Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Rugged InterdependencyFew other SFZC students spent time with him there and the overall responseto this initiative from his community was lukewarm at best.Even if alone, however, Luminous Owl would regularly go out for alms in MillValley, having been inspired by his times in Thailand and Japan. Sadly, however,the hermitage has now closed and Luminous Owl has moved back into communityat Green Gulch Zen Center.The Sangha at Abhayagiri goes through Ukiah, and usually Redwood Valley,every week on alms-round, on the Observance days of lunar quarter. We alwaysreceive far more food than we can eat.There are several places calling themselves Zen monasteries around theUS nowadays – such as Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, NY[www.zen-mtn.org], Tassajara Zen Mountain Center [www.sfzc.org/zmcindex.html], Great Vow in Oregon – they are modeled on the great Japanesetraining centers, however all these are headed by married lay priests, rather thatthe celibate teachers that would be found at such centers in Japan.There often seems to be a gentle tide of confusion arising in the residents ofsuch places: people practice very sincerely but can’t quite figure out exactly whata monk/priest is supposed to be: at Mount Tremper, for example, residents areexpected to be celibate during the week but at weekends it’s optional; at Tassajara,residents are forbidden to form new relationships whilst on site but can go awayfor a few days and come back to the Monastery as a couple…Shasta Abbey [www.shastaabbey.org] is almost the only place out of theJapanese tradition that is joyously free of this conundrum, although One DropZen Monastery, Whidbey Island, WA [www.itteki-ji.org], established in 1995 bystudents of Shodo Harada Roshi, a celibate Japanese monk of very high repute, isalso worthy of mention in this regard.In 1999 Spirit Rock hosted a conference for 220 Buddhist teachers of all lineageswith HH the Dalai Lama. Amongst the organizing circle who pulled the eventtogether were: Yvonne Rand, Norman Fischer, Jack Kornfield, Lama Surya Das,Ken McLeod, Tsultrim Allione, Bodhin Kjolhede (Roshi Philip Kapleau’s Dharmaheir), and myself. Norman Fischer and I gave the non-keynote or off-keynote talksduring the event.Tricycle Magazine [www.tricycle.com], established in 1991, has continuedto be an influential presence in the USA and was joined by Buddhadharma[www.thebuddhadharma.com], an offshoot from Shambhala Sun, in 2002.133