Hi everyone,
I hope that all is well.
We had 31 people attend this week which was the highest number since the pandemic started. Mangala came up and talked about habit. We tend to have a lot of habitual thoughts and actions that just keep us running round our hamster wheels, and stop us from climbing the spiral path to greater levels of loving kindness and joy 🙂 We also had 4 new people who were with us for the first time. Newcomers are always very welcome.
We took the photo a couple of weeks ago, so fairly hot off the digital press.
Coming up in the next few weeks:
07 Feb 2023 Keith
14 Feb 2023 Not yet known
21 Feb 2023 Padmajata
28 Feb 2023 Devamitra
07 Mar 2023 Nigel
14 Mar 2023 Kuladipa
On the 28th Feb Devamitra will be talking about his autobiographical book “Entertaining Cancer: The Buddhist Way”.
This is what it says on Amazon about it: “You’re diagnosed with an aggressive cancer – what do you do? Devamitra – English actor and Buddhist teacher – describes the discomforts and indignities of being treated for prostate cancer. He also draws on the deep well of his Buddhist practice to work with his mind and meet fear, uncertainty and frailty with resolve.”
Hopefully see you at some or all of these classes 🙂
Warm wishes
Keith
p.s. By the way, if you like what we do it would be very helpful if you could leave us a review on Google https://g.page/r/CYFMwq1O9f7oEB0/review . This not only gives us a bit more social proof, it will also help our website rank higher for more keywords, and will help more people find us 🙂
p.p.s. Excerpt from one of my favourite books: “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life” by Vajragupta © Windhorse Publications
Here, we’ll look at basic elements of right livelihood. These are suggested areas with which to consider to what extent our working life constitutes right livelihood. Does our work give us what we need under each of these headings?
support
First, we need work that gives us adequate financial support, work that is enjoyable, and that allows us to be part of society. We do need a reasonable level of income for ourselves and those for whom we are financially responsible. This might require a full-time job, or we might change our priorities and work part time. We might be happy to earn less because we value the time this makes available for other activities. Whatever we do, it is important that we stay emotionally alive. We need something in our lives that draws out the best in us. If this isn’t in our work, we must find it in another aspect of our lives. Our emotional energy needs somewhere to flow. Sometimes we meet people who have been stuck in a rut for years, trundling along on the same old lines. It is as if something inside has been snuffed out. It is a sad waste of potential. As much as we can, we should ‘follow our bliss’. We should do what we love, while also remembering our responsibilities to others.
In many faith traditions, work is seen as a vital aspect of being healthy and human. Most of us need an activity that brings forth our energies and talents, and through which we can make a contribution to society. Through our work we can experience ourselves as part of society. We learn about our interconnectedness as human beings, how we need to give and take.
benefiting others
The second way in which our work can become right livelihood is by ensuring that it is ethical and of benefit to the world. I often notice that people who take up meditation are already employed in right livelihood in this sense. They have taken up jobs that obviously benefit other people. Once we have been meditating for a while, it often becomes even more important to us that our work accords with our altruistic ideals.
But even if our work is not the kind that we usually think of as socially useful, it will still contain opportunities to benefit others. For example, if we are more emotionally positive, calm, and collected, this will have a transforming effect on everyone in our workplace. Most work involves provision of a service or a product, so we can try to provide the best service to others. Or we might give some of our earnings to charities and social projects. Many faiths have a tradition of tithing a proportion of one’s income in this way. A friend of mine used to give a day’s earnings per month to a good cause. On a certain day each month he would remind himself that he wasn’t just working for himself, but for the benefit of others.