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| Into the woods in search of meditative seclusion |
What is the best way to live nowadays? It seems a big house in the country, with a farm and river (with water rights) running through it in some unpolluted idyll might be best. Maybe in the Angeles National Forest like Teri said.
Life in another state would be counter-progress, unless a great meditation teacher was on hand to advise our practice.
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| Are we neo-hippies or outcaste misfits? |
If we pull in the modules, scattered in the woods around a central meeting house for meals and group meditations, what could be better? Visit
Wat Metta near San Diego to see a great setup utterly bereft of a good teacher to lead it.
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| The Dharma guards those who guard it. |
If the caves of Europe do not work out, it may be best to lease land along the river above Los Angeles. A group of Buddhists already tried it, but disuse, neglect, and teenage vandalism brought it to ruin. It is right next to the ranger station and parking lot at the entrance to the Azusa route to Crystal Lake. It is below the dam, which could give way at any moment. So that's a consideration.
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| Nature protects those who protect it. |
We were driving in search of the massive new Hindu temple complex or
ashram in Chino, California, just east of Los Angeles County.
We turned right instead of left and found a massive Thai Theravada Buddhist temple with a giant stupa that the city was disallowing as a structure. There were food booths for a festival or alms round for many monks set up. But the strangest thing was in the back, there was a small shack dedicated to local Native Americans dispossessed of the region. Why? Buddhists care.
They care more than the locals who took the unceded land and turned it into tract housing and a real estate boom.
We tried to ask the abbot about it, but he didn't understand our questions. We were in awe that it was there. He thought we thought it was odd. We haven't been able to find the place since. It's up a hill on a big street not far from the 60 Freeway. Since few people seem to know about the other giant Thai temple near La Puente, just off of Valley Blvd., it's no surprise. Wat Metta is also Thai Theravada.
If we build an actual abbey or
vihara (temple complex) it will either be Burmese Theravada or Afghan-American
Early Buddhism, the first in the country. Why? A few Burmese have rediscovered the historical Buddha's teaching and can teach it. Moreover, the Buddha was from
Gandhara (not beautiful Nepal), modern
Bamiyan,
Kabul (
Kapilavastu), and
Mes Aynak Afghanistan, and the oldest Buddhist writings are from there, which is mind-blowing.
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| The greatest teacher of humans |
The Gandhāran Buddhist texts are the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, dating from about the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE, having been found in the northwestern outskirts of the Indian subcontinent [1, 2, 3]. They represent the literature of Gandharan Buddhism from present-day northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara) and are written in Gāndhārī. They were sold to European and Japanese institutions and individuals and are currently being recovered and studied by several universities.
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| What might we carve into the limestone? |
It might cost lots of money to fulfill the dream, and we're reminded of how one Indian guru, possibly Sri Ravi Shankar or some such, handled that. Asked by his disciples, "But, Guru, where are we going to get the money to build an ashram?"
The guru answered, "From wherever it is now." That sounds like the Law of Attraction, which Hicks-Abraham says we are always living in accordance with whether we know it or not.
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