At the end of a very enjoyable and successful day, the crew who had filmed our Songkrahn celebration for a weekly television programme about the countryside called 'Heart of the Country' asked me to thank everyone for being so co-operative and for looking after them so well. Since then I've heard that 'our' programme will be shown on Tuesday, May 6th at 7.30 pm, but only on Central region I'm afraid.
The day before, on the Saturday, having well-prepared ourselves and anxious not to repeat the mess we'd made of it last time, we successfully inflated our huge blow-up tent. In the event it wasn't really needed but if nothing else, as it had had to be packed away wet and dirty in the rain and sleet last time, the blazing Spring sunshine this time was a chance to get it cleaned up and dried out. Although it's not really a complicated job, it can be a heavy one and it was a real blessing to have a generous supply of well-muscled help at hand! Conveniently, finishing touches were still being applied to the decorations and preparations at nine o'clock on the Sunday morning when the film crew arrived and the camera began to roll.
They took me across first to interview and film me in the wood over the road before concentrating on the main events of the day. The weather was brilliant and so after everyone had begun by crowding into the Shrine Room to pay their respects and take the Refuges and Precepts we were able to have almost everything else out of doors. In the afternoon Roger's ordination as Samanera Jotiyo came first and was followed by everyone queuing up to bathe the Pra Buddha Sakyamuni Image, the image in the meditation garden of the Buddha walking. When they'd done that the queue wound it's way to me to bathe my hands and then the hands of the new samanera. All this was jolly and sedate enough until unexpectedly for a few minutes the spirit of Songkrahn broke free and really burst into life. All of a sudden the water started to fly, kids were emptying buckets of it over each other and the camera man was torn between protecting his lens and getting the pictures. And then almost as suddenly as it had erupted, things calmed down and we got on with the presentation of the offerings on the wish-fulfilling tree and the 'abandoned in the forest' cloth.
This alms-giving was principally in aid of the resurfacing and repair of the carpark which had been very necessary and cost rather a lot. We had hoped for a reasonable contribution towards the total cost but what we got practically paid for it, less the VAT. And most was donated on the day. The final figure was £2,618.11 and 100 Thai baht. ANUMODANA!
By this time the film crew had hurried off to catch an interview with a Buddhist inmate and a Buddhist prison officer at the Buddha Grove in Springhill Open Prison. As soon as it was decent to leave I sped off in a sporty, bright yellow car with the hood down to join them and then sit quietly for a while in that beautiful open space. And so a really brilliant day wound to a close.
Since then we've spent a couple of days recovering and then having psyched myself up to it, Moo and I got cracking and in one day redecorated the Shrine Room. I haven't done anything like that for a while and it took a bit of an effort to make myself do it, but I must say, it was very satisfying and worth the effort to see the incense and candle smoke begrimed walls and ceilings restored to a pristine, brilliant white again.
People really are very good to us and not only keep us supplied with the Four Requisites of Robes, Almsfood, Dwelling and Medicines but also provide us with the tools and wherewithal to enable us to do what we can to spread the Dhamma. In a few years I have moved from being ultra-suspicious of modern technology to being an enthusiastic convert and utterly impatient at the reluctance of so many to enter and use the wonderful world of computers and all the modern means of communication. This year, as a New Year present I was given a colour printer by Nigel Northcott and his partner Sue and shortly after I returned from Thailand we received two generous donations from a brother and sister in Bangkok to enable us to upgrade and renew our computer equipment. This all makes life easier and enables me to do more. I can hardly believe it when I look back on the days when I used to take ages to laboriously type the newsletter on a little portable typewriter and then spend hours finding a word of the right length to type and glue over some mistake I'd made. Thank goodness I don't have to do that any more! I also have connection to the Internet which enables me to live in a remote and quiet place and have easy access to information that otherwise would require long and expensive journeys to libraries and bookshops. It's amazing how much Buddhist material is available now over the Internet - new translations of texts, articles, news and books, all easily accessed and downloaded. I'll give you two examples of what I've found lately.
The first was a somewhat alarming piece of news, the first I've heard for years of a site that regrettably I failed to visit when I was in Afghanistan in 1971. It concerned the Buddhist caves and two huge Buddha images of the Ghorband valley in Bamian province. By April 17th when this news was put out this area had not yet been taken by the Taliban who control much of Afghanistan, but they were less than 40 miles away and already threatening to dynamite these huge and ancient images. The largest, a spectacular white-stone statue, 180 feet high, set in a huge niche in a sheer cliff face, was built in the third or fourth century after Christ, possibly by King Kanishka, head of the now obscure Buddhist Kushan empire, who came from nearby central Persia and conquered large parts of south and central Asia. An unexploded rocket-propelled grenade is now embedded in its chest, reportedly fired by a pre-Taliban fighter during the war against the Soviets. The other slightly smaller carving is about 125 feet high and a maze of caves and tunnels crammed with Buddhist carvings and paintings were also carved into the cliff face. There is nothing now we can do but hope that somehow this precious place survives.
The second item I want to share with you is an excerpt
from A Reminiscence of Pra Ajaan Sao Kantasilo by Luangpor Puht
and translated by an American monk, Pra Ajahn Thanissaro of Metta
Forest Monastery in California. Pra Ajahn Sao was the teacher
of Pra Ajahn Mun and one of the founding fathers of what we now
refer to as the Thai Forest Tradition that in its present form
was pioneered principally in North-Eastern Thailand. Pra Ajahn
Sao was inclined to be not a speaker but a doer.
How did Phra Ajaan Sao teach? If it so happened that someone came to him, saying, "Ajaan, sir, I want to practice meditation. How should I go about it?" he would answer, "Meditate on the word 'Buddho.'"
If the person asked, "What does 'Buddho' mean?" Ajaan Sao would answer,
"Don't ask."
"What will happen after I've meditated on 'Buddho'?"
"Don't ask. Your only duty is simply to repeat
the word 'Buddho' over and over in your mind."
Of appana samadhi - attainment or full concentration:
There's only the brightness and the stillness.
If the mind is forever in that state, it will be stuck simply
on that level of stillness. So once you've made the mind still
like this, watch for the interval where it begins to stir out
of its concentration. As soon as the mind has a sense that it's
beginning to take up an object -- no matter what object may appear
first -- focus on the act of taking up an object. That's what
you should examine."
Kindly note that our Vesakha Puja celebration honouring the Birth, Enlightenment and Passing of the Buddha is on Sunday, May 18th from 10.30 am.
Take care and stay happy.