Fifth Precept Sangha

“It is our motivation that directs our acts, just as an irrigation channel makes water flow where it is wanted. If our acts are constantly inspired by the desire to relieve others of their suffering, in the end this desire will be fulfilled.”

Source: Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (The Excellent Path to Enlightenment – Oral Teachings on the Root Text of Jamyang Khentse Wangpo – Collected Works Vol II pg 8, Shambhala)

THURSDAY, MAY 07, 2020

#Sit-and-Share meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Eileen, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ before joining your first meeting.

“The realisation of impermanence is paradoxically the only thing we can hold onto,
Perhaps our only lasting possession.”

Source: Sogyal Rinpoche [Tibetan Book of Living and Dying]

MONDAY, MAY 04, 2020

#Sit-and-Share meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Colin, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ before joining your first meeting.

“The days and nights are relentlessly passing.
How well am I spending my time?
This should be reflected upon again and again…”

Source: Buddha (Anguttara Nikaya, Book of Tens)

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020

#Sit-and-Share meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Vince, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.

“To be beautiful means to be yourself.
You don’t need to be accepted by others.
You need to accept yourself.
When you are born a lotus flower,
be a beautiful lotus flower,
don’t try to be a magnolia flower.
If you crave acceptance and recognition and try to change yourself
to fit what other people want you to be, you will suffer all your life.
True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself,
accepting yourself,
having confidence in yourself.”

Source: Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2020

Meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.

“It is always easier to hate and blame than to understand and embrace the difficult and painful.”

Source: Christina Feldman from the book ‘Compassion : listening to the cries of the world’

THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2020

Meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Jason, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.

“As a result of my practice, I am a recovering worrier. My mind still makes up terrifying stories, but I am much less apt to believe them. Sometimes I catch the story-making machine in the act of churning up a new story, and sometimes I can even laugh at it.”

Source: Sylvia Boorstein from the book ‘It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness’

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020

Meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Vince, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.

“You do not become good by trying to be good,
but by finding the goodness that is already within you,
and allowing that goodness to emerge.
But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness.”

Source: Eckhart Tolle from the book ‘A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose’.

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020

Meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Jason, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.

“Perhaps everything terrible in us is,
in its deepest being,
something helpless needing our help”

Source: Rainer Maria Rilke [quoted in the book ‘Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict’ by Tsultrim Allione].

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2020

Meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Paul, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.

“You must learn to let go.
Release the stress.
You were never in control anyway.”

Source: Steve Maraboli from the book ‘Life, the Truth, and Being Free’.

THURSDAY, APRIL 09, 2020

Meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

If you are asked for a password then please 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 Jason, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.

“Know that you are safe;
nothing else is happening;
you are breathing and alive.”

Source: Adapted and used with the kind permission of Martine Batchelor from the book ‘Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits’.

MONDAY, APRIL 06, 2020

Meeting link – https://us04web.zoom.us/j/553721188 (see below for telephone options)

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 Colin, who will be our ‘Sit-and-Share’ host.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 pm and close at 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’ –

How to Attend a Virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ Meeting

Closing dedication of Merit:

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.