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The Buddha said: 'Subject to change are all conditioned things, having arisen they must one day fall; true bliss comes when of this there is no more.'
And amongst the passages recited at morning and evening chanting is one entitled 'Five themes for daily recollection'. These five themes include old-age, sickness and death, the fact that we are bound to be separated from the people and all the things we cherish, and karma and its effects. Although I contemplate these five a lot, especially old-age and death, I have had reason to be even more aware of them with the passing of the little dog who for fourteen years has been my close companion and friend.
I know Toby was known to and loved by many of you,
especially in the days up until his retirement when he used to
join us for tea after the Monday and Friday evening sittings and
delight everyone by sitting up with a beautifully erect posture
to beg for his share from my cup. He was an independent little
fellow and despite his feigned indifference when I returned from
a trip, even three weeks in Thailand, really very caring and when
necessary protective as well. This picture of him was taken at
a time when some of the children had named him 'Toby the hero'
after he'd energetically seen off a fox that was threatening Charlie
the cockerel and come back with an injured thigh that then had
to be operated on (the collar was to stop him worrying at his
stitches). Even during our more recent episode with a marauding
fox, when he was already old and no longer very able, he still
insisted on staying out to keep an eye on me until it was all
over and I was ready to come in. It was back in March of this
year that his hind legs stopped working properly and he became
poorly. The vet suspected a tumour on the spine but he was too
frail to be anaesthetised and x-rayed. A blood test confirmed
that he was very ill indeed and I prepared to spend a week or
so caring for him and saying farewell. But it turned out that
he wasn't quite ready and one night after not having eaten for
several days he suddenly grabbed a piece of omelette I'd saved
for Oscar, the big Doberman-cross who even until the end treated
Toby with the greatest respect, and then went on to make a spectacular
recovery and enjoy a pleasant last summer lounging in the warmth.
He died in the early hours of November 12th, probably about sixteen
years old. He's been buried in my garden below a nice semi-evergreen
tree with bright red berries and under a beautiful seated image
of Kuan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Bulbs and flowers
have been given to be planted there and a little fence erected
around it. Privately I used to call him 'little friend of all
the world' which if my memory serves me well is how the old lama
used to call Kim in Kipling's novel of that name. Because of his
colour that matched so perfectly monks' robes and the monastic
life he lived for so long we've often speculated on the probability
of his coming back to be a Buddhist monk in another life - so
in about fifteen years time I must remember to look out for a
novice who when the tea comes round sits up with a perfectly straight
back in a very special way waiting for his share!
In the midst of those few days when Toby's life was ebbing away we held the alms-giving that usually follows in the month after the annual Rains Retreat. For all such occasions we make roughly the same preparations and although we do our best to give everyone notice of their happening we never know quite how large or small a crowd to expect. Obviously the weather can influence people and if it's bad then they're less likely to bother to turn out and come all the way over here. Unfortunately the weekend of November 9th didn't look at all promising. I think I was told that the word 'unsettled' had been included in the forecast. So we thought there'd only be a few. Richard who always loyally looks after the car parking was thinking that too when with only a couple of cars in he was ambling up and down our damp lane expecting to get off early. That thought had no sooner crossed his mind than he turned round to find a sixty-seater coach looming up behind him! And then it was a minibus and more and more cars until by the time we began the Morning Chanting, the Refuges and the Precepts, the entire ground floor was chock-a-block with people of all shapes and sizes. It must have been one of our most well-attended occasions ever. Unfortunately, just as we were about to go out for the almsround, down came the rain and so we ended up sitting with our bowls in front of us while everyone queued up to process slowly past placing or dropping their offerings in the bowls as they went. We were three monks and one novice: tan Maha Sompoch had come with another from his monastery in Chachoengsao especially for the occasion and we were joined for the day by a young Sri Lankan monk who has just arrived to study at Cambridge and who had been brought along by the Thai students from Cambridge in their minibus. Because the day continued intermittently wet and unsettled there was no circumambulation as planned, people just remained inside to listen to the Dhamma from myself in English and tan Maha Sompoch in Thai. This was our gift in response to the massed offerings of assorted requisites and necessities along with 840 Thai baht, a few Australian and American dollars and £1,788. In my talk I explained how without this material support we would have grave difficulty in existing at all here. After all Britain isn't yet a Buddhist country. Nor is it a tropical one and therefore rather more needs to be spent on accommodation, heating and so on than in countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka. And without a helpful Buddhist village nearby our geographically far-flung support has to be kept mobilised and organised. So we are very grateful for all this that's been given and to all and everyone, including those who helped organise and make the day possible - ANUMODANA!
