Sun. April 02
SPIRITUAL COMPANIONS
join an online Day Retreat
FULL MOON OBSERVANCE
Talk: Joyfulness.
Buddha Day
Saturday 27 May
I would like to celebrate Buddha Day again as in the 'olden' times.
People to bring food to share for noon.
If you are within day visiting distance from Satipanya, arriving at 11.30 and leaving any time after 15.30. If you plan to attend, can you email me and say whether you would prefer to bring food just for yourself or food to share.
Thank you, Bhante
[email protected]
We are now gearing up for our 24 weeklong Mahasi Retreat during which Noirin and myself will alternate months. It's a new way of running such long retreats. And this year Hui Hui Ng may be joining me for most of my retreats because of my severe sciatica. It is also part of her continuing training. Many thanks to her for helping me out.
During April Noirin will be off for a well-earned holiday back home in Ireland for three weeks.
Andy has been working on the gardens and it should be all flowers sometime in April. Because we are so high up - 1000ft/300m, we tend to be at least a month behind lowlanders.
Treasurer’s Report
Last year we were back to normal in terms of number of courses and students who came to practice and this year looks promising also.
Bhante and Noirin decided to change the Calendar for this year, partly because last year we had lots of cancellations due to illness, but also because it allows the centre to run a continuous course for 24 weeks. We are still keeping general rules to safeguard everyone from Covid that still has victims of ‘long Covid’.
You might remember that over the past few of years we have mentioned that Bhante wanted to move away from Satipanya so that the Centre would be able to run without him. The situation has changed since 2019. Noirin is now managing the centre and this has taken a lot of responsibility off Bhante’s shoulders. Secondly, as he says, on reaching 75 last year, it dawned on him at last that he was an old man and on countdown! And Noirin is edging towards 70. This has brought back into focus as to how the centre can be managed in not too many years’ time.
So, we are again in the process of applying to build a bungalow or cabin on the land next to the centre to house a resident manager. If you are interested, I have copied below the letter prepared for the Planner concerned. We failed to get permission the last time we tried in 2020. This time we have the local Liberal Councillor supporting our application and there is hope in the air. Failing this, we are saving money to buy a local bungalow and, with house prices dropping, we hope to find one in the region of £300k-350k. Country bungalows are expensive! I've added the letter for permission to build a bungalow of cabin at the end.
Our added expenses last year were again caused by rats. They had eaten into a cable at the back of the block used by the air-source heating system. It costs an earth to get heating engineers to fix problems. This again shows that all the modern energy saving devices do have unforeseeable financial drawbacks. They eat away at whatever grant the government gives.
As we are all aware, inflation is on the rise, worsened by the war in Ukraine,
e.g. our electricity bill is expected to double at least.
We shall see how we get on this year. We are reluctant to raise the deposit, and instead rely on donations.
Many thanks, again, to all who donate at the retreats and all those who donate in support of the centre. The finances will be made public on Companies House and the
Charity Commission
website soon.
As always, a request for you to consider a regular donation if you have not given one before. And if you are already giving, a small addition would be gratefully received.
You can donate single and continuing gifts via PayPal:
https://www.satipanya.org.uk/donations/
£1.00 a week is a worthy gift!
However, if you prefer to offer by way of Internet Banking the details are below.
(Don’t forget to click on Gift Aid if you have a given us a form or wish to have your donation Gift Aided. You can download the form from the Donation page and email it. No need to sign.)
Metta
Richard Benjamin
Treasurer on behalf of the Trustees.
For One-Off Donations:
CURRENT A/C. Single Donations
Account Name:
Satipanya Assoc.(Buddhist Trust)
Account Number:
11 44 54 05
Sort Code:
40 34 31
Bank Address:
HSBC, 42 Courtenay Street, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 2EB, UK
International Bank Account Number (IBAN):
GB69HBUK40343111445405
Branch Identifier Code (BIC):
HBUKGB4166W
For regular standing orders/bank mandates no matter how small:
DEPOSIT A/C Bank Mandates and Regular Donations only:
Account Name:
Satipanya Assoc.(Buddhist Trust)
Account Number:
91 49 81 34
Sort Code:
40 34 31
Bank Address:
HSBC, 42 Courtenay Street, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 2EB, UK
International Bank Account Number:
GB32HBUK40343191498134
Branch Identifier Code:
HBUKGB4166W
Letter to Planning Department
Dear Mr…
You will know from our past two Pre-planning Advice Applications that we founded the centre in 2007.
Satipanya is an active rural enterprise with assets in excess of £1,000,000 and needs to raise £36K per year and is thus a contributor to the local economy as well as a role model for new retreat and health / wellness centres hoping to take advantage of the tranquil rural setting of the Powys countryside.
I ran the centre until 2020 with the help at first of resident facilitators and then with assistants who came to service the retreats. Since 2020 Noirin Sheahan came to live at the centre and is now the manager as well a Secretary to the Trust. Ms. Sheahan is now 68 and I am 76. Over the next few years, we need to find a solution to the long-term management of the centre.
Even though our previous two pre-planning applications advised us against applying for planning permission because of the rules and regulations concerning agricultural land, we hope this new application will give you enough ground to allow us to build a bungalow or cabin on the site next to us now occupied by a large, disused shed. If a cabin is allowed and the person/s has to vacate the property for a certain length of time per year, that would not pose a problem since we don’t have any courses throughout Jan to the end of March.
The Job Description shows you the full extent of the work needed to maintain the courses and the financial well-being of the centre. The main criteria is to be constantly available even during the night, should emergencies occur during the retreats which cover 35 weeks a year. Therefore, it is very important that the manager lives close to the centre.
Every institution has its rules and regulations, religious and spiritual centres that thrive in the countryside are no less rule bound by their traditions. Ours has a base rule of celibacy. Hence the need for dwelling off-site which would allow couples, married or otherwise, to apply. A couple would be ideal.
To become familiar with all the work and duties takes a whole year and to feel truly confident even longer. We would, therefore, be looking for someone to stay for at least 5 years, but hopefully much longer.
Even though the land upon which the building stands would be a loss of agricultural land, it will be replaced by a dwelling for someone who is earning a living and so allowing a countryside business to survive and thrive.
We hope that this gives you enough reason to allow this request.
