Here is a copy of the BAM Handbook from 2016 to give you ideas of how you can change yourself and the world this June! 

Welcome to Triratna Meditation Lewes

The Triratna Lewes Buddhist Group has been meeting regularly since 2010. We offer classes in five- or six-week blocks throughout the year apart from a break during the summer. Newcomers are welcome to join us.

Classes cover various aspects of meditation practice and Buddhist teaching and encourage the building of friendship among members of the group.

Contact us at:  triratnalewes [at] gmail.com

For full details of all our activities, see our website:
www.triratnameditationlewes.co.uk

FutureDharma Fund’s Major Project round for funding in 2019 is now open for applications. Major projects are those seeking more than £3,000 overall, which can include large multi-year projects.

Although demand usually always outstrip our capacity to provide funding, inviting a broad range of applications each year, particularly internationally, helps to ensure that we support the most effective projects which offer the best value for the funding available.

Major projects funded in 2018 include:

• Supporting the development of Young People’s activities throughout India, through funding a ‘Youth Council’ and network for young facilitators.
• Shortfall funding for the work of the Indian Ordination teams
• Supporting a local Public Preceptor to connect and support the 8 centres and groups in Australia.
• Funding a Young Person’s Coordinator role for Australian and New Zealand to help support and develop activities for younger people to encounter the Dharma.
• Providing travel and visa bursaries for attendees from poorer countries to attend a month long Adhisthana International Leadership Course.
• Supporting an Indian Movement Coordinator to support cooperation between India’s 36 Buddhist centres.
• Supporting a team of Order Members and mitras to fly to Venezuela to run retreats supporting local GFR mitras.
• Providing bursaries for a young Indian man and a young Venezuelan woman to attend the 5 month Adhisthana Dharmalife courses.
• Resourcing a Spanish language publishing house (Publicaciones Dhammamegha) to bring together existing translations and make more Dharma books available in Spanish.
• Funding additional translations via the Translations Board into Swedish, Russian, Italian, Turkish and Hungarian.
• Contributing to the support for a Mainland European Public Preceptor
• Ongoing support for the development of activities in Walsaw, Poland

If you have a Dharma project which would benefit from FutureDharma funding, please firstly write to me at viryanaga [at] futuredharma.org with a short outline of your proposed project. If your project is suitable, I will then be able to support you in making an application.

The closing date for applications to this round will be Monday 9th July 2018.

If this closing date is particularly problematic, please do contact me ahead of time and I might be able to help.

FutureDharma also offers a small grants program for projects requesting less than £3,000 overall, which is open for applications throughout the year. For more info see: https://thebuddhistcentre.com/futuredharma/futuredharma-fund-small-grants-programme

Our regular Sangha Gathering this week, Sunday, June 3, will be cancelled as there will be a memorial service at 11 am that morning for Bodhana, a local Order Member who passed away a few weeks ago. All who knew Bodhana are invited to attend. Written remembrances will be collected and compiled into a memory book. Details on this and the service are available here: 

https://mailchi.mp/aryaloka/you-are-invited-to-a-celebration-of-dh-bodhanas-life?e=ec9bcc1193

We send our condolences to Bodhana’s family and friends. 

This FBA Dharmabyte, 'Working at Your Own Pace' is an excerpt from an Anapanasati Retreat led by Viveka, with her fresh and vibrant take on the traditional practice of anapanasati - mindfulness with breathing.

Using the breath as a stabilizing presence, this series of meditations (including two fully-guided practices) is designed to help us discover the nature of reality itself by encouraging us to notice what is actually happening each moment in a direct and open way. Anapanasati is a complete path to awakening or enlightenment.

Please note that some small noise artefacts can be heard occasionally on these tracks due to a poor original recording. Retreat recorded at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2003 This talk is part of the series Anapanasati Retreat 2003.

Subscribe to the Dharmabytes podcast

…there was something which came through Bhante which really was full of Dharma qualities, and that’s what started Triratna…

 Vessantara’s Annals
In 1968 I’m 18, and spend eight months working in clerical jobs, earning money before going to Cambridge University to study English. I’ve adopted a hippie view of the world and spend hours in my friend Les Doyle’s attic bedroom, which is painted black and decorated with silver foil, listening to early Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. I’m reading about eastern religions, but although the ideas of Buddhism are compelling, the books I have access to are dry as dust. 

