Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Rugged Interdependencywas unknown if there would be any wider enthusiasm for the project. Thus theexperiment.Things went well – along with the regular teachings that were given inSan Francisco, I traveled widely to respond to other invitations and met numerouspeople; many were sympathetic with the idea of a forest Monastery and someenergetically committed to making it happen. An account of that year’s visit wassubsequently published as The Golden State in the Forest Sangha Newsletter (ourMonastery journal) and later reprinted in Silent Rain – an anthology of talks, poemsand travelogues, published in 1995 – as well as in this collection you are readingnow.Ajahn Sumedho’s parents had both passed away in 1989 so, as he also had everincreasingcommitments with the monasteries in England, thereafter I became thecentral teacher for the California students. At one point, at the start of 1992, it lookedas though all the conditions were ripe for the new Monastery to begin; however,that apparent ripeness also coincided with the passing away of Ajahn Chah andwith the disrobing and departure of a number of senior monks and nuns in thecommunity – it was plainly not the time to be starting any new ventures.The pattern of that first year thus repeated itself for quite some time: I camefor a few months each year, Sanghapala set up another temporary vihāra, I wouldtravel and teach and then head back to England again. At first I had been somewhatdisappointed, to have the momentum of establishing the new foundationseemingly so dissipated, but it quickly became apparent that these things arelargely a matter of perspective: Who’s to say that there will be a Monastery at all?Why should it be you who starts it?This hiatus thus did a lot to help reveal shallow personal and ambitious tendencieswithin me and helped to keep bringing the mind back to what the wholeendeavor was for in the first place – i.e. simply making Theravāda teachings, basedon monastic practice, available to those who were interested. So, to my surprise, Ieventually became grateful for the extra time it brought. Furthermore the annualvisits cultivated a growing sense of community in those who kept showing upfor our events and who plainly evinced a heartfelt connection to the Theravādamonastic tradition. We were becoming a Dhamma family. And this did not justinvolve the Bay Area community – my regular travels to Florida, Michigan andChicago, to Portland, Seattle and Massachusetts all contributed to the formation ofa web of like-minded folks across the nation, from sea to shining sea.The efforts to establish the California Monastery thus moved slowly until thesummer of 1995. At that time, as Ven. Master Hsüan Hua (abbot of the City ofTen Thousand Buddhas, in Ukiah, California) approached his death he offeredAjahn Sumedho 120 acres of forest in Redwood Valley, some 17 miles north of theCity of Ten Thousand Buddhas, in order to help him start the Monastery that heknew we had been contemplating for some time.I was in England, at Amaravati, on the day that he made this great gesture offriendship and generosity. On the previous day, May 31 st , we had had a Sanghameeting there and had finally agreed that there were now enough senior monas-