Mostly my weekly newsletters for prisoners

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.

Mark and Jin were here to say goodbye yesterday.

They’re off to South Korea on Thursday, a new experience for Mark who hasn’t yet been to Asia and a new life for Jin who left home alone and returns now with Mark accompanying her. They’ve both been loyal and keen members of Warwick Uni Buddhist Society, they’ve both been on retreats at Bhavana Dhamma and Mark spent several months here helping and driving me. So we’ll miss them. I hope things will work out well for them, that they will continue to practise the Dhamma and above all that they will be happy.
They brought me a couple of farewell gifts, a colourful little model tortoise to add to my collection and a Chinese wall hanging (pictured). I asked a Chinese friend for a translation and this was his answer.
“The Chinese word says 清風高節, let’s have a word by word translation first:

清 -> Pure
風 -> Wind
高 -> High
節 -> Moral Integrity

The whole phrase is an allegory for someone who has a pure character and very high standard of moral integrity.”
So, a lovely present and we had just the right place for it in the room where we eat.

It’s six years since it was last done, so we decided that this year the Shrine Room really had to be painted and this week we finally got around to it. Tuesday afternoon and evening we did the preparation and painted the first half and Wednesday we did the rest.

The part that took the longest was before when we discussed and experimented and finally, eventually, decided on the colour scheme, a subtle shade of off white with a hint of gold, a special mix which I’m happy to say has turned out to be rather splendid but which the photographs don’t really do justice to.

It’s interesting, watching the thought associations and how your mind moves when you’re doing things, especially quiet and simple things. The first job on Tuesday that we all were involved in was the covering with newspapers and dust sheets what we didn’t want painted, the floor, the beams and skirting boards, and the big Buddha Rupa that cannot be moved. Hanging the newspaper over the beams and stapling it brought Hema, now an ex Warwick student,to mind. Why? Well Hema did a degree in psychology and was a student of John Pickering, and yonks ago when we first painted the Shrine Room it was John who invented this method of covering the beams. Spreading old newspaper to protect what we didn’t want spoilt reminded me too of when I was a student. At Drama Centre where I was in Group One, Yat, our great teacher who we all worshipped, knowing that I was pretty broke, asked me to work for him on a Saturday afternoon polishing his brass and silver and antique furniture. This was a tremendous honour and even more so when on the first day having sat me down and got me started he suddenly appeared with a tray of Earl Grey tea, toast and ginger marmalade for me and then sat chatting. I remember him looking at the newspaper that was spread out in front of me with the polish and bits and pieces on it and glancing at some snatches of old news he made some remark about the only time he read the newspaper being when he used it for something else like this. And there were we occasionally pausing for a quick read of some nonsense or other! A couple of times yesterday and today I had to remind those who were working with me that you begin at the top – cleaning, painting, whatever – and work down. And again my mind went back to my student days and one summer when to earn some money I worked for a domestic agency going out and cleaning people’s houses. I did a few sessions for an elderly Jewish lady in one of those big red brick blocks of flats in Marylebone and when I first went there I didn’t really know anything about cleaning and started with the floor and worked up, and she told me off. Perfectly logical really, gravity and all that but I had to be told. I remember too boasting to her that I never read the papers and she told me off about that too. It was the morning when the papers were full of the Great Train Robbery the night before!
Apart from these little mental journeys the painting did get done and well pleased we are with it.

