Peacemaker Circles UK

This weekend, Roland Yakushi Wegmueller came over from Switzerland to lead a weekend meditation retreat in Howard's house in Manchester. He arrived Thursday evening, and spent Friday with Howard visiting a BBC Radio Orchestra concert. The retreat itself began on Friday evening: a small gathering of Roland, Howard, Ben, and Zang, joined for while by Simon. On Saturday, Joy also joined us all day. We did a lot of zazen and kinhin (walking meditation), in sessions of an hour-and-a-half each time, repeated throughout the days. Roland brought a koan for us to discuss together as a group: the meeting of Bodhidharma and the Second Patriarch, who chops off his arm and asks for teaching! We reflected on what this means in our own lives- for example, in what ways do we too "chop off our arm" in search of something? As always in Howard's we had wonderful meals, good fun, and this time also some great chanting of the Kannon invocation, ending with a loud roaring "Moooooooooo...

We held a Multi Faith Peace Action Network meeting in the evening of Sat 30th, again jointly arranged by Manchester Zen Peacemakers and Manchester Soka Gakkai members. The theme was Nelson Mandela, and we used reflection on his life as the basis for a discussion of our own lives.