At Aro Ling we were delighted to be part of a series of events being organised by different faith communities in association with the Interfaith Council of Wales. We hosted an Interfaith Fire Ceremony to celebrate Buddha Day. It was a joyful occasion. The weather was perfect for an outdoor event, and everyone enjoyed taking part in the celebration. First I gave a short talk on the significance of Buddha Day for Buddhists, and the format of the ceremony itself. The fire was created over a mandala, and oil was poured onto it as an offering throughout the ceremony. A thread-cross was burned at the end of the ceremony. The woven threads symbolise the elements earth, water, fire, air, and space, using the colours yellow, white, red, green, and blue. The elements represent physical and psychological qualities. The threads are woven to decrease distortion of the elements, and to increase the enlightened qualities.
After the ceremony, while the fire was still lively, those attending were invited to place messages in the fire. The symbolism of burning messages is to let go of something unhelpful, such as a grudge or an irritation, and to effectuate something helpful, such as a good wish for someone, or a personal aspiration.
Last week was Interfaith Week. It has also been the centenary of the end of WW1 (more on this in a separate post). So it has been a busy time for me.
Addressing the audience at the Pierhead Building
Yesterday the Interfaith Council for Wales held an event. I am Chair of this Council at the moment, so I was very involved in it. It was a most joyful afternoon. I opened the event with a short speech:
"The ICW seeks to bring together in harmony people of different religions. We celebrate our commonalities, and respect our differences. We honour others' commitment to their religion, whilst holding integrity to our own style and form of practice. This spirit of friendship and tolerance, is as important today as it has been in any other point in history.
In this spirit of friendship, I am delighted to welcome you to this Interfaith Council of Wales event - Walking Alongside Our Communities.
Croeso i'r digwyddiad Cyngor Rhyng Ffydd Cymru yma - Cerdded Gyda'n Cymuned.
On behalf of the Council, I would like to thank the police who are helping us today; Pered Owen-Griffiths and Julie Jones for their organisation of the event, and Andrea Adams and her team from the Welsh Assembly Government for their sponsorship and assistance in creating this interesting afternoon of interfaith activities.
So now we begin with the first activity of the afternoon. Julie Jones, vice chair of the Interfaith Council, will give a presentation about how people of different faiths came together in friendship and respect during the WW1 - Learning to Change."
Julie’s presentation was excellent and most thought-provoking.
Then the Welsh Government Minister and Leader of the House, Julie James, addressed the gathering.
This was the end of the first part of the event. We reconvened a little later at the United Reformed Synagogue, the first venue on our ‘Walking Alongside our Communities’ pilgrimage. At each of the four venues we received a short talk. The police accompanied us and saw us safely across roads. The Interfaith Council provided lamps, although it was quite a bright afternoon and they were not really needed. After the synagogue we walked to The Cardiff Buddhist Centre (a Triratna Centre), then on to Eglwys y Crwys Presbyterian Chapel, and finally to the Dar Ul-Isra Mosque. Here we had faith ‘speed dating’ and a meal. I will post photographs of the walk when I receive some from my colleagues.
I took part in a most interesting Interfaith Conference a couple of weeks ago. It was organised by the Onyx Link Foundation, headed by the most kind and lovely gentleman, Dr Abdalla Mohamed OBE. There were presentations from a range of different faiths, and the atmosphere of the whole event was warm and inspiring. The theme was 'One Humanity, Morality, and Earth'. My presentation examined the enlightened potential of embracing friendship.
Giving my presentation
Receiving a beautiful cut glass vase
We were looked after royally at the hotel venue, and every presentation was interesting. I hope to be able to take part in more such inspiring events in the future.
The conference is available to see on YouTube and my presentation is near the beginning of the second part.
I’ve been to two lovely interfaith events over the last couple of weeks. The first was organised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, for International Women’s Day. The second was at Cardiff Reform Synagogue and organised by the Interfaith Council for Wales.
