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Home » September 2025 Newsletter

September 2025 Newsletter

Turning Wheel Buddhist Temple, Leicester Posted on by September 1, 2025

On Saturday the 13th of September we will be celebrating the Festival of Avalokiteshwara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The name Avalokiteshwara is Sanskrit (Japanese: Kanzeon, Chinese: Kwan Yin, Tibetan: Chenrezig), and means “The one who hears the cries of the world”. To live with compassion is to hear the cries of suffering within ourselves and within all beings, and to be willing to respond, and the festival will focus on this centrally important aspect of Buddhist practice.

Water and Moon Kwan Yin Bodhisattva
The Water and Moon Kwan Yin Bodhisattva, sitting in a posture known as “Royal Ease”

During the festival a wide variety of different images of Avalokiteshwara are placed around the walls of the meditation hall, and we circumambulate the hall and bow to each image as we pass it. This symbolises the fact that compassion can appear in many different forms, sometimes in a way that we least expect, and that if we want to know stability and contentment in our lives we must accept, and bow to, all these different appearances of the nature of reality. This is one way in which we ourselves express compassion for all living things.

The festival day will start with two periods of meditation at 10am. These will be followed by the Festival Ceremony and a Dharma Talk and discussion, ending at 12.30pm.

In addition to welcoming visitors to the temple for the festival (please book in advance), we will also be holding the festival over zoom so that Lay Sangha members can join in from where they are. Full details of the festival will be sent out by email to Lay Sangha members prior to the festival.

Turning Wheel Buddhist Temple Logo

On Sunday the 21st of September we will be holding another Day Retreat at the Community Centre in Chilwell, Nottingham for members of the Nottingham group and anyone else who would like to come along. It will be an opportunity for a day of meditation and practice, and the building is usually nice and quiet on Sundays, as the library which shares the building with the community centre is closed then.

The main room which we use for meditation is very large, and we also have a couple of other rooms and a small kitchen, giving us plenty of space to arrange things for the day.

The photo below shows the main room during one of the morning meditation periods at the retreat in Autumn 2024.

Practising meditation together at the Nottingham Day Retreat
Practising meditation together

We will have access to the building from 9.30am, giving us time to get set up ready to start at 10am. During the morning there will be a meditation period followed by the Morning Service ceremony, and this will be followed by a Dharma Talk with tea. We will have a bring-and-share vegetarian lunch at about 1pm, and then in the afternoon there will be two meditation periods followed by a Dharma discussion and opportunity for Questions and Answers, together with tea. The retreat will end at 4pm and we hope that many lay Sangha members from Nottingham and beyond will be able to join us.

Our spacious meditation hall can seat a good number of people for meditation, and the photo below shows it on a bright morning at the beginning of September.

The Meditation Hall at Turning Wheel Buddhist Temple
The Meditation Hall at Turning Wheel Buddhist Temple

This year we have had three planters full of summer bedding flowers outside the front entrance to the temple, and the photo below shows them in mid-August.

Front door planters
A colourful welcome to the temple

The flowers have been in full bloom now for several months, and show no sign of slowing down. They are a lovely addition to the temple entrance, and we hope that they will continue to bloom well into the autumn.

Donations of Food
Offering food is a traditional way to support a monk, and all donations of vegetarian food are most welcome. In particular:

  • porridge oats
  • peanuts or other nuts
  • peanut butter
  • fresh fruit and vegetables (except garlic or peppers)
  • dried herbs
  • cheese, eggs and yoghurt

Any other suitable items would also be appreciated.

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

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