Trust all is well!
All Past Tips
Tip o' the Day :
For Calendar and assistant opportunities see below .
Important article about the treatment of Muslims, the Rohingya, in Myanmar
Originally published as "The Rohingya Are Not the Only Ones"
by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, June 2018. tricycle.org.
(Click here for more on the Rohingya.)
Diary
Strange weather! Summer 2008 or 09, we saw no sun shine upon Satipanya. It was cold, heavy cloud and rain. So damp we found it difficult to dry clothes. 2018, glorious sunshine for weeks on end. Andy has planted so many new flowers and trees in the past couple of months that it has taken four of us on work duty to keep up the watering.
In Japan huge downpours killing many followed by an intolerable heat wave killing more people. Not to mention of the wild life.
We had our broadband upgraded to 10 megs. We're living in a different world! BT could only get us 1 meg! And the wireless telephone is so much better than the BT landline. So it is now very easy for me to skype or Google Duo. It would be my preferred way of communicating when I talk about the practice or the Dhamma.
Announcements:
Facebook: We have a Facebook page, Satipanya Buddhist Retreat Centre, thanks to Medini and soon there will be a Facebook group, thanks to Seeta, for those who have been on a course at Satipanya. Check it out!
At last! Something I have wished for a very long time. https://www.paliaudio.com/
This website has readings of the Suttas, the Discourses. You have to be in a contemplative state of mind to see the repetitions as if they were choruses, for this is how the Teaching was passed on during the first 500 years after the Buddha's parinibbana (passing into Total Nibbana). Great listening!
Interspecies! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e5u9gX1fWM
For those of us who remember Bertrand Russell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bZv3pSaLtY
Karuna Book: Every morning at puja we call the names of those who are sick or dying, or are having a hard time. We
Mudita Book: Every evening at puja we call the names of those who have something to rejoice about.
Click for Bhante's Away Courses
Assistants Needed
N.B. All the courses are serviced by assistants.
See website for up-to-date Assistant need: http://www.satipanya.org.uk/calendar/
As assistant you have the opportunity to serve others. It can be a way of expressing gratitude for the gift of Dhamma. Although the morning is mainly taken up with breakfast preparation and cooking, the rest of day is for practice. You can see the menus here.
As an assistant, we do not expect payment of the deposit or make a donation because you have kindly offered your time.
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
Would you like to come and assist on a course?
Scroll down to see where we need you.
Teachers: Click on names for bio.
Mahasi Weeklong Retreat
Summer Mahasi Retreat
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Eleven week roll-on, roll-off Retreat.
Minimum stay eight nights.
Start dates: Saturdays:-
30 June & 14 & 28 July; 11 & 25 Aug. 08 Sept.
Finishing Sun. 16 Sept
Celebration Sat 15th Sept. 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.
30 June – 14 July : Ignacio Duque Sanchez
14 July – 28 July : Assistant : Sita Brand
28 July – 11 August : Assistant Jordi Fernandez
11 – 25 August: Assistant : David Fernandes
25 August – 08 September: Assistant :Jim Tibby
08 – 16 (Sunday) September: Assistant : Dea Paradisos
Sangha Day : Ninth Anniversary
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Local Assistant Needed
Saturday 15 September
Please bring veggie food to join us for communal lunch at noon.
Ceremony starts 13.30
Talk: To be announced.
Weekend Retreat
Fri. 28 Sept.– Sun. 30 Sept. (Finishes 13.00)
Carl Fooks
Assistant Yatin Mistry
See usual weekend Schedules
Mahasi Two Week Retreat
Sat. 06 Oct. – Sat. 20 October
Ayya/Noirin Sheahan
Assistant Wendy Harvey and Tracey Kambouris
See above for Noirin’s description.
Preference given to those who want to stay two weeks.
The usual schedule and format – see website.
Day Retreat
Saturday 27 October
Jenny Birkett
Local Assistant Needed
Kick Start/Top
Arrive 09.30. Finish 17.00
Please bring veggie food to share.
Autumn Mahasi Retreat
Sat. 03 – Sat. 24 Nov.
Ayya/Noirin Sheahan
See above for Noirin’s description.
Assistants Jenny Birkett
Preference is given to those who wish to stay for the full three weeks.
The usual schedule and format – see website. www.satipanya.org.uk
Day Retreat
Saturday 01 December
Jenny Birkett
Local Assistant Needed
Kick Start/Top
Arrive 09.30. Finish 17.00
Please bring veggie food to share.
Psychotherapy & Vipassana
From a Buddhadhamma perspective all our suffering – yes all of it – arises out of a fundamental delusion as to who or what we are. That initial relationship to ourselves – the self, causes a relationship to the world which is unethical – always trying to manipulate the world to promote our own happiness.
The self just wants to be happy. But this develops acquisitiveness. The more we have – pleasure, riches, fame, power - the happier or safer we feel. And aversion arises when anything undermines our accumulations. Should the threat be greater than self, fear arises. These three unwholesome attitudes are the base upon which all our psychological problems arise – even psychosis.
It is important to remind ourselves that it is not just the unskilful actions we commit, but also the understandable, yet unskilful reactions we have towards those who harm us which are the cause of our dukkha.
[i]Similar to art, 99% of vipassana is perspiration and 1% is insight. Sitting with all our mental turbulences is to allow the heart to purify itself. Siddhartha Gotama had all the mental defilements that we suffer from before he became liberated from all suffering. We do not try to psychoanalyse them, or practise any form of psychotherapy. In fact, we don’t ‘do’ anything with them. To our amazement the heart heals itself. The perspiration is there because this can only happen in consciousness either as a felt emotion or a psychophysical pain. We have to bear the consequences of our past unskilful thoughts, words and deeds.
Psychotherapy has also been highly successful at dealing with psychological suffering. But its aim is conventional. It seeks to make the person feel better about themselves, manage mental diseases and develop a healthier accommodation to life.[ii] And drugs are useful too in managing severe mental illness so that a patient can live a meaningful life. And now 'mindfulness', what is recognisably a form of vipassana, has become a mainstream 'psychotherapeutic intervention'.
The confusion between psychotherapy with its conventional aim of accommodation to life with the transcendental aim of vipassana to realise the Unconditioned state of Nibbana, can mislead a meditator. At times it can be helpful to have psychotherapy as a supplement to meditation. However, to meditate as a supplement to psychotherapy is to miss out on the supreme goal of awakening to our true immortal nature[iii].
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Many thanks.
Finally, please forward this email if you know someone who may be interested. Thanks.
Onward
Bodhidhamma
www.satipanya.org.uk
Directors - Jim Tibby Richard Benjamin Maureen Tibby Mike Regan
Limited Company Number 05924965 Registered Charity Number 1116668
Satipanya, White Grit, Minsterley, Shropshire SY5 0JN
T: 0044 (0)1588 650752
info: info@satipanya.org.uk