This week of Vesakha puja, the full moon of May, we were graced by the presence of one of Thailand’s most venerated meditation masters and disciples of Ajahn Chah, Venerable Ajahn Dtun (Thirachitto).

Born in Ayutthaya, Thailand in 1955, by his teen years, Ajahn Dtun already felt inclined towards monastic life. In 1978, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics, he was accepted to a Master’s program at the University of Colorado. He had thought to further his studies and look after his father until he could ordain as a monk. But one evening, while reading a book on the Dhamma, he came across the last words of the Buddha, “Monks, all things that arise will pass away. Strive on without heedlessness.”

He was so moved that within two months, he arrived at Wat Nong Pah Pong to ordain with the Venerable Ajahn Chah. He resolved “to ordain for life and be in the forest or in caves like the Buddha”. With his great skill and determination, Ajahn Dtun soon became an accomplished meditator. He travelled to other branch monasteries and stayed with Ajahn Piak and Ajahn Anan at Wat Fah Krahm for 4 years. Then he helped Ajahn Anan establish Wat Marb Jan on a forested mountain and after five years, in 1990, he went into solitude in the forest of Boonyawat in Chonburi province to further his practice.

After two and a half years of seclusion, 100 acres of land was offered to establish Wat Boonyawat under Ajahn Dtun’s leadership. In 2008, he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer and in the following year of treatment, he underwent 4 major surgeries and 12 courses of chemotherapy.  Devotees eager to do good works to prolong his life donated more land for a stupa to be built.

Ajahn Dtun is now in good health and residing at Wat Boonyawat. The monastery encompasses 200 acres of forest and many flock there to listen to his teachings. There are regularly 40-50 monks that live and practise under Ajahn Dtun’s guidance and he also travels to visit monasteries in Western countries. During his stay at Tisarana Monastery, he kindly accepted our invitation to visit Sati Saraniya Hermitage accompanied by Ajahn Viradhammo and Ajahn Tejapañño, his translator from Australia.

We are deeply inspired and blessed by this remarkable meeting with Ajahn Dtun as we near completion of the temple building.  May we follow his heroic example and heed the Blessed One’s exhortation to strive diligently on the Path of awakening.

Over 25 years ago, I took the 10-precept nun’s ordination in Myanmar; and five years ago, I returned to Canada to establish Sati Saraniya Hermitage. Recently, as we emerged from our annual Winter retreat to see the snow melting and Canada geese flocking home, I reflected on the impermanence of all things and especially how unwavering refuge in the Dhamma has been my true home.

During our time of seclusion, the Temple builders respectfully and quietly continued working. They framed interior walls, roughed in the electrical wiring, plumbing and heating, and sprayed foam insulation in the walls. In the last few weeks of Spring, they created the beautiful tongue-and-groove wood ceiling of the meditation hall, installed the windows and mounted the exterior cladding in preparation for a day of honouring our parents and teachers on the Path which we hosted together with the monks from Tisarana Buddhist Monastery.

In the transitions we make from times of quiet such as retreat to the business of daily activities, we have to attend to many tasks and responsibilities. These may appear to be obstacles to our practice. In fact, they are opportunities for us to continue developing mindfulness in all four postures while honing our Dhamma skills with greater wisdom, compassion and equanimity.

While we work, rather than wishing we could just stay within the special conditions of retreat that suit our peace of mind, we try to sustain our intention not just to get a job done but to develop the four sublime abidings of the mind, brahma vihāras of loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity. This means continuously clearing the ground of our mind’s debris and seeing the unwholesome inclinations and thoughts that are to be abandoned.

In their place, we cultivate good will and kind intentions which arise from empathy for others in their joys and struggles instead of harbouring negative and critical mind states such as competitiveness, resentment or disdain. Hardest of all, we turn the mind to equanimity, to abide peacefully with conditions just as they are, not from resignation or passivity but from understanding the ways of the world and refraining from giving in to self-centred desire or ill-will.

