For the past quarter of a century, the Friends Meeting House on Crown Street has hosted the Aberdeen Buddhist Group on Wednesday evenings. With its simple decor and atmosphere of calm it has been a very appropriate space for us. We are very grateful to the Aberdeen Quakers for making it available for all these years.

But all things are impermanent, and we have been offered a slot at the Love Yoga studio. This is a bright, warm space at the northern end of Union Terrace, overlooking the gardens and Rosemount Viaduct. It is beautifully set up for meditation practice and (we checked first) also has a kettle! We hope that taking a place in the studio’s programme of events will give the group a new lease on life.

We’ll miss the Meeting House and would like to invite everyone who has ever joined us there to do so for one last time at our last meeting on the 23rd of October to share memories and take our leave. On the 30th we will have our first meeting at Love Yoga with a dedication ceremony and settling in. Once we have found our feet we will have a series of introductory classes over the course of November.

02 October The Secular Buddhist Order – by David
09 October Talk by Alan
16 October Practice discussion
23 October Farewell to the Meeting House
30 October Move to Love Yoga including dedication ceremony

04 September Planning meeting
11 September Gratitude in Buddhism by Alan
18 September Practice discussion led by Graham
25 September Threefold Puja

The Aberdeen Buddhist Group will be open for meetings every Wednesday evening this July. Many thanks to those who have made donations or set up standing orders in response to our recent appeal. These will allow us to afford the rent at the Quaker Meeting House this month. If you would still like to contribute, our bank details are at Contributing to the group.

We have made some changes to the format of meetings. One is that we will finish earlier – at 9 pm – to make it easier for people who have to catch buses or travel from a distance. The other is that not all evenings will have a pre-arranged talk or theme, but we will always be open for members to meditate together and the kettle will always be on. The monthly practice discussion on the second Saturday of the month will remain a fixture.

Themed meetings arranged at present are:
3rd July – Planning – continuing the discussion about reorganising the group.
17th July – Practice discussion, led by Graham.
24th July – Threefold puja, followed by discussion.

The 26th of June meeting will be a planning meeting. Having lost a number of key members recently we are reconsidering all aspects of the group in order to make a fresh start. We had a very positive meeting this week with lots of ideas but we would like to continue the discussion before making firm decisions next week. All perspectives would be useful, including regular attenders, people who haven’t made it along for a while for whatever reason and potential new members.