http://www.londoninsightmeditation.org.uk/blog/ London Insight Meditation en jamesblake1@googlemail.com Copyright 2013 2013-04-29T13:19:22+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/dalai-lama-calls-for-end-to-violence-in-burma-myanmar/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/dalai-lama-calls-for-end-to-violence-in-burma-myanmar/#When:13:19:22Z Read on for links to statements by the Dalai Lama and other leading Buddhists, plus sources for following the news from Burma. In recent years, the Buddhist monastics in Burma were known for the part many of them played in leading brave, nonviolent protests against the country’s military dictatorship.  Suddenly, some of the same monks are now supporting a campaign of systematic violence against the country’s Moslem minority.  Some of them are even leading the violence.  Nothing is permanent, everything changes! Although any conflict between ethnic or religious groups is likely to be complex, reputable sources seem to agree that in Burma it is the Buddhists who are primarily the aggressors, and Moslems who are primarily the victims.  See for example, this report by Human Rights Watch issued earlier this month. The Dalai Lama made this call to Burmese Buddhists a few days ago: “If from one corner of your mind, some emotion makes you want to hit, or want to kill, then please remember Buddha’s faith. We are followers of Buddha.” This follows a public letter drafted by Jack Kornfield late last year, and signed by many leading Buddhists including Thich Nhat Hanh and Ajahn Amaro of Amaravati, calling for an end to the violence by Burmese Buddhists.  The letter seemed to have no effect on events in Burma, which have since worsened, and the world Buddhist community seems uncertain what it can do next.  To keep up with Buddhist perspectives on the unfolding tragedy in Burma, we recommend following Tricycle’s Buddha Buzz blog, and also American Buddhist chaplain Danny Fisher on Twitter. News 2013-04-29T13:19:22+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/childrens-volunteers-needed-for-gaia-house-family-retreat-this-july/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/childrens-volunteers-needed-for-gaia-house-family-retreat-this-july/#When:21:07:51Z Gaia House now has enough volunteers to run its annual family retreat from the 27th-30th July, with teachers Caroline Jones and Chris Cullen.  Many thanks to all Londoners - and everyone else! - who volunteered.  We wish you a great retreat. You can also read more about this retreat on the Gaia House website. News 2013-04-16T21:07:51+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/the-jatakas-early-buddhist-folk-tales/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/the-jatakas-early-buddhist-folk-tales/#When:19:49:30Z The Jatakas are early Buddhist texts that tell stories of the Buddha’s past lives, both human and animal.  Once seen as literally true, today we can read them as illuminating legends embodying Buddhist values, that may be enjoyed by both adults and children.  They also tell us much about the culture of early Buddhism and the way some of its first texts were created. Margo McLoughlin has produced fresh translations of several Jatakas.  Margo is a Community Dharma Leader who trained at Spirit Rock, the sister organisation to Gaia House in California.  The Jatakas began life in an oral culture, and you may enjoy this sample recording of Margo’s storytelling even more than the written word. Two of the most important scholars of Pali, one of the earliest languages of Buddhism, have turned their attention to the Jatakas. Margaret Cone and Richard Gombrich’s The perfect generosity of Prince Vessantara translates and comments on one of the most widely-told and influential of these tales. Their book provides a good introduction if you want to learn something of the historical background to these tales.  (Please see our recommended books page for information on tracking down the more obscure Buddhist books.)   News 2013-04-03T19:49:30+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/gaia-house-spring-and-summer-programme/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/gaia-house-spring-and-summer-programme/#When:21:22:06Z Gaia House’s programme this year includes a young people’s event and a retreat focussing on living with illness and loss.  As usual there are also many retreats for people of any age and any life situation. Nearly all Gaia House retreats for the next month or so are fully booked, but places are still available for most from May onwards. Jake Dartington and Kirsten Kratz lead a two-day retreat for people aged 16-25 on 25-27 May.  This is very cheap to attend: £34 for the whole retreat.  As a college teacher as well as a dharma teacher, Jake is one of the best retreat leaders for young people.  He leads a similar one-day event for London Insight on July 14, for a wider age group: 16-35. Jean Wilkins, who has worked extensively with Joan Halifax, is joined by regular Gaia House teachers Caroline Jones and Zohar Lavie to lead the Living with illness and loss retreat, 30 May to 4 June.  They write: “Are you currently living with an illness or bereavement and interested in finding different ways of being with and relating to the challenges this brings? This retreat provides the opportunity to explore being present with your experiences just as they are without judgement or blame, beginning to realise the possibility for change that this approach brings.  Guided meditation, experiential exercises and contemplative art/writing will be used, also sharing your experiences with others and in private interviews.” Elsewhere on the London Insight website, you can read our own brief introduction to Gaia House. News 2013-03-23T21:22:06+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/londons-buddhist-art-collections/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/londons-buddhist-art-collections/#When:21:28:06Z Traditional Buddhist sculptures and paintings can provide inspiring images of the awakened mind, even for the most secular, westernised practitioner.  