Blimey! It’s been almost a year since I said ‘normal service to resume shortly’. Just before that I said I’d write a post a week, which kind of put me off. Then I decided to do the wise thing and post as an when. But looking at the evidence that hasn’t really been successful either. So, I have a cunning plan. I will DISCIPLINE myself to write one for every full- and new-moon day – just like the old days – remember?

PS – You’ll have noticed I’ve been promoted. It’s Ajahn Manapo now. The word ‘Ajahn’ is a Thai word derived from the Pali ‘Acariya‘, meaning teacher. While in Thailand it is used quite freely to refer to monks – not necessarily of ten years standing or more – and lay-people, among the Western followers of the Forest Tradition it is only used for monks who have lived through (survived) ten or more consecutive Vassas (Rains retreats).

Three weeks ago today, at 8 o’clock in the morning, I was about to leave the field where I’d spent the night and walk down into the town of Cheltenham for alms. I didn’t think I’d get any food, as I thought on most mornings of my first tudong in England. You can read the story here, or you can download the pdf. Caution: it’s an epic (and you might need your tissues).

.

Pheew, it’s been a busy few weeks insulating and converting my kuti and now holding the reigns while Luangpor attends the WAM in Thailand.

Hopefully I’ll settle back into a routine next week and resume normal service. That’s the plan, anyway…

Hope you like the new site.

Now the Forest Hermitage site, Luangpor’s blog and Dhamma Diary are all clearly of the same family, with each address on the Hermitage’s domain, and each having the same theme but different colour schemes.

One good thing here is the Categories bar on the right.

Another is that the text of the posts is much more legible.

Now I’ve just got to write something…

.

It’s been a busy two weeks building the new stage for the shrine room, preparing for the end of vassa celebrations, getting the new novice Samanera Jotiko ready for his ordination, preparing the new blog sites (you’ll see…), talking to school children, and maintaining my formal practice. So, alas, Dhamma Diary must be put back two weeks.

When I teach the kids about the Four Noble Truths I usually ask them for their marks out of ten for life. This week I had a few zeros! Plus one kid gave it a ten. He looked a sandwich short, if you ask me…