We hope you’ve enjoyed your summer holidays wherever that may have been! Another academic year has arrived and we will, as always, be attending Fresher’s Fayre at SOAS, LSE, and ULU, so do come along and say hi to us whether you are old friends, new students just beginning uni or are simply lost among all the stalls! We have many fun-packed events for you to enjoy this year and this ranges from: temple visits of various Buddhist traditions, free regular meditation sessions; going on a Buddhist retreat, to ice-skating; having an outdoor picnic and providing delightful dharma talks by lay and monastic folks of various traditions and many many more! Most importantly, we value very much your views and creative ideas, so please do participate and contribute as much as you like! You are at the heart of what we do, so keep the ideas flowing:).

Hope to see you all at the Fresher’s or at some of our events.

Lots of metta (loving-kindness)

Ruo

ULUBUDA

This is just a reminder to say that there will be no meditation tomorrow. Also, thanks to those who came for meditation at ULU today for the days meditation in association with Amitabha UK! I would like to announce our AGM/ Party will be taking place on Monday 10th March, see below. The AGM always is one of the most fun nights of the year with a celebration of the acheivements of ULUBUDA from its conception to the present day! Celebration is the theme of the night, so come along and welcome in a new year of ULUBUDA with many old ( not that old lol) and new faces!

Monday 10th March- AGM, 5th Birthday Party and Alumni launch
ULU, Room 2B, 6:30pm

AGM
Next week Monday 10th March will be our Annual General Meeting. This is always a great event where present and former members can meet up and share experiences with ULUBUDA. During this evening there will also be a presentation by the outgoing president (myself) detailing all the events that have taken place this year, our successes and our failures. This is an important time to gain feedback from all our members and thus it is an important even for members to attend and to help shape the future of ULUBUDA.

Another important aspect of the AGM is the election of the new committee. The committee facilitates and helps arrange the events for the year and is hopefully the creative force behind the ULUBUDA events for the year to come. There will be six positions up for election:

President- The president’s job is primarily to delegate tasks among the various committee members and to help members become involved with the running of the association, either by joining the exco or lending casual support.
Vice-President- The vice president is pretty similar to the president, yet has to fill in where needed.
Dharma Coordinator- The Dharma coordinator oversees the religious aspects of the association, such as taking care of monastic guests, being aware of Buddhist protocol with monks/nuns and having a large understanding of a wide range of Buddhist traditions. Another main role of Dharma coordinator is to make sure our speakers are of the highest quality and to protect our members from the variety of hoax gurus in London!
Secretary- Administration, minute taking a meetings, coordinating with ULU to book rooms etc.
Treasurer- In charge of money, maintains the books and coordinates with ULU to obtain money for events.
Socials officer- Primary job is to keep ULUBUDA fun! Perhaps the most important job of them all:).
Alumni officer- Is the elective representative of the Alumni, who have a vote on the committee. Is the source of communication between old members and the current committee. Also arrange alumni dinners etc.

From personal experience, being on the committee is a a great experience, lots of laughs and very fulfilling. Therefore come along and stand for a position if you want to:).

Alumni Launch and 5th Birthday Celebration

After we have conducted the elections we shall launch the ULUBUDA ALUMNI

-To mark ULUBUDA's 5th birthday this year we are creating an alumni  association for all
our members who have left university, who will leave this year and key people who have helped us throughout the years.
This association  will provide a way for former ULUBUDA members to keep in touch with
each other and also to see how ULUBUDA is doing many years down the line. I really hope that
this association will continue to strengthen the ULUBUDA sangha far beyond our University years
and also help preserve the ULUBUDA as a secure place for the discovery of
Buddha's teachings for years to come.-

The new Alumni officer will give a speach and all the present and former members will get together for a group photograph.
We will have a cake to celebrate our birthday and lots of snacks and drinks!

 Alastair

More info: Good, simple and easy to read beginner’s guide to meditation:-
http://www.suanmokkh.org/archive/aps/mwb-abc1.htm
&

*Also, for those who have completed the retreat form, please could you bring it with you on Monday as this will be the deadline date for us to send them off. However, there will also be forms available for you to complete on Monday for those who are interested but haven’t done so. Alternatively, you could complete the form online at http://www.throssel.org.uk/. I would strongly advise you to send it off as soon as possible as applications are based on a first come first serve basis.

~More information about the Zen retreat at the Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey-Northumberland can be found on http://www.throssel.org.uk/.

~The weekend retreat that we will be attending will  be held between the 11th-13th April. Also, in terms of finance, contributions to the Abbey are based entirely on donations, so do give generously what you are able to afford. In terms of travel, we are also advising individuals to travel there themselves as this will minimise costs; travelling expenses from London to Newcastle can be as cheap as £20 return if you intend to travel by coach via national express. However, the overall cost of the trip will be subsidised by us once we know the exact number of people who are able to attend; this shall be known to us by the end of Monday and we will of course let you know once everything has been confirmed.

*Please note, if you wish to receive the ULUBUDA subisdy, you MUST complete the form and hand it to us on Monday. * However, you are freely able to attend the retreat through following the simple procedure online, but like i said, do so as soon as you can.

-Finally, unless you have been instructed otherwise and or travelling to the treat yourself and have recevied confirmation from the Abbey; please DO NOT book the transportation unless we have received confirmation from the Abbey in response to our forms and have subsequently calculated the individual subsidy.

