Monday 17 December 2018

This week @ Beaches - Celebration


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha, we are having a celebration for two reasons. First, to mark the end of our 2018 Sangha year. And secondly, to mark the end of the weekly meeting format as we've known it for the last 10 years.

Last week, those of us who felt moved to ensure the Sangha continued, met and discussed some ideas. We decided that Beaches Sangha will become a monthly dharma study group, meeting on the last Thursday of each month from January to November. Initially we'll work through the second half of the book we are currently studying: The Basic Teachings of the Buddha by Glenn Wallis. I'll continue to lead these sessions.

At the start of next year, those of us who plan on participating regularly will be contributing $130 to cover our attendance for the full year. This way the Sangha's viablility (cost-wise) is assured and not dependent on fluctuating numbers of attendees. If you'd like to participate on a casual basis that's still fine too. The cost for ad hoc attendance will be $15 + dana. 

This is a significant change to the shape of our Sangha. Some sadness arises for me, knowing that I won't have my weekly re-set of a few hours with my dharma friends. But I personally have some other dharma projects that I want to bring to life and part of that for me, is letting go of the weekly responsibility for Sangha. I'll keep you posted about those projects, and I'd love you to be a part of them. 

I'm also deeply glad that Sangha is continuing in some form, and that form will deepen our knowledge and practice of the dharma.

Thank you for your contribution to Beaches Sangha over the last decade - for attending and engaging with the material and our discussions, for sharing your experiences and your friendship. And a special and very heart-felt thank you to those who have been, at any time, a SOGgie (Sangha Organising Group). Your generosity of time and care has been so valuable. The group would not have lasted this long without you. Thank you so much!!! 

If you've ever been a member of Beaches Sangha - whether that's as a regular, a semi-regular, a once-was-regular, or a casual member, we'd love to see you this week to celebrate the 10 years of spiritual friendship and learning that we've had together. Bring along some food to share, something to drink, and a plate or bowl to eat from. We'll have a 15 minute meditation, then spend the rest of the evening sharing food, each other's company, and celebrating the group that has been a very positive part of many of our lives.

One last time...I hope you can make it.
LL

P.S. If you were unable to attend the meeting but would like to join in with the regular dharma study group, please let me know either in person this week, or by using the Contact Form on the right of the home page of the web site. 

Monday 10 December 2018

This week - important Sangha meeting



Five years ago we celebrated Beaches Sangha's 5th birthday. We got creative and painted rocks from the Peace Park to symbolise what Sangha meant to us. It was marvellous that our group had continued to arise for five whole years, given there is nothing locking people in to coming, not even obligation, just the desire to be part of the group and to learn and practice the dharma. 

Sangha has now arisen every year for 10 years - dependent on the help and care of many. Personally, it's been my "re-set button", a source of great learning, friendship, grounding and connection. I cherish the very real conversations and explorations we have together about this human experience. 

We now need to decide what happens next. I'm ready to relinquish the role of central organiser, so as a group we will determine the next chapter. Maybe someone will be happy to take on that role? Or maybe we'll transform into a once-a-month sutta study group? Or someone might have other ideas? Or maybe the necessary conditions won't be present for Sangha to continue at all. We will find out this week.

If you'd like our sangha to continue in any way, it's really important that you come along this Thursday and be a part of the discussion. Your interest and energy are among the conditions needed for sangha to continue.

Whatever the outcome, Thursday next week will then be our last meeting for 2018, and our tradition is to have a short meditation and an end-of-year celebration where we bring some food and drink to share.

I hope to see you on Thursday.
LL

Monday 3 December 2018

This week @ Beaches - last sutta study for the year


Hi all.

This week at Beaches Sangha we have our last sutta study session for the year, which marks the half way point in the book. It's another short one, and another one looking at our constructed self - this time as a burden that we can put down. I hope you can make it.

Also, a reminder that next week is a very important meeting for Beaches Sangha where we'll decide if and how our sangha continues to arise in 2019. If you value Beaches Sangha, please make sure you come along and be part of the discussion.

See you Thursday.
LL

Monday 26 November 2018

This week @ Beaches

Hi all.

This week we have our last talk from Gawaine Powell-Davies for the year. I haven't had time to procure from him his topic, but his talks are always thought provoking if not lyrical as well. I can't make it this week so I'm hoping you'll come along and make him welcome.

Next week we have our last sutta study for the year.

Hope you can make it on Thursday.
LL

Tuesday 20 November 2018

This week @ Beaches - "not-self"


Hi all. 

