Forthcoming events
Rev. Master Daishin Morgan, the former Abbot of Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, will be visiting the Priory on Sunday 23rd June and will give a Dharma talk for the Sangha. The provisional schedule is: 10.00 – coffee/cake and socialising; 10.30 – meditation (20 minutes); 11.00 – Dharma talk and discussion. There will be a bring-and-share vegetarian lunch afterwards. Please contact the Priory if you’d like to attend in person. The event will be shared online and the talk will be recorded.
The sesshin (intensive meditation retreat) that will be held 26th – 30th June is now booked up. There will be a waiting list for anybody else wishing to join. The meditation periods of the retreat will be shared online and people are welcome to join for any of those. The sesshin schedule can be found on our calendar.
This year’s summer party will be on Sunday 18th August. It will be held at our usual venue in Erpingham and lifts will be offered from the Priory. It will start at midday and we’ll be having a bring-and-share vegetarian lunch. More details will be given nearer the time. Anybody wishing to attend should contact the Priory.
Recent events
Our Wesak celebration this year was a joyful occasion. Several of the Sangha came along to join in expressing our gratitude for what is represented by the birth of the Buddha, including our opportunity to live a life rooted in meditation and the Precepts, which leads us towards the end of suffering. The ceremony was held on a beautiful bright spring morning, which seemed appropriate, as the Dharma talk was about “the sun of hope” that the birth of Shakyamuni brought to the world. The photo below of the Sangha around the altar was taken after the festival.
Improvements to garden
The ongoing hard work of the garden group and a generous donation have enabled us to significantly enhance the back garden this spring. A weeping crab apple tree has been planted in place of the large sycamore that had to be chopped down last year. Tubs of acers and bamboo now hide what were bare areas of fence. Meanwhile the ongoing planting and tending of various colourful plants ensure that the garden now always contains points of interest. Besides the usual meetings of the garden group on Tuesday afternoons, throughout the summer there will be additional gardening sessions on most Saturday mornings.
The main project recently has been the erecting of a gazebo to cover most of the patio area. The gazebo was put together one Saturday morning by an enthusiastic, persevering and very patient team of Sangha members, who worked their way through the far-from-clear instruction leaflet and negotiated some challenging U-turns en route to the finished item. Several person hours’ work were entailed, but the resulting structure is sturdy and will provide some much-needed shade during the summer. It has turned the patio into an inviting and useable space for relaxing when we have gatherings or during the sesshin. My profound thanks to everybody who helped with this task, especially the two “project managers” who were fine examples of steadily taking one step at a time. The photos below show the gazebo being constructed.
Thanks
Besides the big “thank you” to the garden group and everybody involved with the gazebo project, my gratitude goes to those who have helped recently with the end-of-year bookkeeping and accounts, as well as with the work to upgrade the computers used for the Priory’s online meetings.
With best wishes and in gassho,
Reverend Leoma