come to visit and pay respects, please take this instruction and contemplate it. Ask yourselves: 'Who am I? Why am I here?' Ask yourselves often, 'Why was I born?' Some people don't know. They want to be happy but the suffering never stops. Rich or poor they suffer. Young or old they still suffer. It's all suffering. And why? Because they don't have any wisdom. If they're poor they're unhappy because they're poor; if they're rich they're unhappy because they're rich, there's too much to look after. In the past, when I was a boy novice, I was once asked to give a Dhamma talk. I talked about the wealth of having servants. Let's say one had a hundred servants . . . say, a hundred male servants, a hundred female servants, a hundred elephants, a hundred cows, a hundred buffaloes. . . . a hundred of everything! People really lapped it up. But would you like to look after a hundred buffaloes? Say you had a hundred buffaloes, a hundred cows, a hundred male and a hundred female servants, and you had to look after all of them yourself. Would that be fun? People don't think of that. They only have the desire to have . . . to have the cows, the buffaloes, the elephants, the servants . . . hundreds of them. That's worth listening to. ... Ah, makes you feel really good, doesn't it? But, say, fifty buffaloes would be already too much. Just twining the rope for all those brutes would be too much! But people don't think of this. They only think of acquiring but they don't think of the trouble involved. If we don't have wisdom everything within us will be a cause for suffering. If we have wisdom it will lead us out of suffering. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind... . The eyes aren't necessarily good things, you know. If our heart is not good, just seeing other people can make us angry and ruin our sleep. We may see other people and fall in love with them; that kind of love is suffering too, if one doesn't get what one wants. Aversion is suffering and attraction is also suffering, because of one's desire. Wanting is suffering, not wanting is suffering; the things we don't like, we want to get rid of. We want to acquire those things that we like but even if we get them it's still suffering.., afraid that we shall lose them. There is only suffering. How is one to live? Therefore all of you should take a look at yourselves. Why were we born? Have we ever really gotten anything? I've asked various elderly people, eighty years and over, simple farmers. In the countryside here people start planting rice right from childhood. When they reach 17 or 18 they hurry to get married because they're afraid they won't have enough time to get rich. So they start working from an early age thinking they'll get rich that way. They grow rice until they're 70, 80 or even 90. When they come to hear a talk I ask them, 'From the day you were born until now you've been working. Now it's almost time to go, have you got anything to take with you?' They don't know what to say. All they can say is: 'Beats me! Beats me!' We have a saying in these parts, 'Don't waste your time picking berries along the way. Before you know it, night falls'. Just because of this 'beats me!' They're neither here nor there, content with just a 'beats me!' Sitting among the branches gorging themselves with berries. . . . 'Beats me! Beats me!' When you're still young you think that being single is no good, if you find a partner you'll be better off. So you find a partner to live with. But if you put two things together they collide! Living alone is too quiet, one feels lonely, but living with makes for friction... clunk! clunk! clunk! When the children are born and they're still small the parents think, 'When they get bigger we'll be all right'. So they raise their children, three, four, or five of them, thinking that when