In London we’re lucky to have several important, free public collections on offer. The British Museum displays artifacts from the full range of Buddhist cultures in a number of rooms, such as the China, South Asia and Southeast Asia gallery. The other important collection in London is at the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are more Buddhist artifacts on display at the School of Oriental and African Studies and there is a small collection of manuscripts and other historic texts on display in the British Library. There is justifiable controversy about the circumstances in which many art works and archaeological objects reached the museums of the west.  What would the artists who created Buddhist works, and the patrons who commissioned them, have thought of their translation to the west?  The greatest Buddhists have generally been motivated by a desire to bring insight and inner freedom to as many as possible.  They have cultivated awareness of change and have viewed the human story in terms of great expanses of time and space.  I suspect that in many cases they would be pleased to find their works creating and sustaining interest in Buddhism in the west. All these exhibitions are free.  However in the Buddhist tradition of generosity, you may wish to make a voluntary donation to any museum you visit. Thanks to the Richmond Mindfulness Meditation Group for mentioning these collections in their newsletter and so inspiring this post. News 2013-03-16T21:28:06+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/new-on-the-website-this-month/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/new-on-the-website-this-month/#When:19:36:33Z In the last few weeks we’ve added a page for those new to insight meditation, links to the most important sites about mindfulness-based therapies, extra links to teachers’ websites, and more.  If it’s a while since you’ve visited, you’ll also find some new events for our 2013 programme. Our page about learning insight meditation will be useful if you have no experience of meditation at all, or if you’ve practised in non-insight traditions.  The page offers an overview of the different ways you can begin learning: e.g. from recorded meditations, from a meditation day, or from a longer retreat.  We give the pros and cons of each method, including such practicalities as the time commitment necessary and whether you will need to pay to access teachings. Our list of general links to other sites was growing long, so we’ve reorganised the page to make it easier to find different categories of site.  There is a new section for sites about mindfulness-based therapies, which we will gradually develop.  There are ever more mindfulness courses on offer, and we hope to provide links to the key resources to give accurate information about these therapies and help you find a suitable course. We’ve added to the list of retreat centres a link to the Buddhist Insight Network’s provisional list of online retreats and courses in insight meditation.  Many thanks to BIN for beginning this important work.  It is not yet clear how important a place online events will have in the overall insight landscape. However compiling a directory of what’s on offer is clearly very useful – and a major task. On our teachers’ page we have compiled as complete a list as we can of teachers’ own websites. You may also want to check our 2013 programme as several events have been added since the beginning of the year. News 2013-03-10T19:36:33+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/follow-that-teacher/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/follow-that-teacher/#When:10:37:46Z In London we’re fortunate to have a great number of visiting teachers, letting us sample the wide range of different approaches possible within the insight tradition. However if you find a teacher who really resonates with you, it can be hugely beneficial to focus on understanding their approach and putting it into practice.  What are the options for doing this? If you can, a residential retreat at Gaia House is an obvious next step. We have written an introduction to Gaia House, or you can look at the Gaia House programme.  Many of our teachers offer day retreats elsewhere in south-east England.  Depending on which part of London you live in, day retreats in Oxford, Cambridge or Brighton may be feasible for you. Teachers’ websites typically include articles and recorded talks, and give details of retreats and other public appearances, books and other resources.  For talks, please also see our recordings page, where you’ll find London Insight talks as well as links to other sites such as the wonderful Dharmaseed. For lists of books suggested by different teachers, plus information on finding them, please see our recommended books page. You are welcome to approach any teacher to ask for personal guidance, though please note that few teachers have the time to respond positively to all requests.  It’s often best to make such an approach after you’ve already had personal contact with a teacher, for instance after a practice interview in London, at Gaia House or elsewhere.  Some teachers offer consultations by phone, Skype or email.  If a teacher does offer personal guidance in this way, we warmly invite you to make whatever contribution to their livelihood you can. News 2013-03-03T10:37:46+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/breathe-you-are-online/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/breathe-you-are-online/#When:13:10:55Z Some decades ago Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a book called Breathe, you are alive.  More recently, he coined the slogan “Breathe, you are online” to encourage mindfulness while working on the computer.  All of us are likely to find it challenging to maintain presence, clarity and wise intention while online.  