BUDDHIST HOUSE BBQ

This evening I'm at The Buddhist House, Narborough, for a vegetarian barbecue and garden evening. It's been raining quite heavily, off and on, for most of the day, and there's quite a downpour on the way here (hailstones in the middle of June, for goodness sake). But it stops and the sky clears around 1830, so enjoyment of the evening isn't dampened.

This is my first visit to The Buddhist House, though it's not for want of being asked. I recall that one of the earliest activities in which I took part after being appointed to this post six years ago was a Buddhist-Christian dialogue session in Bishop Street Methodist Chapel, next door to the Council of Faiths HQ in Town Hall Square. It was certainly the first Saturday event I attended on the job.

The Buddhist House is home to the Tariki Trust, a community of people who believe that Buddhism is something to be lived, not merely a practice to be fitted in during a busy day. The name Tariki means "other-power" in Japanese, a fundamental concept in Pureland Buddhism. It's the basis for Other-Centred Approach, the model of psychology underpinning the psychotherapy taught on Tariki courses, which are offered at The Buddhist House.

It's a fine, rambling house of character and distinction, dating from around 1900, with a garden to match. There's a Buddha statue nestled under a lime tree.

I get the chance to chat with some interesting people, each of them with different manners of association with The Buddhist House or for being here this evening. I also discuss briiefly with Carolyn Brazier tentative plans to start an informal collective group bringing together the many and varied groups of Buddhists in Leicester and Leicester. I've been asked to help get that going as an "honest broker" working with and between most of these groups.

I also propose that The Buddhist House be fitted into next year's programme of Faith Awareness summer visits to places of worship and faith-related sites in and around Leicester. I'm sure we could fill a minibus for an evening visit here.

I honestly can't think why I haven't made the short trip out here before. I mean, the Arriva number 50 bus from Leicester city centre comes straight to the door, for goodness sake! So I have no excuse for not coming again.

FAITHS UNITED AFTER ACTROCITY

This is (part of) the front page of today's Leicester Mercury. I don't usually comment on articles or readers' letters in the Mercury, but I'm making an exception this time.

Well, this is the kind of headline I like to see, as I'm sure you can imagine, faithful reader. But the title of this short but prominent piece is hyperbolic - as is the first sentence, "People of different faiths stood shoulder to shoulder [...]" When you turn to the full article, it only refers to two faiths: Christianity and Islam. Even then, it's actually the Church of England and Islam. Only Sheikh Ibrahim Moghra, Suleman Nagdi and the Bishop of Leicester are quoted. Three important voices, who should be heard prominently in the city and beyond - but this is hardly comprehensive coverage of a matter that is of major interest and importance to everyone in Leicester who cares about the increasingly polarised debate on the influence of religion or belief on community relations. These three voices have no trouble being heard, because of their well-earned and richly deserved prominence in their respective communities and the place of their religions in the firmament of faiths. I certainly respect their opinions and want to know what they have to say and believe that the rest of the city should hear them too. But does the Mercury really think that the city's Bahá'ís, Buddhists, other kinds of Christians, Jains, Jews, Sikhs - and, for that matter, Secular Humanists - have nothing calming, illuminating or insightful to say about this?

Leicester Council of Faiths issued a brief statement to the Leicester Mercury (amongst other recipients) yesterday morning, but the paper has not used it, referred to it or contacted anyone involved with the Council of Faiths to contribute to any of its coverage of local responses to the incident in Woolwich. Considering our role in the public life of Leicester and our standing in the city, I think that's a pity.

ENJOY CELEBRATIONS IN SAFETY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Enjoy celebrations in safety

Worshippers are being asked to follow simple safety tips to ensure a happy Diwali and Navratri.

Police, firefighters and the city council are teaming up to offer safety advice throughout the celebrations, with 10,000 greetings cards with safety messages being posted through letterboxes in the Belgrave, Latimer and Rushey Mead areas of the city.

Firefighters are urging Hindus and other devotees to take care when using candles and flames.

People attending celebrations and visiting friends are being asked to lock their homes and cover up expensive jewellery when out and about.

Chief Superintendent Rob Nixon said: "Each year, thousands of people take part in Diwali celebrations in Leicester.

"Our role is to ensure that they can enjoy this special time without fear of crime.

