Progress Update: December 23, 2011

Ajahn Kusalo Arrives

Ajahn Kusalo will arrive back at Tisarana today, after a two month trip around the world. A warm welcome back to Ajahn!

New Year’s Celebration

We will ring in the New Year at Tisarana on December 31st. There will be a service at seven pm, with meditation and a Dhamma talk. Following the service we will have a bonfire and a marshmallow roast. Bring your own marshmallows. Attendees are free to leave during the marshmallow roast if they have other engagements. After enjoying the bonfire and some marshmallows, we will end 2011 with some meditation and chanting. The evening will finish shortly after 12:00am. Come and join us.

Ajahn Viradhammo’s Travels

Ajahn Viradhammo wrote to us on the 15th. He had just arrived in Hong Kong, and seemed to be having a great time. His e-mail is partially quoted below…

“I have landed safely in Hong Kong and am staying with Tina and Kelvin in the countryside outside Hong Kong. They have a lovely flat overlooking small plots of vegetables with green hills and mainland China in the distance.
Yesterday we took a ferry to Macau which used to be a Portuguese colony and is now a special territory of China as is Hong Kong. In the last few years they have tried to change Macau into a Chinese Vegas so it’s full of tall buildings, casinos and tourists from mainland China. The volume of people both in Macau and in Hong Kong is quite spectacular but everyone is co-operative and friendly. We humans certainly can adapt to extremely different environments. The center of Hong Kong is dense with people and taking the metro at rush hour was a crush of humanity, but it’s all very efficient and things move smoothly. Not much different than New York city I suspect.
Tonight I’ll do some teaching in Hong Kong and tomorrow I shall fly on to Kuala Lumpur and the first of two gatherings for LP Cha. I trust you are all well. Bye for now,

-Viradhammo”

Kusala Sala

Kusala sala, our new meditation hall is almost complete. We are just waiting for the electrician to come and install lights, switches, etc. The framing to the walkway is almost complete. Hopefully, we will be able to use Kusala sala by new year’s eve. Take a look next time you come by.

Winter Retreat

Come and stay at the monastery during the winter retreat. We are currently looking for kitchen stewards. Potential stewards must book for a minimum of one week, and they must have stayed at the monastery before. If you are interested, please send in a booking form to Venerable Atulo.