Ralph’s Neighborhood

On the 9th December 2009, in an historic and beautiful ceremony presided over by Dharmavidya at the Buddhist House, Narborough, the following good people took various vows, refuges, precepts, new responsibilities and spiritual commitments as follows:

Prasada became an Acharya;
Modgala became an Acharya;
Sujatin became an Acharya;

Rachel Abel became an Order Member and was ordained as a Ganko-sha with the name Amita Kuvalaya;
Orna Matri became an Order Member and was ordained as a Ganko-sha with the name Amita Pundarika;
Yaakov Matri became an Order Member and was ordained as a Ganko-sha with the name Amita Vimalashri;

Massimo D'Alessandro became a Postulant;
Simon Williams became a Postulant;
Madrakara Albiges became an Aspirant;
Tony Danford became an Aspirant;
Dawn Hart became an Aspirant;
Zee-Zee Heine became an Aspirant;

Madrakara Albiges took the Five Precepts;
Zee-Zee Heine took the Ten Precepts;

Annetta de Quaasteniet was admitted as a member of the Amida-shu;

Bruce Coleman took the Five Refuges;
Brandon Haywood took the Five Refuges;
Dean Haywood took the Five Refuges;
Richard Ollier took the Five Refuges.

On the following day, the 10th December 2009, in a ceremony at the Buddhist House presided over by Sujatin, the good person and new Postulant Simon Williams was admitted as a member of the Amida-shu.

Namo Amida Bu
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video of highlights

[T]his enlightenment of the Buddha's was profound and brilliant, accurate and powerful, and also warm and compassionate. It was like the sun behind the clouds. Anyone who has taken off in an airplane on a grim and gloomy day knows that beyond the cloud cover the sun is always shining. Even at night the sun is shining, but then we can't see it because the earth is in the way, and probably our pillow also. The Buddha explained that behind the cloud cover of thoughts - including very heavy clouds of emotionally charged thoughts backed up by entrenched habitual patterns - there is continual warm, bright, loving intelligence constantly shining. And even though in the midst of thoughts, emotions, and habitual patterns, intelligence may become dulled and confused, it is still this intelligence in the midst of thoughts and emotions and habits that makes them so very captivating, so resourceful and various, so inexhaustible.

~ Samuel Bercholz, Entering the Stream

In traditional Buddhist texts the five energies of Lust, Aversion, Torpor, Restlessness, and Doubt are called "Mind Hindrances" ...because they obscure clear seeing, just as sandstorms in the desert or fog on a highway can cause travelers to get lost. They hinder the possibility of us reconnecting with the peaceful self that is our essential nature. They confuse us. We think they are real. We forget that our actual nature is not the passing storm. The passing storm is the passing storm. Our essence remains our essence all the time.

Five different energies seem like a limited menu, but they present themselves in an infinite variety of disguises. Ice cream sundaes are different from pizzas are different from sex, but fundamentally they are all objects of the lustful desire....Grumbly mind is grumbly mind; sleepy mind is sleepy mind; restless mind is restless mind; doubtful mind is doubtful mind.

The fact that it's in the nature of minds for storms to arise and pass away is not a problem. . . .[It] helps in keeping the spirits up to remember that the weather is going to change. Our difficult mind states become a problem only if we believe they are going to go on forever.

~ Sylvia Boorstein, It's Easier Than You Think

'Pikey Dan', who is out at Amida Delhi with Rev Sahishnu, sends more news and is obviously having a great time:

We've just finished another week here...and what a week it's been!

The classes this week have been fantastic, and I could hardly sleep on Sunday; I wa on such a high after our class at Ambedkar Colony. We started the day early (up at 6am), so we could be sure to make it to Madan Mohan's for 8, to attend the first service at the new temple. It was really good to see a service at the temple, with Dharma talks from lay people from the community, and from Sahishnu. After that we had to rush back to the flat so we could prepare to go back there to teach in the afternoon....the classes are growing so fast that we ran out of sheets, even though we'd increased the number of photocopies by 50%

Chionin Temple of Kyoto was built on a grand scale. The main gate is the largest Buddhist temple gate in Japan. It was built in 1619 and is now officially a Japanese National Treasure. Chionin's temple bell weighs 74 tons; it takes 17 monks to ring it. The main hall can hold 3,000 people.

Chionin was built on the place of the last home of Honen (1133-1212), the monk who brought Pure Land Buddhism to Japan and founded the Jodo Shu sect.

::beautiful photo and longer post here

....“The first thing I had to give up was my work,” Deering said. “I just kept thinking, any day now, I’ll feel better. It took me years to learn that wasn’t going to happen.”

Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, is a complex, mysterious and widely misunderstood illness. Characterized by profound fatigue that is not improved with bed rest, the condition also results in a myriad of other debilitating symptoms.

Nancy Gordon, another local sufferer of CFS, was a licensed clinical social worker in a private practice before a car accident in 1992 changed her life. Gordon was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1995, and as she became more paralyzed with pain, fatigue and a loss of cognizance, she finally began to rely on disability in 1998. She was diagnosed with CFS in 2000....

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::read more here

Dharmavidya writes:

It has been an intense day. We are holding a weekend seminar on themes from the new book. There are about fifteen visitors plus members of the household: a lively group that has engaged in a lot of intelligent discussion, sharing personal experiences, and exploring relevance of the theory for ordinary life, for therapy practice and also for wider application to social questions. Although we have changed the format periodically to assist the process, discussion has flowed fairly continuously all day with occasional inputs from me. This is pretty impressive given that with the book not arriving until Thursday nobody had had the opportunity to read it in advance. I realise in retrospect that I was somewhat nervous how the day would go since this late publication meant that this was the first public airing on the work. It was both a relief and a satisfaction that many people found the day inspiring and spontaneously came to tell me so.

Some themes: # contrasts between 'ideal' and actual love # critique/appreciation of 'mindfulness' methods # the question whether avoidance of disappointment means not loving # the risks of love # the ubiquity of the dilemma: can one love again # the proper attitude toward emotion in spiritual practice # since love involves holding one other more dear than others does it generate conflict and # does it contradict 'democratic' or 'justice' ideals? # loving people one does not like # the dilemma of therapy as a requirement to love on demand for a fee # appreciation/critique of the theories of Carl Rogers

When you dwell in stillness, the judging mind can come through like a foghorn. "I don't like the pain in my knee... This is boring...I like this feeling of stillness; I had a good meditation yesterday, but today I'm having a bad meditation... It's not working for me. I'm no good at this. I'm no good, period..."

This type of thinking dominates the mind and weighs it down. It's like carrying around a suitcase full of rocks on your head. It feels good to put it down. Imagine how it might feel to suspend all your judging and instead to let each moment be just as it is, without attempting to evaluate it as "good" or "bad." This would be a true stillness, a true liberation. Meditation means cultivating a non-judging attitude toward what comes up in the mind, come what may.

~ Jon Kabat-Zinn, from Wherever You Go, There You Are

The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama today confirmed that discussions between the Dalai Lama and a senior US Government delegation took place in Dharamsala on September 13 and 14.

::continue reading here