Sthanashraddha is Bhante’s secretary. He writes from Adhisthana, UK:

As March draws to a close, and the clocks have sprung forward an hour, spring is poking its head up through the soil and swelling in buds on branches all around Adhisthana. Though we have had some terribly cold and snowy days there have also been some sunny ones, and when bright and dry if maybe not so warm, Bhante has taken what opportunities he could and enjoyed a morning walk in the garden.

Spring has also been having other effects too, there has been a large increase in emails and notes from people all around the Movement inquiring and asking to meet with Bhante over the next couple of months, so much so I’ve been struggling to reply promptly to everyone.

Here then is the list of people Bhante has seen from 28 February to 31 March:

Subhadramati, Alan Worrel, Karunagita, Vajrapriya, Maitreyabandhu, Paramachitta, Buddhadasa, Jai Teather, Paraga, Onur Pinar, Hannah Prinzler, Amoghavajra, Ratnaprabha, Viryabodhi, Surata, Ratnavyuha, Sanghadevi, Rijumati, Harshaprabha, Vajranatha, Alexandra Suffolk, Maitreyaraja, Aryanaga, Cecilia Ringner, Aryajaya, Vidyadaka, Shuddhakirti, Tom Llewelyn, Robert Ellis, Roman Kalkreuth, Lydia Parusol, Hannah Peaty, Jas Sambi, Natascha Trolle, Dhammarati, Vidyatara and Jnanavaca.

One of those meetings was with Buddhadasa, whom of course is not only an old community member and one of Bhante’s household before he moved back down under, but of course a dear friend of many years. They were able to meet as Buddhadasa was visiting Adhisthana for his last college meeting.

Many of Bhante’s meetings with Order Members also included accounts and anecdotes of trips to India for either the order retreat and convention or pilgrimage. So in the end he has been left with a rich and varied impression of the international convention at Bodhgaya.

On the literary front, this month's Shabda will see another new piece of writing from Bhante entitled ’A Passage to America’, this will be his 18th piece written in the space of a year, and of course Bhante hopes many order members and others are reading them. Though they are not all exclusively written for the Order alone they are certainly intended for us.

During the evenings this month Bhante has also been, with the help of Paramartha working his way through '12 rules for life, an antidote to chaos’ Jordan Peterson’s book.

And to close this month, Bhante was very pleased to receive a large parcel in the post, within which was a khatvanga (Padmasambhava Staff), which was bound for the London Buddhist Centre. Firstly though it was to be 'blessed’, some of which included Bhante (with some help) winding the staff with a white offering scarf and tying the ends off himself and sealing them with a breath. It now resides with the new Chair as her symbol of office and will no doubt be passed on from one to the next for many more chairs to come. With metta, Sthanashraddha."