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: Sunday 24 March!
Here in rural Powys on the edge of an AONB (Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty) - the Shropshire Hills, with Tesco deliveries, we are far removed from the violence in other parts of the world.
Even so the 'death' of Alexei Navalny is especially chilling. Navalny will not leave the lagacy of a Gandhi or Mandela, but his courage places him high in the same cohort of modern day martyrs which include all the lesser known journalists, dissidents and protestors. There is a Storyville Documentary
Navalny
on BBC iPlayer which tells the story of his poisoning and how he came to make an operative say who gave the order.
For me, it is a great sadness to see the open society, the liberal order I have enjoyed throughout my life, struggling with internal contradictions. Remembering that the Buddha was involved in the politics of his day, I see a danger that our practice, centring on purifying our own hearts and mind, may lead us to turn away from the mounting crises that threaten to engulf us. Rather we should turn into the turbulent times, know where we stand and find the courage to let it be known. And we have a catalogue of martyrs whose courage we can draw upon.
Yet, even in these brooding times, let's not forget to notice the daffodils.
Announcements
Online Wintertime Practice:
Bringing the Dhamma into our Everyday Life. See full course description:
P.O.D.L.
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.
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]
This fortnightly collaborative study group has just finished
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
, and are moving on to studying
the
jhāna
s, as taught by Rob Burbea
, in order to better understand this mainstay of the suttas, and how they contribute to the practice of vipassana. We
warmly extend an invitation to any practitioner
who would like to join us. Currently meeting on the second and fourth Sundays of each month at 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 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.
Opening to the Impact of the Climate Emergency:
Following on from the Zoom with Gwen Sanderson and Bhante Bodhidhamma in September last year, 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.
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.
The 2024 Calander is now available for courses into September.
You can apply any time, but please only when you are certain.
Compassion : A
Path of Liberation
Bhante Bodhidhamma
Although Right Understanding stands first on the Eightfold Path and is certainly the accent of the Buddha’s teaching, the second is Right Attitude. Here we find selfishness transforming into generosity, hatred into love and cruelty into compassion, and implied all unwholesome mental states turn into their opposite. The inner discomfort and distress caused by unwholesome mental states raises the desire to be rid of them and to make constant effort to purify our hearts.
In so doing, we find ourselves becoming more generous, more loving, more caring. And these virtues connect us with fellow humans and all sentient beings. Our behaviour moves towards spontaneous response, appropriate to the given circumstance – giving freely, rejoicing and caring. Our relationships change from ‘me’ to ‘we’. Sometimes we care for the other by allowing them to care for us! This is the experience of not-self in action.
Since we are in a constant state of flux where words, images, feelings and sensations resonate within us, you can never point to anything and say that is solely me or solely mine. Just become aware of talking to anyone and realising that you are receiving words that produce images in your mind, feelings that resonate in your heart and that we are responding and causing the similar conditions to arise in them. This is true also for the pleasures and joys of life as when we share a spoonful of a served dish with the other and we delight in a spoonful of theirs. These Tips I write are distilled from articles and books.
This not-self, then, is not pointing to some abstruse proposition that we have to grasp intellectually. It points to a way of being and behaving in the world that is not governed by an insular sense of who I am, cosseted by a few, but alienated from the many.
Although developing compassion became almost if not more important than developing wisdom in later Buddhism, the one feeds into the other. Our insight practice leads us to understanding and directly experiencing not-self in that this organism does not constitute a whole entire, self-existent being, but is made up of parts over which we have little control, manifested primarily in that we cannot stop the process of ageing and death. And any wrong view leads to suffering at some level or another. And I’m not alone. This leads to contemplating that all beings suffer.
When my prolapsed disc gave me debilitating sciatica, it’s good for me to remember I’m not the only one. My suffering is not especially unique and noble! Or as Samuel Beckett puts it: Is there any suffering loftier than mine? As I offer patient forbearance to myself, I then make an offering that all beings suffering from sciatica may develop patient forbearance. It was a comfort to me when retreatant said he had suffered from severe sciatica himself and was on crutches off and on for two years and he fully recovered. It gave me the courage to keep on bearing up with the pain rather than going for an operation which my doctor and everyone else was telling me to avoid. Even the spinal consultant warned me to keep away from spinal surgeons!!!
The Tibetan Tonglen Practice
[i]
helps us dismantle the barriers created by the belief that we are independent beings. In this way our self-centredness, transforming into generosity and compassion, expands to embrace all sentient beings. And there, paradoxically we find our true happiness.
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.
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