I was one of the speakers for International Women’s Day. The topic was ‘Inspirational Women’ and I spoke about the amazing women in the history of the Aro gTér Lineage. After the four presentations by a Bahá’í, a Muslim, a Mormon, and myself representing Buddhists, we split into small groups to talk about the women who have inspired us. This was followed by cake!
The Interfaith Council for Wales Event was speaking up against hate crime. There were two Christian speakers of different denominations, a Muslim speaker, and a Jew. The Unitarian Church speaker gave a pragmatic approach to assisting someone who is being bullied. She suggested engaging with the victim, talking to them and maintaining eye contact, whilst ignoring the bullies. You could say anything, even if it was gibberish. Hopefully this would enable you to move the victim away from the bullies to a safe place, and only then should you ask them whether they are alright and give whatever practical assistance they need. The speaker representing the Evangelist Church used the familiar story of the Good Samaritan most effectively to make his point. After the speeches we had refreshments, and were given a tour of the synagogue with a most interesting talk about Jewish prayer and tradition.
At the Interfaith Network UK meeting I was told a story that I found rather shocking. A lady told me that a Buddhist had been visiting to speak at their interfaith meeting. She enquired of a friend whether he and his wife would be able to attend. He replied that, no, they would not attend because it was a Buddhist teacher that would be speaking. Why? The reason was that they had previously attended a meeting with a Buddhist speaker, and that person had told his wife─who is disabled─that she must have done something very bad in a previous life to create the cause for being disabled in this life.
I find this a distressing story to hear – it lacks compassion, or even common kindness and courtesy, and displays a serious misunderstanding of what karma means in Buddhism. It upsets me that a Buddhist could have such lack of awareness, and such lack of warmth and basic goodness. Isn’t the point of being a practising Buddhist that we become kinder, gentler, more open to the needs of others, less self-centred, and so on? Where is joy and good humour in saying something like that to someone?
Karma is not predetermination. Karma is not cause and effect in a materialistic sense. Karma is not having experiences that directly correlate to previous actions. If I hit you at some point, karma does not mean that you have to hit me. How could it be that if I hit a realised being, they would be compelled, through a materialistic law of cause and effect, to hit me at some point in the future? This makes no sense.
Karma is perception and response. Karma is the patterning in the mind-stream. Karma is created through duality, and responding to perception with one of the three root misconceptions: attraction, aversion, or indifference. Karma is the patterning that we lay down through our perception and response. ‘I like it. Let’s do that again.’ ‘I hated that. I will avoid it at all costs.’ ‘That seemed to have nothing to do with me. I’ll just ignore it.’
If perception becomes clear, and of the nature of primordial wisdom, then response will be appropriate and compassionate. This is nonduality. This is rigpa. This is wisdom and compassion as an inseparability. Karma dissolves because perception and response are no longer based in duality, confusion, and ignorance.
Perhaps the disabled lady is a great Bodhisattva. Perhaps she has given her health and vitality to benefit all sentient beings. Her body is now disabled, but her mind is pure and clear. Who the hell are we to judge the qualities of any other being?
