Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998•Through the day we shuttle back and forth between formality and informality,activity and rest, the retreat and the cartographical machinations of Mason & Dixon.From the ringing of crickets in the gathering dark to the shores of Susquehanna;discoursing on the body in the mind and the heart of loving-kindness whilst shufflingalong 39 ° 43’ 17.4” in the company of Lord and Lady Lepton and an automatedyet unnamed female duck of Parisian origin. Ruth is stranger than Richard…March 29 thAll stay through until the retreat’s end (there were only four at the finish – includingyours truly – last year) and leave for their homes glowing gently.Jim and I drive down to the Barrier Islands and go for a long stroll on the beach– catching the liquid iron sunset at the apogee of our trip. Moves are afoot in BodhiTree to go to a more lay-based model although who knows how things will evolve.On our return to the vehicle we see a vast bungy-vessel, strung between two lituptowers; a capsule, obviously containing some screamers, plunged earthwardstwixt two giant rubber bands. The array sprang them up and down a good fewtimes before the oscillation drew to a close, bearing them safely to the ground. Thenext big thrill in Tampa Bay.On returning, the friends of Jim who had dropped in before – Ken the cardealer and his young, bikini-topped bride – were still at his home and had nowbeen joined by John, a buddy and neighbor working at the VA hospital. He haddeveloped a ritual of bringing Jim (and other friends on the block) a weekly pie.Innocent and sweet folks, whose conversation revolved around holidays, menusand vehicles. Just at the point where I began to feel a bit of a lemon they all uppedand departed – Jim went to take the pie to Judy next door, now all we are left withis the sweet warm night and the soft clattering of bodhi leaves.March 30 thDepartures and arrivals: a morning with Jim – down to the Seahorse for breakfast(his ex-wife’s favorite haunt) and thence on to the Myakka nature reserve. Cool seabreezes pour steadily through the restaurant window, the day is bright again andthe morning pavements are thick with the middle aged – snowbirds savoring thelast of the mellow season before Florida turns up the heat.Bright and cloud-strewn, we make our way on broad highways through theendless succession of passages, causeways, bridges and island hops that form thelacework of this area. Glittering waters stretch smoothly in all directions (only afew feet deep for the most part) condos rise, fast-food and hotels fill the eye atevery close-up. The horizon is ever a hazy strip of dark green – here a hill is theinches the highway rises above the swamp. White motor launches, bearing their26