Buddhist "Walk the Wight"

Just a reminder, as there’s less than a fortnight to go, that a group of Island Buddhists are “mindfully” Walking the Wight on Sunday the 16th.

They will be making an eight mile mindful walk in aid of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, the Isle of Wight's one and only Hospice, which is very much loved and respected for the wonderful service it provides to the community. They leave from Sandown high School at 9:30 and walk to Thompson's Trees at Shide - look out for their "Buddhist" Walk the Wight tee shirts! You can contribute at http://www.justgiving.com/SanghaSisters.

Take a Step Back

One of our Sangha members recently sent me this Chinese Proverb.

Say's it all really..................................

Bon Voyage to Palaka

Yesterday (Sunday 15th Feb) Buddhists from across the Island met at Sian's house in Ryde to bid farewell to Palaka. This week he moves from Ventnor, Isle of Wight, to Bethnal Green, to be at the FWBO's London Buddhist Centre.

It is always special when the wider Island Sangha comes together for an event and yesterday afternoon was especially so, sharing food, being able to sit together and bidding our farewells to a good friend.

Palaka was in large part responsible for changing the West Wight Sangha from two friends who meditated together into the thriving group that it is now. For this and so many other things I take great pleasure in being able to say once more, thank you, Palaka.

Where We all came from II

Regular readers may recall a previous posting entitled "Where We All Came From" where I gave a bit of background information about the West Wight Sangha and also said that it would, hopefully, be the start of an occasional series featuring the other Buddhist groups on the Island. Well here's a piece from Dave of the Newport Soto Zen group, one of the oldest on the Island.

Isle of Wight Buddhist Group

"There are several Buddhist groups on the Island, tending to follow a particular flavour; we are a Soto Zen group, following the tradition of Throssel Hole Priory, and affiliated to Reading Priory, following the teachings of Master Dogen, and Rev Master Jiyu Kennett, who spent many years in Japan under the instruction of a Soto Zen Teacher, and brought zen to UK and USA in the ‘70’s. The group consists of about 15 to 20 people altogether, and we usually have between 5 and 10 coming to meetings. The group has a mixture of people, who include those who have been around Buddhism for quite a long time, and people who are just beginning, and all stages in between!

The group meets at my house on a Thursday evenings. We meet between 7:30pm and 10pm.

Generally, we follow the Soto tradition, but not exclusively. We begin with meditation, one or two sessions, with walking meditation, and perhaps a reading. Then we may listen to a tape, read from a book, watch a video, or whatever people want that evening, and then perhaps spend some time having a discussion about what we've heard or seen, usually over a cup of tea! Sometimes we may spend the whole evening just talking about a specific aspect, especially where we have newcomers who may be unsure about meditation practice, or whatever. We occasionally have a whole day retreat, on the Island, or perhaps at Reading, led by the monk from Reading, Rev Olwen.

Our style is very informal, and we try to adapt to the needs of whoever happens to turn up! So if everybody wants to sit in meditation for the whole evening, that's fine. Or if you are a complete newcomer, we’ll help you with whatever questions you may have, without making you feel like your in the spotlight! We usually try to fit in a cup tea somewhere in an evening, but sometimes we get so engrossed in the discussion this gets overlooked! There is no charge for attending, but we have a collecting bowl so we can accumulate money to buy equipment, books, videos, or defray expenses of visiting speakers.
You'd be very welcome to come along, just to sample how you feel about the way we are. If you have your own favourite sitting cushion or stool, please feel free to bring it. Then you can choose to come again, or not, just as you wish.

If you'd like to come along, please call me on 520795, and I can tell you a bit more, including how to get to my house."

Travelling Buddhists, Update

Just a quick note to let you all know that Wilhelmina's Crew are now posting some pictures from their cycling tour of Thailand.

Yet More From the Travelling Buddhists

Wilhelmina's crew, members of the Newport Soto Zen group, are off travelling the World on their trusty tandem once more. If you remember, their previous adventure took them to Australia, now they're off to Thailand and Laos!


You can keep track of their progress on their blog at Wilhelmina's crew. No pictures yet from Thailand but they will be coming soon.

Old Gaffers II

As promised, a better quality pic of Wilhelmina, Nicole & John's Dutch sailing barge.


See "More Travelling Buddhists" and their web site "Wilhelmina's Crew", also the original post, "The Old Gaffers".

"The Old Gaffers"

Over the weekend it was the Old Gaffers Festival in Yarmouth, here in the West Wight. During these three days of free entertainment, Yarmouth's picturesque harbour was filled with more than 100 visiting traditional sailing, steam and motor vessels, including the cream of the Old Gaffers fleet. On shore there was a huge range of activities, including a French market in the Town Square, keeping the 20,000 plus visitors entertained from morning till night all weekend.

One of the boats attending was Nicole & John's Dutch sailing barge, Wilhelmina. Nicole & John from the Newport Soto Zen Group featured in a previous post about their cycling tour in Australia (there you go, tie-ins to the West Wight & Buddhists). There is a link to their blog "Wilhemina's Crew" in the favourite sites list.


(Sorry about the quality of the photos, must get myself a decent camera)

Where We All Came From

The other day it occurred to me that the West Wight Sangha has now been running for just on a year and that now would be a good time to explain who and what we are and where we came from. Following on from that it also seemed like a good idea to contact other Buddhists on the Island and ask them to contribute similar pieces about their groups. So this will be the first of an occasional series.

For a number of years I have been attending the Newport Buddhist group run by Dave Downer and at the beginning of 2007 was contacted by him to see if I would give a lift to someone from Freshwater who would also like to attend the group. This is how I met Theresa. After a while we both started to think that we could get together here in the West Wight to meditate and not trek into Newport necessarily every week, thus the West Wight Sangha was formed... all two of us!