Life’s been busy since January . . . here’s a whistlestop summary:
February: winter retreat with our students, in our home ─ Losar celebrations in Penarth, where we danced a Tibetan folk dance, and ate Tibetan recipe food ─ Ying’khor teachings with Lama Bar-ché
March: St David’s Day Service ─ started receiving acupuncture and Chinese medicine ─ taught about Living, Dreaming and Dying in Bristol
April: taught The Five Principles of Awareness in Cardiff, looking at the precepts ─ started work on turning our garage into a meditation room ─ went to see a Gothic ballet, Sleeping Beauty, which was fantastic
May: had a wonderful weekend in Cornwall with a few Dharma friends ─ my birthday (61!!!) ─ decided £600 was too much to pay to rescue a tooth, and had it removed ─ taught sKu-mNyé in Hamburg, Germany ─ gave notice for the Aro Ling Cardiff venue in Whitchurch village
June: a wonderful garden party to celebrate my Teacher’s birthday ─ attended the opening of the Vth Welsh Assembly ─ opened our new meditation room as the new Aro Ling Cardiff ─ had a tooth abscess, the most painful experience imaginable, and lost another tooth
July: summer retreat with our students in a field in Shropshire ─ new tent, a Lotus Belle, which is the best tent ever and will see us out ─ created a Georgian outfit for myself and for ’ö-Dzin
August: our son, Daniel, finally completed on selling his flat, and moved in with us for a while ─ a week’s retreat with our Teachers and sangha ─ danced Georgian dances in our Georgian costumes at the Natural Dignity banquet ─ lost my hearing aid
September: two glorious weeks in Pembrokeshire, staying in an apartment located on North Beach, Tenby ─ acquired a new hearing aid
So I could have─and possibly should have─blogged about all of this. Sadly I did not . . . so I am just going to move on into October in my next post. Another thing that I have started again this month is art journalling, which had also been neglected since March. Illustrated above are my art journal pages for April, May and June. This is as far as I have caught up so far.
I attend quite a few events because of my involvement with the Buddhist Council of Wales. A recent event was an Eid Festival celebrating the end of Ramadan. It was an interfaith event, hosted by the Church of Latter-day Saints in Rhiwbina. As well as Christians and Muslims, there were representatives of Judaism, Baha'i, and myself and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin representing Buddhists.
It was a joyful event and rather special – such warmth, friendship and good humour. It is good to share time and food with people following different religions.
We also enjoyed a brief appearance on ITV news: "A new initiative in Cardiff has seen members of many different faith communities join together to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid" -- Rob Osborne, ITV
Aro Ling Buddhist Centre in Cardiff was proud to welcome a group of twelve non-conformist Christians on March 12th. The meeting came about because I sat next to their minister at the Muslim Council of Wales dinner. We chatted and he expressed a wish to visit the centre and hear about Buddhism.
It was a delightful evening. They asked myself and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin splendid questions, and we had a lively and interesting dialogue. Eglwys Minny Street and Aro Ling Buddhist Centre intend to continue their connection, and hopefully we will be able to visit their chapel soon.
Mae cynulleidfa o Eglwys Minny Street siarad Cymraeg. Do ni ddim yn gallu siarad â nhw am Fwdïaeth yn Gymraeg anffodus, ond ohonom ni’n gallu eu croesawu yn Gymraeg.
The congregation of Minny Street Church speak Welsh. We were not able to talk to them about Buddhism in Welsh unfortunately, but we were able to welcome them in Welsh.
According to Wikipedia, non-conformist Christians are Protestants who would not conform to the Act of Unity in 1662. Non-conformity is a strong movement in Wales and may include Presbyterians, Congregationalist, Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians, Quakers, Plymouth Brethren, English Morovians and The Salvation Army.
The theme of the Muslim Council of Wales’ dinner (see previous post) was ‘The need of Faith in the 21st Century’. The word ‘faith’ appears to have been adopted in many circles as a neutral term to refer to religions. So we have the ‘Faith Communities Form’ with the Welsh Assembly Government, The Inter-faith Council of Wales, and representatives are referred to as ‘faith leaders’. I am apparently regarded as a faith leader, as the chair of the Buddhist Council of Wales, and hence I am invited to all sorts of events, such as the Muslim Council of Wales’ dinner.
For a Buddhist, the use of the word ‘faith’ to refer to our religion is not ideal. Buddhism is a religion of method rather than a religion of belief. It exists in contrast to the other major religions in this way. Faith is not demanded of a Buddhist. I do not have to believe in a creator god. I do not have to believe that practice will lead to enlightenment. I simply have to do the practices and see what happens. Silent sitting requires no faith. Discovering the nature of mind requires application, but faith is not needed.
