Author: keith

Hi everybody,

I hope that all is well with you.

I went on a weekend retreat at Padmaloka recently. Padmaloka is a men’s retreat centre near Norwich and I have been going there for 40 years. It always takes a little while to adjust into the retreat atmosphere, but by about Saturday mid morning, I was already in full retreat mode and felt fantastic.

It felt like an altered state of consciousness that I had not experienced since my last retreat which was three years ago.  I used to try and get onto retreat every month, but the pandemic put a stop to that.

There were 62 retreatants there, and I had some great conversations with amazing people, although the bit I enjoyed most was actually the periods of silence.

That is the good news. The bad news is that I caught covid there! I have had my booster, so thank fully it was just like a bad cold, and I am almost back to normal now. I think I was just unlucky to catch it. I checked with two other people who travelled with me back to Norwich Station, and neither of them had it.  On the other hand I was lucky to just experience mild symptoms. I know others have had to endure a lot worse.

If you can make it, there is a Sangha Day festival at Cambridge Buddhist Centre on Sunday 13th Nov https://www.cambridgebuddhistcentre.com/SanghaDay2022 . It should be a great day out!

Next Tuesday Rob will give a talk and lead a discussion around meditation.  We will have plenty of great stuff lined up for the following weeks and another course coming in January 🙂

By the way, a new group has recently opened in Luton. It is being led by  Akashasiddhi and Archie from the Letchworth Group https://www.facebook.com/triratnaluton You can email them at triratnaluton@yahoo.com for more info. They meet on Tuesday evenings, just like us. It is worth checking out if you live over that way 🙂

All the best

Keith

p.s. Excerpt from one of my favourite books:   “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life” by Vajragupta © Windhorse Publications

right livelihood

The Buddha taught what he called the Noble Eightfold Path – eight specific areas of practice that together constitute the path to Enlightenment. The fifth of these is right livelihood, and we’ll consider the process of bringing the practice of awareness and loving-kindness into our lives of activity under this heading.

A friend of mine, when discussing work and spiritual practice, especially if people were complaining about difficulties in their jobs, used to give the following advice. He said that if, by the end of the week, we couldn’t think of one good reason for doing our job, we should leave.

Life is short and precious. Why do something for eight hours a day, five days a week, forty-something weeks a year for the rest of our lives, if we don’t know why we are doing it? Especially when you take into account the idea of karma – that the kind of person we become is a product of the choices and actions we take all day – we can see that work and livelihood is a vital spiritual issue.

Sometimes we do make big changes to our lives because we realize our heart is no longer in what we are doing. This can take courage, especially when we are no longer young, but it may be well worth it. I have one friend who for many years was a stressed-out administrator in the National Health Service. He eventually decided to change direction, retrained, and became much happier giving careers advice to young people.

On the other hand, we might realize therearegood reasons why we do our job. These might be many and varied, or it might simply be that we are doing the job because we need the money to support our family. But that is still a positive reason. If we are clear about our reasons for doing something, it can help us feel much better about doing it.

A new group has recently opened in Luton.

More info at https://www.facebook.com/triratnaluton
You can also email triratnaluton@yahoo.com

They meet Tuesday evenings at 7pm at Hightown Community Sports And Arts Centre

Hi everyone,

I hope all is well.

We did try having a yoga class on Thursday evenings. But it turned out there was very little demand, so we have cancelled that.

However the face to face Tuesday night class is thriving. We have been getting about 20 attendees the last few nights which is a good number. As well as guided meditation, and a talk, I normally try and make sure that people get together in small groups to discuss things, and that we have a long tea break, so that there is a good balance of different activities during the evening.

Please feel free to drop in whenever you like. This includes newcomers (we had 4 newcomers last week), and old timers who have not been for a while. You do not have to “be a Buddhist”.

