The renouncing continues

Since January people, friends of Santi Forest Monastery, are renouncing for a good cause – to sponsor Santi.

Here is a link to its official web site: http://www.mycause.com.au/events/Renounceathon

March is the last month of the official renounceathon. For us Nuns, Samaneris and Bhikkhunis the renouncing continues of course, at least we will not give up our renunciation of the home. We all went forth from home into homelessness and are very happy to be able to live the holy life supported by such wonderful friends as you are.

One friend in Denmark joined the renounceathon without creating a page on ‘mycause’. Today I received her report of success :)

>The 28 days of renunciation of irritability have passed and have been a great success. Not 100% of course! But a huge step forward. The difficulty was of course to maintain the necessary level of awareness to catch it before it erupted. And the great thing was that making the effort to be so mindful had many unexpected side effects. It’s been a marvelous experience – not least for those around me, I’m sure. Thank you for the inspiration.
As promised I will send a contribution to Santi, which will hopefully supply a few hot showers for you, when it’s cold again! I’ll look on the website for an account number.
Very best wishes, and Metta
Kim<

As you all know we had all sort of renunciations. From giving up ‘negative thoughts’ which is the number one fund raiser on the renounceathon web page, over giving up to speak Thai, doubts, complaints, nuns and friends renounced and in most cases were very happy with the results

My (Phalanyani) renouncing of ‘the use of hot and warm water except for drinking’ was a very interesting experience. I did it! I regularly took cold showers! To understand why I am so enthusiastic about it – I am known as a wimp when it comes to cold. Born in summer of (then) the hottest year since records, I felt cold, so to say, by default. Later I lived in Spain and when we went to the beach to swim I put my toe in the Mediterranean sea and most times decided it was to cold to go in, while everybody else suffered from the heat outside of the water. Now I do even consider to continue taking cold showers… unbelievable.

leaves

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Dear friends,

farewell and departure is always a large part of the life of any Buddhist monastic. We are not supposed to become attached to one particular place. In the Buddha’s time, it seems, the monks and nuns have been wandering for most time of the year, except for the period of three months every vassa.

In modern times this has changed quite a bit and monastics are more bound to their monasteries. None-the-less there is coming and going, people we share monastic life with, who have been or who are guests in Santi have left and will leave.

Our brother and friend Thanavuddho Bhikkhu left after 2 months and heeded on to Wat Buddha Dhamma to stay with Bhante Khemavaro for some time. It is rare to have a monk happily accepting female leadership. It certainly requires a lot of non-self :)

Our longterm lay-guest-man Sangvaro left this morning. He needs to work on his career now and goes to America for a while. It was very lovely and inspiring to see him work with himself to become a better person while he was here. And yes, the world is richer, as there is now one person definitely better than he was before. He changed to the better hopefully for good.

To see people changing like this through the power of the Dhamma and meditation, is the most beautiful thing to see, for one who teaches the Dhamma.

In less than two weeks Ayya Yeshe will also leave Santi. She has her place the Bodhicitta Foundation where she, with her work for the people and the Dhamma is needed in the slums of India. She brings light to a place in the world where there is darkness. She is strong, not many can do what she does for the people in the slums. She lives with them and shares with the people what you share with her.

Here are some pictures of our friends who took or will take leave soon.

Maya’s quest

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Dear Friends of the Santi FM Community,

In July 2012 an A3 sized Folio (deep pink coloured cover – double sided clear plastic sleeve pages) was in the Santi FM Library.

It contains a collection of images; drawings, paintings, mixed media images, copies of photos and some written material etc… It was assembled by a lay person called Maya, as a record of some of her experiences with Santi over the past few years, and was offered for the Santi FM Library over the transitional months in leadership. She recently visited to look for it, and it is no longer in the library at Santi.

This message on the website is to find out what happened to it, relocate it’s whereabouts and have it returned if possible.

An A4 sized image was on the cover of this Folio (see image).

If someone knows what happened to it or has it, please contact the Santi FM Office.

Many thanks!

Kind regards,

The Santi FM Office for Maya