The New Year Retreat in the Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey
Материал из Buddha World.
28 December 2011 - January 2012.
Some people find it very helpful to take time to retreat at the turn of the year. This is a time of transition when we naturally tend to reflect on the past year and our purpose in life, and to review the direction of our life.
At the monastery there will be celebrate the start of the New Year with a midnight ceremony. On New Year’s Day there will be celebrate the Festival of the Birth of our Founder, Great Master Houn Jiyu, followed by a vegetarian feast. The retreat will be led by Rev. Leoma.
About Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey
Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey is under the spiritual direction of the Abbot, Rev. Master Daishin Morgan, a senior disciple of the late Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett.
The senior priests at the Abbey are experienced in teaching people how to meditate and how to establish a spiritual practice. Anyone who wishes to practice Buddhism can benefit greatly by sharing in the contemplative life of the monastery for a while; during their stay they will learn how to establish and deepen their own practice in daily life. One of the joys of Buddhist training is that all activities are an expression of our true nature if approached with the compassionate awareness of meditation.
The programme of retreats aims to help people establish a practice of meditation and then to support them in their subsequent training in the Buddhist way. The contemplative life of the monastery forms a valuable background for these activities; the resident community, most of whom have been living and working together for many years, provide the teaching and a sense of stability. We are always here and try to be available whenever people have need of advice or just a friendly ear. The Abbey is one of the main centres for a congregation spread throughout the UK and beyond.
All are warmly invited to join the Abbey's programme of lay training. The purpose of spiritual practice is to realise our true nature, which is also the true nature of all of existence, and to express this with our body, speech and mind. Meditation and daily training enable us to see and let go of the clinging which causes suffering, thus allowing the compassion and wisdom within our hearts to enrich our lives.
The founder of the Abbey, Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, was an English woman who was ordained in Malaysia in the Chinese Buddhist tradition and then went on to study in Japan where she eventually became a roshi, or master, and was authorised to teach and to ordain men and women as monastics. Those of us in the West who follow Soto Zen as passed on by Rev. Master Jiyu describe ourselves as the Serene Reflection Meditation tradition and our monastic Sangha and lay ministers together comprise the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. (The OBC has its own web site www.obcon.org if you would like to know more about the OBC.) The style of teaching used at Throssel has its roots firmly in the tradition and yet has a form that over the last thirty years and more has been adapted to the needs of Western people.
In the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives men and women train together and have equal status and recognition. All ranks and both sexes are addressed as 'Reverend' and are referred to as monks and priests. The monastic order is celibate.
If you would like to learn more about us, you can listen to Dharma talks by monks at the Abbey - go to Dharma Talks for further information. Also, there is a DVD, 'Zen Meditation', available from our shop at www.buddhistsupplies.co.uk. This was partly filmed at an introductory retreat at the Abbey - it is a practical guide to zazen and how to incorporate it into our daily lives, as the basis for all our activities.
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