We are delighted to be supporting these upcoming 5 week courses in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh starting in March. These courses will take place in Central London and are facilitated by an experienced teacher and former Buddhist monk, Michael Schwammberger.
Please find details below or go to this website.
A little email to say hello from plum village!
After a rather eventful few days (details of which may have to wait until our return, but involved torrential rain and a b&b; broken pedals, punctured tyres and bent wheels; my first hitch hiking experience; 1 out of use train station; and a 3 hour midnight cycle ride around Bordeaux..!) we arrived last night at 3am. We slept a couple of hours in the small meditation hall, then awoke at 5 this morning for morning meditation. So today, we are two pretty sleepy, but very happy villagers 🙂
It feels wonderful to be here. So beautiful, calm and peaceful, especially so at the moment. There were only 11 new arrivals this week, we are told during the summer there are around 350 each week. It feels very intimate.
Pure joy was the breakfast spread this morning. (With Ethan! 🙂 )
In 10 minutes we have walking meditation…
Speaking this morning to a new friend from Belgium. We were telling him about the London sangha – how wonderful it is. We are feeling so very appreciative of you all.
With love, bells, bicycles and peaceful steps,
Meg and Joe
Xxxx
Meg and Joe, two Wake Up London members, left the UK with their bikes a few days ago and started their long journey to Plum Village, the practice centre of our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh in the south west of France.
We will be following them and posting updates on here to let you know how they are doing.
Update and pictures from Meg:
Hello from our tent. We are pitched amongst some bushes beside a canal path. I am cosy in my sleeping bag, listening to the rain as it pours down outside. Joe is asleep beside me, from his slumber he sends his love 🙂
Our days are calm, very peaceful and very beautiful. The scenery is all shades of green and blue. The weather is changeable, but when the sun comes out, even for 5 minutes, it brings a warm and bright joy that always makes us smile to one another. We meditate each morning, and most evenings. We take our meals in silence, enjoying all the flavours. One of the joys of travelling in autumn is the Harvest. We forage most days for corn, apples, chestnuts, cabbage leaves, and nettles, which we mix in with tinned lentils and beans, rice cakes and oats – I have never enjoyed food so much (although, we finished our 1kg tub if peanut butter on Friday and have not yet been able to find a shop that sells it here in France… I am hopeful that today is the day we find some!)
We cycle a few hours each day, and every few days we summon the courage to swim and wash in the canal (which feels colder (‘invigorating’) every time!) We expect to reach Nantes on Thursday morning, from there we will take a train to Bordeaux, and camp outside Plum Village so that we can arrive first thing on Friday morning. (I had to chuckle the other morning – to think we would ever be able to cycle to Bordeaux in 11 days!)
Each day feels like a retreat already – arriving at plum village will be wonderful.
With love to all,
Meg (and a sleeping joe 🙂 )
Xxx
Join us for a four-day festival of meditation, arts and social vision exploring the notion of creating an ‘awake’ or ‘enlightened’ society, and developing the practice of being fully alive in the present moment.
How do we nurture the inner resources needed for the challenges of living and working today? Can creating space for a practice of meditation or creativity transform what we do in the world?
Highlights will include:
• Workshops & discussions with professionals from fields as diverse as social action, climate change, mindfulness, education, psychotherapy and the arts
• Sessions on Non-violent Communication , Working with Emotions and Running with the mind of meditation , plus a workshop with Wake Up London on the Path of Generation Y
• Teachings from Sakyong Mipham and a day on Chogyam Trungpa – celebrating their vision of enlightened society
Also “Awake in the Park” – a meditation flash mob in Russell Square Gardens on 14 September:
Wake Up London and our friends at Awake in the World invite everyone to come and meditate together at Awake in the Park, and be part of creating an awake society in the heart of London.
Meditating together in public is a way to celebrate our very real capacity to generate wakefulness, already, in the here and now – and to use this as a force for positive change in the world around us.
A short guided meditation instruction will be given at the beginning of the meditation, and then we will sit together until the meditation ends with the sound of a bell. Please bring a cushion to sit on if needed. We will be in front of the Lime Tree Cloister on the North side of the Gardens – nearest tubes are Russell Square or Euston.
All welcome – whether experienced or new to meditation, and of any faith or none. The more we connect together, the stronger the benefit for ourselves and our society – and an awake world.
Awake in the Park takes place during Awake in the World – a festival of meditation, arts & social vision at nearby SOAS – including a workshop & teachings offered by Wake Up London.
