|
(Difficulty reading text? Press Ctrl +)
COVID
Covid infection rates are still high. For most, it will be a like a flu, but some will die and some will suffer long term effects.
So we still ask everyone to take a rapid covid test before their journey to Satipanya, and not to come if the test is positive or if they've had covid symptoms within previous 5 days (unless PCR test shows negative). Your deposit will be refunded. This is to protect Bhante, Noirin or other teacher, as the retreat would have to be closed if the teacher were infected.
If you develop any symptoms during retreat, you must take a test and isolate if the result is positive. Please bring your own tests.
Noirin here. Bhante is now on his winter retreat in Metta Vihara Meditation Centre in Southern Germany. He recovered well from covid but was still testing positive over a week later. He had thought he would need to defer his retreat but some bit of good kamma ripened to show a negative test on the morning of his flight so he was able to travel as planned.
The November retreat is now ongoing and each week has had at least one retreatant from Continental Europe - France, Denmark, Holland, Italy. Overseas bookings have dropped since covid, so this is a welcome change. Also the age and gender ballance looks better - for the past year we've had mainly younger men but its good to see the women coming back and that I'm not the only person suffering the decrepitude of old age!
A reminder that the 2023 calander will look different as there won't be a winter retreat. Instead Bhante will offer an on-line course supporting daily life practice over the winter months, and we will run a 24-week roll-on-roll-off retreat from April right through to September. See the link to the 2023 calendar below.
Announcements
New Year's Eve Vigil (on-line only)
Starts 21.00 A mixture of sitting, sharing, chanting and at midnight Refuges and Precepts. Email Bhante if interested (
[email protected]
). Details will be sent closer to the time.
Northwest area Satipanya Sangha:
Anyone living in the northwest, particularly in Chester, Manchester, Liverpool and surrounding areas who would like to explore options for practicing together please contact
Martin Ratcliffe
who hopes to form a local group.
Opening to the Impact of the Climate Emergency:
Following on from the Zoom with Gwen Sanderson and Bhante Bodhidhamma in September, there are two options for ongoing engagement:
-
Gwen Sanderson is facilitating monthly
Climate and Dhamma Conversations
which are held using
Zoom
. Email
Gwen
for further information or to register.
-
Noirin Sheahan has set up a Satipanya
Forum
focussing on the
Six Maxims
(ethical training to prepare for the social and environmental consequences of climate change - see tip below). Contact
Noirin
for further info or to register.
This collaborative study group has evolved out of the fortnightly London and South East Satipanya Saṅgha which has been meeting via Zoom since the beginning of the Covid outbreak. We are currently
studying the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta
, as set out by Joseph Goldstein in his
46 part discussion on the Dharma Seed site
and in his book Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening. We are currently taking a brief sidetrack by talking about how the Five Hindrances and Dependent Origination relate. When normal service resumes, we'll continue with the section on
The Five Aggregates
. We intend to continue this group on Zoom and
warmly extend an invitation to any practitioner
who would like to join us. Currently meeting alternate Sundays 10:30am - midday. Please contact
[email protected]
for further information. (By the way, please try again if you've emailed to attend and haven't received anything back, Carl has been particularly busy lately.)
Join us for your daily meditation - 06.00, 09.00, 14.00, 16.00 and 20.00 sits.
Info.
An informal meditation group meets on a monthly basis via Zoom for a full day of meditation. Email Magda for details at
[email protected]
Join 20.00 to 21.00 on the Sunday closest to the Full Moon. Bhante gives a short dhamma talk, followed by a 30-min sitting, refuges and precepts and we end by reading and chanting the metta sutta.
For date of next Celebration.
Every morning at puja we call the names of those who are sick or dying, or are having a hard time.
Every evening at puja we call the names of those who have something to rejoice.
Satipanya Courses
Coronavirus:
Requirements for visiting Satipanya.
We are asking everyone to take an antigen test before setting out in their journey to Satipanya and not to come if the test is positive.
