Forest Sangha newsletter-80-index

July 2007 2550 Number 80
The Forest Sangha is a world-wide Buddhist community
in the Thai Forest tradition of Ajahn Chah

Thirty Years

Ajahn Sumedho had been in England for a few years when a letter arrived from Thailand. Even though Luang Por Chah could read and write, he rarely did. In fact, he hardly wrote anything, and he never wrote letters. The message began with a note from a fellow Western monk.

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About this issue

Welcome to the Forest Sangha Newsletter online. This issue can be found in several places. You can download the whole newsletter as it was printed and distributed, or you can browse this website to find the individual articles and bits of news. Click "download pdf" for a PDF file ‐ which we hope is in a resolution fine enough to allow for clear images, yet not too huge to download for most users of this site. If the PDF is too big for you to download, the entire newsletter (absent a few photographs) is available on the pages of this website. Be sure to check the sidebars (FSN notices, Grapevine, etc.) for current announcements and Sangha news, etc., which change with each issue.

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Thirty Years from Hampstead

It’s been three decades since the monks from Ajahn Chah’s monastery in Thailand arrived at the Hampstead Vihara on Haverstock Hill in London. Ajahn Sumedho and others around at that time share a few memories here.

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From Conflict to Cure

Sister Bodhipala

Paddy field poverty to aristocracy, exodus and renewal – the extraordinary arc of Sister Bodhipala’s life culminates in the daily practice of a nun at Amaravati.

Sister Bodhipala, formerly known as Renée Pan, came to Amaravati shortly after offering her life to the Buddha as a nun – giving up political and social work in her native Cambodia, having already left the children she’d raised to adulthood and a successful career in America. For the past decade she has been a member of the nuns’ community at Amaravati. The following has been condensed from several conversations Sr. Bodhipala had with the FSN.

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