Mostly my weekly newsletters for prisoners

At last week’s Angulimala Workshop there was almost universal dismay when I announced that because the importers had gone out of business we had no Buddha Rupas for chaplains to take away and offer their Buddhist prisoners. The next day I decided something had to be done. So I sat down to some determined Googling and eventually turned up a site that displayed a picture of a Buddha Rupa that looked identical with the type that Security at the Prison Service gave their blessing to and which we have been giving out for a number of years now. I rang the lady and learnt that they were expecting a container delivery of these and other things from Thailand on Wednesday. On Friday we went to have a look and discovered a wonderful Aladdin’s Cave of fabulous Buddha Rupas of all shapes and sizes as well as other treasures mostly from Northern Thailand. And only an hour and a half from here! As you can see from the pictures Roots Emporium is only a little shop, but next to it there is a lean-to building and both were crammed, floor to ceiling with hardly space to move around and look at the fabulous things they contain. What was remarkable too was that it hardly felt as if you were in a commercial establishment. That meant a lot to me because I really don’t like seeing people making money out of Buddha Rupas and Dhamma books. Not only that but we were offered a very generous discount. And so we came away laden with small Buddha Rupas of the kind we were looking for and some much larger ones for Buddhist shrines and multifaith rooms in some of the prisons.

As I said in my last post, last week was big for Buddhists throughout the world and a pretty busy few days for me too. As you might have read in the previous post, on Saturday, May 17th, we joined the London Fo Guang Temple for their annual celebration in Leicester Square and then raced back to make sure everything was ready for our big event the following day. Thankfully, Samanain and a few trusty helpers had done a great job and apart from a few last minute adjustments the next morning all we had to do was hope that the weather would buck up, dry up and the sun would come out.

So, last Sunday we held our celebration of the Birth, Enlightenment and Parinibbana of the Buddha. We had a good crowd, plenty of good food, and after the almsround and we’d all eaten we circumambulated one of the Buddha Rupas in the garden. In the picture we’re just setting off after I’ve finished trying to persuade everyone to be meditative, mindful and to please not get lost.

In the afternoon when it was all over we had a meeting of the committee of the Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship, that’s the outfit that formally looks after the place.

Then in the early evening Tahn Manapo and I jumped in the mean green machine that is the monastery car and set off for Oxford with Larry, who’d come to stay and drive for me for a few days, behind the wheel. We were going to a fund raising event for Save the Children in Burma that Aung San Suu Kyi’s son and a handful of Burmese and friends had organised at a school on the outskirts of Oxford. They’d asked me to say a few words which I did. I’ve heard since that they raised about £6000.

Monday was of course the actual Visakha Puja Day. I had accepted an invitation to join a celebration at Haverigg Prison in the evening, so I left Tahn Manapo to take the Monday sitting and shortly after 2 pm Larry and I set off for the southern edge of the Lake District. As you might imagine the M6 wasn’t much fun but the last part of the three and a half hour drive was quite beautiful. I got there just in time for the six o’clock start and I was made very welcome by the Governor, the chaplaincy and the men who packed the place out to enjoy the occasion and to hear me tell the story of the Buddha and afterwards the story of Angulimala and his meeting with the Buddha. It was a great evening but over all too soon and by eight o’clock we were back on the road for another three and a half hours.

On Tuesday, it was off to two more prisons, Gartree in the afternoon and Stocken in the evening.

Wednesday I didn’t do very much and Larry went back to Wales.

Thursday was again a quiet day pottering about in my garden and office. Then in the evening Nui took Tahn Manapo and I to a meeting of Warwick University Buddhist Society. It’s exams time and so attendance was practically rock bottom and it might have been the last meeting for this term and the academic year. A pity.

On Friday a very nice chap called Tom came to see me about helping with some driving and we agreed that he would start by taking me to Grendon and Springhill Prisons on Tuesday. So on that front, what with him and Larry, things are looking up at last. Then in the evening Maggie Dou, a very nice Chinese girl who used to be at Warwick Uni, came up from London to stay for a couple of nights at Bhavana Dhamma. She’s now qualified as a solicitor and later this year having joined a London law firm that has branches in China she will be going back to Shanghai. Our loss but Shanghai’s gain.

Not much happened on Saturday. Just the usual, a few phone calls and stuff to do with prisons and the Buddhist Chaplaincy for the Armed Forces Endorsing Authority.

