The Pacific Hermitage monks were in town tonight. Since Ajahn Karunadhammo went back to Abhayagiri, the newly-arrived Ajahn Jotipalo is taking his place as the most senior monk at the hermitage. A group of students from Jesuit High School sat in, as well.
Ajahn Jotipalo told a lot of stories about himself throughout the night that I found interesting. Before the meditation session, during tea time, he talked about working at the Insight Meditation Society and hearing stories about Dipa Ma and the psychic abilities she had. In response to another question, he talked about how synchronicities are statistically quite common and/or often the result of the way we interpret data (i.e., focusing on commonalities and not differences), but he also mentioned a few that occurred in his life.
After the meditation and Dhamma talk, the high school students were encouraged to ask questions, and he talked about growing up in a Methodist family, discovering Buddhism and having a near-death/out-of-body experience in Nepal, some of the tudong walks he's done in the US (one of which was with Fr. William Skudlarek, a Benedictine monk from St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN), and how his experiences have given him a strong conviction in the goodness of people.
It's somewhat surprising to me that one of the main insights he's gained from all of his experiences is about our capabilities for goodness. But I have to say that, through all of my experiences at PFoD and St. Philip, I, too, am starting to develop such a conviction.
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