Coming up we have:

04 October 2022 Amber and team Happiness and beyond – The Spiral Path
11 October 2022 Maisie and Keith The Enlightened Mind
18 October 2022 Padmajata – to be announced
etc

See you soon hopefully

Keith

p.s. Excerpt from one of my favourite books: “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life” by Vajragupta © Windhorse Publications

exercise – calm and activity

Sitting quietly for a few moments, begin to consider the balance of calm and activity in your life. Thinking about the following questions may help. Are there times when the balance is tipped too far in favour of calm, or activity? What are the symptoms of this in how you feel internally and in how you engage with what you are doing?

Are there times when you feel you get the balance about right? What does that feel like?
If and when you lose balance, do you believe it is possible to restore it, taking into account your responsibilities? What is your underlying attitude or predisposition to this question?

Look at the question of balance once again. Perhaps there are small, practical changes that would make more difference than you expect to your inner sense of balance. Make a note of just one or two practical ideas that you could try to implement.(These might be things like going for a quiet walk in your lunch break, or not listening to the radio while you drink your morning cup of tea, but using that time to reflect.)

So perhaps the twofold model discussed above was rather too simplistic. It is not that we are either practising in the world or apart from the world. Although one mode might predominate, we have times when we are in the other. There is a relationship between these two modes in our lives. Even a twenty-minute meditation in the morning is like a little retreat: we leave the world behind for a short while, but we come back to it refreshed. We have a few moments of calm in order to prepare for the activity of the day.

It was the same with the Buddha. Although, as we have seen, he returned to the world after his Enlightenment, he still went back to the forests to meditate. The order he founded was an attempt to create anew lifestyle that was both within, and apart from, the world. The monks and nuns had plenty of time and support for practice, but they also played a role in society – teaching others about the path to Enlightenment. As well as ensuring we have adequate calm, such as our daily meditation that prepares us for the activity of the day, we also need to learn how to make our active lives part of our practice. We are trying to develop awareness and loving-kindness as much of the time as possible, not only in meditation.

The Day Retreat Team Bev, Ellen and Helen announce details of the following event:

Hertford Sangha are hosting a Day Retreat on 25th September 10am-4pm, at Place House Hall, Ware SG12 9HL

We will be exploring ‘Fearlessness’ with movement, meditation, food, tea, talks and discussion with an opportunity to express ourselves creatively. Vimaladipa will be our guest sharing her wisdom and experiences with us.

Everything you need will be provided, but feel free to bring any mats or cushions to make yourselves more comfortable. A delicious lunch (gf, vg) will be offered. If you have more specific dietary requirements, you are welcome to bring your own lunch.

We will finish with a beautiful Puja. This is a wonderful opportunity to take part in a traditional Buddhist ritual if you so wish. Everyone is welcome regardless of experience.
Hertford Sangha operates using a Dana Economy, which means events are open to all regardless of ability to pay. Please give as generously as you are able to enable us to cover our costs.

We look forward to welcoming those who are new to the sangha, as well as reconnecting with old friends. 

Best wishes,

Bev, Ellen and Helen

Please RSVP Ellen.Taylor@POBox.com to help us gauge food and resources needed. 

For more information about this image of the Wheel of Life, you can read Sangharakshita’s ebook “Mind, Reactive and Creative” which you can download here

Hi there,

There is a lot coming up this month, so please read this carefully 🙂

1) Starting tonight ( Tuesday 6th Sep) we have a new 6 week course coming up called “Mind Reactive and Creative”. It is suitable for newcomers, as well as more experienced people. Approximately half of each evening will be devoted to a guided meditation.

It is the first time we have done this course, and it is based on a lecture that our founder did in the early days, that got turned into a seminar, and then course. It takes a deep dive into an analysis of how our mind is usually very reactive. It draws inspiration from the Buddhist Wheel of Life which is included in this message.

Fortunately, there is a way out of this reactivity known as the Spiral Path which we will cover in a few weeks, later on in the course.

If you want some background reading there is a 44 page pdf “Mind Reactive and Creative ebook” that you can download from https://hertfordbuddhistgroup.co.uk/downloads/

2) Starting on 15th September, and every Thursday evening after that, our friend Hayley Brown will be offering yoga classes at the Millbridge Rooms, Hertford. SG14 1PX. Most attendees will probably be from our Buddhist group, but actually the classes are open to everyone.

