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The Institute for Mindfulness South Africa (IMISA) is offering the second SA-based Mindfulness Conference in March this year at the Cradle of Humankind. See their website for details: https://mindfulness.org.za/mindfulness-conference-2019/

We are looking for a dynamic Kitchen Manager/ Housekeeper and Administrator to volunteer on our team at the BRC. You will work alongside three wonderful and experienced cooks who have between 11 and 24 years of experience in our kitchen. Lindiwe, Dudu and Lungi have taken our vegetarian meals to new heights as showcased in our three successful recipe books “Quiet Food”, “The Cake the Buddha Ate, and “Plentiful”.

"Happiness is really simple: it's what you get when you give up attachment and the other neuroses.”

Australian ex-political activist and feminist, Robina Courtin, has been a Buddhist nun since 1978. Teaching Buddhism around the world, Robina shatters the stereotype of a Buddhist nun, her intense and direct style leaving an indelible impression on everyone she meets.

Join us for a fascinating talk on beekeeping and the intriguing world of these little super insects that have been producing honey for millions of years.

Speaker: Curtis Fulton,
Owner: Avalon Apiaries
Date: Tuesday 11 December 2018
Time: 11:30
Venue: Studio, BRC
Bookings: 082 579 3037 or e-mail bookings@brcixopo.co.za

Share the Buddhist Retreat Centre with friends and family you love, and gift a retreat to them. BRC vouchers are available. Contact us at: bookings@brcixopo.co.za  

In October, the BRC was blessed with the visit of four Tibetan monks and esteemed Tibetan Medicine doctor Tenzin Lhanzey and Mrs Tenzin Lhamo, Tibetan Astro-Science Practitioner. The Consecration of the Stupa and Buddha Rupa was declared by Geshe Lobsang as an auspicious occasion and those in attendance were grateful to be part of it. 

Thank you Elizabeth Gaywood for organising this rare and special visit.

Geshe Lobsang, Dhondup Geshe, Konchuk Dhondup, Geshe Tenzin Gelek, Geshe Samdup Gyatso

Ms. Tenzin Lhanzey – Traditional Tibetan Doctor, Ms. Tenzin Lhamo – Astro-Science Practitioner

Sand Mandala Events and Talks

Durban sand mandala event will take place from Monday 15 – Sunday 21st October at the Denis Hurley Centre, 2 Cathedral Road, in Durban.

Image credit: Photo by: Wonderlane | Source: Flickr

In one of his teachings, the Buddha enumerated the most noble sentiments we should endeavour to develop in our life. The first and foremost is Dana or Generosity because from that springs forth all other beautiful characteristics  such as kindness, forgiveness and virtue.  We should therefore be alert to situations that arouse these qualities in us and provide us with an opportunity to express them towards others. They then become habitual, effortless and spontaneous. Dictionaries offer a range of meanings for gratitude from thankfulness and a warm feeling towards a benefactor, to an acknowledgement of indebtedness. Such gratitude arises in us every time we receive gifts and donations from our supporters and visitors to the Centre. These feelings are rooted in the early traditions of all religions: that one is inclined to be grateful to religious institutions that offer a different, wider perspective on what is important in life - the meaningfulness of one's existence, along with the need to simply survive..

The Buddhist monastic order has now flourished for more than 2500 years on such goodwill and the generosity of the lay people with whom they had a mutually beneficial relationship. In the modern world, this same spirit of goodwill has been directed towards retreat centres such as the BRC.  Indeed, we have  been moved by the gifts and donations that have flowed to the Centre this past year. We therefore take this opportunity to express our thanks to all those friends who regard the BRC as their spiritual home and want to ensure its longevity. Your generosity generated R18,000.00 in Dana to Woza Moya, the welfare organisation which the BRC supports, and which, in turn, supports the community of Chibini. Your Dana to our teachers allows them to keep the Dharma wheels turning at the Centre and allows the BRC to offer the wide range of retreats from silent meditation and mindfulness retreats to yoga, art and chi kung and much more.

