FOREST SANGHA newsletter www.fsnewsletter.amaravati.org October 2007 2550 Number 81 Evocation You know how it starts out. You take yourself out into the late sun burning stands of winter birch. You clear a small damp circle of earth and put re to the pages you have with you – Dhamma notes, a sheaf of musings. And they do not burn. Then it’s a few parchment chestnut leaves, twigs of birch. And, somehow, you nd yourself sitting down, wrapped in your grandmother’s blanket, by a small vibrant re in an in-pressing dark, where even the stars are unwilling. Sitting there – the person who once sent you marshmallows dead – with the ickering uncertainty of twigs. And there it is. One small thing having ared into a happening. Life growing moment-to-moment, warming, sheltering: the pungent-sweet smoke of elderberry burning, the familiar front-hot/back-cold, and the loveliness of keeping company with the Night herself. She sings to me, and the re sings to be fed – a call and response, a counter-point, an evocation of release. Yes, what happens when the pile you’d collected is burnt and everything around you is burnt? The re goes out. Ordination of the rst four siladhara Embers glow and cool. Night reveals her full resplendence. Nothing added, burning ceases: take heart. Twenty-ve Thaniya vassas A look back, within and ahead Sister Rocana Sister Sundara Sister Candasiri Sister Thanissara Ajahn Sundara ❖ Ajahn Candasiri ❖ Thanissara ❖ Ajahn Thaniya ❖ Ajahn Upekkha Ajahn Thanasanti ❖ Ajahn Kovida ❖ Sister Cintamani Ajahn Sumedho ❖ Ajahn Sucitto FOREST SANGHA NEWSLETTER Newsletter Emptiness here, Emptiness there but the innite universe stands always before your eyes. This verse from Sengtsan seems to capture the paradoxi- their 25th vassa and for being here from the beginning of cal nature of the teaching that the Buddha used in myriad this community. Many others have encouraged us over forms to point to that which is beyond description. Luang the years with countless gestures of support: material, Por Chah would echo this again and again, compassion- practical and above all, with their faith in this Way from ately leading, guiding, and prodding his disciples towards which we can all benet so much. awakening. We asked the rst nuns – Aj. Sundara, Aj. Candasiri, By some mysterious coming together of circum- and Thanissara – to reect on their years in the Order. stances our nuns’ community has come into being and has Some common themes and shared experiences emerge in become part of that current. This year sees the completion their reections, as well as divergences. These present no of the 25th vassa since the establishment of the Siladhara singular history but histories born of reection, recollec- Order. There will be a celebration of the occasion at Citta- tion; subjectively felt and often publicly lived. Ajahn Su- viveka on November 3rd (see the Grapevine for details). citto offered an account of some of his experiences in help- This issue is dedicated to the anniversary. The nuns’ ing to establish the nuns’ system of training, and he de- community coordinated the material in a collaborative scribes the complexities of the context in which it evolved. effort with Sr Cintamani compiling and editing it. We asked other senior nuns to contribute their per- The origins of our nuns’ order lie in Pat Stoll’s re- spective. Ajahn Upekkha speaks with her distinctive voice quest to Ajahn Chah that she be able to live as an eight- on realizing the Truth, and on fearlessness, from her many precept nun. In 1979 Ajahn Sumedho gave the Eight Pre- wholehearted years living in the community. Ajahn cepts to Pat Stoll, Françoise Reynaud, Katie Cockburn and Thaniya after eight years as the senior nun of Chithurst Mary Peacock at Cittaviveka, naming them, respectively, writes of the evolution of the nuns’ community within the Sr Rocana, Sr Sundara, Sr Candasiri and Sr Thanissara. mixed community and of the beginnings of Rocana After a few years of practising in that form they sought to Vihara. She describes the rich territory that opens up for live more fully as alms mendicants. In 1983 at Ajahn Sum- exploration. Ajahn Kovida writes of her journeys to edho’s initiative and with permission from the Thai Thailand and Burma, the practices she engaged in and Sangha they received the Going Forth (entering the sec- how they support ongoing inquiry. The report on the ond vassa that year). In 1987 Sr Rocana died while on pil- Hamburg Congress on Buddhist Women illuminates interna- grimage in India. In 1991 Thanissara disrobed and along tional concern about the role of women in Buddhism. And with Kittisaro established Dharmagiri Buddhist Hermit- the poetry by several of the