A reminder that our Thursday evening Sangha practice resumes again this week after our break for Christmas and New Year.

It will be good to return home again and to enjoy our time of sharing our Mindfulness together.

Wishing you all peace and good health in the year ahead.

Jon

A few of us are going to see the film ‘The Life of Pye‘ at the Filmhouse on Friday 4th January 2013 at 2.20pm followed by afternoon tea at the Sheraton Hotel.

Fridays are bargain matinees at £2.60 for tickets.  Come and join us if you can – sounds like a good film for the festive season.

Dear Friends

We gather as usual this coming Thursday (20th December) and then take a break of two weeks over the holiday period coming together again on Thursday 10th January.

I believe it may be possible to be with Thay and Plum Village on ‘livestream’ for Thay’s Dharma talks on both Christmas and New Year’s Eves which take place at 3.00pm.  I hope it works  –  http://vimeo.com/plumvillage

A peaceful and joyful holiday to all Geese.

After a few weeks of beta testing the Mindfulness Trainings Study Service has gone live! This is a simple, automated service that will email you one of the Five Mindfulness Trainings each week in rotation. This will help you keep them in the front of your mind and bring them into your daily life.

The service is free, easy to join and easy to cancel if you don’t like it. You can find out more and sign up on the Mindfulness Trainings Study Service web site.

There is an open day at the Mews this Sunday so, unfortunately, it will not be possible to have a DVD showing. Ani looks forward to welcoming you on Sunday 16th December though.

The minutes from the Open Sangha Gathering was held on 17th November 2012 have been circulated on the mailing list. Key points are:

• Website – We have had a make over though most of the content remains the same it should be more efficient to add news and events now. It would be good if we could have more contributors of content. For details contact Roger, Caroline or one of the facilitators.
• Thursday Evenings – The arrangements of the rooms are still settling down and it is likely we will continue to change the way we set up and take down the evening. We may move to a more ‘self-service’ approach. It would be helpful if Sangha regulars could help out at the door whenever possible. We hope to broaden the people who act as buddies to the facilitator for the evening.
• Communications – Caroline volunteered to act as a “secretary” to promote communication and we agreed to have two open gatherings a year in addition to the facilitator’s meetings. We also agreed to let people know when these meetings were happening.
• Financial Statement – We are solvent and have some working capital to continue organising retreats but with the cost of the hall for a Thursday evenings more than doubling this year we are particularly dependent on people continuing to give regularly on those evenings.
• Retreats – We continue to try and organise retreats through the year and plan to do at least one with monastics in 2013 and possibly up to four!
• Ani – We talked about supporting Ani but Ani said she was more worried about her friend in Syria and others in need.

Bryan has just confirmed that we will be organising a spring retreat at Wiston Lodge from Thursday 4th to Sunday 7th April 2013 with two or three brothers from Plum Village.

More details, including booking information, will be posted in Future Events as soon as we have them. In the mean time mark these dates in  your diary!

We have added a new regular meeting to our schedule. Some of us will be gathering at the Mews on Wednesday evenings from 5pm to discuss the Five Mindfulness Trainings and share some soup and spiritual friendship. Further details from other Sangha members or at one of our other meetings.

Perfect for a winter evening!

I just came across this posting on Youtube of Thay’s full interview with Oprah and the Dharma Brothers film (though I think this may have been cut a little). Well worth a watch

My favourite quote (about 11 minutes in):

If you are fully present in the here and the now you need only to make a step or take a breath in order to enter the kingdom of God.

Enjoy!

Our neighbouring Community of Interbeing Sanghas in the North of Scotland invite you to a weekend winter retreat in Moray.

Friday 1st February to Sunday 3rd February 2013.

The Retreat will provide personal space and time to consider the retreat theme: ‘Letting Go, Letting In’

Letting go, in order to let in
Releasing, in order to receive
Nature’s coded messages become clearer
The less we try to see.

Stewart Mercer

We meet in the tradition of Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who now lives and practices in Plum Village Monastery in southern France.

We invite you to join us. The venue is Newbold House, Forres, Moray, a beautiful Victorian mansion in the north east of Scotland. The resident staff members come from different walks of life and share a common vision. They take pleasure in providing a loving and nurturing environment for their guests. For further details, see: http://www.newboldhouse.org/.

The retreat will run from 1700 hrs Friday to 1530 hrs Sunday. Further instructions – timetable, directions, preparation, etc – will follow nearer the time.

Please download the application form for costs. Note that we are pleased to offer a reduction of the Retreat costs for those on reduced income. Residential accommodation will be provided in Newbold House itself, or in nearby Parkmount House. All activities and meals will be in Newbold House. It will be possible for participants to be non-residential.

The retreat will give us the chance to practice together through a variety of formal and informal activities, drawing on the abundance of experience and wisdom within the group. If you have a particular practice, poem, song or any other ideas appropriate to the theme ‘Letting Go, Letting In‘, please let us know so that we might include them within the programme.