In 1978 I’m 28, ordained for about 4 years, and have already been Chair of our Brighton Centre. Now I start the year as treasurer of the right livelihood co-operative we have set up in Croydon, South London. I live in Aryatara Community with six others. We operate a common purse system, in which everyone pays in whatever they’ve earned, and I give them all £5 per week pocket money. Later in the year I move to Bethnal Green to help with the final push to finish and open the LBC. I start as an ineffectual labourer, and become a painter, apprenticed to Jyotipala. Between the two of us we paint the whole centre. 

In 1988 I’m 38, living in a small community at Guhyaloka, our Spanish mountain retreat centre. This year I lead my sixth 3-month men’s ordination course (the eighth I’ve been part of the team for). I spend the rest of my time meditating and working on the first draft of Meeting the Buddhas. Conditions are hard in the winter: living in a small plaster hut, no phone, and a Land Rover of pensionable age for getting supplies. However, I’m mostly deeply contented, living much of the time in the world of buddhas, bodhisattvas and tantric deities.

In 1998 I’m 48, and living at Madhyamaloka in Birmingham, I’m Overall Order Convenor, responsible for helping Order members around the world keep in communication and harmony. I’m president of our centres in Birmingham, Brighton and Bristol, and a member of the Preceptors College Council – a group of 13 of us who are taking on Bhante’s responsibilities. In fact, although I’m being helpful in a number of areas, I’m ridiculously busy and my life is out of balance. 

In 2008 I’m now 58. I’ve put down nearly all my responsibilities, although I’ve taken on being private preceptor to 15 men, which is a privilege. I’m living with Vijayamala in Cambridge, but this year we head out to do a 3-year guided intensive meditation retreat, living in a couple of old wooden circus wagons in the Dordogne, France. 
 
In 2018 I’m 68 in March. I’m back in Cambridge with Vijayamala, spending a lot of time leading retreats for Order members or other experienced meditators, which I find very fulfilling. I feel very fortunate in the life I’ve led. However, I’m aware that time is running out, and who knows how long I have left to practise the Dharma and offer my experience to others. For now, I’m in pretty good health, still going to the gym, running, doing qigong, And I’m still exploring the ‘universe within’ – which is the meaning of the name I was given by Bhante, over 45 years ago.

+ follow to be notified when new voices are released

BAM is about to kick off in the Dublin Buddhist Centre!  This is our main BAM page.

Below is a section of what we’ve sent our Sangha, including challenges that we are asking people to sign up for, after which they’ll be sent weekly updates and resources by ‘champions’ for each challenge! 

And we also have a Padlet page where people can update everyone else on how they’re getting on with their challenge.

Our BAM Events are:

• Film Night - Angry Buddha
  Friday 8th June 2018, from 7pm. Hosted by Vajrashura and Sadayasihi.
  This film is about the curious and inspiring story of the Hungarian gypsies who were inspired to start Dr Ambedkar High School to help young Roma/gypsies to a better life, and is focused around Janós Orsòs, a Triratna Mitra.
   
• Exploring Beethoven’s Fidelio - Liberation, Fidelity and Enlightenment
  Sunday 10th June 2018, 2pm - 4pm. Hosted by Eamonn Lawlor.
  How do we remain true to our ideals? Eamonn will discuss and present extracts from Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio: a story of heroic love and resistance to tyranny, composed in the aftermath of the French Revolution, just one expression of creativity in the face of challenge.
   
• Dharma Talk - Dr. Ambedkar & the Dhamma Revolution in the West
  Friday 15th June 2018, from 7pm. By Jnanadhara.
  Dr. Ambedkar was a great social reformer in India who converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of his followers, in order to help them escape the crushing oppression of caste. What can Buddhists in the West learn from this peaceful revolution instigated in India by Dr. Ambedkar?
   
• Solidarity with All Beings: Making a Stand - Meditation Day on Metta
  Saturday 16th June 2018, 10am - 4.30pm. Led by Jnanadhara.
  A day exploring the far-reaching implications of Metta Bhavana meditation, how it can bring us into greater solidarity and connection with outselves and others.
   
• Meditation Practice Morning
  Sunday 17th June 2018, 10am - 1pm. Led by Maitrikaya.
  This practice morning will have a special BAM flavour, evoked by readings and with three meditation sits to support and nourish us in our Dharmic efforts in the world.
   
