Thursday 26 June 2014

Chapter 4 tonight, not chapter 3

Picked up my book to do the reading for tonight and realised we are up to Chapter 4: The Relevance of Concentration.

.....but then you've probably all figured that out anyway because you've already read Chapter 3: Sati.

Seeya tonight.
LL

Wednesday 25 June 2014

This week @ sangha - sutta study


Hi all.

This week at Beaches Sangha we have Winton Higgins leading us through our sutta study session. Please try and read chapter 3 by then if you haven't already.

Also, Winton is running a weekend workshop next month which may be of interest. It's called Four Frontiers for Secular Buddhists. It'll address these four questions:


  1. What does the often confused conflict between religion and irreligion in our culture have to do with how we live now? 
  2. Why do we have such trouble accepting our finitude (mortality and limitedness) and disentangling from the yearning for transcendence? 
  3. How should we think about our ethical priorities in the way we live now? 
  4. Can we move on from these issues to draw some tentative conclusions about how to orient and intensify our daily dharma practice?
For more details click here. I'm going to this workshop so if you enrol, let me know and we might be able to car pool.

Hope to see you Thursday night.

LL

Wednesday 18 June 2014

This week @ sangha - Michael Barnes

Hi all. 

This week at sangha we have the return of a speaker from last year, Michael Barnes. Winton has recently referred to us as the 'out-riders' of Secular Buddhism. Well Michael is a bit of an out-rider in his own spiritual tradition, so we enjoyed our conversation with him last time and he enjoyed the freshness of our questioning. He's joining us this Thursday night to give a talk called 'How to live. What we need to hold on to and what we can let go.' I can feel the questions brewing already!

Hope to see you there.
LL

Tuesday 10 June 2014

This week @ sangha - the first precept



Hi all. This week @ Beaches Sangha we have...finally....Betsy's session on the first precept. 

Precepts are like undertakings or serious commitments to try and do something. At the start of the year when we discussed what we'd like to do I suggested a focus on these as a means of making the dharma practical and using sangha to help us sweep our lives in a helpful direction. The idea is to choose a precept, declaring an intention to put energy into it, and reporting back to each other to help maintain progress. 

There are 5 common ones in Buddhism that are usually in action on Buddhist retreats. This Thursday night, Betsy will give a talk and we'll have a discussion about the first one.

Hope to see you there.
LL

This Week at Sangha

This week at sangha we will finally begin working with the precepts, starting with the 1st precept of non-harming. After our usual meditation, I will give a short talk, followed by a short meditation and time to write. We will then share our reflections in a group discussion.
Please bring your handout sheet that I sent in March with the 5 Mindfulness Trainings/Precepts (I will bring extra copies as well if you don't have it.) Also bring a pen and notebook.