Trust all is well!
Tip o’ the Day below
Gratitude Generosity Renunciation
Diary
It takes time to get used to a new building. One little carefulness is locking the bathroom doors. If you fail to do so, you may be visited in all your glory!
Another is the escape of heat in the top store room. Not much we can do about it, but fortunately it is good for drying clothes. Since there is no window there, we have to use a dehumidifier.
There’s a light perpetually on in the staircases. It attracts a lot of moths. Some of them quite remarkable.
Announcements
Winter Mahasi : Sat. 13 January – Sun. 11 March : I started a new long session of retreats last years and now mean to continue it indefinitely. It is an eight weeks long and runs along the same lines as the Summer Mahasi, except – only those can apply who have done at least one full week retreat here with any of the teachers or a week with a recognized Mahasi teacher. Applications are open at the end of August.
***Assistants: 12 – 26 August: Assistant : needed!
Plenty of opportunity to come and serve. It’s still a retreat for you. Up to six hours sitting practice is possible and an occasion to bring the practice into ‘ordinary daily life’ tasks. It does help if you have done a retreat in the Mahasi tradition – if only a weekend. Or any long vipassana retreat whatever the tradition.
Karuna Book: Every morning at puja we call the names of those who a sick /dying or having a hard time.
Mudita Book: Every evening at puja we call the names of those who have something to rejoice about.
The Complete Calendar for 2017
Assistants Needed
N.B. All the courses are serviced by assistants.
As an assistant, we do not expect payment of the deposit because you have kindly offered your time.
And as usual any dana by you is entirely in your gift.
However, your commitment is essential, for the course would be very difficult to run without an assistant and may indeed have to be cancelled.
If you are interested, follow this link: Course Assistant
For info. about Retreats and teachers see website www.satipanya.org.uk
See drop down menus: especially About Us, Teachings and Retreats
If you would like to come and assist on a course?
Scroll down to see where we need you.
Click on teacher names for bio.
Summer Mahasi Retreat
Assistant : Needed
Eleven week roll-on, roll-off Retreat.
Minimum stay eight nights.
Start dates: Saturdays:-
12 & 26 Aug. 09 Sept.
Finishing Sun. 17 Sept
Celebration Sat 16. See below
N.B. Start restricted to listed Saturdays.
Alternate Sun. possible for Mahasi devotees.
A challenging Retreat easily modified for beginners.
See Beginner’s Testimonials on website.
You are encouraged to stay for more than one week.
Assistants : Needed
Starting and ending on following Saturday.
01 – 15 July : Ulla Mergen
15 July – 29 July : Assistant : Jean Anderson
29 July – 12 August : Assistant : Gwen Sanderson
12 – 26 August: Assistant : Needed
26 August – 09 September: Assistant : Jim Tibby
09 – 17 (Sunday) September: Assistant : Dea Paradisos
Sangha Day : Ninth Anniversary
Saturday 16 September
Please bring veggie food to join us for communal lunch at noon.
Ceremony starts 13.30
Talk: To be announced.
Weekend Retreat
Fri. 29 Sept. – Sun.01 p.m. October
Assistants :Wendy Harvey
See usual weekend Schedules
The Mahasi system can feel challenging, and its emphasis on moment-to-moment mindfulness can prove to feel particularly difficult.
Carl teaches a gentle approach to the practice encouraging a skilful and effective orientation that helps practitioners to commit themselves fully to the practice and the schedule, and thereby get the most out of the course.
Mahasi Two Week Retreat
Preference given to those who want to stay two weeks.
Assistant : Needed
Sat. 07 Oct. – Sun. 22 October
The usual schedule and format – see website.
Day Retreat
Saturday 28 October
Local Assistant : Needed
Kick Start/Top
Arrive 09.30. Finish 17.00
Please bring veggie food to share.
Autumn Mahasi Retreat
04 Nov. – 26 Nov.
Assistant(s) : Needed
Preference is given to those who wish to stay for the full three weeks.
The usual schedule and format – see website.
Day Retreat
Kick Start/Top up
Saturday 16 December
Local Assistant : Needed
Arrive 09.30. Finish 17.00
Please bring veggie food to share.
New Year Retreat
Fri. 29 December to Tues. 02 January
Assistant : Anne Ashton
N.B. This retreat is reserved for those who have completed a Retreat as Satipanya.
The first day will be a normal retreat schedule though we shall rise at 5.30.
An opportunity to make it a day of fasting
in solidarity with the one in nine people undernourished and starving.
On the second day, the Eve, we will see in the New Year.
During a group event, you will be asked to tell us about an event which has had a effect upon you - international, national or local or personal.
A day to reflect on the past year, plenty of time to oneself.
Retreatants will be asked to say a little about an virtuous event chosen by them.
The third day, New Years Day, is communal with a walk – weather permitting.
For Bhante’s courses away from Satipanya:
http://www.satipanya.org.uk/away-calendar/
Gratitude Generosity Renunciation
The Buddha began any talk he gave to laypeople with dana, generosity. ‘Even a thief can be generous!’
We can be generous with our time and with our wealth.
For the act to be true generosity it has to be given without conditions.
If a friend needs a lift and you help her out, and there is a thought that she can be called upon when you are in need, then that is not generosity. It is a business contract. Business contracts are fine, but should not be confused with generosity.
If you are out with someone and offer to buy the tea and are upset when the friend does not reciprocate, then it was not an act of generosity. That too was a business contract.
An act of generosity has to hurt a little. It’s hardly generous giving £5 a month to a favoured charity. What would it feel like giving £10 or £20?
What if a friend is taken to hospital, how long should your visit last. If it is up to you (within reason), it is not generosity. Generosity puts the other first.
In other words, generosity always – that is always! – asks for renunciation. We are giving up time and wealth for the benefit of the other – without recompense or refund. And it always hurts a little.
When we give something up, we let go of a little attachment, of a false necessity. Every time we give up a little attachment, the self shrinks a little. The self manifests as clutching ‘for personal use only’ and out of fear of loss. Generosity releases the cramp.
This is the gift of generosity – releasing us from false needs and dependencies.
But what motivates generosity in the first place. There’s compassion, of course, when we see suffering. Expressions of love and joy too. But it is gratitude that can bolster our giving.
Spend just a moment considering what you have received where payback was never asked: as a child (the Buddha reminds us that even should we carry our parents on our shoulders throughout our lives we would never be able to repay them the gift of life), support of family, education, health care, our culture – the Buddhadhamma.
The paradox is that more we give, the more the sacrifice, the more the sympathetic joy. But more, much more! This virtuous circle twirls us towards liberation.
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Many thanks.
Finally, please forward this email if you know someone who may be interested. Thanks.
Metta
Onward
Bodhidhamma
SATIPANYA BUDDHIST TRUST
Directors - Rob Poleykett Richard Benjamin Maureen Tibby Jim Tibby Mike Regan
Limited Company Number 05924965 Registered Charity Number 1116668
Satipanya, White Grit, Minsterley, Shropshire SY5 0JN
T: 0044 (0)1588 650752 email: bodhidhamma@satipanya.org.uk info: info@satipanya.org.uk