"Many people will be busy visiting friends and family in the coming weeks. We are urging them to take a few simple crime prevention measures – such as securing their windows and doors every time they leave their home, and being discreet with valuables, in particular expensive jewellery – when they are out and about.

"I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy Navratri and Diwali."

Chief Superintendent Rob Nixon launched the campaign with colleagues from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service yesterday.

Speaking at Belgrave Community Centre, in Rothley Street, police and fire officers advised people not to overfill oil lamps and to be vigilant when out during celebrations.

More than 35,000 people are expected to pack into the Golden Mile for the Diwali fireworks on Sunday, November 4.

Even more will take to the streets on Diwali day, on Tuesday, November 13, for one of the biggest celebrations of its kind outside India.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Steve Lunn said: "Leicestershire has a very diverse population.

" The Navratri and Diwali celebrations are a cornerstone of our Hindu community, so we want to make sure everyone remains safe to enjoy every aspect this period has to offer.

"While the number of fires caused by Diva candles have remained low in recent years, it is through education and awareness campaigns, such as this, that we will ensure this remains the case."

Leicester City Council asked people not to bring fireworks to public celebrations. Diwali is also celebrated by Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs.

Navratri is a nine-day Hindu festival dedicated to the worship of Hindu deity Shakti, which starts today.

HELPERS GET HANDY AS PART OF SEWA DAY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Helpers get handy as part of Sewa Day

Dozens of volunteers from Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Sikh communities teamed up for a day of service to the community.

The came together with the St Philip's Centre in Evington, Leicester, to mark Sewa Day and helped clean up Fludes Lane, in Oadby, on Sunday.

The 40 volunteers cleared the area – a walk-through from the A6 to a group of houses – of litter and planted flower bulbs to spruce it up.

Rupa Kanabar, from Oadby, said: "Material things and money alone cannot bring groups together, so our project, as well as caring for the environemnt, aims to create inter faith understanding and friendships."

Riaz Ravat, deputy director at St Philip's Centre, said: "Sewa Day is a special time of the year when Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Sikh communities work collectively for the good of all.

"These communities have a rich tradition of carrying out Sewa every day of the year, but Sewa Day is an event which co-ordinates charity efforts across the globe.

"We are delighted to be involved yet again in this important initiative."

Oadby and Wigston Borough Council provided jackets and equipment for the clean-up.

FEDERATION OF MUSLIM ORGANISATIONS RADIO SHOW ON EAVA FM

This morning I'm presenting the Interfaith Hour on Ramadan Radio, going out live on 102.5 FM and online at www.eava.com between 1000 and 1100. This is part of the schedule of programmes run by the Federation of Muslim Organisations during the Muslim month of fasting.

The hours in which FMO broadcast during Ramadan are donated by EAVA FM  Multilingual Radio. EAVA FM broadcasts in a variety of community languages including Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Ndebele, Punjabi, Shona, Somali and Urdu. English content is definitely a minority interest for the station and its listeners. I've been on EAVA FM once before, in April 2009, when I was a guest on the Andy Cooke Show (which I blogged here). The station is located in the Leicester Business Centre on Ross Walk, which runs parallel to Melton Road. The front of the Leicester Business Centre has been demolished and rebuilt since then, so I spend several minutes going back and forth on Ross Walk, looking for something that isn't there any more. By the time I give up and phone the studio for directions, it turns out I'm so close, someone in the Leicester Business Centre could have leant out of a window and waved me in! Some of the Radio Ramadan programmes are broadcast from the offices of the FMO in Highfields. I was originally told to ge ther, but the equipment at their offices isn't quite good enough to do programmes with a lot of speech content, so the venue was switched to permit a better quality broadcast.

I'm in the studio half an hour before the start of the show, which gives me time to chat with Dee, (Manager at EAVA FM), Ashokhbhai (who is presenting a Hindi programme which finishes just before 1000) and Ismael Bin-Sulaiman (AKA Izzy), producer of the Interfaith Hour. Dee dangles before me the possibility of the Council of Faiths having a weekly hour-long show on the station (dependent on us obtaining sponsorship for it). That's something worth following up. During this conversation, I learn that typical listening figures for the FMO's Ramadan broadcasts are around the 300,000 mark. Most of those listeners access the show online, through the FMO website. The largest concentration of listeners is in  Chicago. Who'd have guessed?

