Vesak Full Moon Day Message from Ayyā Tathālokā

[Aranya Bodhi]

(2nd try, please read this one)

Dear Dhamma friends,

Greetings, with heart of blessings, on this Vesak Full Moon here in the forest. It is a quiet, fresh morning here, but with a strong and clear sense of dynamism and aliveness in the forest. In a moment everything is still, and then the next moment an ocean breeze sweeps through, moving everything in waves visible through the ripples in the tree branches. We see how each tree and each branch, even each part of each branch, responds differently, according to the existing conditions in the present moment. This is the Dhamma.

Some people have asked, “Why is it that you get to stay in this beautiful forest during this time, while other people are suffering so much?” I can only say, we are not living in a heaven realm here, but we are living in conditions built up and established in our choices.  Our personal choices. And also our communal choices together, about how we wish to live, and what is of value and meaning to preserve and to cultivate in this world. In this great Samsara, all of our choices come with pluses and minuses. It’s important to consider this very well for ourselves. To realize that we have choices and are intentional actors is to be empowered, no matter the circumstances we are in. We are the builders of the house of our experiences. That is, how we experience ourselves and our world—that truly mental experience—is constructed out of and built upon our past and present intentional actions. Especially our views and motivations, and whether we have mindfulness, and are established in Mindfulness and Right Effort or not. 

The firefighter trains themselves in going into burning houses, keeping themselves safe and helping others trapped inside out to safety and freedom. The emergency room doctors, nurses and chaplains train prepare and train themselves to see and evaluate each situation with the mind and heart for how they can be helpful, and how they can’t. By “how they can’t” I mean the times when what is needed is just their knowledge that in that circumstance, at that stage, there is nothing more that can be done other than holding that knowledge well, in all their bodies, minds and hearts, with the best kindness, understanding, compassion and empathy. Experiencing and sharing equanimity and equipoise, with kindness and compassion, love and care.

When we humans live like this, they are our angels. We are our angels.

We can see how the Buddha’s teaching focuses upon this, and offers us the path of practice, the way to develop, the progressive courses of training in this. When we make the clear choice for ourselves to develop and train ourselves in this way, we make a great step in awakening ourselves and taking the great wheel into our own hands. It is a masters‘ course, taking us through all the stages of growth and development, whether expressed as establishing the foundations of mindfulness, cultivating and fulfilling the factors of awakening, or turning the Dhamma wheel in our lives through the noble eightfold path. 

The three great events that we remember at Vesak help us to inhabit these stages: being born into the world purposefully, intentionally; training and practicing ourselves, finding the middle way, and experiencing for ourselves what we were searching for with profound gratitude; contemplating what we have understood and are understanding more and more deeply over time, while sharing whatever we can and helping wherever we can; and finally coming to it being all enough, all well done, relaxing and releasing everything, and enjoying the highest happiness, peace, bliss and freedom of ultimate and complete Nirvāna without end, without remainder. We experience and know all of these aspects in ourselves in potentiality like little lotus buds just beginning to show themselves, and in each stage of the blossoming, like blossoming lotuses in all the radiant beauty and fullness.

When we realize this, when we contemplate it, it is a cause of immense gratitude. Our way is clear, simple, straightforward. We know how to be with ourselves and all these conditions of having bodies, our feelings and our minds, as one possessed of—Saddhamma—good Dhamma, with a true Master’s guidance and blessings. We know the wealth of this awesome inheritance that we are holders and bearers of with profound gratitude and appreciation, and we wisely invest this inheritance in our training ourselves, and our benevolent works—our Right Effort, Right Livelihood, Right Actions. We understand the most wonderful and joyful truth that by our giving, our true wealth grows. And even by our rejoicing in the good and beautiful actions of others—Anumodana!—our true wealth, our positive potential, grows and our heart’s and mind’s potential and potency in the path develops and furthers. There is always something good and of value we can be doing with our body, our speech and our minds. May we not waste a moment.  Even just being peaceful is an enormous gift. As is just being kind. And being wise—looking at things in light of the Dhamma.

I have a new (old) very simple slogan to share with you. It is my own: 

Stay with the Dhamma; go with the Path. 

Everything in this enormously complex world, and complex bodies, feelings and minds, suddenly all comes down to being very simple—just stay with the Dhamma; go with the Path. Or,

Stay with the Path; go with the Dhamma.

Whichever is right and sits best with you.  

It will not lead you wrong. And can release an enormous burden of stress and anxiety.

These next few days, and on our Dhammadharini International Bhikkhunīs’ Vesak live via Zoom this Saturday (full schedule forthcoming), there will be an immense wealth of Dhamma being shared with you and with all of us from around the world. I am so happy and glad at this thought, and to be a part of this sharing, and one of the recipients!!

May we all take this time to fully benefit. And then, as ones “bathed by the inner bathing”—as the Buddha himself spoke of those who undertake and purify their precepts, who cleanse and clear their bodies and minds through meditation, and those who clean, clear and straighten their views through deep insight and the wisdom Dhamma—may we afresh offer our very best to ourselves, one another, and our dear world. 

I share with you our forest lotuses, blossoming here on Vesak, these radiant lotuses of the heart, as the ancient peoples, offering whatever is in season in their local environment—

Madrone Lotuses: new madrone leaves begin to open in Vimutti glade on the Vesak full moon morning, rising above the decaying leaves of the old year, which will soon fall away

Lilies of the Forest: Clintonia Andrewsiana lily's first day blossoming on the redwood forest floor Vesak full moon eve, on the old logging trail behind Sangha Hall Kuti, lower landing of our Aranya Bodhi Hermitage commons  

May all be well, happy, and peaceful at heart.
May we do the work of our hearts, the work of the path, the work of our lives well, so that we too may say, as the ancient Arahants expressed with joy upon their release into freedom, “Katham karaniyam”—“I’ve done what needed to be done”. 

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!—Anumodama!

I look forward to seeing and being with you live in person and at heart on our community celebration of Vesak Buddha Day this Saturday May 9th.

With lovingkindness,
yours truly in Dhamma,
Ayyā Tathālokā