Pacific Hermitage

Community Meal Offering and Celebration

Saturday, May 27, 2023, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Three times a year, the community commemorates the primary Buddhist holy days at the Pacific Hermitage. Vesakha Puja (Buddha Day) will be marked on May 27 in the traditional way: Gathering at the monastery, offering a meal, taking the five precepts together, chanting, and talking on Dhamma with the monastics in residence. 

All are welcome and encouraged to attend, including families and kids! It should be a very enjoyable time with friends.

Please contact Jessica Swanson for more information, to RSVP, or to organize carpooling from the Portland area.

Garden Parties Start This Saturday at The Pacific Hermitage

The season of Garden Parties at the Hermitage begins Saturday, April 1st. This is the first of six Garden Party gatherings this year. Since this the first Garden Party after winter, there will be plenty to do for people of any ability or skills, including clean up after the long winter.

Garden Parties are always a wonderful chance to join fellow Pacific Hermitage community members in this beautiful offering of generosity to tend the yard and the forest. They are also a wonderful opportunity to connect with the Sangha and chat with other members of the community.

Here are the dates for the season (all Saturdays), so, in addition to April 1, mark your calendar for:

June 3
July 1
August 5
September 2
October 7

Since the monks will be at Birken for the retreat during May, there will be no Garden Party at the Hermitage in May.

You can join for any part or all of the day’s schedule. No signup or preregistration is required. If you can’t make these events or would like to help at another time, please contact Ajahn Sudanto for details.

Here is the schedule for the day:

Meal Offering: 11:00 AM. Feel free to bring a dish for the potluck style meal offering; please arrive by 10:30 if you’re bringing food to offer.

Garden Work: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. Feel free to bring any extra garden tools for the day and dress in your “garden clothes.”

Tea: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.

Hope to see you there!

Venerable Parimutto is Coming to the Hermitage

Venerable Parimutto will be coming from Temple Forest Monastery in late April to spend time at The Hermitage with Ajahn Sudanto and Venerable Suddhiko. Please join us in welcoming Venerable Parimutto.

Construction News: The Abbot’s Kuti and the Retreat House

After many delays, including Covid and price increases, we have secured a contractor, and construction on the Abbot’s Kuti has begun. It is scheduled to be finished by November 1st.

Over the winter, Ajahn Sudanto has been working with a local architect, planning the Retreat House, which will be the next project. Construction will begin sometime in the next few years, when sufficient funds have been offered. The Retreat House will be a multi-use space, but primarily it will provide suitable accommodations for visiting elder monks and Abhayagiri monks seeking to do solitary periods of retreat, in addition to providing additional gathering space. We hope to have the design finished by early summer to share with the community.

The 2023 Pah Bah

Mark your calendars: The 2023 Pah Bah is coming! The dates for this year’s Pah Bah are the weekend of September 16th and 17th. If you’d like to learn about sponsorship or how to volunteer, please contact Ajahn Sudanto.

Birken Retreats Resume this May

After finally resuming receiving residential visitors after the onset of Covid, Ajahn Sona of Birken Monastery will be hosting our group the first two weeks of May for our annual retreat. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter and check the website in the fall for registration information for the 2024 retreat.

A Tradition Returns: This May, Pacific Hermitage Retreat at Birken

This treasured tradition – the Pacific Hermitage meditation retreat at Birken Forest Monastery – will return in 2023. It is scheduled for May 1-15, and it will be the first time since the pandemic that the retreat will occur in person. The Theme is The 37 Factors of Awakening, and as always, Ajahn Sona will offer reflections each night on the theme.

Members of the community interested in attending can request to participate by filling out this application – requesting either one or both of the two weeks. Please register by December 31, and those accepted will be notified by late January. Also:

• Details about coordinating carpools will be shared after this time.
• With the recent renovations at Birken, each participant will have a single room.

If you have any questions, please email Ajahn Sudanto at hermitage@abhayagiri.org, and put “2023 Birken Retreat” in the subject line.

Birken Monastery is a beautiful setting quite conducive to deeper meditation, investigation and reflection. What a joy that this tradition returns!