And today Hema Hirani and her sisters came to see me. That was nice. Hema is also ex Warwick and formerly part of a fairly notorious group who used to run the WU Buddhist Society. They stayed chatting for a bit, then went over to Bhavana Dhamma for tea with Maureen. Later on they came back, said goodbye and then Hema successfully manoeuvred Mark’s little red car out of the carpark and down the drive and off they went back to London.

And that was the week that was!

After an early meal we raced down to London this morning to attend the Annual Buddha’s Birthday Celebration in London’s Leicester Square. Like last year we were delayed by the crowds converging on Wembley for the Cup Final and so we arrived too late for the procession through China Town. Actually we didn’t mind that as it was raining and we got wet enough nipping through the pedestrianised bit from where we had jumped out of the car in St Martin’s Lane. I had been asked to give a short address and I focussed mostly on the hope that the Buddha’s message brings us for a better and happier life. This, of course, is a big weekend for Buddhists throughout the world. Theravadans like us celebrate the Birth, Enlightenment and Passing of the Buddha, while for some other schools it’s the Enlightenment only and for our Chinese friends of the London Fo Guang Temple it’s the Birth that they celebrate at this time. And their way of doing it is to ceremonially bathe the images of the child who later grew up to leave his princely estate and eventually win full Enlightenment to become the Buddha. We were each of us invited to go forward and bathe an image. The images of the child prince show him pointing to the earth and to the heavens as he declared that this would be his last birth.

Nui, who works at the Butterfly Farm in Stratford, brought us a present of a chrysalis. There it is on the right, that silver pod. And next to it you can see what came out of it. We haven’t given it a name and we don’t know if it’s a he or a she, nor do I know the species but I’ll find out. If we want to give it a name we’ll have to hurry as it won’t long be with us, it can only live for a few days. How about this for a rebirth, it has no mouth!

I’m in a bit of a mess!

I should have been setting off for Grendon Prison about now but Nick, who usually once a week takes time after work to drive me, sent me a text to say he couldn’t leave the office this evening.

I’m lucky that I’ve got Ian and Nick, who between them usually manage a day and an evening each week, and lately Tomasz has been able to help with an evening, but I’m afraid it’s not enough and my prison work is really suffering.

I desperately need a man to drive for me three days a week. They could be three consecutive days with whoever’s driving staying overnight here for two or three nights, or if it were someone more local whatever days suited, or it could be more than one person between them making up the three days.

If there’s anyone out there who thinks they could help or knows someone, please get in touch.

I’m sure that many friends of The Forest Hermitage will be sorry to hear of the death on Thursday of Rosemary Alcock.

Before a long stay in hospital where she caught one of their infamous bugs, Rosemary had been a bright, cheerful, lively lady who brought so much fun into our lives. Her generosity was boundless and we often joked that if ever she heard or believed we needed or would like something at the factories producing it all leave would be cancelled and the staff would be put on overtime to meet her demands. After her health deteriorated she could only manage to get out here once a week but her sense of humour and plain speaking never left her and even in hospital she had some wicked things to say about the larger members of staff.

Her input here in years gone by was huge. She was a real diamond. And it’s been sad to see her fade but there it is that’s what we have to face and accept as we age and our bodies begin to fail.

Her last couple of months were spent in a home near Cambridge where she could be cared for and be close to her sister. There, at first, she brightened up and seemed much happier but the damage was done and by the time I saw her last Sunday she was very frail. She would have been eighty in December.

It’s been wonderful to have known her. Rosemary has brightened all our lives and I hope that through all the care she has lavished on others and all the good things she has done she will enjoy a favourable rebirth and in time come to know the secure peace of Nibbana.

Songkran is known to most visitors to Thailand as the Water Festival. In fact it’s the Thai, Burmese and Sri Lankan New Year. Its origins go way back to ancient India where it may have been a sort of Spring festival. As such its timing resonates well with us and the fresh, new growth we’re beginning see around us, the greening of the hedgerows and the blossoming of the rich variety of fruit trees in our gardens. To mark this renewal the Thais traditionally pay their respects by bathing their elders, beginning with the Buddha and it’s from that that the well-known water throwing progresses.

It’s become a tradition for us to celebrate Songkran both here at The Forest Hermitage and in Nottingham at Yod and Nid’s YodSiam Thai Restaurant. This year the Songkran Day fell on a Sunday so Yod decided to ask us to go to him the day before and then the next day we did it all again here. Both were wonderful days, even if the slightly chilly weather did reduce the water spillage somewhat!

