Amida Mandala Buddhist Group

At Holland House for the interfaith celebration and picnic.
The Amida community choir performed some of Andrew's beautiful nembutsu arrangements there, in the chapel with its wonderful acoustics.

This morning's adventures with Little Dog.

Amida Anjali Nembutsu practice 18th June 2019
Join me live (or watch later) for half an hour of Buddhist practice including nembutsu and a short Dharma talk. After the talk today we’ll recite evening service, the words are here on page 13: http://www.amidashu.org/…/NienFoBookDec …
If you join me live or later, do say hello in the comments so we know that you're here in the virtual shrine room.
... If you haven't already signed up, here's our new free 30 day nembutsu course to support you in experimenting with establishing a short daily practice: www.amidamandala.com/30days
And here's our virtual temple where you can register and meet other nembutsu practitioners: www.friendsofamida.com
If you’d like to make a donation which will go towards the work of the charity Amida Trust, click here: http://www.amidashu.org/donate/ Namo Amida Bu _/\_
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Join me for half an hour of live Buddhist practice tonight at 7.30pm (or watch later). Here at the Amida Mandala Buddhist Group page. Namo Amida Bu!

For many years I held tightly onto the belief that things got gradually better.
People learn over time, surely? Communities grow? Gardens mature?
I am coming to see that sometimes things get better, and sometimes they get worse. Gardens are neglected due to illness or suffer through drought. Communities curdle and split. People peel back parts of their heart-covering, leaving them painfully tender, whilst other parts scab over.
... I held this belief so tightly because I was afraid of decay, afraid of losing what I'd worked so hard for. I needed to force order on the world, and to keep faith in my omnipotence.
Now I can see that my work does produce glimmers of beauty, but not always where I intend them. Sometimes they glow on, like slow embers, and sometimes they are the brief bright flash of a kingfisher's wings.
The flashes of light never belong to me. They are the reflections of all I've received. I don't need so much faith in my omnipotence now (although I still cling and cling) as my faith in the universe grows and grows. There is dying, yes. Things bloom and decay, including me.
Isn't it awful? Doesn't it inspire awe?
*
This is a 'Letter from Satya', written as always with love. Let me know if you'd like to receive them by email.
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Aiko means beloved in Japanese.
This is the puppy who ran off with another man's dog on the common this morning, deaf to our calls, and he was not impressed. She eats rabbit poo and pesters our old man cat. She dives into our pockets to steal treats. Yesterday she weed on the bed.
This is the puppy who, as Kaspa stopped to chat with a dog-admiring stranger, stole a sock from her baby's foot.
... She is beloved. I only stop feeling fond of her when I am tired, and I start taking things personally. She is a puppy, and she is doing the things that puppies do.
We are all beloved. We only stop being so when the other person is tired, or is in need, or doesn't understand why we're doing what we're doing. We are all teething, over-excitable, unable to sometimes resist babies socks.
Aiko is aiko, and you are aiko too. <3
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Hi everyone, here's my talk from Saturday (which I was particularly pleased with!)

Today's post from Kaspa (about maps and songlines): one thing you can do to improve your mental health
http://www.kaspathompson.co.uk/one-way-yo u-can-improve-you…/

We planted peonies five years ago, when we first moved into the temple. Every year they have sent up their fingers of foilage, tentatively, and died back without producing any flowers.
I am changing. Less of me wants to be famous. Less of me forces me forwards. More of me knows how fallible I am. More of me knows how to ride the bumpy waves.
More of me has opened up, like a peony blossom, to receive love.
... This year we have a single bud on one of our peony plants. I am waiting in sweet anticipation.
Sometimes it takes a long time for our roots to take hold. Years. Decades. Lifetimes. Hang on in there, and enjoy the blooms when they burst forwards. They're coming.
*
This is my 'Letter from Satya' written with love - if you'd like one in your inbox every week, let me know.
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It's Buddhist Action Month - one way we can support the planet is by reducing our carbon emissions, by planting more trees!
Make a donation for Trees for Life during Buddhist Action Month

Anjali Buddhist practice - 28th May

"There are those who cackle like crows to hear themselves speak." ~ Mark Nepo
This was me. This is me.
There is a part of me that gorges on praise, on red notifications, on being seen. It prods me to write books, to post photos of our pretty puppy, to smile and laugh in company.
... "We simply want to be seen and heard." I feel kindly towards the praise-gorging part, which has a hungry-ghost belly and which is never satisfied. It is trying to funnel love towards the parts of me that are dried up, battered and alone. It is working hard for me in the only way it knows.
Today a large burnished fox sauntered past the glass walls of our kitchen, passing a couple of metres from me. She was magnificent.
My hungry-ghost part doesn't have to work so hard these days. I am finding ways of watering my own dry spaces. I am opening up like a peony to the light.
"All I can do is gasp, thank you."
*
This week's 'Letter from Satya', written with love.
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