Hermitage Monks Traveling in December

Ajahn Sudanto and Tan Suddhiko will be visiting Birken Monastery from December 12 – January 11. During this time, Tuesday nights at Yoga Samadhi will continue, led by volunteers from the lay community, anumodana!

The community wishes Ajahn Sudanto and Tan Suddhiko a beneficial retreat.

A Joyous Pah Bah

This year’s Pah Bah was again held at the Underwood Community Center on September 17 & 18. Many thanks to Ladawan & Hiran Kongkarat, and Sudthida Suthikulphanich for sponsoring the event. This long-standing, joyous tradition celebrates the interdependence of the monastics and lay community.

Thanks also to the many organizers and volunteers who helped make the event happen, and to the large community of supporters from near and far who attended. Anumodana! More than $62,000 was raised in support of the Hermitage.

Joining Ajahn Sudanto, Tan Suddhiko, and Tan Tissaro on this auspicious day were Ajahn Nyaniko, Tan Yasa, and Anagārika Justin from Abhayagiri Monastery, and Ajahn Nisabho from Clear Mountain Monastery.

Building Progress Continues

Progress continues on the Abbot’s kuti, with the building permit expected to be issued this month. Preparations have moved forward, with the water storage shed now completed, and driveway improvements to prepare for utilities are about to begin, along with work on the foundation. The goal is to have the these items done and the foundation poured before winter to enable an early start in the spring.

In other building news, the budget for the Monks’ Retreat House has been finalized, and the design is expected to be done in the spring. Its purpose will be to house senior monks and other monastics as a retreat facility.

The 2022 Garden Party Season Concludes

As usual, October ends the garden party season with splitting and preparing wood for the winter (a.k.a the “Woodchuckers’ Ball). Each year this event helps to ensure that there is enough wood to fuel the wood stove for the winter. Thanks to Keith for offering a great deal of wood, and to Holly for the use of the hydraulic wood splitter. A big thank you to all who participated in October, and in all the garden parties this year. The generosity of the community who help care for the land and the Sangha is greatly appreciated, anumodana!

Garden parties, held the first Saturday of each month, will resume again in May 2023.

Ongoing Events

Weekly on Tuesdays: Meditation & Dhamma talk at Yoga Samadhi. From 5:15-6:15 PM is a silent sit, and following a 15 break is the 6:30-8:00 PM session which includes meditation, a Dhamma talk, and Q&A.

Weekend meal offerings: There is the opportunity to offer meals in person at the Hermitage on Saturdays & Sundays, and to talk Dhamma with the monks afterwards. To sign up or get more information, email dana@pacifichermitage.org.

Comings & Goings

With the observance of the vassa concluding, Tan Tissaro will depart for Thailand in early November. Ajahn Sudanto and Tan Suddhiko will remain at the Hermitage; it’s not yet known if an additional monk will be joining them.

The Abhayagiri November Retreat

Abhayagiri continues the tradition of a November retreat, which will be held online November 6-12. Click here for more details or to register.

Ajahn Sudanto Reflects on: Arousing Joy

Don’t be afraid to be engaged and proactive in arousing joy – sometimes we can be a little too patient just waiting for joy to spontaneously arise in the mind. And whether we’re talking about the cultivation of samadhi or any skillful state, the Buddha praises putting forth effort to arouse skillful states of mind and make that your habit, and joy would be a great one. 

Just imagine if we were better at kindling joy, remembering to arouse a sense of wholesome joy in the mind. It helps if we have a storehouse of good deeds, good merit, good karma.  But sometimes we haven’t learned how to remember how to delight in, nurture, and sustain joy – and to create the habit of arousing joy in the mind.

In the teachings on dāna and the perfection of generosity, the Buddha says one of the aspects that enhances being generous is to recollect acts of generosity that we’ve done, and to delight in them.

Just any sensitive, selfless act of caring and giving is something worth remembering and delighting in. It brings a sense of ease and lightness and joy to the mind, which is the kind of fuel we need for spiritual happiness, and the motivation to keep growing in Dhamma.