There are pictures here of the day at YodSiam on the 12th and here of our celebration at The Forest Hermitage on 13th of April.

At the Prison Service Chaplaincy Conference last week I was invited to give a two minute ‘reflection’. I don’t write my speeches nor do I have anyone else write them for me so I can’t report now exactly what I said but I’ll try and give you some idea. You may remember from an earlier entry back in February that the theme of this year’s conference was ‘Trusting the Journey’ and while I was determined not to utter those words I accepted that what I had to say had somehow to chime with that theme. This then is roughly what I said.

There was a time when for me a journey was simply something I had to endure in order to get somewhere and home again. In those far off days my journeys were nearly always about work and my need to be somewhere on time to do what I had to do on some stage or film set somewhere or other. My journeys then had an objective; I had something to do, I had to be somewhere. Later, when I decided to go east and take my Buddhist interests and commitment a stage further I felt that I should make that journey a pilgrimage. At the time I had little idea of what a pilgrimage was but I took off and by various means made my way overland to India where for two months I wandered around the Buddhist holy places. The pressure was off, I had more time to look out of the window and I wasn’t so concerned about when I was going to get there but still I was journeying with the aim of getting somewhere. Then I went to Thailand and made my way up to the North East, to that corner bounded by Laos to the North and Cambodia to the East. There I joined a famous and wonderful teacher called Ajahn Chah and became one of the forest monks. The forest monks include monks who wander, who go on journeys that have a purpose but no objective. They might say that they are going in search of peace or a peaceful place but they are not travelling in order to get anywhere, and certainly not on time, or indeed to be anything. There I began to understand another kind of journey, one that has no objective but is done simply for its own sake.

Yesterday, the last speaker, talking about the latest developments within the Prison Service and the direction and journey it’s now taking, quite candidly admitted that no one really knows where this is going to take us. We could make fun of this or be quite cynical about the Prison Service off again, driven by yet more bright ideas and still not knowing where it’s going to be this time next year! But in truth we never know where we’re going to end up. We can’t possibly tell what’s going to happen or how things are going to turn out. On any journey it’s only this that we can really know about, just the placing of this foot in front of the other, now, at this time, that’s all. And if only we can do that well.

Doing it for the sake of doing it, doing it without wanting to be or gain anything, doing it without really knowing or bothering too much about where it’s going to take you, but doing what has to be done and doing it well, acting skilfully and virtuously, is not only the way to approach chaplaincy, it’s the way to approach life.

There’s talk of evaluating chaplaincy. And who thinks they can do that? The guys in suits who only talk money? But what about the inmates? At this conference there has been nothing from the prisoners but at the last conference we heard from two former prisoners. One of them, Bobby Cummins, I used to visit twenty years ago when he had long hair and was very angry. Remember what he said of you chaplains? ‘You’re diamonds.’

When you love the unloved, when you care for the uncared for and rejected, when you befriend the friendless, you’re diamonds.

Thank you.

At 3 o’clock in the morning of Sunday, April 6th, I saw that snow had begun to fall. When I looked out a few hours later it had stopped and to my amazement we were under a good six inches of snow. It was very wet, stodgy snow that clung to the branches, weighing them down and making everything utterly beautiful. When the sun came out it was even better. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen snow in April.

That day, Khun Dang, who had turned 60 the day before, was due here to lead the offering of the Tort Pah Bah that she had organised to mark her birthday and fifth cycle. As people began arriving small snowball skirmishes kept breaking out – a snow variation on the water fights that usually characterise Songkrahn. Of course this wasn’t supposed to be a Songkrahn celebration, we’re having that next Sunday but it was close enough to be in people’s minds. I gave the Refuges and Precepts then instead of an alms round outside everyone queued in the Shrine Room to put food in our bowls. After the meal came the offering of the Tort Pah Bah and then I spoke a few words of explanation and I hope, encouragement. Because I knew that some people present wouldn’t be able to make it next week I announced that we would have a mini Songkrahn and again everyone queued, this time to bathe the Buddha Image and then our hands.

It was a great day and made even better by an offering made towards what is still owed to the bank for Bhavana Dhamma (Wood Cottage) of a total of £3,861, made up of £200 from Thailand, £200 collected here, £240 that came in the post and £3,221 that was brought on the day. Fabulous! This week, with Khun Dang’s help as she’s turned 60, we’ve brought the debt down £6,000 to £73,000. Anumodana!

