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

"Spring only really fully arrived towards the end of April, and it was less than a month ago that the gardens were covered in our last batch of snowfall. But, yes, eventually after what felt like weeks of watching tulip flowers develop buds and slowly watching them rise up on their stems, and slowly see buds swelling, we had a few days of warm weather and sunshine, and the Adhisthana gardens burst into spring colour, with tulips and tree blossom all arriving at once. People began sitting out in the courtyard and eating meals outside, rather than simply walking across it from one warm dry building to the next.

Bhante too has enjoyed the warmer dry weather and when possible has enjoyed some sunny spring mornings walking and sitting by the pond at the front of the main house. There has even been a little trip out with Paramartha one day, to a nearby village called Hollybush, which close by has a rather lovely view out across the countryside and on to Worcester.

There was also another trip to the hospital for an injection of Lucentis into the left eye, these are now every six weeks as opposed to the previous monthly ones.

On the literary front Bhante completed his latest piece of writing, which should be in this month’s Shabda. This one is entitled ’Disparities’. Having completed this one he has embarked on his next already.

Not only this but I’m sure you can imagine to some extent the delight and gratitude with which Bhante received the latest four new volumes of the Complete works released in April. Which now means 8 of the 27 volumes are in print, 1, 3, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21.

Of course Bhante’s continued good health and sleep have allowed him to see many people visiting Adhisthana and here’s the list of those visitors during April:

Luke Doherty, Jnanavaca, Lydia Parusol, Hannah Peat, Jas Sambi, Mosaic Williams, Deane Banning, Alison Litherland, Natascha Trolle, Dhammarati, Marcin Wojcik, Candan Inan, Pauline Westernbroek, Jane Turner, Jenca Disney, Dawn Summers, Ania Markiewicz, Stuart Stoter, Chris Devlin, Sagaraghosa, Maitrivajri, Daibhidh Grannd, Bob Pluyter, Sucimani, Amitashuri, Vidyaruci, Punyamala, Vassika, Phil Marston, Moksavajri, Munisha, Robert Ellis, Vajraguta(m), Subhuti, Akasaka, Atula, Manjuvajra, Padmavajra, Virginie Van Mol, Padmajyoti, Vivekaratna, Manjugita, Dharmavasin, Prajnasahaya, Jyotipala, Acharashraddha, Jinaraja, Akasajoti, Anke Renmel, Srisambhava, Saddhanandi, Padmadakini, Andrea Wurdinger, Peter Milton and Satyapurna. 

There have also been a couple of more public appearances by Bhante, most notably during a weekend event at Adhisthana at the beginning of April, when in front of a large audience Saddhanandi interviewed Bhante over celebratory tea and cake for the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Order. A video of this can be found on the Buddhist Centre online. Right at the end of April, Bhante also joined a retreat for German speakers held here at Adhisthana and again enjoyed some tea and cake, though rather than an interview he simply engaged in conversation with some of those present.  With metta, Sthanashraddha."