Im away on a short trip so I dont have the time or equipment to do it.
Dhammapalooza will also be moving to Tuesdays for the next month or so as Ill be merging it with a session of Ayya Suddhamma’s when I look after her place starting next week.
15 years ago this Vesak, I became a Buddhist.
Vesak 2008, at Bodhi Monastery in northern New Jersey. I was 340lbs, and knelt painfully for a half hour during a ceremony done in only Chinese, although I knew what I was undertaking as I had been studying Buddhism for a year and a half or so by that point.
On that day I took the refuge and precepts and my journey down the Noble Eightfold Path officially began.
I had been a meditator three years by that point, and as I often say, I became a meditator not thinking I’d become a Buddhist, and I became a Buddhist not thinking I’d become a monastic, but that is how the path unfolded.
now that im back from my month long travels, we’ll get back into the normal stream and event schedule.
Dhammapalooza tonight 8pm NYt
The view from the front door of the Thai Wat I’ve been staying at. Thats Pikes Peak in the distance, 14,000 feet.
I was told there is a really nice forest ,called the black forest , at the foot of the mountain that would be a good spot for a forest monastery.
Its been a very productive visit to Colorado so far, much more then i expected, especially meeting new people who seem willing to help Maggasekha in Colorado become a possibility. Ill have multiple temples and more people to meet before my flight on Sunday.
Maggasekha in Colorado continues to look promising, but its early days yet, and Im open to the possibility of setting root in another place, but ideally i’d still like to be in the middle of the country by the Rockies somewhere.
Im attempting to put together a group of lay people living here together so we can brainstorm and organize how to meet goals and growth for the future. Its slowly growing.
California friends, you may be unaware of a great endeavor currently going on in your state by a monastic. I am sharing this with you all in hopes it may bring benefit to Tahn Jagaro as he is in the middle of attempting an almost 1000 mile tudong (monastic wandering) from LA to just below San Franciso.
I had the honor of coincidentally staying in the same place as Tahn the last few months, and went out on multi-mile pindapats in two different states with him(thats us in Maryland in the pics).
I learned a bunch from the experience and he told me about the tudong he was training and planning for. He is from California and knows it pretty well, is planning to as much as possible walk along the coasts.
We spoke about many places in the middle of his journey and how it may be hard to find towns and places for pindapat, and I thought maybe i could make his journey known to those who may be in those out of the way places in California and might follow his journey blog and find him along the road somewhere with some dana 😉
this is the website where he is posting updates about his journey, i’ll be checking in on him and I encourage anyone interested to do likewise.
Off to California and Colorado for the month. Spending time at Karuna Buddhist Vihara and Abhayagiri, then a week in Colorado Springs.
all live streams and online activities put on hold until im back at Empty Cloud in May.
