The year 2006 has ended and 2007 is upon us. Dennis Crean has relinquished his role as newsletter editor and the job is being done in-house now, so with this issue you can expect a few changes. In the previous newsletter there was an announcement that if anyone wanted to help out with the upcoming issues they were welcome to do so. We received several responses and would like to thank all the people who stepped forward. At this point I have been given so much to work with that I feel I should apologize if I’m not able to include everything.

Community, Teachings, Travels

Last issue’s “From the Monastery” column ended with the ordination of Anagarika Whit Myers in early October. So, in this issue we continue in early October with Ajahn Sudanto traveling to North Dakota at the invitation of Patrick Anderson (ex-bhikkhu Piyasīlo). Ajahn Sudanto stayed in North Dakota for one week. During this time, he gave a public talk followed by a weekend retreat at the Lotus Meditation Center in Grand Forks. About twenty-five people attended the teachings.

Iris Landsberg, an upāsikā who helps out with our book mailing department and is a Sanghapāla board member, was diagnosed with a four-centimeter-wide brain tumor last year. In October, she underwent surgery for its removal. The surgery was successful except that the breathing tubes injured her vocal cords, making her voice hoarse for several months afterwards. Iris, along with Steve Holly, has been mailing free Dhamma books to people and in particular to prisoners over the last couple years. The community here breathed a big sigh of relief when the tumor was successfully removed.

This year’s Kathina ceremony took place in late October. Each year at the end of the Rains Retreat (July–November is the monsoon season in Asia) the lay community offers robe cloth and other requisites to the Sangha. The cloth must be sewn into a robe and dyed an appropriate color before the next dawn. The robe is then bestowed upon a bhikkhu of mindfulness and wisdom who has done great service for the Sangha (or is in need of a new robe). Everything went very smoothly this year, partly due to the new facilities which allowed people to spread out more, and partly because we had several working sewing machines (as opposed to no working sewing machines last year). The Kathina cloth was formally offered by Sanya and Sompong Kunaboot. Many other generous lay supporters offered tools and useful requisites. A lower robe (sabong) was sewn and offered to Tan Karunadhammo this year.

Soon after Kathina, Ajahn Sudanto and Tan Jotipālo headed to Saint John’s Abbey in Minnesota to participate in the second “Monks in the West” Buddhist-Catholic dialogue. They met up with Reverend Heng Sure, Reverend Kusala, Ajahn Punnadhammo and several other Buddhist and Christian monks to dialogue on the topic of “Authentic practices of celibacy and intimacy in religious communities of men.” The monks discussed why we practice celibacy, how we actually live it out and how we deal with transgressions. Aside from the formal dialogues, this was also a time to strengthen old friendships and create new ones within the wider spiritual community in the United States.

After the dialogue Tan Jotipālo spent a few days giving talks at Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis. This is the fourth time he has met with them. CGMC is a dāna-based community group that has generously supported Tan Jotipālo and Ajahn Punnadhammo over the last few years.

Bhante Gunaratana paid us a weeklong visit in early November. Bhante had been tirelessly giving teachings around the world, so we wanted to give him the chance to take it easy and make use of the new accessible guest facility (although we still couldn’t resist asking him to give a talk one night). The community was grateful for the opportunity to share time and good conversation with this most venerable elder.

Ajahn Thaniya paid us a visit in November and stayed for one week before heading off to Santa Rosa with Ajahn Amaro to co-lead the annual Thanksgiving Retreat. Ajahn Thaniya also joined us for the November community work day and displayed inspiringly high levels of kindness and generosity. It was good to have renewed contact with the sīladhara community through her presence and that of Sister Dhammadhira, who was travelling with her.

The annual Thanksgiving Retreat took place in late November at the Angela Center in Santa Rosa. A few of the junior monastics joined Ajahn Amaro and Ajahn Thaniya for the ten day retreat. Periods of sitting and walking meditation were interspersed with chanting tips, interviews and yoga instruction offered by Mary Paffard. Morning and evening chanting and Dhamma talks provided a structure for each day. A CD of the talks given during the retreat was compiled and is currently available for free distribution.

After the Thanksgiving Retreat Ajahn Amaro headed to Egypt to join Luang Por Sumedho, Ajahn Vimalo, Ajahn Ñānaratto, Richard Smith, Edward Lewis and Edward’s wife Ead for a two week journey. The group explored the pyramids, visited temple ruins, Mount Sinai and several Coptic Christian monasteries to name just a few places. They also journeyed up the Nile River and many photos were taken to record the adventure.

While Ajahn Amaro was in Egypt, other members of the community picked up the teaching engagements. Ajahn Sudanto led the first Tuesday of December at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. Tan Karunadhammo led an Upāsika Day and Tan Jotipālo led a daylong retreat at Yoga Mendocino.

