The Empty Vessel

the vase that will become a Buddha


The Three Ajahns: Ajahn Munindo, Ajahn Abhinando and Ajahn Punnyo (together with attending Shramanera Do Gat) left Tan Hiriko and Tan Nyanamoli to act as the incumbents of the monastery. Sounds like a big deal, but fortunately it is not too difficult, although the greatest challenges are yet to come. At the moment the Bhikkhus are supported by An. Trevor and friend Graeme from Scotland, so with only four people it is very quiet here (if we ignore the farmer’s bulldozer running up and down the hill). Last week our friend Martin (with help of Do Gat-si and Peter) has done some nice stone work in the garden. The main wonder of this undertaking is the new stone shrine which, while it waits for the special Buddha statue to arrive from Burma, is holding the big and empty clay pot – a rather good symbol for… something… On the last Sunday we also had quite a few people gathering here, some of them for the meetings, some for Jody’s memorial and some just to see what’s going on. They all blended well together and these events went as smooth as possible. On Tuesday Rita kindly helped us out with cooking and Rolf with fitting the new workshop. It is hoped that the old workshop will be moved from Kusala House over to its new home on one of the voluntary work days which will take place on two Saturdays - 19th and 26th April respectively. The main aim is to enable the Kusala House for the forthcoming retreats (the first Women’s retreat in the beginning of May). Tan Nyanamoli and Rolf will act as 'foremen’ on the 19th and if you wish to give them a hand with this important project please contact us for more details.

And to finish this with a possible symbolism of the pot:

As a potter's clay vessels
large and small
fired and unfired
all end up broken,
so too life heads to death.
Young and old
wise and foolish
rich and poor:
all come under the sway of death,
all have death as their end.

[from Salla Sutta, Sn 3.8]