Triratna Leeds is a registered charity no. 1132691                                                 top         May 2014   
In This Issue...
Forthcoming Courses
Retreats
Coming Up... (1) day for younger people
(2) Vegan Food Fair (3) White Tara Puja
Sangha News - Towering Shrines & Wesak Celebrations
An Eccentirc Buddhist by Mandy
Eastern Philosophy, Western Art by Phillippa Plock
 
International Retreat
 
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sunrise  

 

 

 

Contentment is Life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength is life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.

[Hokusai] says don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

 

from Hokusai Says by Roger Keyes

 

"It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done"

 

Vincent Van Gogh

Editorial

Anyone who knows Billy Frugal will know that he's a master of rapturous exclamations - "huge!" "massive!" "towering!"

 

Buddha under the bodhi tree

Any one of these Billyisms could be applied to the activities at Leeds Buddhist Centre in the past month. The jewel in the lotus was the Centre's celebration on Sunday 18th May of the Buddha's enlightenment (wesak festival).

 

The aim of the event - Hearts Inspired - was to connect with our inspiration through an exploration of the Arts. The same theme informs this newsletter. We have a report on the Hearts Inspired event with links to music and poetry, and we have articles by Mandy and Phillippa taking an in-depth look at the links between Buddhism and Art.

 

As we move into June, we're also moving into Buddhist Action Month (BAM!) Take a look at the coming events sections for lots of ideas of things to get involved with...HUGE!

 

- Matt

 

Forthcoming Courses

 

An Introduction to Buddhism

Begins Tuesday 24th June 2014

Four consecutive Tuesday evenings from 7.00 to 9.15pm  

 

This course introduces some of the basic principles of Buddhism and the Buddha's threefold path of ethics,meditation and wisdom. Drawing on traditional sources and on our own everyday experience the course aims to bring the Dharma alive in our daily life. 

 

Cost for the course: �35/�18 concs. Book the Introduction to Buddhism Course

 

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Retreats

 

Exploring Buddhist Practice 
Day Retreat
Saturday 19th July 2014 from 10.00am to 4.00pm 

 

A day exploring meditation, ritual, chanting, discussion and friendship and looking at how theBuddha's teachings continue to resonate deeply Buddha in the world with our lives in the 21st century, helping us to transform our lives for the better. 

 

For newcomers this is an opportunity to see what Buddhist practice is all about.
For our community this is an opportunity to practice - and to explore how we practice. 

 

Cost: �35/�20 (conc). Please bring vegetarian lunch to share. Book Exploring Buddhist Practice Day Retreat




27 July - 1 August 2014 

(Please note: different dates to previous years)



 
Our theme for our retreat this year is 'Blooming flowers of the Bodhi heart.' The 'flowers' are each of us exploring what it means to be alive and human and how to live creatively and consciously.

The Buddhist tradition offers a rich variety of teachings, stories and practices that we can each draw on. We are all invited to discover for ourselves what in the Dharma speaks to us, brings us alive, supports, inspires,challenges, holds and nourishes as we journey through this human experience.

 

The retreat is suitable for those familiar with the meditation as taught by the Triratna Buddhist Community. You will need to bring your own camping equipment.  

 

Prices: �185 waged,  �150 low waged,  �125 unwaged. Children  5-18 pay 50% of adults rate, under 5 are free. 

 

Book Here

 

Forthoming Events 

 

LYB! Sit, Cake & Tea 

Saturday 7th June, 10.30am 

 

This is an event for younger people (teens, 20s and 30s) with an interest in meditation and Buddhism. The day will start with a meditation in the morning, followed by lunch, cake and tea, with an outing to a local gallery in the afternoon.  All welcome, especially newcomers!

 

Come for all or part of the day. Please bring vegetarian/vegan food to share for lunch.

 

To sign up for the Leeds Younger Buddhist mailing list please contact us.

 

 

 

Forthcoming Events (cont...)

  

Vegan Food FAIR 

Sunday 15th June, 1-4pm

at Leeds Buddhist Centre

 

This event is part of the Centre's activities for Buddhist Action Month (BAM) in June. The idea is to raise awareness about the pleasures and easiness of following a vegan diet.