On a balmy late summer’s evening at Springhill Open Prison in Buckinghamshire on September 9th we held our annual celebration at the Springhill Buddha Grove. It was grand to be there again in that very special place, although there were fewer guests this year and for the first time we were without Lord Avebury who was enjoying a well deserved break somewhere in France. Tim Newell, the former Governor conned by Sam Cutler into agreeing to the building of the Buddha Grove all those years ago, was there with his wife, and so was the present Governor, Peter Bennett, and Khun Bancha, the First Secretary from the Royal Thai Embassy. Dominic, an S.O. at Brixton Prison brought Venerable Sangthong Dhammacaro from Wat Buddhapadipa who teaches meditation at Brixton and two Thai monks came from the Oxford Buddhist Vihara. As usual we began at the Buddha Grove with some speeches and the chanting of the Parittas, which brought tears to the eyes of one of the prison officers on duty. Later a surprised inmate who had observed this phenomenon said to the officer that he thought they (officers) had no feelings. Well, just as I have to remind people sometimes that prisoners aren’t only prisoners, so prison officers are people too and we’re all in the same boat, spoilt with greed, aversion and delusion and having to struggle with our suffering one way or another. It’s that very omnipresent problem of suffering that Buddhism addresses head on. Once again I told the story of the building of the Buddha Grove way back in 1992 when Sam Cutler and his partner in time conceived and built it, Sam doing the organising, conning the Governor and getting other inmates with their numerous skills involved, while Ian shifted the concrete and managed the site. While we were enjoying our little ceremony at the Buddha Grove an army of Thai cooks and helpers were down at the kitchens perfecting the banquet they’d spent the afternoon preparing. So as soon as I’d shut up, down everyone trooped to the dining hall where the Thais were ready to feed the entire prison and guests. Everyone who spoke to me afterwards said how delicious the food was, and I’m sure it was with some of the best Thai restaurants in the country represented in that kitchen. Afterwards we returned to the Buddha Grove for the candlelit circumambulation, pictured above.
My thanks and appreciation to everyone who made the evening such a brilliant success. Anumodana!

The day before, at the Forest Hermitage, we’d had one of our quarterly Angulimala workshops for Buddhist Prison Chaplains. In the morning was Angulimala’s AGM, when we broke with tradition and successfully accepted the accounts. Then in the afternoon Phil Wheatley, the Director General of the Prison Service, (with me in the picture) kindly spent a couple of hours with us talking to about the current state of the prisons and answering questions and responding to what our Buddhist chaplains had to say. It was very kind of him indeed to give up a Saturday afternoon for us. It was much appreciated and we were deeply grateful.

First of all, I haven’t been out and about much lately because, although one or two kind people have helped with a drive or two, I don’t now have a regular driver. Which means that if there’s some reliable chap out there who’s not yet ready to be a monk but who would like to live in a monastic and disciplined setting, do a bit of practice, help out and drive, we’d love to hear from him. Failing that, just someone to drive, please.

Last Sunday, the nine day August retreat concluded with all the retreatants walking over from Bhavana Dhamma to see me and pay their respects, and for me to meet them. They were glowing and obviously had had a very good time of it.

Now we’re assessing the jobs that need to be done or finished. We’d like to alternate a week of doing jobs with a week of more formal practice. Whether that’ll really work out remains to be seen because there is so much to do to run a place like this and here it’s not like Thailand with a village of willing hands ready to come along and cheerfully help out when needed. Never mind, we will continue to do our best but we mustn’t lose sight of what we’re really here for.

Yesterday I set off early with Tom, Sister Khema and Elizabeth for Hylands Park near Chelmsford where the 21st World Scout Jamboree was being held. Actually it was my second visit. On Sunday we had gone there to celebrate Asalha Puja and yesterday we went again to join in the Scout movement’s centenary day, Sunrise Day. On Sunday I gave a short sermon in a gloomy, muddy tent about the significance of Asalha Puja and yesterday I spoke at length to a much larger audience gathered in the open air in brilliant sunshine about Buddhism and Scouting.
I am pictured here with Professor Yongyudh Vajaradul, Chairman of the World Buddhist Scout Brotherhood.
There are some more pictures here.