Vipassana as taught by the Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma
The Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma, one of the most influential vipassana insight meditation teachers of the last century, developed techniques to help us maintain moment to moment mindfulness from the instant we awake to the instant we fall asleep.
This leads not only to spiritual insights into our true, unborn-undying essence, but also, equally important, to the purification of the heart. So that we not only become wiser but more caring, generous, joyous and compassionate.
Applying the techniques on this retreat we follow a robust schedule, but meditators can modulate their practice to fit their level of experience, even absolute beginners. The accent is on relaxation and curiosity, rather than striving and concentration. And regular teacher contact, daily Q&A and personal interviews ensures students are supported throughout.
The retreat ends with advice on how to bring the practice into ordinary daily life to enhance our relationships and give spiritual meaning to our work and everyday tasks.
Assistants Needed
N.B.
All the courses are serviced by assistants.
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
(PDF).
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?
See
calendar on website
for up-to-date assistant need.
Red Lines, Sila - Third Ethical Maxim
Noirin Sheahan
The third of the
six maxims suggested to fortify ourselves for the consequences of climate change
asks us to draw our red lines. What is it we vow
not
to do, no matter how great the temptation?
Buddhist ethics stands on the five precepts, the first of which asks us not to harm living beings. As climate change brings destitution and basic resources become scarce, violent conflict will become common. Defending our few remaining possessions against an intruder, what red line do we pledge never to cross?
A pacifist chooses death by starvation rather than physically attack the intruder. But what if our household includes children or vulnerable adults? In her
enquiry into the ethics of vioence in early Buddhist texts,
Elizabeth Harris writes:
The person who feels violence is justified to protect the lives of others has … to remember that he is risking grave [karmic] consequences for himself in that his action will inevitably bear fruit … Such a person needs to evaluate motives … yet might still judge that the risks are worth facing to prevent a greater evil.
Bhante’s
essay on armed intervention
argues against pacifism as an absolute stance. He points out that amongst the hundreds of rules that govern monastic life, there is none against self-defence. When Sharon Salzberg told her teacher Munindra-ji about being attacked by a drunken man, he said “Oh Sharon, you should have hit that man over the head
with all the compassion in your heart
!” It is the motivation that counts. Where there is only a choice between evils, kindness demands that we prevent the greater evil. The Dalai Lama said that to prevent a mass-murder, he would shoot the attacker, not to kill but to disable, prevent them killing.
Bhante’s essay distinguishes between force and violence. Force is the energy needed to put right what is wrong, violence is the same laced with some form of ill-will. Again, it is the motivation that counts and also the clarity to judge right from wrong.
That clarity will be very hard to find amidst widespread poverty and starvation. Who knows how many children the intruder needs to feed? If they were a climate refugee, homeless, stateless because our affluence has made their land uninhabitable, should we not willingly give them our provisions?
Because it will be so difficult to judge whether harming another is the lesser evil, I can see the wisdom of preparing red lines e.g. pledging never to use violence except to defend an immediate attack on my life or the life of someone who depends on me. The line could also be drawn at a higher level. Already close on 70, I will be very elderly if and when things deteriorate to this level; the red line could be taking any food once it becomes so scarce as to threaten lives of younger people; after all it is they, not me, who could allow civilisation, including the Buddha-Dhamma, to survive.
Whatever red lines we draw, it will be a challenge to keep them in a dangerous situation when we may well be ill or famished and have little capacity for clear thought. There is an urgent need to start practicing this maxim now. To this end, I’ve set myself some red lines (simple ones but a challenge to habitual desire) as preparation for next month’s tip on practicing with this maxim.
If you wish to investigate this or the other maxims more deeply, consider joining the Satipanya Forum dedicated to these. Contact
Noirin
for further information.
If you fail to receive a monthly NEWSBYTE, please look in spam, or reestablish the
email by filling in the
MAILING LIST form
at the bottom of the front page of the website.
Many thanks.
Finally
, please forward this email if you know someone who may be
interested. Thanks.
|