 

Folk are invited to come along with their favourite vegan dishes - starters, mains or puddings - which will then be shared in a GREAT FEAST OF DELIGHT!  Please also bring copies of your recipes, which we will share amongst ourselves and copy to make take-away booklets.

 

No need to book, no set cost for the day, but please bring food and make a donation if you can.

 

 

White Tara Puja

Sunday 15th June

at Leeds Buddhist Centre, 6.30pm

 

White Tara can be thought of as a 'female' version of Avalokitesvara - the Bodhisattva of Compassion - and she has a particular association with long life. Her mantra "Om Tara Tuttare Ture Mama Ayuh Punya Jnana Pustim Kuru Svaha" is longer than the usual mantra, and the second part can be translated: "may Tara bless us with a long life so we can develop wisdom and merit".

 

Merit can be regarded as the positive qualities that arise due to ethical action, and in fact, wisdom cannot arise without it. The White Tara Puja, part of the programme for Buddhist Action Month, is therefore an opportunity to generate merit and develop wisdom - essential conditions for Buddhahood to arise in the world.

 

The puja will be led by Billy and will be followed by a period of meditation.

Suggested donation �5/�3 (please give what you can afford)

 

 

Why not set Sunday 15th June aside and have a full day of practice, starting with morning meditation (10am-12), followed by the Vegan Food Fair in the afternoon, and finishing with the White Tara Puja in the evening?

 

Sangha News

  

Leeds Younger Buddhists Build Towering Shrine

Friday 16th May

 

Meditation, tea, cake and getting creative was on the menu for the younger people who gathered together for an evening at Leeds Buddhist Centre on Friday 16th May.

 

The challenge was to build a 3D bodhi tree shrine fit for a Buddha, and fit for the sangha to celebrate Wesak on Sunday 18th May.

 

The evening was great fun, thanks to all who came and contributed to the creative process!

 

 

 

 

HEARTS INSPIRED

Buddha's Awakening Celebrated with Meditation, Music, Poetry & Puja

 

 

On the morning of Sunday 18th May there was an undertone of excitement in the usual stillness of the morning meditation sesshin. In the hours to come, the sangha would be enjoying its annual celebration of the Buddha's enlightenment as he sat beneath the bodhi tree 2,500 years ago. A large group of meditators were seated in the shrine room beneath Leeds' very own bodhi tree, erected by the Leeds Younger Buddhists group in the late hours of the previous Friday evening.

 

Another curious manifestation greeting people as they arrived at the Centre on this fine Sunday morning was the exposed brick work in the lounge area, which by the end of the day would be splattered with painted messages of profundity, metta, and sometimes just plain sillyness!

But this was all in the spirit of the Hearts Inspired event - which aimed to celebrate the Buddha's awakening through exploring the Arts and connecting with our sources of inspiration.

 

After meditation and lunch, a group of 8 gathered in the shrine room to share favourite songs and pieces of music. The music played ranged from riff-heavy blues rock to electronica, Gregorian chanting and Mexican guitar playing. This varied and exciting playlist delighted those in attendance and there was an admission that the usual labels we attach to music, and our assumed likes and dislikes, are challenged when we connect with the music from another person's perspective and really listen to it. It was also remarked upon that when playing one's own choices there was something exposing about the whole thing - a very interesting practice!

 

The playlist for the afternoon was as follows (click the links to have a listen!):

 

Sweet Mountain River by Monster Truck (chosen by Billy)

Love is a Losing Game [demo version] by Amy Winehouse (Ian)

Apeman by The Kinks (Matt)

Experience by Ludvico Einauid (Rowan)

Club to Death by Rob Dougan (David)

Flim by Aphex Twin (Rachel)

Tsmindao Ghmerto by Rustavi Choir (Khemasara)

Jericho by Joni Mitchell [feat. Jaco Pastorius] (Billy)

Tamacun by Rodrigo y Gabriela (Matt)

 

After a plentiful lunch, replete with David's amazing sugar-free chocolate cake (which compelled Billy, wide-eyed and frothing at the mouth, to go on an immediate hunt to the shops to buy a litre of agave syrup), there was a session of poetry and story sharing. A range of readings were shared - teachings from Atisa, short stories by Paulo Coelho, poems by Roger Keyes, Ko Un, Derek Walcott and Clare Pollard, as well as original compositions from Milan, Khemasara and David.

