Blown on, and by, the great wind of the Primal Vow,
I surrender myself-wholly and effortlessly-to Amida. Zuiken S. Inagaki (1885-1981)
Greetings
Welcome to the Amida Breeze newsletter. This monthly newsletter is for the Order of Amida Buddha and friends, and is intended to provide information about community developments as well as to encourage you to join us for services, study, and fellowship.
On practical notes ~ if this newsletter has mistakenly come to you please feel free to unsubscribe. Also, if it has landed in your promotions instead of primary mailbox, left-click and hold on the email and drag it from the promotions tab over to the Primary tab. Releasing the mouse will drop the email into the primary tab. After it is dropped, Gmail will ask if you wish to make the change permanent. This will save you from missing future editions!
We hope this new format is helpful to you. Please provide feedback and submissions to Prajna .
Namo Amida Bu, Susthama, Vajra and Prajna
Did you know?
In January of 2021, Reverend Susthama Kim was elected new Head of the Order of Amida Buddha. Susthama will be confirmed in this role in the early months of 2022. Meanwhile, she is busy meeting, via zoom, with Order members, and working to streamline the Order's, 'Provisions' document, to better reflect the current Order membership.
Also of note, Susthama has established a new group called Amida-gana for the purpose of generating ideas on how to implement Amida's vision of faith and practice within the Order. Susthama, Prajnatara and Vajrapala are members of Amida-gana.
Stay tuned to Did you know? to learn more about the Order and Amida-shu.
Visit our website for a full list of weekly services and special events.
There you will find dates, times and links for joining via zoom. If you have any questions about what we offer please contact Susthama Kim
Monday 1.30 - 3 pm (UK time) until 19 July 2021 Meditations on Amithabha with Susthama
This session will give you a chance to experience ways of practicing and connecting to Amida Buddha. We start with a guided meditation or visualisation followed by a discussion about the practice. It is open to anyone who would like to learn to relax and discover different meditations from an Other-power perspective and is good for those suffering from stress, anxiety and depression.
Tuesday 2.30 – 4.00 pm (Belguim time) Nembutsu Service (not on 25/05) with Susthama and Vajrapala
For those who have taken refuge or are thinking about taking refuge or want to go deeper into what it means to take refuge.
Tuesday 6:30-8pm (EST) Amida Mosaic Sangha with Prajna and Daya.
Contact Daya for link
Upcoming 2021 Order meetings: alternating between Saturday and Sunday on:
May 9, July 11, August 14, September 12, October 9, and November 14.
All meetings are held at 5p.m (UK time). Zoom link will be sent by email.
Conclave: Saturday June 12, 2021. 1-5pm (UK time)
Zoom link will be sent by email.
Bodhi Retreat: December 8 - 12, 2021. Stay tuned for more details.
Up-coming event
Saturday 15 May 2021 7.30 – 9 PM (Rome)
Talk, sponsored by ITZI - Dancing with Depression with Susthama Kim
Depression is often viewed as a deep dark hole with no end in sight. It can feel like going down into the depths of despair with nothing good to be gained from such a bleak experience. In this workshop we will be looking at depression as a stage in a process of growth that is often triggered by a loss or death of some kind. Growth and maturity, compassion and fellow feeling, and other wholesome states of mind can come from a Buddhist understanding of depression.
Reverend Susthama Kim is the newly elected Head of the Order of Amida Buddha. She has been practicing as a Buddhist therapist for a decade and used to work in the field of mental health as a chaplain for many years. She supervises and tutors on the Buddhist Psychology distance learning programme.
"Last Thursday I was privileged to give a talk on Pureland Buddhism and my recent research to a group of third year students at the University of Wolverhampton here in the UK. They are studying a course on ‘Contemporary Buddhisms’ (note the plural) as part of their degree. They are a wonderful lot! They listened politely and attentively to my short (ish!) presentation, and then really came alive during an extended ‘Q and A’. They were interested in a range of issues: how is Pureland similar to/ different from other forms of Buddhism, what is daily life like for a Pureland Buddhist in the Amida Order, is Buddhism a ‘religion’ or a ‘way of life, how does Pureland belief and practice help us prepare for death, how did I go about researching Pureland Buddhism from the ‘inside’, etc etc - the questions just went on and on! Brilliant and refreshing to be met with so much enthusiasm and curiosity. I am grateful to the lecturer colleague of a friend of mine for inviting me and arranging it: we intend to keep in touch, as the students still have questions they’d like to ask!.”
The Order of Amida Buddha, is an international Devotional Pureland Buddhist Community dedicated to nurturing faith, offering fellowship, and inspiring compassionate care for our world. We are ordained and lay, seeking individually and collectively to bring the Light of Amida into our world.
Friends are Amida-shu or Amida-Kai members and are affiliated through heart and practice with the Order of Amida Buddha.
We welcome you to to learn more about us and to join in our weekly devotional services as well as other events as outlined on our website. www.amidashu.org
