Leicester Great Heart Circle, Thurs 2nd Sept

We held the monthly Great Heart Circle for meditation last Thursday, once again in the Unitarian Great Meeting House in the city centre. After our usual guided relaxation and meditation on kindness, we studied and discussed the Zen Peacemakers' Precepts together. These are the 16 traditional Refuges and Precepts transmitted by the Japanese Soto and Rinzai lineages, together with the "Five Commitments" agreed at the last World Parliament of Religions. The discussion included the nature of precepts, why have them at all; the question of why they're usually worded in the negative "I will refrain from... " etc; and how we feel about implementing them in our daily lives. We concluded with a period of silent Zazen meditation, and a shared meal.

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