  

Here is David's poem exploring form and ancestry...

  

Excavations

David MacDougall

 

It's archaeology really:
the liberation of bones.
After auditing the adipose, 

I'm exposed and receptive.
Is the intangible more tasty?
Even in the asking,
an affirmation.

Now is when my ancestors nudge in.
I hadn't thought that they breathe
still. Standing in the bathroom,
I see my ribcage and theirs.
I touch a tendon, recently risen.
Hands reach for it across
generations, playful
in the prospect of movement.

I am gratefully (guiltily) in current command
of our familial vessel.
Of tubes, valves, pumps,
nerves, blood, and bile;
sea-worthy with sails set.

So I heave and roll, surge and sway,
mindful of lineage and generous with life.
Palm upturned, I give it away
to those who came before.
Unfit names, committed in haste,
have sloughed from stone.
I have one which suits you all:
Me.

 

The evening meal saw greater numbers gather and excitement about the forthcoming puja intensify. As the city began to quieten down for the evening and the sun sank lower in the sky, people made their way through to the shrine room, many stopping to marvel at the splendour of the 3D shrine!

 

Uddyotani gave an inspiring talk based on the Sutta Nipata and this was followed by a lively puja led by Samanartha, in which the Shakyamuni mantra was chanted to the beat of a drum.

 

From start to finish the day was one of celebration, joy, friendship and love. Many thanks to all who helped prepare and participate in the day!

 

 

 

An Eccentric Buddhist from the 17th Century 

 

Mandy

Sangharakshita considered 17th century monk Ekaku Hakuin - one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism - to be one of his most important teachers. Mandy takes a closer look at this interesting, eccentric and artistic figure to see how he influences our practices today.

 

 

Two main schools of Zen exist in Japan: Rinzai and Soto. The main difference between Rinzai and Soto is that Rinzai practitioners regard enlightenment as something that comes suddenly. Soto (which coined our practice of 'just sitting') sees enlightenment as a gradual dawning. Hakuin revived the Rinzai school, which had gradually declined since its beginnings in the 9th century.

 

Hakuin became a Buddhist monk when he was very young. He'd attended a terrifying lecture by a Nichiren monk about the Eight Hot Hells and decided that becoming a monk was the only way to escape them. When he was nineteen, however, he read the story of a Chinese Ch'an master's brutal murder by bandits and was very upset to realise that even a great monk couldn't be saved from a bloody death in this life. So he gave up the monastic life. Not wanting to return home in shame, he travelled around Japan studying literature and poetry.

 

But while studying with the poet-monk Bao, he had an experience that put him back on course. Struck by piles of books put out in the temple courtyard, books from many differing schools of Buddhism, he prayed to the gods of the Dharma to help him choose a path. Then he picked a book at random. It was a collection of Zen stories, and he dedicated himself to the practice of Zen for the rest of his life.

 

Hakuin's early exertions affected his health, and while he was still relatively young, he had a nervous breakdown. He called it Zen sickness and sought the advice of a Taoist cave dwelling hermit, who prescribed a visualisation and breathing practices. These eventually relieved his symptoms and from then on,  Hakuin emphasised physical strength and health in his Zen practice. He often spoke of strengthening the body by concentrating the spirit. In his seventies, he claimed to have more physical strength than in his thirties and was able to sit in zazen meditation or chant sutras for an entire day without fatigue. 

 

'At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully' 

 

Zen students came from all over the country to study with him. His teaching (like his own practice) focused on zazen (sitting meditation) and koan study. A koan is a condundrum that you can't solve with logic. However, the mind still tries to solve it, and the ensuing psychological pressure is meant to create a tension that leads to awakening. Hakuin called this 'great doubt.' 'At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully.'

 

Hakuin created a fresh system of koans, classified into five different grades to help students progress towards enlightenment. He drew on Chinese classics and wrote some of his own, for example: 'You know the sound of two hands clapping: tell me, what is the sound of one hand?'   

One of his major concerns was the danger of what he called "Do-nothing Zen" teachers who, reaching some small experience of enlightenment devoted the rest of their life to, as he put it, "passing day after day in a state of seated sleep".  He himself stressed a never-ending and severe training to deepen the insight of enlightenment and develop one's ability to manifest it in all activities. His motto was 'meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.' 

