At last I’ve begun to get back up to speed. For the first two weeks after we got back from Thailand I couldn’t do very much because of the weather, then I got some sort of virus that I seemed to shake off pretty quickly, but that was followed by trouble with a tooth and when I went to the dentist I came away minus two old friends that must have been with me for well over fifty years. The next day I felt dreadful and so then I had more than a week of coping with an infected cavity. But that’s all over now and the last ten days have been pretty active.

A week ago Saturday we had an Angulimala Workshop that was very well attended and which appeared to go extraordinarily well, especially as there was no guest speaker and they had to put up with quite a lot from me. One of the things we discussed was the creeping appropriation of Mindfulness practice and techniques by psychologists, psychotherapists and the like. I was at pains to point out that what Buddhism teaches is Right Mindfulness which is mindfulness skilfully directed and invested with Wisdom and Virtue.

On Monday I visited a Regional Secure Unit for a meeting about a patient who I know there.

On Tuesday I had an early meal then set off for Send Prison in Surrey where at 11:15 there was to be the opening of the new Multifaith building. Fortunately we managed to avoid a traffic problem on the M40 and arrive in good time. The guest of honour who was to cut the tape was Penelope Keith. When I got to have a chat with her I asked her if she had seen Felicity Kendal lately. They had both starred together in a well-known series years ago and even further back I had known and worked with Felicity. Well that led on to a discovery that we’d had one or two other mutual friends. I got away from there around one o’clock and soon after getting back I took my wonderful old cockerel to the vet who it seemed was able to sort him out. Larry the cockerel had been poorly for a few days and had had an earlier trip to the vet the week before. Then in the evening I went to Grendon and Springhill prisons.

On Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting of TBSUK (Theravada Buddhist Sangha in the UK) at the Birmingham Peace Pagoda Temple in Birmingham. That went quite well and was well attended. The main subject of discussion was the new Immigration Points Based System (PBS) which means that temples wishing to invite monks and nuns from overseas or renew visas for those already here must register as a sponsor with the UK Borders Agency. There have been mixed experiences with this. Afterwards I chased down to Heathrow to meet Ant who has been working in France and who that evening was off to Thailand for a computer science conference on Phuket. I had some things for him to take for Sister Khema who is now in the NE of Thailand.

On Thursday it was off to Holloway where our Prison Service Chaplaincy Council was to meet in the afternoon. Holloway was one of the first prisons I went to back in the summer of 1977. It’s changed a bit since then. The meeting was not a happy one and not particularly productive. Afterwards Rob and I drove through Hampstead past some of my old haunts of many years ago.

On Friday I didn’t have to go anywhere which was nice and I did little apart from some tidying in my kuti.

On Saturday morning I let my dogs out as usual and opened Larry’s hutch. He was sitting there looking very comfortable and looked at me. He had been gradually recovering and the previous day had been out walking about and eating. I came back in and a few minutes later I was disturbed by a noise that I took to be a squirrel trying to pinch his food. I went out and discovered that it had been Larry’s last struggle. My poor wonderful cockerel was dead.

On Sunday after the meal I was presented with an electric toothbrush. Then I wrote an update for the section of this site that you’ll find under the Forces Chaplaincy tab. It is a brief summary of the ongoing problem with the MoD and includes a copy of a recent letter from Kevan Jones, the Minister. Do take a look.

And later today I have to go to Holme House Prison near Durham.