Spring has arrived, and with magnolia blossom, warm sunny days, leaves returning to the trees, and the air thick with birdsong, Adhisthana has been opening its petals to the light.
Having hosted the Men’s Private Preceptors and Area Order Weekend in February, it was now time for the women. The Women’s Private Preceptors brought their depth of practice and warm hearts to Adhisthana for a week before the Women’s Area Order Weekend. Themed around ‘Paradoxes of the Dharma Life’, the weekend was a powerful opportunity for Dharmacharinis to gather and practice together in large numbers.
The College of Public Preceptors held a Kula Meeting here, for which the Ops Team decided we would only serve them desserts on three occasions, rather than the usual tradition of once a day. We hope they weren’t too disappointed. During this week, we celebrated Max’s 30th birthday, with a devilishly delicious sticky toffee cake and some beautiful rejoicings. Max was the third community member to turn 30 this year, after Renate and Hally, all three of whom are also ‘Campaigner’ types according to the Meyers-Briggs personality test. Whether this “coincidence” holds a deeper significance is a question we’ll leave to astrologers.
Various preparations have been made at Adhisthana to welcome in the longer days and warmer weather. Chairs and tables have emerged from their hibernation in the barn back out into the courtyard, where retreatants and community members alike now enjoy the increasingly frequent moments of sunshine. Kerianna and Annika have been cultivating a small herb garden to furnish retreat centre meals with fresh, organic herbs. Sanghadeva ordered an enormous new firepit that now sits on the other side of the burial mound in front of the statue of Albion, saving the earth from getting scorched and littered with debris from the large ceremonial fires that sometimes take place at the end of a retreat.
On the 20th March, to mark the Spring Equinox, members of the Adhisthana community circumambulated Bhante Sangharakshita’s burial mound at sunset. Simultaneously, the community at Sudarshanaloka, New Zealand, circumambulated Dhardo Rinpoche’s stupa at sunrise. As each community chanted the Padmasambhava mantra, a great vajra could be visualised, penetrating right through the Earth and connecting the two retreat centres.
On the final weekend of March, Adhisthana was host to around 80 young Buddhists for the largest Sub30 Weekend in three years, entitled The Shepherd’s Search for Mind, and led by Dhibhajana and Amaladasa. Saddhanandi delivered an excellent and wide ranging talk themed around the chapter from The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, and over the course of the weekend retreatants explored the nature of their own minds, heard talks on going forth, meditation, and discipleship, and formed many new friendships. The experience seemed to have a strong impact on many of the attendees, and may well be a turning point for many of them to take their practice deeper, directing ever more of their energies into the Dharma life.