At the end of November, Tan Dhirapañño bid us farewell and returned to Thailand after a five month stay at Abhayagiri. During his stay he led the annual Vinaya Classes during the Vassa. Tan Dhirapañño is now living in Thailand with Tan Jotimanto at a small branch monastery of Wat Pah Nanachat. We hope that Tan Dhirapañño comes back soon to be a part of the Abhayagiri community again.

Debbie Stamp spent seven weeks in Thailand, also near the end of the year. Ajahn Pasanno’s mother, Rhoda Perry, visited Thailand during this time. Debbie, Rhoda and friends traveled with Ajahn Pasanno to Chiang Mai, Phuket, Kanchanaburi and Laos. In Phuket the group had a memorable meeting with a 112-year-old monk named Luang Boo Soo-Pah. The group was also able to connect with Mae Chee Orn in Ubon, a ninety-six-year-old nun who had met Rhoda twenty-five years before (it just so happened that Mae Chee Orn died about one month after this). The groups of Thai people who looked after Ajahn Pasanno and his mother were most gracious and generous with their exemplary show of hospitality. Ajahn Pasanno is in excellent spirits after his extended period of retreat, and is looking forward to his return to Abhayagiri.

Before his return, Ajahn Pasanno will be paying a visit to the New Zealand branch monastery, Bodhinyanarama, and will see Peter Fernando (ex-monk Tan Dhammadaso). The community here also extends their greetings to Tan Dhammadaso, er, Peter, and passes on their best wishes. Ajahn will also visit Vimutti Vihāra, where Ajahn Chandako is the abbot.

The Abhayagiri community entered into their three-month silent retreat on January third. All work and most practical tasks were taken over by a group of laypeople who offered to serve the retreat. This allows the monastics to focus completely on meditation practice and training. Ajahn Amaro gave daily readings from the teachings of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho.

Development

In the latter part of 2006 there was quite a push to finish off some projects which put us well into “phase two” of the monastery’s development. In short, we completed two solar systems, two elders’ kutis and two standard kutis—one next to the sauna, called the “sauna kuti” and one out the trail at the end of the road, called the “first creek kuti.”

The first solar system to be completed was in the cloister area. A collection of sixty solar panels was mounted to the roofs of the Dhamma Hall and main house. This system is known as a “grid-intertie” because there are no batteries and it is wired directly into the public electrical grid. During the day, the monastery uses power directly from the sun and the extra power is fed back into the grid. During the night the monastery still draws power from the grid. With excess power production during the day, this allows the monastery’s electrical bill to zero-out and the system will probably pay for itself within ten or fifteen years.

The second solar system is known as a “stand-alone” system because it has batteries and is like a miniature power plant. This system includes an array of eighteen solar panels, a new solar shed next to the sauna, a large inverter, four huge batteries for storing power and a backup generator. This system currently powers the two new elders’ kutis, the two new standard kutis, several other kutis within the vicinity and lights in the sauna, but was sized to power a utility building and Dhamma Hall in the future as well. Having this system in place will greatly reduce the cost of gas for generators, since power tools can be run using the batteries.

Getting this “stand-alone” system running was no small task. Richard Jordan, a local solar power specialist, was constantly working with us running wire, hooking up electrical connections and getting the inverter and batteries hooked together. There were several trenches that had to be dug and lengths of electrical conduit to be laid in the ground. We discovered that running wire is difficult and messy work, due to the lubricant that must be put on the wire so that it slides through the underground pipes (conduit) to its various destinations. The most difficult wire-run was from the new solar panels to the solar shed—about 400 feet. There were two rolls of very fat wire, each roll weighing 250 pounds, which had to be fed into two-inch conduit. It took four hours and was quite an experience for those involved. Much thanks to Richard Jordan for his tireless help and advice with this project.

The four new kutis were framed by Madlem Construction of Redwood Valley. We did the finishing work on them, which included putting up the concrete composite siding, doing interior work and painting. Also, a shed had to be built near the elders’ kutis to house the controls for a septic pump. The community work days were largely dedicated to painting all four of the new kutis. Without the generous help from the lay community it would have been difficult to get all the painting done.

On the community work day in November, the solar pump which draws water from a well on the ridge was upgraded. The current well pump’s motor had burnt out so it was necessary to pull that pump out of the 200 foot deep well and put a different one into it. The new pump is a ray-direct Dankoff brand pump which draws about five gallons per minute from the well when the sun is shining. “Ray-direct” means there are no batteries, but when the sun hits the solar panels, the water pumps; when the sun leaves, the water stops pumping. This is a considerable upgrade from the last pump which was had a two gallon per minute draw.

Anumodanā to all the people who have helped us complete these projects. We did a huge amount of work in the last two years, so 2007 is our "building moratorium." We aren't starting any new building projects this year but are just focusing on maintainence and basic running of the new facilities.