Today is the thirty-sixth anniversary of my ordination as a samanera (novice) in Section 5 of Wat Mahadhatu in the heart of Bangkok. Back then on Boxing Day in 1971, I had been in Thailand just over three weeks staying in Section 6 but practising meditation under the instruction of Ven. Chao Khun Dhep Siddhimuni, the Head of Section 5, who became my Uphajjaya or Preceptor.
Before it’s too late I’ve rescued a few old photos of the ordination and posted them here.
The monk with me who looked after me was Phra Maha Raundeg Simuni. I had known him in England at Wat Buddhapadipa and it was he who had first told me of Ajahn Chah. Phra Maha Simuni was from a large wat in the middle of the city of Ubon called Wat Tung See Muang. On January 1st, 1972, Phra Maha Simuni took me to Ubon and eventually introduced me to Ajahn Chah. But before I could go and stay at Wat Pah Pong I had to go with Phra Maha Simuni to a remote village called Ban Pai Yai which he wanted to study and include in his thesis for an MA in Anthropology that he was doing at Durham. My job was supposed to be to check his English but I ended up taking notes and doing some writing for him. I’m very grateful for that experience because it introduced me to village life in the North East of Thailand and gave me a little insight into the lives of the wonderful people of that region that I might otherwise never have had. I’ve never been back to Ban Pai Yai but one day I will.

The third week in November each year has become known as ‘Prisons Week’. Prisons Week was established to pray for and to raise awareness of the needs of prisoners and their families, victims of crime, prison staff and all those who care. This year, some of us were keen that Prisons Week should also be marked by a multi-Faith event. Just as the chaplaincy teams in prisons are exploring a more multi-Faith approach to pastoral care, so it was felt that Prisons Week could demonstrate different Faiths and Denominations coming together to reflect and to commit to a common purpose.
On this Wednesday evening of Prisons Week a group of us gathered in the cavernous old Victorian chapel at Wormwood Scrubs. It was a dark and squally evening and several of our visitors were soaked as they were escorted in from the main gate and others on their way there had to sit for ages in the intense traffic generated by the vital England match at Wembley. In the event it wasn’t the turnout we’d hoped for. No prisoners were able to be present. But amongst my guests was the Head of the London Buddhist Vihara, a Thai monk from the Buddhapadipa Temple who teaches meditation in Brixton Prison, three Burmese monks from Tisarana Vihara, the Venerable Abbess of the London Fo Guang Temple, Venerable Manapo and Sister Khema from the Forest Hermitage, Lord Avebury, two new Buddhist prison chaplains and Christopher Fettes who many years ago taught me at Drama School.
The evening was introduced by Rev. Monsignor Malachy Keegan, then six of us representing the main religions read and chanted from our scriptures – assisted by Tahn Manapo I chanted part of the Metta Sutta and then read an English translation, an address from me followed and the event ended with a joint act of commitment.
The theme of my address was the practice of Metta, Loving-Kindness, and I drew on the extraordinary recent example of the monks in Burma and their exemplary courage. I can’t remember all I said now but I quoted the Buddha’s advice to not perpetuate anger and hatred by meeting it with more of the same and the importance, even in extreme circumstances, of maintaining a mind of Loving-Kindness. I remember saying that not being able to agree with the views and opinions of others should not mean that we can’t be friends and to imagine what a difference it would make if we were able to extend this attitude of Loving-Kindness and friendship beyond the walls of Wormwood Scrubs Prison and throughout the world.
The joint act of commitment that we read was thus:
We come from many different Faith traditions.
Together we care for all those people held in our prisons.
We commit ourselves afresh, as friends and colleagues, to provide opportunities for all to grow and develop into men and women of integrity, wise and truthful, free from crime, from the fear of crime and from anxiety.
We are united in our desire to work for the common good, and to continue to work in trust, in peace and in harmony, in a spirit of friendship and goodwill, confident that it will bear fruit in the lives of many.

Many thanks to Father Malachy for organising the evening, to Helen and Wormwood Scrubs for hosting it and to everyone who came.

Afterwards a few of our Buddhist contingent repaired to a nearby Thai restaurant for good conversation and soup for those who could and green tea and coca cola for the rest.

As a boy at grammar school I remember at exam time being told very bluntly to read the questions. The other day someone told me that they’d once read of an exam where a group of students were assembled and at the very top of their paper it said that they should read through the whole exam paper before answering anything. As usual once they’d been told to begin it was heads down and utter silence except for the occasional rustle of paper, then rapidly the pens began scratching away. After about five minutes one student looked up from reading the last page of the paper, looked around, hesitated for a few minutes, looked again at his paper, looked around once more, then back at the paper and then carefully folded it, got up handed it in and left. Everyone else continued writing away until the time was up. Later, when the results came out the only one who passed was the lad who left after five minutes. Why? At the bottom of the last page of the exam paper it said, ‘Don’t answer any of these questions!’
There have been times when I’ve thought of passing that story on to a certain outfit that I have some dealings with.
Some of you who have been to stay at Bhavana Dhamma or thought of coming will have looked at our booking form and seen where it quotes Ajahn Chah who once said that the only thing worth reading was the mind and then it goes on to say that while at Bhavana Dhamma you shouldn’t read anything else. We’ve heard that at another place it’s being said that here you can only read one book, ‘The Mind’ by Ajahn Chah!

