Fifth Precept Sangha

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2020

‘Sit-and-Sajja’
This event is jointly offered by the Buddhist Recovery Network and the Fifth Precept Sangha.
(Zoom link at bottom of page)

NEW YEAR EVE INTENTION SETTING (SACCA-KIRIYĀ)

“By this truth may there be happiness” ~ Buddha

2:00 pm (Pacific) / 10:00 pm (UK)
Connection and conversation, ready for a prompt start at 30-minutes past the hour.

2:30 pm (Pacific) / 10:30 pm (UK)
30-Minute Guided Serenity Breath Meditation

3:00 pm (Pacific) / 11:00 pm (UK)
Dhamma Talk: ‘By This Truth May There Be Happiness’ – Vince Cullen

3:30 pm (Pacific) / 11:30 pm (UK)
Sajja (Sacca-kiriyā) Intention Setting in Three Parts

• Part One: Forgiveness Aspiration

Those individuals who wish to participate, unmute and repeat each line after the leader:

• Part Two: Personal Sajja (Sacca-kiriyā) Intentions

Optional and voluntary, open opportunity for individuals to unmute and share their own Sajja(s) intentions. Each individual reads aloud:

“In this place of mindfulness, with the natural Elements and those present as my witnesses, I knowingly and openly commit to the following Sajja:”

[insert your ‘Sajja’ or ‘Sajjas’ (Sacca-kiriya) here… for example, but not limited to…]

“I will not take alcohol or other drugs that lead to carelessness for…”

[ the rest of my life ] [ one year ] [ one week ] [ one day ]

“I will practice these Sajja(s) one breath at a time; one step at a time; one day at a time.”

• Part Three: Dedication of Merit for Sajja (Sacca-kiriyā)

Those individuals who have participated, unmute and repeat each line after the leader: 

“May the merit and benefits from the fulfilment of these Sajja(s) relieve the suffering of any beings currently experiencing Hell realm mind-states and conditions; and may the merit and benefits be shared around the whole Universe.

In the realm of the Human beings; may the merit and benefits from the fulfilment of this Sajja be shared with my family, with my benefactors and with my friends; and may it relieve the suffering of all the people that I have ever hurt or harmed.

• May I and all beings – be free from the pain and sorrow of cravings.
• May I and all beings – be filled with loving-kindness.
• May I and all beings – be safe from inner and outer dangers.
• May I and all beings – be well in body and mind.
• May I and all beings – be peaceful and live with ease in the world.
• May I and all beings – be happy and free from all distress.”

4:30 pm (Pacific) / 00:30 am (UK) (or before)
20-minute Wise Heartedness Meditation

• May I find stillness… in the midst of chaos.
• May I be at ease… in the midst of discomfort.
• May I be safe & well… in the midst of uncertainty.
• May I live with kindness… in the midst of all that is difficult.

4:50 pm (Pacific) / 00:50 am (UK) (or before)
Closing Dedication of Merit

Those individuals who wish to participate, unmute and repeat each line after the leader: 

• We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
• May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
• May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
• Keep sitting, and keep smiling!

5:00 pm (Pacific) / 01:00 am (UK) (or before) Meeting closes.

Vince has given many talks on Sajja/Sacca-kiriya as an embodied practice, an example being: Sajja – A Practice for Transformation

More details about ‘Sajja’ and ‘Sacca-kiriya’ can be found in the free booklet ‘From Hungry Ghost to Being Human’ on pages 14-16, 36 & 37.

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83638807203

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Image by Vince Cullen – ‘Candles, Incense and Buddha’ – Nalagiri House, Tipperary, Ireland – 31st December 2017

“All conditioned things are impermanent”
“All conditioned things are inherently lacking” 
“All realities are devoid of an abiding self”

~ Buddha

MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

…alternatively, you can connect manually, with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Robert, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or before 9:15 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and 15-minutes after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by © Vince Cullen – ‘Empty Tables & Chairs’ – Singapore – August 2016

Spiritual practice is stepping out of the assumed reality of “me” by understanding what the “me” is and withdrawing energy from its perceptual fixations.

~ Rodney Smith from an article in Tricycle Buddhist Review ‘The Undivided Mind ~ Becoming Whole’

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Donny, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or before 9.15 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and 15-minutes after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by Vince Cullen – ‘Sweet Peas and Buddhas’ – Nalagiri House, Tipperary, Ireland – September 2020

“Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it”

~ Ram Dass

MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Andrew, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or before 9:15 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and 15-minutes after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by © Vince Cullen – ‘Balinese Dancers Tell a Story’ – Ubud, Bali, Indonesia – August 2016

We can apply such bare attention at any time, taking the “fresh produce” of the world straight from the fields of the senses, without prepackaging raw experience with our old, habitual conceptual wrappings. The challenge here is to distinguish what reality is presenting to our senses from moment to moment from what we are superimposing on the world, often unconsciously. This is what the Buddha was referring to when he declared, 
“In the seen there is only the seen; in the heard, there is only the heard; in the sensed, there is only the sensed; in the mentally perceived, there is only the mentally perceived.”

~ Alan Wallace from ‘The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind’

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Patrick, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or shortly after 9 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by Vince Cullen – ‘Tian Tan Buddha – Lantau Island’ – Ngong Ping, Lantau Island, Hong Kong – May 2008

“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”

~ Saint Francis de Sales

MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Will, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or shortly after 9 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image curtesy of Pixabay.com

Do not fear things that arise in the mind; question them, know them. The truth is more than thought and feelings, so do not believe and get caught by them. See the whole process arising and ceasing. This understanding gives rise to wisdom.

~ Ajahn Chah from the book ‘A Still Forest Pool’

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Donny, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or shortly after 9 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by © Vince Cullen – ‘Ajahn Chah Portrait at the Portland Friends of the Dhamma Center’ – Portland, Oregon, USA – June 2018

When we become intimate with all things, we discover rest, well-being, and wholeness in this very body. We recognise that we, and all life around us, are supposed to be here, that we belong here as much as the trees and the sun and the turning earth. There comes a healing, an opening, a grace. The harmony of all things arises for us like the wisdom of Dame Julian of Norwich, who so beautifully declared, ‘All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.’ In intimacy, we discover a profound sense of belonging and wholeness that allows us to touch all that we encounter. 

~ Jack Kornfield

MONDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Jessica, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or shortly after 9 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by © Vince Cullen – ‘Sky and Trees at Muir Woods National Monument’ – Mill Valley, CA, United States – October 2017

“These three things, monks, are conducted in secret, not openly.
What three?
Affairs with women, the mantras of the brahmins, and wrong view.
But these three things, monks, shine openly, not in secret.
What three things?
The moon, the sun, and the Dhamma and Discipline proclaimed
By the Tathagata”

~ ‘Not a Secret Doctrine’ translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi from In The Buddha’s Words

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 03, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Kenny, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or shortly after 9 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by © Vince Cullen – ‘Sunset over Mount Rinjani taken at Gili Air‘ Indonesia – August 2016

“Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn’t have the time to sit around and talk about you. What’s important to me is not others’ opinions of me, but what’s important to me is my opinion of myself.”

~ C. JoyBell C.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2020

No registration required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/553721188?pwd=NXdmSnFSQUVTWFVhMk13dHMzVlRDQT09

If you are asked for a passcode then enter: 5ps

The topic is for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Zoom from 7:30 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time). This meeting’s topic was chosen by Jacob, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at or shortly after 9 pm but the Zoom meeting room will be open 30-minutes before and after for conversation, connection and fellowship.

All welcome.

Please read ‘How to attend a Virtual Sit-and-Share meeting’.

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay