TUESDAY 15 DEC; Pyjama day
We are having a wonderful relaxing day in Belgium. We are staying in the B&B of Karin. We slept, ate and talked and were strolling around on the internet... a perfect way to rest after an intensive retreat.
Read more…We are having a wonderful relaxing day in Belgium. We are staying in the B&B of Karin. We slept, ate and talked and were strolling around on the internet... a perfect way to rest after an intensive retreat.
Read more…Every Monday a nurse comes to Eleusis to take some of David's blood. (“To feed the vampire” says David). A day later the test result arrives by post. The blood test is about how thick his blood is. The result is expressed in numbers. The result is su
Read more…It is traditional in Far Eastern Buddhism to hold a retreat at the beginning of December and in our school this retreat includes a period of extended chanting, so, today, we spent twelve hours chanting the nembutsu invocation of Amitabha Buddha. We a
Read more…Last night I slept and slept and slept in the oblivion of swoon induced by pain killers. It did me good. Staff came and went waking me for blood pressure checks, to take blood, to give injections, take temperature and so on and I would be roused brie
Read more…Today we woke up to snow, just a sprinkling. It looked very pretty. The day continued mostly rather cold. Later we had rain and then again in the evening more snow.
Between these various showers I managed to get out and get a bit of exercise for thre
Read more…It has been quite a day of ups and downs. Last night I was allowed to sleep at home but had to be in the hospital for injections, blood tests and oxygen treatment first thing this morning so we were up at a good hour and on the road to St Amand again
Read more…Today we did our last shopping before Christmas. Shopping before Christmas. Shopping is certainly a pretty Pagan form of celebration, indulging in all the sensual attractions of food, colour, and goodies. We bought a tree and lights and have already
Read more…A new ritual
A new ritual is developing here at Eleusis. Breakfast seems an excellent time of the day for a some lessons. Today's lesson was about the history of how Buddhism developed as a religion. My notes reflect a time line from 500 BC, the life
Read more…We have had a very happy morning today at the Buddhist temple. It is Day Four of the Bodhi Retreat. This morning we had a ceremony which in one stage in the ordination of a member of the sangha, Lut from Belgium, also a member of La Ville au Roi (Ele
Read more…It's been four days since we arrived here. When we first got here, we were invited to stay where Annette lives, a Buddhist community called Oasis before eventually moving over here to Eleusis.
"What is Oasis?", Damian asked.
"It's a place where peo
Behind the scene Amida members are working to organise some extra hands at Eleusis. I am quite healthy... except a leg problem. This morning I postponed my operation for a new hip. I was supposed to be operated on next week. As long as David is still
Read more…Today is the second day of the Bodhi retreat. It has been a wonderful energetic day. The morning service was beautiful with strong melodic chanting. And the rise of the morning sun encouraged our chants and filled the meditation hall with beautiful m
Read more…It's that extra day today, 29th February. I thought it fun that the Eleusis site happened to have 108 members today and Leap year has 366 days and 3x6x6=108, so there is a bit of numerology for you!
It's Monday which, at the moment, is the day that t
Read more…Today i had a quiet day writing as i have a couple of assignments that i need to get done before the end of the year. Elja was doing a variety of domestic tasks. Between times we had some nice conversations. An easy day. Namo Amida Bu.
Read more…This morning I am in the hospital around nine o'clock. Normally I get there about ten. I know that David has had a wretched night and I am awake anyway, so I go to the hospital earlier. I arrive just in time to go downstairs with him for an x-ray.
Gr
Read more…We had a quiet day of reading, writing and chatting, in part due to the continuance of the wet weather. It seems as though it has not stopped raining this year. There are occasional small outbursts of sunshine but quite quickly it clouds in again and
Read more…Dear Dharmavidya, word of your illness saddened me much more deeply than I would have imagined.Though I've been involved in spiritual practice for many years, I've never had a true teacher/student relationship until recently with you.The thought o
Read more…Tonight there are several community activities. We had a real community dinner; a nice mixed group of people; sangha members, inhabitants of the temple and people who are involved with the activity’s of the temple.
I have a cold and decided to stay
Read more…DAVID:
Full House
Eleusis is full. Susthama, Damian and their two chilren, Selena and Dorian have joined us so the place is a-buzz with activity and little voices. Together we have done a certain amount of reorganisation of rooms and spaces. We are g
A quiet day at home again. David had some writing to finish. He writes a lot about mindfulness these days. In these last days of this year my mind is full of ideas for the new year, specifically for the new retreats we want to organise at Eleusis. We
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