We had a meeting today at the London Buddhist Vihara of the Theravada Buddhist Sangha in the UK (TBSUK).

It was a small meeting with only six temples represented but we had a very good discussion and spent some time drafting the objects of our association. We spoke about our concerns about the misuse of the Buddha Image in marketing and advertising and we considered a statement on the terrible events in Burma.
Afterwards I was pleased to see Hui and Nyomee, as well as Jayamati of the Western Buddhist Order. Pie kindly drove me.

We had a great day today. We were packed out for our celebration of the conclusion of this year’s Vassa and the weather forecast didn’t come true.
As ever it was a practice of Dana, Sila and Bhavana – Giving, Virtue and Cultivation. And the giving was especially generous, wonderful food and £1,169.08. So that’s another grand off the Bhavana Dhamma debt. Anumodana.

This afternoon I went down to London to the Bahá’í Centre in Rutland Gate to attend a reception to honour Lord Avebury for his lifelong commitment to the defence of human rights and at which he was presented with the Blomfield Award. The Blomfield Award is given in memory of Lady Blomfield, a philanthropist and social reformer in the first half of the 20th century, who campaigned for the vote for women and was a founder member of Save the Children. She was an early member of the British Bahá’í community.
The Bahá’í Centre is in a rather fine house hidden away in a difficult to access backwater of Knightsbridge. When I arrived a number of guests were already there and chatting amiably over elegant glasses of red and white grape juice (the Bahá’ís are teetotallers). Then Eric and Lindsey, Lord and Lady Avebury, arrived with their son, John William, and his girlfriend, Verity, and we were soon called to order and the presentation got under way. Ann Clwyd MP arrived when Eric was already well into his acceptance speech. She is a colleague of Eric’s on the All Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group and has succeeded him as Chair.

I can’t possibly reproduce all the wonderful things that were said nor especially the atmosphere but it was very inspiring and hearing of the campaigns that Lord Avebury has waged over the years made the little troubles that most of us have seem so shamefully insignificant. I wished there could have been some of my followers there to have heard said over and over again how tirelessly, consistently and tenaciously Eric has worked over the years. That and his stated determination to carry on as long as possible is such a tremendous example and one that I want everyone to hear.

I had a good time talking to Jeremy, a great friend of Eric’s, who in the columns of the Daily Express many years ago accurately predicted, alone amongst journalists at the time, that Eric would win Orpington. We exchanged stories of the Beatles and all sorts of things. He was a bit surprised when I produced a camera from under my robes but when you’ve got a blog to keep up! And I had a good conversation with Barney Leith about our difficulties with Buddhists who want to pick and choose which precepts to keep. We were talking especially about alcohol and Barney said of the Bahá’ís that abstaining from alcohol is one of the things that you do as a Bahá’í and which makes you a Bahá’í and of course it ought to be one of the things you do as a Buddhist.
Afterwards we dropped JW off at the Tube, Lindsey at a bus stop and Eric at the House of Lords and then we beat it back up the M40 to Warwickshire.

A new term has begun and Warwick Uni Buddhist Society met again last Thursday on central campus in room R1.13. This is a better room than we’ve sometimes used but it made me wonder whether there are any environmentalists at Warwick. By the time we finished on that mild autumnal night the room was like a sauna and the contribution to global warming at WU had been impressive.
Unfortunately for the Buddhist Society some of its previous stalwarts have moved on to higher things so now it’s up to Kay, Madam President for this year, to let our presence be known and drum up some fresh interest and new members. And she’s made an excellent and enthusiastic beginning, although we may have to wait a bit for the full effect to be realised.
On Thursday Kay had arranged for me to give an introduction to Buddhism and to be questioned by a young lady from the Warwick Boar, a Warwick student rag. The reason for the interview was not so much our presence as the recent formation of another religious society at Warwick, the Atheist Society! The young lady who was to interview me was writing an article about it for the Boar and sensibly talking to other religious groups to get their views and see how they felt about the arrival on the scene of an Atheist Society. I was told that it could have been things written and said lately by Richard Dawkins that had inspired the formation of this new society. I believe the President of the Atheist Society had already suggested to my interviewer that Buddhism was probably an atheist religion and so she wanted to hear what I had to say about it. Well of course we don’t recognise or believe in the existence of a creator god and in the Brahmajala Sutta the Buddha warns of the danger of clinging to beliefs that are still influenced by greed and hatred and rooted in delusion. So I felt an immediate sympathy when I saw that Dawkins’ book was called The God Delusion and read that he had apparently said in a Channel 4 programme, The Enemies of Reason, in August that: “There are two ways of looking at the world — through faith and superstition, or through the rigours of logic, observation and evidence, through reason.”
I gather we’re meeting in the same room next Thursday from half-past six, when the subject of my discourse is supposed to be The Mind and Meditation and I hope we will also be practising a few minutes of concentrated and clear observation.