On July 29th, the Full Moon of the ancient Indian lunar month of Asalha, the skies over the Heart of England cleared, the torrential rain that had been soaking us for weeks abated, the sun shone forth and we had a wonderful day celebrating the Buddha’s very first sermon. It was the usual format that all our festivals follow: Dana, Sila, Bhavana – Giving, Virtue and Cultivation. People brought food to offer and share, and other requisites to help keep us going; they received and renewed their precepts; we all honoured the Triple Gem by circumambulating the temple three times with candles flowers and incense and then they listened while I explained that first important teaching of the Buddha’s. In the hope they would remember what they’d heard, to take with them and keep by them, I gave out a little card with on one side a finger pointing the way to happiness and on the other the Noble Eightfold Path which the Buddha had revealed in his first sermon to those five ascetics, his former companions.

While I had been away in Thailand I had decided that we should give Wood Cottage anew name more appropriate to its role as a place for Dhamma practice. I decided to call it Bhavana Dhamma and when I got back and we were planning our Asalha Puja celebration we felt that it would be a good idea to hold our renaming ceremony in the afternoon of Asalha Puja when we’d finished at The Forest Hermitage (Wat Pah Santidhamma). So that’s what we did. Some of us walked over and others went by car and when we’d all gathered we blessed the new sign over the door and then gathered inside for some refreshment and a chat.
We couldn’t linger too long however because we had to get off pretty smartish for Hylands Park near Chelmsford where thousands of scouts were camped and where I had to lead another Asalha Puja ceremony and give a short sermon. That’s in another post.

One morning in June, on my way back from my morning walk, I really felt I wanted a break. Other people around me seemed to be having one and I thought, why not me? Later, when I mentioned it encouraging noises were made and it began to seem a possibility. There had already been thoughts of me going to Thailand to help our Wood Cottage appeal and when it seemed like this break might actually happen these ideas resurfaced and began to be acted on. To cut a long story short, with some impressive organising and very little notice fund raising events were arranged, articles and notices appeared in the Thai papers and I was off.
So one morning early in July I checked in with Thai Airways at Heathrow and took a flight to Bangkok where I went straight to Khun Jung’s and stayed in the newly built kuti at their place. Matthew soon showed up to be with me for a couple of days and that afternoon we went to Buddha Montone. The next day I visited Ajahn Jundee’s wat in Chonburi and on the Monday, after another little trip out, I took the evening flight for Ubon and Wat Pah Nanachat. My stay there was pretty uneventful. I found it very hot and muggy and it was all I could do much of the time to stay awake. I went over to Peter and Tipawan’s for a cup of tea on the Tuesday and to Wat Pah Pong on the Wednesday. Thursday night, in the company of Ajahn Cittagutto who ordained at The Forest Hermitage fifteen years ago and who now stays at Wat Pah Nanachat, it was back to Bangkok where I had something to see to on the Friday afternoon followed by a gathering for meditation at Dhammaram in the evening. Most who attended that were well-known to me and several were former Warwick University students.
The next morning I had to go early to a posh hospital that looks more like a luxury hotel for a check-up and then back again after the meal for the results. Thankfully nothing awful was discovered so barring accidents I might be around for a little while yet. That day was an observance day when we have to hear Patimokkha and so we went out to Ajahn Jundee’s for that. In the evening when we returned, Professor Yongyudt, Chairman of the World Buddhist Scouts Brotherhood, came to see me about the forthcoming jamboree in Essex.
On the Sunday we went into the heart of Bangkok to Loketip Magazine’s Dhamma place for an event that they kindly hosted. Loketip gave this monastery considerable and generous support years ago when we were struggling to pay the mortgage on the Forest Hermitage and I used to go there every year. I hadn’t seen them for a few years and it was good to be back. The meal was offered, I gave a talk which was mostly translated and a lot of money was collected – 127,000 Baht. Anumodana!
In the afternoon it was the turn of my eyes to have a thorough examination and later new glasses were ordered.
Then early on Monday morning we sped off to a big school in Samut Pragahn. This was very special, all 1,600 pupils and staff turned out to greet me, to listen to me, to take the Refuges and Precepts and to make the formal offering of the 250,000 Baht that they had collected in a very short time. I had never before given the precepts to so many. It was a wonderful morning. Anumodana!
In the afternoon, when I’d got back to Khun Jung’s, my old friend Sathienpong Wannapok came to see me. His article in Matichon had given our fundraising a terrific boost.
The day after that was my 63rd birthday! I can’t quite believe the number and somehow feel those numerals should be the other way round and even then would be too many. Just across from where we were staying was Thawsi School, a Buddhist school for children from 5 to 11. It’s run by Khun Onn and her husband, Khun Witit. That morning I was invited over to the school to listen to the children recite morning chanting, then chat to them for a while (when I surprised a few people with my Thai, which sometimes isn’t all that bad) and then they put a little play on for me. It was based on the well-known chant about the Buddha’s wholesome victories and it was utterly delightful. One of the scenes showed the Angulimala story. This big lad came on with a sword and moustaches and quickly killed a couple of other lads before pursuing the Buddha around the stage, then shamelessly playing to the gallery he brought the house down by giving each of the ‘bodies’ another poke with his sword as he passed. The whole thing was done in a very formal Thai style with the Buddha represented by a child carrying a pole on which was suspended a banner with either an image of the Buddha walking or an image of him sitting. There are a couple of pictures in my album here and some more on the Thawsi School website, here. Afterwards they all sang Happy Birthday to me and then I was offered a lovely meal, some of which the children had cooked. That morning another 10,000 Baht was offered. Anumodana!
In the evening I gave a talk to about 150 people at Charn Issara Tower and another collection was made. This time 250,000 Baht. Anumodana!
Then it was back to pack and get ready and all too soon my little break was over and I was heading back to Blighty.