More information: http://awakeintheworld2013.org/
This Sunday, we are joining our meditation flash mob with Arvind Devalia’s legendary picnic that takes place every year. Elina from Wake Up London interviewed Arvind Devalia recently:
Arvind Devalia
Elina: Arvind welcome to Wake Up London! Though we have seen you at various Meditation Flash Mob events in London over the last year with your camera, most people may have no idea who you are and what you do.
Arvind: Elina, thanks for the warm welcome today. And for welcoming me to your events over the last year.
I must say I really enjoy your events and I always feel truly uplifted every time I share the space with you and your friends.
In simplest terms, I am here to put the “sizzle” back into the world and into people’s lives. I do this through my coaching, books, blog posts, speaking gigs and of course my events.
I have been coaching now for a decade and have published 10 books, one of which is a major Amazon bestseller in its category – “Get the Life you Love”.
And of course this year it’s the 12th year of my annual “Friends & Friend’s Friends Picnic” which is happening this Sunday (21st July) in Regents Park.
Elina: Arvind, one of the things you talk about in your work is your 3Cs – “Commitment, Connection and Contribution”. Please explain more what you mean by this?
Arvind: I believe that we should all lead a life of Contribution, Connection and Celebration. Let me go through each one in turn.
Contribution is all about making a difference to other and looking for ways to serve.
Connection is about connecting with people at a deeper level and seeing how you can bring people together and create a community.
Celebration is about living life to the full and looking for ways to bring joy into your life and that of others each day.
Which brings me nicely to my annual picnic in Regents Park which is on this Sunday (21st July).
Every year I organise a picnic in Regents Park called “Friends and Friend’s Friends Picnic” whereby I bring together 100’s of people and this is the highlight of my year every year. I have been so lucky and blessed with the people I have in my life that it’s my privilege to bring people together not just individually but on a bigger scale.
Elina: Yes, your legendary picnic! Almost everyone in London seems to have heard about it! Tell us more how this came about?
Arvind: 11 years ago, I had this vision of bringing together the various people in my life for a day of celebration of life.
I invited all my friends and immediate family for a fun day in Regents Park and the first year we had about 40 people turn up despite it being a typical British summer day i.e. it was raining!
My intention was to create a community from all the people in the different spheres of my life – friends, family, neighbours, coaching clients, business associates and really anyone I had interacted with in the previous few years.
Since then, the picnic has really grown and some years we have had almost 300 people!
Elina: Great! I can see how the picnic fits in nicely with your philosophy of the 3Cs – contribution, connection and celebration!
Arvind: Indeed. I am contributing to a lot of people by creating a fun and special day with the intention of everyone having a super, fun day in the park.
At the same time, I am also connecting a lot of people in a unique setting and with a common goal of celebrating life. I have been amazed and blown away with some of the connections that have come about through my picnic. One day soon, I am sure we’re going to have a wedding between a couple who first met at the picnic!
And of course, the day is a day of celebration!
If you can’t celebrate life and have a lot of fun with such amazing people in a beautiful setting, what’s the point of living!?
So yes, my annual picnic is a super day of contribution, connection and celebration!
Elina: Why did you choose Regents Park?
Arvind: For the simple reason that I believe it’s the best park in London! It’s so well kept and offers so many things to do and see on a Sunday.
Besides, it’s convenient and easily reached since it’s in central London.
Actually – the real reason I chose Regents Park – it’s near to my home in St Johns Wood;-).
Elina: I am really looking forward to finally attending this Sunday for the first time, after hearing so much about it all these years. What should people bring?
Arvind: Firstly brings lots of energy! Bring your own food & drinks for yourself – plus a bit extra to share. And bring any musical instruments and games you would like to play.
As it’s going to be another very hot weekend, do also bring sun protective cream and lots of water.
Elina: Super. And what’s the agenda or format of the day?
Arvind: There’s no agenda – except you must be willing to be chilled out and enjoy yourself!
The format is free-flowing and I just let things flow and happen as they are meant to. However I do frequently go around the group and ensure everyone is okay and enjoying themselves.
I always bring my African drums so we’ll be doing a lot of drumming and dancing – so everyone please do bring any portable musical instruments!
I’ll also be bringing my hula hoops, Frisbees and other games.
And Elina, thanks for suggesting a session of laughter yoga – that’ll bring even more joy and laughter to the picnic this year!
We usually end up having a mad game of mixed football – and of course we also eat a lot
Elina: I know you have also created a separate Facebook event page for the picnic. How can people find out more about the day and the exact location in Regents Park?