This week's theme is "Buddhist Basics" - talks that address some of the key concepts in the dharma. I'll be running a practical session on the important concept of 'not-self' (anatta in Pali). When I was first learning the dharma I found this the concept that was most confusing, so I wrestled with it, asked questions on retreats, read about it, and badgered teachers about it until I understood it. So this week I'm going to share that understanding with you so that you have a good grasp too.

Also, another reminder to diarise 13th December to come and decide whether and how Beaches Sangha will continue next year (see my post from 29 October for more info). If the Sangha is important to you, it's important that you come along and be part of that discussion.

I hope to see you on Thursday.

LL

P.S. I've swapped a couple of talks on the schedule - next week will be a talk by Gawaine, and the week after will be our last sutta study for the year.

Tuesday 13 November 2018

This week @ Beaches - humming meditation

Hi all.

This week we're going to try something a little different. Kate is going to lead us through some humming meditation practices. If we think of meditation as a practice that places our awareness onto our current experience with curiosity and kindess, pretty much anything can serve as meditation. Kate's experienced humming in other forums like yoga and volunteered to share it with us. 

I hope you can come along and join in.

See you Thursday.
LL

Monday 5 November 2018

This week @ Beaches


Hi all. 

This week we have Jampa giving us a 'special request' talk at sangha called 'Three Tibetan Practices for the Secular Buddhist'. Jampa spent many years as a Tibetan monk and so we're lucky to benefit from his experience. He has prepared this talk especially for us. I hope you can make it.

Also a reminder to put our meeting on Dec 13 into your diary if you'd like Beaches Sangha to continue next year. See last week's post for more info.

I hope to see you Thursday.

LL

Monday 29 October 2018

The next two weeks @ Beaches + an important question for you


Hi all.

This week at Beaches... This week we will be having just a meditation and, if you feel like it, a cuppa and a chat. I'll be interstate seeing family, but Kate will be opening the hall for all who'd like to come and have a sit together.

Next week at Beaches.... On Thursday week (8th Nov), we have a talk by Jampa, which I requested and am very much looking forward to. One of the great things about a secular approach to dharma practice is that we can draw from all other approaches and collect whatever practices are helpful to us. Jampa spent many years of his life as a Tibetan monk, and so I asked if he'd do a talk sharing some specific Tibetan practices that he thinks might be useful for us. The talk is called "Three Tibetan Practices for the Secular Buddhist".

An important question for you... on Dec 13, as we near the end of our 10th year, our session will be a meeting to determine the future of Beaches Sangha. Over this time, the generosity of many lovely people have helped keep our Sangha going, whether that's opening up the hall and setting up for meetings, looking after the supply cupboard, managing the program, or other tasks. As helpers have come and gone, I've always been the central organiser. After 10 years, I'm ready to hand that role over to someone else.

So at our meeting on Dec 13, we need to make a decision. The future of Beaches Sangha will go in one of three directions:

1) We continue as we have done - someone puts their hand up to be the central organiser, another 2-3 people volunteer to help out next year, and we continue to have regular meetings, a program of speakers and topics etc. as we always have (with the option of reviewing the mix and format of sessions).

2) We become a study group - we have meetings only once a month to study the dharma. We start off by working through the second half of The Basic Teachings of the Buddha, then move on to the workbook for "After Buddhism" by Stephen Batchelor. We would need a minimum of five people committed to coming regularly for this to be viable.

3) Beaches Sangha closes its doors.

The important question is: will you be involved in either option 1 or option 2? If so, we need you to come along on Dec 13 to indicate your interest. If you'd like to be involved but there's no way you can arrange to attend on Dec 13, please either let us know in person at a meeting before then, or send me a message through the Contact Form on the web site (right hand side of home page here). If you have ideas for any other options, they're very welcome.

Like all things, Beaches Sangha is a 'dependent arising'. The primary condition that gives rise to it, is our generosity with time. In a busy city like ours, it seems that time is the resource that people are most sensitive to giving away. It's delighted me that year after year, for 10 years, people have put their hand up and offered this precious resource....the only reason our Sangha is still here. So please, if you'd like option 1 or option 2 above, put Dec 13 in your diary, and help create the conditions for our Sangha to continue in some form.

A reminder too, that Thursday Dec 20 is our last meeting for the year. As always, this will include a short (15 min) meditation, and then a celebration. It'd be great if you could put this in your diary too, before it starts filling up. 

Enjoy your week, and I hope to see you soon.
LL

Monday 22 October 2018

This week @ Beaches - an important sutta

Hi everyone.