On July 15th the much talked of, long planned and vigorously debated, sponsored walk and meditation on Snowdon finally happened and was a great success. I missed it of course as I was in Thailand and that day involved in a rather less physically demanding approach to fund raising and merit making. From what I gather everyone pretty much enjoyed themselves, although the walk was longer than some had anticipated, and then of course there were the blisters! Never mind, it was a great effort and I am already hearing talk of another, the question is where next? I’m not sure how much was raised, partly because it’s still coming in but it’s well over £3,000. Anumodana!
I’ve posted a few pictures here.

Today was the official opening of a new Thai restaurant in West Bridgeford on the outskirts of Nottingham. Khun Ting and her husband, David, are the owners and I was invited to go there this morning for the blessing. I was joined by four monks from Wat Sanghathan in Birmingham. Khun Ting and David are well-known to us at The Forest Hermitage and have supported us for many years. This is their second restaurant and it was lovely to be with them on this very special day. In the picture, with Khun Ting and David looking on, I’m rather precariously make the marks of blessing over the sign ‘Siam House’.

Our Visakha Puja weekend marked an anniversary that I had meant to have made something of but then forgot all about. Thirty years ago the weekend of the 4th and 5th of June marked the beginning of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations and on June 4th I took Ajahn Chah to visit my parents. It was on the train to Portsmouth that I asked him if it would be all right for me to do some prison visits and he answered with one word, ‘Go!’
The following day, I remember it poured with rain and we went for a drive. That was when we called at the home of a relative and while everyone else was stuffing themselves with afternoon tea, he and I occupied a sofa at the end of the room. All of a sudden he dug me in the ribs and told me to ask these typical middle class English people if they suffered. I was just about to make some excuse and get out of it when the room went silent and I realised the chatter had stopped, the tea cups and buns were stilled and all eyes were on me as everyone waited to hear what the great man had said. I was trapped! Well you can imagine the embarrassed reaction when I translated his question. Eventually I told him that they didn’t understand and the teacups, the buns and the chatter resumed.
The picture is of us leaving my parent’s home for church that same evening. Ajahn Chah led us up the main aisle and seated, turned on his little tape recorder. The clergyman was as nervous as a kitten and his sermon was hopeless. Ajahn Chah understood not a word but realised it wasn’t very good and afterwards said that even I could have done better!

