Greetings from “The Place of Rain” At this time of the year the mountain on our backdoor truly lives up to its Zulu name, “Mvuleni”. Most mornings start out warm and clear but by the afternoon the monsoon-like downpour often accompanied by thunder, lightening and hail can cause a sudden drop in temperature. The contrasts of summer make for a dramatic time at Dharmagiri.

Kittisaro and Thanissara returned to South Africa just in time for Ajahn Sucitto’s retreat at the Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo during December. Kittisaro spent most of his time with his dad in Tennessee who is recovering from a heart operation and Thanissara taught retreats in Canada, the US and the UK.

Our Summer Retreat “Cultivating the Bodhisattva Way” facilitated by Kittisaro and Thanissara, hosted 13 participants from 4 to 25 January 2008. The first part of the retreat focused on the cultivation of calm and insight (Samatha & Vipassana) as it is classically taught in the Theravada. During the second half we focused on integrating those practices into the Kuan Yin (Avalokitesvara) and Chan (Zen) Practice as taught in Mahayana. More than half of the yogis on retreat were from overseas.

Judy Tobler wrote a beautiful article after sitting retreat at the BRC with both Ani Tenzin Palmo and Ajahn Sucitto which has been included with this Newsletter. She returned to Cape Town at the end of January after having spent a year at Dharmagiri. Thanks Judy for your continuous support and practice and all the Dharma chats over tea and Marie biscuits. We all miss you and wish you well for your next adventure.

Methodist minister, Peter Woods from Port Elizabeth, arrived at the beginning of January for the summer retreat and will be spending the rest of the year in retreat at Dharmagiri. Peter is fascinated by information technology and is responsible for developing and maintaining the Dharmagiri website. Thanks Pete, your enthusiasm is infectious and we look forward to a wonderful year of practice together.

Dharmagiri currently has two long term retreatants, Lynn from the UK for six months and Marcia from Israel for three months, thanks to both Lynn and Marcia for sharing your practice and your gentle and compassionate input.

We had a very positive response to the Sacred Mountain Sangha Study Group. During April 2008 twelve students will get together at Dharmagiri to commence with the first of three modules which were designed to deepen appreciation for the 2 500 year lineage of Buddhist practice through an introductory study of principle Mahayana and Theravada Sutras alongside a practical understanding of meditation methods and their fruits. Kittisaro and Thanissara designed the curriculum and will also facilitate the course which is completely full.

JP - Dharmagiri Manager

World-renowned Buddhist teachers visit the Midlands

Some of us at Dharmagiri Buddhist Hermitage were fortunate enough to attend two recent retreats at our sister centre, the Buddhist Retreat Centre at Ixopo, led by two world-renowned Buddhist monastics, Ani Tenzin Palmo and Ajahn Sucitto. We were blessed and inspired by the teachings offered by these teachers, who both embody the wisdom and compassion that form the core of the Buddha’s teachings.

The first retreat (28 Nov to 2 Dec) was led by the well-known Tibetan Buddhist nun, Venerable Ani Tenzin Palmo, during her first visit to South Africa. Born and brought up in London, she was interested in Buddhism from an early age. Drawn especially to Tibetan Buddhism, at the age of only 20 she left England in 1962 for northern India, where Tibetan Buddhists in exile were establishing monasteries. Tenzin Palmo soon met her guru, a lama (Tibetan spiritual teacher) and later became the second western woman ever to ordain as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. Her subsequent spiritual path included 12 years solitary contemplative practice in a Himalayan mountain cave.

In 1993, her path changed course to travelling the world to teach the Dharma (the Buddha’s teachings) and to raise funds to start a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in northern India, as her teacher had requested. In 2000, she founded Dongu Gatsal Ling Nunnery, which is now home to 45 young women from Tibet and the Himalayan border regions. The nuns receive training in Buddhist philosophy, meditation, ritual and other practices, to a level previously exclusive to monks. Tenzin Palmo is committed to advocating equal rights for women who wish to lead a spiritual life in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which so far only allows nuns novice ordination.

The ideal of compassion is central to Tenzin Palmo’s teaching of the Dharma and on this retreat she focused on meditative practices that develop energy and motivation for enlightenment, or liberation from the suffering and unease in the mind and heart, not only for oneself but for all beings. Compassion and loving kindness, she explained, begins with opening the heart to allow compassion for one’s own suffering and cultivating awareness of the boundless, true nature of the mind and heart that extends compassion to all sentient beings. She referred to the Buddha’s statement of the truth that we all suffer a sense of unease and dissatisfaction within ourselves, and we all want to be happy. Since this reveals a profoundly intimate connection between all beings, how could we not have compassion for all fellow beings? Tenzin Palmo added that the Buddha also taught the truth that there is an end to suffering and a path of practice towards awakening; all human beings can practice turning awareness inwards through meditation and cultivating compassion, so that the limitless space and purity of mind and heart, which is awareness itself, can be realised.

The second retreat (18 - 26 Dec) was led by Venerable Ajahn Sucitto, also English by origin, who in 1976 became a Theravada Buddhist monk in Thailand, in the Thai Forest Tradition. He returned to England in 1978 and for 14 years was a student of Ajahn Sumedho, a senior monk in the same tradition, before becoming Abbot of Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery in the south of England. There he supervises the training of monks and nuns, as well as travelling internationally to teach the Dharma. This was Ajahn Sucitto’s fifth visit to South Africa.

On the retreat, Ajahn Sucitto emphasised the meditation method of mindfulness of the breath to bring the awareness throughout the whole body, so that the mind becomes calmer. This, he says, is not only a process of gathering attention but also of letting go of attachment to thoughts and feelings that move through the mind and heart. When repetitive thoughts and feelings arise, our sense of self reacts according to deeply embedded patterns conditioned by past actions and events; we then tend to identify with them as ‘me’: ‘I am angry’; ‘I am unworthy’; ‘I am afraid’ …etc. But if we can simply be with how it is and release the grasping, energy is released and centred, allowing the mind to be more spacious and joyful.

A major obstacle to awakening, according to the Ajahn, is the tendency to get stuck on ‘becoming’ and fixed on the ‘destination’. But attending to and transforming our mind-states while ‘travelling’ is most important, because those will shape our experience of the destination. Like Tenzin Palmo, he advocated cultivation of skilful states of mind during daily life, what the Buddha called the ‘divine abidings’ – kindness: to both self and others; compassion: to be with one’s own or another’s suffering; appreciative joy: to look for and appreciate the good in oneself and others, especially enjoying the happiness of others; and equanimity: to cultivate and deeply enjoy ease and balance of body, mind and heart.

Written by Judy Tobler who has just completed a one year residency Dharmagiri For further details please contact JP at the Dharmagiri Office.

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