|
Buddha Community |
ALBA Bulletins | |
|
|
Dear friends Welcome to the Amaravati Lay Buddhist Association's sixth email bulletin of 2010, in which you will find news of forthcoming ALBA events at Amaravati. In this issue:
If you have any queries or comments about what you read here, I'd be pleased to hear from you. Alison Moore, on behalf of the ALBA Committee Email: Tel: 01442 865519 ________________________________________________________________ COMING UP Saturday 5th June Day of Practice Savour the moment Led by Alison Moore “Tasting the flavour of solitude and the nectar of peace, those who drink the joy that is the essence of reality abide free from fear of evil.” Dhammapada xv, 205 “We can only know Dhamma through direct experience. It is like the taste of honey — if someone else tastes it, we still don’t know its flavour. We may know the chemical formula or be able to recite all the great poetry ever written about honey, but only when we taste it for ourselves do we really know what it is like. It is the same with Dhamma: we have to taste it, we have to know it directly.” Ajahn Sumedho Now is the Knowing “What is Dhamma? Nothing isn’t” Ajahn Chah in No Ajahn Chah So this day will be what each of us makes it – join us! Registration from 9.30 am in the Retreat Centre kitchen for a prompt 10.00 am start in the Retreat Centre Shrine Room. You are invited to bring ready-prepared food towards a shared vegetarian lunch to the Retreat Centre kitchen. There will be tea at 5.00pm after the closing session. No booking required. All are welcome No fee, though donations towards costs are appreciated.
NB We need volunteers to help us with receiving food and with meal preparation
on the day. No experience is needed, and all are welcome to offer their
services, but if you know the Retreat Centre kitchen your knowledge would be
much appreciated. Visit us at www.buddhacommunity.org Or contact: Alison Moore: 01442 865519 metta@petalmoore.net Visit us at www.buddhacommunity.org Or contact: Alison Moore: 01442 865519 metta@petalmoore.net ________________________________________________________________ ALBA FIVE-DAY RETREAT Friday 16th – Tuesday 20th July Friday16th – Tuesday 20th July Five-day retreat The four noble truths - the Buddha's first sermon Led by Martin Evans Registration on Friday from 5pm, soup from 6pm, starts 7.30 pm Finishes 4.00 pm Tuesday The Four Noble Truths The Four Noble Truths are the essence of the Buddha’s teaching. This is what the Buddha taught in his first sermon at the deer park at Sarnath near Varanasi on the full moon of July. Most Buddhists are familiar with them, perhaps so familiar they maytake them for granted, rather than use them to transform their lives. Newcomers to Buddhism may have been attracted by meditation or mindfulness, but do not really know how these fit into the core teachings. This retreat will be an opportunity to practise mindfulness – there will be periods of guided and silent meditation – as well as time for reflection and discussion on the theme. Newcomers welcome For more information contact Alison Moore on 01442 865519 or metta@petalmoore.net Download a booking form from www.buddhacommunity.org Booking essential. ________________________________________________________________ ALBA EVENTS IN 2010 - DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Here are the dates for ALBA events at Amaravati Retreat Centre up until the end of 2010.
Saturday 14th August Day of Practice Led by Alison Moore
Saturday 18th September Day of Practice Introduced by Martin Evans
Friday 1st - Sunday 3rd October Weekend retreat Led by Chris Ward
Saturday 13th November Day of Practice Led by Nick Carroll
Saturday 18th December Day of Practice Led by Nick Carroll _______________________________________________________________ GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT ALBA DAYS OF PRACTICE AND RETREATS Days of Practice – no need to book Registration begins at 9.30 am for 10.00 am – 5.00 pm (please bring pre-prepared or ready-made vegetarian food towards a shared lunch) Retreats – advance booking essential with booking form Fri 5.30 pm – 4.00 pm on last day Or write to: Amaravati Lay Buddhist Association (ALBA), Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, St Margaret's Lane, Great Gaddesden, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP1 3BZ For more information about booking, contact Alison Moore on 01442 865519 or Click here for more information about our 2010 events ________________________________________________________________ COMMUNITY Community is your newsletter, and we welcome contributions on all aspects of Buddhist practice. Is there a reflection or a memory that you'd like to share with fellow practitioners? Maybe you've read a Dhamma book that's made a big impression on you, or even a book with no obvious Buddhist content but in which you see a clear connection with the Buddha's teachings. Why not review it for Community? Maybe there's a poem or a drawing that you'd like to offer, or photographs that recall an unforgettable trip to the Buddhist holy places. Maybe you have an unanswered question that you'd like to air with other readers. Please email your submissions to Chris Ward at: c.ward@triplegem.org.uk Read the most recent issue of Community here Check out previous issues of Community ________________________________________________________________ ALBA AND YOU The Amaravati Lay Buddhist Association is no more nor less than its members and supporters ... and that includes you! Every one of you who attends an ALBA event, who subscribes to ALBA's newsletter, Community, who is a member of our Yahoo! group, ALBA Connections, or who reads this bulletin, is part of ALBA, and helps to make it what it is. Of course, ALBA is also a working organisation, and as you're a part of it, you might like to find out more about ALBA’s purpose and how it operates.. And if what you read inspires you to become more involved in the day-to-day organisation of ALBA and its events, we'd be pleased to hear from you. You may have particular skills to offer, or have a specific need which you think ALBA might meet. You might want to consider joining our committee in its occasional meetings or simply to help support our activities in practical ways. Whatever your interest, just get in touch. Telephone Alison Moore on 01442 86559 or email me at metta@petalmoore.net and I'll arrange for one of the committee to contact you. ________________________________________________________________ ALBA CONNECTIONS Do you live a long way from a monastery or a local group? Or are you housebound or otherwise limited in how much you can get out and about? Would you like to meet like-minded people in your part of the country? Are you looking for a lift to the monastery to come to a day of practice? Or would you be prepared to offer one?
