May 2017 Newsletter
Forthcoming Events:
The Festival of the Buddha's Birth
We will be celebrating Wesak at the temple next Saturday, the 6th of May. Everyone is cordially invited to come and celebrate the Buddha’s birth with us on this festive day, and you are very welcome to bring family and friends along to see the temple and join in as well.
The day will start at 10am, with tea and biscuits available for people as they arrive. This time will give an opportunity for people to meet, and for those visiting for the first time to have a look around the temple before the ceremony starts.
At 10.45am we will have a short ceremony rehearsal, and at 11am we will have the Festival Ceremony. This will be followed by a Dharma talk, and then a bring-and-share vegetarian feast. There won’t be any specific events scheduled in the afternoon; you are welcome to stay for as long as you would like, and this will be a good opportunity to socialise and meet other members of the Sangha. The day will end at 4pm.
I hope you will be able to join us for this joyful celebration.
For other events in May, please see the events calendar.
Retreat Day in Nottingham
On Saturday the 1st of April we had a Day Retreat at the Tiger Boe Centre in the middle of Nottingham. We had a good turnout, with a dozen people there in both the morning and the afternoon.
The large main room at Tiger Boe works very well as a meditation hall, and we had plenty of room for everyone. It is a difficult space to take a photo of, though, and the picture below is put together from three different photos. Even so, there are still three people who were missed out!
It was very nice to be able to spend the day sitting together, and the next day retreat in Nottingham will be on Saturday the 28th of October.
Visit to Sitting Buddha Hermitage
On the following Saturday, April the 8th, Sangha members from Leicester and Nottingham visited Rev. Alicia's temple, Sitting Buddha Hermitage. The Hermitage is in Cromford, near Matlock in Derbyshire, and nine of us travelled up from the temple, with one coming from Nottingham as well.
We were very lucky with the weather, as it was the warmest day of the year up to that point, with the temperature reaching a balmy 20C in the afternoon.
In the morning we had tea together and did some sitting, and then had a bring-and-share lunch. In the afternoon we went for a walk to Arkwright's mill and along the canal and back.
We had been planning to finish the day off with tea and cake in the cafe at Scarthin's Bookshop, but the warm weather meant that Cromford was packed with visitors, and the Bookshop cafe was so busy that instead we went back to the Hermitage for a nice cup of tea.
It was very nice to visit Rev. Alicia at the hermitage, and we hope to do so again before too long.
Update on our recent Steering Morning:
Finances and Looking for a Property
We had a steering morning at the temple on the 22nd of April, and the following is a summary of what we discussed.
Finances
We started off with a review of the finances, and below is a graph showing the net income on "core activities" in recent months.
This graph now has a couple of "trend lines", which show the running average over the previous 6 and 12 months, and help show the overall movement within the large month-to-month fluctuations.
Several new standing orders have started in February and March, which have significantly increased the total donations for those months, and in March our net core income was the highest we have had since the temple opened. You can see that the trend lines are going in the right direction as well.
There is much more information, including more graphs, on the finances page of the temple website.
Properties
The steering morning was also an opportunity to discuss where we might go from here in looking for a potential property to buy.
A summary of where we had got to:
- We have been looking for possible non-domestic properties, but there doesn't seem to be anything available in the area that we are looking.
- We haven't yet managed to discuss with the city council whether they have any suitable properties available, but we are continuing to pursue this.
- In parallel it seems like it would be good to start seriously looking at the domestic properties that are available, as this seems the most realistic route.
Everyone who was at the meeting was very supportive of the proposal to start looking at domestic properties, and to establish a fund to help support this. We discussed the next couple of steps that we might take, which are:
- View some potential properties, and identify a possible "candidate" property. Perhaps make an initial offer on this.
- Establish a building fund and invite donations and loans towards purchasing a property.
In parallel, we will continue to follow up on applying for grants and mortgages. Once we have sufficient finances arranged we can then follow through on any offer we have made, although we can't be sure that the property we first identified would still be available. In the meantime, however, other suitable properties may have come on the market.
Since the meeting we have viewed one house and have contacted the agent for another. The trustees have also established the building fund, and details of this will be circulated shortly, together with an update on the viewing(s).
Next Steering Morning
The next Steering Morning will be on Saturday the 24th of June. Please do get in touch if you have any questions or comments about any of this, or anything else related to the temple.
Alms Bowl Requests
Thank you to all those who have donated items to the temple. We are very grateful for donations of any household or other items that the temple might be able to use. Please contact Rev. Aiden if you have an item to offer but are not sure whether it would be useful.
Donations of Food
Offering food is a traditional way to support a monk, and any donations of vegetarian food are most welcome. In particular:
- fresh fruit and vegetables (except garlic or peppers)
- porridge oats
- yoghurt and eggs
- peanuts or other nuts
- nut or seed spreads (e.g. peanut butter, tahini)
- rice and pasta
Any other suitable items would also be appreciated.
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.