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Recent events

The Festival of the Buddha’s Enlightenment was celebrated on 8th December. Several Sangha members attended the Priory in person and others joined online. It was an opportunity to express our gratitude for the practice that has come down to us across the centuries since the Buddha sat beneath the Bodhi tree, determined to find liberation from suffering. The Dharma talk (given after we had enjoyed coffee and stollen) focussed on Great Master Dogen’s teaching that training and enlightenment are one. The photo below shows the Sangha after the ceremony.

It was a pleasure that our Christmas meal was able to take place this year (after various illnesses necessitated the cancellation of last year’s) and a few of us met up at the River Green restaurant to enjoy excellent food and relaxed conversation. 

The coming of the New Year was marked in the traditional way at the Priory. There was plenty of opportunity to meditate on New Year’s Eve, throughout the day and in the evening, before the New Year Ceremony, at which we could express both our gratitude for the gift of training and our wish to keep going with our practice. On New Year’s Day we came together to meditate and participate in a Renewing the Precepts Ceremony, so that the year began with a practical expression of our commitment to train. The image below shows the altar ready for the New Year Ceremony.

Thanks

The Festival of the Buddha’s Enlightenment this year included an unintended extra feature, when a large section of fencing along the front drive blew over in strong winds that morning. I am grateful to everyone who helped after the ceremony to move the toppled fencing. But a huge “thank you” goes especially to the two trainees who returned later that week to replace the snapped fenceposts and restore the panels. The photo below shows the final stages of the work.

My thanks also go to those Sangha members who kept the Priory open for the Sunday morning meetings and who hosted the early morning Zoom sessions, while I was away in January, so that people could continue to meet up for meditation and morning service. 

With best wishes and in gassho,

Reverend Leoma