Oh dear, I hear that Parami’s reference to my use of the word ‘feral’ without giving it any context has troubled some people. I’ve heard of those who think I must have been insulting Bhante, while one of my friends thought I must have been insulting an entire generation–of which I am a member!

When I used the word during our cross-generaltional conversation I was not referring to our generation at all, but trying to evoke a quality in Bhante that many of us found profoundly challenging. It was something entirely unclassifiable, unconventional, truly Individual, and, speaking poetically, or so I thought,  almost ‘feral’ – in the sense of being untamed and untameable. I have used the word elsewhere when trying to explain how it was that this calm, bookish, mindful middle-aged man could so embody an implicit challenge to any expectations we youngsters had about the allure of a conventional life.