Meditation Weekend, Manchester 26th-28th June


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 "Mooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!"

Good company and intensity of practice for everyone!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not Knowing in Rumi's Tradition

Image
On the weekend of 15th-16th March, Sheikh David Bellak of the Mevlevi Sufi Order, Rumi's lineage, gave a guest teaching to members of the Manchester Zen Peacemaker Circle. On Saturday in Howard's house, Shaikh David gave a generous account of his own spiritual journey and his time in Turkey with the late Suleyman Hayati Dede, late heart-master of the Whirling Dervishes in Konya. Shaikh David gave much advice relating to what the Zen Peacemakers call Not-Knowing, and he gave a rough model of the spiritual path in terms of four stages: 1 Not knowing that you don't know 2 Coming to know that you don't know, and letting go of fixed conditioning 3 A 'knowing' that opens up beyond this (the focus of 'Rememberance'/Zikr in the Sufi tradition) 4 Not knowing that you know! He also led some chanted Sufi meditation with us in the Mevlevi way. On Sunday a few of us met with Shaikh David in John's house and learned more together, then finally visited the William...
Read more

Rumi Celebration in Manchester 17th December 2008

Last night we held our annual celebration of the Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, to coincide with the day he died in 1273, known as his 'Wedding Night', his reunion with the Beloved. We had an intimate evening of poetry, movement, Arabic chanting and singing and ended once again with a rich table of food brought by everyone who came. It was an evening influenced less by our usual Zen Buddhist roots, and much more by the sounds and spirit of Islam, as expressed in the spirit of Rumi and Sufism. As the Prophet Muhammad, blessings upon him, conveyed: "God is Beauty and loves what is Beautiful". Hopefully our evening together brought some of our beautiful human qualities to life for each other....
Read more

Long Life Prayer for Lama Shenpen Hookham

Several people connected to the Peacemaker Circle here and in Europe have personal or close lineage connections to Lama Shenpen Hookham, a UK teacher in the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism, heart-disciple of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and wife of Rigdzin Shikpo Rinpoche. Lama Shenpen is to undergo emergency surgery on a cancerous tumour at 10am on Thursday 27th Dec 2008. Rigdzin Shikpo has written a Long Life Prayer to recite for her, and also people could recite mantras and/or the Samantabhadracarya Pranidhana (the Vows of Samantabhadra from the end of the Avatamsaka Sutra). Here's the Long Life Prayer: Issuing from the groundless space of light To spread the magnificent Dharma of Shentong For the benefit of all sentient beings throughout the Dhatu, May your life extend to the end of the kalpa and beyond! Khenpo Rinpoche has recommended the 'Song of the Seven Delights', a Tibetan song we sang together at a Peacemaker Circle two months ago in November. I...
Read more