January 2021 Newsletter
Events on New Year’s Eve
On New Year’s Eve we will be holding the traditional New Year’s Eve Festival, starting with meditation at 7.30pm. Unfortunately we won’t be able to meet in person for the ceremony this year, but we will be holding it via zoom.
During the ceremony we recite the Scripture of Great Wisdom, and a ceremonial copy of the scripture arranged in a fanfold design is “revolved”, symbolically showing it and offering it in all directions. After this we all drink a glass of celebratory New Year juice together, making a wish for the peace and prosperity of the temple and the Sangha, and all beings, during the coming year.
After the ceremony we will have a chance to meet and talk together (on zoom), and the evening will end at about 9.30pm or so.
New Year’s Day:
The Festival of Maitreya Bodhisattva
Then on New Year’s Day we will have the Festival of Maitreya from 10am to 12.30pm. This festival celebrates the Bodhisattva Maitreya, known as “the Buddha who is yet to come”. It is said that Maitreya will appear when the teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha has completely disappeared and been forgotten. Associated with new beginnings, the Festival of Maitreya is often celebrated on New Year’s Day.
We will be holding the festival over zoom this year, so that people can join in from where they are, and details have been sent out by email to Lay Sangha members.
Progress with the Building Work
The builders started work on the 30th of November, and had almost completed the structure of the porch by the time they stopped for the festive season.
The photo below shows the outline of the porch with the foundations dug out. That was all done in just a couple of days, and the concrete for the foundations was poured on the third day.
Progress on the walls was very quick, and the photo below shows the brickwork partly completed. In order to build the porch, the old garage door needed to be removed, and this has been bricked up to form the wall of the rooms that will be in the converted garage.
By the end of the third week the walls were complete, the roof timbers had been put on, and work on the roof tiles had also started. The photo below shows the work at that stage, and you can clearly see the two small windows in the porch which will be for WCs, and the window to the left of them which will be for the shower room in the converted garage.
The two slots to the left of that are the sides of a larger window for one of the rooms in the converted garage. It can’t be cut out completely yet, as the boiler is on the other side of it. At some point the boiler will be moved into the new porch, where it will be much closer to where hot water is used in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom.
The photo below gives a sense of what the completed porch will look like from the front. The fascias and guttering have been completed, and hopefully the windows and door will be coming early in the new year.
Work has also been going on inside the building, including in the kitchen, where the ‘dog-leg’ by the back door has been blocked off, making the kitchen a regular rectangular shape (see the photo below). The kitchen already feels quite a bit warmer, as neither the back door nor the door to the garage sealed very well.
The builders plan to be back early in the new year, and hopefully the weather will hold for them to finish off the exterior work on the porch. They will also be making some changes to the door and windows at the rear of the property, and hopefully we will have some photos of that to share in the next newsletter.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year
Thank you to everyone who has shared their practice,
and supported the temple in so many different ways,
throughout this challenging past year.
Wishing you all a healthy and peaceful 2021.
Let us offer the merit of our practice to all beings,
so that all may be able to realise the truth.
Donations
The temple is dependent on donations for its continued existence, and any financial support you are able to offer is greatly appreciated. Details of how to offer support can be found on the Donations page of the website.
All donations are received with gratitude