Earlier today I nipped down to London to Abell House, home of Prison Service Chaplaincy HQ, for a meeting about a multifaith event that we’re planning for Prisons Week this year.
Originally known as Prisoners’ Week when it began in 1975, Prisons Week is a Christian initiative to pray for, and raise awareness of, the needs of prisoners and their families, victims of crime, prison staff and all those who care.
I have often wondered why it couldn’t include all faiths and one year I remember I did try to have it observed by Buddhists. Now this year thanks to an initiative by Monsignor Malachy Keegan, the Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain to the Prison Service, we are organising in Prisons Week a multifaith celebration to be held in the chapel at Wormwood Scrubs Prison on November 21st with up to two hundred invited guests. Father Malachy has kindly asked me to give the address.

Today there was another march in London in support of the monks in Burma and to keep the terrible situation there from being forgotten. I had been asked to go and I very much wanted to be there but I couldn’t find anyone to take me. Right up until late last night I was still hoping to find a way but without success. I’m very sorry about that.
But that’s the way it is at the moment. We have very few people around who can help us and I have only one or two who I can occasionally call on for a lift somewhere. Without someone to drive me I haven’t been out much lately, which means I’ve done very few prison visits and I haven’t been able to visit Rosemary as often as I would have liked.
Some of you reading this will remember Rosemary. She’s a wonderful lady who used to come here and with utmost generosity supported us in so many ways. The last few years her health has deteriorated and not helped much by a couple of recent stays in Warwick Hospital, where they were incapable of organising someone from five minutes down the corridor to repair her hearing aids, she’s now unable to care for herself and is living in a home for the elderly in Leamington Spa.
But back to this week. Back from the dash to London last Sunday we held a meeting of our Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship Committee and settled on November 11th as the date for the AGM. On Monday evening Tahn Manapo kindly replaced me and went off to Rugby to speak to some cubs who were trying for their Religions badge and on Tuesday we got our car back from the garage where it had been for some expensive repairs. On Wednesday Pie took me to Broadmoor where I’ve been the Buddhist chaplain for many years. I usually go there once a month for a visit that normally last for four or five hours. This time, afterwards, I had an appointment at the nearby Wellington College, which is a large and expensive school founded at about the same time as Broadmoor was built. They are interested in the Buddha Groves that have been built in various prisons and in Broadmoor, which of course is not a prison but a hospital, and are thinking of building one themselves. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the chap I was supposed to meet, so now the plan is for him to come and see me here.
Thursday was Wan Phra, the half moon observance day and it was great to see some Thai ladies bringing food and making merit. That Wan Phra reminded us that with only three weeks left our Vassa this year will soon be over and so this weekend we are anxious to let everyone know that on October 28th we will be having an event here to celebrate the Conclusion of the Vassa.
This afternoon a little party of teachers and students from the school that Matthew teaches at in Bangkok called to see me. They are staying not far from here and travelling daily all over the country to see things of interest, like Stonehenge and Manchester United football ground!
When at first, with no one to drive for me I had to restrict my travel around the prisons, the chance of spending more time here seemed a blessing but as time has worn on I’ve felt increasingly uneasy at letting people down. Fortunately there is a some light now at the end of the tunnel and hopefully I’ll be able soon to get back into my stride.

This week the monks in Burma have won the admiration of the world for their courage and peaceful protests.
To be Buddhist is to try to follow the Buddha’s advice and to maintain our metta, our loving-kindness, even for those who oppress us and who prefer to follow in the footsteps of Mara.
This afternoon we went to London to a gathering at the Peace Pagoda on the South Bank of the Thames in Battersea Park. Burmese monks were there and we joined them for the chanting of the Metta Sutta, the Buddha’s discourse on Loving-Kindness. There were many people present looking on and offering their silent support, English and probably various nationalities, as well as Burmese. A Burmese monk talked briefly in Burmese and then it was my turn to speak in English. What could I say? What can we do? At least let us not give way to anger, nor to despair but let us hope for better things and put our trust in the Buddhist Path and particularly in the power of Metta, of Loving-Kindness, to overcome the dreadful things that we hear of happening now to the monks in Burma. What can we do? Not much, unfortunately but we can show we care and we can make sure that the monks and people who have paid such a price this week are not forgotten and that the cause they have suffered for so dreadfully is not lost or abandoned.
There are more pictures here and the event was reported here.
May all beings be well and happy.