Forthcoming events
Our ceremony for Wesak, the Festival of the Buddha’s Birth, will be held on Sunday 3rd May. You’re very welcome to join us, in person or online, for any part of the morning’s schedule, as we celebrate what is one of the main events in the Buddhist calendar. There will be a meditation period at 9.45am and the festival will begin at 10.30am, with a short rehearsal beforehand. The morning will finish with a Dharma talk and discussion. Please contact the Priory if you’d like to attend in person. Below is a photo of the altar ready for the ceremony last year, with the statue of the baby Buddha pointing to heaven and to earth.
Our next sesshin will take place 24th-28th June. The daily schedule will include seven meditation periods, a Dharma talk and a Dharma discussion, lunch eaten formally in the meditation room, some working meditation and time for quiet contemplation. Please contact the Priory if you would like to attend in person, whether for all or part of the time. The meditation sessions will be shared via Zoom. Anybody wishing to join online for all or most of the sesshin should contact the Priory for more details of how you can be supported in your at-home retreat.
Death of Faith Broadbent
It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of Faith Broadbent, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Less than two weeks before her death she had joined us online (as she regularly did) for a Sunday Sangha Morning. She was one of the early members of the Norwich Serene Reflection Meditation Group, back in the 1990s, without which there would be no Norwich Priory today. She served for many years as a lay minister of our Order. She was a shining example of sincere, open-hearted, steady practice and we shall remember her with gratitude and affection. Her funeral will be held in Cromer on Saturday 4th April and we’ll have a memorial for her at the Priory on the following day. Below is a photo taken at our first anniversary in 2014 and Faith can be seen third from the right in the back row.
Change to schedule for Thursdays
The Thursday evening meetings have now been switched to fortnightly and will take place on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, at the usual time of 7pm-9pm. When there is not a meeting at the Priory, ie on the first and third (and fifth) Thursdays of the month, there will be online meditation sessions at 7pm. The format for these will be the usual Thursday one, with two meditation periods, of 20 minutes and 15 minutes, interspersed with walking meditation, and the session will end at 7.45pm.
If you are ever in doubt about whether or not a meeting is happening, our calendar can be consulted, as it is always kept updated, and there is also a widget at the side of the home page showing the events of the next few days.
Work projects
The new year has seen work happening on some jobs around the Priory that have been on the to-do list for a long time. In early January, a builder repaired an area of the kitchen floor that had been undermined by a leak in the past. Rotten timbers and sagging chipboard were replaced and it was a treat to see the washing machine standing level again. The improvements to the kitchen will continue soon, when new vinyl flooring will be laid down. Another long overdue job was the installation of a glass screen for one of the showers. My thanks go to the trainee who did the “making good” jobs that were needed in the kitchen and the bathroom to complete these projects.
The main change that visitors to the Priory might notice is in the common room, where fitted carpet has replaced the previous arrangement of laminate flooring overlaid with rugs. The new carpet is much warmer (and softer) underfoot and the common room is transformed, especially as new curtains have been part of the makeover. I am very grateful to the trainee who helped me with the whole process of choosing the carpet (and who picked out the one we eventually decided on), as well as to the other trainee who helped with moving the furniture. Below are photos of before and after.
The garden group is now meeting again after their break over the winter, on Tuesdays at 2pm (weather permitting). There are plenty of plans for the forthcoming season (including creating a “Zen garden” around the Buddha statue and the ornamental tree). It has been great to see the grass mowed and the flowerbeds weeded. There are various jobs to be done and anybody is welcome, whether or not you consider yourself to be a gardener. The group usually work for an hour and then have tea and biscuits, together with the trainees who do the cleaning of the house at the same time. I am grateful to everybody who helps to keep the Priory tidy and well-maintained, indoors and outdoors, with a special mention to the trainee who repaired one of our gates after it was blown over in a recent storm.
With best wishes and in gassho,
Reverend Leoma