News & Musings before May 2007

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News & Musings before May 2007 and since it started in April 2006 has been with Opera and can be found here.

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On This Day, 1971.

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Today is the thirty-sixth anniversary of my ordination as a samanera (novice) in Section 5 of Wat Mahadhatu in the heart of Bangkok. Back then on Boxing Day in 1971, I had been in Thailand just over three weeks staying in Section 6 but practising meditation under the instruction of Ven. Chao Khun Dhep Siddhimuni, the Head of Section 5, who became my Uphajjaya or Preceptor. Before it's too late I've rescued a few old photos of the ordination and posted them here . The monk with me who looked after me was Phra Maha Raundeg Simuni. I had known him in England at Wat Buddhapadipa and it was he who had first told me of Ajahn Chah. Phra Maha Simuni was from a large wat in the middle of the city of Ubon called Wat Tung See Muang. On January 1st 1972, Phra Maha Simuni took me to Ubon and eventually introduced me to Ajahn Chah. But before I could go and stay at Wat Pah Pong I had to go with Phra Maha Simuni to a remote village called Ban Pai Yai which he wanted to study and include in h...
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Vesak at the London Buddhist Vihara.

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I had accepted an invitation from Venerable Seelawimala to speak at the London Buddhist Vihara's Vesak celebration and so on Sunday down to Chiswick I went again. The title of my talk was The Challenge of the Dhamma. While I got a few laughs for them, the stories I told focussed on how the Dhamma challenges our defilements, our views and our conduct. And I spoke pretty directly on the importance of having the courage to rise to the challenges and always to do the right thing and to keep growing. Naturally, I spent some time on the Five Precepts, and encouraged my listeners to not be afraid of being particularly careful of the fifth. The questions that followed showed what a raw nerve that exposed. I assured them that doing the right thing and leading a moral and decent life is in the end always respected.
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Prisons Week - A Multifaith Occasion.

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Earlier today I nipped down to London to Abell House, home of Prison Service Chaplaincy HQ, for a meeting about a multifaith event that we're planning for Prisons Week this year. Originally known as Prisoners' Week when it began in 1975, Prisons Week is a Christian initiative to pray for, and raise awareness of, the needs of prisoners and their families, victims of crime, prison staff and all those who care. I have often wondered why it couldn't include all faiths and one year I remember I did try to have it observed by Buddhists. Now this year thanks to an initiative by Monsignor Malachy Keegan, the Principal Roman Catholic Chaplain to the Prison Service, we are organising in Prisons Week a multifaith celebration to be held in the chapel at Wormwood Scrubs Prison on November 21st with up to two hundred invited guests. Father Malachy has kindly asked me to give the address.
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