August 1997 / BE 2540

From Venerable Ajahn Khemadhammo

We entered the Vassa on July 20th and as so often seems to happen here the days preceding were full of drama. In previous years the excitement has usually been over our last minute attempts to get another monk over from Thailand before the deadline when all bhikkhus have to cease from travelling and remain stable to one place for three months. But this year was slightly different. Ever since I got back from Thailand in February we have been expecting the arrival of an image of Luangpor Chah. In January, when I was staying in the branch of Wat Pah Pong at Rayong where people were arranging this for us I was told that it was almost ready. And so I had been planning the changes I would have to make to our Shrine Room and been looking forward to its arrival ever since. But there had been no sign of anything. Then back in the third week of June it seemed I hadn't long been asleep one night when the phone rang and the fax machine delivered up a message that supplied me with all the necessary documentation for the reception of this image into the UK and informed me that it would probably arrive on the 1st of July. Well it didn't. In the weeks that followed it seemed more and more uncertain that it could be here in time for the Vassa (or Punsah, as it's known in Thai) and our Asalha Puja festival on July 20th when I was hoping to include in our celebrations a welcome for the Luangpor Chah Image. While we waited we went out looking for a suitable table or something on which to stand it and finally decided to take a chance on it being big enough and make ready a sermon seat that prisoners from Springhill Open Prison had made back in the days when they still did community service here. That was rubbed down, restained and polished - and we waited. And the Luangpor Chah Image continued to sit at Bangkok Airport waiting for space on a Thai Airways International flight. Then I heard it would be here on July 17th, but it wasn't. Then after a flurry of phone calls it seemed it could be leaving on Friday the 18th and finally at 6 a.m. on Saturday, July 19th, a call came from Heathrow to say that the plane carrying it had just touched down. Within the hour Rob Yellowhammer was over here to pick up Bill Hamilton who was staying with us and clutching all likely paperwork, cash, credit cards and mobile phones they were off on their way to Heathrow to try and collect it before the weekend shutdown. All went quite smoothly apparently until they tried to load it into Rob's vehicle, then they discovered it was too big to go in. There was nothing else for it, they thought, they'd just have to take it out of the crate, then obviously it would fit. But they had no tools and Customs had no tools - not even a hammer. So Bill, who is very big and very strong tore the crate apart with his bare hands and the Image just slotted into the back of Rob's van. And back here it just fitted beautifully into that sermon seat and is a very powerful presence in our Shrine Room. I and everyone here, we are all extremely grateful to all those who contributed in any way to it's coming here - ANUMODAN´!

A prison officer over from the nearby Prison Service College, one of a group of officers and governors on their Race Relations Course who'd come to find out about Buddhism, asked whether Images were really necessary. We had been talking about the small Buddha images that prisoners are allowed to have in their possession and which we at Angulimala provide and distribute and how these should be respected by staff who might for example be conducting a cell search. Of course I had to admit that it should be possible to practise Buddhism without these artefacts, but they are undeniably a help. I should think we all benefit from a little inspiration sometimes and Buddha images as expressions of the Enlightened state are powerful reminders of just how much better we might do and just what a human being is capable of. It is as the Maha-Mangala Sutta states a great blessing to respect those worthy of respect and who greater is there for us to respect than the Buddha; and after him, the arahants and great masters who have followed, down to this very day and the likes of Pra Ajahn Chah.

Before leaving the subject of images I would like to direct your attention to this photo of a large Pra Buddha-Rupa that has been specially made for this temple. The artist who created it is Charlee Sodprasert and in the picture he is standing to one side of it. Sathienpong Wannapok has named it the Pra Buddhañ¹¥aj¹lº image. It has been ready for some time but Khun Charlee hasn't been able to send it, although a couple of months ago he did write and indicate that it might not be long.

