News From Perth
09/12/2020: My personal news is that I left the Amida Order some 2 1/2 weeks ago - though that’s another story.
I may have, in doing so, put aside titles but they were attached to roles that were useful for work within the Order itself. However, I’m still a priest, an independent Pureland priest. So I will continue sharing meetings from the shrine room here, overlooking the garden. My sangha will no longer be 'Amida Scotland'. There will be another name, in time.
Like much of the world, our sangha meetings have been held via zoom for a number of months, and I expect that this method of gathering will continue for some time to come. Although I miss seeing my sangha in person, one advantage is that I can be joined by friends in different parts of the country or even further afield, as I can join them, in turn. And even friends who live close are not deterred from sangha gatherings by feeling unwell or contending with Scottish winter weather and dark nights. So it may transpire that this may be a better way to continue at least some of our gatherings.
Connections with others felt particularly precious yesterday, Bodhi Day. Now, as with others who made the same decision, I ease into a time which will become ripe with new beginnings, as yet, not knowing what shoots will emerge from the dark earth and what those new shoots will flower into. This season of darkness is one of turning inward for us all. As a friend said a few days ago, all that we have received can be broken down into rich loamy compost, nothing ever wasted, to nourish what comes next.
As well as feeling a huge sense of grief and of loss, of course, at this parting of the ways after 22 years, the hint of a sense of that new life to come - that there are new buds on the trees, shoots under the earth - gives a feeling of hope. Not a time for the shoots to emerge, the buds to open yet but there’s a sense of a freedom from structure, hierarchy, expectations, constraints of role and form - the possibility of new types of gatherings, the forging of new friendships and new understanding, new directions - eco dharma, Therapeutic Shamanism, the insights and inspiration of Bill Plotkin - and more.
So, while I tussled with making my decision and in the days since, faith and friendship have been a great refuge and solace, as clouds obscured some of the light.
Taigh an t’Solais means ‘house of light’ in Scottish Gaelic
(as opposed to Taigh Solas, which means a lighthouse).
This house, on the side of Kinnoull Hill, across the Tay from the city of Perth, faces West and is flooded with light.
The light?
Both on days when I’m aware of it and on days when it feels covered by outer and inner clouds, the light is always there.
NAMO AMIDA BU
Sujatin