We had a wonderful day, the most brilliant weather you can imagine, excellent company with many young people, more food than we could eat and good Dhamma! What more could you want?
In my talk I spoke about what we were there to celebrate and what makes the Buddha different from us. As followers of the Buddha we should be going where he went and doing as he did, which means giving up craving and going all the way to Nibbana. And speaking of craving, well you’re only poor when you want more. Stop wanting and you’ve got it all. Not wanting you’re content with whatever you have and contentment, isn’t that wealth and happiness?
I also emphasised how important it is for everyone to care for themselves and I hope that we and this place and the Dhamma we offer will help with that.
We are very conscious of our dependence on all who support us and grateful for all that is offered. At the end of the day it was reported to me that as well as a generous collection of supplies, £574 had been given. Anumodana!

A couple of days of busy preparations for our Visakha Puja Celebration tomorrow concluded with our evening puja and sitting in front of the Ajahn Chah tree. This was the sight that met my eyes as I went out to take my place and begin the chanting.

After we got back from London on the 19th there was a short and special Angulimala committee meeting here and when we’d finished just as she was going through the gate, Samacitta had the bright idea that perhaps she could take the Buddha Rupa for Foston Hall’s Buddha Grove. Dharmachari Samacitta is the Buddhist chaplain to this women’s prison in Derbyshire and the Buddha Grove there has been an ongoing phenomena for three or four years now. Samacitta had already pinned me down to a dedication ceremony on Buddha Day (Visakha Puja) so it seemed reasonable for the Buddha Rupa to go with her that night for everything to be ready in time. It was carefully loaded into the back of her car and off she went. On Visakha Puja Day itself, I with Tahn Manapo, a visiting monk from Australia, Elizabeth and Prang, who drove, sped off to spend the afternoon in Foston Hall where some tea and buns had been prepared for the guests, officials and few inmates who attended. It poured with rain as soon as we arrived but stopped for the ceremony itself. Everything went all right and afterwards we dashed back in time for an evening with a few members of Warwick University Buddhist Society.

Over the last few years I’ve made some friends in the Chinese community in London, some of them students and some who are not but all who share a love of the Dhamma. We’ve met when I’ve been at the annual Buddha’s Birthday Celebration in Leicester Square, when I’ve spoken at the University of London Union Buddhist Association (ULUBUDA) last year, at Imperial College this year, and at again when I spoke at the Vesak Celebration at London Buddhist Vihara a few weeks ago. Some of them have been talking of coming to visit the The Forest Hermitage for some time and on Sunday they made it. They came with masses of wonderful food and a strong determination to make themselves useful. It was the Bank Holiday and what we used to call a typical Bank Holiday, it rained heavily. So they made themselves useful cleaning and polishing indoors. Here you can see themenjoying themselves and being busy. It was a very nice day. I’m so glad they came and I hope they’ll be back soon.

Once again this year I was invited to the annual celebration in London’s Leicester Square in honour of the birth of the Buddha, or rather of the baby who would grow up as a prince then leave it all behind to search for Enlightenment and become the Buddha. It’s always a very friendly occasion this that the Chinese London Fo Guang Temple arranges. I love going to it and after all, as I said to my friend Victor later that day, I don’t get to appear in the West End often these days.
So on Cup Final Day down to London went Tahn Manapo and I with Prang doing the driving. Of course the match at Wembley meant more traffic and so we didn’t arrive in Leicester Square until after the procession through China Town was well on its way. Never mind we had time to sit and catch our breath before they returned and the main ceremony began. All around the Buddha Image in the main tent was beautifully decorated and in my little talk I drew attention to this and the obvious love and respect for the Buddha that it showed. This, I said, is what the Buddha means to us who follow him and so when we see his image and name used inappropriately it worries us. I wanted to make a point of this because sitting in front of me was the Deputy Mayor of Westminster, the very council that licenses establishments like the Funky Buddha Club in Mayfair! I think he got the message.

