Barmoor Sangha Retreats

Sangha Retreat 29th November to 1st December 2024

The Taste of Freedom

Sixteen of us spent the weekend in this beautiful place with log fires, cosy rooms, good food and friendship. We explored Sangharakshita's teaching on the Taste of Freedom and talked about how to break the first three fetters of Habit, Vagueness and Superficiality.

Jo and Susan organised the weekend, Rob cooked and Shakyapada led.

Paul was moved to compose this poem at the beginning:

           Alone

I have borne witness

to the setting of the sun

over northern moorland

           and the slow dawning

           of the bountiful night

           from this pale November air

And in a landscape shaped

by human and divine hand

I trace a tracery…

           of bare twisting branches

           already holding

           the budding promise of Spring

of dry stone walls

and weathered trees

           of fields and pheasant feathers

           and all the scurrying animal cries

           of fulsome Life

                 that darts, quicker than the eye,

                 across the field of vision

And as the sun fires up the sky

in one glorious burst

                 as the stars emerge shyly 

                 from the dying light

as the world resolves

and realigns in the here and now 

                 we can go forward

                 and once more go home

                 to a refuge of the heart

I have borne witness to the setting of the sun

Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu

And Liz was moved to compose this at the end:

This First of December Day (2024)

In the quiet of Barmoor,
Nestled in the arms of deep wintering,
Grounded in ancient hillscapes,
Warmed by the crackle of hearth-felt love

there is deepening quietude.

And what might each heart call for here

in our arriving and our leaving of this time?

Each to our unique raindrop,
-taking both the fullness,
and the emptiness
in it’s splash     
…….
              leaving a trace of our courageous hearts,
longing for freedom
and passing the light on our way
 this first of December Day.