Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of Triratna   on 8/4/17
There will be a day of celebration of the founding of our order in Sheffield on Saturday 8/4/17. Lifts may be possible from the centre – see sign up sheet on noticeboard and poster for more details.

Celebration and formal welcome for Jyotipala
We will be celebrating Jyotipala’s ordination on Sangha night 12/4/17 See details below.

Visit by Order member Vajragupta comes to an end.
We are saying goodbye to Vajragupta in April when he moves on after his extended stay with us. Many thanks to him for helping with events at the centre over the last 6 weeks.

Meditation in Durham Sunday 9th April
We are trying out a satellite meditation session in Durham run by one of our women mitras. See details below.

Regular Classes in April
All our events are at our centre on the 3rd floor, Broadacre House NE1 6HQ.
Monday Drop-In Beginners Meditation: 5:30pm-6:30pm Class runs 3rd, 10th and 24th April. No class on 17th April or 1st May due to bank holidays.All welcome. This class is free but we ask for a donation if you can spare it.
Monday Drop-In Buddhism For Today Class:  6.45 – 7.30pm
Dates and cost as above. This class is specifically aimed at beginners and covers a different Buddhist teaching each week. The evenings follow a sequence, the next cycle of which began on  20/3/17  All welcome.

Drop-in early morning meditations This month there will be morning meditations from  7.30-8.30am and 9-9.40am (doors open at 7am), from Monday 10th April – Friday 14th April.Open to all from beginners to seasoned meditators. Free (though donations help towards the costs of running the centre).

Sangha Nights in April
We’ve arranged Sangha nights so you can come to the early part of the evening, the later part, or both. We’ve been trying out some new timings based on our observations of the numbers of people attending the evening.The timetable for each Wednesday evening now is:
5:30-6:30 – opportunity for shared vegan supper – please bring along a contribution
6:30-7:10 – meditation
7:15-8:15 – Dharma study (or puja)
8.15- 8.35 – Break
8:35– 9.15 – meditation

We’ll therefore be ending the evening 15 minutes earlier. We’re trying this out so do feel free to email comments or talk to a member of the team if you have any ideas/suggestions/responses.

For April we have a lovely mix of events on Sangha nights including the last of Vajragupta’s talks on the worldly winds, a celebration of Jyotipala’s ordination and the start of a short series of talks on the way of fearless compassion:

Wednesday 5th April  The last talk about the worldly winds by Vajragupta
Wednesday 12th April Formal welcome to Jyotipala following his ordination,and full moon puja dedicated to Green Tara
Wednesday 19th April 21st century Bodhisattva – the way of fearless compassion in a changing world.
Wednesday 26th April Second talk on 21st century Bodhisattva.

Dharma ramble Sunday 16th April

The next Dharma ramble will be on the above day. Meet at Millenium bridge in Newcastle at 9.30am for a gentle walk with Sangha members. All welcome.
Meditation session in Durham 9th April.

Since some of our Sangha members travel from Durham we thought it would be worth trying out a meditation session there. It would initially be open to people who are already familiar with the mindfulness of breathing and metta bhavana meditations. We hope to run it monthly to begin with on a Sunday with the first date being Sunday 9th April 7.30pm – 8.45pm and it will be at Helen’s house (the mitra who is hosting and running it) in the first instance, which is within walking distance of the bus and rail stations. Please email the office at newcastlebuddhistcentre@gmail.com with your telephone contact details if you are interested in coming and Helen will contact you with details of how to get there.

Why is Amoghasiddhi green?

Someone asked me this question at a class. I encourage you to think about a possible answer for yourself, but here are a few thoughts of mine.
Green is the colour of nature. At this time of year the grass starts growing, green leaves emerge from apparently dead twigs and bulbs shoot up from unlikely-looking patches of earth. Amoghasiddhi represents unobstructed success and nature shows us how plants can grow in all kinds of environments. You could plant a bulb upside down and eventually green leaves would emerge the right way up.
I was reading a novel in which a character says that courage is “just keeping on going” and that’s what nature does. A burnt-out hillside is covered in grass after winter rains.
That’s what we can do, as well. Courage isn’t necessarily shown in grand actions of heroism, but in small everyday matters of kindness, mindfulness and “just keeping on going”.
Sraddhamani