The best way to find out more about the picnic is the special page on my website:-
Then the Facebook event page is here:-
https://www.facebook.com/events/270974653044210/
Do visit the Facebook page and confirm your attendance.
And of course, please bring all your friends, family, neighbours, work colleagues etc.
This year, the event has even been featured in TimeOut London magazine and you can read the online version here:-
http://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/friends-and-friends-friends-picnic-1
TimeOut magazine has described the picnic beautifully:-
Indian author Arvind Devalia is on a mission to ‘create a movement of people who want to make the world a better place whilst also improving their own lives’. One of the ways he reaches out is through his annual FAFF picnic – which is in its twelfth year now – inviting people to bring their families and friends down for a day of pleasant picnicking (bring your own food), games, African drumming, dancing and guided meditation. The picnic will take place whatever the weather. NB: Enter the park via Hanover Gate.
Elina: And where is the picnic held in Regents Park?
Arvind: The picnic is held in the same spot every year. Please refer to the map on this page:-
All those years ago, I chose the exact picnic spot very carefully – it’s easy to find, it’s near the toilets, a café and a kiddies playground. There is also a paddling pool and a boating lake nearby. So there’s a lot to do!
Elina: What’s the best way of finding the exact picnic spot?
Arvind: This weekend is the cricket test match at Lords and it’ll be really buzzing on Sunday all around St Johns Wood and Regents Park, unless the match finishes early in less than 4 days!
There’ll be thousands of people in the area, looking for our picnic and meditation spot:-)
The cricket authorities have therefore very kindly provided us with a SpecSavers hot air balloon to mark the EXACT spot of our picnic!
It’s now very easy for all of you to find exactly where the picnic is. We’ll be based at the far end from where the cordoned off area is for the balloon.
So wherever you are in Regents Park, just look for the SpecSavers balloon and walk to its base!
Elina: What about people who are not able to attend this weekend? Any suggestions for them?
Arvind: If you are not able to come to London for this picnic, then no matter where you are in the UK or in the world, how about organising your own?
Check out my simple guide on how to hold your own picnic anywhere in the world:-
http://www.arvinddevalia.com/friends-picnic-guide/
Elina: Thanks Arvind for organising this – and for inviting the Wake-Up community to your picnic on Sunday!
Arvind: It’s truly an honour and a privilege to have you all join us and co-creating this gathering. Thanks for accepting – and I am so looking forward to joining you all for the meditation and creating a wonderful sacred space for the picnic!
This evening with Wake Up London offers us time and space to come together to disengage from all the busyness and begin to reclaim our freedom.
Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive and present with those around you and with what you are doing. With the tools of mindfulness practice, we will learn how to stop and listen more deeply to ourselves and others, to explore what binds us and what can make us more free.
When: 20 June 2013
Where: The Scoop At More London, 2A More London Riverside, London, SE1 2DB.
Cost: Free
Nearest tube: London Bridge or Tower Bridge
Directions: The Scoop is an outdoor amphitheatre situated between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, for directions, click here http://www.morelondon.com/venue_info.asp
For: Everyone
Bring: Feel free to bring a cushion/stool and mat if you have one.
Schedule:
18:30 Introduction to silent meditation
18:35 Silent meditation
18:40 Introduction to mindfulness
18:45 Guided meditation
19:15 Mindful movements
19:25 Silent meditation
19:40 Sound bath – invitation to chant whatever sounds or mantra resonates and bathe the amphitheatre with our collective voices
19:50 Event finishes
This event is in collaboration with London College of Spirituality and is part of the More London Free Festival running between June to September 2013. For more information, click here: http://www.morelondon.com/events.asp
If you’re interested in exploring mindfulness practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, you can check out these communities in London:
Wake Up London – for people aged 16 to 35
Heart of London Sangha – for people of all ages
The Community of Interbeing UK– entire listing of communities in the UK
Music and Poetry Evening
Saturday 18th May 6:30pm to 9pm
Friends Meeting House, near Charing Cross
Directions
Please note, there is no Afternoon of Mindfulness this Saturday 18th May because our room is being used for an event.
However, in the evening from 6:30pm to 9pm, you are warmly invited to our Music and Poetry Evening in our usual venue. Confirmed performances include Charlie Shuttler, Kareem Ghandour, Joe Holtaway, Megan Gray, Anna Wawryzyniak and Tom Manwell.
We ask for a donation of £5 that will go towards the rent of the room and you will receive a free copy of Peace Sounds.
You’re welcome to bring some food and drink to share.
