Rugged Interdependency A Monk’s Reflections on the American Buddhist Landscape 1990 – 2007 Amaro Bhikkhu Rugged Interdependency A Monk’s Reflections on the American Buddhist Landscape 1990 ~ 2007 Amaro Bhikkhu Abhayagiri Monastic Foundation Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery 16201 Tomki Road Redwood Valley, CA 95470 (707) 485-1630 www.abhayagiri.org © 2007 Abhayagiri Monastic Foundation Copyright is reserved only when reprinting for sale. Permission to reprint for free distribution is hereby given, as long as no changes are made to the original. Published in the United States of America First published, 2005 Second, revised edition, 2007 Front cover photograph © by Liz Hymans ISBN XXXX-XXX-XXXX-XX-X Contents Beginnings 1 1990 The Golden State 7 Part I A Fertile Sea 8 Part II A Still Life 13 1998 Golden Highways Revisited 22 A journey through American and English Buddhist landscapes Part I San Francisco – Tampa Bay – Sussex NJ – Massachusetts – New York 23 Part II New York – Portland – Cloud Mountain – San Francisco – Abhayagiri 47 Part III Abhayagiri – Sonoma Mountain – Green Gulch – Spirit Rock 61 Part IV San Francisco – Portland – Seattle – Larch Mountain – Still Meadow – Chicago 81 Part V Hinsdale – Troy – Amaravati – Sutton Valence – Chithurst – San Francisco 91 Part VI Tiburon – Spirit Rock – Abhayagiri 106 1999 Rugged Interdependency 113 Generosity in the Land of the Individualist 2007 Epilogue 117 “. go on with your story” Beginnings Beginnings Perhaps it is impossible to say where anything really begins, nevertheless, it can be useful to map out a few landmarks here and there. Accordingly, here is a little of the background against and amongst which much of the thread of these travel- ogues unravels. In the early 1980s Ajahn Sumedho began to make regular visits to northern California. He was the senior Western disciple of Ajahn Chah, one of the most highly respected Buddhist masters of the Thai forest tradition of Theravāda Buddhism, and he had been invited to come and teach in the US by Jack Kornfield, a former Peace Corps volunteer and psychologist, with whom he had spent some time in Thailand, in the late ’60s, when they were both monks under Ajahn Chah’s tutelage. Jack had left the monk’s robes after returning to the States in the early ’70s and, with his friends Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein and Jacqueline Schwarz (now Mandell), had embarked upon establishing the Buddhist retreat center in Massachusetts called Insight Meditation Society (IMS). This had met with great success but had also revealed some differences in styles of teaching and prac- tice amongst the founders. These differences, along with the massive interest in Buddhist meditation that was brewing in northern California, led Jack back to his city of origin, San Francisco, to found a parallel center to IMS on the West Coast. When it eventually came into being the new place became known as Spirit Rock Meditation Center. These annual invitations to California were doubly attractive to Ajahn Sumedho in that, not only being an American and an alumnus of Berkeley University and thus being given a chance to visit his old stomping grounds, they also gave him the opportunity to visit his elderly parents and sister in San Diego. It therefore duly became part of his annual schedule to step out of the many duties he had in the foundation of his new monasteries in England (Cittaviveka in West Sussex and Amaravati in Hertfordshire) and to head to the West Coast for a few weeks to teach and to see family. Over the next ten years he developed a devoted following of students in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1988 they formed the Sanghapala Foundation, with the mission of creating a branch Monastery of Ajahn Chah’s lineage somewhere in northern California. Dr. Marc Lieberman, Nancy Garfield, Debbie Stamp and Daniel Barnes, whom the reader will encounter in the coming pages, were key figures in the early days of Sanghapala, hosting and organizing many of the events. In 1990 the present author, along with Ajahn Sundarā and Sister Jotakā (two of the senior nuns of our community at that time), accompanied Ajahn Sumedho on one of these teaching visits and, when the other three left to return to England, I remained behind to establish a temporary vihāra (monastic residence) as an experiment for the subsequent six weeks. There was plenty of interest in the idea of founding a Monastery amongst the small inner circle of lay friends but it 2 Rugged Interdependency was unknown if there would be any wider enthusiasm for the project. Thus the experiment. Things went well – along with the regular teachings that were given in San Francisco, I traveled widely to respond to other invitations and met numer- ous people; many were sympathetic with the idea of a forest Monastery and some energetically committed to making it happen. An