Monday, April 22, 2013

Chester Rumi Reflection Group


We started a fortnightly Rumi Reflection Group in Chester last week, connected to the Great Heart Society and part of the Chester Zen Peacemaker Circle.  Each time we'll read a poem by Rumi together over coffee and explore what resonances it has for us.  We're using "Love's Ripening" by Kabir Helmisnki and Ahmed Rizwani as our main text to begin with.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Leicester - Great Heart Circle April 2013


Form And Emptiness , Emptiness And Form

This is the essence of The Heart Sutra of Buddhism,  something like - looking for the human body in all the parts of the body and never finding it.  

Deng Ming-Dao in 'The Lunar Tao", a day book of meditations in harmony with the seasons, reflects upon something similiar to this in "The Temple" there he writes :
The body is the temple for the spirit, and it makes sense to keep our temple clean and pure. In every culture , we have made holy places so that the divine can enter into our lives.  Think about a temple,though. If you go to a temple and look in one corner or the other, you won't see the spirit. If you take the building apart beam by beam and post by post, you won't dismantle the spirit. If you burn down the temple, you won't destroy the spirit. Those people who dissect the body looking for the spirit won't ever find it, but it's still here.




Thursday, April 4, 2013

Chester Activties from 14th April



The Chester Great Heart Circle will now have two regular activities:

SUNDAYS, fortnightly, starting 14th April 2pm-3.30pm

"Metta Circle" - including a guided period of metta (love/kindness) meditation, a guided discussion on metta in daily life, and a small shared 'sacred meal' to end each time.

THURSDAYS, fortnightly, starting 18th April  4pm-5pm

"Rumi Reflection Group" - exploring the spiritual love poems of Jelaluddin Rumi, the great Persian mystic.  The emphasis will be on how Rumi's teaching can guide and inspire our own living.

The venue for both events is Sally's Secret Garden, 22 Bridge Street Row West, Chester.  There's  no charge for any activities, but donations of around £4 would be very helpful towards room hire for the Metta Circle.  The Rumi group will be drinking coffee and tea together, which allows us to stay there!