The resilience and peace that equanimity bestows can be learned during these passages from states of quiet to activity. Not holding onto either extreme, we practice the Buddha’s ‘Middle Way’. We walk right down the middle – empty of the self that grasps for anything at all. We do this for one moment and another moment, patiently practising what is hard for humans to do. At first we crawl along, dragged down by habitual thoughts – until we learn to get up and walk. It is a way of walking that is contented and serene, with loving-kindness and joy. And as our wings to awakening grow, at last, we learn to soar.

May your Dhamma practice flourish and sustain you in peace of heart and joyful well-being.

Medhānandī Bhikkhunī

This Spring we held two consecutive Mindful Work Bee weekends attended by two groups of almost 20 volunteers at the Hermitage. Everyone dedicated their time and skills so generously, bringing abundant offerings of food as well as joy, enthusiasm and a variety of tools to work with. The projects included painting, gardening, refurbishing a log cabin, building a storage shed, preserving the siding of the new temple, clearing an old burn pile, putting up a fence along the main driveway, emptying an old barn in preparation for its dismantling, protecting the temple cedar posts with hemp oil and tidying the construction site.

We are very grateful for all that was accomplished in such a spirit of friendship, appreciation, mindfulness and heartfelt community. Here are a few photo highlights.

May these great blessings be shared in all directions.

Winter gives us the rare opportunity for silent reflection in the seclusion of the monastery. It is a time to put down our projects and devote ourselves to meditation practice, the core of monastic life. By calming and stilling the mind, we can develop greater clarity and wisdom, while living a life of restraint and harmlessness helps us to bring forth more patience, tolerance, kindness and compassion. These are the qualities we all need to keep sowing the seeds of our own freedom.

During this three month retreat, the builders will carry on constructing the temple to complete it before summer. We have scheduled work days and teaching events on our calendar for the Spring of 2013.

We hope that our practice will be a source of blessing even in some small way, a reminder to strive for greater peace where peace begins – within our own hearts.

As winter approaches, we pause, like the blue-gray forms of forest and field that silently witness the season’s change. We contemplate the changes we have seen just in this last year; the passing away of good friends, beings born and to be born, friends who have graduated and found work, and others newly retired from long years of working.

Here at the Hermitage, many special visitors have come to share blessings with us. We have seen Anagarikā Ahimsā (Robyn Church) grow in her training as a postulant through her faith, commitment, perseverance, service and good-will. When Bhante Gunaratana blessed us with a visit in May, he said to her, “Next time I come, I hope you will be ordained.”

An ordination, like a wedding, lasts a short time, but the fulfillment of our vows depends to a large degree on the quality of our endeavour. In what do we really take refuge? And can we stay the course?

For all of us, that’s hard to do especially when things are uncertain or break down or when the dark days of winter draw in. At these times, faith and determination can brace us to keep sowing the seeds of our own freedom. We may not see immediate results, but at least we can bless this hour, this day, the very breath or step that we are taking right now.

If we can see life with Right View – knowing how things truly are, and act from Right Intention – to develop skilful qualities of mind, we can meet change with greater peace and wisdom in our hearts.

So it has been with building the temple. What began as a mere sketch on a piece of paper is now a temple in progress standing outlined against the sky. We have been able to reach this stage of the project due to the faith, generosity and encouragement we receive from all of you, near and far, coming forth to support the work we are doing.

Through the convergence of these collective wholesome intentions, we are reminded that this is more than just a temple for nuns. We are creating a spiritual resource and sanctuary for generations to come.

At the cusp of a new year, it is time for our annual 3-month retreat when we devote ourselves to meditation. While the builders carry on constructing the temple, we hope that our practice will be a source of blessing even in some small way to each of you. May we all strive to purify our hearts and bring forth greater loving-kindness and compassion in this world now, as we begin a New Year, and for all the days of our lives.

[slideshow]Thanks to the faith, generosity and encouragement of so many, our temple building now stands gently outlined against the sky, its roof whitened by a blanket of snow. While our carpenters, who all live locally, continue the construction in the cold of winter, we observe with joy the care and dedication that they bring to this project.

With so many kind and wholesome intentions reaching us from near and far, we are reminded that this is more than just a temple for nuns. The new Dhamma Hall will is a spiritual sanctuary for this and generations to come.

