Sthanashraddha is Sangharakshita’s secretary. He writes:

“July has seen a welcome shift in the weather for all our sun worshippers here at Adhisthana. We’ve had some gloriously sunny weather, which was timely not only for the open day but also for the full moon day and our celebrations of Dharma Day. All those at Adhisthana were invited to an evening under the great oak tree in the field, sitting around the Buddha rupa. As the evening unfolded we watched the sunset with shafts of golden light through distant clouds to the west and the moonrise, large and luminous, over the shoulder of Oyster Hill to the east.

In June Bhante had a difficult run of two or three weeks where his sleep was often disturbed or far too short. During this month he has had several ‘bad’ nights, in that he has not had enough sleep, which left him tired the next day. Though he has not been full of energy all the time, he has managed to keep on top of hearing all his incoming correspondence and, where possible, has replied, though often more briefly than he would like to. Similarly he has seen some though not all of the people who have asked to meet with him.

Apart from his correspondence and meetings, Bhante has been studying and discussing different material with Paramartha in the evenings, such as Chapter Three of A Survey of Buddhism. He was surprised to find how much of it was still relevant, and made the point that more Order members could be reading and studying it together. They have also been comparing Berkeley’s subjective idealism with Vasubandhu’s, the great Mahayana Buddhist teacher.

When Suvajra is with Bhante he spends some time reading to him from a modern biography of Milton, supplemented by Doctor Johnson’s summary of Milton’s life.

Bhante has also been listening to recordings of Aniketa reading passages from the Buddhist scriptures, something she loved to do. She had a beautiful reading voice. The recording was sent to Bhante by one of Aniketa’s daughters, Andrea, as she thought Bhante would enjoy hearing her mother’s voice again. Bhante had a close connection with Aniketa, who died in 2002.

Bhante wanted to make the point that nowadays people are arriving at Adhisthana from many parts of the world, especially during the conventions, but also for other retreats and meetings too. Many have asked to see him, and though he would like to see them all, unfortunately his health and energy levels will not allow him to do so. None the less, he hopes to see at least some of those who want to meet him.