Please bring a yoga mat if you have one, although we should also have a few spare if you are unable to bring one .

Classes are one hour long and will start promptly at 7pm, so please get there about 10 minutes beforehand.

3) Hertford Sangha Day Retreat, Exploring Fearlessness

You are invited to join Vimaladipa and the day retreat team, exploring Fearlessness through meditation, talks, discussion, creativity and puja (a devotional ritual) on Sunday 25th September, 10am – 4pm at Place House Hall, Bluecoat Yard, Ware SG12 9HL.

There is no charge, but we will ask for donations on the day
chilli and baked potato provided for lunch. Please bring other stuff to accompany if you would like to
Beginners are very welcome
Chairs are provided. You are welcome to bring meditation cushions and a mat if you want but we’re not planning long meditations

4) Coming up on Tuesday evenings we currently have booked in (subject to change):

06 September 2022 Keith Course week 1
13 September 2022 tba (to be announced) Course week 2
20 September 2022 tba Course week 3
27 September 2022 Amber Course week 4
04 October 2022 Amber and team Course week 5
11 October 2022 tba Course week 6
18 October 2022 Padmajata

See you at one or more of these hopefully.

Best wishes

Keith

p.s. Excerpt from one of my favourite books: “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life” by Vajragupta © Windhorse Publications

I was once lucky enough to take part in a four-month retreat at a place called Guhyaloka in southern Spain. The name, which means ‘secret realm’, was certainly appropriate. Far into the mountains, the retreat centre is in an area of woodland surrounded by dramatic limestone cliffs. During the retreat we would sometimes climb up these cliffs so that, in effect, we formed a circle and faced each other across the valley. We would chant mantras as loud as we could and listen to them echoing and re-echoing around the valley walls. Part of the significance of the retreat was that we were indeed coming to a secret place. We had left our ordinary lives, our country and our homes, friends, work, family – all the things we normally rely on to give us a sense of who we are – far behind us. This is what is known traditionally as ‘going forth’. It gives us a different experience of ourselves outside of our usual conditioning, which can be extremely valuable in finding out who we really are and who we want to be.

Towards the end of the retreat something else happened. At dusk we again went up on top of the valley walls, but this time we all faced outwards. The rock face was golden in the dying sunlight. The twinkling lights of towns and villages were starting to emerge in the distance. Each of us read favourite texts and inspirational verses out towards the world. We were doing this to signify that we were shortly going back to the world, and we wanted to take something back with us. We wanted to have something new to give once we returned to our familiar lives. This is what it is like with a retreat: you go away, but you do so in order to come back again.

Getting the right balance between calm and activity is far from easy. For most of us, the life of activity will probably take over, and we may feel we have lost sight of the life of calm! In fact, it might be rare that we get the balance exactly right. This is not a problem as long as we are aware of the dynamic and do what we can to right it. It is when the imbalance goes on for too long that we might run into trouble, such as stress or burnout. But gradually, through trial and error, we learn how to remain at least in some sense of contact with that inner spaciousness; we get to know our limits and how much busyness we can deal with before our practice becomes thin. It is like keeping a boat on course. We keep an eye on its direction, the wind, and the weather, and we turn the rudder. Sometimes we turn it strongly to bring about a big change of direction. Later, only small adjustments are needed to remain on course.

Hi everybody,

I hope you are having a lovely August.

We are really enjoying the Tuesday class being in person again. It is much better than zoom. I am starting to reacquaint myself with the warmth and depth of our sangha.