Just a reminder that we have sutta study again this Thursday. This week's sutta (#7: Evidence of Selflessness), is an important one. It touches on a core concept of the dharma, and one that can be a bit confusing - the idea we have of our 'self'. So come along and join us for the discussion. Obviously you'll get the most out of the session if you've read the sutta and corresponding chapter, but even if you don't have the book yet, you'll still get a lot from the discussion.

Hope to see you there.
LL

Friday 19 October 2018

A change to the Beaches program - sutta study again next week


Hi all.

I've made a tweak to the program for next week because I don't want to get too far behind with our sutta study. Sutta study schedule for the first week of Nov, but I'm now going to be away that day, so rather than cancel it, I'm bringing it forward to next week.

If our sutta studiers could please read the sutta "Evidence of Selflessness" and the corresponding notes chapter, ready for this coming Thursday, that'd be stirling. (Thought I'd post this early so that you've got plenty of notice for your reading time.)

Hope to see you there!
LL

Monday 15 October 2018

This week @ Beaches Sangha - practical dharma


Hi all. 

This week @ Beaches Sangha
This week we have our monthly Open Discussion. We like to focus frequently on how the dharma can be useful to us in practical, day to day life, so that it benefits us, and doesn't just become an intellectual exercise. 

What are we struggling with? Where do we find ourselves getting reactive? In what ways are we pushing away or resisting being with our lives just as they are, in all of their shades of joy, or pain, or maybe boredom? And how can the dharma help in dealing with the ups and downs of life? 

These discussions are always engaging, and I really enjoy the way they unfold as a unique creation of the people who come. It's also nourishing to share a bit of our own adventure with our fellow travelers. I hope you can make it.

Living and Dying workshop
Subhana Barzaghi, who led a session at Beaches Sangha in August, is running a two day workshop called Living and Dying at the Sydney Zen Centre. If loss of a loved being is something that's relevant for you at the moment, or you have found meditation on death beneficial (as I do) you might find this a good way to spend a weekend. Click here for more info.

LL

Monday 8 October 2018

This week @ Beaches - sutta study


Hi everyone. 

This week we resume our sutta study sessions with sutta #6 called "Like a Ball of Foam". It's a relatively short sutta (2.5 pages), and the corresponding chapter in the "Guide to Reading the Texts" is also fairly brief. If our sutta studiers can have read both by Thursday night that'd be great. And just to remind you, the questions we start with each time are:

1) What is the text about? If you had to say in one word (or phrase), what would it be?
2) With what major theme or themes is it concerned?
3) With which of the following dimensions is it concerned: doctrinal, ethical, experiential, mythological, ritual, liturgial, social, institutional?

If any of the newies would like to join in, please do! You'll need to get your hands on a copy of the book called "The Basic Teachings of the Buddha" by Glenn Wallis. If you haven't got it yet, still feel free to come along as we discuss what it is about and these discussions are always interesting and educative.

And just for fun, here's a little taster of what we'll do next year. Thanks to those of you who contributed a little extra to the Sangha basket a couple of months ago to support the production of this workbook. When we finish our current book of suttas (next year), we'll move on to this one which is a workbook to accompany Stephen Batchelor's latest book: After Buddhism. 

Hope to see you Thursday!
LL

Tuesday 2 October 2018

Our topic for Thursday

....just following up from yesterday's post....the topic of Gawaine's talk will be:

"Does the dharma turn the world upside down?"

Come and help us figure it out.

See you Thursday.
LL

Monday 1 October 2018

Beaches Sangha is back - see you Thursday!!!



Hi all.

Our winter break is over, I'm back from Europe, and Beaches Sangha sessions resume this week! Gawaine Powell-Davies is coming to give us a talk on I'm not quite sure what yet, but his talks are always enjoyable and thought provoking, so I hope you can come along.

Next week we resume sutta study, so if all you sutta studiers can read and ponder on Sutta #6: "Like a Ball of Foam" by then, that'd be great.

Looking forward to seeing everybody!!!
LL

Monday 6 August 2018

This week @ Beaches - special guest - last meeting until October


Hi all.

This week at Beaches Sangha we have our last meeting before the winter break. We've got special guest Subhana Barzhagi coming to give us a talk. Subhana is both an Insight Meditation teacher and a Zen Roshi. She tends to have a very full teaching calendar, so Selena did well to book us a night with her. Please come along and help her feel welcome.

Her talk will be called "Gratitude: Abiding in the Fullness of our Being".

I hope to see you there.
LL

Wednesday 1 August 2018

This week @ Beaches Sangha - Victor von der Heyde


Hi everyone. 

