Page 194 - Dark Matter:Women Witnessing Issue #3 - December 2015
P. 194
In a recent issue of Inquiring Mind, in an article co-written with Ayya Santussika
http://www.karunabv.org/about-us.html, Ayya Santacitta wrote: “Some people may say, ‘We don’t want
our monastics to be political.’ But if we monastics are not addressing this very concrete, desperate,
ethical issue, then we’re not doing our job. In fact, we find that most people feel a sense of relief when
they hear monastics break the silence and speak clearly about the environment and how this topic fits
into the framework of the Dhamma. Our aim is to bring a bit more sanity to an urgent situation so that
people are able to act effectively. This is what the Buddha did when people were in crisis; he placed it
in the bigger context of the reality of aging, sickness, death and rebirth. The crisis of climate change
can be framed in these same terms. It’s the death of a worldview and a way of life based on fossil fuels.
The kind of rebirth the human family will experience depends on our actions now. “
Ayya Santacitta graciously agreed to be interviewed for an hour in January, just a week before the
three nuns were about to embark on a three-month silent retreat. Subsequently, I had the good fortune
to be able to sit a weeklong monastic retreat in April, at IMS, with her and Ayya Anandabodhi. It was
more moving than I can say to sit before a shrine centered on the earth and two women who, moment
by moment, so actively and passionately embodied devotion.
LW:
As a long-time feminist, I was interested in your having founded this training monastery/residential
monastic community for women. The other thing that interested me was your directness and your
passion about what is happening to our planet. With the exception of Thich Naht Hanh, I wasn’t seeing
this in other Buddhist communities–even where there’s lip service played to activism. There is a fire in
your response that excites me. I used to think Buddhism was always about a commitment to living in
truth, but in practice it seems it isn’t always.
AS:
But doesn’t everyone have their own truth? We all look at it through our personal karmic lens.
LW:
Well then I guess some of our personal karmas allow us to take in more of the truth, and my sense is
that you and Ayya Anandabodhi take in more of the truth, more of a complete truth.
