Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998It’s late by the time we get to the hospital but we follow our routine as usual.Bhante is decidedly perky and is engaged with us the whole time – true that,inspired by Ven. Kataññuto’s darker features (he is El Salvadorean), Bhante talksin Thai for a while – but he soon comes around and we converse in English eventually.His recovery is astonishing and Dr. Peter said that, quite honestly, both heand Dr. Rogers were flummoxed as to what the ailment actually had been. It didnot follow any known pathology.Now that he’s recovering, the question of where he should go becomes moreacute. Thankfully most of the auspices are directing him back to the City of TenThousand Buddhas, at least for a while, rather than the long ride back to Stockton.When I put the question to him straight: “Bhante, do you wish to return to Stockton,as many of the Khmer community would like you to do? Or would you like to goback to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, at least for a while?”“I would like to follow the Middle Way…”The perfect answer.•By the time we return to the Monastery it’s 7:00 p.m. so there is a late pūjā – practicingthe funeral chants for Ayya Khema’s ceremony next Sunday.She was a well-known, much loved and respected Buddhist nun, who haddied recently from cancer. Originally German by birth, she had become a devotedstudent of the (then) monk Phra Khantipālo, and had been instrumental in helpinghim to found the forest Monastery Wat Buddha Dhamma, in a remote area a fewhours drive from Sydney, Australia.Once the Monastery had been established she took the Eight Precept ordinationherself and then swiftly moved into the role of teaching and writing Dhammabooks. She was a pioneer in the movement to reinstitute the full ordination forwomen in the Theravāda tradition (it had died out a thousand years ago in SriLanka) and she received the full bhikkhunī Precepts herself through the Chineselineage. In fact it is not completely accurate to refer to that line as Chinese since thegroup of nuns that brought the full ordination to China originated at a TheravādanMonastery in Sri Lanka, at a branch of the great Abhayagiri Monastery, mentionedearlier, that was for their women monastics.Even though Ayya Khema had been based for a number of years at herMonastery in the Black Forest, in Germany she had had numerous students in theUS and a number of them were now keen to hold a memorial ceremony for her.As she had taught regularly at Green Gulch Zen Center when in the area, they hadkindly offered the premises for her remembrance event.I stay up to hear from Owen, Bhante’s grandson, what has been decided withregards to his travel plans but no call comes.69