Beaches Sangha is back on this week, and we are lucky to have Victor von der Heyde coming to give us a talk called "Vedana: Beyond the First Glance".

Vedana is the Pali word for what we refer to as 'feeling tone' - that quality of pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, that we experience in response to every bit of stimulation that washes past, over or through these body-minds of ours. It, and our reactions to it, are an important part of dharma practice.

I hope you'll be able to come along and make Victor welcome.
LL

Tuesday 26 June 2018

This week @ Beaches - last talk for a month


Hi all. 

This week at Beaches Sangha we have one of our old regular speakers, Gawaine Powell-Davies, coming to give us a talk called 'Perspectives on Making Choices'. Gawaine's talks are always interesting and thought provoking, and generate good discussion.

After this week we will have a 4 week break, partly due to the hall being closed for maintenance. Please do come along to welcome Gawaine, make it worth his trip to the northern beaches to be with us, and soak in enough sangha to last you for a month!

I'll be in touch the week before our next meeting.
LL


Tuesday 19 June 2018

This week @ Beaches - last sutta study until October!


Hi guys.

This week we have an early sutta study so that we don't miss out on too many over the break. We're up to sutta #5 called 'The All'. This is where Gotama (the Buddha) describes the totality of human existence. It's the shortest sutta in the book, but a really juicy one for discussion. 

This will be our last sutta study until we return after the winter break, so please do come along and take part.

Hope to see you there.
LL

Monday 11 June 2018

This week @ Beaches - a special guest


Hi all.

This week
This week @ Beaches Sangha we have a special guest coming to give a talk...Winton Higgins. Winton was an important part of bringing Beaches Sangha to life, having given regular talks and led sutta study with us for the first 6 or 7 years. This week he's making his only appearance at Beaches for 2018 and he'll be giving a talk called "Confidence without certitudes in dharma practice'.

Winton is also a walking wikipedia, and in all the time he taught regularly with us, we never managed to find a question he didn't know the answer to....so if you have any questions at all on anything dharma-related, please bring them along.

The program
I also want to let you know that there'll be two breaks in the sangha program this year. One for 3 weeks in July, most of which is due to hall maintenance by the council. The other is a winter break from mid August to the end of September, largely because I'll be off racing in Europe. 

With only 3 more Thursdays until the first break, I very much hope you can make it this week to welcome Winton and contribute to our always-vibrant questions and discussion.

A sangha resource for next year
It's apt that Winton is with us this week because he is involved in a project to produce a workbook for Stephen Batchelor's most recent work: After Buddhism. He and some others have a Kickstarter project going to fund the production of this resource. 

I've made a pledge of $125 from our sangha, which means we'll receive some of the workbooks when they're done. Assuming Beaches Sangha continues to 'dependently arise' next year, I'm thinking we can use these after we finish our sutta study. 

We don't actually have much in our bank account at present, but enough to make this contribution without jeopardising our existence (in the short term anyway). If you'd like to support our Sangha in this act of generosity, please feel free to contribute some extra to the sangha basket this week.

Hope to seeya there.
LL

Monday 4 June 2018

This week @ Beaches

Hi everyone.

As it's the first Thursday of the month, we have our monthly sutta study this week. This one is a very well known sutta, and a particularly important one for us secular types. It's called Discourse in Kesamutta and it's the one where Gotama gives advice on how to decide what to believe...the most reliable method being to know for ourselves.

As always, if you value our sutta study sessions, please indicate that by turning up and joining in, even though the nights are getting colder. Our sangha will only continue to exist if people participate.

Hope to see you there.
LL

Monday 28 May 2018

This week @ Beaches - a special guest


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha we have a special guest, Jill Shepherd. Jill lives something of the mendicant's life - she has no fixed home, no car etc.....to some extent she's a 'wanderer' like the Buddha was. She's currently staying in the Blue Mountains and will be making her way down here (on public transport) to be with us. If there's any way you can join us this week to help welcome and support her visit to us, that would be wonderful (there are a few regulars who will be away, so I'm really hoping as many of you can come as possible). 

Jill's talk will be centred on helping us maintain momentum with our practice:


Practice in Daily Life: the Ten Parami as means to maintaining momentum
Many people struggle to maintain a regular meditation practice in the midst of daily life, and can get discouraged when their formal sitting doesn't measure up to the calm and clarity experienced on retreat.  The ten parami are a list of qualities that require the rough and tumble of daily life to develop though, so assessing our practice in terms of these qualities can be a more encouraging way of measuring progress.


