Going Online Again

    Categories: newsletters

    Kaspa & I have been watching the situation with Omicron in the UK closely, and have taken the decision to close the temple to the public for a little while. It feels important to do our bit to help reduce infections nationwide and to help our already-struggling NHS.

    We will still offer our twice-weekly Zoom sessions from the shrine room, 7.30pm Wednesdays and 9.30am Saturdays, and all our previous practice can be found at our Youtube channel. If you’re local you can still join us for garden walking meditation on Saturdays at 9am or at our vigil in town every Tuesday at midday. If there’s anything we can do to help you with your practice from here, let us know. Refuge is more important than ever. 

    Our Bodhi day will go ahead as below.

    Finally, I’ve started writing my ‘Letters from Satya’ again – with stories about temple life, dogs, cake etc with the intention of making you FEEL BETTER – find out more & sign up here. Go gently out there,
    Namo Amida Bu


    Satya

    • 0900 Garden Practice – in person 
    • 0930 Practice in the shrine room – via Zoom
    • 1030 Talk: Green Awakening – via Zoom (use the same Zoom link as for weekly practice)
    • 1200 XR Vigil for the Earth at Belle Vue Island in Malvern – in person
    • 1315 Bring a packed lunch and join us to eat – not going ahead
    • 1400 Mindful Walk – meet outside the temple – in person
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    Sal-vation

    Categories: Uncategorised

    by Dayamay

    The word salvation is related to the word commonly used for sodium chloride – salt. In alchemy it refers to the ‘fixed-salt’, which is central to the intimacies of the tri-unity principle and mediator between the other two substances of great symbolic significance, sulphur and mercury.

    There is an immense amount of quite cryptic rhetoric to be found on all of them. But, most importantly, together they form the sacred and mystical Trinity on which the great alchemical work can be founded. In this context, the Sal part of the word salvation refers to the cohesive and harmonising action of the fixed- salt on the otherwise polar-opposed properties of mercury and sulphur. Without the salt the two would remain in perpetual conflict and complete fulfilment would be impossible. Mercury is the spirit, sulphur is the soul and salt is the body; and just as the body of Christ is said to be the saviour in the Christian Trinity, so the salt is what solves(salv) the chaotic disharmony between mercury and sulphur… hence sal-vation.

    So, salt is the most fascinating of the three, for me. The mysterious qualities of fixed-salt are numerous, of a profoundly abstract nature and present in the core mechanics of the universe. Salt is said to be one of the active principles in the evolutionary process. Some of the more obscure texts on salt refer to it as being the only aspect of the physical form that survives the death and decomposition process, which all organic matter undergoes, from which it is re-integrated into the earth and informs the ongoing transformation of the great unified organism, sometimes known as Gaia.

    From a religious perspective, as an avid practitioner, I take these holy philosophies to heart and consider them to be an indispensable component of the vehicle by which my faith manifests. In Buddhism we have a similar concept. One that in some ways corresponds to the highly intriguing alchemy enigma.

    In Pureland Buddhism we learn about the Trikaya nature. The threefold body of Buddha. The cosmic Buddha body is composed of three fundamental aspects, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya. These three spiritual fields interpenetrate one another, producing an effect that at once manifests as physical form, whilst also providing the source of life and creativity throughout the universe. Dharmakaya is ultimate reality, the unconditioned, Sambhogakaya is the dream and vision realm and Nirmanakaya is the manifest form that results in the merging of the three.

    It’s easy to see how all of these traditions (interestingly 3), Alchemy, Christianity and Buddhism, express this same principle in quite similar ways. And the objectives in all three methods are pretty much the same – seeking spiritual purity based on material experience. The alchemist’s gold gets imbued with the adept’s experience and the effect is reciprocated, there is a divine union between the man and his holy work. In Christianity the form is perfected in the crucible of suffering and the Buddhist transcends the hell realms through countless cycles of painful existence in the mire of Samsara.

    There is a common theme here, showing us the paradoxes inherent in the nature of life, the universe and our journeys from the coarse(ignorance and pain) to the fine(awakening and transcendence).

    One of the first things that we learn on the spiritual path is that the journey begins with us. If we want to change the world or have a positive impact on it, we first have to alchemize ourselves. The world holds up the mirror that reflects our imperfections, which provide the raw materials through which the great work can be approached.

    Namo Amida Bu( ,

    Dayamay

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    Green Awakening

    Categories: Uncategorised
    Photo by Simon Berger from Pexels

    Bodhi Day

    The Buddha’s awakening was supported by the Earth: a great naga serpent cheered the Buddha on towards enlightenment, he was awakened under a Bodhi tree and when challenged called upon the Earth goddess to witness and verify his awakening. What can we learn from the Buddha’s relationship with the natural world and how can it support our own practice?

    Join us on the 11th Dec for our Bodhi Day events as we consider this theme and these questions. We’ll have events you can drop in to throughout the day.  Our shrine room practice and the talk will be live on Zoom as well as in person. Full details on our calendar.

    0900 Garden Practice
    0930 Practice in the shrine room
    1030 Talk: Green Awakening
    1200 XR Vigil for the Earth at Belle Vue Island in Malvern
    1315 Bring a packed lunch and join us to eat
    1400 Mindful Walk – meet outside the temple

    Musical Dharma Glimpse

    Sangha member Maria has created a musical dharma glimpse. To listen to this beautiful piece of harp music see the video on YouTube.


    Sacred Activism: A Year of Sitting With the Earth

    Satya recently spoke about her year long outside meditation vigil at a conference on sacred activism. Watch the talk here.