From The Monastery

Page 1 of 5

The last portion of our winter retreat turned out to be particularly meaningful to many in our community, as we were privileged and honored to participate in our next door neighbor's
(Peter La Riviere) passing away. Peter was an emergency room doctor who always served the poorest populations. So disinclined to use his talents for personal advantage, he only finished paying off his student loans this year! Community members visited Peter in shifts every afternoon and relieved Mary Curran, his wife, so she could get some sleep, get out of the house for a walk, or run errands. We did this for about a month, during which time we watched Peter's health slowly deteriorate. Peter hoped that we, and others, would use his dying as a meditation. His generosity was greatly appreciated. Peter died consciously, late at night surrounded by family, friends, and monastics. A few hours later our community performed a morning puja around his corpse.


COMMUNITY


Luang Por Liam

Over the last two months we have had many monastic guests come through Abhayagiri, and the community is going through a transition of new arrivals and departures. We were blessed to have visits from three Thai bhikkhus who each had over forty Rains Retreats.

Luang Por Liam, the abbot of Wat Pa Pong (Ajahn Chah's monastery) came for five weeks. Seeing the fruits of forty plus years of monastic practice displayed in such a warm, gentle, and humble way was inspiring and a wonderful example of how we can be.

We hosted Ajahn Jumnien for a day and night. This was an especially wonderful event as Ajahn Jumnien shared memories of a visit with Ajahn Chah that had been particularly significant for Ajahn Jumnien's practice. He had always hoped to share this information with Luang Por Sumedho, but the timing had never been right. The third senior monk to visit this spring was Ajahn Toon. His lay supporters are now our neighbors, having just bought the 230-acre parcel that borders our property along the ridge. Ajahn Toon was here from Page 2 of 5

Thailand to lead a three-week retreat on the land, and he was able to participate in our bhikkhu ordination as well.

Besides these Thai bhikkhus we also had a visit from Tsoknyi Rinpoche, with whom Ajahn Amaro co-led a Dzogchen/Theravada retreat last summer. Venerable U-Vappa, an American monk who ordained in Burma, came to visit for a month as well.

As for the resident community . . .

Tahn Kongrit's one-year visa expired, and he left Abhayagiri on June 23. His smile and harmonious nature will be missed. Tahn Karunadhammo left Abhayagiri on May 19 to spend a year at Chithurst monastery in England. He was a generous and devoted member of the community. Being one of the original residents at Abhayagiri, he took with him a wealth of information about how to run the monastery, and we hope to be able to manage in his absence.

Joining our community is Tahn Acalo, an Australian monk who has lived in Thailand for the last five years. Previously he had trained with Ajahn Pasanno as a novice. Tahn Thanuttaro will be arriving from Chithurst in early July for a year's visit. He was formally Anagarika Tim who accompanied Ajahn Amaro during Ajahn's 1994-95 U.S. visit. Ajahn Jitindriya started a long period of solo retreat; it is a wonderful counterbalance to have her quiet presence as she works on her-and our-spiritual infrastructure, in contrast to the huge machinery and many carpenters hammering and sawing away to create the physical infrastructure of the monastery.

Sadly we will be saying good-bye to both Anagarika Larry and Anagarika Scott. Larry has decided to return to lay life. At the time of writing, he is gracefully fulfilling his responsibilities here at the monastery and not planning what will happen after he leaves (as if he could). Larry has shouldered a huge amount of work with financial tracking of our building projects, and he has been our only driver for most of his stay. He will be greatly missed. Scott has been with us for a year. Being Page 3 of 5

only nineteen, he wants to experience monastic training in several locations, starting in Burma, before he commits to one path. We thank you both for your year of service and wish you the best!


EVENTS AND TEACHINGS


Newly ordained Jotipalo Bhikkhu and Phasuko Bhikkhu

In early April we had a memorial service for our neighbor Peter La Riviere. About forty close friends and family came to the monastery to pay respects to our good friend. We have conducted several marriage blessings and even a baby blessing for Liam Cochrane. The Lao community, who offered an almsgiving ceremony last fall, returned for an Asian New Year ceremony called Songkran. The Ukiah sangha has come twice this spring for afternoons of meditation led by Ajahn Amaro. At their prompting, in May we started going on alms-round, or pindabaht, in Ukiah on the lunar observance days. We had hoped to start this traditional form of practice for some time, but it had never seemed to be the right time until now. Pindabaht is a practice of walking on faith with your alms bowl and making yourself available to receive generosity from those who wish to give food offerings. Several community members have taken a vow to eat only the food they receive on pindabaht for that day. This spring we also started the traditional practice of tudong.

