So goes the universe. Expansions and contractions here, Mae Chii Jai is coming back, as is Sumana, the ex-novice from Thailand, to ordain again. Our new well is progressing nicely, we’ve been using it for a couple of weeks already, the water was tested and is fit for human consumption.…
Everybody left, and then three new meditators came. So, now we have me, Pauli from Finland, Harish from USA, and Peter from Canada. Pauli will finish his first course tomorrow, Peter and Harish are just slogging through the beginning stages; everyone has expressed the shock at how different it is…
Can’t remember when the last update was, the title is kind of a joke… Back in Sri Lanka. All is well. The worst news is some ferocious termites ate through the plastic floor of my mosquito tent and started trimming the fat off of some of the books I’d securely…
The best way to live is without ever putting down an anchor anywhere at any time. Then the whole of reality is your ocean, over which your voyage can finally posses real and universal meaning. It is the anchors we put down that limit us to space, time, and circumstance.…
(a.k.a. a log from overseas) Just finished our course at Chom Tong, off to Chiang Mai to tie up some loose ends, then Bangkok to get visas and do some little teaching before our trip home. The ten-day course was the best birthday gift ever; Ajaan was recovering from an…
Great news, we’ve managed to sort out the visa situation, finally getting a cogent explanation from someone in charge. It reminds me a lot of the postal situation here; absurd requirements, fines, and restrictions, until you learn from someone with their head on straight how it works, and then it…
Still no resolution on the visa situation, besides the unwelcome one of having our students return to their home countries before getting visas to ordain. Another try (our fourth) next Monday. Went to see Bhante Anoma yesterday, a nice visit, though short. He may be visiting soon to bring doors…
…bring May flowers? Being born in May makes me conceited about that saying, though this year if the showers are any indication, the flowers must be dreadful. The past two nights we’ve lost a pump, a dozen lightbulbs, a fan, a breaker, and the adapter to our Internet router, all…
Today is the new year, or tomorrow is, depending who we listen to… Friday the 13th too. The-yogi-formerly-known-as-Jens arrived this week, and has taken up the role of groundskeeper; he and Manju have begun work on one of the more slippery forest paths and took measurements for the new kuti…
The more things change, the more they stay the same, so the saying goes. Worth keeping in mind; in the world of sankhara, the new is ever as the old. On the other hand, this is what Buddhism attempts to address, in a sense; we strive for the unattained, a…
