Getting back into it...

Well it's been ages since we met... As you probably already know, we're meeting again next Monday (usual time & place), so look forward to seeing you all then. Hope you've all had a wonderful summer!

Personally, I've had some good news - I've been offered a 3-year contract at the University of Northampton in my current role. The longer term contract means that I can finally properly relocate to Northampton with the family sometime in the next couple of months. A merciful end to the weekly Liverpool-Northampton commute!

This will open up some flexibility in terms of times & venues for our weekly sitting, so do have a think on what your ideal would be in terms of any changes to the group schedule. For instance, is Monday really the best night for us? Can we find somewhere to sit where we would actually have some storage space? Would we prefer to share a venue with someone other than the music societies?!!!

Mailing list

Up until now, if I've had something to announce, I've put up a post on this site. There is, also, a mailing list which I think most of you are already subscribed to, and many people find this more convenient as the announcements end up in your inbox, rather than having to hunt down the website each time to check if there have been any updates.*

If you're not signed up to the mailing list yet, you can sign up online, or you could ask me to do it for you. There are different lists for the various regional groups, as you'll see... I suggest you sign up to the 'UK' and 'Northampton' lists - the former is used for announcements of events across the UK including our main retreats each year, the latter is just for matters of immediate interest for Northampton(ish) folk.

Please don't feel that this is restricted to people who attend the group - anyone can sign up, these lists are entirely open. Of course the same is true of the group itself, please feel free to come along to any of our meetings at any time.

 

* There's a way to make checking websites easier, actually, that a lot of people don't know about for some reason, called RSS feeds. If you want to know when your favourite websites have been updated, you can subscribe to an RSS feed for each site, then go to an "aggregator" site (the most popular by far is Google Reader, which I use) and see the updates for all your favourite sites in one place. There are loads of guides to using RSS, and I really recommend checking this out!

Zen and the Higgs Boson...

We strayed onto the topic of quantum physics this evening, attempting as ever to 'eff the ineffable'... I mentioned a video I'd found useful, so here's the link:

http://www.phdcomics.com/higgs/

I've you've other explanations you've found useful, leave a comment!

August...

Well, a fantastic turnout this week - I think we equalled our attendance record! Not that I'm keeping tabs on these things, of course...

Just wanted to clarify that for the August 27th date, as it's a Bank Holiday, we will not be meeting. This leaves a long gap between August 13th and September 10th; let's call this our summer holiday! We will be going back to weekly meetings from 24th September.

Buddhist robot...

... no, seriously! Read about this on the Shambala Sun blog today. Mind is boggling.

Chong-Ko, who’s being called the first Buddhist robot, was created by students at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in Bangkok to serve in an alms-giving ceremony. The 10-foot tall robot, dressed in a white shirt, helps out by picking up food and giving it to lay people, who then pass the food on to monks. Chong-Ko is controlled by a phone, and there’s a webcam inside his head that can broadcast the ceremony to those who can’t attend.

And there's video...

Still here...

Just posting to show that the group is alive & kicking... Monday evening zazen still happening! (Only 2nd & 4th weeks of the month over summer).

Summer dates

I'll send this out to the mailing list, too, but will keep this post updated if there are any changes in the future (the post will be linked to from the When & Where page).

So in short, I can only commit to coming down to Northampton every fortnight, so after chatting with the group on Monday night, it's decided that there will def be zazen on every 2nd and 4th Monday of the summer - June, July, August & September. Exact dates are listed below - and note that there will be zazen on both of the remaining Mondays in May.

In addition, we will try to make arrangements for other people to organise sittings on at least some of the alternate weeks, and if for any reason I'm in N'hants on one of these weeks, I'll open up as usual. Those dates, though, aren't currently confirmed, and I'll post to this site as & when they are.

So, the specific dates are:

• May 21, 28
• June 11, 25
• July 9, 23
• August 13, 27
• September 10, 24  Edit: 17/9 now also!

I know this is not ideal - I've always said that I want to have a sitting every week so as to avoid confusion and to gain momentum; running this fortnightly will demand a bit more from all of us in terms of intention to keep things going. So apologies for that, but I hope we can make plans to 'fill in the gaps'.

In the meantime, though - hope everyone has a fantastic summer!