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Life at Abhayagiri Monastery alternates between periods of stillness and activity. The last installment of “From the Monastery” concluded with the Abhayagiri residents in the heart of the winter retreat, listening to teachings from The Island, Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro’s upcoming compilation of the Buddha’s teachings on Nibbāna. By mid-March, the winter rains had ceased, the weather was warming, and spring was in full bloom. In response to the rising energy and approaching work year, the abbots reinstated all-day community meditation practice and began to read The Stillness of Being, a short compilation of talks by Ajahn Viradhammo which emphasizes the application of the teachings in activity.

COMMUNITY

When the winter retreat officially ended on March 31, the Abhayagiri community consisted of the two abbots, eight other bhikkhus, two sāmaneras, two anagārikas, the five retreat helpers, and Debbie Stamp. After receiving heartfelt thanks from the Abhayagiri residents for their dedicated service, the retreat helpers Nancy, Dukata, Ian, Josh, and Ben departed a few days after the retreat ended. Ian expressed the intention to return in May for an extended stay and possible anagārika training. On April 7, Ajahn Sudanto returned from Vimutti Monastery in New Zealand, where he had spent the winter. During his time there, Ajahn Sudanto helped the abbot, Ajahn Chandako, finalize the design and begin construction of an octagonal yurt and contributed to the Vimutti Monastery website. Because he had little opportunity for retreat in New Zealand, Ajahn Sudanto chose to spend the next month practicing on his own rather than immediately rejoining the Abhayagiri work scene. During the winter retreat, Anagārika Michael came to the decision to leave Abhayagiri Monastery; he departed on April 6. The community extends its appreciation for Anagārika Michael’s many contributions including cooking, driving, managing finances, and communicating with guests in Thai. Last we heard he was cooking for over 200 people as the assistant kitchen manager at Tassajara Zen Center. Michael’s departure left Anagārika Nic as the kitchen manager and only resident male driver during the month of April. The rest of the community did their best to ease Page 2 of 6

Nic’s workload during this time. Ian returned as planned in early May, and Louis Gegenhuber and Carl Braun joined the Abhayagiri community as long-term lay guests shortly thereafter. Abhayagiri gained two more long-term lay guests in early June when Janejira Sutanonpaiboon accepted the position of Casa Serena caretaker and Christine Lem replaced Anagārika Nic as kitchen manager. Both women plan to stay at Abhayagiri through August.

Tan Ñāniko completed his fifth rains retreat last October, thereby becoming a majjhima (middle) bhikkhu. The majjhima years of bhikkhu life are often spent training on one’s own, and Tan Ñāniko decided to return to Thailand, where he had spent his third rains retreat, to deepen his meditation practice and walk tudong. He plans to spend at least two years in Thailand. We miss Tan Ñāniko’s cheerful presence and immense help with Abhayagiri building projects and send him our best wishes for fruitful practice. Two ordinations took place at Abhayagiri on July 8: Anagārika Nic became Sāmanera Thitapañño and Ian went forth from the home life as an anagārika. Sāmanera Thitapañño’s parents traveled here from Maryland to attend the ceremony, and after the ceremony his long-time mentor Bhante Gunaratana gave an inspiring talk centered on the Ten Subjects for Frequent Recollection by One Who Has Gone Forth—a teaching given by the Buddha for monks and nuns to recollect daily (see page 40 of the Abhayagiri Chanting Book available at http://www.abhayagiri.org/pdf/books/ChantingBook.pdf). More information about Bhante G’s visit will appear in the next issue of Fearless Mountain.

