Kathina 2023 Celebration

Abhayagiri Kathina 2023

Please join Luang Por Pasanno, Ajahn Sek, Ajahn Karunadhammo, our abbot Ajahn Nyaniko, Ajahn Cunda and the rest of the Abhayagiri sangha for this year’s Kathina ceremony on Sunday, November 12th.

Luang Por Amaro, the abbot of Amaravati Monastery in England and founding co-abbot of Abhayagiri, will be our honored guest. Everyone is warmly welcome.

The schedule for the day is:
9:30am - Arrive at the Monastery
10:30am - Meal Offering
1:00pm - Kathina Ceremony and Dhamma Talk

Background Information on Kathina
Each year since the time of the Buddha, at the end of the three-month Rains Retreat, the lay community around Buddhist monasteries have gathered to celebrate the completion of the retreat.

This 2,500-year-old tradition is still carried on here in the West in the Theravadan monasteries. It is initiated by a lay supporter or a group of supporters who request to organize the preparation and formal offerings. It is both a significant and joyful occasion that, over time, has become emblematic of the richness of the relationship that exists between the lay people and the monastics. This relationship is characterized by deep bonds of friendship and commitment to mutual support. All year round, the monastery functions solely on offerings from the lay community.

Ajahn Amaro
Born in England in 1956, Ven. Amaro Bhikkhu received a BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London. Spiritual searching led him to Thailand, where he went to Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery established for Western disciples of Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, who ordained him as a bhikkhu in 1979. Soon afterwards he returned to England and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, making trips to California every year during the 1990s.

In June 1996 he established Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, where he was co-Abbot with Ajahn Pasanno until 2010. He then returned to Amaravati to become Abbot of this large monastic community.

Ajahn Amaro has written a number of books, including an account of an 830-mile trek from Chithurst to Harnham Vihara called Tudong - the Long Road North, republished in the expanded book Silent Rain. His other publications include Small Boat, Great Mountain (2003), Rain on the Nile (2009) and The Island - An Anthology of the Buddha’s Teachings on Nibbana (2009) co-written with Ajahn Pasanno, a guide to meditation called Finding the Missing Peace and other works dealing with various aspects of Buddhism.

In December 2015, along with Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Amaro was honoured by the King of Thailand with the ecclesiastical title ‘Chao Khun’. Together with this honour he was given the name ‘Videsabuddhiguna’. In July 2019, again with Ajahn Pasanno, he was honoured with the title ‘Chao Khun Rāja’ and received the name ‘Rājabuddhivaraguṇa’