Our Jewel

Last nght we said a fond farewell to one of our number, Anna, who has been a valued and much loved member of our sangha for nearly 3 years. Anna has been here in sunny liverpool sudying and now it is time for her to spreading her wings, again, and return home. This has brought home something which I think I may have taken for granted, our Sangha. We go for refuge to the three jewels, the Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha. The Buddha, our ideal, our inspiration is what we strive to be like and to obtain enlightenment just like him. The Dharma, the truth and the teachings is what we will use to course down the path to enlightenment. The Sangha the spiritual community, the collective of individuals who are striving towards enlightenment. Out of the three the Sangha is probably the most physically tangible, where there every Tuesday, we run and support meditaion and Buddhism courses, we go on retreat together and keep in contact, some times daily. But it dosent end there, we join with other sanghas, and by its very nature become one larger Sangha. Then through nation wide retreats we extent our sangha further and further. With the realization that our Sangha is the Sangha, the world wide collective of Buddhists, going for refuge to the three jewels, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, Tuesday nights are a jewel there right there amongst us!

This may be a bit of a ramble............

.....but I know I have said in the past that life is just moment by moment, and I stand by that, but I do find myself planning what I should do in the future. The future which is not present, not happening. This all stems from are new sangha night study theme, Bhantas system of meditation, and last weeks section of Mindfulness with Breathing by Bikku Buddhahassa which Buddhashanti explored. I really got a lot out of it and have been keen to add it to my daily mediation. The thing is it just hasn't been as good as last Tuesday, same cushions, same process no where near the same experience! Now I know that they can't be identical, no two moments are the same but something similar would be nice. Yes I can hear you shouting at me, supportive conditions. On Tuesday before going into the section on the mindfulness with breathing we have already meditated for forty minutes, and had a Dharma talk from Buddhashanti so the second sit was always going to be better because I was more integrated and aware and just down right happy! So this morning just to sit with the minimal of prep, no surprise it was patchy to say the least. So to the plan. Well its not a plan, its more getting the most out of the time I have put aside for my meditation. Bhanta says that we should evaluate everything, test it out, is it skillful or not skillful, is it helping me develop spiritually or not.
Now you have to be careful here, this is not a way to drop things we don't like, infact its the things we find uncomfortable which some time do us good, What are you going to put at the center of your personal mandala? Well Ive put the Buddha and going out from there all the things with are suportive to my practice. If you think about it an sure you will be able to imagine your own. So am being reallistic about what I can achive and when, how much effort I need and not to become to down hearted
See you tomorrow, see planning again!

Its been a long time

Well yes it has, and things are a varied as ever. The meditation is regular but very up and down, my reading is patchy, in fact the only thing which seems to be going in the right direction is being able to listen to talks while lying in the bath. Its strange where you seem to connect but at the moment it seems to be in the bath, at least am clean! Just got to purify my mind now and where on our way!

........to the next moment

Parinirvana day, a day where we reflect on the final libberation of the Buddha and on those we have lost. I would say also those we may lose but I tend to count everyone in this and sometime this can be hard. Its reality, and reality, or the seeing of reality, is the name of the game. Yes people die but this shouldn't be the only passing away we should consider, the losing contact with a friend, the changing of a job, the splitting up from a partner all to me count as a lose. We can look even closer than this at the smaller events in our everyday experiance, the finishing of an interesteing book, the end of a plesent journey or getting better after a cold all indicate the flow of the arising and passing away of experiences. So tonight we will celebrate the passing from samsara to nirvana, from the ordinary to the extraordinary from the sad to the happy, from this moment to the next moment, to the next moment............

Monday.....Oh well.

Its Monday again, this month is all ways hard to get through and this year is no exception. I am weary of this existence every effort seems wasted at the moment. BUt what can you do? nothing, ther is no magic wand, no pill to pop, just Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.............At some point things will change I just have to be ready to change with it. Lets hope.

Metta