May 2019 Newsletter

Wishing you all a very happy Wesak

Forthcoming Events: The Festival of the Buddha's Birth

We will be celebrating Wesak at the temple on Saturday the 11th 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.

Relaxing in the garden at a previous Wesak festival

Rev. Alicia from Sitting Buddha Hermitage will be joining us, and will be the celebrant for the festival, as we celebrate this highlight of the Buddhist year. The day will start at 10am, with tea and biscuits available as people arrive. This 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, and you are welcome to come for any part of it. We hope you will be able to join us for this joyful celebration. For other events in May, please see the events calendar.

Day Retreat in Nottingham

On Saturday the 27th of April we had a well-attended Day Retreat at the Tiger Boe Centre in Nottingham, with ten people coming for the day. As well as local group members from Nottingham, there were also Sangha members there from both Loughborough and Leicester. Tiger Boe works very well as a venue for a day retreat, and there was no one else using the building on that day, which meant that we had a bit more space available to us than usual. It also meant that the building was quiet, which was particularly appreciated during our morning meditation periods. As part of our morning schedule we also celebrated Morning Service, and in the afternoon Rev. Aiden gave a Dharma talk, which was followed by a very helpful discussion. Thank you to all those who helped to make the day happen, either by helping to organise things, bringing contributions to our bring-and-share lunch, or other practical help, as well as by the offering of your practice. The next day retreat in Nottingham is scheduled for Saturday October the 12th, also at Tiger Boe. The next time Rev. Aiden will be visiting the Nottingham group for an evening meeting will be Monday the 20th of May.

Spring Garden Work

The garden has been showing the results of our work last autumn and over the winter, with many spring bulbs coming up, and the established plants coming into leaf and flower. We have also put in quite a few additional plants in the back garden, and the borders are looking a bit fuller now. Here are a couple of recent photos of the garden:

Pear blossoms by our back garden fence

Spring flowers in the early morning light

Update on Recent Steering Morning

On Saturday the 13th of April we had a Steering Morning at the temple. We discussed plans for modifications to the property, and Rev. Aiden also gave an update on the finances. The graph below shows our core income for each month. The blue bars show regular income from standing order donations, the red bars represent donations placed in the temple alms bowl (guest donations), and the yellow bars are the sum of these two.

Core Income up to the end of March 2019

Guest donations in February and March were a little lower than recent months. In March this was partly due to the temple being closed for a week when Rev. Aiden visited Throssel Hole for the induction of the new abbot. However, the gradual increase in regular donations by Standing Order means that we have still managed to cover our costs over the last couple of months. Regular donations by Standing Order are a great benefit to the temple in helping us to meet the regular outgoings that we have each month. If you would like to support the temple with a regular donation in this way, details are on the donations page of the temple website. We are very grateful for all the many ways in which people support and sustain the temple. There is much more information about the finances, and many more graphs, on the finances page of the temple website. The next Steering Morning will be on Saturday the 15th 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 all donations of vegetarian food are most welcome. In particular:

brown rice and pasta

porridge oats

peanut butter

peanuts or other nuts

fresh fruit and vegetables (except garlic or peppers)

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.

All donations are received with gratitude.

April 2019 Newsletter

Invitation to Wesak:
The Festival of the Buddha's Birth

We will be celebrating Wesak at the temple on Saturday the 11th 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.