Enjoy these videos from last year’s event!
We hope to see you there. Please email us at info@wkuplondon.org if you have any questions.
Peace,
Wake Up London
March 8th is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women’s past, present and future. It is a day that offers the opportunity for all to acknowledge all of women’s accomplishments and to re-dedicate ourselves to the empowerment of all women and girls around the world.
Join us for a 1/2 hour silent sitting/meditation and hold in our hearts all the great women who have graced our lives and the world at large. May we send our compassion and love to all women who live in the despair of poverty, inequality, violence, trafficking, slavery, and abuse. May we envision a world where no woman is marginalised or abused, and where we can all live together as brothers and sisters, in peace and freedom.
When: Friday 8 March 6:30pm to 7:10pm
Where: In between Gabriel’s Wharf and National Theatre, Southbank, SE1 9PP in the space directly above Thames Beach (see picture: http://bit.ly/130LXgJ)
Nearest stations: Southwark & Waterloo
Bring (optional): Something comfortable to sit on. A candle. Something meaningful to you that honours an important woman/women in your life – eg, a photo. A small gift such as a flower or a handwritten poem/quote to give away to a friend or stranger at the end of the event.
After the sitting, we will have a 10 minute soundbath where we chant any sounds we like, such as Om, Ah, Nah.
This event is open to everyone, women and men, children, people from any religion, faith and culture.
Find out more about International Women’s Day and ways to support women all year round.
Join us on MeetUp for updates on future meditation flash mobs.
RSVP on Facebook
We are deeply moved by this heartfelt, empathetic and compassionate letter from Brother Phap Luu, a monastic at Plum Village, who grew up in Newtown, Connecticut. He wrote a letter to shooter Adam Lanza.
Saturday, 15th of December, 2012
Dharma Cloud Temple
Plum Village
Dear Adam,
Let me start by saying that I wish for you to find peace. It would be easy just to call you a monster and condemn you for evermore, but I don’t think that would help either of us. Given what you have done, I realize that peace may not be easy to find. In a fit of rage, delusion and fear—yes, above all else, I think, fear—you thought that killing was a way out. It was clearly a powerful emotion that drove you from your mother’s dead body to massacre children and staff of Sandy Hook School and to turn the gun in the end on yourself. You decided that the game was over.
But the game is not over, though you are dead. You didn’t find a way out of your anger and loneliness. You live on in other forms, in the torn families and their despair, in the violation of their trust, in the gaping wound in a community, and in the countless articles and news reports spilling across the country and the world—yes, you live on even in me. I was also a young boy who grew up in Newtown. Now I am a Zen Buddhist monk. I see you quite clearly in me now, continued in the legacy of your actions, and I see that in death you have not become free.
You know, I used to play soccer on the school field outside the room where you died, when I was the age of the children you killed. Our team was the Eagles, and we won our division that year. My mom still keeps the trophy stashed in a box. To be honest, I was and am not much of a soccer player. I’ve known winning, but I’ve also known losing, and being picked last for a spot on the team. I think you’ve known this too—the pain of rejection, isolation and loneliness. Loneliness too strong to bear.
You are not alone in feeling this. When loneliness comes up it is so easy to seek refuge in a virtual world of computers and films, but do these really help or only increase our isolation? In our drive to be more connected, have we lost our true connection?
I want to know what you did with your loneliness. Did you ever, like me, cope by walking in the forests that cover our town? I know well the slope that cuts from that school to the stream, shrouded by beech and white pine. It makes up the landscape of my mind. I remember well the thrill of heading out alone on a path winding its way—to Treadwell Park! At that time it felt like a magical path, one of many secrets I discovered throughout those forests, some still hidden. Did you ever lean your face on the rough furrows of an oak’s bark, feeling its solid heartwood and tranquil vibrancy? Did you ever play in the course of a stream, making pools with the stones as if of this stretch you were king? Did you ever experience the healing, connection and peace that comes with such moments, like I often did?
Or did your loneliness know only screens, with dancing figures of light at the bid of your will? How many false lives have you lived, how many shots fired, bombs exploded and lives lost in video games and movies?
By killing yourself at the age of 20, you never gave yourself the chance to grow up and experience a sense of how life’s wonders can bring happiness. I know at your age I hadn’t yet seen how to do this.
