Finding Peace at Year's End ...

I just returned from a 4 day meditation retreat at Amaravati, a buddhist monastery near Hemel Hempstead just north of London. A calm and reflective way to round off a year which has been rather full of frantic activity. From finishing my PhD to getting engaged, and organising a wedding 2005 has been a pretty big year! In less than a week I will be heading back to Sri Lanka to be reunited with my wife Uthpala (we registered our marriage in August) and will be returning to the UK towards the end of January.

Spending this time of year in quiet contemplation has been an ambition of mine but various circumstances have conspired against actually doing it. Last year I was struck low by the 'flu just a few days before due to go on retreat and the year before that it was something else. It almsot was the same story this year as I had a really bad sneezing fit just a few mintues before leaving the house, but thankfully it passed and I made it to the retreat centre without incident.

It was snowing the first tow days of the retreat, and as the teacher Ajahn Nyanarato noted, this provided an unusually still atmosphere at the monastery. The crunch of snow under foot as I did my walking meditation has the odd effect of punctuating this stillness even further. While the movement and noise were obvious, as I focussed on these, the silence in between each step became more pronounced. I really wanted to take some pictures of the snow-laden scenery but unfortunately I kept putting it off in the hope of some better light and conditions - a lesson in appreciating the completeness of the present moment :-) In the end, my camera battery was dead, so pictures had to be postponed for another time.

Overall the retreat was a great experience. As usual, doing so much meditation at a stretch was somewhat challenging. Particularly since I have not done this for a while now. The problems ranged from general restlessness, aches and pains and missing Uthpala - all good opportunities to experience Dukkha first hand! Through all this there were also periods of calm and concentration during which it felt almost effortless to experience each moment with clarity. By the end of it all, I left today feeling truly refreshed.

I will leave details of some of the dhamma teachings and stories told by the teacher to later postings. One in particular struck a chord - relating to the past life recollection of a young boy who was found to be able to recite entire suttas at the age of around 6 years. We listened to a recording of this boy chant the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta (Discourse on turning the wheel of Dhamma) which was the first teaching given by the Buddha to five ascetics who helped hime during his quest for enlightenment. Hearing these words chanted by this yound child, with disarming innocence, I found my heart elevated beyond expression. My joy was such that before I knew it, my eyes filled with tears and I was overwhelmed. The reason for this reaction is still unclear to me - this has never happened before - all I can say is that hearing the Buddha's words in this form was a really wonderful experience.

Hopefully I will have some time to post more while I am in Sri Lanka. I will try to include some more experiences from the retreat as well. Until then, wishing everyone a very happy new year.

May all beings be happy and secure, may their hearts be joyful!

Season's Greetings & Happy New Year

Wishing everyone peace, prosperity and joy in the coming new year!

Take care,
- Arosha & Uthpala

Road blues ..

Taking a cheap coach service from London to Manchester proved a little more trouble than the money saved this weekend. Fed up of paying the seemingly extortionate rail fares being charged to travel between London and Manchester, over the past few months I have opted to use the coach services when going to visit my parents. Overall I have to say that the experience has been fairly positive, and I have been able to make good use of the long journey time for catching up with reading, sleep and other low priority activities :-)

However, this past weekend I decided to downgrade the cost a little further and chose to travel by the 'no-frills' coach service - Megabus. The cost was less than 1/3rd of the normal coach service, but came at the cost of arriving at my destination over an hour later than the scheduled time. Also, because the service is run to a tight budget, pick up and drop-off is done just outside the coach stations - so it involves standing around in the cold waiting for your bus to arrive. I shouldn't complain too much though - 'You pays your money and takes your chances'