Returning to Our Core Values - A Response to the Online Critique of “The First Free Women”

I have never posted on anything before and awkwardly joined the dialogue on this thread midstream. I appreciate being called into this conversation by Venerable Akaliko to disclose my associations. I apologize for not, as my companion in the holy life, Ayya Niyyanika, wisely did, identifying my social location in relation to The First Free Women (TFFW).

I am one of the resident bhikkhunis at Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery and was living here when Matty Weingast was here working on the poems. I wrote an endorsement for the first publication. As I say in my endorsement, I have been nourished by the poems in TFFW.

That being said, I want to make it clear that I understand and agree with the outrage about the subtitle, categorization, endorsements and marketing of TFFW, causing confusion and leading to the poems of TFFW being misrepresented and mistaken as a translation of the Therigatha. Shambhala’s retraction of the first publication of TFFW is an important step to repairing this.

I regret that this was not my first post in this thread.

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Many thanks for continuing this conversation with such openness and good faith, Venerable.

I’m feeling particularly optimistic this morning for some reason :sun_with_face: and get the impression that on this issue, it’s possible we are approaching a moment of change; a turning point!

So I’d like to encourage that growth of mutual understanding as much as possible :seedling: if there’s any way to further the conversation that I can help with, please reach out here or privately. I am not particularly interested (you’ll be pleased to know :laughing:) in revisiting the issues themselves but more about fostering spiritual friendship and healing.

Once again, I’m so delighted to hear from you and the other members of Aloka here on the forum and to get to know your views on the issues more thoroughly.

I feel really confident that we are moving in a good direction.

:pray:

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Āloka Vihāra Bhikkhunī Community Response

This post is from my account but it comes from all the bhikkhunīs at Āloka Vihāra Forest Monastery:

We see the gravitas of this situation. We recognize that there has been much pain and we regret our mistakes.

Our response here is independent of any response the author of “The First Free Women”, Matty Weingast, may make.

Understanding the difficulty that has resulted from the lack of clarity around what “The First Free Women” represents, the Āloka Vihāra bhikkhunīs acknowledge that it is not a translation of the Therīgāthā. We have a unanimous resolve that whenever we are using these poems, we will be crystal clear that they are contemporary poetry by Matty Weingast.

With the wish that there can be time and space for continued repair of the ruptures that have occurred, we are in discussion with Shambhala Publications to postpone the release of the re-issue of “The First Free Women”, which is currently slated to come out on June 22nd.

We acknowledge that it took a very long time to come to this Āloka Vihāra community response.

With much goodwill,
Ānandabodhī Bhikkhunī, Santacittā Bhikkhunī, Ahimsā Bhikkhunī, Niyyānikā Bhikkhunī, Dhammadīpā Bhikkhunī

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my name is santacitta b and i am one of the co-founders of aloka vihara forest monastery. i have not contributed to this thread earlier, as all my energy went into supporting an appropriate response from within our aloka vihara bhikkhuni community. the controversy around TFFW has initiated deep discussions and changes in our own group and we have asked shambhala publications to wait with re-issuing TFFW, until there is more clarity & reconciliation within the wider sangha.

TFFW has brought up very important & fundamental issues to clarify, in particular how to strike a skillful balance between protecting the ancient texts, while allowing contemporary creative energy to enliven our inheritance and communicate to those people, for whom the ancient texts don’t resonate (yet). this dichotomy has shown up again and again over the centuries and is not just an issue regarding TFFW.

we are living at a time where diversity is emerging powerfully into the public conversation, simply because we need all of us to put our heads and hearts together to move into a future, which looks so very uncertain in the face of climate change and increasing polarisation. many of the old approaches are falling apart and we need to open up and include more diverse expressions of what it means to be alive at these times. i feel so fortunate to have the Dharma as a guide and it is important to me to find our common ground again - through reconciliation & forgiveness.

here is the english translation of my explanation & apology regarding TFFW to my german speaking online group, which was sent on march 2 (i have added 2 notes for clarity).

with metta & goodwill
santacitta bhikkhuni

note: between june 2 and 22 i am travelling to teach two retreats and several other events, so my possibilities to engage in this thread during this time will be limited.

