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OUR MOTTO: Remembering friends, visiting the old, the sick, those in need and in time of trouble - even when we don't feel like it - at least now and then.
See Ananda Page
7-09-07 - Andrew Main sent a letter with two addenda to read to Ananda Dalenberg which I did a week ago at the convalescent home. I asked Andrew if I could post them on cuke and so here they are - as image files.
Ananda really enjoyed this communication from an old dharma pal afar, and therefore - a suggestion below on how to communicate with Ananda.
Here's the letter with a photo of Andrew
The Tisarana, the three refuges in Pali, the second page
The story of how Andrew changed the cover
of What the Buddha Taught, one of the classics of Buddhist
books.
The suggestion is that you send something for me to read to Ananda. The best is to email it so that I can put it up on cuke. But if you don't want that I won't do it. I don't like to tell him that people say hello to him and I don't think he likes it either. Cause they don't visit him so I think he resents it. Bringing him this letter from Andrew was great though. Ananda loved it. If you knew him and think you should visit him, that's fine, but if you send me a little something to read to him from you - even if it's just a link to something somewhere on the web that I can download - then I think he'd really appreciate that.
It's really hard to visit Ananda - there are only a few of us that can do it and come back. He's been diagnosed with multiple infarct dementia which means he's had a lot of little strokes that make him a little nutty. He's driven off everyone but me and his wife and daughters - they see him all the time. He's sort of grumpy. He normally whispers but he can yell cuss words at you. The reason I get along with him is that I don't do small talk. I'm formal. I come in and bow and ask him how he is and maybe tell him something that's new. And then I sit down and start reading. I read for an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less if I've got to be somewhere. We have communicated some on what to read. Right now I start with something for twenty minutes or so - like last week this letter from Andrew - and then go to Sri Ramana Maharshi whom Ananda and I both love. When I'm through I bow and say I'll be back as soon as I can which is usually within a week or two. This year he's made a point to thank me very carefully and sincerely in a soft voice before I go. This works. He doesn't seem demented when I read to him.
My email is here: contact DC .
My mailing address is PO Box 2543, Sebastopo, CA 95473
I'll write more soon about what I've read to him and what he likes and all. - DC