Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998genius in tying the hearts of the homeless ones to the lives of the faithful, by establishingalms-mendicancy, moneylessness and a general powerlessness to shape toworld according to your wishes. Thus, as Greg and Chris and Adrienne were gladof the chance to talk, so is Don Sperry who meets me at San Francisco airport; especiallysince he has wound up his life at IMS and is coming out to Abhayagiri witha view to an indefinite stay.He had just had a very fine visit with his family in Indiana who, it seems, hadcome to the agreement to back him and support his going forth – to Don’s immensesurprise and relief. We talk some on the way to Edward Lewis’s place in Tiburonand I hear about the families’ interactions and his time with a long lost cousin, aMuslim who now lives in Modesto.A quiet evening at Edward’s – gentle conversation and catching up on mutualfriends and family. His daughter has been making her first progress through theAntipodes and SE Asia and was doing very well on her own on the Road. Her customaryfearfulness of life’s dangers seemed to have radically fallen away; a factdemonstrated more than anything by a 270’ bungy-jump she made in New Zealand– not a pastime enjoyed by shrinking violets.May 4 thA day full of the Spirit Rock teachers’ circle: Jack Kornfield, Wes Nisker, DebraChamberlain-Taylor, Robert Hall, Julie Wester, Anna Douglas, Guy Armstrong,John Travis; the usual players, although absent this day were Howie Cohn, JamesBaraz, Sylvia Borstein, Mary Orr and Eugene Cash. These few folks who wereaway were mostly leading retreats.The walk to the hall is filled with the rich scent of wild bay trees along thecreek. Irises dot the driveway and the garden areas, their feathery tongues of goldand purple lapping the spring air full of life and moisture.The buildings for the residential retreats are nearing completion, nestled underthe shelter of the green curves of the Marin County hills. The Big Opening is scheduledfor July 4 th and it seems that all is on-line for completion by that time.There were difficult issues in the air and we gave most of the day to hearingthrough the voices of one particular dilemma. After all the talking and contact ofthe last few weeks I was little disposed to keen engagement but found I was ableto listen fully and intently – also to reflect that this was not some unfortunate aberrationwithin the otherwise smooth flow of Spirit Rock life but the very stuff of lifeitself: two dear honorable, honest people with severe criticisms of each other andtwo radically different versions of the “same” events. The Kurosawa film Rashomonwas quoted repeatedly as an example of how different people involved in the sameevents are, in fact, often subjectively in totally different events – especially whenviewed in hindsight with the filters of new views in place: because of such conflicts,hence Vinaya.The Dhamma of the real world keeps intruding upon our programs of whatwe believe and what we have planned – this was also borne out by Jack’s recentemergency hernia operation and James Baraz’s torn retina. He couldn’t make it57