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Dear venerable Ayyas:

I don’t have the standing to be truly replying to your heartfelt posts today, but I feel that something needs to be said. The Therīgāthā is simply perfect in its own original form, and the poetry of these noble women deserves to be celebrated and taught as a standalone treasury of the elder nuns of ancient times. Here’s one description of this ancient text: “The poems they left behind are arguably among the most ancient examples of women’s writing in the world and they are unmatched for their quality of personal expression and the extraordinary insight they offer into the lives of women in the ancient Indian past—and indeed, into the lives of women as such.” To me, teaching from the Weingast poems is a failing, and introduces to modern disciples and students an aberrant view of the lives and thoughts of these noble women.

The idea that we should be encouraged to allow for an approach to " include more diverse expressions of what it means to be alive at these times" shouldn’t be so wokeful that the heart and soul of a body of poetry is changed, adulterated, and diluted, anymore than an allowance for diversity should allow for diverse opinions about actual facts, or allow professors in universities to teach alternate theories of science, such as creationism theory. It seems if our “contemporary creative energy” is doing anything, in many ways it is moving away from truth and integrity, and toward some kind of free form acceptance of all ideas, whether they be true or kusala, or not. Where the Dhamma is concerned, IMO, this is not acceptable. We owe the ancient therīs at least this respectful consideration.

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The Buddha was quite clear with regards to the Dhamma - it is Not an ‘Opinion’ or a ‘View’.

There was recently a thread on this forum, asking participants to vote on their view/opinion of what Jhanas are. We also see Matty Weingast using this approach to justify/describe his book of poetry. see quote below by M Weingast.

I link to the response I gave on the other thread, as I feel it is also directly relevant here.

As such, I can only conclude that to allow the popular desires in a group in society to dilute or change the nature of the Dhamma that is taught by monastics is directly hastening the demise of the Dhamma, just as the Buddha outlined.

I am very saddened to see that this is happening before our eyes. To be clear, imo, whatever any private Lay person choses to do is their business, and carries much less weight, but what the Sangha does is another matter altogether. In fact, reading this thread, the issue has become much deeper for me than the misleading marketing of a book of poetry as a translation.

We/I take refuge in the Triple Gem, the third arm being the Sangha. This is what is at risk - how can we take refuge in the Sangha, if it can’t fulfil it’s obligations to the Dhamma? … This erodes the trust… “can I have confidence that they even know what the Buddha Dhamma is? What qualifies them to teach me?” I ask this with all sincerity, as I see many of the poems in the book as having divergent and even the opposite meaning to those of the Theris in the Therigatha. It might be nice and comforting or speak to someones personal experience - but it is NOT the Dhamma. If I want general, feel good support, there are endless resources available. Why would a Monastic, knowingly and in full awareness, teach poetry that changes the message of Enlightened Bhikkhunis and erodes the Dhamma - unless it is to highlight and expose the changes from Dhamma to ADhamma?

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Within all respect, but I don’t believe this to be true.
Not all these poems are by ancient Indian women, let alone written by them.
Monks and the Buddha himself uttered them as well (words of the Pali Society).
Ancient Indian women were second-class citizens. I wonder if all could even write.

I have learned that these Theris developed great spiritual attainment and received recognition for it. And some monks found their poems remarkable. So they were transmitted orally. Mainly by monks since the Buddhist teachings were in their hands.

I understood that many years later, monks laid the first hands on the Pali Canon.
They translated these old poems, already adapted by monks, into Pali. And many years after that, mostly monks translated these translations into their languages.
Is it really fair to represent these poems as original spiritual women’s voices?

Let’s imagine a rare collection of ancient poetry by black people coming to the attention of modern black and white people worldwide. At last we might think. Now black people spread the poems within their communities, mostly through a creative adaptation sold on Amazon. A company where workers are slaves. Long before, the poetry was translated and written down by white people in their ancient language. Later on, it was once again translated by white people into modern languages. Some black people seem to neglect that they are reading an adaptation of a translation of a translation. And others don’t take it to heart once they realise it, as they are used to white supremacy. All they want, is to get to the heart of their black people’s voices. Very understandable. But will they?

I believe we need to be careful when representing (an adaptation of) a translation of a translation, mostly by men, as spiritual women’s voices. And it certainly doesn’t help by calling it “First Free Women” and selling it on Amazon, a white man’s company that has literally gone above and beyond to enslave his people. There is something very irreconcilable about spiritual freedom and Amazon.
I can’t believe people still don’t get that.

