Introduction During the month of November, I stayed in Geneva, Florida, at a very small florida buddhist monastery near Orlando —or what you might call a typical small three-bedroom house. Normally, the place is dormant and empty, but I was able to awaken this once-dormant monastery by going for alms, as I did in Kaua’i, ordinations, visitors and with my enthusiasm for teaching. About The Place: The three-bedroom house is supported by a very small group of Myanmar people on roughly 4 acres of land. About 5-8 families are involved with the support but only one family lives within a suitable driving distance. Because there are no property taxes and the annual costs are low to keep, this place was kept alive. I was introduced to this virtually unknown place in May 2024 by Czech Ashin Sarana. We were supposed to live together at this monastery for one week, but due to circumstances, he had business elsewhere during that time, and I was left alone. Ashin Sarana eventually disrobed with the aspiration of pursuing a career in counseling, along with other personal reasons, and he is now a layman. During that week alone, I had many opportunities to teach, and I was invited back.

Below are two talks based on the Dhammapada verses 49 and 118 The verses 49 yathāpi bhamaro pupphaṃ, vaṇṇagandhamaheṭhayaṃ, paleti rasamādāya, evaṃ gāme munī care. As a bee gathers honey from the flower without injuring its color or fragrance, even so does the sage go on his alms-round in the village. 118 puññañce puriso kayirā, kayirā naṃ punappunaṃ, tamhi chandaṃ kayirātha, sukho puññassa uccayo. Should a person do good, let him do it again and again. let him find pleasure there, for being blissful is the accumulation of good.

Introduction My trip to America from April 29th to June 2nd was very fruitful, yet I was very busy. From Sri Lanka, I traveled to Chicago, Boston, Connecticut, and Orlando, Florida. The main reason for traveling was to see my mother and family for Mother’s Day during my break. However, I also wanted to check out two places that might be interesting if I need to stay in the USA for some reason or another.

Just a small “monk life” entry: IIT, Sri Lanka, June 23, 20204 Yesterday was the day after the Full Moon Uposatha Day. We didn’t get a lot of food from the village alms round. I went by myself on my usual route, and another monk went by himself on a different route that he sometimes goes to. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe the villagers were at the monasteries all night. But that day, I didn’t get much food. I got rice of course, but just a few curries. It was enough for me though. When I came back, the other monk was waiting for me because all he got was maybe one or two spoons of rice and one spoon of curry, a vegetable curry.

donor and myself at Golden Market Introduction Going for alms (pindapata) is certainly possible in the USA. There are different methods such as house by house alms, farmer’s market alms, visiting known donor’s houses, and supermarket alms. While house by house can take time to grow faith in a community, supermarkets can be quite easy to develop, even on the first day. Watch the video on Archive.org Obtaining Permission When the supermarket is part of a shopping complex, you will need permission from both the store manager, and also the shopping center property manager. These days, it can be difficult to get permission from most large corporate owned shopping centers. However, when I was in Kaua’i, Hawai’i, Ching Young Village was more than happy to let me “hang out” in front of Big Save which also gave permission for me to go. Princevilled shopping center told me, “Not even the Boy Scouts are allowed on the property.” Below is a picture of me hanging out with permission while the other is me pacing on the public sidewalk.

In this talk, I explore many details about the monk’s bowl, how it is made black, the parts of the bowl, and several other things. It should be interesting if you are interested in Theravāda Buddhist monks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_GhgfnptEg&t=2s

AmericanMonk.org has a new free home! I started the process last week and if you are a subscriber who gets this email, the task is 90% complete. There is still some refinement to do. Why Move? Originally, I was using a WordPress framework on a hosting company called NameCheap. While NameCheap sounds like a small company, they are one of the top ten names in hosting and DNS services (where you get a registered website name). My sister who started a cooking website called, CookingWithAlisa.com was so kind to host me for a few years on her own account. However, I started getting notification messages that my website was getting shut down, sometimes a few times per day. My sister’s website was fine and it was just my own site that was affected. NameCheap’s Tech Support claimed I was using too many resources and they were shutting me down. They told me that an address located on Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) was causing extensive amounts of traffic. They helped me block them, but I was still getting shutdown messages. My website does get a lot of traffic. As I said before, I got nearly 60,000 real person web page views in 2023. That is quite a lot for a small website account, so I’m not sure what the real reason for going beyond my resource allocation was. Was it an attack or was my site too heavy or was my site getting too much natural traffic? I don’t know, but I needed to take action.

