Gallery: Lots of Going Forth
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Meal Offerings / Visiting Venerables
While there’s not as much seclusion as when wandering, having an easily accessible campsite does have its perks – friends have been visiting regularly to offer food, supplies, and support. See here is Bhante Sumano with Lusiana and her son Justin. They even brought the table the food was offered on! We also received a
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A Refuge for Love
The other day on almsround I was stepping up in front of the local country store and was greeted by a friend. He’d just suffered a blow – a breakup with his girlfriend of some months. “It’s happened before but this time feels more final.” he said. Still, he was curiously upbeat. “I’m feeling a
Gradual Training Retreat
This month’s In-Person retreat, “The Gradual Training”, wrapped up this evening. It was wonderful having friends together in a comfortable space for two days of dedicated practice, and the first offering since monastics Bhante Sumano and Anagarika Drew arrived to spend the vassa in Western Mass. The retreat was themed around the Buddha’s method of
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The Path to Impermanence
This week the conversation both online and on the street has been around Impermanence. The ‘idea’ of impermanence is one that every person has at some point – realistically many times in their life. And yet the Buddha highlights it and returns to it again and again in his teachings. Clearly not a mere idea
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Retreat starting Friday
Tomorrow, our weekend retreat “The Gradual Training” will begin with an extension of the normal Friday meditation session on Zoom, at 8pm EDT. After the meditation there will be the opportunity for participants to take the Refuges and Precepts, and then at 9pm Tahn Pamutto will offer a talk outlining the theme for the weekend.
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Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Last Friday night, for the Full Moon, the monastics were able to host their Uposatha gathering in the town of Wendell, where they will be spending the three month Vassa season. This is a time of stability, where wandering is reduced and monastics commit to staying in a particular community for the duration. Whether at
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Speedbumps and the Vassa
From Tahn Pamutto: “One of my root teachers, Luang Por Pasanno, once famously exclaimed, “It’s illegal to live simply in this country!” That became something of a running joke at Abhayagiri Monastery in northern California, where ever stricter building codes have made it incredibly expensive to build even the tiniest structure. You can’t just nail
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Finding Our Center
Last night during the tea time another perennial question came up – how are we supposed to relate to the differences between the Buddhist traditions, and which practices should we take up or avoid? The first part of the question is mostly historical. The three main branches of Buddhism – Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana –
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Refuges and Precepts
Leader: Yam ahaṃ vadāmi taṃ vadetha. Community: Āma Bhante.* Leader: Namo tassa Bhagavato arahato sammā‧sambuddhassa. Community: Namo tassa Bhagavato arahato sammā‧sambuddhassa. Namo tassa Bhagavato arahato sammā‧sambuddhassa. Namo tassa Bhagavato arahato sammā‧sambuddhassa. Leader, followed by Community, line by line: Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dutiyam pi Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dutiyam pi Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ
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