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It does seem highly likely that the Pali of the Therigatha is a translation of an earlier language or dialect, perhaps a collection of languages or dialects.
As to whether the original authors of the poems were men or women, or both, it seems impossible to say with certainty.
Perhaps it comes down to a question of saddhā, or faith.

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Dear Ayyas, thank you for coming on our forum and taking a step towards acknowledging your mistakes over the past year. To acknowledge ones’ errors and resolve to do better in the future is growth in the Dhamma.

As a demonstration of good faith, may I ask you to address the following issues.

  • Your response is expressed in a passive voice. Please consider rephrasing it in active voice so as to make it clear that you are taking responsibility for your own actions. For example, rather than “the difficulty that has resulted from the lack of clarity”, consider “the distress we caused by our misrepresentations”.
  • Your website is still actively promoting and linking to sites that sell Weingast’s book as a translation. Even this URL still says “poems of the early Buddhist nuns”.
  • Your website is still quoting from and referring to Weingast’s book as a translation.
  • You are still misframing events by reducing it to an error of “categorization and subtitle”. This was Shambhala’s error, which they have taken (albeit inadequate) steps to address. But the problem on your side is that you continually asserted that these were translations, that they are the words of the bhikkhunis, and they are not.
  • Ayya Anandabodhi’s “Core Values” essay contains errors and hurtful mischaracterizations in virtually every paragraph. Several of these have been pointed out in this Discourse thread, yet you have avoided acknowledging them or correcting the mistakes.
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Your comment seems an effort to cast doubt on whether Matty did any harm. You say the provenance of the Therīgāthā poems can’t be known, maybe they really had nothing to do with women, yada yada. It seems you want people to think the ancient scripture had little value before Matty continued a tradition of men messing with it.

Here’s how Matty described his process of drafting The FFW:

He read a nun’s poem from the Therīgāthā collection, meditated, noted the feeling that arose, then wrote a new poem to express the feeling. He then placed his new poem beneath the name of the nun, and called it a translation of her poem. Chapter by chapter he imitated the layout of the Therigatha with his poems replacing the original in all but 2 poems (one being the 1st poem - the poem that people are most likely to glance at to see if the collection looks legit).

Matty got a group of nuns to help him edit his poetry collection; Ayya Anandabodhi told me she was initially under the impression that they were helping to adapt a translation. These nuns whom he (accidentally?) misled would help create enthusiasm and a market for his book.

Matty sold his collection of new poems as a translation of the Therīgāthā book. Under American law, those book sales were fraudulent. A form of fraud, in fact, that the Fair Trade Commission would readily and swiftly address if any buyer were to simply submit a complaint onto their easy to use website, according to the FTC agent whom I consulted for info. (If Shambhala hadn’t retracted the book when they did, they’d likely be knee deep in paperwork from the FTC by now).

Today Matty posted to the effect that we all have our own truths. True in a way, but that doesn’t make his collection of new poetry into the ancient scripture that he presented it to be.

Now you add that the provenance of the Therīgāthā cannot be known for sure. There may be some truth to that, in part, but it is irrelevant to the issue that a text of ancient scripture as it has come down to us was completely hijacked by a man for his own purposes.

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It may be relevant to note that the Alokavihara appears to view this publication as one of it’s own books, as per their website

Our Books
The First Free Women ~ Matty Weingast & Ayya Anandabodhi, 2021 (our response to online critique)
Leaving It All Behind ~ Ayya Anandabodhi & Ayya Santacitta, 2019
Let the Light Shine ~ Reflections from Theravada Bhikkhunis, 2019
Aloka Vihara Chanting Book ~ 2011

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Hi friends, please don’t be stressed out over the idea that the bhikkhunis are divided and feuding over The FFW situation, stabbing each other with verbal daggers or with icy silence. It’s not like that!

In case anyone is arriving new to these conversations, I’m the person who posted the essay that drew attention to the non-authenticity of Matty Weingast’s The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns. Matty has described his “translation” processs as taking meditative inspiration from each ancient poem of the women’s Therīgāthā collection and replacing it with a new poem of his own composition. At the time I posted my expose, his book was selling at high volume as a fresh new translation of Therīgāthā scripture, catalogued as a translation in libraries, embraced in university gender studies programs, and studied as scripture by lay Buddhist groups.

