AJAHN BRAHM 2008
Ajahn Brahm’s visit to the Pagoda was by far one of the highlights of 2008.
“It was just awesome!” said one of our Irish participants, summarizing his days spent at the Pagoda with Ajahn Brahm. Over half of the retreatants came from abroad. France, Holland, Czech Republic, England, Scotland, Ireland, and even New Mexico were all represented by the hardy handful of eager practitioners who attended the event. Many who attended were so thankful that finally Ajahn Brahm (who was the gateway to Dharma for many) was giving a talk in their hemisphere.
The Abbott of the Bodhinyana Monastery in Perth understands that a powerful way to present Dharma in the West is with the tools of humor and storytelling. His weekly talks on YouTube have arisen a modest following of over 20,000 regular listeners, many of which do not laugh as much during a whole week as they do during his 90 minutes Dharma talks.
For the prelude to his retreat in Frankfurt, Venerable Ajahn Brahm gave a guest lecture at the Frankfurt Goethe University on Thursday with the topic: Love, Hate, and Where Are You? The 60+ visitors inside were deeply impressed by the Ajahn’s ability to illustrate Buddhist content with stories and similes from everyday experience.
Back in the Pagoda, from Friday to Sunday over 80 international retreatants embarked on a retreat in which they spent more time rolling on the floor laughing then actually in deep meditation. The evenings unfolded into the public event of Dinner and Dhamma in which local enthusiasts came to the Pagoda for dinner and a talk. A group from the Vietnamese community cooked up a delicious, vegetarian menu each evening for the guests from the Frankfurt area. Then from around 8 o’clock onwards the Buddha Hall was alive with hushed storytelling breaking into uncontrollable laughter.
The atmosphere will be missed, the teachings remembered, and as one of our Zen student wistfully put it, “I hope the spirit of Ajahn Brahm continues to live on in the temple for a long time.”
We would like to thank everyone (including Claudia Schiffer) for making this one of the best retreats we have ever had at the Pagoda. It was great fun and we all learned a lot. Thank You!
Thank you all at the Phat Hue pagoda for this wonderfull retreat. It was indeed the best that i ever joined. I am still in a happy mood and smiling