Richmond Mindfulness Meditation Group

Real Peace - Right Now - A Day of Mindfulness in the tradition of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh led by Murray Corke - 26 June 2010

We were privileged to welcome Murray Corke back to our Sangha on 26 June. Murray is a Dharmacharya, a Dharma teacher, with the Community of Interbeing. Murray led us in a programme of meditations and, as deep relaxation, we enjoyed a Tibetan chant attributed to the Dalai Lama. Murray’s Dharma talk was on the theme of finding real peace and how we can all find it within ourselves if we know how to look. Some notes of his talk by Carine can be downloaded here. The weather was kind and the Convent garden was inspiringly beautiful for our walking meditation.  This was one of those magical days that will stay in the memory for a long while.

Inspiration – A Retreat Day with Catherine McGee -27 February 2010

Following on from the wonderful day she led last October, the sangha was privileged to have an inspiring silent retreat day on 27 February led by Gaia House teacher Catherine McGee. .

The theme that Catherine presented for us to contemplate was –What are we practising for? – i.e. what motivates and what inspires each of us to practice; what do we think we are doing when we practice; where are we aiming for. In Buddhist practice everything depends upon our motivation. Motivation leads us to our intentions and our intentions lead us to our actions. So it is very important to look deeply and find out what it is that motivates us. When we look we may find different motivations and we need to put energy into the deepest and wisest motivations. For example, we might be motivated by the feeling that there is something wrong with us which we need to fix but also we may be inspired to explore the mystery of life. We do not need to judge or avoid our more ‘dodgy’ motivations but we can put more energy into our deepest and wisest motivations. One way of doing this is to remember what it is that inspires and motivates us at the beginning of each meditation period and to dedicate the sitting to deepening that motivation.

Catherine reminded us of the inspiration that came to Prince Siddhartha Gautama in the form of the ‘four heavenly messengers’ that he saw on leaving the palace, a very old person, a sick person, a corpse on a bier, and an ascetic. These messengers inspired him to follow the ascetic path. Years later when he had learned powerful ascetic practises and achieved very deep meditation states, he was still not satisfied. He was then inspired again by a childhood memory of sitting under a tree in a very relaxed and blissful state while his father performed the ritual of ploughing at the start of a new season. The memory of this childhood state motivated him to search further and to sit under the bodhi tree.

Moments of inspiration take us beyond our normal, known and safe reference points. Catherine told us of the skeleton that has been donated to Gaia House. He sits in a cross legged posture in the walking meditation room to remind us that continuity is an illusion; that we need to wake up now and not to postpone our arrival on earth. At the Meeting House we had the inspiration of the graveyard and Catherine lad us out there to reflect on the fleetingness of this life with a chant from the Diamond sutra:-

You should see this fleeting life

A drop of dew

A bubble on a stream

Lightening in a summer cloud

A phantom and a dream.

The Lotus sutra also invokes urgency by reminding us that we are like children playing in a burning house. We need a sense of urgency and to remember that everything rests on the tip of our intention.

Many thanks to Catherine for the inspiration she gives us. 

We hope she will be back with us again in November

Mindfulness Day 25 April 2009

The Sangha’s mindfulness day was led by Murray Corke, a teacher from the Community of Interbeing and was held at the Convent in Ham on the theme of “Finding Happiness at a Time of Uncertainty”. The weather was kind to us and the day was both inspiring and very special.  Murray spoke movingly and from his personal experience about how we have the power to control how the mind reacts to situations. 

Some notes of his talk by Carine Calzadilla are available for download here.  We have some photographs of the day by Abu-Turad Bharwana.

Richmond Mindfulness Meditation Group 2009