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NEWSLETTER Editor - David Brazier
number 190 - 21st February 2024
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All times in this Newsletter are Rome time zone
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Mediterranean shore, Palm Beach, Famagusta Some people see Global Sangha as an extra-curricular activity of Buddhist Psychology and some people see Buddhist Psychology as an off-shoot of Global Sangha. In fact they are two windows through which to see the Dharma - two among many. The Dharma itself is beyond, but it needs forms by means of which people can access it and these forms should be practical. To take refuge in the Dharma is not just to join a club, it is to do something that will bring about a transformation in oneself and, beyond oneself, will make a contribution to enlightening the world. This is why we can encompass many forms, including Naikan, Qi Gong, Kokoro no Tenki, courses, conferences, puja, study groups, chanting sessions, travel... The good wine can be poured into bottles of many shapes and sizes and people can be brought together to practise in many different ways. As it says in the Lotus Sutra, it is all just skilful means. So, on the one hand, we are all caught up, in one way or another, in the great work of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, but, then, on the other hand, one can only participate by regarding oneself as of little or no account. It is only because I am a foolish being, prone to error that I can take this refuge and as such feel endless gratitude. Enjoy the Newsletter Namo Amida Bu - David Get involved: it is time to book for 23rd-27th October 2024 4th ITZI CONFERENCE "COLLOQUIUM ON BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY" Ten presenters already lined up - how about you? You don't have to be a presenter in order to attend, but we hope that as many people as possible will share their ideas, whether they take a 90 minute, 45 minute or 15 minute slot, alone or jointly with a colleague. Experiential workshops & led discussions will be just as welcome as learned papers. We are aiming to bring together fifty people with an interest in Buddhist psychology, its nature, development, application and relevance to the contemporary world. I bought one of the first tickets. Come and join me, attend, participate & present your work & ideas. It will be a residential colloquium held in northern Spain in an excellent venue, secluded in the mountains, that we have used before and know well. This is a good place for a colloquium. Previous conferences in this series have been very enjoyable gatherings and have included a wide variety of presentations on aspects of Buddhist psychology and its applications in various forms of therapy, personal development, spiritual practice and social life & organisation. The event will be limited to fifty places, so early booking is advisable. The cost for early booking is 320€ fully residential. Information: Sonia via 2024itzi@googlegroups.com, Book now: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globalsangha/1067240#
26-28 April. Northern Spain DEEPENING BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY Path and Encounter David Brazier & Iris Dotan Katz Buddhist psychology is not really concerned with making one into something that one is not, but rather with reaching deeper into what one already is. The Dharma is the fundamental source of our being. We spontaneously recognise it as love, compassion, joy and peace. This recognition is something we already have. It is an unconditional gift. Some call it Buddha nature, but we should not get carried away by the idea that we are all buddhas. The source is not a personal possession. A certain humility is necessary. When we are in touch with the unconditioned, we encounter one another in a new spirit and creative things happen. This is the basis of therapy, of spiritual accompaniment, of deep encounter. It is what is lost in the maelstrom of materialism, superficiality and self-centredness that dominates the contemporary world. This is a workshop to support our practice, restore our recognition of what really matters and meet one another in the safety of the Dharma. Enquiries & booking: Oscar via Jisshas < jisshas@googlegroups.com> 22-26 July BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY SUMMER SCHOOL Please note the dates of this year's summer school in France. Numbers are quite limited so it pays to book early. The Summer School is particularly relevant to present or intending students of the two year BP training programme. The event is led by Iris Dotan Katz & myself and takes place at my home in central France. This is a simple small farmhouse set in an area of woodland. We can accommodate a few people in the house, but many participants bring tents or camper vans.
The suggested donation for full board is 40€ per day, 250€ per week. Enquiries & bookings via Jisshas < jisshas@googlegroups.com> THE BP COURSE: Comments by two students Student One: I started the course with great enthusiasm and demand towards my learning. This has always been my trajectory: sacrifice, expectation, goals, the necessary cocktail to feel that pride that does not lead anywhere, only to cover me with a layer of coldness and hardness. Now I notice the way I speak: the hard countenance, as if my life was at stake in any opinion or action. How much loneliness in that demand! How much repressed anger for not reaching the goals! But what goals? Little by little I have been releasing ballast and the formidable thing is that I feel much lighter, spontaneous, and perhaps naive and I love it. I am learning that I am not my mind, my body was telling me that, I was getting sick every now and then and each time with greater severity but I was still there, trying to hoard knowledge. With this course I am learning that it is not all subjects that I have to assimilate: mathematics, physics, chemistry, literature, history... there are more things out there. I can feel the beauty of the four lines that make up a drawing that I have drawn without trying to imitate Van Gogh, four lines that have been drawn from the heart. And what about dreams, I am delving into the subconscious through dreams; each new dream connects me with a theme to develop. These are just a couple of examples, there are several with each lesson. I am discovering a new world full of possibilities that bring me closer to the self, a being that is part of a greater whole. And life puts before me opportunities for that being to practice loving-kindness, empathy, compassion, not only towards others but also towards itself. The opportunities have always been there, only now, sometimes, I am able to become aware of them and be grateful for them.
