First Tuesday at Berkeley: February 2008
Amaravati Nuns Pay a Visit to Berkeley
Arthur Robinson
February 21, 2008
Ajahn Santacitta, Ruth Denison, Ajahn Ānandabodhi
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Page 1 of 4While the Abhayagiri monastics are in seclusion on winter retreat through March, the monthly First Tuesday Sanghapala gathering in Berkeley was fortunate to be able to host Ajahns Ānandabodhi and Santacitta from Amaravati Monastery, who are the first of three groups of senior nuns visiting the United States from January through June to explore opportunities for establishing a community of Sīladhāras here, most likely on the West Coast. Sīladhāra is the term used to designate the ten-precept nuns ordained under Ajahn Sumedho and living in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. Accompanying the Ajahns was Anagārikā Santussika.
The Sanghapala gatherings usually begin with an informal tea from 5 to 6 PM that is followed by more formal pūja from 7:30 to 9:45 PM. For the February gathering, Ajahns Ānandabodhi and Santacitta used the tea to explain their exploratory mission and answer questions about their motivations, hopes and goals, and initial impressions. Members of the sponsoring Saranaloka Foundation were also present to provide information about how to support the mission in ways ranging from building interest among prospective supporters, helping to elucidate a vision for what the local community wants and expects from the monastics, and making direct financial contributions. After chanting, meditation, and optional taking of the precepts, the pūja was devoted to responding to questions about Buddhist practice from those in the audience.
The Ajahns began by introducing themselves. The following brief bios are excerpts from the Saranaloka Foundation website. Ajahn Ānandabodhi was born in Wales in 1968. First coming across the Four Noble Truths while still at school, a confidence in the Buddha's teaching was sparked in her heart. While looking for spiritual direction, she experienced a sense of “coming home” while visiting Amaravati in 1990, joined the community in 1992, and took ordination in 1995. She now resides at Amaravati, taking part in the daily running of the monastery and teaching retreats. Ajahn Santacitta was born in Austria in 1958. In 1988 she met her first teacher, Ajahn Buddhadāsa, and then spent several years in Thailand before coming to Amaravati in 1992. Becoming Page 2 of 4
an anagārikā in 1993, she received Sīladhāra ordination in 1998. Currently she is the guest nun at Amaravati, looks after school visits, and teaches meditation classes and retreats.
Describing their mission, the Ajahns explained that a near-term goal is to locate a venue for a two-month vihāra on the West Coast in early 2009. In addition to providing spiritual guidance, the vihāra would provide a base for further clarifying the specifics of the long-term goal, which is expected to evolve as the needs and desire of the local lay people are heard and digested. In the most general terms, the long-term goal is the establishment of a training monastery with four nuns from the Amaravati community that would supplement the two training monasteries in the United Kingdom, places at which are already in big demand. While there is no location identified, the new monastery is not expected to be in an urban location; more likely, it would be at least a one-hour drive from any large city but with a small town nearby. The focus is on the West Coast because that’s where most of the interest has come from.
While the Ajahns did not go into the history of nuns in Theravāda Buddhism, they did refer to the current lack of a thriving nuns tradition. The new training monastery would help address this situation while providing a place of solitude. For lay women, as the Ajahns have been learning during their visit, it would also serve as a home base for groups living nearby to both provide support to the monastery and be supported while deepening their own practice. Among other things, the rules concerning monastics and laypersons of the opposite sex make it somewhat difficult for Western women to engage in a deep student-teacher relationship with monks. Finally, the proposed monastery would break new ground in that, unlike Amaravati where monastics of both genders are in residence, the U.S. version would have no resident monks, though male visitors would be welcomed. This separation offers both challenges and opportunities for the nuns to continue to develop in a Page 3 of 4
way that meets their needs as Western Buddhist women.
During the evening pūja, those present were invited to present questions about practice and the teachings. Among the questions were:
• Is faith in the Buddha necessary? Both Ajahns agreed that more important than faith in the Buddha as a person is faith in the possibility of awakening. One can start with something more comfortable, such as the Four Noble Truths, as a focus of practice and see what happens. However, it can be inspirational to recall that the Buddha was a human, not a supernatural, being.
• What about rebirth? For Ajahn Ānandabodhi, there has been an intuitive sense of suffering going on for a long time, and she wants a way out. On the other hand, if rebirth is an obstacle to practice, then it’s fine to put it aside but then be able to look carefully at the world and the suggestive cycles of beginning, middle, end, and repeat, such as breathing, the cycles of nature (e.g., day and night, the moon, seasons), and how the mind works each day. For Ajahn Santacitta, rebirth provides an inspiration and motivation to practice that are lacking if the end of this life is the end period.
• How to work with anger? First, one should feel the energy associated with the anger. It is important to recognize that the energy is not “wrong” and something to suppress or push away but rather a precious signal that something needs attention. The skillful response is to use the energy in a constructive way. The Precepts can help separate the skillful from the unskillful, as in abusive speech or harmful action. Waiting before acting can be helpful.
• What if you don’t have the skills needed to work with anger? Drawing on other people may be necessary. For example, two people in conflict may be more able to stay in conversation long enough for solutions to develop, if they are in the presence of others, whether a trained mediator or a trusted community such as a support group. Page 4 of 4
Communities are especially valuable because community members can find it easier to stay with their own pain after seeing the dialoging process work for others. Groups can also provide useful feedback.
• What are you aware of in whole body breathing? There are two connected aspects: samathā (tranquility associated with one-pointed concentration) and vipassana (insight associated with wider awareness). With focused mind, there is no fixed “right” object to focus on; what works for you is what you should practice. For whole body meditation, the attention remains collected, not scattered, but one attends to the whole body, a broader awareness. This kind of awareness allows one to watch an experience (physical, emotional, mental) without becoming involved in it.
Ajahns Ānandabodhi and Santacitta will return to the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery (2304 McKinley Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94703) for the next Sanghapala First Tuesday on March fourth. More information about the project to establish a community of nuns in the United States is available at the Saranaloka Foundation website. Also available there is the teaching schedule for the nuns who will be visiting through June 2008. You may also join a Yahoo Group to automatically receive updates on events. Finally, from June 6-15, Sīladhāra Ajahns Candasiri and Ānandabodhi will be co-leading a ten-day monastic retreat at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center with Ajahns Sumedho and Amaro. While this retreat is now full with a waiting list, those interested in getting on the waiting list should visit the Spirit Rock website or telephone 415-488-0164, x-243.