• Summer Solstice Ritual
  Tuesday 19th June 2018, 7.30pm - 9.45pm, as part of Sangha Night. Led by Pavara & team.
  We will be connecting more with the passing of the seasons by celebrating the Summer Solstice, an important time of year in the seasonal calendar, celebrated by people on this island for millenia.
   
• Writing for Transformation
  Saturday 23rd June 2018, 2pm - 5pm. Led by Liz Evers.
  On this workshop we will be looking at how we can use writing to support the arising of insight! We will be exploring these practices from Writing Your Way and The Poet’s Way by Manjusvara, as well as Ira Progoff’s journaling system. Just bring pen and paper.
   
• Biodiversity Tour and Cycle in Phoenix Park
  Sunday 24th June 2018, from 12pm. Led by Declan Brennan.
  Explore the fantastic diversity in nature that is the Phoenix Park - and do it on your bike! Declan will expertly guide us around this beautiful space, and we can have a picnic afterwards! For this event we will meet in the Papal Cross car-park at 12pm.
   
• Special Sub-35s Group
  Friday 29th June 2018, 7.30pm - 10pm. Hosted by the Sub-35s Group.
  A special BAM Sub-35s Group night, open to anyone, regardless of age!
   
• Sangha Hike in the Wicklow Mountains
  Sunday 30th June 2018, from 9.30am. Led by Vajrashura and Rijumuni.
  Vajrashura and Rijumuni will be leading a walk in the Wicklow mountains a way of reconnecting with nature and reminding us of why cherishing environmental sustainability is so important, as well as how nature can have such a positive effect on our Dharma practice. A great chance to reconnect with nature! (Requires hiking gear and a reasonable level of fitness.)

All these events are on a donation basis. For some events, we would ask people to book on beforehand - see our BAM Events Page for more details.

Take a BAM Challenge
And, of course, intention is not much use in the world without action! So we’d really encourage you to think about taking on one or more of the pledges for the month…

The pledges for 2018 include:

• Reducing our use of plastic
• Doing a digital detox, reducing and purifying our use of social media
• Going more vegetarian or vegan
• Practising ethical consumerism, e.g. buying only recycled clothes, or buying only the bare minimum necessary
• Reducing your carbon footprint
• Picking litter each day
• Planting a tree!

So why not take a challenge or even a few challenges! And we’ll send you resources to help you in your efforts, and ways of staying in touch with others doing the same challenge.

Finally, you can see more details at the DBCBAM Page, and read more about people’s activites and inspirations worldwide at the Triratna BAM Page.

Buddhist Action Month is happening! What action are you going to take?

With metta,
Vajrashura.

Today, the 1st June, marks the start of Buddhist Action Month, a festival of social action which is being marked by many Buddhist groups across the UK and Europe.  In Triratna, Sanghas across our community have been preparing for this event and incorporating events and activities in their various programmes.

In Southampton in the UK there will be talks on the theme of transformation, a workshop exploring Engaged Buddhism through the work of Joanna Macy, an India evening and a special puja - as well as an invitation to join in a weeklong digital detox. In Dublin there’s a range of events from a film night showing Angry Buddha (about Hungarian Gypsies who were inspired by Dr Ambedkar) to a biodiversity tour and cycle to ‘writing for transformation’ workshop and more besides.  The Dublin Buddhist Centre are also inviting individuals to make pledges for the month and share their tips on a padlet. And in Adelaide in Australia, things kicked off early to include Buddha day, as “what better example could we have of ‘transforming self transforming world’ than the Buddha Shakyamuni”. The Adelaide Sangha will be exploring what kind of new collective myth we can bring into being over the course of the month.

Keep in touch with what’s going on through our community during Buddhist Action Month by clicking +Follow on the dedicated Buddhist Action Month page and do share what you or your Sangha are doing.

Here are some updates on what’s going on in Windhorse Publications.

Mindfully Facing Disease and Death by Analayo won a Nautilus Award in the category of ‘aging consciously’.  Analayo’s book is a practical guide for those facing disease and death by helping them to access the ageless wisdom of the Buddha’s teaching. The Nautilus Award was established in the U.S. in 1998 is an annual award in the genre of social and environmental justice. Sadhu!

A new expanded edition of Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction by Vimalasara and Paramabandhu has just been released. The This book uses Buddhist teachings, personal experiences, and case examples to provide an illustration of the fundamental processes underlying a broad range of addictive behaviors.  The new edition includes a foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a guide to running an Eight Step Recovery meeting, and how to teach a Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery (MBAR) programme, including teacher’s notes and handouts.

