The new society weekend.
Hey people,
just back from the weekend in Birmingham, on the new society. a few of us from cambridge travelled over in the crew bus after work, Arthasiddhi had kindly finished his solitary a day early so as to drive us over. Unfortunately we were all men, seeing as the ladies were having a GFR Cambridge womens weekend. It was a shame they couldn't come but none the less they were off doing good stuff.
so we rolled in to the Birmingham buddhist centre just in time to introduce ourselves along with every one else in the shrine room.
the weekend was packed with several short talks form a whole mix of ordermembers and mitras talking on different bits of the new society. Team based right livelihoods/Community living/and centre work. Along with this we had a talk from Vajragupta outlining the general setup and some of the history of the new society, and then some ways forward or next steps.
There were also various disscussion groups and open space meetings the following days, meditations, pujas and rituals. But for me it was the coming together, a chance to hang out with friends from around the movement. to just practise the dharma in a very simple way with all the guys and gals that were there.
at the end of the weekend, in the closing rituals we had the chance to set intentions or resolutions to take away with us.
so these were mine:
I want to bring my inspiration into action and become a Dharmically effective human being. I dont just want to grow and mature on my own, I want this to be part of the people and friends around me. I have a need to bring my own personal and unique qualities into relationship with the order and movememnt.
I also want to make sure that my own desires and goals and passions, or in other words my vision for the future. Is not forgotten or left unlived or explored due to Fear, or Lack of Skill.