Woke up bright and early to a full moon at 7am. Brewed some delicious coffee and hopped on a bus headed toward a Buddhist hermitage. In particular, The Forest Hermitage in Warwick. Saturday was the last day of Vassa, the annual 3 month Rain Retreat. The monks take a vow of stationary. For the three 'rainy' months of summer, they do not travel. They pick a location (this year it was the Hermitage) and they stay there for 3 months. We celebrated with prayers, songs, food, and a word from the head Sangha monk. His message was that everything begins and ends with the 5th precept. To break that is to change your life instantaneously.
Magpies!
Entering the Hermitage.
So many people.
All lined up to offer food to the three monks and one nun living at the hermitage.
Had a lovely lunch of, well, EVERYTHING, followed by a wild discussion on health care and politics in an open-air pagoda in the front gardens of the hermitage with a Scottish historian, an English laborer, and a Chinese businessman.
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