account of that year’s visit was subsequently published as The Golden State in the Forest Sangha Newsletter (our Monastery journal) and later reprinted in Silent Rain – an anthology of talks, poems and travelogues, published in 1995 – as well as in this collection you are reading now. Ajahn Sumedho’s parents had both passed away in 1989 so, as he also had ever- increasing commitments with the monasteries in England, thereafter I became the central teacher for the California students. At one point, at the start of 1992, it looked as though all the conditions were ripe for the new Monastery to begin; however, that apparent ripeness also coincided with the passing away of Ajahn Chah and with the disrobing and departure of a number of senior monks and nuns in the community – it was plainly not the time to be starting any new ventures. The pattern of that first year thus repeated itself for quite some time: I came for a few months each year, Sanghapala set up another temporary vihāra, I would travel and teach and then head back to England again. At first I had been some- what disappointed, to have the momentum of establishing the new foundation seemingly so dissipated, but it quickly became apparent that these things are largely a matter of perspective: Who’s to say that there will be a Monastery at all? Why should it be you who starts it? This hiatus thus did a lot to help reveal shallow personal and ambitious ten- dencies within me and helped to keep bringing the mind back to what the whole endeavor was for in the first place – i.e. simply making Theravāda teachings, based on monastic practice, available to those who were interested. So, to my surprise, I eventually became grateful for the extra time it brought. Furthermore the annual visits cultivated a growing sense of community in those who kept showing up for our events and who plainly evinced a heartfelt connection to the Theravāda monastic tradition. We were becoming a Dhamma family. And this did not just involve the Bay Area community – my regular travels to Florida, Michigan and Chicago, to Portland, Seattle and Massachusetts all contributed to the formation of a web of like-minded folks across the nation, from sea to shining sea. The efforts to establish the California Monastery thus moved slowly until the summer of 1995. At that time, as Ven. Master Hsüan Hua (abbot of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, in Ukiah, California) approached his death he offered Ajahn Sumedho 120 acres of forest in Redwood Valley, some 17 miles north of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, in order to help him start the Monastery that he knew we had been contemplating for some time. I was in England, at Amaravati, on the day that he made this great gesture of friendship and generosity. On the previous day, May 31st, we had had a Sangha meeting there and had finally agreed that there were now enough senior monas- 3 Rugged Interdependency tics around, and enough stability in the community, to allow us to begin looking for land in California. On the morning of June the 1st we got the call to let us know about the offer. It all fitted very well. On several occasions, Master Hua had made a point of stating that it had been the dream of his life “to bring the Northern and Southern traditions of Buddhism back together again.” His offering was one of openhearted ecumenical friendship, and it enabled the two communities to be physically close and to relate in an atmo- sphere of mutual respect and harmony. In choosing a name for the Monastery it seemed appropriate to reflect on the kindness of this offering and the spirit in which it was intended. It also seemed important to use a name in the Pāli language, to confirm the sense of allegiance to the Theravāda tradition. The name that was finally settled upon, “Abhayagiri,” means “Fearless Mountain.” The original Abhayagiri Monastery was in ancient Sri Lanka, at Anuradhapura. That Monastery was most notable for welcoming prac- titioners and teachers from many different Buddhist traditions. They lived there amicably alongside one another, distinct in their particular practices but not sep- arate as communities. During the 4th Century CE Abhayagiri housed some 5,000 monks, according to the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hien, who visited there at that time. Now that it has been developed for a few years, Abhayagiri Monastery in California is a center of teaching and practice for people in monastic or lay life. Its heart is a community of monks (bhikkhus), novices (sāmaneras), and postulants (anagarikas) pursuing a life of meditative reflection. Frequently monastics from other branches of this global community come and stay for periods of time. Those wishing to join the Sangha initially make a commitment as an anagarika for one year, during which time they can train in the monastic life and consider a longer commitment.