Quarterly Newsletter from the Bridgend Meditation Community 2015 opens with many opportunities for this quarter. I thought I would write to you all before you received the disappearing Happy New Year! We have secured a large venue for our day time and weekend retreats: The Catholic Church Hall on New Road, Porthcawl will be our new resting place. This lovely space has plenty of parking, toilets, quiet room and kitchen. News and Events One-day meditation retreat with Catherine McGee Saturday January 24th 10:00am - 5:00pm Friends Meeting House 87 Park St Bridgend. CF31 4AZ Registration begins at 9:30am, Meditation begins at 10:00am This will be a day of meditation generally in silence consisting of sitting and walking meditation, together with a talk and time for discussion. The day is fine both for experienced meditators who can use it to refresh and deepen their practice, and for beginners who want to try out meditation. Please bring your own cushion or stool (there are plenty of chairs), a rug or mat to sit on and a vegetarian lunch to share. The suggested fee for the day is 15, which covers the expenses in running the retreat. Retreatants are welcome to donate more or less than this according to their circumstances. The teachers are not paid for leading the day, but are supported by donations from people attending. Contact: blanchtimmed@googlemail.com or ring on (01656) 841625 (Tim)
Take Time to Sit Saturday January 31st 10:00am - 3:00pm Friends Meeting House, Park Street, Bridgend. CF31 4AZ A Beginners Guide to Meditation. Open to all. New, experienced, just curious...come along and find out for yourself. How...Why...Where...and When to meditate. Learn how to sit for meditation, how to practice it in daily life and discover for yourself the benefits. Based on the Buddhist principles of Mindfulness and Tranquility. For complete beginners and more experienced meditators. Facilitated by Dharma House Wales. New Meetings: Full Moon Meditation Meetings in the Theravada Buddhist Tradition This is an opportunity for any member of the Bridgend Meditation Community to come along and participate in a meditation session during the full moon of each month. The meetings will be transient and venue times and location may change. You will have an opportunity to share a lift to Sanghapdipa Temple and join the Thai Buddhist Community in supporting yourself, your friends and the monks at the temple. The day s event usually follows listening to a Dhamma Talk, listening to the monks chanting in the old Pali language. Practicing meditation, making and strengthening vows of a lay Buddhist. The day time events usually follow the offering of sumptuous hot Thai food. During times of non-attendance at the temple, a meeting will be arranged at Merthyr Mawr sand dunes. Participation is voluntary and come when inspired basis. The full moon dates are as follows: 5 th Jan, 3 rd Feb, 5 th March, 4 th April, 4 th May, 2 nd June, 31 st July, 29 th August, 28 th Sept, 27 th Oct, 25 th Nov, 25 th Dec. You don t need to be a practicing Buddhist to attend. Supported by the Sanghapadipa Temple and Ajahn Sawat. If you are interested in attending this monthly event please email:evansneville@aol.com It is suggested that this meeting may need to be supported by some reading and understanding. Please visit the website access to insight for more information. Not suitable for people recently bereaved, in a mental health crisis or person in any psychotherapeutic process.
February Meditation Day with Ajahn Sawat Saturday February 7th The Catholic Church Hall, New Road, Porthcawl. Registration at 9am, meditation begins at 9:30am. Walking, sitting, loving kindness and may be a small talk. Stunning Food provided by the Thai Community at 11:30am, offering to Ajahn Sawat and then onwards with meditation till 5pm. Dharma House Wales Booking early essential due to catering that has been provided. Cost by donation. To book, contact evansneville@aol.com Phil and Jess are currently on a Pilgrimage in Nepal visiting their teachers. They will be continuing with the monthly classes and will be offering Take time to sit late January. See you there! In terms of this year Dharma House Wales will be organising various meditation days and some pilgrimage to various sites in the UK. Stay tuned for the various events on our face book page. Christian Meditation Group News The Christian Meditation group that used to meet at St. Clares will be resuming at a new location. The group starts on Wednesday the 14th of January at 7:30pm. The location is the Sunday school room opposite St. Johns Church, Newton, Porthcawl (That s opposite Newton Green) The group comprises of about nine people. Anyone is welcome to attend. Parking is in the church car park. Tracey Evans Arts Perspective After organising her Go Slow day, Tracey will be offering a monthly event based at the Catholic Church Hall, Porthcawl. Tracey offers a totally different approach, that combines her many years as a performer, drama teacher and cool individual style. Further details to follow on our Facebook page.
Secular Mindfulness Gareth Clode continues with his monthly drop in sessions for 2015. Gareth says that he does have a number of planned Introduction to Mindfulness days planned for 2015. Gareth is very busy delivering the breath-works course and Mindfulness in Schools project locally. If you are part of a group, school, statutory provider please do get in touch with Gareth at www.liveinmindfulness.co.uk Heart to Heart Meditation Project Contained within this ornate box are simple gifts that can support you in beginning a simple home practice of meditation The aim of the Heart to Heart Meditation Project is to pass the box from heart to heart within the county of Bridgend. The box has been donated by the Bridgend Meditation Community and the contents are from various meditative traditions. The contents include literature, a diary, CD s, candles and some meditation aids to help you begin a home practice. Once you have listened to some of the recordings or read some literature, we ask you to pass on the box to one of your cherished friends and hopefully allow the gifts of ease, presence and calm to pervade your friendship. There is no more to do than spend some time within the quiet confines of your own home. We ask you place a small entry into our journal, it may be a sharing of your experience, a question, or even a wish. To pass on the gift of meditation, we ask you to update and join the face book event Heart to Heart Meditation Project. Please nominate the name of the person who you wish to pass the gift to. Before you pass the gift to your friend, please ask them if they have enough time to join this small project. We don t want to force this upon people, it has to flow with ease, from heart to heart.
