Inter-Faith panel

Adhisthana cats, June 2024

My trading table at the Leamington Repair café resulted in minimal GRUHI but was a very social affair, and I'm tempted to do it again just for the chat. Meanwhile my complaint about the safety of the roofing job went to the HSE, I received a couple of follow up emails asking for more information, and nothing since then.

Two Buddhist things of note this week. Since the pandemic times there have been retreats offered for online participation. I tend to avoid them because going online at home makes it difficult to create conditions that allow me to get the best out of the retreat. I get distracted by phone and email and housework and my long list of projects. But for a retreat that took place last weekend I got together with three other friends and we rented an Airbnb cottage (more like a mansion actually) and did the retreat there, which was absolutely wonderful.

The other Buddhist thing: for several years my group has been invited to send someone to the local girls prep school for an Inter-Faith panel. Normally we can't find anyone to take part and we have to turn them down, but this year I went and represented Buddhism alongside people who were Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and 'no faith/utilitarian'. It was quite a step for me personally, and raised all sorts of confusing questions about who exactly I am nowadays, but apart from that it went quite well. The pupils submitted a load of questions, mostly ethically orientated (does your faith allow abortion, do you welcome LGBTQ people etc.) but also the question "What's your favourite thing about your religion?"

Most of the answers were unsurprising, except for the Muslim woman who represented Islam as being the best religion for women because men were restricted to just four wives ("previously they had had hundreds"), but only if the first can't bear children or for some reason can't 'satisfy his needs' or he just falls for someone else. And this was her favourite thing about Islam, along with not having to pray if you're menstruating. I was not impressed. And a little bit shocked, if I'm honest.

To end with a very minor conundrum - I've been enjoying the board games group a great deal. We tend to play two games over the afternoon, or sometimes the same game twice, but for the last few times I've attended, I've won both times. Everyone is very nice and I don't think anyone minds, but I'm starting to think I need to try less hard and give someone else a chance. That's going to be quite a challenge!