newcastle centre opening

for another little snippet about the newcastle opening, click on the header of this item and it will take you to FWBO news which has a wee bit on the opening

an inconvenient truth

have you seen "an inconvenient truth"? click on the header to go the web page. if you haven't seen it, buy the dvd - or borrow it - but see it. if you have seen it, watch it again with friends. when you've done that, watch the credits at the end carefully - and do the things it suggests. i am convinced that climate change is one of the biggest threats to the world and that as a buddhist i must act in whatever ways i can, however small. in the movie, al gore says (and i think he is right with this - that people go straight from "denial to despair". we think there's so much to do that we can't do it all so we migfht as well do nothing. as mother teresa said: " people say my work is a drop in the ocean and i reply that the ocean is made of drops". on the topic of going from denial to despair he says we don't know how to be in the middle ground. i think joanna macy's "work that reconnects" can help with that. See link below to her web page for an idea of the work.

and band together with others who want to make changes.

on the web page there are things we can do. click the link for 10 things. then, let's do them.

the picture is scotland btw, i just like it!

scottish retreat

these are the folks that attended the retreat i did with the highland sangha at the end of feb. it was great to spend time with them all - they are an interesting bunch. spot the wee new member of the sangha.


this is the beach near where we had our highlands retreat. it was a gorgeous spot. it was on a peninsula about an hour and a half north of inverness. the sky was absolutely fantastic and it was really a good setting for the theme of the retreat. we based it round "the work that reconnects" - joanna macy's title for the workshops looking at how we respond to the world. for me it was also rather poignant having a baby on the retreat. gunapala and his wife suzie were there with their 3 month old daughter eva. something about doing this work and looking at the state we are leaving the world in for eva's generation with eva gurgling away in folks' arms was a very strong experience for me - and i know it was for others there as well. if you want more info about that work have a look at the link below to joanna's web page.

on the saturday night we watched the al gore movie "an inconvenient truth". i have seen it 5 times now but will write separately about it.

grok

i often use the verb "to grok" and not everyone groks it. so i just found this ref in wikapedia so go look (click on the header)

some of my friends

to see some photos of a few of my friends, click on the header.

newcastle trip - centre opening

i really enjoyed the opening ceremony at the new centre in newcastle. i had a great weekend. the photo on the top is the buddha rupa and the red splodge on it is the thread that we used in the ceremony. unfortunately my photos of that bit didn't come out that well. basically we did a ritual in which we expressed our interconnectedness by passing a rather lovely red thread around and between us and then while holding it people expressed their good wishes for the future of the centre.
the other photo is of the string quartet who played for us over supper on the saturday evening. they were fantastic and they played a variety of music, mainly classical but with a good spattering of old favourites as well. it was very generous of them and was a lovely way to be together with other members of the sangha.

for more info about the newcastle centre click on the header to this post and if you want a fuller account of the opening, subscribe to their newsletter.

newcastle trip - poppy

padmanatha and poppy, was lovely to visit them again. last year padmanatha and heather asked me if i would be the "buddhamother" or whatever the term is for poppy - along with nandavajra. i wasn't sure given my lifestyle how much good i'd be as i am always travelling and don't get to newcastle very often but they said that was fine. they just felt they would like to have me in her life. but since her birth last may i have only managed to visit twice. anyway, i am really fond of padmanatha and of heather so i am very happy to build up a relationship with poppy. and, as you can see, she is a wee darling.

friends visiting taraloka

mel and koti just popped in to say hi which was nice.

hi I'm back

here i am with some time (hopefully) to catch up a bit with my blog. i am working on the phones today at taraloka so can't really get on with some of the things I need to get on with so while i sit here on the desk waiting for the phone to ring, let's see if i can catch up a bit from the last few weeks. i will write seperate entries on things but here's a list of what i have been up to recently:

opening ceremony for the newcastle buddhist centre and a couple of days with sanghajivani up north
weekend retreat for the highland sangha
weekend workshop at the bristol buddhist centre
day conference run by the community develepment foundation on "integration, if not now, then when"

as well as the things i have been doing here at taraloka in front of my computer or on the phone.