Re-opening the temple for in-person events

It has been lovely to be able to welcome visitors back to the temple over the last few weeks, which is a big step forward after having been closed for nearly eighteen months. Our initial events have just been for existing Lay Sangha members, and with a limit on the number of people who can come to each event, but the numbers coming in person have been gradually growing throughout the month.

Case numbers for coronavirus remain quite high, and we are heading into the cooler autumn weather, so for October we will continue to be cautious and have the same limit of four people per event. Existing Lay Sangha members can contact the temple by email, text or phone to book for events, and places will go to those who book first. All of the events will still be accessible via zoom as before.

We won't be starting to have introductory events just yet, although hopefully we will be able to start those again before too long. For now we haven't put the events on the temple website, but we will do once we are properly up and running, and once we are holding introductory events again.

We look forward to welcoming more Lay Sangha members to the temple again after such a long break.

New carpet for the new entry way

We had a delay in getting the carpet fitted in our newly-decorated entry way, as the carpet company hadn't been able to get it from their suppliers. Fortunately this was resolved in early September and the carpet was finally fitted towards the middle of the month. The picture below shows the view into the entryway from the front door.

At the far end is the door to the kitchen, and on the left-hand side there is a dog-leg which leads to a door to the rooms in the converted garage. The new entry way is many times larger than the original entrance hall, and will make a big difference when we have significant numbers of people here for events. We now have plenty of room for chairs, which there was no space for in the original entrance hall, so that people can now sit down as they put their shoes on.

The next picture shows the view looking back at the front door, with the doors to the two WCs on the right.

Opposite the WCs the new entry way connects with the original entrance hall, and the photo below shows the archway where the original front door was, with the original hallway beyond.

On the left is the door to the Meditation Hall, and to the right is the door to the Common Room. The door in the middle leads to the staircase.

Now that it is complete, the new hallway really helps to provide a welcoming space for visitors to the temple to arrive and depart, and is a big improvement on the original cramped entrance hall.

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Forthcoming Events: The Festival of Great Master Bodhidharma

On Saturday the 9th of October we will be celebrating the Festival of Great Master Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is an important figure within Zen, as he is credited with bringing the meditation school of Buddhism from India to China. His emphasis on "pure meditation", and the need to spend time "just sitting" facing a wall, are still central to our tradition. This festival is an opportunity to celebrate the life of Bodhidharma and to focus on some of his important teachings.

In addition to welcoming a small number of visitors to the temple for the festival, we will also 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 prior to the festival.

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An update on the temple's finances

Now that we are re-opening again it seems a good time to give an update on how the temple's finances have been over the recent period whilst we have been closed. It will be fairly brief, but there is much more information, and more graphs (which can be enlarged), on the Finances page of the temple website.

Core Income

First of all, the graph below shows our "Core" Income month by month. This is made up of regular income from standing order donations (the blue bars), and donations placed in the temple alms bowl (guest donations, the red bars). The yellow bars are the sum of these two.

Whilst we have been closed we haven't received any Guest Donations in the alms bowl from visitors to events. However, a number of people have kindly dropped off donations at the temple, or made donations either online or by cheque, and as these are in lieu of putting donations in the alms bowl they have been included as Guest Donations. As a result, the income from Guest donations has been fairly steady over the lockdown period, although it has been gradually declining in recent months.

During lockdown a number of people kindly increased their Standing Orders, whilst some people have had to cancel or reduce theirs as their circumstances changed. Standing Orders are now at a similar level to the first half of 2019.

Our total Core Income is also at a similar level to the first half of 2019, which is really very good considering that we haven't had any in-person events during this time.


Cashflow

The next graph shows our "net core income", which is "cash incomings minus outgoings". When it is positive our income is covering our spending; when negative it isn't covering our spending.

The red and yellow "trend lines" show the running average over the previous 6 and 12 months, and help show the overall movement within the large month-to-month fluctuations.

Since we started repaying the mortgage in April 2018 we have generally not been covering our core monthly outgoings from our core income, and since Autumn 2020 the situation has steadily deteriorated, so that in recent months we have had a shortfall of well over £200 per month.

However, we also have some income from the chaplaincy work that Rev. Aiden does, and when this is included the graph looks like this:

This is the most important measure of how we are doing, and with this additional income the temple has generally covered its costs in recent years. However, the yellow 12-month trend line has been falling consistently since October 2020, indicating that the situation is deteriorating, and we didn't quite cover our costs in either April or June this year. July and August were significantly better than the previous few months, so that the red 6-month trend line has started to rise again, although it is still at a very low level.


The effect of the building work

The recent building work has been a major investment for the temple. As we paid for the work, between January and March 2021, our bank balance reduced significantly, whilst the value of the building increased as the work was completed. There is much more detailed information about this, together with additional graphs, on the Finances page of the temple website.

It's great to have had the building work done, but it has reduced our bank balance from around £40,000 to about £3,000, and we have also had to take on additional loans to fund the project. This is what we expected of course, but our bank balance is now about as low as we would want it to go so that we can be sure we can keep paying our monthly bills. Again, more details about this are on the Finances page of the website.


Where that leaves us

Despite being closed to visitors for the last 18 months, we have mostly managed to cover our expenses during that time, and we are really grateful to all those who have made extra donations to the temple to help us get through this challenging time.

Now that we are open again some of that extra help will be ending, but hopefully we will be receiving donations in our alms bowl as people return to the temple for events. So far, however, many people seem happy to keep joining by zoom, and not that many have come to in-person events. Although we hope that these numbers will gradually increase, it seems quite likely that people may not visit as often as before, now that the option of zoom is available.

It's great that people are able to join in from home, particularly if they are further away from the temple, but this is likely to have an impact on the financial support of the temple, as people aren't able to put donations in the alms bowl when they don't attend in person.

An alternative to placing donations in the alms bowl is to make donations online, and we would be very grateful for any donations made in that way. If you do online banking you can make a one-off donation direct to the temple's bank account; please get in touch if you would like to offer support in this way, and we can give you the bank details.

Alternatively, donations can be made by cheque, payable to Turning Wheel Buddhist Temple, and posted to the temple address.

Many Lay Sangha members have kindly set up regular monthly donations via standing order, which are really helpful in providing a steady basis to the temple's finances. If you don't already have a standing order, and felt able to support the temple in this way, we would be very grateful for your support. Please get in touch and we can send you a form to fill in, or give you our bank details so you can set it up yourself.

Even a small regular donation makes a real difference to whether we cover our costs each month.

We would also like to express our gratitude for all the support that we are already receiving; thank you to all those who are so generously supporting the temple through your standing orders, individual donations, food donations and other donations in kind, in addition to the support of your practice. Without your kind support we wouldn't be able to offer this place of Buddhist practice.

None of us know how the the coming months, or years, will unfold, but we trust that if the temple can be a place of true practice for all who seek the Buddha's way, then the support needed to keep it going will be forthcoming.

Wishing you all the best in your practice.

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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