Just finished the women's retreat weekend - a lovely relaxing time in which we did a lot of practice, a lot of sharing and had a good chill out too.
After the weekend Jenny stayed on and she and Anna have been makig bird boxes in the garden to encourage our feathered friends to nest.
The spring psychotherapy course block at Tariki took place last week. The first nine day training since Tariki Trust came into being, this was the biggest gathering we have had in the house since the change of regime, so a bit of a test of our collective organising, cleaning and cooking skills. In fact no need for worry, the block went off more smmothly than we had thought possible, thanks to the wonderful help from some members of the student group. Rachel brought us ready made lasagne and curries, whilst Eamon and Stone took over chopping in the kitchen. Bob's bread making had set us up well for the whole course and we had enough soups and pates to make lunches easy.
Of course a training programme consists of more than just the cooking, and we had a varied menu on offer there too. The first weekend involved using small objects - stones, plastic toys, natural objects etc to created 'small worlds' which represented both psychological patterns and life scenarios. Course blocks typically revolve around a four day group and this time Bhaktika and I ran the group around a mythic theme - Narcissus and Echo. This led naturally into a seminar on creativity in which we discussed how creativity fitted with a Buddhist model of mental process.
The final weekend centred on working with the body and on looking at how this sort of work relates to feelings of grief which can be locked in the body for a long time.
During the course we held completion meetings for four students - two of whom had finished the Diploma and two the Advanced Certificate. It is always a mixed thing seeing students come to the end of their studies. On the one hand there is great satisfaction in knowing that someone has completed their studies and gone out into the world as a professional, but at the same time it is always sad to say goodbye. We hope that with teh coming expansion of teh programme many graduates will continue to stay involved through teh therapist's forums and other activities at Tariki.
The current cold spell in Europe coincided with our arrival in France. Bob and I are making the winter visit to check out the place, but our work on the garden is limited by the fact that it is frozen solid! Nevertheless the place remains beautiful and with bright sunshine the frost and scatter of snow are brilliant. We have stoves roaring and last night I lit the fire in the fire pit in our meditation hall. It is really
elemental sitting in the vast space with a roaring fire and the moon shining in through the big entrance way and the candles flickering on the shrine. (The hall is an old barn, with no doors so the elements blow right in around you). The wind was blowing the bamboo outside and making a wild rustling sound. I chanted nembutsu and Om Mane Padme Hum Rhi very loud into the night air.
Just got back from a visit to Bristol. I went down partly to attend the launch of Kamalamani's first book.
It was a lovely evening and Im really pleased that Kamalamani has agreed to come up and do a talk at one of our Buddhist Therapist Fourums and also run a retreat day the followig day. This format is proving really interesting, with an informal discursive day and an evening talk on the Saturday and a therapeutically orientated retreat day on the Sunday. The next forum is March 24th when Manu Bazzano will be with us. Kamalamani's approach brings together embodied therapy, working with character positions with meditation. I first met this form of bodywork in 1985 at a workshop run by Nick Totton, who writes a foreword to Kamalamani's book, so the approach feels like a great homecoming. It integrates well with environmentally based therapies and Buddhist approaches so I think we could have an ongoing synergy around these themes.
I also met a number of people at the book launch interested in eco-therapy, bodywork and alternative approaches to the professionalisation of therapy. Some great conversations and plans for ongoing contact.
It was quite a weekend for meeting people. On my way to Bristol I called in on Rachel, a stalwart of our group who hasnt been well. We had some good conversation about Tariki developments. Whilst in Bristol I met up with two former Amida students to catch up and also to talk about the possibility of them teaching on our therapy programme in the future. This is very exciting as I feel we are expanding our staff team considerably and I am looking forward to doing some development work on the course as soon as Tariki is running smoothly (which it seems to be doing!) and not needing quite so much 'start up' work.
Yesterday I had a day out with a friend, walking around the lovely old town of Froome. Whilst there, we had lunch with some friends of hers who ran a market garden. In conversation it transpired that I was a Buddhist from Leicester. Did I know someone called Massimo? They asked. We pieced together that we did indeed know the same person, who lived in the Buddhist House community for about a year and left eighteen months ago. His next port of call was WOOFing on their market garden. It's a small world - but a exciting one.
The last 48 hours have been largely taken up with creating the tariki ning site. If you have not yet joined, do please sign up! The site is already picking up members and what is really nice is that I know most of them personally. It feels a bit like inviting all one's friends to a huge party. I do hope they like one another.
After too many hours on the computer I headed out to the garden where the rest of the community were already clearing up old leaves and other debris which had fallen in recent storms. An hour or two had the place transformed!
So, Monday nights are discussion nights. In the past we have had a weekly sutra study group at The Buddhist House but this term we are experimenting with a new Monday evening format. Taking the theme of dependence, each week we will look at texts or writings which reflect a different aspect of the subject.
The theme of dependence is one which is so central to Buddhist teaching, it seemed like a good place to start. This first session we looked at the topic as it is found in the Pali suttas. Having posted the texts on the web in adavance, we had a short collection of extracts to look at.
It didnt take long to be into heated debate! How should one interpret the cycle of Dependent Orgination? What was the meaning of particular terms? What might life look like without it? How does the phrase
One who sees dependent arising sees the Dharma; one who sees the Dharma sees dependent arising(MN28)
tell us something about what we can and cant depend on? Does it imply that in seeing Dependent Arising that is the Dharma, or that in seeing it as a falsity, we recognise the truth beyond?
So we got off to a lively start. Next week we look at ideas of independence, as they are found in the Pali texts and we discuss how you can reconcile the two...