Luman Ali at the the FMO invited me to do this programme a couple of weeks ago. I've been given carte blanche to fill the hour with my choice of content (within reason), so I've put together a programme about how the other seven communities represented on Leicester Council of Faiths approach fasting. I've recorded five short interviews with a Buddhist, a Christian, a Hindu, a Jew and a Sikh, each one of them responding to my questions about how they think about and practise fasting. Following a belt-and-braces approach, I've brought those recordings to the studio in a variety of formats: one CD with the interviews saved as MP3 files; another CD with the interviews saved as data files; a memory stick with MP3 files; my laptop with MP3 and data files; even the handheld digital recorder that I used for the original interviews. I'm not taking any chances! Thankfully, the first of these formats works without any problems.

Each of the interviewees has something interesting and distinctive to say about their religious beliefs and practices on this topic, as well as their personal experience. I invited a Jain friend to contribute too but we couldn't arrange a recording session in the time we had available. Not for the first time, I present the Jain perspective (reading a brief extract from a published source), as well as speaking briefly on my own behalf as a Bahá'í. The recorded interviews are linked by a brief chat between me and Izzy, whom I prompt for a Muslim's response to some of the points raised in the recordings. I think it goes alright, though it's a little rushed toward the end. I fit in everything that I'd wanted to get in, which is good. And thanks to Suleman Nagdi, who sent an SMS to the station, wishing me luck, from a train en route to Manchester.

As I'm leaving the studio, two chaps are setting up for the next programme, which I'm told is a "requests show". What that means in this case is that listeners send in their requests (by email or SMS) for one of the presenters to chant verses from the Qur’án, Hadith or another Islamic source, to heighten the devotional experience during Ramadan. This is one of those moments where I'm grateful for the work I do, and how permits me insights into ways of living that would otherwise not be visible to me.

LEICESTER MERCURY OFFERS FAITH SYMBOLS FOR FAMILY NOTICES

I don't know if this is a new service the Leicester Mercury is providing, but today is the first time it's come to my attention. The notice says that the paper now has a selection of faith symbols for readers' family notices. Symbols for each of the member communities on Leicester Council of Faiths are shown (top row, left to right: Hindu, Sikh, Christian; middle row, left to right: Muslim, Jewish, Jain; bottom row, left to right: Buddhist, Shinto,  Bahá'í). I don't know how many followers or practitioners of Shinto (the indigenous spirituality of the people of Japan) there are in Leicester and Leicestershire: probably more than the number of Bahá'ís, I imagine. However, if I were to choose just a ninth symbol appropriate for the city and county, I don't think Shinto would have been my first choice. I should mention that it's good to see this service being offered - but no one from the Leicester Mercury consulted, contacted or informed the Council of Faiths about it (just in case you might have been wondering, faithful reader).

INTER FAITH WEEK 2011, DAY 2: BUDDHISM 101

At 1500 we have the second of ten public meetings for Inter Faith Week, under the series title, “Communities of Faith or Belief in Leicester". These hour-long introductions are being held in Leicester Adult Education College (or, more precisely, in Leicester People's Photographic Gallery, which is part of the Adult Ed College).

Leicester Council of Faiths is hosting these meetings in association with Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service (LASALS). Chris Minter, Head of Service at LASALS, expressed an interest in supporting Inter Faith Week this year and we agreed that this would be an appropriate way for LASALS to do so, by allowing free use of its venue and facilities.

The speaker for this Beginners' Guide to Buddhism - or Buddhism 101 - is Dharmavidya David Brazier, of the Amida Trust. I pop in for the start of the session to welcome our speaker, ensure that everyone is sitting comfortably, offer a few words of introduction (setting this meeting in context of Inter Faith Week), leave a few leaflets, then dash back down to our exhibition in Highcross.

The photo above is one of two images representing the Buddhist community on show in the Favourite Faiths Photo exhibition, launched at Leicester People's Photographic Gallery during Inter Faith Week. The picture shows Jnanamati (left) preparing for his ordination as a monk in the Amida Order in December 2010; Susthama Kim (right) is instructing him in how to arrange his robes for the ceremony (sourced from Damian Smyth, reproduced with permission).