And for Khun Dang, Happy Birthday!

There are some pictures here.

For some sort of handbook I’ve just been asked to list ten things about Buddhism that I would want someone who knows nothing about it to know and this is what I’ve come up with.

Buddhism is what we call the original teachings and discipline established by the Buddha as well as the family of separate but related movements that have grown out of those early beginnings and spread in a vast and complex diversity of forms throughout the world.

 

1. The Buddha is the One Who Knows or the Enlightened One and is the title assumed by the former Prince following his Enlightenment at the age of 35.

2. The Buddha lived and taught in Northern Central India about 2,600 years ago.

3. What the Buddha taught addresses the problem of suffering by explaining its cause, its ending and the way to end it.

4. That path or middle way is a training in the gradual perfection of virtue, meditation and wisdom.

5. Buddhist morality is underpinned by the principle of harmlessness and for the laity is expressed through the Five Precepts that enjoin a person to abstain from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, untruthfulness and taking alcohol and drugs.

6. Buddhism is a non-theistic religion that has no God, creator or saviour.

7. Nor is it a belief system, dogma or faith based religion (generally Buddhists would not refer to it as a faith) but instead invites one to come and see and know for oneself.

8. The Buddha taught that there is no self or soul, rather we and all phenomena arise dependent on causes and conditions and are without any abiding self, soul or substance.

9. Much is made of merit, the doing of good deeds and the development of generosity, loving-kindness, compassion, non-attachment, truthfulness and patience.

10. Dependent on the intention, actions have results and it is how one has lived this life that after death conditions rebirth.

This is what we’ve woken up to and it’s March 23rd, Easter Sunday – not that that means much to me – but what happened to Global Warming all of a sudden!

We had a lovely visit today from a charming and generous Chinese group from London. They came with huge pots of tasty and nourishing food as well as their work togs and after the meal they set to painting and cleaning. The rain cut short some of that but then we gathered for a chat and some meditation. I hope they’ll come again soon.

It’s a bright sunny day today and it’s so good to see Charlie and Speedy out in their park grazing and exercising.

After yesterday’s TBSUK meeting I went over to see my friend Lord Avebury for a chat about a couple of the issues of concern to us. Here I am with Eric and Lindsey (Lord and Lady Avebury) just about to leave for the drive back to Warwickshire, which at that time we confidently expected to be traffic free but how wrong we were!

I’ve just added a note to the Angulimala page of this site about the forthcoming Prison Service Chaplaincy Conference in April. Unlike the last two conferences, for this one I am not part of the organising committee. I was probably not much use but I did come up with some good ideas and I’m pleased to see that two of them that weren’t used when I was on the committee have been taken up this time. The first is the venue. I complained strongly that the NEC was not a good place for a conference of this kind and said more than once that somewhere like Warwick University would be much better. This time it’s at Warwick University. The second is that there are to be short presentations about the various principal faiths. I often said that when I attended a couple of the old style Christian Chaplaincy Conferences years ago the most interesting bit had been a sort of forum with chaplains from overseas. Admittedly they were all Christian but of different kinds and it had been very interesting to see and to hear them. So, I had suggested something that would inform delegates about faiths other than their own. That too was never taken up but I have just received an email asking me to prepare and lead a twenty minute session on Buddhism. I’ve also been asked to offer a two minute reflection. The only trouble is that everything including these presentations has somehow to relate to the conference theme of a journey. The title of the conference is Trusting the Journey.

Thinking about this has brought flooding into my mind memories of New York in late 1965. I was an actor then and there for a couple of productions that never quite happened and while flat hunting I bumped into the wife or girlfriend of an actor called Walter McGinn and we became friends. Walter was then on Broadway in a dreadful epic called The Subject was Roses. He got me tickets and took me to meet his co-stars, Chester Morris and Maureen O’Sullivan and then I had to sit through a matinee with his wife. Well, because she was with me I couldn’t leave and so I had to endure the whole wretched thing, including the supremely cringe-making moment when poor Walter had to utter the line that contained the words ‘the subject was roses’ and a frisson went round the auditorium as the New York matrons whispered excitedly to each other that that was the title, that was the title of the play!

If anyone thinks that at the Prison Service Chaplaincy Conference in either of my presentations I’m going to include a line that has ‘trusting the journey’ in it, they’re going to have to think again!

