Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Rugged Interdependencywell. The current co-abbots are Ryushin Paul Haller and Myogen Steve Stücky;Zenkei Blanche Hartman stepped down in 2003 and Linda Ruth Cutts in Februaryof 2007.Our connections with Portland have developed strongly in recent years withSakula (Mary Reinard), who first met us when she drove Anita Wenninck toAbhayagiri, having set up a small teaching and practice center there – Friendsof the Dhamma [www.pdxdhamma.org]. This center, and the group associatedwith it, plan to set up the temporary retreat situation for the two monks fromAbhayagiri, mentioned above. One of the principal aims of this project, along withproviding a useful retreat time for some worthy monastics, is to help seed interestin founding a branch Monastery in the area.Our visits to Seattle are still sporadic; however, there is a small but dedicatedgroup of friends and students who regularly meet and practice together in thearea.Several more ordinations have taken place at Abhayagiri over this time:Vens. Thitapuñño, Jotipālo, Phāsuko, Dhammadaso, Obhāso and Ñāniko haveall been given the higher ordination here by Ajahn Pasanno. He also ordainedTan Hasapañño in New Zealand when his teacher, Ajahn Viradhammo, was unableto be present. Also added to the fold has been Craig Randolph, who wound up hislife with the ballet company and is now Ahimsako Bhikkhu.Although of this group Thitapuñño, Phāsuko, Dhammadaso and Obhāso haveall now left the robes, the community has meanwhile grown with the additionof Sāmaneras Thitābho and Kassapo (who both started out at Abhayagiri) andSampajāno Bhikkhu who began his monastic life in the Tibetan tradition and laterbecame an anagarika in England. He is the most recent bhikkhu to be ordainedhere.None of our original fleet of trailers remains on-site and, apart from three kutīson-wheelsand a cloth yurt, all the other accommodations – comprising 17 kutīsand Casa Serena, the women’s guest-house – are warm, dry, legal dwellings withsolid foundations. This is a big change from the tents and trailers we all inhabitedin the early years.In 1999 a group of Thai students of Ajahn Toon Khippapañño purchased ahouse and 240 acres of land on the eastern border of Abhayagiri, to be used as aseasonal retreat facility – it is known as KPY. Most years since then Ajahn Toonhas come to visit and run retreats there for 60-100 people. We gave them most ofour old trailers, which are still serving them well even though they too have builtmany kutīs in their own forest.121