My relationship with the Aloka Vihara leaders - who worked extensively with the manuscript and promoted the book - reaches back nearly 25 years. Soon after the author, Matty, expressed defiance on a Zoom call (in response to my reasonable polite inquiry, or to my rude confrontation, depending on who you ask), Ayya Anandabodhi and I met together. It was just the 2 of us, on Zoom, right before Ayya Anandabodhi entered into the quiet months of Aloka Vihara’s winter retreat.

We engaged in some lively debate for awhile - inevitable with me on a call, heh - but we sorted through what happened, made personal apologies, and settled into the warm, caring friendship that we have known for so long. Our intended brief call stretched into 2 hours, ending only when I had to sign off to give a teaching. My last comment on the call was encouraging her to completely forget about all this in order to enjoy her retreat.

Since then, she & I have continued to collaborate by email on a longstanding shared interest. During the AV winter retreat, I covered a minor online duty of Ayya Anandabodhi’s, so that Ayya Santacitta and others on retreat at AV would not be disturbed by it. They’d still do the same sort of kindness for me, I feel sure.

Only now, after some feedback, has it occured to me that some people need to hear of our overarching unity as Bhikkhuni Sangha; in fact, perhaps a bit of the distress and conflict aversion expressed on this topic may have come from misperceiving a stance of enmity between nuns.

To be clear, I hold no personal hard feelings towards the Aloka Vihara community over The FFW, and trust they feel the same way towards me.

A concession that I haven’t yet made, but would like to make here, is about casting aspersions on Matty’s intentions. His actions [edit: and impacts on others] have checked off pretty much every box that would make me suspect [edit: someone to be a manipulator with no conscience], and hey - walks like a duck, etc. But characterizing him in suspicious or demeaning ways hurts my friends at Aloka Vihara. Knowing this, I apologize and will stop assigning motivations to him.

While the recent posts by Aloka Vihara leaders reflect an appreciable shift towards the position of critics of the book, we don’t yet see eye to eye. So long as they continue to approve reading aloud a poem composed in the 21st century and saying “These are the words of Rohini Theri” - or of the Buddha’s aunt Mahapajapati, or any of all the rest of the enlightened Elders whose words were replaced by Matty’s - the arahants will continue to be misrepresented. That’s harmful, and it’s bad kamma, and I want better for my friends and the world than that.

Yet, fortunately, we don’t have to see eye to eye to keep our warm and caring connection as Sangha, which we continue to do.

[Edited on request.]

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I don’t believe you, ayya.
I’m questioning the authenticity of women’s voices
in ancient spiritual poetry. All other assumptions,
better take them back. They’re very untrue.

Congrats to all monastics and the online community
for endorsing such language by liking it.

Hi mods, I prefer to close my account by now.
There’s poetry and there’s harsh speech.

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I understood Ayyas comment, that you highlight, to be an admission of fault and something that she is acknowledging and rectifying :slight_smile:

Now THAT is worthy of ‘liking’ :pray:

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This whole debacle within the international Theravada community(particularly online) has again prompted its human shortcomings on all sides to manifest in this ultimately frivolous blip. And it’s a rather stomach churning one.

Avijjā isn’t just some abstraction like an over-the-shoulder boogyman that must be vanquished suddenly in a single moment of triumph, but rather a pervasive predilection to insidious delusive distractions to-which beings default upon in order to deflect from what is both concurrently the uncomfortable nature of reality and the underlying motivation for all yoking action. Avijjā is an ongoing attitude. A wrongly aligned compass delivering false readings. An addiction of denial and self-deception.

The dhamma is its own guardian in perpetuity and this current dispensation of teachings will crumble as they all due, yet the dhamma will of course persist, whether in stasis or activity and needs no knight in shining armor nor an army to defend it.

There have been a number ugly dramas in recent years and this one really takes the cake. Whether it originated by a simple misunderstanding or was triggered by a knee jerk reaction that was blown out of proportion by others is irrespective to how this has all played out and in the process ruffled so many feathers.

Self-distraction makes the unimportant-noise somehow seem vital and conversely causes the truly important-signal to become drowned out in the default preference for the more easy to attend noise. It is quite simple to make this mistake and we are all susceptible to it!