Some of us even turned up on the hottest day since records began. It was actually relatively cool in our venue 🙂

Coming up we have aleady arranged:

09 August 2022 Keith and Maisie
16 August 2022 Padmajata and Katey
23 & 30 August 2022 to be announced
6 September 2022 New 6 week course starts – Mind Reactive and Creative

Why not come along and join us one Tuesday. Newcomers and those who have not been for some time are always welcome 🙂

Also I have just booked on a couple of retreats, and it would be great if you came along as well:

1) This one is for “Men familiar with meditation as taught in Triratna and open to Buddhist ritual” https://padmaloka.org.uk/retreats/2022/mens-great-gathering-weekend-3-tantric-symbolism-vajra 14th to 16th October

2) Also. Instead of arranging our own Hertford retreat this year, we are planning to go en masse to the Cambridge Sangha Retreat on 16th to 18th December https://www.cambridgebuddhistcentre.com/event/6043/vajrasana-weekend-retreat . 5 people from Hertford (including myself) have already booked on this, and it is filling up fast. If you are a regular attendee at Hertford, or you have been in the past, then please consider joining us.

Both of these retreat are very suitable for a first retreat 🙂

Keith

p.s. I also wanted to mention that my good friend Amber is doing an eight hour Yogathon to raise money for Ukraine . More info at https://mailchi.mp/81e46c74ce60/yogathon-2022-15521938?e=5b09e8c04d

p.p.s. The next festival Padmasambhava Day is coming up 11th September in Cambridge 10am to 5pm. Details at https://www.cambridgebuddhistcentre.com/event/6013/padmasambhava-day

p.p.p.s. Excerpt from one of my favourite books: “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life” by Vajragupta © Windhorse Publications

The lesson here is that we, too, need to blend the life of calm and the life of activity. How can we do this? We can look at how we can engage in our own life of activity as a practice in itself. We’ll explore this below, when we look at right livelihood, and also in the next chapter when we encounter the ‘worldly winds’.

But if we are leading an active life, we also need to ensure there are times of calm that counterbalance this and provide the conditions which creatively support engagement with the activity. To do this, we may want to make some changes to the way we live our lives. For example, we want to give enough attention to meditation, making it a priority and establishing a daily routine that makes time for it. We may value spending time with others who meditate and can support our efforts. We may also be able to go on retreat for a weekend, a week, or longer.

Within the calmness of a retreat we can look back on the story of our lives and gain more clarity and perspective than might be possible while we are in the thick of it. Immersed in the more ideal conditions of a retreat we gain the confidence and inspiration to take our values much more seriously, to consider how we really want to be living life. We often leave a retreat feeling invigorated, with our practice recharged, and ready to re-engage with the life of activity.

Hi everyone

It has been amazing to meet back face to face again on Tuesday evenings. The meditative energy we are building up together is far stronger than what we have been able to achieve on zoom.

We did originally plan to carry on with zoom once a month on the last Wednesday of every month, but there has not been much demand for that, so we are stopping our zoom classes completely.

Coming up we have:

12 July 2022 Padmajata
19 July 2022 Jnanadaya
26 July 2022 Keith and Maisie
02 August 2022 Keith
09 August 2022 to be announced
16 August 2022 Padmajata

Newcomers are always welcome. Details are at https://hertfordbuddhistgroup.co.uk/

That is all for now. Have a great July!

All the best

Keith

p.s. Excerpt from one of my favourite books: “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life” by Vajragupta © Windhorse Publications

Right Livelihood

the life of calm and activity

Hakuin was a Zen master who lived in eighteenth-century Japan. He was also a renowned painter and calligrapher, and some of his self portraits survive to this day. They depict a large, formidable looking man, bald, with intense, bulging eyes, and a grizzly beard. He looks as though he could have tattoos under his robes and ride a motorbike at weekends. But Hakuin was very dedicated to his practice, and had some profound spiritual experiences during his life.

Two of the things Hakuin used to talk about were the ‘life of activity’ and the ‘life of calm’. In a way, what he meant by these phrases was similar to what we have been talking about as practice in the world and practice apart from the world. When leading an active life, it was obvious that one needed some calm to counterbalance it, and to help engage in activity with awareness and creativity. But Hakuin was also concerned that some of his disciples were choosing the life of calm for the wrong reasons. If they went to live in the mountains, it was because they had over-identified this lifestyle with the spiritual life. Or perhaps they were actually choosing it out of a desire to live somewhere peaceful and beautiful, rather than because they really wanted to make spiritual progress. He said they were often weak and incapable when they returned to the life of activity.

