Dear friends,
This time the Dhammapala news comes from Jetavana Monastery in New Hampshire, USA, where I am staying for four weeks after spending the Winter Retreat at Tisarana Monastery in Canada with Luang Por Viradhammo and his community (see photos). My stay there, with a healthy mix of seclusion and friendly gatherings, was very refreshing and inspiring to heart and mind. Physically I wasn’t feeling so well this winter, my back in particular was causing me problems, which made the heartwarming friendship and concern of the Tisarana community to make my stay as pleasant as possible even more appreciated. I already spent the winter 2020 at Tisarana Monastery, which now feels almost like a second home.
Also Jetavana Monastery is a very inspiring place. The forest here is even bigger and older. Both in Ontario and here in New Hampshire it is regrown forest, after, due to the poor soil, the former farming operations were abandoned in favor of more productive lands in the west. I have always been drawn to trees and forests – their atmosphere being very conducive to mental peace and contemplation. Here one shares the forest with a much larger number of animals than we are used to in Kandersteg, and it is wonderful to see how both quickly and patiently the wilderness reclaims space that is left to it.
Added to this is the uplifting experience of the monastic communities that inhabit and look after these forests (and meadows) without intervening too actively in the processes of nature. Also at Jetavana I found a diligent, friendly community of men between the ages of 30 and almost 80, who take responsibility for their own mind, as well as their community and the environment in which they live. The abbots here are Ajahn Jayanto & Ajahn Anando, two of my longest-standing Dhamma friends, with whom I lived together in my first years as a monastic in Chithurst.
Ajahn Jayanto, still a junior monk then, opened the door for me and carried my suitcase in, when I got out of my taxi in Chithurst in 1992 to start monastic life there. A gesture that really surprised me at the time, since I wasn’t arriving as a guest at a four-star hotel. Maybe he just wanted to make sure I didn’t run away at the last moment! Actually, I was so convinced of my decision to become a monk that I had no room for such a thought. And even after that, I never seriously considered giving up monastic life. It fills me with deep gratitude that I have been able to be part of our communities over all these years. And it is a great joy to see my companions from my novice days now so competently in responsible roles, and to see how well their community functions.
The same also applies to our community at Dhammapala Monastery. Our winter retreat is now over and I too have taken on tasks for the monastery again – using a mobile laptop home office – and have had the latest Dhammapala news communicated to me. I heard that the winter retreat went very harmoniously and smoothly again, also thanks to the excellent help of this year’s support team. Anumodana for everyone who, in the monastery or outside, has contributed to us being able to afford this luxury of a three-month retreat.
Before the physical work began again, during the last days of the official winter retreat, Ajahn Khemasiri led our traditional Easter retreat. A foehn storm began on the very first evening of the retreat and lasted for two full days and nights, with a permanent, unprecedented intensity! The whole house even shook, unusual noises came from the roof (roof tiles jingled), branches and twigs flew around the house and a heavy stone the size of a plate landed on the roof near the gable and left a large hole. It’s a mystery how the wind managed to get the stone up there from the ground.
Since the more active time at Dhammapala began again, our monks, Anagarika Robert and our secretary Tanja, then have or had already carried out several pending repairs with the help of the guests. The roof had to be repaired after the storm damage and – together with the neighbors – the access road was improved. It should be seen as a great compliment to the other monks, if I come to the conclusion that I am actually completely superfluous there as an abbot. My brothers, our competent secretary and many helpful supporters manage the monastery very well without me, even when I am away for a long time. Of course, that makes me look forward to my return even more, without worries about problems that would have been left behind or couldn’t be solved without me.
After the renovation projects, we are now looking forward to a period of many visits and events: Luang Por Damrong and LP Sophorn come to us from Thailand for the last week of April. We have planned Anagarika Robert’s pabbajja (admission to the Sangha as a samanera (novice)) for the fifth of May. For the sixth of May our calendar marks the arrival of Ajahn Jutindharo, the abbot of our monastery in Devon (UK), who, together with some supporters, is visiting both us and the Santacittarama Monastery in Italy for a few days. Ajahn Jutindharo was also already living in Chithurst as a junior monk when I arrived there in the spring of 1992. So we’ve already lived through a few things together and I’m very happy to be able to have him here with us for a few days.
For the weekend of the 18th/19th May some of us will travel to Amaravati in England, where a large gathering will take place to celebrate the ninetieth year of Luang Por Sumedho and to honor him with what is known as Acariya Puja, a formal gesture of respect to our teacher. A lot of monks and companions of Luang Por Sumedho are expected on this occasion, including many senior monks from Thailand who lived with him in Wat Pah Pong during Luang Por’s first years.
A short time later, on May 26th, we will hold our Vesak celebration in the community hall in Kandersteg. This year too, Ajahn Kongrit will be our guest of honor and will give the Dhamma talk in Thai. Ajahn Kongrit will stay with us for about a week.
Shortly afterwards, at the end of May, Ajahn Anando and Ajahn Caganando, here from Jetavana Monastery, come to us for three weeks, and just a few days later Tan Sihanado from Chithurst, who will stay with us for a whole month. Later in June we are expecting a group of three Thai monks for a short week – Ajahn Big, who currently lives in Amaravati, and two of his friends from Thailand.
Anagarika Robert, in his new guise as Samanera Nikkāmo, will travel to Portugal on June 7th and stay there over the summer so that he begins to get to know other monastic realities in our Sangha. That is because, if he continues with his training and is accepted into the Sangha as a bhikkhu in a year’s time, he too will become part of this larger community spread across the entire globe, not just our small group in Kandersteg. In a similar spirit, Tan Manuñño is traveling to Amaravati for the summer, departing already in May, in order to participate in the construction committee for the extensive renovation plans of that monastery. Both want to join us again in the fall.
Meanwhile, Ajahn Warot from Thailand and Samanera Jayamangalo from Santacittarama in Italy will take their places over the summer. Ajahn Warot is a student of Phra Payutto, but is also very familiar with our sangha, having regularly spent time in our monasteries in Thailand. He came to Europe and Dhammapala for the first time with Ajahn Buddhivaro last year and asked if he could spend a summer with us. Samanera Jayamangalo I already know from my time at Ratanagiri Monastery in the north of England, where we lived together for several years.
So you can see: Sangha life is a lively exchange of mutual visits and long-standing friendships that help hold our network of monasteries together and make it functional and harmonious. Surely many of you have already visited some or many of our monasteries and know some of our guests from stays in other monasteries. Just as supporters and friends of our monasteries in other countries often visit us. This is certainly one of the most positive ways of lived globalization and cultural exchange that I know. My gratitude for being part of this reality also goes out to our friends outside the monastic communities, whose support makes all of this possible: ANUMODANA!
With all good wishes,
Bhikkhu Abhinando