5. India.................................................................................................................................................. 90 5.1 Bodh-Gaya-Retreats and Dhamma Gather<strong>in</strong>g Sarnath 2010..................................................... 90 6. Further read<strong>in</strong>g and l<strong>in</strong>ks.................................................................................................................. 91 4
Preface and thanks First of all I would like to thank all those people who exert great effort and devotion to support the <strong>Asia</strong>n meditation centres and monasteries by giv<strong>in</strong>g donations and assistance and/or pass<strong>in</strong>g on the Dhamma. Three personal reports from people who had meditated <strong>in</strong> <strong>Asia</strong>, given to the members of the Munich Buddhist Society dur<strong>in</strong>g their regular Monday meet<strong>in</strong>gs, formed the basis of this retreat guide. They were written down <strong>in</strong> order to be available to newly <strong>in</strong>terested people at any time. The result was a rapidly <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g loose-leaf collection of <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>formation concern<strong>in</strong>g meditation <strong>in</strong> <strong>Asia</strong> (ma<strong>in</strong>ly <strong>in</strong> form of leaflets of various monasteries) <strong>in</strong> the offices of the German Buddhist Union. Many thanks to all who contributed to this collection! However, keep<strong>in</strong>g it up to date proved to be difficult and pass<strong>in</strong>g on the <strong>in</strong>formation required a lot of time and money (mak<strong>in</strong>g copies, dispatch them, etc.) That was why Werner Liegl suggested to grant <strong>in</strong>terested people free and easy access to the collected <strong>in</strong>formation by mak<strong>in</strong>g it available through the <strong>in</strong>ternet. Apart from that he generously offered to br<strong>in</strong>g his knowledge and his engagement to bear on the project and to carry it out. From that time data and personal reports were collected on a larger scale and were brought <strong>in</strong>to a systematic form based on Bill Weir’s (see literary reference). The first pr<strong>in</strong>tout conta<strong>in</strong>ed about ten centres. Hilde Scheller assisted <strong>in</strong> proofread<strong>in</strong>g and phras<strong>in</strong>g. Désirée Schoen k<strong>in</strong>dly took on the editor’s job and supplied the pr<strong>in</strong>touts. Also many thanks for their personal reports and <strong>in</strong>formation to Ven. Pra Claus, Hildegard Huber, Sr. Ariya Nani, Samaneri Uppalavanna Theri, Samanera Analayo, Maggy, Mal<strong>in</strong>ee Polte, Ven. Mettiko Bhikkhu, Gerd Neller, Ven. Than Mart<strong>in</strong>, Jörg Dittmar, Steve Weissman, Helge Latz<strong>in</strong>a, Chanda von Keyserl<strong>in</strong>gk, Hella Lohmann, Mart<strong>in</strong> H. Petrich, Than Gavesako, Metaji, Erik Hausstädtler the people work<strong>in</strong>g at buddhanet.net and a modest Samanera, who does not want to be mentioned by name (although he made a considerable contribution to the Sri Lanka chapter). I am particularly grateful to Kathar<strong>in</strong>a Titkemeyer, who translated the first four chapters (Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka and Nepal) <strong>in</strong>to English and Désirée Schoen, Andrej and Than Gavesako who overtook the editor’s job for the English version, too, as well as the translation of some paragraphs. Different people prefer and dislike different k<strong>in</strong>ds of food – the same it true for meditation methods, Dhamma talks, places and retreat conditions. Almost every place described <strong>in</strong> this retreat guide was particularly recommended by someone. However, this does not mean that somebody else would recommend it, too. Thus the <strong>in</strong>dividual descriptions with<strong>in</strong> the chapters are not ordered accord<strong>in</strong>g to their quality, but ma<strong>in</strong>ly chronologically; other aspects were geographical proximity and belong<strong>in</strong>g to the same tradition. May all people f<strong>in</strong>d a suitable place and reach freedom. Dieter Baltruschat 5
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