KathinaSunday, 11th October: 9:30am. Now at level one we are able to meet together. Yay! The vassa this year has been an excellent one with a large and well committed sangha. We very much appreciate all the support that you offered through this time. To mark the end of vassa and the start of the year ahead we will gather in celebration. We celebrate the time of focussed practice that we have had. We celebrate the many opportunities that our monastery offers; to ordain as a samana, to live here as a lay person, to join the various activities here and to have a very viable reference point to engage with the Buddha’s teaching. Most of all we celebrate our mutual humanity; we are all in this together. Bringing focus to positivity, the joy of our shared situation is… a joy. We look forward to seeing you on the 11th.
Group MeditationAll the monastery residents have had very spacious opportunities to meditate and study on their own during the vassa. To bring this time to a close we will have a week of group meditation in the main hall. You are all welcome to join us at any time. Morning (5:15) and evening (7:00) puja. After b’fast 8:30 – after lunch 2:00 > 5. Walk sit walk sit, breathe in breathe out. This ends Friday Oct. 2nd. We will be keeping noble silence.
Saturday Meditation WorkshopA combination of lockdown and vassa, plus a few other variables, has meant that the monthly meditation workshop has not happened. We will reestablish our focus on this starting this coming Saturday 3rd October; start at 1pm and close at 5. You can come at any stage during the afternoon – just join quietly.
Aunty SuanAfter about 8 months away in Malaysia we are delighted to have Aunty Suan back in residence. It has been a frustrating time for her with several cancelled flights and ‘all that C19 stuff’ but, finally, we have her happy face in full view. Welcome home Aunty.
Community SizeThe resident community has been slowly growing over the years; we were 11 for this vassa. Will this continue? We have two anagarika candidates and at least one new longer-term lay person and interest from monks overseas. If it does continue, the question arises: how many residents can this monastery support, both sangha and laity?Financially we are OK. It is a bit simplistic but, roughly, general donations cover regular outgoings. One-off donations and specific project contributions cover ‘extras.’ We have enough land to easily add a few more kutis quietly tucked away in the forest; both monastic and lay. The two primary variables are: the complications that extra people create (more of an in-house question) and, most importantly, how are these people fed? How much can we ask or expect of you all as regards dana? Do we set up more food-prep here? Or other? We would be very interested to get your ideas, feedback and suggestions. You can email us or talk to Aunty Suan when you come for dana, or Ajahn Kusalo. Change will be gradual but we want to consider all the variables as we make decisions.
Sangha UpdateThe good news – and it all seems good – both Ajahn Sudhiro and Venerable Budhisaro have been granted new visas which allows them to stay longer. They are both much appreciated members of the community so we are very happy about this. Sam, who has been here for some months now, is looking toward anagarika ordination after vassa. There is another (previously ordained) man who wants to reordain here but there is a problem with travel restrictions; not insurmountable but currently difficult. We are all keeping very good health. Samanera Appamado is still on self-retreat and seems generally ‘smiley’ so we presume all is well for him. We collectively would like to express our anumodana, gratitude and appreciation, for all the support we received through the vassa. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.
Senior Monastic ConferenceWith many travel limitations worldwide the upcoming tri-annual gathering of senior sangha (it was to have been early next year) has been cancelled. To maintain the usefulness of such a meeting we have experimented with three virtual meetings. One was at the beginning of vassa and was for abbots of official branch monasteries in the West – of which there are 16. The time spent was a combination of getting familiar with the technology, exchanging greetings and local news and discussing a few points of business. There were two recent meetings (22nd & 25th) that included all the associated monasteries, some ex-abbots, Siladharas and a few other elders. There were about 50 online so there was an extra tech learning curve. While there were no especially ‘important’ serious matters that required our time the value of just “getting together for a ‘cup of tea'” was made very clear. And to do so with such a fine group of humans is truly a blessing.
The Cloister TentThis will be put up after our group meditation week. Timing is a bit weather dependent but a sunny day on either the 5th or 6th would be very appropriate. If you are available to help please let us have your contact details so we can keep you in the loop. Seeing it up will give you the opportunity to see ‘the stars’ speckled across the fabric and various failing repairs that have us working toward replacing it. Many thanks to those who have already made contributions toward the cost of that.
ConstructionThe vassa is not quite finished but we are warming up bits of the administrative machinery and getting materials ordered and starting to develop stratagies. The two main projects will be the monks’ vihara and a new kuti in the monks’ zone. The plan is to have working bees for both of these; we will let you know as soon as we are more prepared. More detail to come on this.