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.