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the children are grown they'll be better off. But when they grow up it's even heavier. It's like two pieces of wood, one small and the other big. You throw away the small one and take the big one thinking it will be lighter but of course it's heavier. When children are small they don't bother you very much really - just a ball of rice and a banana now and then. When they grow up they start asking for a motor-cycle or a car. Well, you love your children, you can't refuse, so you try to give them what they want. Problems. Sometimes the father and mother argue: 'Don't go and buy him a car, we haven't got enough money!' But when you love your children you have to borrow the money from somewhere. Sometimes you may even have to go without food to do so. Then there's education. 'When he's finished his studies we'll be all right'. There's no end to the studying! What's he going to finish? There's no end to it. Only in the science of Buddhism is there an end to the studying; all other sciences just go round in circles. In the end it's just a headache. If there's a house where four or five children are studying at once, the parents argue every day. The suffering that is imminent in the future we fail to see; we think it'll never happen. When it arises, then we know. That kind of suffering, the suffering inherent in our bodies, is hard to foresee. When I was a child, minding the buffaloes and cows, I'd take charcoal and rub it on my teeth to make them white. I was just getting charmed by my own bones, that's all. When I reached 50-60 years' old, my teeth started to get loose. When the teeth start falling out you want to cry, it hurts so much. When you eat, the tears start falling - you feel as if you're being kicked in the mouth. The teeth really ache, it's a lot of suffering and pain. I've been through this already. I just got the dentist to take them all out. Now I've got false teeth. They were giving me so much trouble that I had them taken out, sixteen in one go. The dentist was reluctant to take out sixteen teeth at once, so I said, 'Doctor, just take them out, I'll take the consequences.' So he took them all out at once. Some were still good too, at least five of them. Took them all out. But it was really touch and go. After taking them out I couldn't eat for two or three days. Before, when I was a child minding the buffaloes, I used to think that polishing the teeth was really good. I loved my teeth. I thought they were good things but in the end they had to go. The pain almost killed me. I had toothache for months, years. Sometimes both my gums were swollen at once. You may all have a chance to experience this for yourselves someday. Those of you whose teeth are still good, brushing them constantly to keep them nice and white watch out! Watch out they don't start acting up on you later on. Now, I'm just letting you know. You may meet up with this yourselves someday - the suffering that arises within us, the suffering within our own bodies. There's nothing in the body which one can depend on. But it's a bit better when you are still young. As one gets older things begin to break down. Everything begins to fall apart. The sankharas (compounded phenomena) go their natural way. Whether we cry or laugh they just go on their way. However we feel about it they go their own way regardless. Whether we're in pain or distress, whether we live or die, they just go on like that. There's no knowledge or science which can prevent this. You get a dentist to look at your teeth; even if he can fix them they eventually go on their way. Eventually even the dentist has the same trouble, he can't do any more. Everything falls apart in the end. These are things we should contemplate with a sense of urgency while we still have some vigour, we should start to practice. If you want to make merit then hurry up and make it. But most people just leave it up to the oldies. People wait till they get old before they go to the monastery to study Dhamma. Women and men are the same: 'Wait till I get old first.' I don't know what they're thinking of. Does an old person have any energy? Try racing with a young person and find out. Why must they leave it till they're old? Just like they were never going to die. When they reach 50 or 60 years: 'Hey Grandma! Let's go to the monastery.' 'Oh, my ears aren't so good any more!' You see? When her ears were good what was she listening to? 'Beats me!' Just dallying with the berries. Finally when her ears are gone she goes to the temple. It's hopeless. She listens to the sermon but hasn't a clue what he's saying. People wait

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till they're all used up before they'll think of practising. In the past my legs could run. Now just walking around they feel heavy. Before, my legs carried me; now I have to carry them. When I was a child I'd see old people getting up from their seats, 'oooy!', sitting down, 'oooy!' Even when it gets to this stage they still don't learn. Sitting down they moan 'oy!', getting up they groan, 'oy!' There's always this 'oy'. But they don't know what it is that makes them groan like that. There's only the 'oy . . . oy. . . Even when it gets to this extent people still don't see the bane of the body. We never know when we're going to be parted from it. That which is causing all the pain is simply the sankharas going their natural way. People think it's rheumatism, arthritis, gout and so on. The doctor comes and gives you some medicine, but it never really goes. In the end it all falls apart, even the doctor! This is the sankharas declining according to their nature. That is their way, that is their nature. So therefore, brothers and sisters, take a look at this. If you see it in advance you'll be okay, like seeing a poisonous snake which lies ahead of us. If we see it first, then we can get out of the way and it won't bite us. If we don't see it we go walking right on and step on it. And then it bites. Then, if suffering arises we don't know who to go to. Where will you go to treat it? People only want not to have suffering. They want to be without suffering but they don't know the way to treat it when it arises. And they live on like this until they get old . . . and get sick . . . and die. In olden times people used to say that when someone was mortally ill, lying on his death bed, then one of his next-of-kin should quietly go up to him and whisper in his ear, 'BUDDHO, BUDDHO'. What's he going to do with 'BUDDHO?' When they're almost on the funeral pyre what good is 'BUDDHO' going to be for them then? When they were young and active why didn't they learn 'BUDDHA' then? Now with the breath coming in fitful gasps you say, Mother, mother! . . . BUDDHO BUDDHO.' Why waste your time? Don't bother, you'll only confuse her: let her go peacefully. People just like the beginnings and endings. The middle they don't really bother with. That's the way they are. All of us are like that, lay people, monks, novices. . . they don't know how to solve problems within their own hearts. They don't know their refuge. So they get angry easily, have a lot of desires. Why is this? They have no refuge in the heart. Married couples, when they're still young and healthy, can bear to talk to each other somewhat. But after 50 or so years they can't understand each other. The wife speaks and the husband can't endure it. The husband speaks and the wife won't listen. So they turn their backs on each other. One favours the son, one favours the daughter, there's no harmony. Now I'm just saying this: actually I've never had a family. And why haven't I ever had a household? Because just looking at these words 'house hold', I knew what it was all about. What is a household? This is a 'hold': if we're just sitting here comfortably and then somebody gets something and surrounds us with it, what's that like? Sitting normally is bearable, but if we box ourselves in with something, that's called 'being held'. Whatever that's like, 'holding' is like that. There is a 'confining ring'. When I read this word 'household' . . . oh! it's a heavy one. The word is no trifling matter, it's a real killer. The word 'hold' is a word of suffering. One can't go anywhere, got to stay in ones ring of confinement. It's due to this word that I became a monk and didn't disrobe. 'Household' is frightening. One is stuck and can't go anywhere. Problems with the children, with money and all the rest, but where can one go? One is tied down. There are sons and daughters - arguments galore until one's dying day and there's nowhere else to go, no matter how much suffering it is. The tears https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/why.htm[03/10/2017 20:42:09]

