Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998Tan Karunadhammo – he is nervous but shouldering it all well. His mother had sether heart on coming but had been turned back by recalcitrant airplanes and unrulyweather. His brother and sister have made it, however, and will be an importantelement in the blessing of his Going Forth.It is deeply heartening, amidst the still slightly weary afterglow of all thesetravels, to be abiding in such an atmosphere of wholesomeness and goodwill. Allaround, everywhere you turn, are more signs of human goodness and the capacityto bless. Human life can be so tragic and fraught but it can also be a treasure ofimmeasurable worth.May 9 thThe day is bright, with soft cumulus drifting through the clear blue heavens. Allaround the dripping greens of spring glow cheerfully: the gods are smiling.Today is the day for final preparations and last details for the Visākhā Pūja celebrationto be held this evening and for the ordination the next day. Ajahn Pasannoand the others have thought all this through very well and little remains unattended.We have the breakfast meeting in the Dhamma Hall, as there are about 12guests plus nine monastics, and pass out the final tidying and decorating tasks. Ibeg leave to spend the morning in my kutī preparing the materials for the studysession with the Upasikas this afternoon.The Upasika Training is a program that was begun in England a few yearsago. The principal idea behind it is two-fold: firstly, to provide more direct instructionfor the lay community on the Sutta teachings and, secondly, to help cultivate agreater support for people’s commitment to the Theravāda tradition and practice.We gather once every couple of months and, along with renewing the commitmentto the Five Precepts, we explore a small section of the Teachings in a throughway.At present we are doing a series on Right Speech, Right Action and RightLivelihood and got as a far as part one of Right Speech during the last Upasikasession – it’s a big subject! Quite a few more folks arrive by the mealtime:Cindy Hoffman and Sunshine Taylor from the coast, Kondañña, Walt Kassowayand several others from the Bay Area. By the time the session began at 1:00 p.m.the hall was filled with maybe 30 people, and Sunshine officially undertook theUpasika Precepts.It took us the full afternoon to cover harsh speech, slander, and gossip and idlechatter, the latter in the eyes of Bhikkhu Bodhi being also inclusive of the flood ofinput from the mass media and the information technology world. This is a wiseand skillful perspective since information has become an assumed and absolutegood, along the lines of fun, sex and material progress, in the view of Westernsociety.As has become customary the monastics departed from the session at 4:00 p.m.to leave the Upasikas to their own discussions. It has been very heartening to seethe unfolding and growth of this group, and the lay community generally aroundus, particularly in the way that they have come to learn from and to support each62