Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
Rugged InterdependencyMore Asian people are sitting on our meditation retreats these days; out of the80 or so gathered for one recent retreat at Angela Center, Santa Rosa, CA, therewere representatives from eight different Far Eastern nations.A lot has changed in New York City since my first visit there. Needless to say,the destruction of the Two Towers had a radical effect on the local consciousness,inclining a lot more people toward reflection and meditation. Many more seniorteachers visit there these days; New York Insight has a brimming catalogue ofevents and a steadily growing family of committed members [www.nyimc.org].Paul and Lili Breiter moved to Florida so that he would be in closer proximityto his agèd parents. He has now translated and published several books:Venerable Father, a memoir of his time with Ajahn Chah, Being Dharma (ShambhalaPublications), Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away (also by ShambhalaPublications), and Everything is Teaching Us, a collection initially published forfree distribution in Australia – these latter three volumes are all anthologies ofAjahn Chah’s teachings.Chuang Yen Monastery of upstate New York and Bodhi Monastery of Lafayette,New Jersey, have also been prominent in cross-tradition activity in recent years.The latter is a Ch’an Monastery in the lineage of Master Yin Shun.I first heard of it through Georgette Siegel; when she took me to visit there Iwas shocked to see, as I entered the front door, reprints of several Ajahn Chah andAjahn Sumedho books sitting on a rack, for free distribution. When I picked one upI was even more startled to see it had been printed by Chuang Yen Monastery. Theywere exceptionally interested in and knowledgeable about Theravāda Buddhism.In 2002 Bhikkhu Bodhi, an American Theravādan monk and scholar whohad been resident in Sri Lanka for more than 30 years and editor of the BuddhistPublication Society, moved in there and, in 2003, Ajahn Sundarā spent the RainsRetreat there as well.The journal of the Indian pilgrimage made by Ajahn Sucitto and Nick Scott,named in the account as Where are You Going? was finally published by Wisdom, in2006, under the title Rude Awakenings. Regrettably they felt that the entire accountwould be too long to be commercially viable so they only printed the first half –there is no sign yet of them undertaking Part II…In recent years several teachers of hatha yoga, all of whom have longstandingexperience with Buddhist meditation, have begun to develop styles ofyoga practice that include Buddhist principles. Among these are Jill Satterfield[www.vajrayoga.com], Mary Paffard [www.yogamendocino.org] and Sarah Powers[www.sarahpowers.com]; the former two have taught yoga on several of our ten-134
Rugged Interdependencyday meditation retreats and I have collaborated with them a number of combinedyoga/ Buddhist meditation events.In 1999 I was invited to co-lead a ten-day retreat at Spirit Rock with theDzogchen master Tsokny Rinpoche; it was said to have probably been the firstTheravāda/Vajrayāna collaborative event since Nalanda University was destroyedin the 12 th Century CE. The talks I gave at that retreat were published in 2003as a book, Small Boat, Great Mountain; apparently it has been a very popularitem to download from the Monastery website [http://www.abhayagiri.org/index.php/main/book/138/].In 2000 the students of Tsoknyi Rinpoche and his elder brotherChokyi Nyima Rinpoche opened the retreat center, Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, nearLeggett, on the Eel River about 60 miles north of Abhayagiri.More than five miles of footpaths, bridges and steps have been gently carvedinto the hillsides of the Abhayagiri forest. The loop trail that circles the whole ofthe interior of the bowl of our valley is two-and-a-half miles long and has thirteenfootbridges over the creeks that crease the precipitous hillsides.The junior monks have continued to keep up the practice of traveling away fromthe familiar environs of Abhayagiri, after a few years of training: Tan Hasapaññohas gone to Thailand and has settled there, although at the time of writing he is ona sojourn in Australia; Tan Ñāniko also spent a year in Thailand but is now backat Abhayagiri; Tan Ahimsako is spending his time away in England; he is due toreturn to Abhayagiri in June of 2007.Several of the other characters mentioned in these narrative have also gonethrough major transitions: John Cianciosi and Aungchoye Thrupkaew are nolonger together, however, Joseph Kappel and Katherine were married in the fallof 2004; Ajahns Vipassi, Akiñcano and Samvaro have all disrobed, while Kris, ourtrusty botanical guide in New York and the sister of Jill Satterfield, got marriedrecently and already has two children to occupy her in another kind of nursery.Since the latter half of 1998 both Ajahn Pasanno and I have made the trainingof the monastic community the number one priority at Abhayagiri. From thebeginning (i.e. 1996) it was clear we did not need to try to be all things to all people– a problem that Spirit Rock continually wrestles with – but we saw that, in orderto do what we really wanted to do here, and to offer that which so few other placeswere providing (i.e. thorough training in classic Theravādan monastic practice) wehad to narrow the focus even more. We have learned to say No to a lot of things.135
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<strong>Rugged</strong> <strong>Interdependency</strong>More Asian people are sitting on our meditation retreats these days; out of the80 or so gathered for one recent retreat at Angela Center, Santa Rosa, CA, therewere representatives from eight different Far Eastern nations.A lot has changed in New York City since my first visit there. Needless to say,the destruction of the Two Towers had a radical effect on the local consciousness,inclining a lot more people toward reflection and meditation. Many more seniorteachers visit there these days; New York Insight has a brimming catalogue ofevents and a steadily growing family of committed members [www.nyimc.org].Paul and Lili Breiter moved to Florida so that he would be in closer proximityto his agèd parents. He has now translated and published several books:Venerable Father, a memoir of his time with Ajahn Chah, Being Dharma (ShambhalaPublications), Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away (also by ShambhalaPublications), and Everything is Teaching Us, a collection initially published forfree distribution in Australia – these latter three volumes are all anthologies ofAjahn Chah’s teachings.Chuang Yen <strong>Monastery</strong> of upstate New York and Bodhi <strong>Monastery</strong> of Lafayette,New Jersey, have also been prominent in cross-tradition activity in recent years.The latter is a Ch’an <strong>Monastery</strong> in the lineage of Master Yin Shun.I first heard of it through Georgette Siegel; when she took me to visit there Iwas shocked to see, as I entered the front door, reprints of several Ajahn Chah andAjahn Sumedho books sitting on a rack, for free distribution. When I picked one upI was even more startled to see it had been printed by Chuang Yen <strong>Monastery</strong>. Theywere exceptionally interested in and knowledgeable about Theravāda Buddhism.In 2002 Bhikkhu Bodhi, an American Theravādan monk and scholar whohad been resident in Sri Lanka for more than 30 years and editor of the <strong>Buddhist</strong>Publication Society, moved in there and, in 2003, Ajahn Sundarā spent the RainsRetreat there as well.The journal of the Indian pilgrimage made by Ajahn Sucitto and Nick Scott,named in the account as Where are You Going? was finally published by Wisdom, in2006, under the title Rude Awakenings. Regrettably they felt that the entire accountwould be too long to be commercially viable so they only printed the first half –there is no sign yet of them undertaking Part II…In recent years several teachers of hatha yoga, all of whom have longstandingexperience with <strong>Buddhist</strong> meditation, have begun to develop styles ofyoga practice that include <strong>Buddhist</strong> principles. Among these are Jill Satterfield[www.vajrayoga.com], Mary Paffard [www.yogamendocino.org] and Sarah Powers[www.sarahpowers.com]; the former two have taught yoga on several of our ten-134