The above photos show the building’s evolution during its first months of construction, as well as gatherings with small groups of friends to watch the cement poured for the footings and foundations.  At these auspicious times, we chanted verses of blessing and placed sacred objects and memories of loved ones in the temple foundations.

Twenty-two beautiful cedar posts surround the walking meditation porch and help support the roof of the Dhamma hall. They were discovered standing in the forest of a friend near our builder’s home just half an hour from the Hermitage. Having died during the ice storm 14 years ago, the trees had lost their canopy but their trunks were still in tact. Our builders carefully harvested them, brought them to the site and cleaned off their outer bark before resurrecting them as part of the temple.

The original design was adapted from a 12th century Japanese Buddhist temple and modified to comply with Canadian climate conditions.  With the building’s dimensions totaling just over 2100 square feet, it is designed to be energy efficient using passive solar and requiring minimal ongoing maintenance.

It includes a 784 square foot Dhamma hall that will seat about 70 for meditation, Dhamma teachings, blessings, ordination ceremonies, and alms-giving events. There will also be vestibule for coats and shoes as well as indoor walking meditation in winter, and a utility building with two public washrooms, two offices, a nuns’ work-meeting room, shower and laundry area, and a mechanical room.

The prelude to building this temple was dismantling a 100 x  50 square foot barn, most of which has been saved and will be reused by the team of enthusiastic neighbours who worked together to remove it. You can see how it finally came down, opening the space where the new temple now stands within a circle of welcoming trees.

Though all is uncertain – especially in the world of construction – we hope to host Gratitude to Parents Day on June 23, 2013 with Ajahn Viradhammo and the Sangha of Tisarana Buddhist Monastery in our new temple.

Completing the new Temple shows the culmination of this beautiful project.

On September 30th, we honoured the life of arahant bhikkhuni Mahapajapati Gotami, the Buddha’s maternal aunt and foster mother – and our ancestral Dhamma mother. This full moon day marked the anniversary of her ordination as the first bhikkhuni 2595 years ago.

It is due to her great courage, determination, and enlightened wisdom that we are able to renew and uphold the tradition of the Bhikkhuni Sangha – after a lapse of nearly 1000 years – and work towards freedom from suffering for the benefit of all beings.

We remembered her poignant story: at age 65, Queen of the Sakyan people, she left her palace in Kapilavatthu, walking 240 kilometres with a large retinue of her royal colleagues  – barefoot, having cut off their hair and donned the yellow robe – along the dusty tracks of ancient India to reach Vesali and request ordination from the Blessed One!

Here in Perth, two and a half millenia later, about 60 Dhamma friends crowded together inside Sati Saraniya Hermitage, sheltering from the wet autumnal weather for a precept ceremony, alms giving meal, Dhamma reflections and chanting of blessings.  We shared stories about Mahapajapati’s life and the precious legacy of all our arahant forefathers and mothers. 

Then we walked up the hillock to the site where we hope next year to gather again for these Dhamma activities inside the new temple building.

[slideshow]A wonderful team of 24 friends gathered together at Sati Saraniya on July 21st to help us prepare for the first construction phase of our temple project. Bearing food offerings and equipped with work gloves, tools and a joyful enthusiasm that never flagged in the summer heat, they formed teams in the cool morning to take up the various jobs of clearing bush, salvaging and storing old wooden beams, bagging compost, removing rusted farm equipment and other works on site.

We now have a beautiful space where in time to come we hope to gather again for silent meditation in a purpose-built Dhamma hall. The mood was harmonious and festive, especially when it came time to share the almsgiving meal, chant dedications and share blessings. These photos are glimpses of how the day unfolded…

[slideshow]Last month, we were blessed with a very special visit by Bhante Gunaratana, one of the most highly revered elders of the Theravada Bhikkhu Sangha in the world. He was accompanied by Bhantes Jinananda and Yasassi as well as about 20 devoted Dhamma friends.

‘Bhante G’, as he is affectionately known, joined us for the alms-giving meal and led us in a power walk around the forest at a pace that challenged even the younger members of the crowd following behind him. He also blessed us with a beautiful Dhamma talk, A Question of Birth and Death. Enjoy the photos of our memorable day with ‘Bhante G’.