senior nuns speaks perhaps age in South Africa. These are some of the bare facts. The more directly from the heart of experience. story – or better, stories – of the evolution of the Siladhara It is inevitable that some of the struggles of the inte- Order are as varied as those who recount them. gration of a new community within an ancient tradition Many people have been, and continue to be, in- form part of the picture of the nuns’ experience. Clearly volved in and affected by the evolution of this community. the situation has presented challenges for everyone: The whole is larger than the sum of the parts. We feel monks, nuns as well as the laity, as each delicately navi- gratitude and respect for Luang Por Sumedho. As well as gates the interface of different cultures and conditioning. being our preceptor, he saw to it that we had requisites in It is a slow, continuing evolution where the hard work of abundance and his repeated encouragement to wake up all contributes to the consolidation of the nuns’ commu- has been invaluable. We thank our bhikkhu brothers – no- nity and to the planting of this tradition into Western soil. tably Ajahn Sucitto, abbot of Cittaviveka for the past 16 The style of presentation in this issue may be differ- years, who formulated our training structures and has ent than is customary. This is a tapestry woven out of been committed to the support and evolution of the dou- many threads. Luang Por Sumedho repeatedly encour- ble community of monks and nuns. Each of the sisters has, ages us to open to whatever arises. So within the territory in her own way, helped to shape and breathe life into the of what it takes to wake up, it is important that all of this form that we see today. We reserve special appreciation has its place. for Ajahn Sundara and Ajahn Candasiri on the occasion of Ajahn Thanasanti Photographs – Copyright is reserved for all photographs in the FSN. Online PDF – This online edition of the FSN uses a convention to protect For more information, please contact the editor. email addresses from spam by rendering them as following: Glossary – see page 21 [email protected] is written name at organization dot com Contact – Write to FSN Editor, Amaravati You will need to alter 'at' and 'dot' back to the original format. or email: editor at amaravati dot org 2 OCTOBER 2007 The rst four siladhara at their ordination with Ajahn Sumedho, Chithurst, August 14th 1983. The richest surprise Luang Por Sumedho looks back at the haphazard glory – the emergence of a nuns’ order I remember as a young monk living with Ajahn Chah in what was coming into being. I was very happy to be in a Thailand, having what felt like a fairly clear idea of how position to provide them with a place to live and some ba- my life as a bhikkhu would evolve. Looking back, I can sic instruction in the samana life, but beyond that I had no only say how astonished I am. I could never have imagined real idea what was transpiring – I don’t think any of us did. the way things have developed and are developing still. There we were, ourselves relatively new transplants Of all the many surprises, none perhaps is greater or from Thailand, trying to see whether it was possible to live richer than to have witnessed and participated in the incep- the mendicant life at all in the West. Our heritage was itself tion, growth and maturation of the Order of Siladhara, the extremely conservative and it offered no precedent or Nuns’ Sangha. It might appear as if the nuns’ community guidance in the matter of a training for women in the Holy emerged as part of some grand and sober plan for the Life. These, and my own native caution might well have Western Sangha, but that is not the way things have really added up to a sort of fatal inertia. However, I nally saw been, in all their haphazard glory. that a much more denite form, a clearer training, was Having had no previous experience of leading groups needed in order for these anagarikas to really make sense of of people, I must have inherited aspects of my own ‘leader- and derive full benet from living the monastic life. It was ship style’ from Luang Por Chah. He would always point this that led, in August of 1983, to the ordination of the rst out how senseless it is to try to control events according to four nuns – to the formation of the Order of Siladhara. one’s designs, since in fact things just take their natural What was needed was a more formal structure for course in accordance with causes and conditions. Our job is training and this was where – much to his surprise, I imag- to respond suitably to conditions but, as much as possible, ine, but also to his eternal credit – Ajahn Sucitto stepped in.