 

Well known and popular during his later life, Hakuin was a firm believer in bringing Zen to all people. He was a spiritual father to the rural population in particular, encouraging them to live virtuous lives. He travelled all over Japan to speak on Zen and wrote frequently in his last fifteen years. He wanted to record his lessons and experiences for posterity in a very accessible way so that ordinary people could understand them.


This desire was also what motivated him, at the age of sixty, to take up painting and calligraphy. His paintings were meant to serve as visual sermons and were very popular among laypeople, many of whom were illiterate. For Hakuin, art was a means to teach the dharma. He is thought to have created tens of thousands of works, all in his own style. His bold, spontaneous brush strokes came to represent popular ideas of Zen art.

 

'A nice hot kettle of stew, and he plops a couple of rat turds in and ruins it!' 

 

He drew ordinary people - soldiers, courtesans, farmers, beggars - and common objects. He took inscriptions from popular songs and advertising, not just Zen literature. He also wrote letters, poems, chants, essays and dharma talks. One interesting example is his 'Acid comments on the Heart Sutra.' Of the lines so familiar to us, 'Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness only form,' he says of the writer, 'a nice hot kettle of stew, and he plops a couple of rat turds in and ruins it!'

 

Hakuin was inevitably the hero of apocryphal tales. For example, an unmarried girl who lived near his temple was found to be pregnant. Her outraged parents demanded to know the father. The girl wanted to protect her lover, so she accused Hakuin, now an old man, of seducing her.

When the baby was born, the parents confronted Hakuin. They demanded he take care of the child. "Is that so?" was all Hakuin said. But he took care of the baby for several months. Then the embarassed girl confessed that the father was a young man in the village. The girl's parents asked Hakuin for the baby back. "Is that so?" was all he said about the new circumstances as he handed it over.

 

At the age of 83, this remarkable man died in Hara, the same village in which he was born and which he had transformed into a center of Zen teaching.

 

 

 

Eastern Philosophy & Western Art

 

In Phillippa Plock, Leeds Buddhist Centre has an Art History expert in its midsts! In this article she explores two books that have had a positive impact on her Dharma practice.

 

For keen eyes that regularly scan the library shelves, you may have noticed recently the addition of two books in the art section: Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art From Monet to Today by Jacquelynn Baas and The Sight of Death by T. J. Clark. I have donated these to the Centre, and I've also sent copies to Adhisthana for their library, and I wanted to write a short article explaining why I decided to do this.

 

I was prompted to donate the books after reading Sangharakshita's books The Religion of Art and In the Realm of the Lotus. Like these books, the two books I have donated have been really inspiring for me in thinking about how to bring together my love of Western art - I have been lucky enough to study art history to PhD level and continue to work with art in my job - and my Buddhist practice, and I wanted to share them with the Leeds sangha.

 

It was my love of western art that made me receptive to Sangharakshita's writing about the Buddha 

 

I'll start by explaining why I like the book by Jacquelynn Baas, The Smile of the Buddha. I found this book a couple of years ago when I was searching for books to do with how Western thinkers who had come into contact with Buddhist ideas (like Jung) may have influenced 20th century artistic culture. I was drawn to the title as it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Reading it, I was really amazed to see how many familiar artists were interested in Buddhist philosophy and art, and tried to incorporate these ideas and forms into their art work and how they practiced as artists. I was struck by a realisation that the so-called 'Western' modern art tradition has in fact been a repository for Buddhist aesthetics, philosophy and practice from at least the 1850s if not before. I have come to believe through my own experience that it was my love of western art that made me receptive to Sangharakshita's writing about the Buddha - that's why it felt so familiar and right when I first encountered it- because I had in fact been soaking up similar ideas through my love and study of Western art history from a young age.

 

I think Baas's book is really interesting because she expands upon the well-known fact that the Impressionist artists were deeply influenced by Japanese prints, and considers how the ideas, philosophy and practices of Buddhism actually accompanied these prints into French culture of the mid to late 19th century, and filled people with new ideas of how to live as well as how to picture the world. I didn't realise that artists in 20th Century USA also took advantage of the influx of people and ideas from Japan and China to expand their way of perceiving and being in the world. It seems obvious that Monet's famous paintings of water lilies have a connection with lotus flowers growing in water. I really didn't know that Van Gogh was inspired by the Bodhisattva ideal and painted a self-portrait of himself as a Buddhist monk. It seems unsurprising now to know that Georgia O'Keefe read Buddhist literature and that Jasper Johns was interested in art practice as a form of meditative absorption. What I think is also really exciting is Baas's hints at earlier interests in Buddhist ideas such as the landscape designers of the 18th century and the Romantic artists of the early 19th, as well as the philosopher Schopenhauer and the composer Wagner.