All good things come to an end and so did our short stay at Sri Panwa. With so little to do and only the simplest and most basic of decisions to be made our time there passed at nothing like the snail’s pace you might have imagined. It was soon over, our few things were packed and the tuk tuk to take us to the car was at the door. Then it was the ride to the airport, the flight and the drive through Bangkok’s legendary traffic to the kuti at Khun Jung’s for our last night.

Again there were visitors, that evening and the next morning. In the afternoon of our last day we drove over to Wat Sraket to pay our respects to Somdet Keo, then went to get me measured for a new pair of glasses before calling on Sulak Sivaraksa for tea. Sulak is described on the cover flap of his autobiography as a prominent and outspoken Thai Buddhist social critic and activist who throughout his tumultuous life has endured death threats, exile and gruelling legal ordeals – and somehow has thrived. Of course I have known of Sulak for years and people have thought we ought to know each other but we’ve never quite managed to meet until that afternoon. Ken, another Thai former Warwick student, succeeded in arranging it and I’m very grateful to him for that. Sulak was very welcoming, very gracious, fascinating to listen to and generous – he presented me with a stack of books to add to the boxes we had already.

Back at Khun Jung’s we hastened to get ourselves ready and then off we sped to the airport where Thai Airways staff were waiting to speed us through check-in and care for us all the way to Heathrow. Khun Tipvadee, looking younger than ever, was there to see us off. So were Pie and Mark, who was looking forward to getting off back to Korea in a day or two. And Tahn Dhammabhojo, now Chao Khun Chonnyanamuni, with the young monk who hopes to join us in England in the summer, were also there to speed us on our way. Once through Immigration, we were sat in tall futuristic buggies that raced us as near as could be to our Departure Gate, from where we were ushered onto the plane and into comfortable seats to cushion our approach to the culture shock awaiting us at Heathrow.

If you’d like to see some of the photos you can look here.

So here we are now on the island of Phuket. And just for the record Phuket is pronounced Poo-ket. Literal transliteration doesn’t always take into account pronunciation.

 

The sun has not long gone down on our first full day here and I’m sitting at a table in our villa and looking out across the darkness of the sea below to a few lights twinkling on the boats and islands opposite. We came here to Sri Panwa yesterday after a night in Bangkok. Since my last entry we have gone from Bangkok to Ubon, back to Bangkok and now Phuket. But before setting off for Ubon there was Pie’s wedding to go to.

 

We had nothing to do with the actual ceremonies but on the morning of the 15th, the wedding day, we were invited over to the house to take our meal there. We set off in plenty of time with a map and directions that Pie’s mother had supplied but still somehow our excellent driver had difficulty following them and we got lost. I’m afraid I seldom have much idea where I am in Bangkok so I was no help. Eventually the mystery was unravelled and we drew up in the drive of a large house overflowing with people obviously at a wedding. Ant was there to greet us but he didn’t quite know what to do so Pie was summoned and he led us up to the Shrine Room where food soon appeared and we had our meal. Afterwards we were invited to join the photo call. That was when a rather troubled Mark made his second brief appearance of the day. Poor Mark had eaten somtum the night before and been sick ever since. It’s always fun when you suddenly meet people you’ve known as students and always seen dressed as students in another context with smartly brushed hair and wearing suits!

 

The 15th proved to be a full and varied day. By the evening we’d left Bangkok, taken a plane to Ubon in the North-east, and were busy settling in to our rather more austere forest accommodation at Wat Pah Nanachat. Although I’d better add that monks there have a pretty comfortable lot compared to what I knew in my younger days.

 

The next day, the 16th, was the sixteenth anniversary of Ajahn Chah’s death and many of us went over to Wat Pah Pong to eat there. There were a lot of monks, a lot of food and quite a lot of old friends. I sat next to Ajahn Inn who I hadn’t seen for years and who had been one of the chanting acariyas at my ordination. Afterwards the meeting that I was supposed to attend was postponed to the evening and so back I went to Wat Pah Nanachat for a rest. By this time Mark, Ant and Peng, another former Warwick student who’d come for the wedding, and Pie’s cousin, Sandy, were in Ubon. They came out to Wat Pah Nanachat and with them Tan Manapo and I returned to Wat Pah Pong in the afternoon in time for the big circumambulation of the Ajahn Chah Chedi.