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pour out and they go right on pouring. The tears are never finished with this 'household', you know. If there's no household then maybe one can be done with the tears but otherwise it's just about impossible to find an end to them. Let all of you consider this. If you haven't come across it yet you may later on. Some people may have experienced it already to some extent. Some are already at the end of their tether: 'Will I stay or will I go?' At Wat Pah Pong there are about 70 or 80 huts. Sometimes when they are almost full I say, 'Keep some aside. Maybe some husband or wife will have an argument and come looking for a place to stay.' Sure enough, here they come! A lady arrives with her bags. I ask, 'Where are you from?' 'I've come to pay respects, Luang Por. I'm fed-up with the world.' 'Whoa! don't say that! I'm really scared of that one!' Then the husband comes and says he's fed-up too. They stay two or three days in the monastery and then their world-weariness disappears. The lady says she's fed-up - she's just fooling herself. The man says he's fed-up . . . fooling himself. They go and sit alone in separate huts, in the quiet, on their own, thinking: 'When's the wife going to come and ask me to go home?' 'When's Hubby going to come and take me home?' There! They don't really know what's going on. What is this 'being fed-up' of theirs? They get angry and frustrated and so run to the monastery. When they were at home, they could only see what was wrong with everything else: the husband is all wrong, the wife is all wrong. After three days of thinking, it's: 'Oh, the wife was right after all, it was I who was wrong.' 'Hubby was right, I was wrong.' They change sides like this. This is how it is, so I don't take the world too seriously. I know it's ins and outs already so I've chosen to live as a monk. When you are in the fields or doing the garden take these words and consider them. ... 'Why was I born? What can I take with me?' Ask yourselves over and over. One who asks like this often will become wise. Those who don't consider it will remain ignorant. You may listen to today's talk and then understand it when you get home - perhaps this evening or in no long time - it happens every day. When listening to a Dhamma talk all is subdued but maybe things are waiting for you at the car. Or when you get in the car and 'it' gets in with you. When you get home it becomes clear, 'Oh, Luang Por had something there. I couldn't see it before. All right, I think that will be enough for today. If I talk too much this old body gets tired.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

April 1992

Cover: Articles:

Editorial:

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Santacittarama Dhamma greetings from Santacittarama, the Vihara in Italy. As the cold winter winds are bracing the bare hills of Sezze, our community, only two at the moment, is getting ready for the winter retreat. Now the heat of summer months are only a memory, although the sun is still mercifully warming up the days after the long frosty nights. Luang Por Sumedho enjoyed his time with us, and brightened our minds once again with the light of Dhamma. The retreat in Rome organised by the A.M.E.C.O. group ('association for meditative awareness founded by Prof. Corrado Pensa) was well attended, with Luang Por in great form, although he had to teach sitting in a wheelchair, having broken his leg in Hamburg, on his way to Italy. While we were in Rome we were also able to bring to completion the legal founding of the 'Santacittarama association', receiving from Mr. & Mrs. Piga the generous donation of the Vihara building.

