November Bodhi House Moving and Plans

[Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni]

Warm greetings, dear friends, from the quiet and peaceful evening in the misty forest,

Many of the leaves have fallen here now, lining the paths, as autumn deepens.  Falling pine needles cover my deck each morning, my walking meditation path light marked in them.  With a subtle shift in wind and difference in the look of the sky, i think that we may not be far from the first rains coming -- a very big and important event in our simple and rustic mountain forest hermitage for which we are preparing.

Many of you have been asking me what we will be doing come end of Vassa this year, as this year we will not be returning to the old location of our Bodhi House in Fremont, and there has been no news of a new place. End of Vassa draws near now, less than two weeks away. I write now about our plans.

As you may know, our Dhammadharini location at the old Bodhi House has been closed since before the Vassa.  Bodhi House owner Liz has most kindly allowed us to store the supplies you all have so kindly gifted us there in the meantime, adding to her very long list of kind generosities.  Come end of Vassa, we will be moving those things: the library, bedding, bathroom and kitchen supplies, monastic office and monastic store, etc.

As we do not yet have another monastic residential location to move these to, we are thinking of moving them into public storage in Santa Rosa, where we may be able to access them when needed for the hermitage time by time.  We cannot store the things at the hermitage as we do not have a safe place to keep most of them here where we must be ever diligent with regards destruction by mold in this often misty and cool redwood forest. 

November 17th has been tentatively set for this move of things.  You may be hearing more about this soon from our volunteers coordinating friends :-).

Please know that we are open to possibility and suggestion.  It is not necessarily our wish that your precious donations, for which we are so grateful, be used on storage, especially considering Dhammadharini has been running in the red much of this year.  Yet we are also most grateful for the useful things that you have given, and for their potential future use, and wish to keep them well.  

Most kindly, the Vietnamese bhikkhuni Ven Han Tri who founded the Peace Pagoda in Fremont's Niles District has offered us use of a room there.  We will be following up with her about this possibility, as it may allow one or two of us to visit Fremont and our friends in the South and East Bay for short periods time by time. Our Dhammadharini non-profit corporate office is currently being hosted in another friend's spare room.  

This is the life of pindapata, the bhikkha life, the life of alms.

We receive the greatest and the smallest and everything in between of useful things, with heart of gratitude and loving kindness, striving to use the opportunity well for our awakening and development of all wholesome qualities leading to happiness on the Path. 

Not yet having a new monastery location, a good number of our monastics will be migrating to other climes the end of this vassa.  Ayya Sudinna has already departed and on her way to South Carolina, Ven Pasada will move to become a resident at Dhammasara Monastery in Australia, Sr Santacari will go for long meditation retreat in Myanmar, and Ven Suvijjana will be going for long retreat at the Forest Refuge in Massachusetts.

For those few of us who will remain -- we are most delighted in the gift and precious opportunity this mountain forest land of our hermitage has offered us of pure, clear space for quiet meditation retreat.  And we look forward to following up on invitations to develop Friends of the Hermitage/Kalyanamitta groups in the communities local to our hermitage, to share in the Dhamma with those around us, as is right for us to do, with heart of generosity, in the Buddha's Way.  

And we look forward to seeing how things unfold as the spirit of generosity by which we live moves in mysterious ways, as does the fruition of all  the paramis, which bring blessings, often when least expecting them, to the heart that is aware, open and receptive of the opportunity.  

For now, we strive to care for one another well, to attend to our practice, to live the life of the Way.  

Wishing all well,

with thoughts of peace and loving kindness,

Ayya Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni

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Foundation: www.dhammadharini.net

Forest Hermitage: www.aranyabodhi.org