Looking forward, I’ll Meet You There by Shantigarbha - a practical guide to empathy, mindfulness and communication - will be released in mid-June.  You can sponsor this book to help cover publication costs.  And finally, Analayo’s newest book, Satipatthāna Meditation: A Practice Guide, will be released in August. This book is a thorough-going guide to the early Buddhist teachings on Satipatthāna, the foundations of mindfulness, following on from his two best-selling books, Satipatthāna: the direct path to insight and Perspectives on Satipatthāna.  Satipatthāna Meditation: A Practice Guide is also up for sponsorship at the moment.

+Follow Windhorse Publications on The Buddhist Centre Online

Stay connected to Windhorse by keeping an eye on their blog, signing up to their mailing list, checking out the news page on the Windhorse Website, or on social media.

To mark the great festival of Buddha Day (Wesak), when we celebrate the Enlightenment and its opening up of the path that leads to the end of suffering, here’s a wonderful mythologically minded conversation with Sthanashraddha, self-confessed ritualist and all-round lover of beauty and of the Dharma as an aesthetic choice in itself.

Sthanashraddha’s considerable elegance of being and of mind comes through beautifully as we hear his magical tale of a dawn adventure to meet the goddess of the Malvern springs and bear back to his home some of her water to offer to the Buddha. A rich exploration with Candradasa and Ratnadeva of why such things matter - and what this area of practice can help us achieve in our own lives within our own cultures.

Recorded at Adhisthana, Herefordshire, England, May 2018.

Subscribe to The Buddhist Centre Podcast:iTunes |  Other Podcast Apps

Subscribe to the Buddhist Voices podcast, featuring longer form, in-depth conversations and interviews with Dharma folk around the world.

Read Sthanasraddha’s account of his visit to the springs

2.30am alarm is ringing! Why is my alarm going off at this time of the night!! Ah yes I remember. So I crawl out of bed stagger around and remember to pack matches and jam jar candles. Along with jars of popping corn, oats and soya milk. Some white flowers from the garden and a swan feather and a white peacock feather. I remember to pack the incense but later recall I didn’t pack any charcoal discs…

After a quick tour of the bathroom etc and a drawn out choice of whether to risk wearing robes on a journey that might see me drenched in a morning shower, I opt for my Japanese hybrid robes/ trousers. And silently prey the Nagas are receptive.

At 3am dressed and packed with offerings and crystal decanters I meet two of the Dharma training course men in the courtyard, Jack and Mirko, Silently we pass around crystal decanters and then put on hi viz Jackets (even I will wear them when needs must! Thankfully mine was blue).

Then we set out walking…it’s very dark in the hours before dawn and the sky is blanketed in thick, hazy, humid cloud so we’re even without moon or star light. The air is cool but not cold and yes still humid. We each of us silently are chanting mantra as we walk….through the night….in the dark. One in front of the other, like the sages of old. Heading for Great Malvern and the Malvina spring in the heart of the town.

There is almost no sound at this hour, apart from the wind in the trees and streams that gurgle and babble at the road side, the birds are sleeping, though an occasional owl hoots. And of course the sound of footsteps. One feels obliged to walk as softly as one can.

I wonder if it will rain, but it’s to late now the dice have been cast.

Padmasambhava’s mantra circles my thoughts, and I feel at home. Street lights emerge and houses get bigger, after an hour of walking a car drives by. I wonder what they think.

The street lights cast amazing shadows, sometimes our silhouette is crisp along the way, and at others the shadows of tree branches cast kaleidoscopic patterns across the tarmac.

We process our way up through the back streets of Colwall, were the rural fields brush up against suburban order, and create interesting mixes.

The road is climbing now and we emerge on the larger road above Colwall and make our way up, more cars pass, well one or two. We pass a blackbird lying dead on the foot path. Is he a lifeless corpse of decaying flesh and feather, or animate even in death. Will he speak with us? On such journeys nothing is impossible.

As we reach the highest part of our procession over the hills one or two birds begin to wake and sing. I call a halt before we go over the pass, from Herefordshire into Worcestershire. As we catch our breath on a bench the view out over Herefordshire is still dark and obscured in hazy, misty cloud.

Our instruction then is to cross the pass and as we descend visualise the Buddha or Bodhisattva we have been chanting to, pouring forth pure white light, and that we like the crystal decanters we carry are empty and now fill with this purifying white blessing from them. So when we reach the spring we will be thoroughly pure.