Jill's background

Jill began practicing insight meditation in Thailand in 1999, and since that time has lived and worked at several meditation centres and monasteries in the US, Australia, England, and Thailand. She recently spent seven years on staff at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, where she participated in several long retreats and Buddhist study programmes, as well as offering weekly meditation classes at a nearby men's prison. She is a graduate of the IMS / Spirit Rock teacher training program in the US, under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Gil Fronsdal. Currently, she divides her time between the USA, Australia and New Zealand, teaching vipassana and brahma vihara retreats and offering ongoing study and practice groups focused on bringing the dharma into daily life.

Monday 21 May 2018

This week @ Beaches - Batchelor podcast


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha, we're going to do another podcast by Stephen Batchelor. This month it's one of my faves. You will have heard us talk about 'Mara' - the mythical figure who tried to knock the Buddha off the path for the whole of his life. Batchelor talks about this in reality as anything that causes us to feel stuck, or that binds up our ability to respond to life with creativity and kindness.

It's a cracker. I hope you'll join us.
LL

Wednesday 16 May 2018

This week @ Beaches - use it or lose it



Hi all. Sorry for the late post this week.

This week @ Beaches we have our monthly Open Discussion. This is where we can discuss things we've covered in past sessions, ask questions, or explore how the dharma might help us approach the situations we face in our daily lives. Gotama's teachings were very practical - the four great tasks - and so it's important to spend some time focusing on using them.

The heaters will be on. The bikkie supply will be replenished. I hope to see you there.

LL

Monday 7 May 2018

This week @ Beaches - a special guest


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha we have a special guest coming to give a talk, Michael Barnes. Michael is a bit of an out-of-the-box Minister in the Uniting Church who has a deep interest in the Buddha's teachings. His sessions are always thought provoking, eloquent and enjoyable. And he loves the questions and discussion that come from our group, so come along and join in.

And it's the week of Michaels....there are also some local Sunday evening 'Mindfulness drop-ins' in Mona Vale run by Michael Courtney (who's joined us for Sutta Study a few times recently) for anyone who's interested.

I hope you'll join us in making Michael Barnes welcome this Thursday night.

LL

Monday 30 April 2018

This week @ Beaches - sutta study

Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha we have sutta study and we are up to sutta #3 which is called "Threefold Knowledge". Three of the 16 suttas in the book are relatively long and this is one of them, so make sure you give yourself enough time to read and digest it before Thursday night. 

Also, something we notice each year is that as the weather gets cooler, the number of people who show up for sangha can sometimes go down. I do spend quite a few hours each month preparing for these sutta discussions, which I am very happy to do as long as it's something people value. I judge how much it's valued by how many people turn up. So even though it might be tempting to stay indoors as the nights get chillier, if you're keen on learning the basic teachings of the Buddha, your presence is important to keeping these sessions going. 

I hope to see you there.
LL

Monday 23 April 2018

This week @ Beaches Sangha


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha we have our Wild Card night. April's activity is a podcast by Stephen Batchelor. Feel free to bring a yoga mat and blanket if you'd like to make yourself comfortable while we listen. As always, we'll have a discussion afterwards. I haven't yet decided which podcast we'll do - Stephen has so many good ones! That can be the surprise for those who join us.

Hope to see you there.
LL

Monday 16 April 2018

This week @ Beaches


Hi all. This week at Beaches we're doing sutta study. It's sutta#2 called 'A Brief Talk to Malukya'. As always, it's most useful if you've read the sutta and the following notes about it, so that we can discuss and digest it together.

Hope to see you there.
LL

Sunday 8 April 2018

This week @ Beaches + change to next week


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches
This week it's Speaker night and we have one of our old faves, Victor von der Heyde coming to give us a talk called 'Dealing with emotions and other mind states'. Victor is a long time dharma teacher and his talks are always thoughtful and thought provoking. I'll personally be on the Gold Coast this Thursday night cheering on our Commonwealth Games athletes, so please do venture out to the Peace Park to make him feel welcome in my absence.

Next week - change to schedule - sutta study
Last Thursday night the whole world seemed to be tired. The three of us (!!!) who turned up to sangha included! So we just meditated and then went home. The rest of you were so tired after the long weekend that you couldn't get yourselves there!! We know that many of you are keen on the sutta study sessions, so we decided to swap out next week's Open Discussion for last week's sutta study session. So if you'd like to participate, please make sure you've read sutta #2, and the notes that follow it for next week.

I hope you enjoy Victor's talk and ply him with some good questions and discussion.

LL

Monday 2 April 2018

This week @ Beaches - sutta study


Hi all. 

