We had a wonderful Mindful Peace Walk at Lauriston on Sunday. There were around 35 people there. Pete did a great job of leading us. Our peace vibe was strong enough to encourage a small child to join us by the end.

Celebrating a wonderful few days at Wiston Lodge on retreat organised by the Border Collie Sangha and friends and anchored by inspiring Dharma teacher Dene Donalds.

Our exploration of the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing has now reached Exercise 10 and in Thay’s tradition this exercise is called ‘Gladdening the Mind’.

Using guided meditation, readings, sharing and music we will discover practical ways to make the landscape of the mind more beautiful.

This session will pay particular attention to how humility, trust and openness contribute to our individual and collective well being.

Although the session develops material introduced in the previous ones in this series, we hope that it will be equally enjoyable as a stand alone session and all are welcome.

We will share a mindful lunch so please bring a little vegetarian food to share. Tea will be provided.

The session will be facilitated by Pete & Roger and will run between 9:30 am and 1:00 pm at the Salisbury Centre

When: Saturday 5 August 2017 – 9:30am to 1:00pm
Where: Salisbury Centre.
Booking: Just turn up.
Cost: The event is free but donations in the spirit of Dana are welcome to help pay for the venue hire.
Bring: Small amount of vegetarian food to share at lunch. Cushions, mats and chairs are supplied but if you have a meditation cushion or stool you like to use please  bring it with you.

Many of us are off to the Turning Towards residential retreat at Wiston Lodge from 8th to 11th June organised by our neighbours the Border Collie Sangha. We will therefore not be meeting on Thursday 8th June at St Marks church.

We will be meeting as usual on Tuesday Mindfulness@Lunchtime and Monday at Santosa – so still plenty of opportunities to practice.

There may still be a few places remaining on the retreat at Wiston and you would be most welcome to join us. The beech trees are wonderful in June!

Join us for a Mindful Peace Walk in the beautiful grounds of Lauriston Castle, including the Edinburgh-Kyoto Friendship garden, overlooking Cramond Island and the islands of the River Forth.

When: Sunday 18th June 2016 ~ 12 noon
Where: Lauriston Castle, 2 Cramond Road South, Edinburgh. EH4 6AD. Gather in front of Lauriston Castle for 12 noon. See map below.
Booking: Just turn up.
Cost: Free.
Bring: Appropriate clothing – sun cream or umbrella as required.
See Also: EICSP page for this event.
Questions: Please contact us through the form.

Twenty five of us had a wonderful weekend retreat at the Salisbury Centre with lead by  Dat Phan from the Blue Cedars retreat centre in France (associated with the Blue Cedars Sangha). The retreat was organised by the Wake Up Edinburgh group. We look forward to their next event!

Our friends in Fife are running a 6 week course in mindfulness as part of the CoI Be Calm, Be Happy programme starting on 22nd April 2017. This is a wonderful opportunity for anyone in the Dundee area. Please recommend it to your friends.

You can find out more from the Community of Interbeing website or from the Facebook event page.

I feel there has been an air of sadness in the Sangha about wider world events – Trump, Brexit, the refugee crisis, a looming indyref2 and the potential divisions and ill feeling that these represent. It feels like we should be doing something, resisting conflict – but also that we are powerless.

I was therefore comforted to find a passage from Thay that I vaguely remembered reading years ago. It is from The Raft is Not the Shore: Towards a world where spirituality and politics meet (1975). This was a dialogue between Thich Nhat Hanh and Daniel Berrigan in 1974 about the peace movements in the USA and Vietnam (just before the official end of the Vietnam War and at the height of the cold war.) Continue reading →