Thai Forest Tradition teachers offer two full-day meditation daylongs:

• Meditation:  Integrating Calm and Inquiry
  Aug. 30, 2017,  9:00 AM – 4:30 PM, Underwood, WA
• Peace is in Every Breath
  Sep. 2, 2017,  9 :00 AM – 4:30 PM, Portland, OR

Meditation instruction, Dhamma reflections, and questions and answers included.  All levels of experience are welcome.  The teachings are freely offered.  Retreat descriptions are below.  Contact Carole Melkonian for more information.

The Teachers:  Willa Thaniya and Jitindriya

Willa Thaniya Reid (formerly Ajahn Thaniya), has been practicing formal Buddhist meditation since the 1980s. Her primary training has been through the Thai Forest Tradition of Luang Por Chah. The Forest Tradition is in harmony with her affinity for the natural world and for reflective teachings. For 18 years she was part of the monastic community of this tradition based in England. As the senior nun of Cittaviveka for eight years, she offered support to the lay and monastic community and taught retreats in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia. She brings to her teaching a love for the original suttas of the Buddha. Since leaving the monastic order, Willa has gained a Master’s degree in relationship counselling, as well as clinical pastoral training, and has worked in the community in Melbourne, Australia offering spiritual support to the dying and their families. In 2015 she returned to her native country, New Zealand, to develop a meditation community with her partner.

Jitindriya (Loraine Keats, formerly Ajahn Jitindriya), has practiced Buddhist meditation and spiritual inquiry for over 30 years, 17 of which as a Buddhist nun in the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho. During that time Jitindriya offered teachings to the monastic and lay communities in the UK, USA, Australia, and elsewhere. After leaving the monastic order, Jitindriya gained a Master’s degree in Buddhist Psychotherapy with the Karuna Institute in the UK. She since returned to live in her native country, Australia, where she continues to teach the Dhamma and has a private practice in Mindfulness Based Psychotherapy. In both personal practice and teaching Dhamma Jitindriya draws inspiration primarily from the early Buddhist suttas and the Forest Masters of the Theravadan tradition, as well as from pertinent Dzogchen teachings from the Vajrayana tradition. The interface of Dhamma with psychospiritual work is also an area of interest for Jitindriya.

The Daylongs

Meditation:  Integrating Calm and Inquiry (Aug. 30, 2017)
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM, Underwood Community Center
951 Schoolhouse Rd, Underwood WA 98651

Practicing meditation on the natural breath is a way of cultivating a sustainable place of ease and well-being. It can give us the resources to both meet and free ourselves from the anxiety and complexity we can often experience in the world. The Buddha gave detailed instructions on this practice, mindfulness of breathing, which explore the processes of calming and settling the body-mind (samadhi), and developing our capacity for inquiry and clear seeing (vipassana). These two factors of calm and inquiry are mutually supportive in meditation, and work together as a pair in the process of releasing the heart-mind from all stress and confusion.

Peace is in Every Breath (Sep. 2, 2017)
9 :00 AM – 4:30 PM,  Friends Mtg. House
4312 SE Stark St, Portland, OR 97215

Enhancing awareness of the breath and body is a primary way to establish mindfulness in the present moment. It helps us come out of the stress of mental proliferation and we develop the capacity to meet our presently arising experience. As we do this, we begin to recognize how we can either struggle with ‘the way it is’ or be in wise relationship with ‘the way it is’. Seeing and understanding this process directly leads to ‘insight into the Noble Truths’, and brings deep peace in its wake. This is more than just the peace of relaxation or tranquility, which is also a benefit of breath meditation – it is the peace of insight into ‘Dhamma’, reality. This is the possibility with every breath.

April Events Begin with a Garden Party — Saturday April 1

Help give the Hermitage grounds a Spring cleaning!

Free those spring flowers from the weeds, clean up Winter’s aftermath, and help move what’s left of the woodpile to a more “fire safety” location.

All are welcome.  Join us for any or all of the fun!  Here’s the schedule:

• 10:30 am — Time to arrive with your dish if you’d like to be part of a potluck meal.
• 1:00 pm — The garden/yard work begins after the meal, usually around 1:00 pm.
• 3:00 – 4:00 pm — Refreshments and some informal Dhamma talk.

