Sao Bras ...

After a very quiet day yesterday, resting, reading and a short stroll round the block, 3 or 4 km ... today was the New Year Tea Ceremony with the Almond Blossom Sangha, and a trip by car to a very plush property near Sao Bras de Alportel ... Quinta de Pombal, owned and run as a centre for Japanese style Zen Buddhism by a German woman ... rented to the Interbeing style Buddhists for the day ... Buddhists in general being tolerant folks, though there have been exceptions historically and recently in Myanmar with persecution of the Rohingar Muslims by mainstream, so-called Buddhists ... labels being only marginally helpful ... know folks by their deeds, not by their words or religions ...

Fairly formal style after the silent sitting and walking, with ritual tea pouring, passing, bowing ... reminiscent of the Soto Zen monks at Throssel Hole tucked away in the North Pennines of England ... all meals taken in the same manner, meaning mostly cold food by the time you get to taste it ... good training in equanimity and especially for gluttons ... the Theravadans up by Belsay have another method. .. fasting from lunch until breakfast next day ... allowing one big bowl, into which goes as much as you want, and if you want dessert, it goes in the same bowl ... well it all goes together into the stomach after all ...

After tea and cakes, each person invited to offer a song or reading ... which was nice ...

Forms for practising the spiritual life are interesting ... often helpful, as long as they are seen as practises and not as of sacred significance in themselves ... well not anymore than any mundane thing anyway ... the formless seems the purest way, yet where to hang your hat? How for seekers to find their Sangha? And how to pass the time enjoyably ... uplifting entertainment ... why not?

Reflecting this morning that in another week it will be Newcastle and Durham ... and for some folk a week's winter break on the Algarve counts as a holiday ... no need to wander far now, though Aljezur briefly considered ... a wander along the coast to the Tavira Pousada de Juventude seems most likely ...