Woking's Lids for Legs

Having for several years collected ring-pulls and donated them to the Prosthesis Foundation as raw material for making the joints of artificial legs for Thai landmine victims, Phra Nicholas Thanissaro visited the foundation at its Hua Chiw Hospital HQ to see where the ring pulls were actually going. The visit coincided with a Counterpain sponsored demonstration by suitably equipped amputees now walking ably quite unassisted. On 30 June 2009 our centre in Woking donated 20 Kilograms of ringpulls for the continuing work of the Prosthesis Foundation and will continue to collect ringpulls at the temple for any readers from households with high consumption from drinks cans.

4th Sanam Luang Dhamma Studies Exam

The Dhamma Studies examination according to the Thai national Sanam Luang curriculum held its fourth annual examination at the Dhammakaya Centre for Buddhist Centre for Buddhist Meditation on 14 June 2009. Thirty seven students took the examination - three of which were English. As a credit to the scholarly standard of Woking meditators, all 37 students passed the examination this year. The temple was the first to pioneer this examination in Europe in 2006 although the curriculum is now spreading to other temples in Europe.

Buddhists at NASACRE AGM 2009

Thanks to the nationwide Standing Advisory Committee for Religious Education (SACRE) recruitment drive earlier this year, many of the vacant Buddhist places for boroughs and counties up and down England are being filled. Phra Nicholas Thanissaro of the Dhammakaya Centre for Buddhist Meditation, Woking was the Buddhist representative for the London Borough of Greenwich at the National Association of SACRE's Annual General Meeting held on 4 June 2009 at Birmingham City Council Chambers. Community Cohesion was the main theme of the day's discussions - but concerns were also voiced about the marginalization of religious education in the forthcoming QCA revision of the National Curriculum.