“Looking out of my window here at Adhisthana I see the small lake, mirror-like, reflecting the trees and the cloudless blue sky. Spring is with us, greening the trees, bringing bees, butterflies, white and pink blossom, and the welcome warmth of the sun. Nature is once more reminding us that all is not decay and death, but that there is also growth and fresh, new young life. The air is still bracingly cool, which makes going for walks up nearby Oyster Hill or on the Malverns inviting, easy and enjoyable.
Bhante's energy has been rather up and down this month, due to changes in his medication, resulting quite often in less than adequate sleep. This has meant that he has not been able to reply to emails and letters as quickly or at the length he would like to have done. Nevertheless, he has been responding to essential matters, and listening both to my reading of Shabda reports and to his old Travel Letters, often remembering clearly and vividly the events related in them, and inspiring me with the skill and elegance of his prose and the keenness of his observation.
Buddhadasa has been accompanying Bhante on his morning strolls alongside the lake, and sitting with him on one of the many wooden seats that Sanghadeva and Yashodeva have placed around the campus.
The eight fortunate young women currently resident at Adhisthana have all met Bhante now, and I have been noticing how bright-eyed they look when they emerge from his room. Despite his lack of energy, Bhante has managed to see quite a few other people too; nowadays he sees them after breakfast for ten minutes or so. My list of his visitors this month runs as follows:
Maitreyi, Padmavajra, Hannah, Subhuti, Maitreyabandhu, Ratnadharini, Dhammarati, Roman Kalkreuth, Erika, Momtaz, Alice, Claudia and Mariana.
These people Bhante has seen not by prior appointment, but because their being at Adhisthana has coincided with his feeling well enough to see them briefly on a particular morning.
Yours with much metta to all, Ashvajit”