As we passed over the boarder from Herefordshire to Worcestershire, from West to east, a gentle wind, cool and refreshing blew, and the view over the plain below was of early morning lights twinkling in the predawn, we were much closer to dawn on this side of the hill and so not only were we met with all the lights of civilisation but the full dawn chorus, a few more cars and houses. I felt overwhelmed after the silent ascent, full and brimming over, not exactly painful but uncomfortably so.

We carried on down the hillside into Great Malvern, all still quiet and tucked up in bed, until on a lower road we heard a man drunk and singing as he staggered homeward bound, like ships in the night we passed, close enough to hear but in the twilight unseen and undisturbed.

As we arrived at the spring nearby the postal depot was bustling about its business as cages rattled and the occasional truck departed.

The Malvina, situated in the town centre exists on a kind of sanctuary island, bounded not by water but roads, the upper road above ones head then forms the wall out of which the waters pour, and the lower road below holds back some gardens, thus we stood before the spring enclosed by wall, garden and over arching plane trees.

The Malvina was flowing strongly, a clear jet of water falling from the heart centre of the stone carved spring head, carved in a likeness of her who presides over it, her long flowing hair cut in stone tumbling over her hidden shoulders. The bowl beneath full and overflowing fills the hidden grove with the sound of running, plunging waters, which damp the ground about and seeking always lower ground and eventually the sea, make their way down the paths across the road and vanish into some hidden drain.

We set up, candles were lit and offered, white flowers and white feathers, the jars of grains and milk offered, decanters set ready to fill and a handful of oats each ready to offer.

We recited our verses calling up all those seen and unseen beings to join us at the spring and worship the unsurpassed enlightened one. We made our symbolic offering on behalf of the human race to the four directions and concluded with an entreaty to Malvina to give of her waters.

The decanters filled one after the other, pausing that constant sound of plunging water three times.

We packed our bags and set off on our return journey, it was 5am and as we emerged from the wooded island night had finally turned to day, white clouded sky’s like a blanket, but day all the same.

Sthānaśraddha, 31st May 2018

(The photo of the spring is from a couple of years ago, of the May well-dressing).

Monday 4th - Friday 8th June: 
Pre-breakfast meditation @ Peace House, Paradise Street, Oxford: 7.30am-8.30am + bring/eat your own breakfast until 9am.
Evening Qi Gong @ Grandpont Recreation Grounds, Whitehouse Road, Oxford - 9-9.45pm.
Saturday 16th June Walk and litter pick followed by tea & cake 2-4 pm, meet at Excelsior, 2 Whitehouse Road.
Saturday 23rd June 3-5pm ‘Buddhists about Town’: public meditation in Bonn Square, followed by tea at 2 Whitehouse Road.
Friday 29th June Film night at 2 Whitehouse Road: Dharma Brothers
 

Birmingham Buddhist Centre have dedicated the theme of Sangha night in June to Buddhist Action Month. Under the heading of Transforming Self, Transforming World, we will be holding themed evenings looking at the altruistic dimension of the Birmingham Buddhist Centre on 7th June and the following week there will be short personal talks on how you bring Buddhist practice to your work. There will be an evening on 21 June about Buddhist social change and on 28 June there will be a devotional evening, Living the myth of Avalokitesvara. 

On 5 July, Padmavajra will be talking about The Four Actions of the Enlightened Ones and will explain how, for things to really change, it’s not enough for us to have Buddhist Action Month, what the world needs is Buddha Action all the year round!

We are also raising awareness of the work of a local homeless charity Sifa Fireside in Birmingham where a couple of members of the local Sangha work and volunteer. We will help highlight Sifa Fireside’s need for volunteers.

It’s Buddhist Action Month, and you may well be reflecting on the choices you make and the impact they have on the world around you. It is clear that humanity is facing into an unprecedented situation of human caused global warming, and, without taking adequate and immediate action, runaway climate change is imminent- which would ultimately make most of our planet uninhabitable for humans. So far, so alarming. What is one to do in such a situation?

Well, obviously, there is no one simple answer to that question, which must be tackled at all levels: by policy makers, world leaders, communities - including spiritual communities - businesses and more. But it seems increasingly the case, based on the evidence, that the single most effective thing an individual can do is to give up meat and dairy.  A recent article in The Guardian newspaper highlights (following extensive research) that quite apart from the inefficiency of using land for livestock, as it uses a lot more land than that needed for growing food crops, “even the very lowest impact meat and dairy products still cause much more environmental harm than the least sustainable vegetable and cereal growing.”  This personal change would have a greater impact than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car.

