July update

We've been enjoying the summer sunshine and less rain than Wales often seems to offer. It's been lovely, although does appear to have caused the spinach to bolt early! A small price to pay. The garden is looking beautiful, helped by the hard work of those on the working retreat and again the recent Nature of Existence retreat and a work morning. We really appreciate all the effort the women on retreat put in to keeping this place so lovely.

The Nature of Existence retreat seemed to be enjoyed by all. It was the first time we have run this retreat here and it was good to look at the material afresh with the women who came. Over the next few days the community are meeting to decide on next years programme and which retreats we'll run again. It's always a very full few days.

Everyone is here at present, with Kalyanasri and Amritamati glued to as much Wimbledon as possible (both Federer fans!); Ratnadharini collecting palettes with a view to building new compost bins and Maitreyi, Kalyanasri and Vajrasakhi preparing for the Order study retreat. Candraprabha and Amritamati had a day out in Ikea recently...it was meant to be a day out in Cardiff but Ikea is like a vortex and sucks you in! Hopefully you'll notice the nice glasses and new salad bowls when you're on retreat! Sridevi has recently been back to Finland for a visit and Vidyalila is in the current edition of Urthona being interviewed about her painting.

That's it for now. Enjoy the summer sun.

Quick April Update

April already! Here's a bit about what we've been doing in the last few months:
Ratnadharini, Vajrasakhi, Sridevi, Kalyanasri and Sridevi went to the International convention in Bodhgaya in February - a fantastic experience. Maitreyi and Amritamati have both been on solitary retreats. Vidyalila has been in the heat in Australia. We ran a retreat in March on 'The Heart of Ordination' along with Vajratara - thoroughly enjoyed by all the team. The leylandii are now down - watch this space for photographs. We've now got quite an bit more garden! Amritamati's been preparing the veg patch and Candraprabha's been ordering obscure (to Wales!) varieties of seed potato. The Bodhisattva Ideal retreat is currently underway in the April sunshine.
If you're planning to come to Tiratanaloka later this year, then do think about booking now as quite a number of our retreats have only a few places left. If you'd like to come in May, we've got places left on our work and meditation retreats, which you can do individually (as a one week retreat) or together as a 2-week retreat.
That's the April summary! Look our for some pictures soon.

'At Home' at Tiratanaloka

We've just come to the end of two weeks of the community being 'at home', which has been really enjoyable. We decorated the hallways in the community,which took four days of full-on work. Anaglypta is a challenge to paint to say the least, but it is looking so good! If you've ever noticed the germoline pink ceilings in the hallways then you'll appreciate our delight in saying goodbye to some of it! It was a fun way to spend time together and great to see such a change in the environment.
We also had meetings, meditation days and studied with Dhammadinna, our president. And we've watched some good films some evenings! It's not that often we all manage to be here together, so it's been lovely just spending time together and experiencing the easy harmony that can be community living.
Some of us are now planning our first two week retreat of 2009 on the Heart of Ordination. It's a really interesting topic to look at and a great way to gain a clearer understanding of what it means to join the Order. There are still some places available if you'd like to come. There will be 6 of us on the team, including Vajratara, so it's also a good opportunity to meet more of us, and for us to get to know you.
Candraprabha and I (and possibly Vidyalila) are taking on to do a 10km run in Bristol in May and so training is underway. Vajrasakhi and Ratnadharini have just learned how to use a chainsaw (safely) and are having fun with that. And we're all waiting in expectation for the removal of the leylandii by the vegetable plot. They have grown too large and unmanagable and so after a very long time of discussing it they are finally due to come down next week. You'll probably notice it straightaway, but a beech hedge is being planted, although it will be some years before it really looks like a substantial hedge, but it'll be a good lesson in patience.
A happy new year to you all and we hope to see many of you up here throughout the year.

Give someone a retreat!

The festive season approaches and everyone's in present-giving mode. If you know someone who's asked for ordination and you want to give them a gift, why not buy them a Tiratanaloka gift voucher? We can make them out for any amount and they can be used against any of our 2009 retreats! Just ring or email the office and let us know what value of voucher you want and where you'd like it to be sent. We can add a gift message if you'd like it to be sent directly to the recipient.

Working together

We've just finished our annual work retreat and this year 10 women came to work, meditate and study together for a week with members of the Tiratanaloka community. We were decorating in the retreat centre and working in the garden - loads got done! Here are some pictures of the fruits of our efforts. We had fun too (and lots of biscuits - thanks to Vajrasakhi). Next year we'll be running another work retreat followed immediately by a week focussing on meditation - you can come on either or both.





One of our offerings at the end of the retreat was Rachel's poem below:-

The Lakshanas of Room 4

Sweet satisfaction
Of peeling paper
All things are impermanent
We say as if in apology

Peeling paint!
We nervously peer through the door
The imperfections become our friends
What truths can these walls teach us?

Nearly done!
Just doors and skirting to go
Paint lumps you are insubstantial
And yet you refuse to budge

Running for it

I'm just coming up to the last few days before my first half marathon - the Great North Run on October 5th. Unfortunately I've had a cold over the last week so haven't done much last-minute training but I'm hoping to pull a few extra miles out of the bag on the day. I'm also hoping to raise some money for the bursary fund here at Tiratanaloka, which is used to give financial help to women to come here on retreat. If you'd like to sponsor me you can do so online here. If you've already sponsored me then a big thanks - it's the thought of that money that has stopped me backing out a few times!!! I'll let you know how it goes.
It's wet and windy today so I get a chance to wear my new showerproof, windproof running top at last!
Candraprabha

A goodbye

On 17th September we very sadly waved goodbye to Vajradarshini, who has left Tiratanaloka after almost 6 years to live in Spain with Padmadharini.  During her last week we had an outing to the circus (preceded by a darts match in which she pulled off an astounding finishing throw) and an evening of charades which included items being acted out by a small kangaroo.  Life is certainly varied and fascinating!!  The good news is that Vajradarshini will be running retreats at various venues over the next year - you can see what she's up to on her website.  We'll miss her.