Introductions...

Namo Amida Bu, as we say in The Buddhist House.

Introductions are always a little awkward, I find, especially for the English. In Watching  the English  Kate Fox  describes the fun  and games we have trying to guess each others occupation, picking up clues from the  small talk and so on, and how we until we're just leaving before  casually mentioning that  "I'm sorry, I didn't catch you're name...?". Fox calls this social dis-ease, and when reading the  book I  wondered if a life in training might be a cure for that dis-ease.

Settled faith brings with it a sense of ease, I have heard, and am slowly learning - but our social habits have a lot of energy behind them, and so the karma of this can take time to run it's course....

...but perhaps that's simply my excuse for not yet saying 'Welcome, my name is Gareth - and this is my blog!'

So welcome, pull up a comfy chiar, and I'll tell you all about my life as a Buddhist Trainee. I've been here at the Buddhist House in Leicester, for about six months, and I'm training to become an Amitarya which is kind of like a priest, and kind of like a monk.  The Amida-Shu pracitces Pureland Buddhism, which is very popular in Japan and almost unheard of here in the UK, check out our website for more information.

And now? I'm just on my way to meet Sudana, one of our lay order members who's just flown in from one of our socially engaged projects in Zambia.

::Bowing Deeply::
Namo Amida Bu