EVENTS

On April 25, Patriya and Chusak Tansuhaj, the parents of Todd (Piyasilo) Tansuhaj, arrived at Abhayagiri along with a group of six of Todd’s friends and one of the friends’ parents to observe the second anniversary of Todd’s death. (Todd ordained as a novice for a week in May 2005 in preparation for upcoming medical treatment.) The next day, they enthusiastically swept the Abhayagiri trails, and then gathered that afternoon at Cool Oaks where Todd’s ashes are interred. Todd’s family and friends shared memories of him, and the community of monks recited blessing chants. That Page 3 of 6

evening, the children listened attentively to Ajahn Pasanno’s reflections about the value of friendship (the featured talk in this issue). May 22 saw what we believe to be the largest gathering of bhikkhus yet at Abhayagiri. They came to participate in the ordination of Abhayagiri’s newest bhikkhu, Tan Cunda. Three senior monks in the Ajahn Chah tradition arrived days before the event: Ajahn Jayanto from Amaravati Monastery, Ajahn Kusalo, the second monk at Tisarana Monastery in Ottawa, and Ajahn Sona from Birken Monastery. The most senior monk in attendance was Ajahn Maha Prasert from Wat Buddhanusorn, the Thai temple in Fremont. Rev. Heng Sure from the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and Rev. Jin Yong from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas represented the Chinese Buddhist tradition. Including the eleven resident bhikkhus and Ajahn Maha Prasert’s attendant, a total of eighteen fully-ordained monks participated in Tan Cunda’s upasampada. Many of Tan Cunda’s family and friends attended, including his parents, stepmother, and five siblings. After the ordination, Ajahn Sona gave a discourse which likened developing the mind to cultivating and protecting a garden.

TRAVELS

On April 7, Ajahn Amaro departed Abhayagiri to begin a six-week excursion to Europe. His trip began with four days of meetings at Amaravati Monastery. After spending time with family in England, he travelled to Santacittarama Monastery in Rieti, Italy. While in Italy, he visited Rome and Padua and led a five-day silent retreat. He then returned to England to begin an eighteen-day tudong (walking pilgrimage) with Nick Scott to honor the 25th anniversary of their walk from Chithurst to Harnham in 1983. They retraced several portions of the 1983 route and re-connected with many people who had aided their original journey, some of whom recollected how the initial pilgrimage had spurred their interest in Buddhadhamma (see article beginning on page 10). On the last day of the pilgrimage, Ajahn Amaro’s left foot gave out from overuse. Upon his return to Abhayagiri Monastery, the significantly less mobile Ajahn reflected on the changes he observed and the unreliable nature of memory, perception and the body.

Shortly after Tan Page 4 of 6

Cunda’s ordination, Ajahn Pasanno spent two weeks camping in the Alaska wilderness with five lay people from Portland Friends of the Dhamma. He appreciated the opportunity to travel and meditate with a group of Buddhist practitioners. The spaciousness and grandeur of the rugged environment reminded him of the smallness and insignificance of human beings. Ajahn Viradhammo invited a senior monk from Abhayagiri to come to Tisarana Monastery to help run the monastery while Ajahn Kusalo was away in June. Ajahn Karunadhammo gratefully accepted this opportunity for a three-week break from his responsibilities as guestmonk and health-care coordinator at Abhayagiri. He appreciated the good-hearted lay supporters and quiet, low-key environment at Tisarana.

TEACHINGS

On May 7, Ajahn Pasanno, Tan Cāgānado, Tan Sampajāno, Sāmanera Cunda, Sāmanera Kaccāna, and Debbie Stamp paid their respects to the elder meditation teacher Luang Ta Chi at Wat Buddhanusorn. He gave a Dhamma talk emphasizing the four foundations of mindfulness. Ajahn Amaro gave a series of three talks beginning May 21 titled “Violence and Non-Violence: Working with Conflict” at Yoga Mendocino in Ukiah. On May 26, Ajahn Amaro gave Dhamma reflections to about 1,000 people as a guest speaker at the annual Olema Vedanta interfaith celebration. Ajahn Sona, Ajahn Yatiko, Ajahn Sudanto, and Tan Cunda accompanied Ajahn Amaro to the event, where they had the opportunity to converse with Rev. Heng Sure and Houston Smith. After the interfaith celebration, Ajahn Sudanto flew to Kentucky to attend the third Buddhist-Catholic Monastic Gathering at Gethsemane Abbey. The theme of this four-day event was Monasticism and the Environment, and Ajahn Sudanto enjoyed learning what other communities are doing to reduce their environmental impact. From June 23 to June 27, Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro, and Tan Sampajāno along with Ajahn Candasiri and Ajahn šnandabodhi (senior nuns from Amaravati visiting Abhayagiri along with Luang Por Sumedho) attended the Western Buddhist Monastic Gathering held at Shasta Abbey. The gathering’s formal sessions focused on the education and training of newcomers to monastic culture, but the Abhayagiri attendees also found informal discussions with fellow monastics to be of great value. They were impressed by Page 5 of 6

