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Noirin here - Bhante is teaching the second of his 4-week slots of the summer retreat at the moment.
An update on the Bishops Castle house puchase - we've just made an offer on a house in Corporation Street - two-story, semi-detached with a long garden backing into a park and lovely views of the surrounding hills and countryside. We hope it will provide comfortable accommodation for a manager and a fine setting for local group meetings, strengthening the Satipnaya sangha.
Midsummer has brought a new brood of moorehen chicks in the pond. They're generally camera-shy but Andy caught video of one of the
chicks
and I caught one of
mammy
. Luckilly one of the April brood has survived and is getting along with its new siblings. The others ... I suspect our next-door neighbour's cat, Hui recognised him as an unusual strain from the Turkish-Iranian border -
a swimming cat who catches fish for a livelihood.
Bad news for wildlife in the pond, lets hope the moorhen family survives.
During the month I read the book Bhante recommended in last month's newsbyte: The Invisible Doctrine - The Secret History of Neoliberalism by G.Monbiot and P.Hitchinson. For those who dread heavy political tombs I can assure you the book is short and very readable.
Here's a summary.
Announcements
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 collaborative study group is currently 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
vipassanā
. 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 10:20am - around midday. Please contact Carl at
[email protected]
for further information.
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 available for courses into September.
You can apply any time, but please only when you are certain.
There is a Body: Exploring the Mind-Body Relationship
Noirin Sheahan
One of the exercises given in the Satipatthana Sutta (often considered the most important of the Buddha's teachings because it guides us along a ‘direct path’ to liberation and is suited to both lay and monastic practitioners) is to note: “There is a body” while sitting in formal meditation.
This might provoke the thought “Of course there’s a body, I’m sitting here, what’s the point in stating the obvious?” A perfectly reasonable question. But remember we’re in formal meditation, so questions are just another thing to be aware of. So we note ‘’questioning … questioning’ and explore the experience of questioning. What flavours do we find here? The flavour of uncertainty perhaps? That’s one I find quite easily in meditation – at least one thing I can usually count on!
Changing the noting word to “Unsure … unsure…” I get a new view of experience. I notice a pinch of tension in my neck. Focussing there, the tension relaxes showing me uncertainty's nebulous aspect. Clouds of doubt may seem to be puffing out of the body. Where am I in all this strangeness? Sometimes I seem to be centred in one or other of the puffing clouds. Sometimes I seem to be lured back inside the tissues of the body. The noting words might change to “heaviness … heaviness …” as I register the earthy nature of the body. The closer I get, the more certain I feel. Something seems reliable at last. For a moment...
For a moment I know the hardness and heaviness of the bones in the arms, the back, the legs, the skull, and then uncertainty creeps in again: Whose arms? … There seem to be arms hanging from my shoulders as usual. And if I try, I can lift them. But the notion ‘my arms’ doesn’t seem to fit. The phrase “There is a body” comes back to mind and now finds resonance. This no longer seems to be stating the obvious, but a lifeline, a way of making sense of a strange and unsettling situation.
Knowing the body objectively as fostered by the phrase “there is a body”, I sense gratitude for its stability, its powers of movement; for the life it offers, moment after moment. And yet it is, in this moment at least, quite obviously not me, not mine. Another question arises: How can something so close, so intimate, so necessary, be other than me and mine? In answer, fear and aversion displace gratitude, compete for dominance, struggle to proclaim their story. But neither can get a lasting grip on the situation; the body simply breathes through them. It takes no notice, bless it!
The body-mind relationship is complex. At times we identify with the body, at other times with some aspect of the mind: feelings, perceptions, habits, consciousness. Its like being made up of a squabbling committee! And yet all our complex mental life, our hopes, fears, ambitions, dreams – all depend on their being a body breathing away quietly in the background, heart pumping, stomach digesting, feet walking.
In our delusion, we take this miracle of biology totally for granted. Not a healthy way of relating to our earthly nature. The Satipatthana exercise of noting “there is a body” gives us a practical way of healing the mind-body relationship.
Like all intimate relationships, the mind-body one is a challenge. Who likes being totally dependent? And yet here we are, till death do us part, tied up within an unreliable body, full of blood, sweat and tears, liable to pain at any moment, prone to illness, growing older and less able day by day. No wonder the mind tries to deny such an unedifying relationship, escape into fantasy!
Luckily the body holds no grudges. And luckily, greed, hatred and delusion are no more permanent and reliable than any other state of mind. Within the gaze of mindfulness, the body is the perfect partner. It puts a limit on fantasies of hope and fear, allows delusion free reign to express displeasure at the chains of mortality. When the storm abates, its there, ready to get on with the practicalities of life.
Try the exercise sometime: sit in meditation and note “There is a body”. Let the reflection take you on whatever merry-go-round it likes, trusting this as the Buddha’s suggestion for how we find freedom from suffering as we heal our mind-body relationship.
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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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