Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998after all of the output of the last couple of days, plus the changing time zones – by8:00 p.m. and two strong cups of the tea the descent had not been interrupted. Itbecame clear that resistance was futile so, with a graceful surrender into the duskof San Geronimo valley, I bid good night to it all.July 6 thA bright, still morning and the scent of bay trees coming through my window– all is quiet. I wander down to the kitchen/dining room and find Lizzie Gerson –freshly back from Israel and her life in Guatemala – who had put some breakfasttogether to offer. She asked if she could stay and chat so we spent the next hourexchanging stories and descriptions of our respective rural lifestyles: she speakingof her lake in the Guatemalan highlands, I talking of the Monastery routinesand its landscape. Time flowed easily by as the day warmed up and the bustle ofpreparations began to gather momentum in the kitchen – the rest of the cooks andmanagers moving to and fro bearing boxes of vegetables and gleeful smiles.It was soon 9:00 a.m. and the meeting for the family retreat had the honor ofbeing the inaugural event in the new Council House. It is a beautiful, high-ceilinged,airy space with colors and furnishings that invite ease and companionship.Seth, Julie Wester, Lisa McCool and I met for a good couple of hours and ranthrough the mass of logistics for the weekend in August. There was a lot to figureout but, with such a crew of good-hearted, practical and skillful people at the helm,there was little anxiety or tension over the prospect of the event – more than 100folks are expected (little and large).Down to the kitchen again for the meal and the place is humming. I sit with mybowl at the back door, which turns out to be the high street for the veggie carriersrather than the quiet shady corner I had hoped for. A somewhat bruised and frazzledBeth Baker (kitchen coordinator) came and sat beside me for a while to cooldown – I felt like an old, shady oak that does not need to say more than: “Welcome… sit and be still, if you like.”I had arranged to have a chat with Mary Orr at 2:00 pm; I wended my waydown to the lawn in front of the Community Hall and found her walking up fromthe parking lot. She brought me up-to-date on the dramas of her community andalso recounted how she had been becoming more and more involved in investigatingprayer (in a Buddhist context) after some experiences she had had teaching atthe Quaker Center in Pendle Hill, Pennsylvania.It seems that, in many ways, the vipassanā element is becoming a smaller andsmaller slice of the Dhamma pie for the Spirit Rock community – just by virtueof the various teachers discovering new skillful means, and areas of their livesthat the strict anicca-dukkha-anattā analysis of formal meditation has failed to reach.Through her new-found Buddhist prayers Mary had begun to discover very tangibleeffects, and a deep sense of peace and love that she had not met before simplythrough concentration and insight practices. Whole worlds open up before us aswe discover the other colors on the Buddha’s palette.108