There are many places to sit and be quiet. As the Nike slogan says, “Just Do It”.  

It was a real pleasure to visit Birken Forest Monastery this weekend. A small group of devoted practitioners from Vernon spent the weekend in this magical place. 

Birken Forest Buddhist Monastery, close to Kamloops, is that kind of place. Birken is a Canadian Theravada Buddhist monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. Also known by its Pali name, ‘Sītavana‘ (translated as ‘cool forest grove’), the monastery provides a peaceful forest refuge for monastics and lay people who are seeking to deepen their understanding and practice of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path. Venerable Ajahn Sona serves as the monastery’s Abbot and senior monastic teacher. Born in Canada, with training in both the Sri Lankan and Thai forest traditions, Ajahn Sona’s teaching style weaves together ancient eastern wisdom with modern western sensibilities. Operating entirely off-grid, the monastery employs leading-edge clean technologies and is a model of green monasticism. 

As in all things in life, it is all about the people. Upon arrival a lovely young lady named Metta, showed nothing but love & kindness as she provided a tour of the monastery and pointed the direction to the blissful meditation hall. The steward in the kitchen was full of smiles and prepared amazing and fresh vegetarian dishes for lunch. She was very interested in what was the favourite dish and she was just nice to be with, if even only for a few minutes. 

After meditation and lunch, one of the long-time devotees of Birken led the way down a well-worn path to a pond for some more introspection and quietness. At the pond sits a boat which one can use to row to a small island to meditate. As we sat enjoying the view, it reminds one of the great poet Kabir: 

I Said To The Wanting-Creature Inside Me - Kabir 

I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or resting?

There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!

And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the
soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don't go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things and stand firm in that which you are.   

This poem above is the work of Kabir Das (1398–1518 CE).

All this felt like the scene from the movie by Phil Robinson called Field of Dreams, based on Canadian novelist W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel Shoeless Joe:  "John Kinsella: Is this heaven? Ray Kinsella: It's Iowa. John Kinsella: Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven." 

The Emily Dahl Foundation
June 2024