Leeds Buddhist Centre

Friday August 13th at 7.00pm

You are all invited to an evening of Pure Land Buddhist practice led by me and Steve Hart.

I have had the good fortune to have attended quite a few Pure Land retreats over the last 9 years in the UK and France, and can say it is a wonderful and often transformative practice, and I feel sure many of you will experience the same benefits.

For those who want to define it, the Nembutsu (calling the name of Amida Buddha) has been described as a practice of self-surrender to the Grace and Unconditional Love of all the Buddhas, and is the ideal practice for those of us who try and control life a bit too much, or perhaps find it difficult to love and trust.

Amida literally means without measure, so the practice is really about connecting with the unbounded source of love and wisdom. When this connection is realised, settled faith (shraddha) deepens, and gives us the power and confidence to help create the Pure Land, as well as being a window through which the deeper truths of the Buddhas teachings become more apparent.

Although I am not an expert on Pure Land philosophy, I will give a little talk about my experience of involvement with this long-standing strand of Buddhism, and try and answer any questions. However, I feel Reality doesn't tend to fit into our ideas and rationality, and think its best to approach the practice with an open sincere heart, and allow Amida to work through us.

Kim Birch

A proposal for an event at the Buddhist Centre to be included in this year's Light Night in Leeds has been accepted. Light Night is an annual multi-artform festival, which takes place on one evening at numerous venues across Leeds city centre (see http://www.lightnightleeds.co.uk/ for more information and previous years events). This year Light Night takes place on Friday October 8th.

Further details of the Light Night event to follow

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