This week @ Beaches Sangha we have our monthly sutta study. We are up to Sutta #2: A Brief Talk to Malukya. You'll get the most out of the session if you have read the sutta (at least once) and the relevant notes that follow it. 

We'll start the session again with the same questions we did last time. The ones I'll ask for your answers on are:

1) What is the text about? If I had to say so in a word, which word?
2) With what major theme/s is it concerned?
3) What does the text demand of me? Does it ask me to alter my life in some fundamental way?

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday night.
LL

Monday 26 March 2018

This week @ Beaches - walking the talk


Hi all.

I just realised this week was completely missing from our Sangha schedule. I thought about doing an extra Sutta Study, but then some of you might have planned not to read the next sutta until next week as per the schedule. So this week I thought we could use the session to reflect on the topics we've covered so far this year and what, if anything, we've actually done differently as a result of the insights we've had.

Hope to see you there.
LL

Sunday 18 March 2018

This week....talking meditation....what the??


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha we have our Wild Card session. The topic for March is 'Insight Dialogue'. 

This is a process that treats conversation as meditation. If you think about it, we spend a heck of a lot of time speaking with others, and Gotama (the Buddha) put great emphasis on the importance of speech. So in line with the idea that 'practice' is the way we live our lives, if we can bring meditative qualities to the way that we interact, that's going to be really helpful.

I hope to see you there.
LL

(Photo by Ben White on unsplash.com)

Tuesday 13 March 2018

This week @ Beaches


Hi all.

This week @ Beaches, we have our monthly Open Discussion. I'd like to start it by sharing any reflections on the last two sessions (Sutta Study and Everyday Addiction), and what, if anything, people have been noticing or doing differently to put insights into practice. 

Of course it's also our opportunity to bring to the table anything from daily life for discussion on how the dharma applies and can be helpful to us.

Hope to see you there.
LL

Monday 5 March 2018

Wrapping up last week....and this week @ Beaches...

Hi guys.

Wrapping up last week....
Thanks everyone for an excellent night of sutta study last week. The questions and discussion were terrific and I was really looking forward to posting the podcast for those who couldn't make it. Unfortunately my darling husband unwittingly put a corrupted memory card into my fancy new digital recorder, and I discovered that only the first two minutes were recorded. 


I was a bit devo'd as it was a cracker of a session! I think our virtual sangha would have found it very helpful. Disappointment arose.

Since the session ended, I've had a few more thoughts that move me to clarify a few things we discussed. Click here to read them.  

Also, we ran out of time to think about the last 2 questions on Wallis’ list. What does the insight from the text demand of me? And to what extent am I willing to do that? My sense is that it demands us to catch ourselves in the act of impulsively reaching for more, more, more when we experience pleasure, and instead be mindfully present to the current pleasant experience, letting it go when it naturally passes. Let's discuss that before we begin next month's session.

This week....
This week we have Sylvie running a session called 'Everyday Addiction', which will probably follow on quite nicely from our discussion last week I suspect. It will be interesting for sure. I hope to see you there.

LL

Monday 26 February 2018

Sutta study + a change to sangha fee

Hi all. 

This week
...at sangha we have our monthly sutta study. Please make sure you've read Sutta #1 'The Hawk' and the commentary on this sutta in the second half of the book. Oh, and be ready for some good discussion!

Change to sangha fees
For over 9 years now, it's cost only $5 to come to sangha. This fee is our individual contribution to cover rent of the venue and supplies cupboard, insurance (which we need to book it), and tea & bikkies. A couple of years ago, Council put up the rent, and since then we've needed $50-$60 per week in donations to cover our costs. So most weeks we haven't actually covered our costs. 

This has been okay for a while because we'd saved a bit before the rent went up, and we've been able to draw on this to keep things going. However there's not much left, so we are going to have to put up the sangha fee. As of this week, we're going to suggest $10 as the fee to cover our sangha's expenses. 

As always, we don't want a lack of money to prevent anyone from coming to sangha, so if you truly can't afford $10, then please just give whatever you can, and perhaps speak to one of us about other ways you might be able to contribute. As the Buddha said, 'if you knew what I know about generosity, you'd never let a day go by without practising it'. Our sangha only exists while we are all engaged in that practice.

Dana
As you know, when someone has spent time preparing and facilitating a session, we also like to offer them donations ('dana' means generosity). The way we've structured our program this year, we don't need dana every week, as we don't always have prepared sessions. To help clarify things, if the 'dana' basket it out on the bench, it means we're offering dana to the person running the session. If only the 'sangha fee' basket is out, that's all we need to give.

