For 4 weeks in February and March Saddhaloka was away visiting Australia, mostly staying at Vijayaloka, the retreat centre an hour or so outside Sydney. Vijayaloka is set in the bush beside the George River, with steep path leading down to the river where retreatants can swim and wallow on hot days. There are wallabies, koalas and in the surrounding bush, but they mostly keep themselves well out of sight.
Saddhaloka led an Order study retreat on The Kadampa Precepts. These are teachings coming from Atisa and his immediate disciples that Bhante led a seminar on back in 1976, laying out essential Dharma principles for what was then a very young Order and movement. The teachings remain just as relevant, and challenging, today. It is good to see the work of the Adhisthana Teaching Community managing to reach the other end of the planet!
After the study retreat and a couple of days exploring Sydney, Saddhaloka returned to Vijayaloka to join a Going or Refuge retreat around the theme of the Mythic Context, with 16 mitras attending from all around Australia. Amongst them were Finn, who spent some time staying living at working at Adhisthana last year, and Ryan, who was on the recent DharmaLife course.
In Sydney Saddhaloka also met up with Ratnajyoti, who attended the International Course at Adhisthana last summer, and a couple of Order members he had met as mitras on GFR retreats at Padmaloka some years back. And four Order members he had got to know on their ordination retreat at Guhyaloka in 2012. Such are the connections that stretch across the Triratna world.