HOW OUR GOOD DEEDS BECOME A UNIFYING FORCE

Here's Riaz Ravat's First Person column from today's Leicester Mercury:

How our good deeds become a unifying force 

Riaz Ravat looks ahead to Mitzvah Day, a charity event which brings different faiths together 

In a few days' time, the Jewish community of Leicestershire will once again team up with St Philip's Centre and other faiths to mark Mitzvah Day, or as some call it, "good deed" day. The event coincides with the start of national Inter-Faith Week which this year marks its third anniversary. 

Last year's Mitzvah Day took all of us organisers by surprise. Barely a day after the national Children in Need appeal, the people of Leicestershire continued their unstinting generosity by donating toiletries to our cause. Our campaign was to help people who have escaped domestic violence and who were forced to live in safe houses as a result. Mitzvah Day is an expression of how a small community, the Jewish community, makes a big difference to those on the frontline of societal ills. 

Enshrined in the teachings of so many faiths, social action has become more pressing, particularly in light of the tough economic climate we are all living in. While dialogue creates the opening for good community relations, action helps to solidify it. We in Leicester have pioneered a new way of expressing commitment to each of our respective faiths while sharing a platform of co-operation with others. 

In September, Sewa Day or "service" day, which is rooted in Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Sikh faiths, provided an opportunity for these faiths to work alongside Christians, Jews and Muslims to deliver a teatime treat for elderly folk from the West Indian Senior Citizens Project. Likewise Mitzvah Day with its Jewish origins will open the doors for other faiths to come on board to show that Leicester's contribution in both method and model, is original and distinctive. Already Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim groups have pledged donations. 

Our Mitzvah Day effort does not collect money but bathroom items. We do not need £1 off you when a pair of toothbrushes costing 10p at the checkout will do for our collection. As with last year, however, the reality is very different with people donating over and above our expectations. Generosity is an attribute which is often missing in any discourse which attempts to define the meaning of "Britishness". Rather than some who are obsessed by the criteria of ethnicity, we should instead focus on ethics. By doing this we can have a proper assessment about the input made to advance life for all in the UK. 

The Jewish community offers a blueprint for other minorities as to how a small community, can make a sizeable contribution to wider society. The good deeds of the Jewish community in this city stretching back several centuries, reminds us that communities, however small, have been through many storms yet by remaining resilient and resolute, their efforts have generated rewards which everyone in society benefits from. 

Mitzvah Day is next Sunday. 

Riaz Ravat is based at St Philip's Centre, Leicester

COUNCIL OF DHARMIC FAITHS UK FORMED

In a very interesting development for inter faith relations on a national level in the UK, a Council of Dharmic Faiths has been formed. In the presence of leading figures from the Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh communities, the Council of Dharmic Faiths was launched at the House of Commons on 16 May. Dharma is a word common to all the religions involved and has the meaning of righteous conduct or teaching. The Council of Dharmic Faiths has been established with the aim of encouraging friendship, goodwill, respect, equality and increased understanding within these communities, and between members of these communities and others in the UK. The Parsi (Zoroastrian) community has associate membership of the Council of Dharmic Faiths.

The launch event at the House of Commons marked the culmination of a process that has in its earlier stages seen the national circulation of a discussion paper in 2007 on the "Advancement of Dharma" for all major faith leaders in the UK, followed by the discussion of the desirability of a "Four Faiths Forum" for those religions which historically originated in India. Then there was a historic gathering of leaders of national faith organisations of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian communities in Finchley at the end of March this year, where arrangements were finalised for the formation of the Council of Dharmic Faiths.

There are estimated to be more than one and a half million followers of Dharmic religions in the UK. The Council of Dharmic Faiths has been established with the intention of promoting education and training,offering advocacy, improving the quality of health and social welfare, encouraging appropriate recreational activities and preserving the cultural heritage and promoting the interests of these faith communities in the UK.

The elected Chair of the Council of Dharmic Faiths is Dr Natubhai Shah, who is certainly well known in Leicester. Dr Shah was a prime movers in the establishment of the Jain Centre here and was prominent in public inter faith work in the city when I arrived here in the late 1980s.