So now I no longer see only that two plus two is four, or maybe it's not four? But two plus two is also an opportunity to share deep states with companions and teachers. To enter into what we bring in each encounter, speaks of us, we stop being something reified to be beings that share. I have no words to express how much this sharing fills me. I have become a bit naughty and rebellious. It's hard for me to memorize so much terminology, I don’t care, nothing happens.... I allow myself not to remember it; I let myself be carried away by what has permeated and accompany me day by day.
This course is giving me the hand to trust in something beyond "me", it has opened the back door where there is light, calm, peace, love. I hope to be able to continue experiencing the gratitude that has settled in this newfound being.
Student Two: I resonate with many of the things the others have pointed out. This last year has been so intense that I have the feeling that everything has changed and me in particular. What is my learning experience? I find all the teachings we received really useful because we can apply them in our daily life, so that in a sense I have been practicing a lot, sometime successfully, other times not so. It made me reflect about myself and the others in ways that I never did before, and still it does. And it changed the way I see and treat myself, even if as many others I keep on struggling with my ego and mental constructions. But the great difference is that now I can see what it is happening in my mind, and try to avoid delusion. Nevertheless the most important part of the course has been the support I had from the tutors, the teachers and the other students. Some times I think I couldn’t have survived this year without them. Besides I really appreciate all the Dharma teachings and the poems. MAJJHIMA NIKAYA PODCAST TRANSCRIPTIONS Through the hard work of Nuria, there are now transcriptions of the podcasts relating to the first eighteen sutras in the Majjhima Nikaya. You can find the index at https://eleusis.ning.com/group3/global-sangha/podcasts/mn-transcription-indexTODAY'S PODCAST
Today's podcast begins our examination of the Vammika Sutta. It is clear that dream interpretation has been an important part of Buddhist practice since the earliest times. In our modern materialist world with its worship of rationality, it is sometimes difficult to appreciate how the world seemed to people in that earlier age when dream and reality, myth and history, fact and story, were by no means as sharply differentiated as they are today, and, when, if they were contrasted, different values and weightings were assumed. A fact in the material world would be, perhaps, only significant inasmuch as it gave some insight into the invisible one, whereas a dream or vision might be a direct message from the gods and, therefore, of greater significance. The dream, therefore, was not understood merely as a projection of self, but a message from a deeper source, perhaps intended to put the self in its proper (lowly) place. Much that, in that earlier age, was experienced as external has been internalised until we have come to think of ourselves as demi-gods, and our modern way is characterised by a kind of self-worship. In the so-called European enlightenment, our culture shifted and much that had previously been valued was dismissed as superstition and this has yielded some important progress, but perhaps we are now also beginning to sense what we have lost. Namo Amida Bu. DB KO-FI
Do visit The Feeling Buddha Ko-Fi site at
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3rd March 13:00 NAIKAN WITH KIMIKO
The next one hour Naikan Session. Naikan, literally "inward reflection" is a Japanese approach to life review and Dharma practice. It leads to a sense of gratitude and a healing and enhancing of relationships. Naikan is both a spiritual practice and a personal therapy. Join zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88992070497?pwd=M3pDRG9LT3BpMnFwR1BSY0I3Vi9QUT09ID: 889 9207 0497 -:- passcode: 999175
SUNDAY PUJA 10:00
Dharmavidya, Liz & Sujatin are now holding a short service on Sunday mornings, normally at 10:00. If you would like to join this group, please come along to a meeting. This is a good way to practise together. There are two zoom links given below as travel arrangements sometimes cause some difficulties. When the first does not work, try the second. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84734198325?pwd=eDU5Z0dBUmVuVmFyZktab3dIeHNmQT09Meeting ID: 847 3419 8325 -:- Passcode: 536609 Meeting ID: 447 192 6002 -:- Passcode: 153670)
Mondays 09:15
QI GONG WITH ANGELA
Angela is offering Qi Gong on Mondays at 9.15 am Rome time.. If you are interested, please contact her via Jisshas < jisshas@googlegroups.com>
Comment by an attender: "I just want to say thank you for the lovely and warm welcoming to your morning Qi Gong experience. I feel very grateful for it. A new way to start the week."
