No zazen Weds 20 April

Apologies to all, but have to cancel this evening's sitting at short notice due to illness. We'll pick things back up next week as usual.

Plans and projects...

Well, back from a week with family in SA - struck by how easy it was to slot back into the old roles we played growing up 30, 40 years ago...! The tracks of habitual thinking cut deeper into us than we like to acknowledge. Fortunately for me, I was born to a family of wonderful people, and the week away was full of love, laughter, food & wine and togetherness. I wish you all as much joy when you're next with family!

So after Zen last night (we're back to our relentless schedule of facing down the Great Matter of Life and Death every Wednesday evening in the Friends Meeting House!) we discussed what we might do over the coming months. A couple of points to look forward to:

1. Time for a Zazenkai! We haven't had a practice day in ages now, not since pre-Covid. I've been chatting with Xandy Sahla about using the Wellness Studio at Dexterity Dance / Musokan Dojo in Great Houghton (just south of the Bedford roundabout), so we'll hash out a date - likely to be a Sunday - and things will be announced as they're ready.
2. Service! We'll chant the Heart Sutra, Sandokai and Enmei Jukku Kannongyo this coming week. Again, we've not done service since before Covid, about time we got our heads together on this. We will be trying to establish a monthly service routine again, depending on room availability etc.
3. Public event/talk! For a bit further into the future, and as part of a more general push to promote the group a bit more, we've been discussing holding a public talk on the relevance and importance of Zen in regular, ordinary life... probably on a Wednesday before the summer hols.

So... back into the swing of things, in more than one way.

Join us! Come and do nothing for a while...