I am 37 now, about the age my teacher, the Buddha, realized there was a way out of suffering. I am not enlightened. This morning, when I heard the news, and read the words of my shocked classmates, within minutes a wave of sorrow arose, and I wept. Then I walked a bit further, into the woods skirting our monastery, and in the wet, winter cold of France, beside the laurel, I cried again. I cried for the children, for the teachers, for their families. But I also cried for you, Adam, because I think that I know you, though I know we have never met. I think that I know the landscape of your mind, because it is the landscape of my mind.
I don’t think you hated those children, or that you even hated your mother. I think you hated your loneliness.
I cried because I have failed you. I have failed to show you how to cry. I have failed to sit and listen to you without judging or reacting. Like many of my peers, I left Newtown at seventeen, brimming with confidence and purpose, with the congratulations of friends and the approbation of my elders. I was one of the many young people who left, and in leaving we left others, including you, just born, behind. In that sense I am a part of the culture that failed you. I didn’t know yet what a community was, or that I was a part of one, until I no longer had it, and so desperately needed it.
I have failed to be one of the ones who could have been there to sit and listen to you. I was not there to help you to breathe and become aware of your strong emotions, to help you to see that you are more than just an emotion.
But I am also certain that others in the community cared for you, loved you. Did you know it?
In eighth grade I lived in terror of a classmate and his anger. It was the first time I knew aggression. No computer screen or television gave a way out, but my imagination and books. I dreamt myself a great wizard, blasting fireballs down the school corridor, so he would fear and respect me. Did you dream like this too?
The way out of being a victim is not to become the destroyer. No matter how great your loneliness, how heavy your despair, you, like each one of us, still have the capacity to be awake, to be free, to be happy, without being the cause of anyone’s sorrow. You didn’t know that, or couldn’t see that, and so you chose to destroy. We were not skillful enough to help you see a way out.
With this terrible act you have let us know. Now I am listening, we are all listening, to you crying out from the hell of your misunderstanding. You are not alone, and you are not gone. And you may not be at peace until we can stop all our busyness, our quest for power, money or sex, our lives of fear and worry, and really listen to you, Adam, to be a friend, a brother, to you. With a good friend like that your loneliness might not have overwhelmed you.
But we needed your help too, Adam. You needed to let us know that you were suffering, and that is not easy to do. It means overcoming pride, and that takes courage and humility. Because you were unable to do this, you have left a heavy legacy for generations to come. If we cannot learn how to connect with you and understand the loneliness, rage and despair you felt—which also lie deep and sometimes hidden within each one of us—not by connecting through Facebook or Twitter or email or telephone, but by really sitting with you and opening our hearts to you, your rage will manifest again in yet unforeseen forms.
Now we know you are there. You are not random, or an aberration. Let your action move us to find a path out of the loneliness within each one of us. I have learned to use awareness of my breath to recognize and transform these overwhelming emotions, but I hope that every man, woman or child does not need to go halfway across the world to become a monk to learn how to do this. As a community we need to sit down and learn how to cherish life, not with gun-checks and security, but by being fully present for one another, by being truly there for one another. For me, this is the way to restore harmony to our communion.
Douglas Bachman (Br. Phap Luu)
who grew up at 22 Lake Rd. in Newtown, CT., is a Buddhist monk and student of the Vietnamese Zen Master and monk Thich Nhat Hanh. As part of an international community, he teaches Applied Ethics and the art of mindful living to students and school teachers. He lives in Plum Village Monastery, in Thenac, France.
You are invited to go within.
Our next fortnightly Afternoon of Mindfulness is on Saturday 8th December, at our usual time from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM at our usual venue. We will practice various mindfulness practices in the tradition of our teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay, as he is affectionately known.
FESTIVE EVENING – SATURDAY NIGHT 8TH DECEMBER
After the session, we invite you to a festive mindful meal. It will be a wonderful opportunity to spend some informal time with one another before many of us depart for our holidays. You are welcome to bring a vegetarian dish to share with us. Feel free to bring musical instruments and games too.
WRITE FOR RIGHTS
We will also be taking part in Amnesty International’s greeting card campaign, where we will be writing a message of support to prisoners of conscience. You can bring along some prepared cards, or we can make cards on the night.
MEDITATION FLASH MOB IN BRITISH MUSEUM – 14TH DECEMBER
Join us for the final meditation flash mob of the year in the magnificent Great Court of the British Museum, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. In the spirit of the festive season, we invite you to bring a handmade gift to give to a stranger or friend afterwards.
Click here for the Facebook invitation
Wake Up London is a community of individuals practicing together to promote peace and reconciliation within ourselves and for our planet. We’d love to highlight what’s happening within our community, and how the practice is positively impacting our society.
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