Here are a few resources which may help. Here is a bell you can install on your computer, which will chime periodically as a reminder to come back to the breath, the body and the present moment. There’s much useful advice online about staying sane while working on your computer, from Buddhist and non-Buddhist sources.  For instance, this article suggests ten cures for technostress. There are many resources offering advice for honouring a commitment to constructive communication while online.  See for instance this piece entitled Right speech in this digital age and these guidelines offered for right emailing. Globally, the internet consumes a vast amount of electricity.  The hardware associated with it has a major environmental impact, and the circumstances its production often raise human rights issues.  Learning about this can bring a sobering and useful perspective to our relationship to the online world.  If you’d like to factor ethical and environmental considerations into your choice of a new smartphone,  this article is a good starting point (though obviously far from definitive). Finally, remember that you can make productive use of online time, by, for instance, watching fewer cat videos and listening to more guided meditations and talks from insight teachers.  Please look through the pages on our website if you’d like to find a wealth of online resources for insight meditation. News 2013-02-24T13:10:55+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/review-tricycle-magazine-spring-2013/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/review-tricycle-magazine-spring-2013/#When:11:02:56Z The spring copy of Tricycle, the wide-ranging Buddhist magazine published on paper and online, has arrived.  As usual it contains much of interest to insight meditation practitioners, with pieces by Sharon Salzberg, Tara Brach, Gina Sharpe and Andrew Olendzki, plus writing by thoughtful practitioners and significant figures from beyond the insight world. Tricycle counts Stephen Batchelor among its contributing editors and is always a good read. It’s a very eclectic read, offering coverage of all schools of Buddhism, from many angles.  The range of viewpoints can be disorientating, but also serves to give an good overview of the whole western dharma world. Published in North America, it understandably concentrates on North American teachers and communities, but has some world-wide coverage. Some articles are freely available online.  These include an extract from Sharon Salzberg’s book Real happiness, offered here as a taster for the online retreat she is currently leading for Tricycle.  These retreats involve recorded talks on video, and a chance to take part in question and-answer sessions with the teacher. One of the strengths of Tricycle is its courage in tackling controversial subjects.  The current editorial addresses sexual misconduct by Buddhist teachers.  Another piece, only available to subscribers, describes human rights abuses by Burmese Buddhists.  Unfortunately, such content is only available if you subscribe directly with Tricycle, not through a third party such as Wisdom Books. Tricycle presents the views of both very traditional and very modernist Buddhists.  Again, this can make for confusion, but can also be very instructive.  Weighing in on the modernist side in this issue is academic and Buddhist practitioner Rita Gross, who presents the case against an over-literal reading of traditional texts.  She writes “Seeing the difference between history and the stories of legend need not diminish the latter of their meaning and value.  In fact, I believe it can enhance them.”  The full article is only available to subscribers. Tricycle is good for reviews of books, exhibitions and films, such as this review of the book The voice is all: the lonely victory of Jack Kerouac.  There is also a regular gardening column, much original artwork, and, finally, a deluge of ads for luxury meditation accessories such as timers, bells and hi-tech cushions, which you almost certainly don’t need.  But I guess they keep this admirable magazine afloat. News 2013-02-18T11:02:56+00:00 http://www.londoninsight.org/news/encouragement-inspiration-fun-and-a-love-as-wide-as-the-world/ http://www.londoninsight.org/news/encouragement-inspiration-fun-and-a-love-as-wide-as-the-world/#When:20:18:00Z As you may have heard, teachers and practitioners at Gaia House have recently set up DANCE - the Dharma Action Network for Climate Engagement.  Rachel Davies, retreat manager at Gaia House, who we have been privileged to work with on several occasions, explains the inspiration for this new initiative. Rachel writes: “Dharma Action Network for Climate Engagement (DANCE) is an initiative set up by a small group of people at Gaia House, who are motivated by a desire to let concern around climate change be part of practice and manifest through action. “To provide a platform for such engagement to happen, we have set up a DANCE Facebook group. You are very warmly invited to join this group, which is open to a range of voices and approaches. We hope that it will be a useful tool for people to share ideas, network, organise activities, and generally bring compassionate action to this issue. “Our sangha group at Gaia House meets regularly to discuss the activities that we wish to undertake, and we intend to share these on the page over the coming time. It would be wonderful to see similar groups springing up too. If you are interested in getting together with others, please feel free to post this wish on the page and you could start up your own engagement group and share your ideas with others. “Hopefully DANCE will be a great hub for encouragement, inspiration, fun and a love as wide as the world.” On behalf of London Insight, I’d like to add: we will give active support to anyone wanting to set up a DANCE group in London, including publicity and advice on any organisational issues.  At least one DANCE event is provisionally scheduled for London this summer - details to follow. News 2013-02-09T20:18:00+00:00