Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

The Golden Stateis there already that one finds out what really needs to be changed. In makingchanges in this usually painstaking manner, the trust and confidence of Buddhistsin the country of origin is happily retained. Pioneer monasteries are much in thepublic eye back home, so if too much is altered too quickly, disaffection can set inon a dramatic scale. Once a community is well-established, however, importantadaptations can often be made without such negative repercussions.It was very encouraging, therefore, to see that these monasteries have recentlyinstituted some Pāli chanting with English translations in their morning andevening recitations, and have made it optional for the monks and nuns to wearTheravāda robes if they choose. This is in order to further the recognition of unitybetween the different branches of the Sangha and to stress connectedness with theBuddha rather than with China.At the Buddha-Dharma Meditation Center on the outskirts of Chicago, theexperience is similar. Established much more recently (1988) by Phra AjahnSunthorn Plamintr, the Center has aimed to be a resource as much for localAmericans as for the immigrant Thai population. In June of 1990 I was invitedthere to attend the demarcation of an ordination precinct (sīma), and the ordinationof several men as novices and bhikkhus. Despite being quite a junior monk Iwas accorded a place of honor amongst the many mahā-theras, and was asked togive one of the Dhamma talks to the whole assembly.The efforts and sincerity of the resident Sangha, and also the lay supporters,were immediately striking; so also was their concern to be more of use to EnglishspeakingAmericans. So much was this on their minds that, from the drive fromthe airport right up until my departure time, I was repeatedly asked for advice onthis. The barriers of language and culture, I was told, meant that more than 99% ofthe people coming were Asians.They had been trying very hard. On this weekend, for example, they hadensured that most of the Dhamma talks would be in English. At the Center, theyheld regular meditation classes; they had formed links with other local Buddhistgroups in the Mid-West Dharma Association and had invited well-known teachersof other Buddhist traditions to speak on their festival days. However, many feltthat there was an inexorable inclination of the center towards becoming little morethan a Thai cultural center, with all the trappings of a Thai City Monastery.The future is, of course uncertain but my feeling was that this outcome wasquite unlikely. These are the early days when, as mentioned above, one tends tostay close to the mold from which one has recently emerged. Gentle transmutationswill come with time. Since the determination of the abbot and his closest laysupporters is to establish a Monastery for all people, and a place where meditationis taught and practiced, that must be the direction it will take.•Our contact with Brother David Steindl-Rast at the Joys of Monastic Life conferenceled to a visit to the Monastery at which he now stays. Although professed in a dif-16