In May we welcomed 80 retreatants for our second ever People of Colour retreat and had the largest Philosophy Symposium yet, on Liberty, Nietzsche and Buddhism. We also had our yearly Blake retreat drawing on our retreatants’ wilder sides, and were delighted to host the York/Scarborough and Manchester sanghas. Towards the end of the month, we also had the honour of hosting the funeral for Srisambhava, with 90 guests paying their respects in the Main Shrine room.
The Operations team has been well supported this month by Karolina, a volunteer who was with us for two weeks working all around the site. Vidyaruchi has also been staying, and we celebrated his birthday while he was here. Other birthdays gave the communities the opportunity to rejoice in Prakashamitra, Lalitanaga and Dhammarati. There was further celebration on Buddha Day when the communities, volunteers and guests were joined by local friends, Mitras and Order Members. We were led in meditation by Saddhanandi recollecting the Buddha, and there were personal talks by Harry and Taylor.