A gentle reminder to mostly tune out this ever evolving noise and only to take brief peeks at these various communities. This specific “scandal” has been rather revealing.

Inter-lineage rivalry, sectarianism, wokeness, self-righteousness, ideological purity, pettiness, indignation and more: this particular flame war has it all in spades unfortunately. And this hasn’t been limited to the D&D platform. To be VERY specific I am not single out this forum or any one person here! Why even bother? This noise has reverberated well enough thus far to the point that it was even brought to my attention divorced from this website.

Just-as sewage treatment facility works’ olfactory acuity learns to ignore the muck so too goes the ideologues and acolytes. It is only after staying away from the muck for a sufficiently long enough period of time when we can once again immediately recognize it and sniff it out with ease. A rightly divested-personality can have neither skin in the game nor even a mild investment in the outcome of transient worldly affairs. Phenomena empty of substantive deliverance are unworthy to be yoked to.

Actions taken from a foundation of avijjā will always appear to the doer as well meaning and rightly intended, hence the difficulty of overcoming it.

SN47.22. Duration
The same setting. Sitting to one side the Venerable Bhadda said to the Venerable Ānanda:
“Friend Ānanda, what is the cause and reason why the true Dhamma does not endure long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna? And what is the cause and reason why the true Dhamma endures long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna?”
“Good, good, friend Bhadda! Your intelligence is excellent, your acumen is excellent, your inquiry is a good one. For you have asked me: ‘Friend Ānanda, what is the cause and reason why the true Dhamma does not endure long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna? And what is the cause and reason why the true Dhamma endures long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna?’”
“Yes, friend.”
“It is, friend, because the four establishments of mindfulness are not developed and cultivated that the true Dhamma does not endure long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna. And it is because the four establishments of mindfulness are developed and cultivated that the true Dhamma endures long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna. What four? Here, friend, a bhikkhu dwells contemplating the body in the body … feelings in feelings … mind in mind … phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, HAVING REMOVED COVETOUSNESS AND DISPLEASURE IN REGARD TO THE WORLD. “It is because these four establishments of mindfulness are not developed and cultivated that the true Dhamma does not endure long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna. And it is because these four establishments of mindfulness are developed and cultivated that the true Dhamma endures long after a Tathagata has attained final Nibbāna.”

There is no equanimity without indifference in regard to outcome and it seems that so many of us are deeply invested in our preferred worldly outcomes in a near automated default manner. A seemingly perpetual theme and undercurrent that will always derail a practitioner’s development.

Mara’s gang laughs as we scramble ourselves and make their already easy job all the more easier. We must be ever vigilant with reflexive self-honesty otherwise the blinders remain firmly in place and we again fall for the hunter’s bait.

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This is Bhikkhuni Anandabodhi, I want to clarify my position in relation to TFFW.

From the first time I read Matty Weingast’s poems, while they were still in draft form, it was clear to me that they were not a direct translation of the words of the Elders. Even so, those poems touched my heart and at times sparked insight within me. I was inspired by them and felt a strong intention that they should be completed and made available to people. I hadn’t expected to get as involved as I ended up getting, but it was my love of those poems and seeing their potential to benefit people that spurred me to ensure they got completed and published.

Thanks to the care and devotion of translators and scholars, we now have several translations of the Therigatha in English. It was with that as a basis, as well as knowing that the Pali originals are available to people, that I felt that this intuitive and free interpretation was safe to put out into the world. Unfortunately though, I was not clear about my duty as a monastic to ensure that the nature of the poems was made crystal clear and to point people to where they could find the original texts.

I want to acknowledge that my lack of clarity has fueled this unfolding chaos that we now find ourselves in, and the fracturing that has occurred. I deeply regret that and apologize for the distress I caused by my mistakes and misrepresentations. I was warned early on by two monastic scholars not to use the word “translation”, but I didn’t comprehend the deep importance of this until these online discussions. I have learned hard that the use of the word “translation” really matters.

As Ajahn Brahmali pointed out, my monastic life and training has been in the Forest Tradition where the core teachings of the Buddha, monastic training, and meditation practice are held central, but often, direct study of the suttas is not. In the monasteries where I lived there was little emphasis on studying the suttas, though they were always available for those who wished to study them. It has also been quite normal and acceptable within the Forest Tradition for monastic teachers to use words in colloquial ways that may be understood within their community, but would be contested by Buddhist scholars. This can work well within a smaller community with a shared understanding, but we are now part of a global community and so more care is needed. I didn’t take that care.

