Here at The Buddhist House there have been many comings and goings recently, Paul and Judy have returned to Hawaii and all the guests who were here for the Bodhi Retreat have departed. This theme continues in the week leading up to Christmas! Dharmavidya and Prasada will be leaving on Wednesday to begin teachings abroad in Hawaii and North America. Ronnie (my roommate over the last three months) will be leaving on Tuesday to go back home to Israel for Christmas. She'll be back in January with her husband and will probably be moving to Coventry.
Modgala will be returning to Amida France on Thursday and I'll be going with her! I'll be spending Christmas and New Year there and beyond into 2007, I'm really looking forward to being close to the earth again, surrounded by so much beautiful open space :) I'll be going to Liverpool on Wednesday to catch up with my family before I leave. And another departure, Sudana will be leaving in January to go to Zambia for a year to volunteer at the project there. Amida jet set!!
Moggy and Jodo will be staying put!
We've just finished our main term at The Buddhist House It's Sunday and I'm sitting at the desk in my room, reflecting, relaxing and listening to Richard Ashcroft. Bliss :) The Bodhi retreat finished yesterday, the main retreat of the year. We've spent the last couple of weeks preparing for this retreat. We kicked off with the 24 hour nembutsu chanting. I was part of the bell team with Mudita (formerly Lisa!) and Gareth. It's hard to know what to say about this practice of chanting Amida Buddha's name for 24 hours. I've never experienced anything like it before, during those 24 hours, I felt many things, profound peace, chronic fatigue, willingness, resistance, acceptance and irritation. So many changing mind states ... The community spirit in the group was a shining light, without one another, no individual could have completed the practice. The retreat flowed on from this beginning. There were lots of pratice periods, seminars, discussions, good food and ceremonies, admissions to the Amida School and the Amida Order . Susthama and Mudita had their ordination ceremonies on Friday, it was a deeply moving occasion. Susthama ordained as an Amitarya in the Order and Mudita as a Chaplain, and received her Buddhist name. I was confirmed as an aspirant, aspiring to train as a chaplain, Gareth was confirmed as a postulant, in training for the amitarya path. I also confirmed my membership in the Amida School and took the five Buddhist precepts to guide me in life; to refrain from destroying living creatures, to refrain from taking that which is not given, to refrain from sexual misconduct, to refrain from incorrect speech and to refrain from consuming intoxicants. In the ceremony, the precepts were phrased in a beautiful way by Modgala. They began with 'I pray' and for sure this foolish being needs some outside help in keeping them, especially the right speech one!
It's been awhile. Life at The Buddhist House http://www.amidatrust.com/ has been very full recently. I've not had any time to keep on top of my blog. What have I been upto? Well... lots of things! I have the duties of bell master and cook at the moment so have been fully occupied in these roles. Last weekend we had a retreat at The Buddhist House on Exile and Return which Lisa ran. We had a great bunch of people at the retreat and we did lots of practice which was ace. We've been doing lots of administration duties at The Buddhist House recently, lots of leaflets to post out. At the moment we are in a Chaplaincy and Ministry training block so the days are very full. I'll write more when I've got some more energy and when I've digested what I've experienced and learnt over the past few days! :)
I like this. No matter how much we domesticate our cats, they remain wild animals at the core!
Although there are rocks and tree roots,
Rippling along, just rippling along,
The water runs. Wariko Kai
I love this short little poem, I find it very inspiring. The water simply ripples along... The rocks and tree roots are part of its path. If only the mind had the flexibility of a stream of water.
I was so impressed by these Vox blogs that I've transferred my old blog over; the graphics are lovely. I've just returned from a flying visit to Newcastle upon Tyne, my former home of 8 years. I was on Buddhist duty so didn't have time to catch up with my old dear friends. I accompanied my Buddhist Teacher, Dharmavidya. We stayed at the Amida Sanctuary, Sujatin and Peter's home. Sujatin is a Buddhist Minister in Newcastle and introduced me to Pureland Buddhism over two years ago. She is very dear to me :) On Sunday Dharmavidya, Sujatin and myself travelled to Throssel Hole Abbey, a Zen monastery in Northumberland. It was the festival of their founder, Roshi Jiyu Kennet. The ceremony was beautiful. The Meditation Hall is spectacular there. On Monday, we had a gathering for a Dharma talk by Dharmavidya. Lots of old friends came. It was lovely to see Colin and Eric again, my old Sangha buddies.