Shortly after the winter retreat ended, then Samaneras Jotipalo and Phasuko began preparing their requisites for bhikkhu ordination. Many hours were spent making patterns, cutting material, sewing, and dying the robes. With all of these steps, it easily took over eighty hours to prepare a set of three robes. The entire community helped build a huge bonfire to properly prepare the alms bowls. Tahn Sudanto carefully tended the fire until 3 a.m. while the samaneras were sewing their robes. A month before the ordination, both Ajahns Pasanno and Amaro began almost daily instructional meetings to discuss ordination procedures, chanting practice, and precepts that new bhikkhus must know.

On June 17, Ajahn Chah's birthday, we held a beautiful Page 4 of 5

bhikkhu ordination in the open air and cool shade of an oak grove. It was an especially wonderful occasion as there were twenty bhikkhus, three nuns, and an anagarika participating in the ceremony. Ajahn Toon brought with him eight monks. Also present were Ajahn Tiradhammo, abbot of our monastery in Switzerland; Ajahn Jayasaro, abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat in Thailand; Ajahn Samvaro, originally from Austria; Tahn Punnadhammo, abbot of the Arrow River Forest Hermitage in Thunder Bay, Ontario; Ajahn Sundara, abbess of the Hartridge Monastery in England; and Sister Thanasanti, an American nun who trained at Amaravati.

Ajahn Amaro's "Go Nowhere in 2000" policy has been a real blessing for the community, as we have been extremely busy with work projects and often have more work than workers. It has also been nice just to have his presence in the monastery. "Go nowhere" means nowhere outside the Bay Area and surrounding counties, so Ajahn Amaro has led six day-long retreats at Spirit Rock, Fort Bragg, and Stanford University. He has also given talks in Berkeley, Caspar, and at a Spirit Rock benefit for Joseph Goldstein and the Forest Refuge Project at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. At the end of June both Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro participated in a week-long conference of over 200 Buddhist teachers in the West, held at Spirit Rock. Afterwards, most of the Sangha traveled to Los Angeles to attend the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.


DEVELOPMENT


The two major building projects for this spring are almost complete: the women's bathhouse and the addition of two wings to the Dhamma Hall. The bathhouse looks fabulous and will meet a long-time need for improved facilities for women residents and guests. The Dhamma Hall wings will house the monks bowl-washing room, Sangha members' personal storage, a book storage room, and a small coat room.

As required by our change-of-use permit with the County, we removed all three of our campers, an R.V., and a trailer. Though this leaves us short of four housing units, it feels Page 5 of 5

good to meet this part of our agreement. Our community breathed a sigh of relief as the kuti renovations were completed and they passed inspection, thanks to the generous offer of Mark Newell, who donated his services as a carpenter at a greatly reduced rate. Tony Mc Farland, the other carpenter who worked on this project on his only morning off from work, donated his services to help rebuild the ordination platform. Thank you Mark and Tony!

As of this writing we have started work on trenching a sewer line from the bathhouse, creating a septic field, and laying water lines. We have also begun work on developing a water source from our spring on the land across the valley. Rick Williams has donated his time and energy to start the preparation work for building four new kutis. He has been clearing brush and small trees that have overgrown an old logging road. This road conveniently passes close by all four proposed kuti sites. Being able to use this road will save weeks of labor in carrying supplies by wheelbarrow and packs. Rick has now started clearing the kuti sites and digging the foundations. No work can begin on actually building the kutis until we get the proper permits and a few other conditions come together.

Finally, while the community was on winter retreat, David Dawson spent many mornings cutting a trail deep into the heart of our forest. As a result the trail to the Cool Oaks has been completed. Thank you David!


THE GIFT OF SERVICE


This summer Abhayagiri plans to build several new kutis. To help reduce the cost of these structures, the resident community hopes to help with as much of the construction as possible. Due to this effort, there are many projects at the monastery with which we could use your help. If you have a few hours or a day available, please call us for details.

For the Sangha,
Ven. Jotipalo