Review of the Year............ sort of

Regular visitors to this site may be wondering what has happened to our traditional Review of the Year which should have appeared in June. Well I missed the deadline for a whole raft of reasons and then got paralysed by the usual "well I can't do it now, it's too late" syndrome.

However, on reflection I think that it is an ideal opportunity to bring the review in line with the actual year so what follows is a review of our postings from July of last year to the end of 2013. We will then have a "conventional" review of this year in early January 2015.... just like everyone else!

We started July with the story of "A Buddhist Shanty Town?"

and then continued the theme of Buddhist buildings with the news that the Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre Escapes Fire.

And then into August with the story of Ayya Khema and the Coincidence. This was followed with a reminder of the upcoming annual Buddhist picnic and then into September for the event itself..............

"It's becoming a tradition that it pours down for the annual Buddhist picnic and this year was no different.....",

 

"However for those few brave souls who made it to the Duver in St. Helens there was a clear (ish) slot in the weather for us to enjoy the event."

On the 23rd we had the story of Giel, the Belgium boy who the authorities banned from travelling to India to become a Buddhist monk.

The month ended with the news that the long awaited film "The Buddha’s Forgotten Nuns" had finally been released.

We had originally reported on this back in January 2011 when the working title was "Bhikkhuni: Revival of the Women's Order". We purchased the film from Vimeo and have shared it with other Buddhist groups on the island.

On the 7th of October we had the great pleasure of a visit by Bhante Bodhidhamma to the West Wight Sangha.

 

Also in October we reported that with Armistice Day only being a fortnight away (as it is now) that you may like to consider also wearing a Purple Poppy this year to commemorate all of the animals killed in war. The poppies can be obtained from the Animal Aid website with profits going to support the charity's work.

In November we reported how Chinese Buddhist frescoes had been overpainted a'la the Spanish church masterpiece that was so widely reported.

This was shortly followed on the 14th with the news that Giel had been given permission to leave for India!



On the full moon of the17th we featured our regular Dhammapada reflection from Ajahn Munindo. The subject for this one was Endearment and I came across this amazingly moving picture of a sculpture of the dying mother Theresa.

Talking of amazing photographs, that post was immediately followed by a piece on the work of American Buddhist monk Nicholas Vreeland.....................

And there's more......................

23rd of November.... Regular readers will know that we have been committed supporters of full female ordination within all Buddhist traditions and have had a particular interest in supporting full Bhikkhuni ordination within the Thai forest tradition of Ajahn Chah.

I received an email from the Alliance for Bhikkhunis on their site they catalogue all the Nunneries for fully ordained Bhikkhuni that are now available since that first "controversial" ordination in Perth. It has become an impressive list so I've reproduced it here.............................

We ended the month with the "News" that the Buddha's birth was earlier than previously thought. This however remains a controversial finding and we will report on any definitive conclusions as and when they arise.

 

December started with the news that the Bible was being sold as fiction, in the United States!!!

And we finish our roundup with the news that a new Dictionary of Buddhism had been published.