Author: ABP

You can click here to read our seventh newsletter, the last for 2016. It includes details about Ven. Canda’s stay at the Hamburg Buddhist Society and her plans for early next year.

 

A new article by Ven. Candā explaining how Anukampa is moving nearer to the aim of establishing a bhikkhuni monastery in the UK was published by Buddhistdoor Global today. Read the full article here: Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project: Nuns’ Monastery Set to Become Reality.
 

You can also read the article Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project: The First Buddhist Nunnery in the UK published by Buddhistdoor Global in August 2016.

You can click here to read our sixth newsletter thanking Bodhinyana Singapore for their generous sponsorship of Ajahn Brahm’s UK Dhamma tour.

 

You can click here to read our fifth newsletter on the success of Ajahn Brahm’s UK Dhamma tour.

 

A new documentary giving an introduction to Ajahn Brahm and Bodhinyana Buddhist Monastery has been published on YouTube. It offers a glimpse into the simple life of a Buddhist monk living in a forest monastery.

 

You can click here to read our fourth newsletter with excerpts from an interview on Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project that Ajahn Brahm recently gave.
 

In a short interview, given at Jhana Grove, Perth, Australia on Thursday 6th October, Ajahn Brahm shares his views the need for a Bhikkhuni monastery in the UK.

 

You can click here to read our third newsletter on our new trustees, celebrating the bhikkhuni sangha and the great generosity shown to Anukampa.

The Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project was featured on Buddhistdoor Global. See the full article here.

By Ven Canda

 

On June 22nd I returned from my first tudong or ‘faith walk’, physically tired but spiritually nourished. My trusty companion and I covered 8-9 miles a day and received kind support every step of the hilly, winding way.

Equipped with a tiny yet robust tent, we stayed in some unusual places: the mouth of a hermit’s cave in the narrow limestone valley of Deep Dale; the splendid grounds of an ecumenical retreat centre in Whaley Bridge; and at the home of a lovely Christian couple in Mellor, with panoramic views and welcome hot showers to warm our aching wet limbs!

 
 

We were amply supplied with food throughout. Rosie and Ian sent us off with a hearty meal in Bakewell, ferried our backpacks on two occasions and greeted us with hot food in their camper van mid-week! In a Buxton chippy the young Kurdish workers made us right at home, offering two kettles of boiling water for making tea (after we failed to light a fire in the damp morning air). And Steve met us with a picnic near the Mersey valley, where a gentle man collecting litter ‘appeared’ during the meal blessing- and spoke thoughtfully of compassion for those who do harm.

Our walk culminated at the Manchester Centre for Buddhist Meditation, where we were warmly greeted by some of the Samatha tradition’s most committed long-term members. Ajahn Brahm took his first retreat with this group in the early ’70’s, so being able to offer a Dhamma reflection here was an honour and a fitting expression of my gratitude. Meeting this lovely new Dhamma family – and three surprise new Anukampa volunteers! – was the highlight of my trip and I hope our connection will deepen and grow. You can check out the centre’s activities and renovation project here.
 
 

I was surprised that even this short period of tudong was a powerful practice for becoming present and opening to the unknown – with confidence, but without expectation. Depending on others for basic food and shelter as an alms mendicant stimulated gratitude and allowed kindness to flow, until boundaries between giver and receiver blurred. Tudong was indeed an act of faith for me – faith in human kindness, compassion and trust – and I’m pleased to announce those qualities are alive and well in the Peak District!

 
 

Heartfelt thanks to Laura Bridgeman, who continued her tudong in Scotland, with Ajahn Candasiri from Milntuim Hermitage.