Leeds Peacemaker Circle, 11th October
The second Leeds Zen Peacemaker Circle was held at Anna's house again on Sat 11th October. It was an afternoon of lots of meditation practice, plus a Council Circle.
The scene was set by Kim leading a Pure Land session. He spoke first about the nature and history of Pure Land Buddhism, especially in Japan, and then we did some practice based on the English 'Amida Trust' approach. We set up a shrine to Amitabha, then we circumambulated chanting "Namo Amida Bu" and "Namo Amitabha", and sat in quiet for a while too.
Zang then facilitated an approach to Zazen-style meditation. First, we sat in a comfortable posture for 5 minutes, trying to find a sense of stability and comfort and pleasure in sitting and having time for ourselves in this way. Next, we sat in full Zazen posture, hands in cosmic mudra, listening to some Japanese flute music- the point of this was to try to 'tune' your body to the sound and the stillness, so you physically became one with the sound. In the third exercise we sat comfortably again, and repeatedly dropped the question "Who am I?" into the depth of our being, listening without judgement to any responses that arise, and returning over and over to the question. Finally, we sat for a period of Zazen, trying to bring the understanding from these 3 exercises into the practice.
Steve Suleyman led a fascinating practice from Tsultrim Allione called 'Feeding Your Demons'. This involved visualising a problem or anxiety we felt within ourself as a manifest 'demon', imagining what it looks like, and entering into dialogue with it! At one part in the exercise we exchanged places with the demon, and imagine ourself as it looking at ourself from its point of view! At the end we transformed ourself into nourishing, healing light and fed ourself to the demon! This is a practice based on an old Tibetan one called "Chod", where yogis would wander around graveyards and spooky places, invite all the demons to come, and then visualise chopping up their body and offering it to them. It was created by a great female teacher in the middle ages called Machig Lapdron. Steve was taught it by Barbara Wegmueller, who learned it from Tsultrim Allione- Tsultrim has been recognised by Tibetans as an "emanation" of Machig Lapdron. So the teaching comes straight from the breath of the dakini (goddess) so to speak!
Finally we ended with Hindu meditation again, from Anna's teacher Nitchyannada. We listened to a 45 minute recording guiding us through stages of relaxation, breathing, chakra work, silence, and listening to mantras being chanted.
The next Leeds Circle is likely to have the theme of "Pain"- how we relate to it/work with it etc. in life and spiritual practice.... Date and time to be announced.
The scene was set by Kim leading a Pure Land session. He spoke first about the nature and history of Pure Land Buddhism, especially in Japan, and then we did some practice based on the English 'Amida Trust' approach. We set up a shrine to Amitabha, then we circumambulated chanting "Namo Amida Bu" and "Namo Amitabha", and sat in quiet for a while too.
Zang then facilitated an approach to Zazen-style meditation. First, we sat in a comfortable posture for 5 minutes, trying to find a sense of stability and comfort and pleasure in sitting and having time for ourselves in this way. Next, we sat in full Zazen posture, hands in cosmic mudra, listening to some Japanese flute music- the point of this was to try to 'tune' your body to the sound and the stillness, so you physically became one with the sound. In the third exercise we sat comfortably again, and repeatedly dropped the question "Who am I?" into the depth of our being, listening without judgement to any responses that arise, and returning over and over to the question. Finally, we sat for a period of Zazen, trying to bring the understanding from these 3 exercises into the practice.
Steve Suleyman led a fascinating practice from Tsultrim Allione called 'Feeding Your Demons'. This involved visualising a problem or anxiety we felt within ourself as a manifest 'demon', imagining what it looks like, and entering into dialogue with it! At one part in the exercise we exchanged places with the demon, and imagine ourself as it looking at ourself from its point of view! At the end we transformed ourself into nourishing, healing light and fed ourself to the demon! This is a practice based on an old Tibetan one called "Chod", where yogis would wander around graveyards and spooky places, invite all the demons to come, and then visualise chopping up their body and offering it to them. It was created by a great female teacher in the middle ages called Machig Lapdron. Steve was taught it by Barbara Wegmueller, who learned it from Tsultrim Allione- Tsultrim has been recognised by Tibetans as an "emanation" of Machig Lapdron. So the teaching comes straight from the breath of the dakini (goddess) so to speak!
Finally we ended with Hindu meditation again, from Anna's teacher Nitchyannada. We listened to a 45 minute recording guiding us through stages of relaxation, breathing, chakra work, silence, and listening to mantras being chanted.
The next Leeds Circle is likely to have the theme of "Pain"- how we relate to it/work with it etc. in life and spiritual practice.... Date and time to be announced.
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