I want to be clear that I was the main person who worked with Matty Weingast on the poems. While it is true that all the bhikkhunis at Aloka Vihara had some input into the book, I was the driving force in making sure that the half-finished manuscript I first read became completed, published, and made available to people. I don’t regret a single moment I have spent working on TFFW, but I do regret the mistakes I made in presenting and mis-framing the book.

This has been a big lesson in intention versus impact.

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Dear Ayya @Anandabodhi,

Many many thanks for coming back here to make this further clarification. I very much appreciate your continued willingness to engage to help build understanding of what happened and create a shift towards resolution. I especially commend you for the sincere apologies and expression of regret that you have made several times in this thread (sadhu x 3) I also acknowledge that this must not have been easy, but I believe that hearing this apology and regret directly from you was essential for myself (and others) to find a way forward. So, thanks! Although I am just one of many who had problems with the book, and whilst I don’t speak for anyone else, I want people to know that causing a problem between monastics was not intended at all but yet eventually, that was the impact. So I want to apologise once again for any distress or harm that I may have caused you, and if so, hope that you can forgive me.

I found this paragraph particularly helpful to understand what happened and although it’s sad to think it might have all been averted :laughing: to see you taking responsibility in this way really is admirable:

As I tried to signal in some of my posts above, I am hoping that a turning point has been reached and that now is the time for a rapprochement. I hope that people can acknowledge the important shift that has been made by you and your community to try and resolve the issue by apologising. And I hope that others will acknowledge this shift and step forward to meet you in the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. I am doing my part and have been reaching out privately to others on ‘both sides’ to help find a way forward. I am confident that despite some disagreements and details, there is still very much a spirit of friendship and a strong desire for harmony, so I am optimistic that everything will work out and might even make our connections stronger!

Wishing you all the very very best.

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Bhante, this is the kind of heartfelt diplomacy that is so rare in our world, and so much needed. May Ayya Anandabodhi be well, and while there is still work to be done, there is this common bond of Metta amongst monastics that I find so heartening, and such a Dhammic example for all the rest of of us.

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Thank you so much, Venerable @Anandabodhi, for having the courage to say these words, especially in place that at times has been fiercely critical of some of your actions. It’s very constructive. Instead of just digging ever deeper trenches or playing to the gallery, you have acted with integrity.

It is my experience that the majority of users on this site are very forgiving. Just check out the number of likes on your post! Once an important matter of principle has been settled, it only makes sense to move on. I don’t think you have anything to fear from your involvement here, quite the contrary.

To my mind, we all need to be as compassionate and forgiving as we possibly can. The world is almost always too harsh, always judging people instead of trying to understand the underlying issues. I suspect much of this comes from the Christian values of the Western world, where individual responsibility is enshrined as a fundamental cultural value. But this is a far cry from the Buddhist outlook. Our will and choices are profoundly conditioned. We are trapped by our past and by our own personalities. Yes, we take responsibility as far as we can, but our very ability to do so is itself deeply conditioned.

So in the Buddhist world view it makes sense to be very forgiving. Yet this does not mean we should not engage on the side of what is right. We should. In fact, when we understand the nature of conditioning, it becomes obvious that we need to engage in discussion and to point out problems. And the converse is equally true: we need to listen. Although it may be the case that at times there is no underlying truth to be discovered (I prefer “no truth” to “your truth/my truth”), it is also the case that sometimes there is, especially so on the Buddhist spiritual path. Open and empathetic discussion, with a commitment to always forgive, is what we all need to grow in these teachings.

Thank you, Ayya, for taking part in a kind, humble, and meaningful way. And thanks everyone for your constructive contributions.

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Dear Venerable @anandabodhi,

Your response here is by far one of the most inspiring examples of monastic coduct I have seen. Yes, it is always good to see people being good and kind, but when you see someone make a mistake and then be so incredibly courageous to admit they made a mistake so publicly and apologise - that truly is inspiring. It gives us all a bit more courage to own our mistakes.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

:clap: :clap: :clap:

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