Forthcoming events
Our Summer Party will take place on Sunday 16th August, at our usual venue in Erpingham (directions to which can be provided). Lifts will be offered from the Priory at 11.30am. There will be a bring-and-share vegetarian lunch. Partners (and dogs) are welcome to join us. Please contact the Priory if you’d like to come along. Rev. Alicia, from Sitting Buddha Hermitage in Derbyshire (who is one of our charity’s trustees) will be joining us, as part of a visit to the Priory that weekend.
Recent events
The sesshin that was held at the end of June went very well. After a few cancellations, there were seven of us who sat all or most of the retreat in person, with another doing the whole retreat online. It addition, several people joined for parts of the sesshin. Six Dharma talks were offered, exploring Great Master Dogen’s Fukanzazengi (Rules for Meditation). This retreat was especially challenging, as it took place during a heatwave. Indeed, the middle day of the sesshin had to be cancelled, as the temperature in Norwich reached 37°C (the record for the hottest ever June day in the UK was broken at a village 12 miles from the Priory). Throughout the retreat, working meditation was kept to a minimum, so there was plenty of time for reading and quiet contemplation. In the meditation room, we had to find a middle way with using electric fans, so that they could offer some relief while not being too noisy. Despite the challenges, the sesshin proved once again to be a much-appreciated opportunity to do some intensive meditation within the supportive framework of sitting with other people. In future, there will be just one in-person sesshin each year, probably in mid-May. This November, we’ll experiment with an online-only sesshin, for four days, from 25th to 28th.
In mid-June, one of our Sangha visited the Priory as part of his 200-mile Norfolk Multifaith Cycle Pilgrimage. Over the course of a weekend he was taking in various religious communities and sacred sites in the county, while fundraising for Crohn’s and Colitis UK. It was a pleasure to welcome him here towards the end of his first day of cycling and to offer him some refreshment before he continued on his way. We congratulate him on completing this project which had been many months in the planning. The photo below shows the cyclist and one of our welcome party in the garden.
Work project
The task of replacing the doors on the garage was recently completed and we now have a handsome pair of varnished marine-ply doors with smart black hinges. A big “thank you” to the two trainees who carried out this major project, which included a good few stressful moments. Their care and attention to detail was exemplary and they remained enthusiastic throughout the various challenges. The finished product can be seen in the photo below.
Thanks
My thanks go to the Sangha member who enabled me to have some much-needed retreat time recently at Blakeney, on the beautiful North Norfolk coast. I am also grateful to those people who ensured that the Sunday meetings at the Priory and the online meditations carried on in my absence, as well as to everyone who continued to look after the house and gardens while I was away.
With best wishes and in gassho,
Reverend Leoma