Dear Everybody,
Beginning with Friday, 28 August, 2020, there may be longer periods of silence from my part again, as I am going to move to a great monastery and meditation centre in the vicinity of Rome, see:
Santacittarama – Monastero Buddhista
To your kind attention and for a better understanding, let me quote from their Guidelines:
—Use
of the Telephone and INTERNET
The
Telephone and Internet are tools that we use to facilitate communication. Such
technology can become a problem when we lose ourselves in it. As contemplatives
who cultivate the practice of looking inwards it is important to reduce the
level of use of these tools.
[…]
It is
preferable not to keep a mobile phone in the kuti. Anagarikas who have one may
leave it in the office for safe keeping and can use it when necessary.
Samaneras
or junior monks should not have mobile phones or private email addresses.
[…]
E-mail
and Internet should not be used without permission from senior monks.
The Internet should only be used for necessary monastery business – arranging travel for example – or when given specific permission.
OTHER
ASPECTS OF TRAINING
[…]
Relationship
with laypeople:
While it
is appropriate to maintain a friendly and polite attitude to laypeople, one
should avoid socializing, dedicating one’s free time above all to studying and
practising Dhamma. No sangha member should engage in teaching or counseling
others (lay or monastic) without express invitation from the senior monk.—
•
To begin
with, Phra Ajahn Chandapalo, the most Venerable Abbot of Santacittarama has, in
line with the permission kindly granted by the Sangha there, has allowed me to
stay until the end of this year’s vassa (that is, rains retreat) upon which I
entered one full moon later. Appattañca anāgataṁ: can one be certain
about the future … ??? Who knows where or what next ?! Being 66 now, that is, a
bit nearer to seventy than sixty already, one certainty becomes more and more
evident along with the joyous and often surprising processes of ageing, namely maraṇaṁ
me dhuvaṁ jīvitaṁ me adhuvaṁ, “my death is certain, my life is uncertain.”
— And I recall a great saying our teachers at ITBMU, Rangoon, laughingly
told us hundreds of times: Tomorrow or next life – one never knows!
May you
all be well and happy,
with
lots of mettā,
Bhante
Vilāsa
