A WEEK IN DELHI

Just got back from a week in Delhi visiting our project there. The project is in its fourth year and offers English classes to some of the poorer communities in the East of the city. This year Amida chaplain, Sahishnu has two volunteers with her. Kaspalita and I travelled out on Monday a week ago. We spent most of our time visiting the different classes, held in different Buddhist temples around the area. Some were for children, some for young women, and others for mixed adults. They tended to be very interactive with lots of word games and singing. On Sunday the visit culminated with a school admission ceremony for ten people in Shanti Nagar, a very poor district just over the border in Uttar Pradesh. This group has been meeting with Sahishnu for a couple years to practice Buddhism and its members have become particularly interested in our form of Pureland and wanted to become part of our group. You can see photos of our visit on my facebook site

AMIDA CHRISTMAS TREE

This year, once again, The Buddhist House community took part in the Christmas Tree festival in Narborough Parish Church. All the groups in the village contributed trees. Ours had a theme of the Pureland, with home-made "jewels" and descriptions of trees from the sutra. Here Ray and Sundari admire our tree.

AS SEEN ON TV: BUDDHISTS AT CHRISTMAS

Do look at the film item which our local TV did on The Buddhist House at Christmas. We were very pleased with this item which gave 4 minutes of air time and raised a number of important issues as well as being very human.
http://www.itvlocal.com/central/news/?player=CEN_News_26&void=127037

NEMBUTSU CHANTING

We have been creating chanting videos on u-tube Do view this one and let us know what you think.

Nembutsu is our central practice, so finding ways that express our religious experience through different forms is both a creative exploration and an act of going into the heart of our Buddhist life. Some of this chanting was done as an accompaniment to walking meditation.

24 HOURS

Stop Press: The edited 24hour Nembutsu video is now on U-Tube

24 Hour Nembutsu

Just finished the annual 24 hour nembutsu. This clip shows us at 9.15am this morning, twenty one and a quarter hours into the practice. I took a few pieces of video so that we could share the event with friends who could not be present. In time I will edit them together later but for now, here is a sample. You can see Dharmavidya rocking baby Jake to the chanting on the left hand side, with Mudita sitting beside him