Update from Gail
Winter greetings from Portland Maine! Nagaloka is approaching its one year anniversary in our new space at 54 York Street in downtown Portland. Our sunny spacious area with lots of large windows has quickly become a comfortable and warm home to our sangha. We have had lots
going on all year and have been able to hold day retreats and offer lunch with our new kitchen facilities. How nice to break bread with each other!
Our Wednesday Friends’ Night has just finished up with the book “Sailing the Worldly Winds” by Vajragupta. We started off this book in conjunction with the Urban Retreat. Our sangha found it to be a very useful and practical guide on identifying how the worldly winds blow in our every day life. Our weekly discussions were full of personal insights into how windy things can be yet also what we can do to slow our swinging between the opposites of gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disgrace, and pleasure and pain.
Our Friends’ Nights will finish the year out by spending time with the Five Jinas (Buddhas), a puja (devotion ritual) and a talk by Dharmasuri on the system of practice. In January we will start up with a study on ethics. What a great topic to go along with all our New Years Resolutions!
January 1st will bring an open house for Nagaloka. We will have intro to meditation, a mindfulness movement class for children, potluck lunch and information on the Triratna Buddhist Community. Our special guest Ian Tuski will be playing classical guitar. It should be fun for all ages!
Thanks you to Narottama and Amala for coming to Nagaloka to lead day retreats this Fall on the Metta Bhavana. Our sangha so appreciates having visiting Order Members join us for a full day of meditation and study.
Our mitra study of the Bodhisattva Ideal continues into the new year. Thanks you Maitrimani for leading our mitras through this deep and inspiring study. Also thank you to Louise for leading a children’s mindfulness and movement class for 10 weeks this Fall. The children truly
loved it…and LuLu! Louise’s next class starts in January (see our calendar for details).
Please continue to visit our website for upcoming events! Our winter program is in the works with some great events and day retreats.
Thank you.
