Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998Monastery circle meeting went. She too is supportive of the project but it’s by nomeans a primary concern.Bodywise the mucus element is in full glory again; the trick seems to bebalancing the flow of snot and sneezes on the one hand and stupefaction fromantihistamine pills on the other. My head is blank through the evening sitting andso I give a talk on Thinking and Not Thinking – hard to keep the thread going andto avoid repetition. Oh well – at least all the basic, necessary information got putout there on papañca (conceptual proliferation) yoniso-manasikāra (wise reflection)and enquiry.April 15 thThe morning chanting on Wednesday was a snot-clogged affair but we soldieredthrough. It’s deeply impressive that I have to use the mike to make my voice heardas the leader. The group really gives it full voice – 18-syllable Pāli phrases and all– it’s a gladdening sign for the general acceptance of these forms into Buddhistpractice in this country. I have certainly never experienced such vigor outside theMonastery before. A few of the folks have issues about bowing – but, in the land ofthe free individual that’s pretty normal.A cooler, overcast day at first but the interview groups are brighter – most ofthe people seem to be working with the different practices with some skill. Oneor two have split: (1) had AIDS and was coming down with pneumonia; (2) doghad had an emergency operation (3) noncompatible with Dhamma – par for thecourse, no blame.Taraniya gave the evening talk with a host of neat vignettes on ill will. She is avery personable and gifted teacher. We’re still needing to encourage all the folks toshow for the morning pūjā – we’ll also see how many we can persuade to stay to theclose. A few already have their rides booked for early morning Sunday – perhapswe should bill the closing blessing as an Empowerment and Dharma TransmissionRitual, which it is, but in need of some more fancy PR to get the zeal element toengage with it.April 16 thHay fever, snot-trickles and tickling throat proceed purposefully along – inconvenientbut not unbearable. It just means that there’s no inclination to give instructionsduring the sittings for fear of explosive coughs into the microphone. It’s no greatloss as there’s usually little to say by this time – so much guidance having beengiven already. All seems even-paced and the interviews are lively and full of usefulquestions. By the end of the afternoon stint we had dealt with fundamentalism,globalization and the future of humanity – not bad for a day’s work.Edwin Kelley, the IMS director, came by for the tea and we spent a good coupleof hours together. Mostly we spoke of IMS and how things are developing here:the plans for the new long-term practice center in the woods between IMS and theStudy Center and the structure of life at IMS itself. It was interesting how clearlyEdwin saw the place as trying to provide an efficient service to people and that the43