lotusinthemud

The Tree of Life Sangha

Since I and other members of my Amida Scotland sangha left the Amida Order and Shu, we have been nameless.

During our Zoom meeting on Tuesday evening, which was an opportunity for 'sharing', passing the stone and giving space for deep listening, I offered the friends gathered together the possibility of three new names.

The unanimous choice was 'The Tree of Life Sangha' - and so we have our new name!

 

:: the Tree of Life in Buddhism

:: the Tree of Life in Buddhism 2

porridge for breakfast (and thoughts on micro-productivity) - from michael

I've been reading Michael's blog, listening to his podcasts and reading his charming books for a number of years. Michael, who has M.E., as do I, is so good at maintaining a life of creativity around his limited energy. Today he writes:

Last week was a busy week.

As well as running the Get The One Thing a Day Habit course for the first time I was working hard on getting some sample pages ready for the book I’m working on for Perigee Books.

I thought I’d planned things well, leaving myself plenty of time for rest and recuperation, but problems with my home Internet connection meant that I had to go to town everyday to upload material for the course and the book and do all the other things that I rely on having a connection to the web for (most of what I do!).

Being forced to focus

At the beginning of the week I really enjoyed my trips to town. I was forced to focus, carefully planning and fitting everything I needed to do into the couple of hours I was in town for. Making (I thought) the very best use of my time.

asking for - and accepting - help

It's easy to feel embarrassed when there are things we can't do - so we struggle on manfully! But actually, allowing others to help can be a gift to them. I've been touched by the tales of my dharma sister Sahishnu, working with the poorest of the poor in India - how grateful and joyful her sangha are to be in a position to offer her aid in any way - including carrying her when her health has meant she is infirm.

This is an interesting take on the subject from Toni Bernhard:

How to ask for help

How many times have you said to a friend or relative in need, "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help," and when you didn't hear back, fail to follow-up? I've lost count of the number of times I did just that—fail to follow-up when I didn't hear back from someone in need, even though I would have been happy to help in any way I could.

Yet, despite this pattern in my own behavior, when I became chronically ill and didn't get back to people who offered to help, I decided that, because they failed to follow-up, their offers weren't sincere.

I learned otherwise quite by chance. A friend came to visit and showed me an exquisite handmade dress she'd just bought for her granddaughter at a local boutique. When I told her how much I loved it, she asked if I'd like to get one for my granddaughter. I said "sure," and before I could get "but I'm not able to go shopping" out of my mouth, she was out the door.

She returned shortly with the dress in two sizes for me to choose from. I picked one, wrote her a check and, when she left to go home, she took the one I didn't want back to the boutique. That made three trips for her to the same store that day.

When I got sick, was she one of the people who had said, "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help"? Yes. But I'd never asked her to do anything. On that day, however, I saw in her face that going to get that dress was a gift from me to her. She can't restore my health, but she can buy a dress for me to give to my granddaughter, and doing it made her feel terrific.

Here's what I've learned about people who offer to help:

1. They're sincere in their offer: they mean it.

2. The responsibility falls on me, not on them, to follow-up.

3. The best way to take them up on their offer is to give them a specific task to do.

:: read more here

the friends of amida buddhist social network - don't miss out

 DO JOIN, LOG ON AND PARTICIPATE IN FRIENDS OF AMIDA

one of the friendliest Buddhist social networks on the web

homemade food baskets to give as presents

Here are some wonderful ideas from Maija. I already make many of these to give (in addition to knitted gifts etc):

Many stores sell gift baskets with foods, but the choices tend to be dull. Using at least some homemade items makes for a much more personalized and interesting gift that says "I really thought about you" instead of "I went to Wal-Mart and grabbed the first thing I found".

Examples of homemade food items to include in a gift basket...(::continue reading here)

friends matter to your brain

Your friends may matter to you in ways that you can't even see - at the level of neural circuitry in the brain.

It turns out that the brain's frontal midline, an area between the two hemispheres that is associated with socialization and the way you think about yourself, also shows a greater response from friends than strangers, even strangers with similar interests and lifestyles, said Fenna Krienen, graduate student at Harvard University and lead author of a new study on the subject.

"What we ended up finding is that closeness really seems to matter to these circuits in the brain much more than similarity," she said.

::continue reading here

change of relationship status: official announcement from dharmavidya and prasada

Here is the statement, put out a week ago by Dharmavidya (David Brazier) about the change of status in his relationship with Prasada (Caroline Brazier), who also put out the same statement:

We, David and Caroline Brazier, wish here, for the sake of clarity in the sangha, to announce the termination of our relationship as a married couple. We do now, and expect in the future, to remain good personal and Dharma friends and we will continue to work in coordination for the benefit of the sangha in our Dharma, educational and writing work. No change in our positions as head and deputy head of the Amida Order is contemplated, nor of Caroline's position as leader of the Amida Trust educational programmes, nor of any of the other many roles that each of us hold in the Amida community. We shall both continue to live at The Buddhist House and to travel separately or together in support of the teaching and the community. Neither of us intends to change our position as (non-celibate) amitaryas.

heart touching heart

It's a very tender time at the moment, with people I care for 'changing their relationship status' and the effect on other people I care for as they struggle, and find, new, wiser and kinder ways of reacting than the hard and worldy, but easier to attain, polarised view. This touched my heart:

On an intense Zen retreat, insight meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein opens up to the vulnerable experience of compassion. By Joseph Goldstein

The practice of compassion means letting experience in. A Japanese poet, a woman named Izumi who lived in the tenth century, wrote: “Watching the moon at dawn, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely. No part left out.” When we can open to all parts of ourselves and to others in the world, something quite extraordinary happens. We begin to connect with one another.

One of the most memorable experiences in my meditation practice occurred quite a few years ago. I was doing a Zen sesshin—an intensive meditation retreat—with Joshu Sasaki Roshi, a very fierce old Zen master. Roshi worked with the koan method. A koan can be a question the master gives you that does not have a rational answer.

::continue reading

meeting of amida order members

I was delighted to spend time with other members of the Amida Order at our main centre in Narborough, Leicestershire:

Members of the Amida Order met over the weekend of 7-8 March to take stock of current developments in Amida-shu. There was a generally bouyant atmosphere and considerable enthusiasm for the possibilities that seem to be opening up for spreading the Dharma more widely. The meeting was also greatly cheered to receive news of the refuge ceremonies that took place on the Sunday in Delhi and a Skype link enabled those present at the Order meeting to talk with the Order members who are in Delhi. ::link

pureland buddhists on the other side of the globe

I'm glad to find Doug_Osto's excellent site: Nembutsu New Zealand

The Origins of Nembutsu 

The practice of Nembutsu or Nianfo, the 'remembrance of the Buddha', has been the main practice of Pure Land Buddhists throughout Asia for centuries. There were many Pure Land masters in China, and two of the greatest from Japan were Honen and Shinran. According to the Pure Land scriptures, countless ages ago the Buddha of Infinite Light (Sanskrit: Amitabha; Chinese Amituofo; Japanese: Amida) vowed that when he became a Buddha, anyone who had pure faith in him and called on his name would be reborn in his Western Paradise, the Land of Bliss (Sukhavati), or the Pure Land.
::read more here