Tuesday 8 December 2015

Best wishes for Rohatsu


Best wishes to all the Northampton sangha, to all of StoneWater Zen around the UK and to all sentient beings on this Rohatsu day (Bodhi Day)!

On this day we remember the Buddha's enlightenment and strive to emulate his one-pointed effort in living as fully and as truly as we are able. May we all be fully present to our lives, today and always.

With love and a deep bow: _/|\_

Alasdair Taisen GF

Friday 4 December 2015

December dates

Please note that the Zen group will have a closed period over Xmas / New Year: we'll not be meeting on the 23rd or 30th December. We'll start again on Weds 6 January.

Beginners' evenings

As mentioned previously, we're going to try having dedicated beginners' events once a month in 2016 (or at least to start with - we'll see how they go). Beginners will now be asked to make their first visit on the third Wednesday of the month (and I've booked an additional room on Wednesday 20 January and Wednesday 17 February to start with). So if you were thinking of coming on another date you'll be asked to rather come on those particular dates.

These introductory events will start in parallel with the regular Zen session, which will continue as usual. Beginners will meet at 7.15 or so in the Marten Room (next door to the room everyone else is using), and we'll join everyone else for the second period of meditation at 8.10 - giving us much more time than we've had in the past to give a more substantial introduction to the practice and the context of a traditional Zen group.

This might require us to tweak the monthly schedule a bit - perhaps swapping the Dharma talk to another week so that I can focus on the introductory sessions on the evenings they happen.

(Oh - this is all for 2016, so beginners are still welcome on Weds 9 December... actually most of the regulars aren't going to be able to make it that week, so perhaps a good evening to come along...)