Redecorating the Meditation Hall

We are very pleased that the redecoration of the Meditation Hall is now complete, and a picture showing the room before and after all of the building work and redecoration is shown below.

You can see that the doorway to the kitchen on the left-hand side has been blocked up, and the patio doors in the right-hand corner have been converted to a window, with an additional radiator in front of it. We have also changed the direction of the stairs, which no longer go up from the back of the hall.

All of these changes have made a big difference to the feel of the Meditation Hall, as we now don’t need to go through it in order to get to other rooms. We are pleased that it has been completed in time to welcome visitors back to the temple, hopefully from July the 19th.

Now that the Meditation Hall is in use again we have started decorating the new entryway and WCs, and hopefully much of this will be done by the time we re-open as well.

Welcoming visitors back to the temple

At the time of writing we are expecting the restrictions on meeting indoors to be lifted, along with many other restrictions, on the 19th of July. Assuming that these changes go ahead as expected we will start to have some “in-person” meetings from then.

Sangha members will still be able to attend all events via zoom, and morning meditation and morning service will continue to be zoom-only events.

Whilst the prevalence of the virus is still quite high, and whilst there is still quite a bit of redecoration work to do at the temple, weekend events will continue to follow the same pattern as before, with a festival morning and precepts morning each month, and with meditation mornings each Sunday. Hopefully we will be able to add more weekend events in coming months.

Initially, events will just be for those who already have a connection with the temple, including those who have been joining our zoom meetings, and they won’t be advertised on the website for now. Once we get used to having in-person events again, and once we see the effect of the lifting of restrictions, we will hopefully be able to start having introductory events again.

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Forthcoming Events: The Festival of Great Master Dōgen

On Saturday the 3rd of July we will be celebrating the Festival of Great Master Dōgen. Great Master Dōgen was a thirteenth century Japanese monk. He has a very important place in our tradition, as he brought the Sōtō Zen school of Buddhism from China to Japan. This festival is an opportunity to celebrate his life and teaching.

We will be holding the festival over zoom so that Lay Sangha members can join in from where they are. I hope you will be able to join us, and full details will be sent out by email to Lay Sangha members prior to the festival.

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Some recent photos of the garden

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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