July Great Heart Circle

A small intimate meeting of the Great Heart Circle welcomed Mark as the new facilitator.

The full moon on Tuesday evening was the Guru Purnima, in Hindu and Buddhist cultures a time to celebrate the Guru. This was a good opportunity for us to reflect upon Teachers in our lives, whether it has been Gurus, parents, other people or events.

Sometimes our hearts and minds engage and open with philosophy, sometimes with poetry, sometimes with walking under the trees in the garden and sometimes with music.  Toward the One,  Greg played us out with an Air on his violin.

Mark Baverstock is new Coordinator of the Leicester Great Heart Circle!

Hello folks,

As many of you know, I'm planning to leave Leicester in September and move up North.  Several people have said they'd like the Great Heart Circle in Leicester to continue after I've gone, so I've thought a lot about possibilities.  At the weekend I asked Mark Baverstock if he will take on the role of coordinator/vision holder for the circle, and he's agreed.  So this is  fantastic news!  I don't know how many of you plan to keep coming, but I would ask you all to support Mark for the first few months as he takes over and feels his way into it.

The plan is for Mark to begin coordinating right away, with the July and August circles, and I'll still be there as a participant to give him support.  I don't know yet if I'll be here for the September one.  I'm still planning to hold Metta Circles in my house over the summer :-)

Mark has come along to the group dedicatedly for over two years, and has often guided the relaxation session at the start and offered prayers and blessings at various times.  He has a strong background in Indian/Hindu traditions, is connected to a Sufi lineage, and most importantly has the enthusiasm to hold open the space of practice for us all on a regular basis.

Much love to you all, and see you next month I hope.

Chris Zang Starbuck

Great Heart Circle, 7th June

   

 

 The Great Heart Circle this evening was big and fun in spite of the cold rain pouring down outside!  For the main session of Zen meditation we went down into the lower room and made it cosy and warm with heaters, little lanterns and blankets...  Some of us did a ghost-tour of the old chapel building in the dark, and attempted (unsuccessfully!) to scare Natalie...

A Season of Love!

For four months now, the whole season of Spring, we've held a Metta Circle in my house in Leicester.  I don't blog about it every month, because my intention is to keep it a little quieter and more private than our celebratory Great Heart Circle in the Unitarian Chapel each month.  Metta is an old Buddhist name for "universal love/kindness", and each month we train in metta through meditation and sharing experiences in a Council Circle (the Native American speaking/listening circles we learned in the Zen Peacemakers),

We hold the Metta Circle on the 3rd Thursday of each month, from 7.30-9.30pm, and so far it's been a really valuable group, with many people from the larger Circle attending.  It means a lot to me to be able to share this practice with people in my own home, and it fulfills an idea that was planted in me through my friendship with a Buddhist teacher in Scotland, Jinavamsa... He instilled in me the deep importance of metta, and used to have people come to his home to practice metta meditation together.

Thanks to everyone who's taken part so far, and I hope it continues in the same spirit...  Ashk olsun, "May it become Divine Love", as some of the old Turkish Sufis used to say!

Great Heart Circle, 3rd May

"Light the candle of  wisdom within, in your heart, and go swiftly with shining heart on to the shining world"  Nasir-i Khusraw

This evening we held our monthly Great Heart Circle in Leicester, with guided relaxation, discussion, silent Zen meditation and a sacred meal.  Our theme for discussion this time was 'discussion'! We talked about how and why we have a discussion in the middle most months, and talked about "sohbet" in the Turkish Sufi tradition and debate in Tibetan Buddhism and Greek philosophy.  Especially we considered the quote from Nasir-i Khusraw above: our discussion is intended to awaken our hearts and minds a little in preparation for entering the period of deep silence that we have following the break.

At the end, we gave two more poetry scrolls out as gifts to people who've been coming along for over a year, in recognition of the connection we've made together.  Marie and Gabi are pictured above!

Persian Drumming Workshop, Sat 28th April

This afternoon we were lucky to have a Persian drumming workshop with Arian Sadr, a professional percussionist from Iran who now lives in Manchester.  The venue was the new upstairs room in Yesim Patisserie on Narborough Road.  There were  12 students altogther, and several people from the Great Heart Society came along with family and friends, giving the afternoon a sense of community for everyone else I think too.

Arian first gave a demonstration on Tonbek, the Iranian goblet drum, then moved on to the Daf - the large tambourine-like drum.  He taught us the basic hand positions and movements and rhythms, and after a break we all played energetic rhythms while he improvised in amazing patterns over the top!  If anyone hasn't heard the daf played before, have a look on Youtube, it's a wonderful instrument!

Great Heart Circle, 5th April 2012

This evening at our Great Heart Circle we took a song by the English folk singer Martha Tilston as the theme for discussion.

Simple

I remember how simple simplicity used to be
Before I tried too hard and chased it away.
It would float in, flow through and out of me.
Complication, well I rue the day.

I'm going to get right, right to the heart of it.
I was bigger when I was nothing at all,
Just another pilgrim marching to the sunset,
And it didn't matter if I got there:
It's the journey of it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxjFvt8Vsz8