Selena is making up some new signs to attach to the baskets so it's clear which one is which.

Hope to see you for sutta study!
LL

Friday 23 February 2018

Woops



Ok, first of all, sorry you didn't receive an update last week. I did actually do a post (see below), but last night I discovered no-one had received it. I've just figured out what I did wrong - I accidentally published it on the Secular Buddhism Australia web site, instead of our sangha web site. The two look exactly the same from the back end, and I didn't realise I was in the wrong one. Sorry about that.

Anyhoo...we had a lovely night of Noble Silence. For some people it was their first taste of it, and for some of us it was just the first time in this setting. We debriefed at the end, and while we did miss our little tea-time chats, we all agreed there was something very spacious about not needing to talk, and something very warm and supportive about being there together in silence. Having two meditations was also really nice and for many of us, the second meditation started much more calmly than the first. 

If you would have liked to join in but missed out because you didn't know it was on, there are three things I can offer:

1) If, in any week you don't receive the weekly blog post from me (I do miss one occasionally), you can see what's on by looking at the 'Whats On' page on the Beaches Sangha web site. The schedule for the whole year is there, so maybe add it to your 'favorites' on your browser.
2) Let us know you'd like to do it, and we can schedule another night of Noble Silence. We thought we might like to do it again some time anyway, so if we know people would like it, we'll schedule it in.
3) Come to sangha regardless of what's on. Just stick it in your diary as a weekly event and come. This is in fact the best way to ensure that sangha stays vibrant and alive, that you learn, and that your practice progresses.

Also a warm welcome back to Mick who joined us last night for the first time in a couple of years!

I promise I'll go back to posting on the right web site next week :).

Warm regards
Lenore



Hi all.

Okay, this week at sangha we've got our Wild Card night. And this month our Wild Card is a taste of what it's like to observe 'noble silence'. Almost all Buddhist retreats have this as one of the ground rules. It basically means...no talking. 

We know there are quite a few people who come to sangha who've never been on a retreat, so we thought we'd have a Thursday night session where you can see what it's like. For those of you who've done retreats...you know the drill.... and it'll be interesting to see how it feels using this practice at our Thursday sessions which are usually quite sociable.

The format of the night will be a little different. We'll have two meditations rather than one, they'll be a bit shorter than usual, and we'll finish off by ending noble silence and discussing how you found the experience. Hope to see you there.

Also, next week is Sutta Study, so don't forget to read Sutta #1 - The Hawk, and the commentary on it that follows.

LL

Monday 12 February 2018

This week @ Beaches Sangha + some resources for you



Hi all.

This week @ Beaches
This week @ Beaches we have our monthly Open Discussion. These sessions are really valuable for applying the dharma (Buddha's teachings) to our daily life. As discussed last week, the dharma is a set of four 'great tasks' rather than philosophical musings. So it's important to look at the situations we face in life, and how the dharma can help us respond to them.

Sutta Study podcasts
Also, for those who can't get to the Sutta Study sessions, I'm going to be posting podcasts of our sessions on the Secular Buddhism Australia web site as a resource (note: this is not on the 'sutta central' page yet, it has it's own page for the moment). It was fabulous to have so many people attend our first Sutta Study session and the podcasts are definitely not intended as a substitute for coming along. Like everything, our sangha is a dependent arising - that is, it only exists when people come and participate. Think about it...if the convenience of staying at home and listening to a podcast leads to people not attending, we won't have any sessions to record and share! The questions and conversation of the group are important. It's our whole group that's creating this resource for those who aren't as lucky as we are, to have their own sangha.

Resources
I realised many of you aren't aware of this, but I also run a web site called Secular Buddhism Australia. I haven't added much to it over the last couple of years, but there are some good resources there. For example there's a podcast by Winton Higgins called 'From Plato to Nato' which gives an overview of the development of Buddhism. I've also just uploaded a podcast I recorded ages ago, giving an overview of meditation and the different approaches (both are on the 'podcasts' page). There are some self study worksheets on a few suttas from Stephen Batchelor's selection, a glossary of terms, and more. Go check it out! I hope to give this site some more love this year than it's had in recent times.

Monday 5 February 2018

This week @ Beaches Sangha - One Page Dharma



Hi all.

This week @ Beaches Sangha I'll be giving my annual rendition of 'One Page Dharma' where we'll take a sprint through the Buddha's teachings to give you the big picture. 

This is a good talk for those who are new to the dharma, as we'll cover the key concepts in the 'Four Great Tasks' (traditionally called the Four Noble Truths). You'll even get a one page summary to take home. 