Buddhist practitioners discover inspiration and aspiration through contact with teachers, teachings and the community of practitioners. In Buddhism the sense of confidence and belonging that arises from such contact is called ‘refuge’. It is the ‘refuge of no refuge’. This refuge is not a cosy place of safety, but rather a commitment to discovering complete and total wakefulness.
My capacity to remain a disciplined, committed and diligent practitioner is based in the confidence that has developed through the relationship with my teachers, the teachings, my fellow practitioners, and my practice. It may sometimes be necessary to make a leap into areas of practice that defy the logic of conceptual mind, but the ability to leap is based in the confidence that has developed. It could be argued that this is a type of faith, but it is well-rooted in experience and not a faith in a ‘something’ or ‘someone’ that is external, beyond my capacity to become, and all-knowing.
I do not have a useful alternative word, and I am quite happy to live with the word ‘faith’. It is good enough, if not perfect. The people of other ‘faiths’ that I meet through my work for the Buddhist Council of Wales are inspiring and wholesome people. I greatly value my contact with them all.
On Wednesday 4th I attended the Muslim Council of Wales’ lecture and dinner to celebrate ‘The United Nation Interfaith Week 2015’. The main speakers were a Muslim, Shaykh Dr. Asim Yusuf, and a Jew, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. The theme of the event was ‘the need of faith in the 21st century’.
It was quite a grand affair. The room used at City Hall, Cathays Park, is beautiful anyway, but it was even more spectacular with all the chairs covered in white brocade fabric with large, glossy bows.
The speakers were excellent. It was interesting to observe the zeal of the young Muslim for his faith, in contrast to the sense of the older Rabbi being more comfortably settled into his belief. Apart from certain aspects of their speeches, where the atheism of Buddhism will inevitably lead to a different perspective, I found myself in complete harmony with their words.
The advertised schedule for the evening was wildly optimistic and everything ran about an hour and a half late. After a late but fine meal, at 11 pm I gave up on dessert ever arriving and went home. My invitation did not unfortunately arrive till the following Wednesday, having been sent to the wrong Buddhist Centre. I love the pattern on the front and may cut this out and keep it to use as a bookmark.
Last Saturday we attended evensong at Llandaf Cathedral at the invitation of Aled Edwards (right above) who was being installed as a Canon. It was both a strange and a delightful experience. Strange because a Christian service has a quite alien approach to spirituality in some ways for a Buddhist. Delightful because of the warmth that was expressed between the archbishop, the congregation and others taking part in the service for the Canons being installed (7 of them).
We have come to know Aled through our involvement with the Interfaith Council of Wales and value his friendship greatly.
This service was the first time that I had used the induction loop setting on my hearing aid. This was fantastic. It was like the speakers were right next to me and I could hear everything as clear as a bell.
It was most enjoyable being part of the thirteenth St David’s Day Parade in Cardiff. The weather was bright and many people had turned out to see the participants.
’ö-Dzin and I joined the Interfaith Council of Wales group. It was good to have the opportunity to display the white skirts of the gö kar chang lo.
Tomorrow ’ö-Dzin and I will be joining friends of the Interfaith community in the St David’s Day parade. Hopefully the weather will be fine. The daffodils are blossoming - it is always nice when they put on a show for this celebration. As happens every year, I am wishing I had tried more conscientiously to learn Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau!
Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi, Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri; Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mad, Dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed.
(Cytgan – Chorus) Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad. Tra môr yn fur i'r bur hoff bau, O bydded i'r hen iaith barhau.
C3SC—Cardiff Third Sector Council—organised an Interfaith Tour on the 19th March. I did not know this, but ‘The Third Sector’ is the name given to the voluntary and community organisations. Their vision is for: a strong, diverse and vibrant voluntary and community sector in Cardiff.
The Interfaith Tour covered six venues: Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral of St David; Grangetown Muslim Cultural Centre; the Parish Church of St. Dyfrig and St. Samson; The Salvation Army; The Cardiff Reform Synagogue; Shree Swaminarayan Temple. I only managed to get to one of them – the Muslim Cultural Centre.