The past year's experience has provided us with wise reflections for the furthering of our practice and Dhamma activities.

Our activities are well supported by the interest of many groups and individuals. In 1992 I will continue teaching weekly meditation classes for beginners, as well as further ten-day meditation courses and lectures. The presence of Theravada monks in Italy has enriched the spectrum of the Buddha's teachings, and our laity has benefited from the visits of some of our elders from Sri Lanka and Thailand. The support and growth of Buddhism in Italy has culminated in the legal recognition of the 'U.B.I' (Buddhist Union of Italy) as well as the Maitreya Foundation (for the propagation of Buddhist culture, of both of which I am a representative member. In the month of March we should start the much needed renovation of the foundations of the Vihara building, and if fund raising efforts will cover the costs, we plan also to extend our guest facilities to accommodate both men and women practitioners, and convert a large room into the main Shrine and Meditation room. All in all we could say the past year's experience has provided us with wise reflections for the furthering of our practice and Dhamma activities. Yours in the Dhamma Thanavaro Bhikkhu

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Angulimala's Song I am hungry yes my hands are burning Shaking still my heart is full But look at these hands, Sir, the fingernails are clean These days I spend my time learning how to sit I have spent half my life afraid I have raged like a bull which has no master I have drunk from a thousand rivers But still I could not quench this thirst How many times I have felt strong The strength of a hundred men But when it came to it I myself could not stay this hand

I have followed this mind like a child follows its father Over a million miles I have wandered What else could I do? It was the only way I knew Then one day I got tired of running And your voice came as clear and still as mountain air What could I do but respond? Outside, the children press their faces up against the window In the streets they throw stones, I hear their laughter and their song And I laugh too - their song is good

I'm glad I have stopped running For in my dreams I stumble on I who thought 1 understood so much in one fell vision Who now knows nothing have wanted to hear your voice again But nothing comes. Silent I learn to listen inwardly. I sit up straight and wait.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

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Brightness From a Dhamma talk given to the community at Amaravati by Ajahn Sucitto during the Winter Monastic Retreat, 1990 We long for brightness of mind and brightness of the heart. These are attractive qualities that are sometimes difficult to find in contemplative life. Normally, of course, brightness and lightness of heart and clarity are associated with things that we can get high with - singing, dancing, dressing up to look attractive, or intellectual stimulation. Our renunciant life isn't so interesting; it doesn't have such powerful stimulation in it, so the mind can get really dull and dreary. Yet the brightness of the Buddha, the brightness of the awakened mind, is far more radiant than the brightness of the people in the advertisements on TV, or singing, dancing, looking glamorous or having brilliant ideas. We call the brightness of the awakened mind 'unconditioned' because it's not conditioned by the situation, experience, time, place, age, sickness, health and so on. The possibility of Buddhist practice is to experience a brightness, a radiance that's not just dependent upon circumstances and conditions. This Dhamma and training is not based upon attachment to conditioned things but on the renunciation of hankering and longing for things in the world - for situations, for being influential, for having fine material things and so on. We put these aside. We may use such influence and possessions that we have skillfully, but we don't base our lives on them. However, the mind remains preoccupied with conditions because of our instinctive nature to seek objects, any objects: the fundamental conditioning process is of attachment to an object. When we have beautiful, pleasant things we feel beautiful and pleasant; interesting things, we feel interested; and so there is that instinctive movement towards some sort of object or another.

Mindful attention tends towards the unconditioned because it's not being conditioned by what we are doing Â or by the mood we're in. It operates independently...

When we meditate, we are inclining towards things that may be calm, but they are not necessarily bright. After a while, many of the meditation objects, such as the breath, seem rather dreary; at best, they give us calm, if we have fine concentration. The breath is something that we don't normally associate with as an object of attention; it doesn't have the graspable successes and pleasures that we can get out of thinking or doing things. Then again, the highs we can derive from activities are cut back in monastic life: much of one's training is in cultivating restraint with regards to activities and speech. We prune them, in order to use them upon what needs to be done, so that our energies are reined in and directed. We do this not because activities are by themselves harmful, but because we tend to attach to them. Then there is no unconditioned life in our responses, they are conditioned in worldly ways.

