New Year Retreat26th December – 3rd January; Upadana: Grasping. Letting go; release and renewal. details Accommodation is fully booked (barring last-minute cancellations) but you are welcome to come for all or part of any day. You would be most welcome to join for New Year’s Eve when we will have several ceremonies to enter 2016. Evening Puja starts at 7pm. There is some ‘overflow’ accommodation for those wishing to stay the night of 31st.
New Year’s DayStart the new year with a visit to the monastery. This is a very popular annual tradition; offering pindapat to the sangha on Stokes Valley Road, sharing blessings and dedicating merit and taking a meal together. Aim to be on the street around 9:30am. Events will start in the main Dhamma Hall at 10:30.
New LooServices have been laid and buried so the grass can be reseeded. The new residents’ access track has been finished and is in use. The old track below the Chao Khun kuti has been quite densely planted and already looks like it was never there. The building itself will wait until next year for completion.view photos Ajahn Kusalo will be bringing a squat toilet back from Thailand – assuming it can fly as checked luggage. [photo to come :)]
Ajahn MedhinoIt has been a relatively short time but visits from senior monks are always appreciated. As it is his first visit to NZ we took him on a couple of trips – despite the weather! We have enjoyed some of his handy-work and delighted in his dhamma. We wish him well for his ongoing travels in 2016 and may yet see him back in the new year. view photos
City MeditationMonthly Meeting; the first Monday of every month, starting February 1st 2016 at the Quaker Meeting House – 7 Moncrieff St (off Elizabeth; off Kent Terrace) – 6-8pm. The format will be a simplified version of our regular Sunday format. Short chanting, meditation instruction, meditation, dhamma talk, discussion. Let’s see who comes and what they/you like.