Together with about another dozen people, I was shown the main prayer room. An Imam gave an informative talk on the Muslim faith and answered all our questions fully and in a friendly manner. I am happy that I went and wished I could have made it to some of the others. The first picture shows a bookcase with many books of the qur’an, and clocks showing the time in different countries. The carpet was particularly impressive!
Not for the first time, I wished my Buddhist Lineage had a centre in Cardiff. It would have been nice to have been included in this event. I do not feel that our shrine room, even though it is an example of an authentic gompa, would suffice as a place to be included in such an event because it is a room in a private house.
I attended a Cross Party debate on the subject of Faith in Education on Wednesday, 27th. The guest speaker was Bishop Gregory of St Asaph. Bishop Gregory is a man of large personality. I first met him when we were both part of a Faith panel at a VIth form conference in Croesyceiliog. He is an excellent speaker – talking clearly and without notes.
Bishop Gregory structured his talk on the importance of acts of collective worship in school into three points:
the importance of enabling young people to be given an experience of religion
the acknowledgement of the UK as a society of multi-faiths or no faith
education which includes worship is valuable in itself
Detailing the first point, Bishop Gregory spoke of the need to give young people the skill of being ‘in conversation with God’. He also talked of the need to present young people with ‘the universe as it is’. I was a little concerned that such statements failed to embrace the possibility of multi-faith spiritual practice in schools. I imagine the Buddhist view of ‘the universe as it is’ would be quite different to that of an Anglican bishop.
Although the Bishop spoke of multi-faith and no faith in his introduction, when he returned to his second point he focused on the Christian heritage of the UK. Whether the UK is a Christian country depends on how far back in time you decide to look. In recent history Christianity has dominated but this has not always been the case and may not be true in the future.
Adding depth to his third point, Bishop Gregory expressed the value of religious worship in celebrating common life and values.
My experience of multi-faith assemblies when my sons were in school, was that they offered a look at the religion from the outside and provided information but were not in fact acts of worship in the same sense that a Christian assembly would be. I commented during the debate that I had never been invited into a school to lead an assembly. I have been invited to talk to particular classes about Buddhism when they are studying that subject, but not to lead an assemblage of school children in an act of worship – to engage in Buddhist practice. Sometimes it seems that it is not questioned that non-Christian children are included in Christian ceremonies, but there is a reluctance to include children in active engagement with other faiths.
The area where I was able to wholeheartedly agree with Bishop Gregory was when he suggested that our memories of school assemblies were that they were dull and uninspiring. He suggested that there needed to be training in how to present an act of worship in school, and that there needed to be debate on the nature of worship currently being offered.
I would be pleased to hear readers’ comments on collective acts of worship in schools.
Last Thursday (26th) I attended a Service of Thanksgiving at Llandaff Cathedral to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. I was invited as a faith group representative, and was joined by Padmasimha of Triratna. It was an extremely 'official' event but well organised and friendly. We had to arrive at the SWALEC Stadium and present ID and were then ferried to the cathedral by coach – we were not allowed to go directly to the cathedral. On arrival at the cathedral I discovered that an orange ticket meant I was part of the clergy and faith representatives procession. This was rather nice – I was ushered into the back corridors of the cathedral where the public do not usually go, and there met many of my Interfaith friends. The atmosphere was delightfully light-hearted.
After waiting around for a while and having group photos taken by several people, Padmasimha and I joined the procession. First there was Her Majesty's Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms; then the Queen's Body Guard of the Yeoman of the Guard; then the Cathedral Choir; then the faith representatives; then the Cathedral Clergy, the Chapter and Diocesan Officials; and finally the Bishops of the Church in Wales. For once I did not feel too colourful in my red, white an blue as the yeoman were all in red and the clergy were in their finery. The Archbishop of Wales looked splendid in his white cloak decorated in gold.