For Hakuin, the ideal was to blend a life of calm and a life of activity. Each was essential, but one without the other was useless. Activity and calm were to be practised together at deeper and deeper levels. So, when performing a task such as chopping wood, or fetching water, one would do it mindfully – almost like a meditation practice. One would stop making such hard and fast distinctions between calm and activity, and hankering for one or other.

In Zen circles there was a saying designed to depict the ordinary, down-to-earth quality of mindfulness. ‘A monk who is really practising meditation knows he is walking when he is walking, and knows he is sitting (in meditation) when he is sitting.’ Hakuin (who was a bit of a wit) played on this, saying, ‘A monk who is really practising meditation does not know when he is walking and when he is sitting.’ In other words, everything was potentially a practice – the monk ceased to make distinctions between what was practice, and what wasn’t.

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Hi everyone,

I hope that all is well with you.

1) June is an exciting month for us as we are going to resume face to face Tuesday night drop in classes for the first time since the pandemic started over two years ago.

It has been such a long time. It is hard to remember what face to face classes were like. But I do remember they went a lot deeper than the zoom classes we have been doing. So it will be great to reconnect with old friends, and also meet new ones.

We are starting on the 14th of June (led by Padmajata and Keith)

On the 21st of June Khemananda will come up from London to lead the class. Then there will be a face to face class every week after that.

Doors open at 7pm for the general public. Good to get there between 7pm and 7.20pm, and we will start very promptly at 7.30pm. The venue is the Millbridge Rooms opposite Hertford Theatre. https://hertfordbuddhistgroup.co.uk/location/

You don’t need to bring anything. We will give full meditation instruction. You do not need to be “a Buddhist”. And newcomers are always very welcome. The classes are free, but we do give you the opportunity to make a small donation if you would like.

We will have a tea and biscuit break around 8.30pm, and we finish around 9.45pm.

2) Regarding the zoom classes, it seemed a shame to just end them, as many of the zoom regulars are unable to come face to face. So on a trial basis, we are making them monthly, and also moving them onto Wednesday night. 7.30pm to 9.30pm on the last Wednesday of every month (starting on 29th June) – using our normal link – https://hertfordbuddhistgroup.co.uk/zoom

Our final Tuesday drop in zoom class will be on 7th June led by Paramajyoti, Keith and Amber

Also this month there are a couple of other things going on.

3) There is a one off workshop with Vajradaka open to all regulars on 12th June 10am to 1pm in Ware.

He has been teaching meditation since the 1970s and is well known for his creative and engaging workshops. With a skill in teaching simultaneously both newcomers and experienced meditators, Vajradaka offers something for everyone. This really is a great opportunity to develop your meditation practice right from where you are. There is no fixed cost for this Sunday morning three hour workshop, we simply ask for a donation.

All welcome – email hertsbuddhistmeditation@gmail.com to secure your place and receive venue and donation details.

4) Also June is BAM (Buddhist Action Month). The Hertford Earth Sangha are organising some events

June 10 at 10.30am
Nature Walk at RSPB Rye Meads SG12 8JS. Meet outside visitor centre and bring binoculars if you have some.

June 11 at 7.30am
Walking meditation in nature at Hartham Common in Hertford. Meet at the tennis courts followed by breakfast and coffee in town

June 16 & 30 – 7.30pm to 9pm
Climate cafe at the Millbridge Rooms, Hertford. Informally discuss ideas, concerns and action with meditation, tea and cake.

If you want more information about these or future events, then please email hearthsangha@yahoo.com

5) That is all for now. This email is quite long enough, so I will not add a book excerpt this week.

Hope to see you soon 🙂

Keith

Hi there,

Great news!