What is happening with our Facebook page? I won t be running the contemplations this quarter, stay tuned for a new guest to open up the space. This month was the theme of gratitude. Here are some of the written perspectives. Remember the search box on the page allows you to search on key words. You can use it like a book. Some Gratitude questions In our lives there seems to be events that, if you look closely, ask us to contemplate gratitude. These events are usually a day of remembrance of some kind. Remembrance Sunday is an example. Does your meditation practice involve aspects of gratitude? How does your meditation practice unlock spontaneous aspects of gratitude? What do you notice about your state of mind and bodily feeling when gratitude bubbles to the surface? Days of remembrance are social constructs, do they actually support the free and easy pathway into gratitude? The dialogue of gratitude in relationship What is the elixir of a happily married couple? I suppose noticing those subtle aspects of support can help one another and build a dialogue of gratitude. Naming those aspects of support and sharing them with one-another. I know that mindfulness is a great support, noticing the arising of 'loving kindness' when this arises using language to orientate a story of gratitude or a simple touch. This isn t dependency or formulated in expectation. Its ease, a natural meeting of hearts and minds. It feels good, because it is goodness. Watch what happens when children witness this giving and receiving... The pain of Gratitude So here we are, the closure of St Clares. Plans made, relationships formed, the future considered. Momentum building. The bubble bursts and that beautiful truth of impermanence hits us square in the face. Do we grasp? Do we plan? Do we push away? So there is the pain of dissatisfaction. Self created dissatisfaction. Resting in our spiritual practice. This is the way it is. Pausing. The eightfold path laid down. Right view - there is dissatisfaction - there is a way out. With the true discourse of Mindfulness - stability, tranquility can function to see the truth. Nothing lasts. Although there is dissatisfaction - knowing this with 'mindfulness' there is ease, there is the path leading out of suffering. In this lesson - we can see the gems of gratitude resting in our hearts. We have at St. Clares, in moments of deep retreat lived a cultivated moment together. Eternally grateful for the opportunity.
Kindness and gratitude - meditation in the Christmas period This may be a little different to our current Christmas expression of kindness. Pause In relationship, presence, listening and direct communication are required. Before we write our Christmas wish lists, we have to consider how a wanted gift relates to our hearts. A person has a need, and they ask themselves 'can this need and the resulting action benefit themselves and others?' If the answer is 'no' then it's probably best to turn this need on its head, it's just 'hunger'. Let it go - going, going - gone. This goes completely against the grain of how our advertising family want you to behave. Unconscious hunger that isn't met with 'knowing' results in the January blues, the impending credit card statement that was at best ignored because of ignorance. However if it's not 'hunger' then follow this mind stream. Then when a person asks 'what would you like for Christmas?' The other person listens to that need and looks at the available resources. The person listening considers... Open Here presence is so important, when in conversation the listener has to be able to put themselves in the other shoes, recognise the difficulties that another is facing. Then the listener considers the complexities of the task required, the psychological cost involved. There is going to be some transference of dissatisfaction from the listener, this is natural. There is an interplay here, but it's all impermanent. Moving to... Relax With mindfulness the listener recognises dissatisfaction arising. The emotional flux passes, clarity gains. The listener contemplates the requirements of the task. Meditation overcomes the doorway to aversion. Although there is difficulty, the actions are grounded in compassion for fellow beings. The answer is a resounding 'yes' although this may pose some adjustment, I can and will support your need. Your need is grounded in the good stuff. The gift holds considerable merit to support our physiological, psychological and spiritual needs. Trust emergence Then the aspects of the project or action begin to surface, planning, aspects of the adjustment and the hurdles that will be faced together. Trust is built, we cooperate and learn. Relationship is strengthened. We can give wholeheartedly.
Speak the truth When there is a moment of pause and moments of rest, we can speak about the internal treasures that we have experienced. Recollecting that we made the decision to help others, in doing so we identified a true friend who has the empathy to help us when we required it most. The action of giving here meets a new meaning. The gift represents listening, presence and continued commitment to the relationship. This is sustainable, more powerful than the physical object. What gift can you give that develops these grooved perspectives that are inter-generational? What does each of your relationships really need? A reminder of our monthly classes First Monday of every month - Dharma House Wales Group 7:30pm - 9pm First Thursday of every month - Gareth Clode (Live in Mindfulness) 7pm - 8:30pm Both classes run at 87 Friends Meeting House, Park Street, Bridgend CF31 4AZ First Sunday of every month - Lynne Jones at the Yoga Studio Maesteg 6:30pm - 8pm Every Full Moon of each month... Meditation event organised by Neville Evans going to the Sanghapadipa Temple or walking amongst nature at Merthyr Mawr Dunes. Details updated on our face book page. The next newsletter will be compiled in April. As for this newsletter, your comments, articles, events are always welcome. Please share amongst your Meditation Communities. May you walk on a pathway to peace this coming 2015. - Neville