NEWS and MUSINGS

With an improvement in the weather the painting of the Forest Hermitage has progressed apace. It's almost finished and certainly will be for Songkrahn next week. There's just one small wall at the back of the Shrine Room to go and then it'll be done. It's been a great effort principally by Tahn Manapo and Samanain, Tom has helped very generously and ably while he could, and both Prang and Mark have mucked in and helped from time to time, while I've provided the criticism tempered by occasional murmurings of encouragement. Heaven knows what it's cost. I'm just hoping the treasurer will agree it's been worth it and manage to pay the bills. One good person had the bright idea of initiating a sponsor a wall campaign and kindly kicked it off by paying for the paint for one wall. Our building has a number of walls, high and low, large and small, so anyone wanting to make some merit had a choice. But unfortunately the idea really never took off and in the the immortal words of Tahn Manapo turned out to be a pretty paintless exercise!
On that note I'd better quickly switch you to the updated Painting the Forest Hermitage photo album where you can see the New Look Forest Hermitage for yourself. You'll find the photo albums under the Photos tab.
As I said at the beginning, Songkrahn, the Thai, Burmese and Sri Lankan New Year, famously known as the Water Festival, is next week. We will be celebrating on Sunday, April 15th from 10 o'clock in the morning. It's the usual thing: Dana - vegetarian food to offer and share; Sila - taking and reaffirming the Precepts; Bhavana - cultivating a wise and healthy attitude, particularly on this day by bathing and offering respect to the Buddha Image, the monks, elders and friends and probably getting pretty carried away. Come if you can.

ขอเชิญร่วมงานวันสงกรานต์ ณ วัดป่าสันติธรรม เมือง วอริค
ในวันอาทิตย์ที่ 15 เมษายน อนึ่งพิธีจะเริ่มตั้งแต่เวลา 10:30 น. เป็นต้นไป