Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06wanted us to draw up two other chairs, but first my companion had topay his respects.When Buddhist monks meet, whoever is junior is supposed to bowto the more senior. Ajahn Sucitto was trained in the Thai forest traditionin which surrendering to the rules and the form is central to thepractice. So we had to pay our respects properly. Venerable Vimalanandamade an attempt to stop us; it wasn’t necessary as far as he was concerned,and most other visiting monks would have made do with a simpleslight bow with their hands held together in anjali. We, however, gotdown on the concrete floor, kneeling, hands in anjali, and first AjahnSucitto and then myself bowed three times, heads coming down to theground. Then, and only because Venerable Vimalananda insisted, didwe get up, Ajahn Sucitto still keeping his hands in anjali each time hespoke. Despite Venerable Vimalananda’s tutting and attempts to stopus, he also seemed charmed by the gestures of respect. It felt good tome, too, as I followed the monastic example. Venerable Vimalanandahad spent a selfless life serving his religion: maintaining this temple andthe rest house for pilgrims while collecting donations for two projectsin his hometown of Tansen up in the Nepalese mountains. It was goodto honour that. I could not help thinking, though, that it would be niceif he could now put it all down. He was getting old, and I wished he couldnow experience some of the peace that the monastic life was really setup for.When the half moon came round at Lumbini, we sat up till midnight.The night started with the waning moon absent from the sky so that Icould see by the stars that we were in a land to the south of home. Thereafter,though, I was hardly conscious. I took a walk to try to wake up andwas startled by a cow in the dark. It seemed to be charging me, and I hadto jump sideways, but then I realized that it, too, was startled and wasjust trying to get out of the way. I remember little else beside beingslumped against a tree, trying to look like I wasn’t sleeping.As for the head shaving, I thought about it but still could not bring4 9