Rugged Interdependency - Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Golden Highways Revisited: 1998was attentive, had his eyes open most of the way through and, after a pause forhalf an hour or so, we carried on with some more. At the sound of “Namo me sabbebuddhānam…” – The Twenty-eight Buddhas, the ultimate protective chant – his eyesflashed open like a pair of headlights and a smile came over his visage.Plainly trying to keep in touch with the sense world, such familiar recitationsdraw the heart to the surface and fill it with a joyful purpose. His condition seemedto be stable and so we left after an hour or so – the doctors will keep him in for afew more days and the great hope is to persuade the Stockton crowd to let himreturn to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, where he wants to be. We shall seewhat happens.Back at Abhayagiri the crowds have started to disperse – we could all fit in thehouse for 5:30 tea again – we chanted more parittas for Bhante at the evening pūjāand dedicated our good wishes for his welfare. All day it has been raining, as itdid on Monday – the dragons certainly looked after us well and protected our ceremonyfrom being washed out – anumodanā!May 13 thSimple days – coming to the morning chanting, taking care of correspondence,eating the meal together in the house, off to visit Bhante Dhammavāra in theafternoon.He is greatly improved. Arriving, we chant parittas, sit and talk for a while.(He is only able to speak a word or two, but no matter). Ven. Sarin, his attendant,provides us with cold drinks, we chant some more and depart; already it’s a peacefuland pleasant routine. Peter La Rivière, with his daughter Marguerite and herhusband John, come by for tea, plus Peter and Laurel Mayland and Moria Lawlor.Much of the conversation gets taken up with discussing Bhante’s condition, butwe also manage to roam through Alaska and the subject of lost and wounded birdlife.May 14 thThe rhythm repeats itself the next day, although Paul and Lili Breiter come by tooffer the meal. She had been troubled recently by violent dreams and, as they hadrecently moved into a new apartment, they asked us to come around and do someblessing/exorcising chants for them. Although she’s Chinese and he’s a New Yorkerthey follow a largely Tibetan practice. Paul had studied with many lamas, mostlyout of the Nyingma lineage, since the time he spent with Ajahn Chah as a monk (thefamous Varapañño) in the mid-‘70s. Since we had arrived in California, however,he and Lili had been drawing closer to this tradition again and had now moved toUkiah to be near the Monastery.The group of us five monks, and Anagarika Michael and Anita, piled intothe van and emerged to enter the almost completely unfurnished living room oftheir place. We had neglected to bring any of our accoutrements – blessing string,beeswax candle, asperger for the lustral waters, etc., etc. but it didn’t seem tomatter – it was a somewhat minimalist affair all-round. Paul didn’t even have a67