Recent events, Ty Pren, and Tyn y Gors
The last full moon was during the Five Wisdoms weekend. I received a lot of feedback from students appreciating the theme and recognising the qualities of the five wisdoms in daily life experience. A theme we'll be coming back to again and again over the coming months and years.
Later in the month we had our Annual Sangha Celebration day which is particularly for people who are relatively new to the Sangha, having recently completed the Discovering the Heart of Buddhism courses. I gave a talk on death, I spoke about the importance of remembering death, and how that affects our attitude to our life, and our practice and our meditation, and so on. And then in the afternoon there were various sessions where people could hear about the opportunities that are available in the sangha once you've been through the DHB for the first time. Some of the areas that one might want to pursue such as joining the Mahayanaghana or to become a mentor, or both, or to get involved in volunteering, or training to take refuge or bodhisattva vows. So there were opportunities to discuss these topics and to meet and connect with each other and to think about how you want to go on in the Sangha, and it was good that there were plenty of older Sangha members there for the newer ones to meet. I thought the day was very successful and appreciated, and we will no doubt be doing this again in the future. This year was a new format for the Sangha celebration that we're working out as time goes on, and as the Sangha is building.
Shortly after that Tara and I went down to Ty Pren (which is "wooden house" in Welsh), a small retreat cabin at the end of the Llyn Peninsula that Tara has taken over from a prior occupant, Sister Verina, a Christian nun and hermit, who lived there for 25 years. Damzig was there on her own cleaning and painting and getting things ready for us which was very kind of her.
The owners of Ty Pren are a Welsh couple whose family has been living and farming in the area for many generations. The farmhouse and retreat hut face towards Bardsey Island, and they're very happy to support meditators. It seems that there's usually been Christian nuns there but they're very happy that we've come to practise there in the same spirit, they don't seem to be making a big distinction between whether it's Christian or Buddhist. There always seems to be an assumption in this part of the world that if it's religion, it's the same, which is very interesting, and similar to the attitude I've always found in India. So it was good to spend three days there. We did a bit of gardening and a bit of practice. There are quite a lot of brambles and clearing to be done but it was quite a nice way to spend our time. We're both having to be careful with our health. Tara is still recovering her health, and we've made the announcement that she is now taking a sabbatical for at least three months to try to build up her strength. And I think she's starting to feel the benefit of it.
We've had visitors over this period. We've had Lama Agnes here for a month. And Dawa, Suryaketu, Rangdrol and Jamyang all came before the Annual Sangha Celebration. Rangdrol was here for three weeks and it's been really nice to have people here on retreat. Sudhana is already a month into his three month solitary retreat in his yurt; he seems to be doing well.
I was at Tyn y Gors - that's Rigdzin Shikpo's retreat centre not far from the Hermitage While there, it was very nice to be able to spend a few days practising with my colleagues from Longchen. I didn't manage to stay the whole week, I stayed the first few days and then came back to the Hermitage to rest and then went back at the end when Rigdzin Shikpo was teaching and we did the Ghanachakra together, and as usual ended up talking in the middle of the night. That was the last day, so I was able to rest on the final day, Friday. That felt very auspicious and although there were very few people there, we are all getting quite old and either sick ourselves, or looking after parents and family who are sick - that seemed to be the main reason why there were so few there. Including me, there were five staying there, and Rigdzin Shikpo and Mandala Mother each had an attendant who came over with them, so that would have been seven of us all together. Some of you might remember Mike Stafforton, he was one of the attendants and it was very nice to see him again. I think he was our Treasurer when we first started, and also Andrew Patching, many of you may remember Andrew as the first mentor you had when you joined the Sangha. So they're always very happy to reconnect and to hear news about the Awakened Heart Sangha.
We have good news here at the Hermitage. Norbu and Gendun are going to be getting married on 29th November, and then Norbu is going to go to live with Gendun and his son Emil in Berlin. We shall miss her when she goes, but we really wish them well. I'm at Ty Pren now for a few days on my own, and will then be back at the Hermitage for the Sadhana retreat over the following two weeks. So, there's a lot going on. And I'm very happy that people are coming and are able to spend time on retreat and I'm getting to see some people, I'm always very sorry that I can't spend more time talking to everybody. Such is old age, I suppose one has to say! The good news is that Rigdzin Shikpo will be teaching us on December 4th, and so we can look forward to that, sign up here.
Wishing you all well.
Love Shenpen