 

The students had the use of a pretty handy vehicle and driver for two more days so on the 17th I took them to Kow Phra Viharn which is a pretty impressive ruin on the Thai Cambodian border. It’s also quite high and a fairly energetic climb. We left the students well behind but they did eventually join Tan Manapo and I at the top. Then on the 18th I took them to Wat Keuan where I lived for about a year in 1973. There were never more than a handful of monks there but it was immaculate in my day. It’s on a peninsula that juts out into a huge man-made lake and we drove, then walked to the furthest tip, to Hua Hin, where we spent a jolly time sitting, scrambling about and posing for photos. That evening, back at Wat Pah Nanachat we said goodbye to the two girls, Peng and Sandy, who were returning to Bangkok and so the day after, with only Ant and Mark left, Peter came over from Amper Deht to take the four of us to see my old friend and mentor Ajahn Dang and then to Peter and Tipawan’s splendid home for afternoon tea served in best, beautiful china. The next day we’d lost Ant who’d gone off to see a family he knew and so with only Mark left of our student party we went over to Wat Pah Pong for my guided tour. We were taken there by the two judges, Katekaew and her husband. Katekaew was at Warwick for a year nine years ago. And accompanying us was my wonderful attendant for my stay at Wat Pah Nanachat this year, an Indonesian novice called Visilo. We finished up our visit to all the important sites, the Ajahn Chah Chedi, Ajahn Chah’s kuti, his hospital kuti where he died and the place where he had first camped, by picking up four boxes of books to bring back. Two subsequently went with Mark who had to race off to the airport to meet up with Ant to join him on the plane to Bangkok and two were later added to by a third and all three boxes are now waiting for us in Bangkok. Later on that day at Wat Pah Nanachat I took a Question and Answer session with the monks and novices that seemed to go down quite well. The day after was Monday, the 21st, and we didn’t go anywhere.

 

The 22nd was a Wan Phra, a Full Moon Observance Day, and we had to hear Patimokkha, the basic Rule for Bhikkhus. At my request that was done after the meal in the morning so that Tan Manapo and I could be there for it before catching our plane in the afternoon. After Patimokkha I was invited to address the Sangha and I enlarged on some of the points I’d made in the morning Ovadas I’d already given. I spoke of the importance of a caring community. What we are committed to as monks can be difficult and demanding and it’s important that we can care for and help each other through any hard times. I have known communities where the emphasis has been on surrendering to the community but it seemed without any corresponding duty of care by the community for its members. It’s easy both for individuals and the community itself to become harsh and judgemental and that’s not helpful. As Ajahn Chah has pointed out, metta or loving-kindness is a vital ingredient in the way of life and training that we have adopted. I also reminded them to not take things for granted and to appreciate the wonderful facilities and support they have and to be worthy of it. I also pointed out that while some things about our life can be inconvenient, this discipline is forever reminding us of our kilesas (defilements) and keeping us aware of them. During my Question and Answer session with them earlier I had described how in the past instead of collecting our food, as is done now, from a buffet and being able to pick and choose, we used to have to sit and watch the food being dished into our bowls by the monks delegated to go down the line giving it out. We could refuse some things if we were quick enough but it wasn’t good form to do so and we were taught to watch our minds, especially when something delicious was immediately swamped by some curry we didn’t like or we didn’t get as much of something as we wanted. At the end of the day, that food is given in faith, it does the job and we’re jolly lucky to have anything at all. And so the old monk rambled on.

 

Back in Bangkok that evening a few people came to see me, mostly students or ex students who used to come to the Forest Hermitage when they were in the UK. And then the next day, our Nok Air flight having been cancelled, we stepped aboard a One,Two,Go plane for Phuket and here we are.

 

I don’t want to make you jealous but if you want to see where we are go to www.sripanwa.com.

 

For another account of Pie and Nun’s wedding and some of our adventures have a look at Ant’s blog.

Well we’re here. We arrived safely early on Sunday morning. Inside the aircraft it hadn’t been too warm, when we got out in the new airport it didn’t feel too warm and outside it didn’t look too inviting either with fog swirling all around. Never mind, we pressed on and hiked our way through to Immigration, Baggage Reclaim and out at Exit 4 where Goong met us and drove us through the fog and into Bangkok and to where we’re staying. By the time we got here the sun was out and it was definitely warming up.

