Veggie curry, dhal, rice, onon bhajis, salad, chutney... nice puds and drinks... then a film 'Spirit of Tibet', about the Life and World of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of Sangharakshita's teachers and Primary Teacher of the Dalai Lama.

Kathy's cooking, at Karen's house in Sowerby Bridge. An evening of fine food, entertainment, sangha and cosiness - and all in a good cause. All proceeds will be split between the Leeds Buddhist Centre and the Buddhafield Land Appeal.

Arrive from 5.00pm, meal at 6.00 followed by the film.

Suggested donation £12 but feel free to give more or less depending on what you can afford.

Details of address, map link etc will be sent out once you've booked. Lifts from Halifax and Sowerby Bridge train stations available - just ask.

Next Thursday 25th November at the Centre

We are very pleased to be welcoming Vajragupta to the Leeds Buddhist Centre next Thursday to give a talk on on Buddhism as a force for good in the world.

Vajragupta will also be launching his book, The Triratna Story, the tale of the founding and evolution of the Triratna Buddhist Community - an inspiring story and an honest attempt to ask how the Triratna Community has pro­gressed so far in helping to bring Buddhism to the modern world.

Living as a River

Finding Fearlessness in the Face of Change
by Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa is the Order Member behind the Wildmind meditation website (www.wildmind.org) and the man who introduced me, some ten months ago (through his online course) to the Six Element practice - a profound contemplation on interconnectedness, impermanence, and insubstantiality.

The practice is a powerful one and it's best to have a wholesome, mettafull attitude towards oneself before tackling it - one reason, perhaps that, in the Triratna Community, it usually comes with a 'Health Warning' and is generally only taught around ordination. I think that's a pity. The practice focuses directly on the meditator's insubstantiality and impermanence, and it is true that in the wrong circumstances, it could be a distressing experience. Then again, it's in the nature of any meditation that it can bring us up against ourselves, sometimes in uncomfortable ways.

However if, like me, you feel ready to explore the concept of 'no fixed self' then it can also be a richly rewarding experience, helping to cultivate lovingkindness and a deeper interconnectedness with the universe, as well as helping me to absorb the fact that I am not at the centre of that universe. Bodhipaksa seems to agree. The Wildmind course has been around for a while and this new book sets out to expand on that.

Bodhipaksa explains that the method for deconstructing ourselves was first set out in a text called 'Discourse on the Elements' given by the Buddha to a spiritual seeker called Pukkusati and first written down some 2,200 years ago. There is a measure of Buddhist philosophy in here but it is far from being just a Dharma book. In fact it's important to stress that it isn't any kind of instruction manual for the meditation; the book merely uses the method of the practice in order to explore the nature of the self. What is more, Bodhipaksa has gone out of his way to make Sakyamuni's message as accessible to as many people as possible - Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

And that is one of the most attractive features of this new work. Far from being a dry study of an ancient meditation technique, the Buddha's Discourse is illuminated all along by modern philosophy, biology, science and social science. The result is an unpretentious, richly entertaining, mind-boggling, and highly positive treatise on why we have no fixed self and what this should mean to us.

Bodhipaksa's writing is by turns:

• Startling 'Each time you breathe out you're literally exhaling your own body'
Slightly creepy '...dust mites are made of you; their main source of food is your skin. Mites are made of people'
• Earthy '...most of our feces represents the body returning to the wider Earth Element...every time you take a dump you're flushing part of yourself away.'
• Learned 'Imagine the DNA in the nuclei of your cells... Look closely...human DNA is pink...amounting to about one or two parts per hundred. Your human lineage is a minority in your own body.'
• Astounding 'The air that has passed through my body will in the future be breathed and become part of the body of all humanity. I will become them, and they will be me.'
• And far-reaching 'Our identity depends on the internalisation of the consciousness of others. Consciousness...in some sense, flows through us like a river'.

Will I ever be able to eat a meal without reflecting that the soil and weather in other parts of the world are becoming part of 'me'? Or that, when I go to the loo, that my 'waste' is destined to become, through soil and plants, part of other living beings? And how can I drink a glass of water without being aware that every river that has ever flowed, every ocean that has ever existed, is in my mouth right now'? How can I even breath without reflecting that my outbreath is being absorbed by grasses, plants and forests around the world? And that, in essence, I am becoming part of them? Ultimately, how can I continue to see myself as separate from everything else?

This is a beautifully written, well-researched and passionate book; an eloquent blend of modern science and spiritual insight. A wonderful and absorbing read that is bursting with powerful images, surprising information, witty anecdotes and deeply philosophical questions. A real page-turner that keeps you engaged throughout. Reading it, I learned a lot about the Dharma but more to the point I learned even more about this thing I call 'self'.

If I had a quibble it would be that there is too much information to take in at a single reading. However, since I intend to incorporate this book into my practice and read it over and over again, this is unlikely to be a problem.

Highly recommended.

Jenny Roberts

Bodhipaksa was born Graeme Stephen in Scotland and currently lives and teaches in New Hampshire. He is a Buddhist teacher and author who has been practicing within the Triratna Community since 1982, and has been a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order since 1993. Bodhipaksa runs the online meditation centre Wildmind.org to increase awareness of the positive effects of meditation. His other published books include Wildmind - a Step by Step Guide to Meditation and Vegetarianism - a Buddhist View