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Going forth, the holy life, is essentially a life of faith in which we don't hold on. We give ourselves; we offer to serve, we go forth - and because of that, we are uplifted. We are willing to take up the training. We take up the burden of dependence. This is very important for development in the holy life. If that going forth and giving is not constantly remembered and refreshed, there is no uplift. We just lodge and gradually drift and flounder until we sink into a stagnant state or a whirlpool. Whether sitting in meditation or chanting, or attending to the simple things that we do in the monastery, we try to keep that quality of trained attention clear. That's where we get brightness of mind. We can say that mindful attention tends towards the unconditioned because it's not being conditioned by what we are doing or by the mood we're in. It operates independently, entailing a rising up and an application - more through a positive attitude of mind than through a great deal of effort. In the teaching on mindfulness of breathing Anapanasati Sutta [Middle Length Sayings, 118]the Buddha asks us to attend to what is conditioning the mind, then to steady the mind, so that the perceptions are not running out of control and we are able to notice what is in the mind. Then, from that, gladdening the mind, concentrating the mind, freeing the mind - this is the sequence. So to brighten the mind, first of all, we have to really experience what is occupying and affecting it, not in a passive way whereby we just get dumped upon by the mind's moods but actually going forward to open up to some of the mind's kamma; the passions or the moodiness of it. Â The Satipatthana Sutta [Long Discourses, 22] encourages us to know that the mind with greed is the mind with greed, the mind with fear is the mind with fear, the mind with joy is the mind with joy. This is insight. Being with greed is an accurate insightful description because the mind itself is not greed, hatred or delusion. The mind is not actually any object or state. The mind is by its nature bright, radiant, knowing. What we call 'mind' is the function of knowing and recognition. These are the fundamentals of mind. Greed is not mind, worry is not mind, fear is not mind - these are mind-objects or mind-states that visit and accompany mind when it is unfulfilled by awareness. So the mind can be associated with these things, visited and pestered by them. It is only when we get right up close to them, putting aside the sadness, the hankering and the covetousness that comes from wanting to be or have a particular mind-state that we notice the knowing of these things. We can know the complaining of the mind. This life, as we all know, is frustrating to our feelings and perceptions. We don't get what we https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/brite.htm[03/10/2017 20:39:23]

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want, things do not go according to our feelings and perceptions. And we can complain about it or feel dislocated by it, but actually, it must be that way. There is nothing really wrong, but it is this very rubbing against our feelings, perceptions and assumptions of what is convenient, comfortable or normal that brings us to realise the mind which is beyond feeling and perception. That is why we undertake this training - we can't just learn transcendence through an effort of the will. We have to train our whole life to work around to it: to do things independently of feelings and perceptions. In this way we find a mind that can operate independently of objects. The Anapanasati Sutta talks about contemplating impermanence, dispassion, and cessation cessation of the grasping that is the foundation of 'self'. In this teaching, freedom from conditions is based upon being able to understand, and witness conditions as impermanent, and to experience dispassion and the cessation of identification with them. Now when we are looking at the conditions of the mind - whether they are vigorous or dull - these three signs become very important. By applying them we realise the brightness that is the faculty of awareness independent of conditions. You could say that this brightness is right at the beginning of the Path, whether your mind is tranquil or not. What obstructs this natural brightness of mind is the grasping at mind objects. When meditation seems to 'go well', when it's not just hours of backache and drivel, it gets to be really pleasing. Then there is tranquillity and some of the rapture - after many years of struggling with the gnashing of mental states, they settle down and the mind starts to purr then you really want to hold the mind and stroke it forever. This is when the defilements of insight arise - things like joy, happiness, determination, energy, and knowledge. These are called the defilements of insight - not because there is anything intrinsically wrong with them, but because of the tendency to hang onto them as objects. They are blameless objects, hard-won objects, but still objects. And on the other hand there are the times when you find your mind has to be full of unpleasing objects, like making decisions, figuring things out, resolving problems and soon. But all objects are impermanent things that that one has to recognise with dispassion: much as one would like to be some of them and have them forever, they are not self. Another sign which is mentioned in the Anapanasati Sutta is abandonment. This abandonment is a cultivation of self-relinquishment, where, having dispelled the influence of the five hindrances, we can be equanimous with whatever mind-objects the world brings. We don't identify with, approve or reject mind-objects. This is different from the cultivation of tranquillity, which can lead to a sense of attachment to peaceful states of mind. With tranquillity you don't have complete freedom; there is always the possibility of being disturbed by things changing. And things are always changing - especially when you live a homeless life. Living as a samana in relationship to the world, dependent upon and available to all kinds of people, means that there are a multitude of mind-objects coming in. So even without our own obsessive mind-objects there are other people and external situations to respond to. Then abandonment is the ability to relinquish that sense of distaste for mind-objects, the preference for some over others, or the need to create them.