Shortly after this I was contacted by Palaka (he was Andrew then, but it's a bit like decimal money - forget what used to be and always use the new) who introduced yet another member, Linda. So now we were three and thus it was for a while with Palaka also coming along until he went to Spain, which he'll be telling you about in his contribution to this Island Buddhist series. Things have moved on and more people have joined, and some have left, to the point where we now have a small but viable group.

We have always been non-denominational, those from all schools of Buddhism, or none, are all welcome. I don't think that it would be at all viable for such a small group to "nail it's colours to the mast" and opt for just one thread of the Dharma. We usually sit for 30 minutes and have no prescribed form of practice though if someone is new to meditation the instruction is in 'Mindfulness of Breathing', Anapanasati, with a foundation in silent present-moment awareness. Our Dharma study is primarily of the words of the Buddha himself i.e. from the Pali Cannon and, as is the nature of these things, we chat about things, the World, and all in general Buddhisty terms over tea and bickies (what is the thing with Buddhists and tea?).

More Travelling Buddhists

At the beginning of December last year Nicole & John from the Newport Soto Zen group left for a cycling tour of Australia. They have been posting an ongoing journal with pictures on their blog at Wilhelmina's Crew , I've also put the link under "Favourite Sites".

This follows on from Val & Alex's trip "To the Himalayas" . Val is also a member of the Newport group.

To the Himalayas

Last year (2006) Val from the Newport Soto Zen group and her husband Alex undertook a hike into the foothills of the himalayas. What follows is Val's account of their visit with some amazing photos.


Kangchenjunga and the Singalila Ridge Trek, October 2006
Community Action Treks Ltd.

Community Action Treks was founded by Doug Scot, who reached the summit of Everest in 1975 with Dougal Haston. Money raised from these trekking holidays is used to provide schools, health centres, employment and clean water supplies for villages in Nepal.

We spent 24 days with a group of experienced travellers and mountaineers and were looked after very well by Raja of “Adventure Mania” (based in Kolkata) assisted by two teams of porters from Nepal and Sikkim. Accommodation ranged from the best hotels to wooden huts and camping. We initially flew to Kolkata and then from there to Bagdogra in northern West Bengal, from there driving to Darjeeling. After walking on jeep tracks on the Singalila Ridge which runs along the border with Nepal. We then drove to Sikkim (now part of India) where we walked up to 4 900m at Goecha La pass 5Km from Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain.

Most of the people Alex and I met were Indian Hindus, Nepalese porters and Buddhists from Tibet.

Highlights of the tour.

We saw Kangchenjunga for the first time at dawn in Darjeeling. The peaks appear above cloud level and seem to belong to the sky instead of rising from the earth.

We visited many Buddhist monasteries, both of the Gelukpa (yellow hat school) and Nyingmapa schools (the oldest of the four major Tibetan schools). They were well maintained each with approximately 50 monks and a school for the young novices. Prayer wheels set in the outer walls with the interior walls being painted with bright colours from floor to ceiling. At the front a large Buddha statue would be flanked by statues of important Bodhisattvas. Eventually we discovered that we could go upstairs in the monasteries where plainer rooms and libraries could be seen. We could often hear the monks chanting in a separate room off of a courtyard. Only once did I get to talk to one of the monks, who had very good English.

Whilst staying in a small hilltop village I was very lucky to sit with a small group of monks who were chanting and performing rituals for a sick, elderly lady. Although I couldn't talk to them it was a great joy to sit with them chanting and observe the preparations for ancient ceremonies, using rice to create pictures on paper laid on the floor. Tiny models of people and yaks were then placed on top of the rice picture.

Another joy was to see the long strips of colourful prayer flags in the mountains and small towns. We saw a ceremony in which new prayer flags were placed at Tenzing Norgay's grave.



The mountain roads were very dangerous and like the vehicles , were continually being repaired. They are often closed during the monsoon season when it is particularly dangerous for the children walking to school.

The poverty and density of the crowds were a culture shock in Kolkata, it's very difficult to travel in the city without a guide.

Valerie & Alex

Andrew's Dharma Name

After querying with Palaka how his new name is Pronounced he tells me it is "par-ler-ker", with the "par" getting the emphasis.

Andrew..... Palaka returns to the Island (pro tem)

Hello, Steve:

I'm on the Island for a few days (leaving Monday evening) and am gently re-connecting with my friends here, hence this email. As you might have heard, I've received this wonderful new name, Palaka, meaning 'he who cherishes, nurtures and protects' - that's the very short version of the meaning! I have experienced a profound and inspiring time at Guhyaloka (which I believe has a website, so you can catch some glimpses of this place online, and maybe spot me in the shrine room photo if the new image has been uploaded).

On Tuesdays, while up in the Spanish mountains, I've been thinking about you and the West Wight group. Have you been well? Although I'm off to the North Island soon, I wanted to touch base, even electronically, while still on the same piece of land. I very much look forward to seeing you again.

You've probably already noticed that I've taken a new email address, too. Although I'll continue to check the old one, this will be my 'home'. The dh, by the way is for 'dharmachari', the title used by members of the Western Buddhist Order, meaning 'one who fares in the dharma'. That title is conferred as part of the public ordination that followed on from the private ordination where the personal name was received. I'll be in touch soon about the suggested get-together in Ventnor on the Tuesday after Bank Holiday Monday. A couple of friends from the London Buddhist Centre are visiting me then, and it seems a good opportunity for a bunch of us to get together. I'm thinking of probably something in the afternoon and something in the evening, so won't necessarily disrupt your meeting's routine.

Any news of the picnic?
With all the very best to you:

Palaka

The web site mentioned is at http://www.guhyaloka.com, and no, Andrew isn't on the pics.