We sat beyond the choir stalls near the altar, which meant we had a wonderful experience of the full richness of the cathedral organ, but had a poor view of the Queen and Prince Phillip who were seated the other side of the choir stalls nearer to the congregation. The service was joyful and the singing most beautiful. After the royal party had left we then processed back to the meeting room.
Thankfully the rain held off and it was a most pleasant and enjoyable day.
I was delighted to be asked to take part in the St David’s Day parade on March 1st as a representative of the Buddhist community. I was joined by several other local Buddhists of several traditions. We were placed near the start of the parade, right behind the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress. In this section of the parade were all the religious representatives, so we were with several members of the Salvation Army and with my Interfaith friend, Rev. Aled Edwards OBE of Cytun.
’ö-Dzin spent his lunch break stalking us as the parade progressed and took some great photographs.
The weather was glorious and the atmosphere in the parade happy and friendly – a most enjoyable experience. If we are invited again next year we will make a Buddhist Council of Wales banner.
I attended the Wales Holocaust Memorial Day Service as Buddhist representative, which was held at City Hall in Cardiff. The theme for the 2012 service was: Speak Up, Speak Out. It was a thoughtful and beautifully presented service led by The Reverend Stewart Lisk, Hon Chaplain of Cardiff Council, remembering not only the Holocaust of Nazi persecution but other genocides since that time, such as Cambodia 1975-79, Rwanda 1994 and Bosnia 1995.
Literature accompanying the Order of Service identified eight stages of a gradual process that could enable a basic lack of respect and tolerance to escalate to a Holocaust:
Classification – ‘us’ and ‘them’
Symbolisation – indicating those who are ‘different’
Dehumanisation
Organisation
Polarisation
Preparation
Extermination
Denial
The Service—conducted in English and Welsh—included several musical interludes by Cardiff County & Vale of Glamorgan Youth Choir, and Cardiff County & Vale of Glamorgan String Quartet. Wreaths were laid by The Rt Hon. Carwyn Jones, AM, First Minister of Wales; by Councillor Rodney Berman, Leader of Cardiff Council; Saleem Kidwai, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales; and Norma Golten, South Wales Jewish Representative Council .
The Pledge was originally written by Gwyneth Lewis, National Poet of Wales 2005/6,
for the 2006 Holocaust Memorial Day service which had the theme: One Person Can Make a Difference:
The fight for justice starts and ends with me
Truth is the sound of what I may say.
I can only be well when others are free
And right has a price I’m prepared to pay.
I refuse to be afraid
Of force or hatred
I will pull their lie like weeds,
Plant gardens of more generous seeds.
If I turn my back and walk away
Who’ll ask for others what I want for me?
I can only be well when others are free
And right has a price I’m prepared to pay.
On the 12th of October I attended two meetings in Cardiff Bay: one at Ty Hywel with the Welsh Assembly Government Faith Communities Forum and then following that in the conference room at the Lightship with the Interfaith Council of Wales.
I am starting to get used to these meetings. It felt a bit overwhelming when I first accepted the post of Chair of the Buddhist Council of Wales as I have never had a job that involved a lot of meetings, but everyone is friendly and the meetings are professional and efficient. I am starting to think of many of the Interfaith Council members as friends.
The Ty Hywel meeting was the first I had attended chaired by the First Minister, Carwyn Jones. The most interesting item on the agenda for me was the proposals for organ donation becoming an opt-out rather than an opt-in scheme in Wales. Chris Jones, Medical Director for NHS Wales, gave a presentation. I was pleased to hear that the proposal is for a 'soft' opt-out which means that the next of kin will still be consulted.
There was also a presentation on hate crime research. They are looking into 'hate crimes' and 'hate incidents' with regard to prejudice on the grounds of disability, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and religion. If any readers living in Wales have suffered in this way, do complete the survey. It is totally confidential.