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So in insight we aim for the most complete freedom; and for this we cultivate the recognition of impermanence, dispassion, cessation, and abandonment. We cultivate those as modes of being, as ways to work with body-mind as it is now, with this experience. So we are feeling, rather than clinging to the quality of the feeling, be it pleasant or unpleasant, whether we approve of it or not. We focus in this way so that we can step back from the aversion or the fascination, and open our attitudes towards our experience. These cultivations can bear great fruit in our life, as they bring about a kind of selflessness, a humility that makes us available to deal with whatever conditions come up. Not out of a sense of dogged duty but because we gradually realise that whenever we rise up to conditions we feel this sense of uplift. Even if it is just doing the washing up, we feel this definite movement in the mind - it is not just 'O.K.' or 'I can't get out of it' or even 'Well, I suppose I ought to', but a real inclination towards objects, an uplifting from the heart. We find then that brightness can arise from any object. The mind can be trained to notice things that the ephemeral surface of things is flickering. It all seems intensely personal but actually covers a universal truth, a stillness that we can experience. Herein is the brilliance of the mind, released from the khandhas, from perceptions and feelings, and from the memories and habits that we assume constitute the 'real world'. It is wonderful how the world changes when we move towards it. When we open awareness towards beings as they are rather than cling to our perceptions of personalities with desire, insecurity or jealousy, we see in people a universal quality. This is the awareness of 'Sangha', of that in humanity which inclines towards goodness, towards gentleness, and towards truth. Initially as a meditator much of my drive in meditation practice was to want to get away from it all. But in training as a bhikkhu, strangely enough, there has been a going towards those very situations that bring up my instinctive wish to get away. And in going towards, in abandoning self, I found that I could go towards what is beautiful, to where the perceptions and the assumptions and the habits cease. There, a great sense of warmth, vibrancy and vitality arises. And with that, the whole situation changes. During my last year at the Buddhist Society Summer School I found that I really enjoyed it, whereas when I first went there I used to dislike; all that chit chat, sitting around talking about Dante and Plato and drinking tea. I wanted to be doing the real practice - to be still, to sit up straight and lock into samadhi. I used to go with Ajahn Sumedho, and I would get disappointed because he would be quite happy talking to people. He was totally at ease with it all, but I would be thinking, 'Oh, come on, let's get out, I'm restless, let's get into something serious.' Then I discovered over the years of going forth to conditions that I lost that ugly feeling in the mind; and for the last couple of years I've really enjoyed it. I can now chat, drink tea, wander round looking at roses and flowers and feel totally at ease with it all. It's because the most dependable brightness of the mind is not that of conditions but of the attitude that you bear towards conditions. The mind can go forward towards things, not out of greed but in the spirit of abandonment of one's views. Then I've found a kind of brightness and a lovely quality behind everything. All the conditions arise supported by and lead into an unconditioned, something that is always bright and beautiful in life. So it seems to me that the experiences of contemplative life are a kind of test, because as you get through one experience, then sooner or later something comes up that you haven't quite resolved your feelings about. You think, 'Oh, I don't like that.' You think that the unpleasantness you experience is caused by people or things out there; and that it shouldn't be https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/brite.htm[03/10/2017 20:39:23]

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that way. After a while you begin to realise that the pain is because of your own perception and view. The objects, the successes and failures are impermanent and can cease. Grasping can be abandoned. Life will always be unsatisfactory as long as one doesn't see the mind as distinct from its states, moods and feelings. And to see that one needs faith and the willingness to go towards objects, towards the negative; to embrace and even rejoice in the quality of being aware of the dreariness of mental states. And you'll be surprised how that act of faith, that real going forth will melt these seemingly dense mind states that we become encumbered with. So I offer this for your reflection.