We will (hopefully) be restarting face to face classes on the 14th June.

Many people are asking me when we will restart. People either seem to have a strong preference for zoom or for face to face.

But I think it is looking like the time is right to restart. It has been over two years now on zoom, but I think most people are starting to realise that face to face does have a lot of advantages (as well as the obvious disadvantages).

Anyway.

This is what is coming up:

5 more Zoom evenings
10/5 Meditation evening led by Keith and Maisie
17/5 Meditation evening led by Paramajyoti
24/5 Meditation evening led by Amber
31/5 Not yet known
07/6 Not yet known

On 14th June we are expecting to resume face to face classes at the Millbridge Rooms after more than 2 years on zoom.

This is slightly up in the air, as it may depend on the covid situation, or something else unforseen. But it is my present intention 🙂

See you at one of these evenings hopefully!

Keith

p.s. Excerpt from one of my favourite books: “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life” by Vajragupta © Windhorse Publications

Right Livelihood

Buddhist lifestyles

The wide range of people taught by the Buddha practised in a variety of ways. Some followed his earlier example and went into the forest to explore the depths of meditation. Some remained in their lay lifestyles, but still pursued the spiritual life and made substantial progress. Some became renunciants, living on the outskirts of towns and villages, but travelling into them to gather food from the laypeople, give teachings, and conduct the business of the order.

It is much the same today. There are a variety of ways in which we can follow the path. Each will have particular strengths and potential dangers. When finding a way to practise, it is also a question of finding what suits our temperament. It is not the case that what is right for one person will work for all. It is important to realize this, otherwise we may become discouraged.

Sometimes we see that a person who teaches Buddhism has a different lifestyle from us – one that we could not follow. Perhaps they live with other Buddhists and go on retreat a lot, whereas we have a busy family life. So we start thinking that practising in our situation is impossible, and we become despondent. Or we might be genuinely impressed with the teacher’s qualities and attributes, so we think we should be able to be like them. But then we find we can’t – our temperament and talents are just different. We have to find our own way – a path that suits our particular abilities and character. This just takes time.

Many people, when they come across the Buddhist path, have responsibilities such as family that they cannot, and do not wish to, leave. So most people pursuing Buddhism in the West are probably going to be practising ‘in the world’. One advantage of this mode of practice is that the world will keep you on your toes! If we are active in the world, ethical challenges are guaranteed. We encounter people we find difficult, and there are multiple demands on our time and generosity. Although we might wish at times that these problems would all go away, they can be challenges that spur us on to develop. Without them, we might not make much effort in our meditation.

This is my experience. It is often when life is difficult, and I’m struggling, that I’m most motivated in meditation. At these times I know I have to meditate – otherwise life will be hell! When times are easier, meditation can seem less of an imperative.The danger inherent in practice in the world is that we can become overwhelmed by the world. We struggle to find the time to meditate, and when we do find it, our minds are so stimulated by the busyness of our day that our meditation seems hopeless. We find it too difficult to implement ethical ideals when surrounded by people who have no interest in them. Perhaps we are so immersed in the world that we even start to lose sight of those ideals ourselves.

With practice apart from the world it is the opposite. The strength of this approach is that we will not be swamped by the world. On the contrary, we have time and space to explore the spiritual life, relatively free from stress, worry, and distraction. We can do so in ideal conditions – perhaps in quiet, beautiful countryside, or with others who are doing the same thing and therefore support our efforts. We dwell in a place where everything is designed to remind us of, and support, our ideals and aspirations.

At the same time, unless we are sufficiently self-motivated and alive to the dangers, we might just tread water. We might be going through the motions in our practice, but our lives don’t really challenge us, spur us on, or provide the medium in which we learn to consider the needs of others. In a way, it could become too supportive.

There is no perfect solution: however we choose to live the spiritual life, there will be opportunities and potential dangers. We just have to be aware of these, and negotiate the territory as best we can. Assuming that most people who will be reading this book will be practising in the world, most of what follows concerns that path.