Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Rugged InterdependencyAfter we launched the CALM program we found that Ven. Piyananda, abbot ofDharmavijaya Temple in Los Angeles, had also established a lay ministry trainingsome years ago, as had Shasta Abbey.Bhante Dhammavāro passed away aged 111, in 2000, close to his Monasteryin Stockton, California. His disciples in England had gathered that day to havea celebration of his life and teachings – all those closest to him, who were not inAmerica, were together when they got the news.Chris Bradley became an anagarika for a year, served impeccably and has nowreturned to nursing in the native people’s villages of Great Trout Lake in northernOntario.We are still friendly with the Monks of Mount Tabor but they have had somedifficult years. Father Damian is now living and teaching in Utah.Father John Watson retired from the position of Chaplain at Sutton ValenceSchool; he and his wife now live in the West Country.The Massachusetts Monastery never happened. The group there wiselyand cautiously opted to put themselves in the role of supporting “whatever themonastic Sangha feels is appropriate.” Thus they simply became Buddha-parisā,an organization existing in order to help our community teach and travel on theEast Coast, particularly in the Massachusetts area. They coordinate visits, arrangeteachings and host monastics passing through.If it came about that the monastic community let them know that there werenow sufficient appropriate people, and the interest to be available, to start an EastCoast Monastery, they might well make an invitation but there is no expectationor urgent intention for them to do so.IMS and BCBS are still going strong. The Forest Refuge opened for its first 30long-term retreatants in early 2003 [www.dharma.org; www.dharma.org/bcbs/],[www.dharma.org/ims/programs/fr_prog/].Spirit Rock has still to build its area for monastic residents; although, as ofearly 2007, the plans for the next major expansion there are budgeted at ~ $17million, the hermitage section is not included in this.Bodhi Tree Dhamma Center [www.bodhitreefla.org] continues to be a beaconof Dhamma faith and practice in Florida. Many Buddhist temples have appearedin urban areas in that part of the country in recent times, however, the interest in123