To a Buddhist, all that is of great value can be found included under the headings of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha - i.e. the Buddha, His Teaching and His Community. Because their value to a Buddhist is beyond price these are collectively known as the Triple Gem, the Three Jewels or the Three Treasures and whatever their shape or form they deserve to be cherished. That isn't to say that Buddha images don't crack, or that Buddhist texts aren't sometimes corrupted by forgeries, insertions and misunderstandings, or that the Sangha doesn't have its rotten apples. After all we know that we live in an imperfect world and it would be surprising if worldly expressions of the Triple Gem didn't get spoilt or corrupted. But what then should be our reaction when we find these things that are so precious to us damaged? Well, what do you do when your roof leaks or your car breaks down? Don't you try and mend it? Every so often I see a little crack in the Cetiya here and I or someone fills and repairs it, or the Buddha images require cleaning and polishing and someone does it. Every so often I see Dhamma books beginning to fall apart and out comes the Scotch tape. Every so often monks or novices make mistakes with their practice and they're admonished and suitably advised. But the attitude remains supportive and when required ways are found to put things right. So it is a shame when you hear or read, especially from Buddhists in Buddhist magazines, things, often said in ignorance or misunderstanding, that demean or attack the Sangha.

In the conventional sense the Pali word 'Sangha' means the community of ordained monks and nuns (bhikkhu-sa{gha and bhikkhun1-sa{gha) and may refer either to a particular community or to the bond of association which makes them one body; in the ideal sense it means the Community of Noble Ones (ariya-sa{gha) which includes those who have attained to any of the four levels of Awakening. While the former are often thought of as representing the latter, the purpose of becoming a renunciant and joining the conventional Sangha is to fulfil the principles of the ideal Sangha, in other words to overcome suffering and realise Nibbana, the ultimate release from all greed, hatred and delusion. However, it is not uncommon nowadays to see and hear the term 'sangha' used of Buddhists in general, resulting in the invention of the tortuous and tautologous 'monastic sangha' when referring to monks and nuns. In the Pali texts lay followers are included in the expression catt2ro paris2, 'the fourfold assembly': bhikkhu (monks), bhikkhun1 (nuns), up2saka and up2sik2 (male and female lay-followers). A comparison can be made with those who study at home and others who take the plunge and go off to university full time, just so some practise Buddhism as best they can in the midst of their family and jobs and others join the Sangha. And presumably even as studying at home is never going to be quite as thorough or have the same standing as going to university, so practising as a lay person is unlikely to be as complete and attract the same respect as leaving family and friends to join the Sangha. But you do what you do, what you can and what you have to do. Just remember though there's more to being a monk or nun than meets the eye and it's a pretty naive layman who imagines he's living like a monk. When it was put to him that some critics considered ordaining an easy option, Ajahn Chah growled, 'Let 'em try it!' John Bullit, the founder of the Insight mailing list, an email forum for open and supportive listening and discussion about Buddhist meditation practice, primarily from the Theravada perspective, wrote: 'Sangha is thus not some vaguely-defined community of like-minded Dhamma friends and companions, or of fellow retreatants; it is something far greater, something brilliant, which serves to remind us constantly of the highest and most excellent possibilities the Path has to offer.'

Turning now to the affairs of ANGULIMALA, the Buddhist prison Chaplaincy Organisation. Thanks to the good offices of Lord Avebury, I and Indarjit for the Sikhs and Bashir for the Moslems had a meeting with Joyce Quin, the new Prisons Minister, last month. I was able to leave her with a dossier of complaints which I described as a snapshot of what we are struggling to cope with. It was a friendly meeting and at least a good beginning but we will have to wait and see what progress can be made.

Continuing with my policy of bringing in speakers from the Prison Service to address the Angulimala workshops I have been very fortunate in securing two of the best for our next two meetings. On September 13th John Court of Lifer Management will be coming to talk to us about life-sentence prisoners and how they are managed; and on December 13th Graham Clark who has recently retired after nine years as Governor of Wandsworth prison will be telling us what it's like to be in the hot seat as a prison governor. For John this will be something of a homecoming as the village where he grew up is just across the river and he remembers as a boy coming around here badger watching. The badgers are still here but John no longer lives locally and has a long way to travel so I propose that in the morning, after meditation, we have a seminar focusing on Buddhist teachings about death, then after lunch, John's talk, followed by the 'report-in' and a Question & Answer session to finish up with.

If they can't come to the temple, we'll take the temple to the prison, so the annual Buddha Grove celebration at Springhill and Grendon is on Sunday, September 14th. Let me know if you want to come.

Take care and stay happy.

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