 

The enjoyment of going to an art gallery can be transmuted into a deep moment of teaching and insight! 

 

Baas's book has definitely made me more attuned to how works of 'Western' art can be carriers of the Dharma - and how aspects of the Dharma can be revealed to me in the process of looking and experiencing them. The enjoyment of going to an art gallery can be transmuted into a deep moment of teaching and insight!

 

The second book I have donated, T. J. Clark's The Sight of Death, is not Buddhist, but is, I think, a wonderful example of how looking at a work of art can be a profound meditative experience that involves not only mindfulness, but a compassionate and ethical approach to a work of art and ultimately to humanity. The author focuses on two paintings by Nicolas Poussin in a very experimental way of writing art history. He rejects other art historians' attempts to 'fix' the meanings of works of art, and is also deeply concerned about how images have become so powerful without us realising it through our instant and saturated visual culture. By attempting to engage through all his senses and faculties with Poussin's work, I think what Clark is trying to show us is how a deep and mindful encounter with a work of art can produce a space of radical opposition to the reactionary mode in which most of us usually respond to visual stimuli.

 

Throughout the book he becomes increasingly aware of the layers of meaning, memory, historical research, perception, etc, etc, he brings to the painting before him. And he becomes increasingly aware of the necessity of bringing an ethics to this encounter - to respect something about the painting and its history, as well as the frailness of its material state - subject to decay and destruction. In some senses, he becomes deeply aware and sensitive to the suffering of all things in our world- subject to decay and death - through his practice of responding to a beautiful painting. I think what Clark is exploring is the very process through which a very active encounter with a work of art can transform us radically. 

 

It is difficult to do the book justice in a few short lines, but I hope I have communicated something of this book's potential for me as someone who loves looking at old western paintings that don't, on the face of it, have anything to do with the Buddha - but seem to open my mind in ways that enhance my practice!

I do hope you enjoy browsing these books in the library.

 

- Phillippa Plock

                                             
Weekly Programme at Leeds Buddhist Centre

Monday teatime - Start the Week (drop-in meditation class) - Join us on any Monday at 5.15pm to explore meditation with support and guidance. Intended for thiose new to meditation but more experienced meditators also very welcome.   

5.15pm to 6.15pm (doors open 5.00pm) 
Suggested donation �4/�2

 

Wednesday Lunchtime - Mid-Week Breathing Space (drop-in meditation class)  

Join us on any Wednesday lunchtime at 12.45 for a 'taster' of four different kinds of meditation practice (one each week and repeating). You can join on any Wednesday, each is taught independently of the others.

Relaxing body scan * Working with the breath * Developing kindness to yourself and others * Walking meditation

12.45 to 1.30 (doors open from 12.30pm)

Suggested donation �3/�2


Thursday: Friends Night Regular Practice Evening - Friends nights are our main Sangha night and, in many ways, the heart of practice at Leeds Buddhist Centre. It is a drop-in session exploring different themes around meditation and Buddhism. From 7.00pm until 9.30pm. (Meditation begins at 7.10pm prompt) 

Suggested Donation �6/�3 (unwaged)


Sunday Morning: Sesshin (meditation practice) - for people with some experience of meditation who are happy to meditate without guidance or instruction. Three 30 minute unled sits, with breaks between sits. First sit: 10:00am to 10:30am, Second sit: 10:45am to 11:15am, Third sit: 11:30am to 12:00 noon. You may attend one or more but please do not ring the bell during meditation. 

Suggested Donation �4/�2 (unwaged)
  

 ***The Leeds Buddhist Centre relies on your generosity to keep going - please donate what you can when you attend events ***

 

 

Please note that the views expressed in this newsletter are the opinions of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Leeds Buddhist Centre, theTriratna Buddhist Community (Leeds) or The Triratna Buddhist Order 

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