Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998was considered too arousing for monks and thus not conducive to their training?Apparently people go into paroxysms of excitement at the sight of such floweringtrees in spring and that’s not to be condoned for the monkly, now is it‽June 8 thShort flight, short night and a bright blue and crimson dawn in Chicago. JohnCianciosi (formerly Ajahn Jagaro, abbot of the Monastery in Western Australia and,along with Joseph Kappel, one of my teachers from the early years in Thailand)picks me up at 5:30 a.m. and we go to the apartment that he and his wife Aungchoyehave just acquired. We collect her and then head off to one of those Midwesternthree-kilo-per-helping breakfast joints and I put myself around an omelet thatwould have fed a family of five in India.Snoozes in their new and brightly appointed home, more eats and snoozes andthen off to the local Monastery, Buddha-Dharma Meditation Center by 5:00 p.m.It’s the day before the full moon so I have taken advantage of the open afternoonto shave and get laundered before the next round of activity.John and Aungchoye seem well these days – he has been working but has givenup on his university course for the time being – it would either have taken too longpart-time, or have been too all-consuming full-time – so it’s gone by the board forthe sake of giving the two of them time together. Her health (various cancers andgall-bladder problems) has greatly improved and she is now back to working fulltimeas a doctor at a family practice clinic in Oakbrook – a suburb of Chicago.Broad smiles as we arrive at the Monastery in Hinsdale; Ajahn Vorasakh,Supaporn, Pitsamai et al. Richard Smith and Sulipon Surakomol are here fromMichigan, plus many familiar faces from last year and the other retreats. I amgetting so used to this that we fall into the opening of the retreat with scarcely abeat missed.This is a meditation Monastery out of the Thai tradition that I have visitedand taught at almost every year since arriving in the US. It has gone throughmany changes, good developments as well as disasters, in these eight years. Themost impactful of the crises was when the much-loved and respected founder,Ajahn Sunthorn, took off to take a break from his duties and never came back. Theten thousand cares and pressures of decision making had piled too high, and hisstandards for his own conduct were so exalted, that he felt he could not do the jobanymore. He left the robe in Thailand and now Ajahns Banyat and Vorasakh leadthe place instead of him. His loss ladens the Monastery air with a sticky pervasiveness– everyone misses him dearly.The Monastery had always had a close connection to Luang Por Paññānanda,one of the leading Dhamma teachers of Thailand, and now that Ajahn Sunthornhad made his abrupt departure, Luang Por was making great efforts to support itmore directly and lend what good energy he could to its survival. It was strugglingto keep its momentum, many of the lay community had lost heart, but it was stillcontinuing to put on these annual retreats and this was certainly a well-attended,much-appreciated opportunity.89