So, for those worried about climate change, that is one compelling reason to seriously consider moving towards, or sticking to, a vegan diet!

Read the full article here.

+Follow the Vegan space to stay updated on Buddhism and veganism

+Follow the Buddhist Action Month space

BAM has kicked off in the Wellington Buddhist Centre! 

Transforming self, transforming world. Saradarshini launched BAM on Tuesday June 5th and that evening Achala gave a talk on Dr Ambedkar.

For the next 5 weeks we’ll look at the five positive precepts with an emphasis on the BAM theme of transforming self, transforming world.

Saradarshini gave an example of a personal precept she has taken after reflecting on her relationship with technology. Her smart phone will be going into airplane mode an hour before she goes to sleep and not coming off airplane mode until after breakfast.

We have a board where members of the Sangha are asked to complete the sentence “The future we want for our world and its inhabitants is…” on a piece of paper in the shape of a stylised feather. These will be glued to the board to make a feather cloak of our new narrative.

During the month we intend having a Sangha movie night and on Thursday June the 28th, our full moon puja night, we’ll celebrate Matariki, Maori new year. Matariki celebrations traditionally begin on the new moon in June where Matariki (Pleiades, Seven Sisters) are first seen in the dawn sky.

This FBA Dharmabyte is called 'Perception (Samjna) - A Definition', taken from the 6th talk in the parkling, wide-ranging, thoroughly comprehensive ten talk series series The Diamond Sutra - Taking Mind to its Limits by Padmavajra.

This extract contains a useful and considered introduction to the nature and workings of perception itself. With a special emphasis, too, on moving from a utilitarian attitude to other people towards a genuine sense of relationship founded on loving kindness.

Talks given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2004 as part of the series The Diamond Sutra - Taking Mind to its Limits.

Subscribe to the Dharmabytes podcast

Sthanashraddha is Bhante’s secretary. He writes from Adhisthana, UK:

“As we come to the end of May, Adhisthana has become quite steamy. What with the hot summery weather and then the last few days of heavy showers and thunderstorms the air is humid and the hills have disappeared in a white haze of moisture. Having said all that, it’s been a glorious time for the gardens and gardening. Many new plants have gone in and now they have all been very well watered.

Though the gardens have been a hive of activity, the annexe has felt a little quiet compared to last month, which saw some 55 visitors meeting with Bhante, one or two of them more than once. So this month Bhante has seen the following people from 1 May to 31 May:

Amalavajra, Rijusiddha, Upekshalia, Robert Ellis, Ewan Cushan, Dharmaprabha, Valentina Cartei, Pasadadipa, Shantipada, Guhyasiddhi, Dr Bhawana Sonaware, Lilamati, Kamalasiri, Olmer Rendon, Jack Stephenson, Mirko Meyer, Chris Blankendaal, Vinod Gaikwad, Pablo Sierra, Dennis Jagestad, De Ji, Lalitaratna, Sanghadarsini, Bodhamayi, Maitrisambhava, Acalagita, Parami, Vessantara, Aryadhi, Padmadrishti, Suryagupta, Amoghamati, Viryajyoti, Karunada, Vairocana, Saddhanandi, Akasalila, Karunavajra, Subhanandi, Gus Miller, Maitrivasin and Maitripushpa.

Along with visitors Bhante continues to enjoy a healthy amount of incoming correspondence from around the order and movement and various friends, relations and even occasional researchers and academics.

And then, of course, he also continues to have Shabda read to him and also many of the pieces written by Order members on the Buddhist Centre online.

Currently Bhante is listening to Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, for the second time, and recently enjoyed the autobiography of Rumer Godden author of Black Narcissus and a whole host of other books. Suvajra, in the evenings, has also been reading to him Analayo’s recent book Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research.

Bhante also completed writing two shorter pieces this month sharing some of his dreams: Dreams Old and New 1 and 2.

And finally a very fine Rupa of Jambhala (with a bit of Padmasambhava about him) was blessed by Bhante for the FutureDharma office, soon followed by a Padmasambhava rupa who arrived in the post having been very carefully packed by Akuppa. He to was blessed and returned to Newcastle in time for their opening ceremony on 2 June. With metta, Sthanashraddha.”