the sincerity and dedication of monastics from other Buddhist traditions.

LUANG POR SUMEDHO’S VISIT

The highlight of the summer was Luang Por Sumedho’s visit to Abhayagiri in June. Luang Por arrived in San Diego in late May where he visited his parents’ graves and Metta Forest Monastery. He flew to San Francisco on June 5 and began teaching a ten-day retreat at Spirit Rock retreat with Ajahn Amaro and the Amaravati siladharās Ajahn Candasiri and Ajahn Ānandabodhi the next day. Ajahn Sudanto, Tan Ahimsako, Tan Kassapo, Anagārika Nic, and Debbie Stamp also attended the retreat. Luang Por’s retreat teachings repeatedly highlighted insight into the first three fetters (personality view, attachment to social conventions and language, and doubt) which bind us to suffering. The retreatants returned to Abhayagiri on June 15. Ajahn Pasanno happily offered his kuti to Luang Por, who considered his accommodations “as good as it gets in the human realm.” Luang Por emerged from the solitude of the forest to give teachings on numerous occasions. On the full-moon observance night of June 18, Luang Por described inclusive, awakened awareness in a Dhamma hall filled with people including Ayya Tathāloka, Bhikkhuni Suddhamma, Bhikkhuni Sudinna, and Bhikkhuni Sobhana. On June 22, Luang Por described the meaning of the Three Refuges at a public talk at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas translated into Chinese by Rev. Heng Sure. In his June 28 Dhamma talk, Luang Por reminded us that attachment to the conditioned world is attachment to death. In addition to these formal talks, Luang Por also hosted several long Dhamma question and answer sessions after the meal. Ten Spirit Rock teachers visited Abhayagiri to receive teachings from Luang Por from June 18 to June 20, and Board members of Saranaloka (the foundation supporting siladharās in the United States) met with him June 21.

DEVELOPMENT

The long-awaited Dhamma Hall renovation project began in mid-April with the removal of the water-damaged floor. Drywall was replaced and insulation added on two walls. Tan Cāgānando designed and implemented an energy-efficient remote controlled fluorescent lighting system, and a team of Abhayagiri Page 6 of 6

residents undertook the painting, using a newly donated paint sprayer, which greatly reduced the painting time and improved the quality of the work. The Abhayagiri residents held evening puja at Casa Serena for the duration of this project, which was completed in time for Ajahn Amaro’s return on May 17. During the month of May, monastery residents often noticed heavy machinery rumbling up the Abhayagiri hill. For some of us, this was the only visible sign of Bud Garman & Sons Construction creating two new roads in the forest to enable present and future kuti construction. One road begins at the solar field and goes 300 feet to the new monk’s kuti, and the other road creates access for a number of future new kuti sites. Bud Garman & Sons also repaired roads at Casa Serena. Shortly after the roads were finished, Madlem Construction broke ground on two new kutis, a “visiting elder’s” cabin at the end of the road and a monk’s kuti just below the ordination platform. The Abhayagiri community has been working in conjunction with Madlem Construction to build these new dwellings, with residents doing a large share of the work on the monk’s cabin. The elder’s cabin is nearly identical to Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro’s kutis but has underfloor heating and is wheelchair accessible. The monk’s kuti has the same floor plan as those built in 2006. While this is the final elder’s cabin that Abhayagiri plans to build, the master plan calls for similar monk’s kutis to be built for future use.