Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998Sulipon came for the meal offering and then left us for the afternoon. We hadthe first of our evening Dhamma teaching sessions for the local group (a sittingand a talk from 7:00 – 9:00) with many familiar faces appearing and acquaintancesbeing renewed. It seemed as though I had never left – even though it had been afull two years since the last visit here.The talk was pretty general, based around practice and spiritual empiricismversus theory and belief – especially “where does an Arahant go after the death ofthe body?”June 16 thThe flow carried on through Tuesday – the map got finished and we started to scansome of the illustrations for position, sizing, etc. Richard seemed to be eternallydistracted by other phone calls and duties so the hints got heavier and heavierabout BEGINNING THE WORK until 3:00ish when we actually started (phew).Once we got going the progress was smooth and we soon got an idea of what wewanted to do.It was fine weather at 5:00 when we set off for Ann Arbor for an evening talkat the Buddhist group there but we soon hit the wildness of summer in the formof thunder and lightning, hailstorms, and also restricted traffic flow because of theannual road repairs. Consequently it was 6:40 when we arrived and I had missedmy appointment to meet Anagarikā Maureen’s mother and sisters at 6:00. She hadstarted her monastic life with us at Abhayagiri last year and had recently becomean anagarikā with the nuns in England. As it turned out they too had been comingover from Royal Oak (near Richard’s) and had been delayed in the same downpoursso we waited around afterwards and had some time to talk then.The evening was held at the Friends’ Meeting House and had no special titleso, to keep it as universal as possible, I took Searching for Happiness as the theme –building it around the contrast between the qualities of worldly and transcendenthappiness.The chat with the Bodenbachs and the other goodbyes lasted until 10:00ish – itwas still bucketing down as we made our way to the car and the night journey wasbroken over and over by bright flashes of lightning and nearby thunder, drowningout the noise of the traffic on the rainsoaked road.June 17 thThe day’s waking hours were all consumed with the work on the book – Richardconjuring up the cover (very handsome) and I on the framing of the illustrations.The only punctuations came with the Wansome family visiting at the mealtime,when I had a long chat with the teenaged Tania and Derek, and for the eveningDhamma session (this one was on negative emotions). Before and after these, thebook was all and everything.Mrs. Wansome had brought the kids over hoping that I would give them agood talking to and tell them to stop all their teenage foolishness: Tania with her23-year-old and multiply pierced boyfriend and Derek with his raucous rock-93