Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998At 3:00 there was a meeting for the Spirit Rock teachers – partially to plot outthe weeklong retreat that was to begin that evening and partially to discuss a particularlythorny conflict in the community. We started with the latter.It became clear, very quickly, that one of the parties would accept no blame orcriticism and asserted 100% victimhood. That very inflexibility was what clearedany doubts that were lingering as to how to assess the issue fairly. A cruel ironythat one: our determination to stick to our guns, in the face of all the heartfeltadvice of our closest friends, is the very thing that defeats our cause… If he hadjust said, “The situation was a mess and I too helped to create it,” that wouldhave shifted the mood… It remains to be seen what will come of it. I was the onlyone who did not speak, silence seeming to be more and more appropriate as theminutes spiralled by.After the full feeling-out of this great tangle we got on with the rest of the show– an aura of both pain and relief in the air.I had tea alone in my room – sheltering from the blaze of the day and the jabberof conversation – and headed up to the new hall for the launch of the retreat. Folkswere already gathering inside and, amidst last-minute preparatory and conspiratorialmutterings, the 18 teachers mapped out the last details of the format:We processed in chanting “Namo tassa…”Sylvia spoke a few words.James gave an introduction to the Precepts.I led the recitation of the Refuges, etc.Julie gave an introduction to the Dhammacakka-pavattana Sutta – the Buddha’sfirst discourse, The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dhamma, on the Four NobleTruths.We sat in silence for five minutes.I recited the Sutta in Pāli – silence again.Jack read an abbreviated translation of the Sutta, then said a few words.We closed the evening and most departed.It was a glorious and powerful night – the words of the chanting rolled outwith power and ease – the momentum of 2500 years of faith in the Dhamma behindthem. Time stopped as the Wheel was set rolling once again – it was a good omenfor the ethos of Spirit Rock that it should choose these words of quintessentialpotency as its launching anthem. Jack bowed copiously afterwards, asking to beforgiven for having asked me for a shortened revision, Robert Hall and otherswere visibly moved, never having heard the like in their lives before. It was a preciousand unique instant – perfect and unrepeatable – afterwards I sat up in theall until 10:30, the shades of jet lag having been banished by the Great Light of theevening.How strange, yet familiar and fitting, that the day that the Teachers Circlemade its first non-unanimous decision was the very day the Center was properlyborn. Welcome to real life: a beautiful day, a painful day, a good day.A very good day indeed.109