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What creature is this? 26-28 Abril RETIRO ABRIL Iparralde, Francia Un lugar de silencio, de encuentro, de autoindagación, de compartires, de naturaleza, de baños, de asombro, de fuerza interior, de paseos, de atención plena, de comprensión. Mas información: info@hara.eus Monday to Friday 06:30 DAILY NEMBUTSU Geeta Chari: Let’s do some Nembutsu every weekday morning at 6:30 am Rome time. We begin to chant straightaway, without social talk, for 20 minutes, in chain-style. There is a bell rung at the end. People who wish to stay and talk afterwards are welcome to do so. Saturdays and Sundays are rest days. Namo Amida Bu Every Thursday there is a half-hour reading and discussion of the Summary of Faith and Practice from 06:00 to 06:30, followed by Nembutsu as usual. ESPAÑOL Practicamos Nembutsu todas las mañanas (excepto fines de semana) a las 6:30 hora de Roma. La práctica consiste en recitar el nembutsu en cadena durante veinte minutos. Al finalizar se escuchará el sonido de la campana, y posteriormente, los que lo deseen podrán conversar. Namo Amida Bu Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/84997972011?pwd=NFVGZDhBTy95NTJlalJYWHZaYVJtUT09WhatsAppThere is now a WhatsApp group for those who would like to attend Daily Nembutsu. Please contact jisshas@googlegroups.com to be added. DIALOGUE Enquirer: I've been wrestling with the koan: 'What is your original face?' What do you make of this challenge? Responder: My original face is my original faith. Enquirer: How do you mean? Responder: People ask me 'How did you find faith?' but I have to reply, 'It does not seem to me that I found faith; it seems to me that I never lost it.' Most people in my culture lose their faith, or have it broken and scattered. It is an effect of our socialisation, education and group pressure. But, perhaps because I was rather isolated as a young person and my family often moved from place to place, these pressures did not work on me so effectively. So I never lost the faith that it seems I must have been born with. Enquirer: But you must have come from a family that had a religion. Responder: Not at all. My parents were agnostic. They thought me a rather strange child in that faith came easily to me. As a child this took a Christian form, but when I encountered the pressures of adolescence, although I lost my allegiance to the religion of the crusades, I could not give up the more fundamental quality of faith, so I looked for a new container for it and so found the Dharma. Enquirer: So faith is not just belief. Responder: Quite. It is a basic quality that transcends particular creeds. It is useful to have a form of practice, but the faith - the real Dharma - goes beyond all that. This is the meaning of the parable of the raft. Enquirer: But I was brought up without any faith. Responder: You might think so, but when I observe your life, you are not just mindlessly conventional; you have an instinct for what is right and for what you need to do in life, even when it goes against what others are doing. Surely that instinct is your original faith: it is your original face. Enquirer: Yes, I see what you mean and that somehow works for me, to think that way, because instinct has no face, it is the original faceless face. Responder: Namo Amida Bu
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Life has many passage ways: one never ceases being born. Step by step, phase by phase, heaven, hell or bardo, don't cling to what is now outworn nor carry too much cargo.
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DEFEAT OF THE WEST I have just finished reading La Défaite de l'Occident by anthropologist Emmanuel Todd (published this year by Éditions Gallimard) which I bought in the bookshop at Charles De Gaulle Airport and started reading in the shop until the assistant told me I should put it down or buy it, which I did, and kept on reading on the flight. The author makes some very interesting observations and backs them up with facts and figures, but also with an anthropological analysis that is quite revealing.
One of his starting points is to ask why sanctions on Russia have not worked. The answer is basically twofold. Firstly, Russia was already prepared, had made itself independent of the dollar and, with its vast area and resources had made itself substantially self-reliant. Secondly, and, from an anthropological point of view, particularly interestingly, much of the world either ignored or obliquely subverted the American call.
He suggests that the West - by which he means those countries whose foreign policy is more or less under American control - is deluding itself in thinking that its values are universal and that the whole world is on the way toward adopting them. Although many countries are afraid of America, in the event, China, India and most of the global south have not stopped trading with Russia and with the current developments in Israel, most of the Islamic world is now also tilting toward Russia. He attributes this, fundamentally, not to questions of national self interest, but rather to such anthropological issues as family structures and social value systems.
Although the West, as here defined, has great military power, it deceives itself in thinking that it has moral predominance. He points out that the rise of the West was built upon and sustained by Protestant values. He then introduces a three stage model of the decline of religion. In the first stage people are observant of the religion and its values provide the moral backbone of their lives and efforts. If the observant phase declines, there then comes the zombie phase, in which people are no longer observant, but nonetheless, their ways of thought and values in general still conform to the ancestral religion. Finally, arrives the zero phase where the values and thought structures have also evaporated. In his diagnosis, Protestantism entered the zero phase very recently, but this, he predicts, will have a huge effect upon society and world politics. It is a very interesting thesis.
