Had lunch today at the Mexican restaurant at the St. Maries, ID golf course. Good food and good company. Went with a good spiritual friend (that  I’ve grown close to for the almost 10 years I’ve lived in this area), who has offered teaching, advice, solace, ceremony and stillness, as needed; and is just a joy to know and be around. In a few weeks I’ll be leaving the area and want to visit with friends as much as time will allow. He is a Buddhist monk of 34 years as a monastic and lives very quietly in this small rough little logging/outdoor sports town and quietly helps a small sangha that is spread from Sandpoint, ID to Tekoa, WA (my town), down to Santa and Moscow, ID; with the odd visits into Montana and small groups there.

This is how the dharma spreads. Quietly. Thank you Reverend Master, for your teaching and presence (presents).

Three hours to the south of us in Joseph, OR. another couple of monks are quietly teaching the Dharma to a small dedicated congregation. Both are female monks and in just this one big circle we have the actuality of the Noble Fourfold Sangha; Lay men and women and Monastic women and men. In noparticular order of hierarchy or preferment. Just the four forms of training. Wonderful and inclusive; yet, I must remember that all religion is composed of volunteers.

Life is truly good.

I think I’ll go sit quietly

In the downstairs meditation

And ceremony hall.