This Week: 19th September

Here at The Buddhist House we have seen many comings and goings, last week saw the arrival of all the ordained sangha within Amida-shu for the annual conclave, sequestering themselves in number 4 and becoming entirely self sufficient for the 3 days of meeting. Meanwhile the volunteer training began at number 12, Jo and James our two volunteers heading to India later this year were joined by Annie, visiting us from the south coast. (As I write this I can hear leaguer coming from  the group room, where the volunteers are enjoying learning all about teaching English as a foreign language, in India)

Following on from the Meet Amida Event (our wonderful meet and greet for local groups and neighbors, attended by 100 people all eager to find out just what exactly those people in red do) Dharmavidya and Prasada were at Waterstones, Leicester on the 15th signing copies of The Other Buddhism and Who Loves Dies Well - if you haven't got your signed copy yet, they'll be at BORDERS, (Triangle Grove) Leicester 5th October to to talk about Pureland and will be signing copies there.

We left Waterstones and headed down to London for the events there (see below) it's great to see the London Sangha pulling together and able to set up and promote events like this. We returned tired, but happy about 2am, this morning, after encountering viscous road works. Prasada's on the move again tomorrow, back to London for a Hospital Chaplaincy meeting, while Dharmavidya and Modgala head off for the Benelux retreat (22nd - 23rd).

This weekend we have one of our introductory retreats: The Other Buddhism, led by Prasada. For more information on this or any of our events please see our events weblog http://amidatrust.typepad.com/events or call 0116 2867476.

What a busy week or so in London ... Sangha members attended two anti Arms fair events (chanting at the peace demo and a candlelight vigil), an Islington peace event, put up a new sign outside Sukhavati - which had an immediate effect when a passerby joined us for the Wednesday practice, tidied-up and planted the front garden (well, four chrysanthemums anyway), had several conference calls to allot the final tasks for the Open Day and the book launch events, a Vow 22 meeting at Joan's, delivering leaflets to local venues, front doors, St James & various bookshops .... even as I type (Friday night) vegan pates and cakes are being made for Sunday. S*d's Law: the council have chosen this moment to dig up the pavement right outside Sukhavati and close off open access just in time for Sunday - if they haven't moved on by Sunday some creative and rather minor civic (sic) disobedience may be in order.
Later...
Both events were a great success. We had a constant stream of guests throughout the open day, talking to about 30 people in all, some old friends and some new. Services were presided over by Dharmavidya and Prasada who came along with Gareth from Narborough to support the Open Day, and for the Book Launch Tuesday night. The book launch was another good event, smaller numbers, but a much more intently interested audience - Cordelia introduced Prasada  and Dharmavidya who talked about the process of writing and then shared some extracts, which some lively discussion followed.

Amida Sheffield

In the last couple of weeks we have made some interesting visits. Sundari went with Willemien to Three Wheels temple in Action, and from there with Hirokosan, wife of Rev Sato of Three Wheels who is a patron of Amida Trust, to Brookwood cemetery, where Three Wheels have recently instituted a stupa. Here, ashes may be buried when people die. We tended the stupa area, removing debris and cutting the grass, and Sundari and Willemien discovered the versatility of chop sticks as cleaning tools. Brookwood, near Woking, is an amazing and huge cemetery - very beautiful - where there are areas designated for instance: Serbian Orthodox, Ahmadiyya, Zoroastrian, and more and more.

 

A short visit to Three Wheels was very delightful. The house looks like any other semi-detached house in North London, except there is some interesting stone in the front garden. But then inside, after the shoes and the children and the kitchen - all the features of ordinary domestic life - the huge carpeted lounge is a shrine room, and in the back garden is a peaceful stone and gravel garden of the Zen kind. It is truly a household life based on faith and a religious community.

 

Back in Sheffield, Bhaktika and Sundari visited the Jewish orthodox synagogue with members of the Faiths Forum and faith leaders. The importance of human connection was very evident, and of course the importance of scriptures.

 

A member of the Faiths Forum came to 118 for lunch, and found our lives and practice also very fascinating - so exchange is much in the air. This is being developed also now by Sally. A methodist minister had made it known that he would welcome the involvement of volunteers from other faiths in the city centre Sunday drop -in, and Sally has begun to volunteer there, giving time to people who probably don't get listened to enough.

 

City of Sanctuary is going well. Today is the press launch of Sheffield City Council's official endorsement of the idea, and we have been involved with Craig Barnett in getting support from Sheffield University for the consultation process that now needs to happen to make this a substantial change that affects people's lives.

 

It's not all sweetness and light here though. There have been some serious disturbances between ethnic groups in one part of Sheffield, and Bhaktika is very involved in supporting MESH to bring some dialogue and ease the situation. His work recently has also involved a lot of bringing dialogue in tough places. Due to the nature of it we cannot often write much in these updates, but we can let you know it's going on.

 

The group continues to meet on a Monday, and there have been quite a few new people coming to the lunchtime meditation at the Cathedral recently.

 

That's all!

Amida Sheffield