I apologise for the long-winded email! I hope this has clarified any queries. Please email me if you have any questions:)

Best wishes

Ruo

ULUBUDA

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I hope that you may find the following useful,

Meditation Guide: Metta Bhavana and Walking Meditation

Regards,

Benson Hoi

Buddhism Without Borders Poster 2008

We will be having our annual major event- Buddhism Without Borders on 22nd February this year. There will be a talk by on human relations, though a title for the talk has not been decided on. At the event we will also have an exhibition and free distribution, and the refreshments will be provided. It will take place in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building (SAF), the medics building basically.

The talk will be given by Venerable Ajahn Khemadhammo, more information of Venerable can be found by googling his name.

This event will be open to invited members of the public, such as our friends from University of London Union Buddhist Association(ULUBUDA), other Buddhist organisations in universities in and outside London, and also public Buddhist associations. We are expecting about 80 people attenting the event.

Last year the event was a successful one, and this year we’re starting to prepare for the event now. We need to know if any of you would like to help to prepare for the event. The areas that you can help in are:

1) Exhibition and distribution - Preparation of exhibition materials (before the day), explanation of materials, and handling free distribution materials (on the day itself)

2) Venue and logistics - Setting up the venue (on the day itself)

3) Publicity - Distribution of publicity materials such as posting posters around college (before the day)

4) Food and sponsorship - Obtain food sponsorship from restaurants (before the day), collecting the food from the restaurants to college (on the day itself), or preparation of food (on the day itself).

It would be great if many of you can help, in one or more of the areas above. It will take only perhaps a couple of hours in one day.

If you would like to help out, please reply this email with your name, contact details and which area(s) you want to help in. Thanks!

With metta,
Siew
Secretary
IC Buddhist Society

I hope you are all well and for those lucky few that are on reading week i hope you are enjoying the break:). On Monday 18th Feb we will be a having a:-

*Social gathering& Movie night [Life of the Buddha]*

This really is a wonderful opportunity for us to come together, relax and enjoy a great movie! Also, one of our fellow member Christopher Cairns has kindly offered to give us a short talk about his experiences. It promises to be an interesting night, so please do make an effort to come if you are free!

DATE: Monday 18th Feb.
TIME: From 6.30pm+ (whenever you can make it)
PLACE:  Room 2B, ULU, Malet Street WC1E 7HY
(http://www.ulu.co.uk/content/index.php?page=1302)

*Snacks and refreshments are also available*

Finally, as you may already be aware, our AGM is fast approaching and we will soon need new members to help out with our activities. So if you are interested or even have any ideas that you think might give ULUBUDA a bit of zing then please do drop me an email From a personal perspective (and i  don’t mean to sound bias) if you can spare some time (it doesn’t have to be a lot) and have the enthusiasm, then i really recommend it as i have met some truely amazing people and have formed great friendships along the way.

Hope to see you all soon,

With metta (loving-kindness)

Ruo

Monday 11th February- Meditation with Ajahn Sangthong.

Another chance to unwind and relax in a busy time of year for all of us. Ajahn Sangthong is back from Thailand and therefore able to take us again starting from this Monday. 
There is also the opportunity, for those who wish, to pay homage to the triple gem and receive the 5 precepts from Ajahn.

Date: MONDAY 26TH NOVEMBER
Time: 6.30PM+ (Whenever your classes finishes)
Place:  Room 2B,
ULU, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY (directions here: http://www.ulu.co.uk/content/index.php?page=1302).

Other Activities

18th February- Social gathering, bowling.
25th February- Meditation or Movie (Life of the Buddha)
3rd March- ULUBUDA 5th Birthday Party and launch of our Alumni Soc.!
10th March- Annual General Meeting
17th March- Trip to Amaravati Buddhist Monestary
22nd, 23rd March- Annual retreat, location to be confirmed.

Further information will be given soon!

Best wishes,
Alastair

The committees are planning to distribute all the books from our library, i.e. to let go of the library. If you are interested in getting a few Buddhist books for your bookshelf, please contact either Alastair or anyone in the committee. Although you may not read the books straight away, they can prove to be quite inspirational at certain times in your life and reading books on Buddhism certainly helps us progress in our spiritual paths. The main reasons that we would like to get rid of the library are that the library is rarely used and most of the books have online copies anyway. I would like to recommend a few books which are viewable and downloadable on the Internet:

• Aruna Publications has a very good collection. Alastair, our current president, especially recommends “Unexpected Freedom“
• Buddhanet has hundreds of Dharma books for you to read at your leisure
• Dharmaweb has a very good collection, including articles from, e.g. Thich Nhat Hanh, too.

You are very welcome to discuss any of the books in the sites above in our forum.

http://imperial.facebook.com/album.php?aid=67309&id=222405865

It would be great to see you all there, tell you friends and spread the word! Tea and snacks will be provided.

There will be plenty of time for questions and Lama Lobsang much prefers a more conversational and relaxed atmosphere for a talk, so feel free to join in the discussion too.

Time: 6.30PM+ (Whenever your classes finishes)

Place:  Room 2B
ULU, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY (directions here: http://www.ulu.co.uk/content/index.php?page=1302).

Really looking forward to seeing you all there,

With metta (loving-kindness)

Ruo