Wat Buddha Dhamma
In early March I was privileged to visit Wat Buddha Dhamma (‘WBD’), a Theravadin forest monastery established around thirty years ago near Wiseman’s Ferry, NSW. The Wat isn’t heavily populated outside of retreats, and everyone I met over the weekend were generous, open souls. I went in the hope of improving my meditational practice, but I acknowledge the just three days is a little ambitious to drop into the ‘zone’. The last time I remember being fully open to new experience was after a ten day retreat at Suan Mokh in Thailand. That sounds like ‘attachment’ to a desired outcome, doesn’t it? It was good to get in a series of longer sits though. I’ll just keep working on re-establishing the practice first thing every morning… 
The Wat sits in the Dharug National Park. There is any number of walks and bike rides in the area, as well as a huge yoga school (Satyananda Yoga Academy) two hours walk to the North. It’s a fantastically peaceful place: can’t wait to return.
More than a few times I wished (oh dear, more ‘attachment’) I had macro capabilities with the current camera. The Australian bush offers such delicate highlights; tiny wildflowers and intricate foliage. Time to get some extension tubes…
What a pleasure to contribute to the Wat in a small way, to cook in the fabulous kitchen, and feel utterly calm and safe walking through the bush in the darkness.
Amazing to say, after a couple of weeks, my panorama of the Sala is already in the top ten Google results for ‘Wat Buddha Dhamma‘ (though not in an image only search). The main building of the monastery, the sala is truly stunning.
Until I get galleries working on this site, you can see photos of WBD on flickr.
Tags: bush, macro, meditation, search, Suan Mokh, this site, WBD
Posted on March 23, 2010