There are three stories of loving-kindness told in the video posted below. The first story is from Kaua’i, Hawai’i, when a person did not want me on “his” street. Through the power of loving-kindness, things changed. Another story was also from the island in 2015. There were children on bicycles who were yelling at us to go away on multiple days. Through the power of loving-kindness, things changed. The last story is from 2011 during a trip to India. The loving-kindness did not change the other, but a different outcome was the result.

Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta and I have been going for alms together for some time now. He usually comes with me the whole way on Saturdays and on Sundays, he forks right after the 2nd or 3rd house. However, recently, a new monk decided to join our route. Last week, Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta went off on his own on Saturday while the two of us went on my usual route (good for two monks). We did the same this Saturday. When we came back Ven. Nepal Nāthaputta showed me the contents of his bowl. It had 2 spoons of rice and a few bananas. While this was clearly not enough food for him, it made me so happy. But Why? I’m a monk, right? Why should I be happy that a friend didn’t get any substantial food?

Ven Ananda with the two donors Recently, we received six new tables arranged by a monk’s two donors. The tables were nice but I didn’t think we needed them, so I asked the monk why. He said there was not enough room on the tables for his donors’ donations, so they decided to donate more tables so they can donate more. When his donors make donations, they are not small. Normally his group of donors are not ten or twenty, but sometimes fifty or sixty donors and sometimes more. They stay up the whole night cooking and then deliver the donations for breakfast and lunch. So after staying up all night and cooking the food for the monks, they found that the tables had less pārami (accumulated strength qualities) than their own pārami. So that was why they donated more tables. They are not just regular tables either. Take a look at the cover photo and see how nice they are.

Alms Tray and Cambodia Monk’s Full Bowl Introduction: This article explains the essence of piṇḍapāta (alms) and why we go for alms, even in poor villages. On the weekends, I have some time to go for alms in the nearby village. However, you might ask yourself, “Why would a monk collect food from a very poor village during an economic crisis when the monastery is mostly supported by wealthy people? Isn’t this making it more difficult for the Sri Lankan villagers?”

I remember when I was living in Kaua’i in a tent propped up in the corner of my friend Uncle Gene Taylor’s property. I had just come home from my daily alms round and I popped into his room to say hello. He is old and has difficulty walking, yet he is usually quite cheerful. As part of the visit routine, he asked me how my day was and I smiled and happily said, “Today was a great day. I got enough food today.” I always get enough food, but that day, it was a little easier.

All-focus As the rest of the song goes.. “And I don’t know when I’ll be back again.” It has been almost 1.5 years living on Kaua’i. I have had an incredible experience here by doing an experiment to see if a monk can establish a monastery any place he travels to through the lost art of wandering for alms. A practice done in the name of the Buddha but rarely practised anymore. I’m not just talking about collecting food with a bowl (also rare in the West), I’m talking about travelling to an unknown, uncharted land and literally living in a tent and seeing what happens with the goal of starting a monastery some time in the distant future. Did I succeed or fail? Well, not yet, and I’m leaving without knowing when I will come back. However, a real estate offer of $100,000 cash was made on some land. I will explain the details at the end. But it is the other stuff which makes me feel confident about my travels to Kaua’i.

A little while ago, I was asked what was the most important lesson learned and what was the most important thing that I taught. The answer spans two different videos and they are listed below: The first video gives a very technical answer, yet in very simple English that everyone can understand. However those who are into the deepest Dhamma and Abhidhamma will still appreciate what is said and how it is said.

I recently found this video in my Google Drive. I had a layperson (probably UKZ) follow me around in the line to show what it was like for a monk to go through the alms food line at Pa-Auk Main Center, Mawlamyine, Myanmar. It is not easy to manage so many donors with big hearts to give. Most of the time, I am giving hand signals to get less food. You might want to play this at double speed. However, you can get a real time feel of what it is like, once one enters the food line. There are often 400+ monks waiting in line to get to this point too.

Recently, I ran into a very angry man who came out of his house yelling at me and coming closer and closer. Eventually, I won the fight with my two big weapons, loving-kindness and my commitment of being free from money for all these years. I have been going for alms in this neighborhood for a little over a year now, and while I did have two girls yell at me, they did not leave their property boundary. Later, I switched to a new street in the same neighborhood as I explained in my last story. However, things were different as this guy came out of his house with raging anger, coming closer and closer to me, I was unsure what would happen.

