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MARCH 2006

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings to all of you after retreat! The retreat ended well and the participants were joyous. They had a new sense of self-confidence after completing a three-month retreat and calming the yo-yo mind of attachment and aversion even a little bit. On March 5, we had a Lama Chopa Puja with 25 people present—retreatants, the wonderful

helpers from the Coeur d’Alene Dharma group, and other guests. They presented the Abbey with a gorgeous painting of the Field of Positive Potential, which now graces our meditation hall. Books, and especially the 8000 Verse Prajnaparamita Sutra were among the offerings. The Abbey and retreatants gave gift to the helpers and we all made offerings to the Three Jewels. On March 7, we held the fire puja in which we imagined burning all our negativities. Curiously, Vajrasattva snowflakes fell at the end of the retreat, just like they did at the beginning. See the pics.
We rejoice at the practice of the 78 people who joined the retreat from afar—20 of them were prisoners, whose letters inspired us. When we thought we had a hard time concentrating because someone was clicking their prayer beads, all we had to do was think of the prisoners diligently practicing with the raucous around them. Speaking of inmates, PsyGardens, a publishing company in Taiwan, just printed a book in Mandarin Chinese about our prison work, which included articles written by the inmates.

The retreat didn’t end without a few incidents. For example, the temperature dropped and suddenly there were the 13 of us living at the Abbey with no water! People chipped in and we got the pipe heated up again—it was a community gathering around the well, just like centuries ago! At the very end of the retreat, we did skits about the retreat. It’s amazing how well we got to know each other although we were in silence. Seeing all our little habits and idiosyncrasies acted out in the skits had us laughing at ourselves and showed how deeply the retreatants had bonded together.

My private retreat in the writing studio was delightful. The new community room was a cozy and well used during the retreat . Many thanks to all of you who contributed to make these possible.

This year’s retreatants were enthusiastic about continuing the Vajrasattva practice, so we agreed that the third Sunday of every month will be “Vajrasattva Day” and we will practice together all day even though we’re dispersed around the world. Please join us! Patricio, this year’s retreat coordinator, wants to do the practice of 100,000 prostrations and would like company. So he suggested doing “Prostrations from Afar,” so that people could do their prostrations at home but still feel connected to the Abbey and to each other. More details will be forthcoming.

Next year’s three-month retreat will be 1000-Armed Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara), and the dates are Dec. 13, 2006 – March 15, 2007. It will be the self-generation practice, so participants will need to have received the initiation. Let us know if you would like to attend. More info will be on the website soon.

In Zurich last August, His Holiness the Dalai Lama asked the Western bhikshunis (fully ordained nuns) to assist the Tibetans so that the lineage of full ordination can be made available to Tibetan nuns. Historically, this lineage never spread to Tibet, so those of us who have received the ordination went to other countries to do so. Sravasti Abbey is honored to host a small gathering of senior Western bhikshunis this coming weekend. We will discuss how to assist the Tibetans and in particular the Dept. of Religion and Culture of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is spearheading this historic endeavor. More news about this next month or listen to a talk about it now.

In March I’ll be teaching a lot locally. This week, the first talk in a series of three entitled “Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage” at our small town of Newport WA drew 35 people! The end of March I’ll head to New York, Boston, and Austin TX and the last half of April will be spent teaching in Singapore. Offering service weekends have begun again, so all of you who like to work in the garden and forest, be sure to let know.If you’re planning your spring and summer, remember Panchen Otrul Rinpoche will be teaching at the Abbey May 27 - 29, there will be a week-long program for young adults May 31 - June 7, a Chenrezig retreat at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center June 9 - 16, and our second Exploring Monastic Life program August 7 - 25. Meanwhile, the FOSA (Friends of Sravasti Abbey) board has all its positions filled and is brimming with energy.

May we transition from the quiet of winter to the cheerfulness of spring with appreciation for our lives and dedication to benefiting others,

Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron

 
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