Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998There followed a good question and answer session, shared with Chozen, andan evening talk on the theme of “The Arahant and the Bodhisattva should be friends”(refraining from breaking into the tune from “Oklahoma!”)As with all events that combine different conventions, forms and teachings,there are a mixture of people here from both kinds of background – in this caseZen and Theravāda. There can easily be confusions caused, or rivalries stoked,when language is used in different ways. We don’t want to fight with each otherbut sometimes faithfulness to what we know is good can spill over into opinionatingabout the other, feeling self-righteous or threatened.The intent behind the talk is to help us understand our respective conventionsa little better and to examine any assumptions we might be making about whatis right and good. And, most particularly, to help us all to see the Truth beyondwords and forms more clearly. We’ll find out tomorrow how it all went down. Theretreatants are all so restrained and unexpressive – stern and full of the awesomemanner – that it’s hard to know when one hits the mark.June 5 thA day flows by – cool morning, bright by midday – warm summer evening. Avidconversations on numerous Dharma themes, an inexhaustible flow of questionsand their responses. Hogen and Chozen speak of his “grief based on renunciation”and it arises vividly and poignantly to order – striking in its closeness to the surfaceand his ability to cover it over.After the meal we go to visit the local ancients – a couple of 600-year-oldDouglas firs – and we potter through the bush and bird-filled undergrowth. Athousand types of forest plants deck the floor in dense patterns of leaf and stalk; theair is thick with life and scrambling greenery, falling over each other in the searchfor sunlight and air.Questions on certainty, where does consciousness go at death? And, anotherfavorite, what did the Buddha say about God? Come the evening, time to talk abouttaking the practice home (via micro-meditations and the art of going nowhere) andthe place of monasteries and Vinaya for the lay community. Chozen has particularlyasked for me to address this topic but (in a later breath) also saying that shedidn’t want me just to impress them with how good it is to be in a Monastery andhow feeble it is to be a lay practitioner. Having said that it then occurred to me:“Fine, but what about the Buddha’s own monastic vocation – he did chose to liveas a monk himself, didn’t he? And he also regularly observed that: “The householdlife is crowded and dusty, the life of one gone forth is wide-open, free as air.” So weexplored the issues at length (for one and a quarter hours) and failed to exhaust thesubject – what will the morrow bring, I wonder?June 7 thThe retreat held its normal rhythm until 10:30 when we had another questionsession – we had continued our endless discussions of the teachings and Buddhismin the West over breakfast, and it seemed that indeed, all were pleased with the87