Koral’s Family Just about every Wednesday, I still find the time to continue with my Kilauea alms round1 (which used to include Tuesdays too). I take a one-hour bus ride from Lihue, and then set out on my alms round, wishing loving-kindness to the houses one by one as I walk along the road. In the beginning, people thought I was some weird homeless person who might be crazy, but after some time, some fearless people spoke to me and then word started spreading. “He’s okay, he is just blessing homes.” Then it took a little longer for people to figure out the food part too.

All-focus Things have recently changed Things have recently changed in my life. I have now moved to Lihue. Things were going well at the place where I was at before in Kilauea. The owner was happy with what I was doing for the community and I was happy and fulfilled with what I was doing for the community as well. Unfortunately, the owner’s son came for a visit. In short, he said, “I want to visit a monk. I don’t want to live with a monk.” He pays the remainder of the bills from what the renters do not cover and what he says goes. Although we did several thousand dollars of work on his land to pay things forward, that was long forgotten and I was out. I stayed there for 4½ months and it was nice while it lasted. We are still friends and I was there a few days ago for a visit.

On a warm Hawaiian Christmas day in 2018, I was off to collect my alms in the village. I was in a rush and worried that I would not be able to find a ride to the village where I go for alms because so few cars would be on the roads. Luckily, I got a ride and as I stepped out of the the car, I did my usual baggage check.

Here are a five remarkable stories of miracles to tell, but not all of them. There have been many miracles that have come my way when I needed them the most. For the Christians out there, they might say, “Doesn’t that make you believe in God?” My answer is, “It makes me believe there are heavenly beings (Devas & Devis)) who are looking out for me.”. There are other stories not included such as “My Watch Story”

Kauai Update #3 I have moved from the Botanical Gardens recently. I was able to stay there for 5 months and the majority of the time there was wonderful. However things were changing and it was time for me to look for another place and now I am staying in a new long term location in Kilauea. It all happened after a wonderful person picked me up on the side of the road holding my signs the day my parents, brother and in-law dropped me off (I’ll get back to that family-visit part later). So this guy I knew from before picked me up in Kapaa and asked me where I wanted to go. I told him I lived in Princeville but could be dropped off at the bus stop at the town before his road. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “I asked you where you want to go, because I’m going to drive you there.” He then showed me his bracelet which said, “What would love do?” Then he said he was driving me.

 As a Buddhist Monk collecting alms in Kauai, USA for the past 4 months, the results are in. On Tuesday and Wednesdays as shown on the map above, I collect my food, wishing loving-kindness to one side of the street at a time. So how many houses have given food at least once? About 18 people from different houses have given me food at least once. About 4 or 5 cars have given to me, but they are not included in the 18 number. This also includes two businesses which support me from time to time and one person at the bakery.. It does not include the one person who tried to give me money and another person who took the time to thank me for what I have been doing. I have also been offered an opportunity to work in a garden to get my food too, but kindly opted out.

That is me going for alms on Aalona Street Kilauea. Collecting alms, also known as piṇḍapāta by Theravāda Buddhists, is a legal activity in the USA. There are some restrictions though. I spoke with a lawyer who seemed to know civil liberties quite well, but there are no guarantees with what I say. However, this information should make sense and seem legal to you. It is legal to ring the doorbell of any house and preach to them or talk to them about politics under the freedom of speech rights. One can even ask them to support or give money to a cause. One can sell them vacuum cleaners too. However, if they have a sign that says, “No Solicitation” or “No Trespassing” or “Private Property,” or any other derivative, then one needs to stay clear away from the property lines or at least up to the sign location.

Vegetarianism and Theravāda Buddhism I have been asked to write a little something on vegetarianism and Theravāda Buddhism. I am qualified to be quite objective, and to see both sides of the issue because I was a vegetarian for a total of ten years as a lay person and I had vegetarian eyes. That meant that when I looked at meat, cooked or not, I saw a dead animal in front of me. Now that I am a monk, I am no longer a vegetarian although I have lived at vegetarian monasteries for many years, so I know both sides of the coin.

