The Buddhist House, seeking members

Reposting this announcement from our sister group on facebook.–WT:


Dharmavidya David Brazier (Leicester) wroteon March 17, 2009 at 12:15pmThe
Buddhist House (TBH) is an intentional community founded on Pureland
Buddhist principles. There are currntly about fifteen members. One
cannot be precise because we are a rather mobile crowd. TBH is situated
in Leicestershire, UK, in the village of Narborough. The community also
has a small house in London and another in mid-France and members do,
to some extent, move around betwen them.

The age range at TBH is
from 15 months to seventies with somebody in every decade except that
we have no teens at the moment. We are a very varied group of people in
terms of background, education, physical health, or pretty well any
other criterion. We have four cats.

Some of the community
members are deeply involved in Buddhist training and others less so. In
order to keep the ethos of the house we try to keep a balance.
Everybody here, however, has come because they like to live in a place
with this ethos. We have two communal vegetarian meals per day and have
Buddhist practice sessions each morning. We do not take people who
smoke and we have no alcohol on the site.

We offer retreats and
educational programmes, especially in Buddhist psychology. Students
come here to learn to be counsellors and psychotherapists. We hold
Buddhist retreats from time to time. The regime of the house is a lot
less strict than a monastery, but it does have a strong spiritual
flavour.

A nmuber of us are into the arts - poetry, writing,
pandramatics. Some have a number of published books. Some members are
keen on gardening.

New members generally come initially as
paying guests to see what the lifestyle is like and whether it suits
them. They may then become residents who contribute to the costs of the
house or trainees who do not contribute financially but are more
extensively involved in the Buddhist activities of the house.

TBH is part of the Amida Trust which has an international network of affiliates and supporters. This can be accessed at
<a href=”http://amidatrust.ning.com” rel=”nofollow” onmousedown=”UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this), “13d6f243c5c6dbab0632a9a49a4bdc52”, event)” target=”_blank”>http://amidatrust.ning.com

We can be reached by e-mail at
susthama@amidatrust.com

Warm wishes - David