As I said in my last post, last week was big for Buddhists throughout the world and a pretty busy few days for me too. As you might have read in the previous post, on Saturday, May 17th, we joined the London Fo Guang Temple for their annual celebration in Leicester Square and then raced back to make sure everything was ready for our big event the following day. Thankfully, Samanain and a few trusty helpers had done a great job and apart from a few last minute adjustments the next morning all we had to do was hope that the weather would buck up, dry up and the sun would come out.

So, last Sunday we held our celebration of the Birth, Enlightenment and Parinibbana of the Buddha. We had a good crowd, plenty of good food, and after the almsround and we’d all eaten we circumambulated one of the Buddha Rupas in the garden. In the picture we’re just setting off after I’ve finished trying to persuade everyone to be meditative, mindful and to please not get lost.

In the afternoon when it was all over we had a meeting of the committee of the Buddha-Dhamma Fellowship, that’s the outfit that formally looks after the place.

Then in the early evening Tahn Manapo and I jumped in the mean green machine that is the monastery car and set off for Oxford with Larry, who’d come to stay and drive for me for a few days, behind the wheel. We were going to a fund raising event for Save the Children in Burma that Aung San Suu Kyi’s son and a handful of Burmese and friends had organised at a school on the outskirts of Oxford. They’d asked me to say a few words which I did. I’ve heard since that they raised about £6000.

Monday was of course the actual Visakha Puja Day. I had accepted an invitation to join a celebration at Haverigg Prison in the evening, so I left Tahn Manapo to take the Monday sitting and shortly after 2 pm Larry and I set off for the southern edge of the Lake District. As you might imagine the M6 wasn’t much fun but the last part of the three and a half hour drive was quite beautiful. I got there just in time for the six o’clock start and I was made very welcome by the Governor, the chaplaincy and the men who packed the place out to enjoy the occasion and to hear me tell the story of the Buddha and afterwards the story of Angulimala and his meeting with the Buddha. It was a great evening but over all too soon and by eight o’clock we were back on the road for another three and a half hours.

On Tuesday, it was off to two more prisons, Gartree in the afternoon and Stocken in the evening.

Wednesday I didn’t do very much and Larry went back to Wales.

Thursday was again a quiet day pottering about in my garden and office. Then in the evening Nui took Tahn Manapo and I to a meeting of Warwick University Buddhist Society. It’s exams time and so attendance was practically rock bottom and it might have been the last meeting for this term and the academic year. A pity.

On Friday a very nice chap called Tom came to see me about helping with some driving and we agreed that he would start by taking me to Grendon and Springhill Prisons on Tuesday. So on that front, what with him and Larry, things are looking up at last. Then in the evening Maggie Dou, a very nice Chinese girl who used to be at Warwick Uni, came up from London to stay for a couple of nights at Bhavana Dhamma. She’s now qualified as a solicitor and later this year having joined a London law firm that has branches in China she will be going back to Shanghai. Our loss but Shanghai’s gain.

Not much happened on Saturday. Just the usual, a few phone calls and stuff to do with prisons and the Buddhist Chaplaincy for the Armed Forces Endorsing Authority.

And today Hema Hirani and her sisters came to see me. That was nice. Hema is also ex Warwick and formerly part of a fairly notorious group who used to run the WU Buddhist Society. They stayed chatting for a bit, then went over to Bhavana Dhamma for tea with Maureen. Later on they came back, said goodbye and then Hema successfully manoeuvred Mark’s little red car out of the carpark and down the drive and off they went back to London.

And that was the week that was!