With the Paid-Up-Yogi and Sangha Friends’ contributions, we were able to upgrade the ladies’ bathroom in the Lodge, install a tea station in its foyer for those hot cups of milo on chilly nights, and tile the stoep. We also renewed the canvas to the parasol of the terrace umbrella. Pam Evans very generously sponsored the beautiful granite server in the kitchen, and topped that with a lovely new coffee plunger, soft new pillows and towels, while Anne-Marie Nel donated stylish new cotton duvet covers. Chris Dalzell arrived with a truck-load of indigenous trees for the new forest being cultivated above the vegetable garden and Alex de la Rouviere donated a beautiful Sikkhim silk scarf to Louis to wear during the Chinese Tea Ceremony. The new high-back oak chairs in the Zendo were donated by Patricia Usher and Peter Kloppers. Rosemary Turner installed a beautiful bench in the gardens in memory of the late Bill Chalmers.

Additional PUY contributions and donations made by Nikki Milich, Ileana Dimitriu, Brendon Small, Brad Celliers, Rodger Walters, Jack Schmitter, Brett Lewis, Ingrid Adams, Bobby Forssman, Gustav Hasselskog and Mercia Sevnarin.These have enabled us to continue with pending projects such as reducing our Eskom bills by installing LED lights and refurbishing the men’s bathroom in the Lodge.

Our library continues to be updated by Ans van der Walt. We so appreciate her dedication, and share her delight when she receives new books, some of which have been donated by Tsunma Tsondru and Christine Currie. Our photo gallery has swelled with stunning pics from Andrew Brown, Lennart Erikson and Tsunma Tsondru. Grateful thanks to Beena and Brendon Hatcher of BrilliantWeb for their technical support, Rob Pooley for keeping our bees happy and Tokozani Nene for his wise counsel and friendship. Resounding thanks must go to our dedicated Committee members - Rene Stephenson, Pam Evans, Chris Dalzell, Rob Havemann, Alex De La Rourviere and Rosemary Turner - their commitment and focus made the Silent Auction the success that it was: R120,000.00 was raised from all our donors’ contributions.

Our dedicated BRC team - Lien Duvenage, Jenni Riddell, Colin Kemery, June Atkinson and our new chef, Rose Gelderblom - deserve a special mention. We salute and thank them for their commitment,  friendship and help in running the BRC so smoothly. Ray Vogel, in his inimitable way, made a wonderful contribution during his two month return to the Centre. Credit too must go to our talented cooks, Lindiwe Ngobo, Dudu Memela, and Lungi Mbona;  to our maintenance expert, Mdu Makodi, and to Engakheni Mbanjwa who does such sterling job in overseeing our accommodation. Without them, our teachers our supporters, the Centre would not be the flourishing entity it is. 

Thank you all! 

Chrisi

The philosopher, Epicurus, was a refreshingly wise voice in third century Greece. Refreshing, because he steered away from ponderous philosophical debate - wise, because he placed our rumination about the meaning of life where it really matters: how to live as fulfilled and happy a life as possible before we die. That did not mean that you simply followed your desires and ignored the welfare of others. Because such hedonism, he said, inevitably leads to unhappiness - for others as well as yourself - because our own happiness is inevitably interdependent with that of others'. The Buddha stressed this sentiment three centuries before Epicurus. Jesus, too, had the same message three centuries after Epicurus: "Do unto others...", he said. So, when we sit on our black cushions in the Meditation Hall, we are in excellent company.

In rural Greece you will come across elderly men sitting on park benches in the dappled shade of trees, within a short stroll of the local taverna. They talk idly about their past - stories their companions have heard many times before. They shake their heads occasionally and think of other things - or nothing at all. The stories just waft away in the warm Mediterranean breeze. The talking only halts when a pretty woman passes by - and resumes when she is out of sight.

This is what Epicurus said about the joys of growing old and, hopefully, wise: (Note to the politically correct: please don't be offended by Epicurus' male gender reference...I am sure he meant his sentiments to apply equally well to females - 18 centuries later....)

It is not the young man

Who should be considered fortunate

But the old man who has lived well

Because the young man in his prime

Wanders by chance, vacillating in his beliefs

Whilst the old man has docked in the harbour

Having safeguarded his true happiness

Do we have to wait until we are old to sit on a park bench before we can indulge in such ruminations? How about sitting on a black cushion in the Zendo and finding out what the Buddha had to say about giving our mind some space, stillness and calmness, finding our safe harbour from which to sail forth into the rest of our life? Our forthcoming program offers an array of choices to do that.

Live kindly.

Louis