And because repetition is an important part of learning, it's also a good refresher for those who might have been around the dharmic traps for a while.

Hope to see you there.
Lenorë

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Tuesday 30 January 2018

This week @ Beaches Sangha - sutta study



Hi all

This week at Beaches Sangha, the long promised sutta study begins. The suttas in the Pali canon are the most original version of the Buddha's teachings. If we want to adapt the teachings to our own place and time, we need to know what they were from the most original, least tampered-with source.

Over the next 18 months or so we'll be working or way through The Basic Teachings of the Buddha by Glenn Wallis which contains 16 suttas that he believes are core to the dharma. This week we'll start with the Introduction which frames these suttas in some important ways.

If you'd like to join in, please make sure you've read the introductory chapter ready for discussion on Thursday night.

I hope to see you there.
LL

Tuesday 23 January 2018

This week @ Sangha - haiku meditation


Hi all.

This week
This week @ Beaches Sangha, Selena will be leading a session on haiku poetry. This year we wanted to explore some creative and fun ways of attending to the world around and inside of us (meditating), and this is one of them. Bring along a notebook and pen and you can even have a go at it yourself if you'd like.

Next week - sutta study begins
Also, a final reminder that sutta study starts next week. If you'd like to participate, please get yourself a copy of the book The Basic Teachings of the Buddha by Glenn Wallis, and read the Introduction in preparation for next week.

I hope to see you Thursday.
LL

Monday 15 January 2018

This week @ Sangha + preparation for sutta study


Hi all.

Listening meditation last week was a terrific start to the year. We even had some impromptu Indian chime-playing from Carol to add to the multitude of sounds that came our way during meditation. 

This week
This week we have our monthly Open Discussion where we focus on applying the dharma to our daily lives, discussing experiences or challenges that we face and how the dharma might help. We hope you can join us.

Sutta study
If you'd like to join in the sutta study program this year, a reminder that you need to get yourself a copy of The Basic Teachings of the Buddha by Glenn Wallis. We'll set off on that adventure in two weeks' time. Please read the introduction to the book by then, so that the session will be most fruitful. It's a reasonable length introduction, so don't leave it til 5 minutes before sangha, but I think you'll find it very interesting.

This year's program
The program for the year is shaping up well, and we've updated it further this week. You can find it here.

Thought provoker
If you haven't already seen it, Winton Higgins wrote a short article in the SIM newsletter called Sanghas R Us. It's a timely thought prod as we start a new sangha year - indeed it's Beaches Sangha's 10th year. You can read it here.

Hope to see you at the hut on Thursday night.
LL

(Photo by Yuriy Rzhemovskiy on Unsplash)

Wednesday 10 January 2018

Welcome to Sangha for 2018


Hello, and welcome to 2018 everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely holiday season. Beaches Sangha resumes its meetings this Thursday 11th January.

Over the past couple of months, your SOG (Sangha Organising Group) has been working on a schedule of topics for this year that we think will be engaging and educative. We've chosen 4 types of sessions that we'll rotate through each month. They are:

1) Sutta study: we'll be studying a book which contains 16 important suttas from the Pali canon (the earliest recorded teachings of the Buddha). If you'd like to join in, you'll need to get yourself a copy of The Basic Teachings of the Buddha by Glenn Wallis. We'll start this in February.

2) Speakers: we've already got a number of speakers booked for the year and are waiting to confirm several more. A couple of them are open to suggestion in terms of topics, so if there's a topic you'd like to learn about, let us know.

3) Open discussion: we had lots of this last year and people found it really valuable. It's where we discuss how the dharma can help in our real life, day to day situations.

4) Wild card: prepare to be surprised - it'll be different each month. We have everything from sound meditation in the garden this week, to  poetry nights, our favourite podcasts, star gazing, and lots more. These nights are where we'll use creative ways to open to the dharma.

Click here to see what we've got lined up for you so far. We're starting this week with sound meditation led by Sylvie. Weather permitting, we'll do this outside in the garden.

Your SOG for this year is me, Selena, Sylvie, Renata and Kate. If you have any ideas for topics or for sangha generally, please do speak to any one of us. I'd also like to say a big thank you to Betsy who has looked after the program every year since Beaches Sangha started 9 years ago. Thank you so much Betsy. I've been there for all 9 years of it and I appreciate it very much. A thank you also to Florence who, although we didn't see much of her, was our Treasurer last year. 

I hope to see you this week for the start of a new year of sangha wonderfulness.

Warm regards
Lenore