Sangha Update

By Rebecca Habergham and friends

Hebden Bridge group update

Hello all, greetings from the currently rainy and wild Hebden Bridge.

We would like to share with you a taste of what we have been doing since we all last met in the Dancing Mountains Newsletter. The Summer has shared with us lots of opportunity for our group to sit together, share a variety of events and blossom and bloom.

Ingen Breen
Sister Kovida
Mid Week Sit
Flash Mob style meditation
Our Group
Nutclough mid week sit

Ingen Breen

We have had a brilliant weekend with Ingen as you all know. It now feels he is very much part of the Sangha here as he fit in so beautifully to Hebden Bridge. We are very grateful to him for sharing his everyday zen with us in his gentle, poignant and moving way.

We are organising our first weekend Residential with Ingen on 25th~27th November. We are busy sorting out advertising and all for this larger event which is new to our group, so again we will let you know how we get on. It would be great if some of you decide to come to this retreat with us.

Sister Kovida

Sister Kovida, who is a friend of Tam, a member of our Sangha, joined us for a Sunday evening sit. She is a nun of the Western Theravada Forest Tradition. She led the evening in a very gentle and intimate dance using physical movement alongside sitting practice.

Mid Week Sit

We decided early Summer to offer another weekly sit for those who could not make Sunday and others that wanted an extra opportunity to sit with a group. We are committed to seeing how it goes until Christmas and have enough money from donations on Sunday to carry this group even if we have small numbers. We have had from 1 to 8 sitting and feel that it will be sustainable in the longer term. The following is a beautiful email which Lou Curbishley sent out the day after the first sit to the Sangha, gives a soft sense of the evening shared.

Nutclough

Hi All,

I just wanted to share with you!
Last night was the very first mid-week sitting at Nutclough. What a special time we had.
The room is beautiful...wooden floors, soft lighting, exposed woodwork and a superb inglenook fireplace.
Fern, who is the co-ordinator at Nutclough, ensured that we had everything we needed, including a table, which we covered in Frances's shawl, then placed Janet's Buddha, fresh flowers, incense and a lighted candle on...it really set the scene.
There were 8 of us in total, one of the 8 was Fern (how lovely that she wanted to join us) and the other unexpected sitter was Nic. He was staying at Nutclough as a house guest last night and wanted to join us...he is currently touring the country on his push bike and is recording his adventures on a blog...maybe the group will be featured!
Hoping you may be able to go along at some stage and experience it for yourselves.
With much love,
Lou xx

Flash Mob style meditation

We have had our first flash mob in Hebden Bridge which was captured beautifully on video by Rachel Hawthorn from our Sangha:

Youtube video

It was a really intimate experience as we gathered and sat through the weather of four seasons, clouds passing, shadows moving, laughter dancing, water running, birds curious, coming and going, bussle and stillness.

We are planning another one to mark the International Day of Peace on September 21st. One group member Janet Woodhead has been particularly busy visiting local church groups, mosques, schools and shops to open the space of peaceful sitting across all. It feels this may create some lovely links across faiths and within our community here. We will let you know how we get on with that.

Our Group

As with all groups we have lots of questions about where we are going if anywhere! How we will get there, how much form and ceremony, to have a teacher or not to have a teacher. So many questions....There are meetings of struggle and discomfort and others of laughter and peace, most a mixture of all. We want to offer time to share our learning with other groups that meet across the country as I am sure we can all learn alot from each other. So please contact us if you feel we can be useful.

Ok, until the next time, we are very grateful for all the energy and commitment offered from all you folk in Dancing Mountains. We commit to continuing to offer all we can for you in return.

May there be peace between all beings, inside and out.xx

Rebecca

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