Half-Day Meditation Retreat — Saturday, April 8

Spend a peaceful afternoon (1:00-5:00 pm) deepening your practice and meditating with the monks at Yoga Samadhi in White Salmon.  Enjoy silent sitting and walking meditation, as well as Dhamma reflections from Ajahn Sudanto.

All are welcome.  Cushions, blankets and chairs are available.  Stay for all or part of the afternoon.  If you enter or leave after meditation has begun, please be as quiet as possible and try to do so when there is a break between meditations or between meditation and the Dhamma discussion.

Portland Friends of the Dhamma (PFoD) — April 21 and 22

PFoD hosts the monks once a month, beginning in April and continuing through November.  Here is the schedule:

• Friday, April 21, 5:30 – 9:00 pm — Tea, questions, meditation and a Dhamma talk (5:30 – 9:00 pm)
• Saturday, April 22, 10:30 am – 1:00 pm) — Alms round on Hawthorne Street (10:30 am), then a meal offering at PFoD beginning at 11:00 am)

For more information, contact PFoD.

Weekly Meditation and Dhamma Talks

Join us every Tuesday evening, 6:30 – 8:00 pm, at Yoga Samadhi in White Salmon, WA.

Over the next several weeks, following meditation, Ajahn Sudanto will lead a discussion of the book: The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony.

Everyone is welcome.  Cushions and chairs are available.

Meal Offerings are Needed on Weekends

Offering a meal is a lovely way to support the monks, and an opportunity to practice generosity, offer gratitude, ask dhamma questions, see the Hermitage and get to know the monks in a less formal setting.

You can find out when meal offerings are needed by checking the Hermitage Calendar. There are plenty of opportunities.  On weekdays, their meal comes from food people offer the monks during their alms rounds.

It’s important to contact the meal dana coordinator (Debie) to schedule your meal offering.  At least let her know you are coming.  Otherwise, if it looks like no one is offering the meal, she’ll call on the “rescue squad” (people who may be able to bring a meal on short notice).  If she knows you’re coming, this won’t be necessary and will reduce the number of times she needs to call on these volunteers.  Check out the Support tab for more information about offering food, or contact Debie with questions.

Admirable Friendship

“The Buddha said there are two factors that help most in the arising of discernment, that help you most along the path.   The foremost internal factor is appropriate attention.  The foremost external factor is admirable friendship.”   (From Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s book, Meditations)  From time to time, we’ll use this Admirable Friendship section to introduce you to a friend who is part of the Pacific Hermitage community.

A Friend of the Hermitage … Scott Benge

Your first conversation with Scott may or may not be related to Dhamma.  Given half a chance, Scott probably will talk about his two granddaughters.  They happen to be “wonderful, exceptional, beautiful, athletic, talented” (you get the picture)!  Since one is only two years old, we asked how athletic she possibly could be.  Undaunted, Scott answered, “Well, she walks!”

It’s no surprise that when Scott and his wife Joan recently moved from their Lake Oswego home of 26 years, it was to Bend, Oregon (where those amazing granddaughters live!).

If you do have a Dhamma-oriented conversation with Scott, it will quickly reveal a dedicated practitioner who values generosity and ethical behavior.  In his words, “People who congregate around and support the monastics, who are dedicated to personal practice, and who embody generosity and ethical behavior — they are different.  They’re more grounded, centered, at ease, kind and loving.  I find them inspiring.”   If you get to know Scott, it’s clear that he not only values those characteristics in others, he embodies and demonstrates them himself.  An inspiring and admirable friend himself.

Scott initially became active in Portland Friends of the Dhamma (PFoD) in about 2004, and he helped with their efforts to bring a permanent monastic presence to this region.  In 2007, he was a steward for Ajahn Sudanto and Ajahn Karunadhammo when they came to the Columbia River Gorge to see if a hermitage might be appropriate here.  When Abhayagiri Monastery approved the idea, Scott worked on the PFoD organizing committee to make that happen.

When the Hermitage was established, Scott was asked to be president of Sanghata, a lay board of stewards that helps support the Hermitage and manages all its financial matters.  Since monastics are not allowed to handle or use money, all monetary donations must be sent to Sanghata.  Find out more about Sanghata by visiting sanghata.net.