How Do Monks Say Grace Before Eating? Do Theravāda monks say anything before they eat? Do they give thanks? Who do they say thanks to? Or is it something else? Buddhist monks generally do a reflection and chant something before eating. In fact it is said that the monks incurs debt if they doe not reflect before eating. Actually, there are 4 reflections concerning the Four Requisites: 1. Robes 2. Food 3. Lodging 4. Medicine

Why are most monasteries not allowable for vinaya monks? Today, I was Skyping my parents which is something we do once or twice a month now. I feel it is good for them to “see” me as a monk, rather than having them talk to me and visualizing their son from 1999. That was when I left home and things changed for me. We had a nice discussion. We spoke about possibilities for a visit, but I told them that finding a place was difficult, because the monks all use money and whatever they buy with that money becomes unallowable. I used an analogy for what some Jewish people call Kosher. Some very strict Jewish people will throw away plates and silverware if both meat and dairy had touched it. My parents were not like that, but some of the older generations of my family (I have heard) were like that.

To receive this by email, sign up at https://americanmonk.org/subscribe/ Last year, this picture (without the writing) went viral. The viral post seems to makes its rounds from time to time and every so often, someone tells me they saw my picture. It started when I was in Bagan for an 8 day trip with my friend Ashin Pannyagavesaka. We did a slow and thorough excursion and walked a good chunk of Bagan when rides were not provided. We were happy. I liked to roam about and my Bhante friend liked to take pictures.. often many candid pictures were taken of me too. We hit just about every major and medium sized pagoda. As we would enter each pagoda, a routine would settle in. I would walk in the compound and the vendors would try to get me to buy something. I learned the phrase, “Paisan ma khainboo” which means “I don’t deal with money (because it is bad).” I would say that and the vendors would respectfully stop their sales pitches to me, often with hands in prayer position (anjali). Going ahead of my friend, and into the pagodas, my friend would be asked many questions about me by the vendors. “Who is he, what country, how many years as a monk?”

A 2 part Powerpoint presentation about what two monks did in Kauai, Hawaii during June to December 2015. The theme was propagation, but the propagation was done just from being monks who do not touch money, and collect their food the traditional Buddhist monk way. The vision, how it got started, stories and experiences were shared. About 50 people were in the audience. Running time is about 1 hour total for both. There is a comment added at the end of part two so make sure you do not quite when it seems like it is over.

[![IMG_20160703_121038](/images/IMG_20160703_121038.webp" >}}](/images/2016/07/IMG_20160703_121038.webp" >}} I had a really good day going for alms today. When it “rains it pours.” Although it rained today, I am talking about alms donations. I told myself, that if this village does not give (like usual), then I will skip it and find another one or stay with the shack village alone. After 3 weeks of only one donor in that village, I finally got some edible food…. However, I accomplished that by going down some other side-roads I had started to skip.. and then people started to stop me in my tracks.

[![Mala in Hand](/images/malahand.resized.webp" >}}](/images/2016/06/malahand.resized.webp" >}} The benefits of “Faith piṇḍapata”. This is a term that I learned either in Abhayagiri, Ca, or Wat Pah Nanachat or both. Probably brought to the West from Ajahn Pasanno who is/was the abbot of both. This means that when you go on alms, you make a determination to only eat the alms food you collect. When you do something like this (and I am not sooo perfect when I follow these things), you can learn a lot about yourself and the real Buddhist teachings. (Note: It is often not good to write about ascetic practices. However, I write about my life as a way to teach about Buddhism.)

Loving Kindness Wins The Race (Adventures in Going for Alms in Hawaii) Last week we encountered a disturbing event while we were going for Alms in village in Kauai. There was a lady on a bicycle who approached us and asked us what we were doing. Her tone of voice was not so happy, but we enjoy telling people what we are doing because it does not happen so often and that is one of our goals when we stand in front of each house. So I replied with my canned response, mentally noting the cross around her neck by saying, “We are Buddhist monks, and we do not touch money. We are doing many things and one of those things we do is to collect food for our daily meal.” I usually then start to tell them about how we are wishing loving kindness to each house to keep our minds’ pure while we are waiting for people to figure the food thing out. However, this lady started to butt in with negative comments, like ,“Why don’t you get a job?” When I told her “spiritual practice” was our job. She sarcastically replied, “Oh, now isn’t that convenient?”

[![IMG_20151028_112524](/images/IMG_20151028_112524.webp" >}}](/images/2015/10/IMG_20151028_112524.webp" >}} Yesterday, we got some pre-Halloween candy during our alms round at one of the houses. I thought that was very “sweet” of our donor. Halloween is a holiday on October 31, in America where kids dress up as, well, anything they want. They go around the neighborhood at night and ring the doorbells and say “Trick or treat!”. Then the person at the house would place some candy inside the ambitiously sized candy collection bags.