Recent events
The Festival of the Buddha’s Enlightenment on 7th December was a joyful occasion, which was well-attended both in person and online. After the ceremony, we enjoyed coffee and stollen, before a Dharma talk and discussion, which focussed on the opening paragraph of Great Master Dogen’s essay ‘Bendowa’, with its teaching that the gate to enlightenment is “sitting upright, practising Zen”. The photo below shows the Sangha around the altar after the ceremony.
After a break over the Christmas period, the Priory reopened to celebrate the New Year. It was the first time that we held the New Year Ceremony on the morning of New Year’s Day, rather than the evening of New Year’s Eve, and this proved to be very successful. More people were able to attend the ceremony and there was much comment about how well the new scheduling worked, so we’ll continue to do this. The ceremony was an expression of our gratitude for being able to train in the year that had ended and of our commitment to practise in the coming year. New Year’s Eve had provided an opportunity for quietness and reflection, with the Priory offering a Meditation and Contemplation Day, as well as a period of meditation in the evening. The photo below shows the altar set up for the New Year Ceremony.
Early January was marked for a short time by a covering of snow in Norwich, but our garden Buddha seemed unbothered by what is quite a rare event here.
Thanks
I am very grateful to the three trainees who are hosting the online morning meditation periods on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, as well as when I am on retreat (as I was over the Christmas period). It is great that these regular gatherings of the Sangha can continue even when I’m not able to host them.
My thanks also go to the two trainees who organised having a truckload of gravel delivered to the Priory in December and then spread it down the driveway. After their previous work on putting down a weed-proof membrane, this was the finishing touch to enhancing the driveway and the result can be seen in the photo below (where the boundary between our gravel and our neighbours’ is obvious).
The garden group are currently having a break over the winter (although some rose bushes were planted in December). However, the trainees who help with cleaning the house are still coming along regularly to do their good work and I am grateful to them, as I am to the people who continue to help with the bookkeeping and accounts (which is now a more streamlined process).
With best wishes and in gassho,
Reverend Leoma