But just fund-raising is not what we're about. With the number of appeals that emanate from Buddhist establishments of different kinds it's not surprising if some cynics think that that's all we do. But no, this generous support enables a place where people can come to hear and practise the Dhamma. That afternoon, having made their offerings, people sat and listened and I took the opportunity to teach the Dhamma and to try and give a little more understanding of how monastic life in our tradition is conducted. Afterwards I distributed copies of the Forest Hermitage Buddhist calendar.
Ever since I began to get the hang of desktop publishing I've been producing every year a small, single page Buddhist calendar. This year I've been more ambitious and so our calendar for 1998, or 2541 in the Buddhist era, is a page-a-month with a different picture, all of them taken around this monastery, for each month. As well as distributing them that Sunday we'll be sending some out to Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship members with this newsletter. If you don't get one and would like one, or even some, let us know and they'll be sent to you. One version includes some Thai text and another is solely in English.
Next on my list, when I've finished this newsletter, I plan to complete the Angulimala Buddhist Calendar for Buddhists in prison. These have a different theme and obviously a different heading and will be available for collection at the next Angulimala Workshop on December 13th. The photos that appear over each month are of important Buddhist sites, and include some from the Buddhist shrines that are beginning to spring up in British prisons. Those of you familiar with the famous Tibetan Wheel of Life will know that in each of the five or six realms portrayed there is usually present the figure of a Buddha or Bodhisattva, demonstrating that wherever you may be, in whatever mental state you find yourself, you are never cut off from the Dhamma and still retain the potential to be unburdened and Enlightened. Part of our reason for establishing the prison Buddha groves and shrines has been to demonstrate that even in such remote and secret places there is still hope and that no one is ever entirely cut off from liberation. This project has taken a back seat lately and we feel it's time to inject a bit of life into it. It will be talked about and a new initiative unveiled at the forthcoming Angulimala Workshop. I might just add that I've always hoped ever since we started this project that local groups, i.e. Buddhist groups local to the prisons concerned, would interest themselves in these shrines, even going along sometimes, where it's possible, to use them and perhaps joining with the inside prison group.
Quite often as I move around and as people come to visit me I'm asked what it is I do in the prisons and even what I accomplish there. Well I try to avoid trying to accomplish anything and what I'm really interested in is ensuring that the practice and teaching of Buddhism is available in the gaols. In some prisons we manage to have quite good group meetings and in others it's more of a one to one contact. Much depends on the kind of prison, the regime and even the men or women prisoners themselves. Personally, I don't like preaching at people - I'm not the evangelistic type at all, thank goodness - and I prefer to respond to what the inmates bring to me. I've always seen Buddhism as a voyage of discovery and it's important to me that not only do people have the space and freedom to find out for themselves but that they take that responsibility on themselves. With the best will in the world I can't manage to get to all the prisons I cover very often and I'm not sure that I think it necessary that I should, providing the inmates are able to meet if they wish and to practise. One prison where a very good group has formed and developed is HMP Stocken. It's a C category prison right out in the sticks in Rutland and there the Buddhists have established a weekly meeting on a Tuesday afternoon which involves a cup of tea and a chat as they gather, then a reading, and finally a period of meditation. About once a month I turn up, usually without warning, to join them for the afternoon. We've also twice this year celebrated Buddhist festivals along more or less the same lines but with a little Thai food to spice things up a bit. I have to say that it's groups like these that make prison chaplaincy a rare and delightful privilege.
So far as we in Angulimala are concerned, to our responsibility to the prisons we also have unofficially tacked on a concern for some people in mental hospitals, especially the Special Hospitals like Broadmoor and Rampton where, when we can track them down, we visit patients who've been transferred there from prison.
I've just been sent a CD-ROM that contains the entire Pali Canon as finalised and authenticated at the Sixth Council in Myanmar, 1954-56. It's been produced in memory of Sayagyi U Ba Khin by Goenka and his people and it's very good indeed. On the price tag it says simply 'Dhammadana. Priceless. Not to be sold.' Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu! ANUMODANA!
Take care and stay happy!