Afterwards we walked over to the British Museum and spent an hour or so viewing its wonderful collection of ancient Buddha Images.

On these annual trips I try to include a visit with an old and very dear friend of mine who lives in a tiny flat overlooking China Town. But he’d told me he was away and wouldn’t be back until late that afternoon, too late for us to meet. We were just emerging from the underground car park to come back to Warwickshire when my phone rang and it was him. He’d just got in. So up the road we went to another car park and then for the second time that day threaded our way through the crowds and across Leicester Square. But this time it was to Newport Place and Victor’s tiny flat that we went where we chatted and were entertained by this wonderful man who firmly believes in living in the present. Victor Spinetti and I worked together nearly forty years ago when I was an actor at the National Theatre and he came to direct a play composed of John Lennon’s verse, and we’ve been friends ever since. We don’t see each other often but I’ve kept in touch with him unlike other former friends and colleagues because I felt he understood what I’m up to, at least so far as the practice of trying to live in the present is concerned.

Again and again, I either see for myself or I am told of yet another example of the Buddha or Images of the Buddha being used to promote clubs and bars, or advertise things so contrary to the life and message of the Buddha. And if it’s not that it’s the image of the Buddha used as decoration or fashion item: candles, on place mats, on bags of rice, on shoes and swimwear.
In the course of his life the Buddha was himself subject to abuse and taught that it should be endured, that in time it would pass and in any case that one should be glad that it hadn’t been any worse. Not only that, but even if one were being hacked apart, limb by limb, one should not cease to have loving-kindness for one’s abusers. But he also taught that to respect those worthy of respect was a great blessing and we Buddhists obviously believe the Buddha to have embodied the highest and best that any being can aspire to and therefore to have been the most worthiest of respect. The Buddha Image reminds us of all this. It reminds us too of a mind purified of all greed, hatred and delusion.
If we do nothing about the misuse of the name and image of the Buddha, how are we going to feel when we wake up to discover that people around us are associating the Buddha not with purity but with greed (the Greedy Buddha Restaurant in London’s Wandsworth Bridge Road), with alcohol and intoxication (the Buddha Bars) and with sex (The Kaz Bar, a strip club in Stratford-upon-Avon decorated with Buddha Images). Don’t think it can’t happen. I don’t suppose the creators of those lofty Buddha Images in Afghanistan’s Bamian Valley all those hundreds of years ago ever thought those images would be deliberately reduced to rubble but it happened. And I don’t suppose that anyone in Asia a century ago ever thought that that most ancient and revered symbol of the swastika would ever be associated with evil, and yet now hardly anyone in the West thinks otherwise when they see it and in some countries it’s banned altogether!
What then can we do? Unfortunately, not much. Here we’ve tried using the Warwick Faiths Forum to take our concerns about the Kaz Bar to Stratford Council and it’s emerged that unless the presence of the Buddha Images in that club are likely to cause trouble no action can be taken!
All that’s left and I feel we must do it is to make our concerns known and continue to explain the meaning and importance of the Buddha and how contrary to his example and message are many of these places that are using his image and name.

I had accepted an invitation from Venerable Seelawimala to speak at the London Buddhist Vihara’s Vesak celebration and so on Sunday down to Chiswick I went again.
The title of my talk was The Challenge of the Dhamma. While I got a few laughs for them, the stories I told focussed on how the Dhamma challenges our defilements, our views and our conduct. And I spoke pretty directly on the importance of having the courage to rise to the challenges and always to do the right thing and to keep growing. Naturally, I spent some time on the Five Precepts, and encouraged my listeners to not be afraid of being particularly careful of the fifth. The questions that followed showed what a raw nerve that exposed. I assured them that doing the right thing and leading a moral and decent life is in the end always respected.