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Forest Sangha Newsletter THIS ISSUE Being Nobody; Aj Sumedho Why Are We Here; Aj Chah Santacittarama Brightness; Aj Sucitto

April 1992

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EDITORIAL Staying Alive Much of the content of this Newsletter speaks for itself: accounts of the passing away of a master of the Dhamma, and tributes that honour him with wise reflection on his life and his teachings. How fine that wisdom is that knows, while bowing in gratitude and deep respect, that the true quality of the master is not born and does not pass away! Nor can it be defined as ultimately his. If it was, it couldn't be taught; it wouldn't be Dhamma. Then reverence for the special quality of a teacher could actually become an excuse for the disciple not to fulfill the teaching. However, as the Buddha said before his own passing away, it is in sustaining the Dhamma in the testing ground of this world that we pay the highest homage to the teacher. Luang Por Chah drove people to come alive from the near-death, the stillbirth of delusion, to the life of the Dhamma which is called the Deathless. And he did that in many ways to many people. Now there are over one hundred monasteries founded in his name that thousands of monastic and lay disciples can make use of. Naturally it was impossible for Luang Por himself to be present at all of these; so one of his most significant gifts has been the establishment of a style and training that would carry out his teaching. This kind of education takes place in the dynamic of situations: in the monasteries a strong sense of Sangha was always a basic ingredient, and an austere lifestyle - such fundamentals placed communal responsibility and personal resilience at the heart of the practice. Then, the refinement of behaviour and the hardiness needed for forest life; the solitude of the forest and the populous melee of the festival days and Sangha functions; the effects of rousing exhortations and energy-sapping heat - always accompanied by the reminder to patiently endure - these created the crucible for the alchemy of the noble birth. The Master, benevolent, human and super-human, was the example of the fruit of the practice that kept the heart alive through those trials, until, for some, there was indeed a precious coming alive.

The practice of nursing his paralysed body never lacked for volunteers and created a situation for tremendous devotion, patience, and mindfulness.

Coming alive to Dhamma entails a struggle like that of awakening from a drugged sleep, or carrying a heavy load to a place of rest; it's like the pangs of birth, accompanied by the same sense of urgency. But then there is the long test of staying alive: something learned not through a moment of insight, nor through the dropping away of frustration, doubt or impatience, but through the arising of the faith and compassion to bear with conventional life for the welfare of others. Something in us could choose to escape from the responsibilities of training problematic beginners, from attending to the daily round of the same old chanting, chores and the influx of visitors whose only interest might be to ask for a good luck token or take a few photographs. https://www.fsnewsletter.org/html/20/editor.htm[03/10/2017 20:37:46]

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When the 'great insights' have happened, who wants to live with a heart attentive to this plane of existence? Whose Dhamma can stay alive through the inevitable complaining of the world, the disappointments of disciples going astray and the going nowhere-ness of samsara? Staying alive is as tough as being born. Even the sense of progress, personal or collective, has to be abandoned. That's what it comes down to, when the major work projects are completed, the new ideas have become old established views, and the youthful energies start to wane. So I think of the last decade Luang Por Chah's life as a reflection on what it takes to stay alive. Some people criticised the Sangha for holding the Master to a degraded level of physical existence for so long (neat judgements are dangerously attractive!). However, the practice of nursing his paralysed body never lacked for volunteers and created a situation for tremendous devotion, patience, and mindfulness. Such grand-heartedness is exactly what is needed to bring the True Life into this conditioned realm. Moreover the results of that quality of practice transcend the decay of the world: whenever we use conditions to keep the Dhamma alive, however unsatisfactory they may be, there is a mind that doesn't complain, and a heart that is willing to give of itself. We can abide peacefully in this outrageous realm of birth and death. There, surely, is the place of no-abiding to which Luang Por directed us. Ajahn Sucitto

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