I had no sooner finished the book than I got news of the speech by President Biden advocating his bill to ramp up the American defense industry in order to support Israel and Ukraine and give a message to the world that America does not go back on its promises, nor abandon its friends. When politicians put out a strongly worded position statement, it is always interesting to think about why they feel it is necessary. I don't think we would be mistaken in suspecting that there is currently a good deal of doubt around the world about both of these points. America's moral stance is as the advocate and defender of freedom and democracy, and the opponent of governments that oppress minorities and limit civil rights. Yet, as Todd points out, it is hard to give full credence to this when one examines either American foreign policy or the evolution of society within the United States itself. A country with one of the highest homicide rates, the largest prison populations, and very poor statistics for such indicators as infant mortality is not in a good position to lecture the world.
It is not just that China and India are on course to eventually overtake the USA economically, it is that the values that established Western hegemony have atrophied to such a degree that the whole structure has become extremely fragile. Furthermore, even the material basis is not what it appears to be. Biden is pumping a lot of borrowed money into armaments because it is becoming apparent that the US has been unable to supply the Ukrainian army with the munitions it needs. Russia, with less than half the population of USA, and supposedly a much smaller economy, is outproducing it in this respect.
Trying to look from a Dharma perspective, it seems to me very sad that there has been such a decline, the span of which stretches over the same period as my lifetime. I remember how, when I was a teenager, we all looked to America for inspiration. We all believed in progress and thought that this inexorable liberation of the world would be led by America. Many people in America seem to still think that this is the case, but from outside, it sadly seems to have become a hollow delusion. Is Todd right? Will Russia conquer 30 to 40% of Ukraine and then force a humiliating settlement upon the West? Will Europe, and especially Germany, restore close ties with Russia? Will all this pave the way for China and India to overtake America? What kind of world shall we have then? The point that I take most strongly from Todd's anthropological perspective is that it is not just military power or even economics that rule and shape the world, but deeply established cultural values and for this reason it is crucially important that we ground ourselves in a faith and practice that gives a firm foundation. One might feel helpless and powerless, but in the long term it is such deeper values, attitudes and mores that count.
Namo Amida Bu MY NEWS I have had a good break in Famagusta. The warmer weather has restored my health and it has been good to be beside the Mediterranean shore. Today I am moving to the capital, Nicosia (or Lefcosa, as it is called locally) where I shall spend a few days visiting friends before I fly back to France. It has been a good balance between work and relaxation. I have managed to take a walk almost every day and often a swim in the pool. At the same time, it has been the beginning of our academic year with new students enrolling for the BP programme and this has filled many of my hours. Also, I have completed a draft of what I hope shall be my next book. So, a pleasant and productive time. ========================================================== TIME TO SIGN UP FOR
THE BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY COLLOQUIUM OCTOBER THIS YEAR IN SPAIN
To Register:Get a ticket at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globalsangha? "2024 ITZI Conference" More details: see above, the first item in the Newsletter ==========================================================
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DIARY All times are Rome time zone Every weekday (Monday-Friday) 06:30-06:50 Nembutsu Chanting - Geeta Chari https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84997972011?pwd=NFVGZDhBTy95NTJlalJYWHZaYVJtUT09Mondays 09:15-10:00. Qi Gong Information: Angela via Jisshas Lunedì dalle 19.00 alle 19:45 - ogni due settimane Gruppo ItalianoInformation: Angela via Jisshas Every first Tuesday of the month Tree of Life SanghaLed by Sujatin, based in Perth, Scotland Enquiries: Jisshas < jisshas@googlegroups.com> Thursday 14:30, 22nd February & every two weeks BP Diploma Tutors Meeting Thursday 18:00-19:30, 22nd February & every two weeks Supervision Group - Iris Dotan KatzFor presentation, review and discussion of counselling/psychotherapy casework from a Buddhist psychology perspective. Information: Iris via Jisshas
Fridays 19:30-20:10 Amitabha Service Angela & friends https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89480699209?pwd=enBHS3RYWVZxN1FyUGthZ1o0cVdFZz09Meeting ID: 894 8069 9209 -:- Passcode: 137836 Viernes 18:00 Encuentro de la Sangha en español y servicio. Guiado por Ganendra. Por zoom. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81138990223?pwd=dmNZU3VmRTRhUjBobVdnMjhuV3NYUT09Para asistir, escribir por whatsapp a +34 620265962. Sunday 13:00 every 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month Naikan - Kimiko Nita ID: 889 9207 0497 -:- passcode: 999175 Sundays: 10:00 Puja: Sunday service with chanting, readings, & sharing - coordinator Liz Almark https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84734198325?pwd=eDU5Z0dBUmVuVmFyZktab3dIeHNmQT09Meeting ID: 847 3419 8325 -:- Passcode: 536609 Also: see alternative code in Newsletter above. ===========================================================
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