We've set up the ALBA Connections Yahoo! group to enable you to contact each
other directly, for example to discuss Dhamma topics, to support each other's
practice, to make practical arrangements, for example for lifts to events at
Amaravati, or simply to make conversation with Dhamma friends. ________________________________________________________________ TRIPLE GEM – THE BUDDHIST FOUNDATION Triple Gem (TGBF) has recently been transformed from a web based ‘think tank’ into ‘The Triple Gem Buddhist Foundation’ and has been registered with the Charities Commission. The new charitable foundation will have a broader remit and will enable us to expand our role to include teaching, organising events, and producing Buddhist teaching materials. The directors of TGBF are Chris Ward, Nick Carroll, Martin Evans and Alison Moore. TGBF is currently developing LifeSkills Mindfulness courses and is intending to run a teacher training programme in the autumn for experienced practitioners wishing to run 8 week LifeSkills courses to the public. You’ll find more details of the LifeSkills Mindfulness courses on the TGBF website. If you are interested in joining a future LSM course as a participant, or in applying to become an LSM teacher, then please contact Alison Moore at metta@petalmoore.net or Chris Ward at c.ward@triplegem.org.uk The TGBF website provides details of all TGBF activities. Visit the Triple Gem Buddhist Foundationm _______________________________________________________________ THE NETWORK OF BUDDHIST ORGANISATIONS The Network of Buddhist Organisations (NBO), of which ALBA is a member, has been active for many years in bringing together Buddhists from all backgrounds and traditions and in working on behalf of the UK Buddhist community. The NBO has a growing profile as a national Buddhist organisation that consults with the diverse range of Buddhist organisations and groups to be found in the UK. The NBO is now a charity with full effect from 15th May and is making major changes to its structure and management to enable it to meet the increasingly complex demands on it time and collective expertise from Government bodies and other organisations, for example by contributing to educational initiatives and interfaith forums, as well as by promoting networking and information exchange between Buddhist groups. At an Extraordinary General Meeting on the 20th March, the NBO membership agreed to move the NBO to its new charitable constitution and to accept a Code of Conduct for all full member organisations. The Code is based firmly on acceptance of the five precepts as guidelines for action. The NBO initially has four trustees from the following organisations:
The full NBO committee includes members from a broad range of Buddhist organisations The Annual General Meeting of the NBO took place on Sat 15th May at Jamyang Buddhist Centre. The NBO is currently considering a number of projects including:
If you would like to learn more about the NBO and its plans, or would be interested in getting involved, you can find out more from ALBA’s representatives, Chris Ward c.ward@triplegem.org.uk or Alison Moore metta@petalmoore.net. Or come along on Saturday to: Jamyang Buddhist Centre, The Old Courthouse, 43 Renfrew Road, London SE11 4NA Read Chris Ward's Buddhism in Britain blog _______________________________________________________________ CREATIVE AWAKENING - ORDINARY OR EXTRAORDINARY LIVING ? July 10th 2010 This is a one-day seminar organised by The Institute of Oriental Philosophy. UK. It follows the IOP's very successful conference last year on Buddhism and creativity, and will be the first in a series of interwoven seminars exploring the idea of ‘Creative Awakening’. The first seminar ‘Ordinary or Extraordinary Living?’ will consider how creativity, attention and consciousness can inform the quality of our daily lives. The speakers are Dr Gay Watson and John Danvers. There will also be opportunities for dialogue and a panel discussion session. ALBA supporters will be particularly interested to hear that Samanera Amaranatho from Amaravati will be on the panel. Dr Gay Watson trained as a psychotherapist with the Karuna Institute of Core Process Psychotherapy, a Buddhist-inspired psychotherapy training in the UK. She has a doctorate in the field of Buddhist Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. She is the author of Beyond Happiness: Deepening the Dialogue between Buddhism, Psychotherapy and the Mind Sciences (Karnac 2008); The Resonance of Emptiness (Routledge Curzon 2001) and co-editor of The Psychology of Awakening (Rider 1999) . John Danvers is an artist, writer and academic. His works include drawings, paintings, installations and performance works and recently digital projections with live spoken texts. He has exhibited and lectured widely around the world including his well received talk at last year’s IOP conference entitled ‘Zack Hitti Zopp’. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Internet Journal: Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, and is the author of Picturing Mind: Paradox, Indeterminacy and Consciousness in Art and Poetry (Rodopi 2006). Download a booking form from The Institute of Oriental Philosophy _______________________________________________________________
PRINT IT OUT AND PASS IT ON Sign up to receive a regular copy of this bulletin in your inbox – just email Alison Moore at metta@petalmoore.net and I will add you to the circulation list.
Amaravati Lay Buddhist Association (ALBA)
|