Sunday then proved a pretty leisurely day. We didn’t go anywhere but there were a few phone calls and in the afternoon Ant and Mark came to see us, Mark with a present of small temple bell from Korea. Later on plans for the rest of our stay were discussed and laid. Then in the midst of his wedding preparations, Pie phoned.

On Monday morning it was an early meal before Ant and Mark appeared with a mini coach and more ex Warwick students to take us off on a trip to Ayuthia. There we had a gently strenuous time wandering round the ruins and the beautiful gardens of Ban Pa In Palace.

We’d not long got back when Tahn Maha Dhammabhojo, who used to stay with me some years ago at Warwick, arrived to see me. He’s a Chao Khun now and has his own temple. He came with two other monks, one of whom would like to come to Warwick. Then we’d not been talking more than a few minutes when another old friend, Sathienpong Wannapok, made his entrance. We chatted until quite late and took photos and all the rest of it.

Now it’s already the early hours of Tuesday and soon Pie’s wedding ceremonies will begin. We are to go over to be there for our meal at eight. Then in the afternoon we take a flight to Ubon. After that while I’m at Wat Pa Nanachat I’m not sure how easy it will be to update this blog but I’ll try.

I did my best to take it as close to the wire as I dared but yesterday just before I went off for an evening prison visit I took the decision to leave for Thailand on Saturday. So that’s it, all being well, early on Sunday morning, January 13th, we should be landing at Suvarnabhumi International Airport not far from Bangkok. We should be back early on January 29th.

For anyone in Thailand who wants to reach me while we are away my mobile number in Thailand is 08-3383-0089.

Hopefully I’ll be updating this blog while I’m away.

เบอร์โทรศัพท์ติดต่อในประเทศไทย: 08-3383-0089

As I stood waiting to speak in Trafalgar Square at the meeting for Burma, I was for a moment transported back to rehearsals at the Old Vic forty years ago, in the days when it was home to the National Theatre. We were rehearsing a Sunday night showing of ‘In His Own Write’ and I was Me. Victor Spinetti of the Beatles films was directing. As I spoke John Lennon’s verse staring into the blackness of an empty auditorium, now and then somewhere out there a lighter would flicker to reveal Victor’s smiling and lively face encouraging me to talk to him. On Saturday as I stood in the chill of a January afternoon in Trafalgar Square I looked up and and amongst the gathering audience saw a hand waving and then there under a cap and behind a beard, older now but still as lively and encouraging, Victor’s smile and wild, friendly eyes.

When it was over we went out of the cold and into the warmth of his flat on the edge of China Town for tea and the offer of a hot shower to warm up. I didn’t bother with the latter but the Jasmine tea in a big generous cup was very welcome and the gossip and reminiscing was fun.

I’ve still got the signed copy of In His Own Write that John gave me.

Yesterday we went to London to join a silent march to Trafalgar Square to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Burma’s independence from Britain and to offer our support for the monks and people of Burma who live now under one of the world’s most oppressive and brutal military regimes.

Here are two videos of my talk.

We’ve just spent a very peaceful and meditative evening leading up to the stroke of midnight when we saw the New Year in chanting the Parittas as those present each lit a stick of incense to symbolise letting go of the old and determining to do better in the future.

We had our usual Monday evening sitting with a little talk from me that focussed on letting go, not just of the past but the future as well. Just as the revolving wheel hits the ground always at one place only, so really our lives are lived just in the present even if our minds don’t usually acknowledge that. Afterwards we had tea and were joined by the little group who are in retreat at Bhavana Dhamma. I read to them a few passages about some of the great forest monks of the past, passages that focussed particularly on overcoming fear. The last few words I read were one monk’s appraisal of what threatened Thailand at the time. Instead of mentioning insurgency as everyone present expected he pointed to kilesa, defilement, greed and anger and all the rest, as the greatest threat. And so it is. It’s the enemy within that we ought to be most careful of. My hope for the New Year is that more of us may make a better job of facing that enemy.

Earlier in the day we had a visit from Karen who has not long returned from Burma, where she saw something of the terrible events that gripped that sad and beautiful land a few weeks ago. She described arriving somewhere soon after a monk had been tied to a lamppost and beaten to death. What can you say! Arrests and brutality are common and the people live in fear. What can you say, what can you do but determine to hold fast to what is good.

A Boxing Day present for Larry was a new home kindly crafted by our new samanera.

Here’s Larry emerging and greeting a new day after his first night in his palace.

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.