If anyone were to think of this as an odd or innovative development, I would say think of the Family of Abraham grouping, that we've been used to in the inter faith world for donkey's years. I'm impressed by this new Council's public denial of being a caucus of religions who share special interests or who feel the need to define themselves in contrast or opposition to any other grouping of faith communities or any one faith in particular.

The Council of Dharmic Faiths has its own Facebook page.

Of Gods and Men - really, this time

A couple of months ago, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece about not being able to get into a screening of the movie, Of Gods and Men at Phoenix Square (see blog entry for 06 Jan 2011). We weren't the only ones who couldn't get in to see this film - it seemed that every showing was full. It's been brought back to Phoenix Square by popular demand for some extra screenings this week, so today we finally get in: and it's worth the wait. What a film. I can only urge you to see it for yourself, faithful reader.

Here's a review Of Gods and Men that was posted on Twitter some time ago and that I've kept squirrelled away for this occasion:

The monks in French director Xavier Beauvois' extraordinary Of Gods And Men have simple lives: They sell honey in the market, tend to the ailments of local peasants and mark the days with song and prayer. But simplicity can't prevent complications, especially in a country where some regard foreign faces and ideas as affronts.

It doesn't undermine this austere drama, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes last year, to reveal that the story is loosely based on the case of seven French monks kidnapped and possibly killed by Islamist insurgents in Algeria in 1996. (The circumstances of their deaths are contested.) This is not a suspense film, but a meditation on how to live under the shadow of a violent end.

The Cistercian (or Trappist) monks attempt to reconcile their Christianity with their neighbors' Islam, rejecting martyrdom while fostering acceptance. A Buddhist might even call their outlook "non-attachment."

Algerian government officials order the gray-haired monks to return to France, and some of them welcome the command. But "wildflowers don't move to find the sun's rays," argues Christian (Lambert Wilson), the small cloister's Quran-reading abbot. Slowly, the more skeptical (or apprehensive) of the men come to agree.

The monks know they live in peril from extremists, who recently slit the throats of Croatian construction workers. The group's elderly physician, Luc (Michael Lonsdale), recalls a line from Pascal: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction."

With its stately tempo and its respect for the ascetic life, the movie recalls Into Great Silence, the 2005 documentary about a remote French monastery. Yet Beauvois' protagonists aren't really all that insulated from the world. They drive cars, attend local celebrations and, on special occasions, drink red wine and listen to Tchaikovsky on a battered cassette player. At one point, Luc even offers romantic advice to a woman who works at the cloister, sounding like any old man who remembers young love with pleasure.

Shot in widescreen format in Morocco, Of Gods And Men is beautifully composed by veteran cinematographer Caroline Champetier. The movie takes much of its power from its mountainous setting, which represents the closeness of both Earth and heaven. When Christian needs to contemplate the monastery's future, he doesn't go to the chapel but into the hills.

The other key to the film is music. Although the monks have divergent opinions and biographies, their unity is palpable whenever they come together in Gregorian chant. In one of the movie's most stirring moments, the men sing in response to the armed helicopter circling above their home.

It was during their singing lessons, Wilson recalls, that "the actors fused into a team and the community spirit began." That may give the music too much credit, but the ensemble cast's interplay does feel warm and unforced. Wilson himself (who's best known in the U.S. for the two Matrix sequels) seems far more serene than his usual cinematic self.

Although the monks don't seek death, Of Gods And Men can be seen as an ode to religiously motivated self-sacrifice. But Beauvois (who co-scripted the movie) deliberately leaves the story open-ended. The value of these men's lives, he's noting, is not defined by how they ended.

This review is taken from the website of National Public Radio in the USA. Read it in context here:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/04/133959585/of-gods-and-men-faith-tested-faith-proved

MINDFULNESS & MORALITY 4: BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE

At Christchurch, Clarendon Park, for the fourth session in the course on Mindfulness & Morality, offered by Christians Aware as part of their Faith Awareness programme. This 12-week course has been devised by Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons from the Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

It's a Buddhist perspective this evening, led by Rev Master Saido Kennaway, who has come over from Telford (on the left in the photo above, speaking with Devon Stuart).

I get there just before 1930, but to judge by the amount of writing on the flipchart, things have already been underway for a good few minutes.

Here's the moral dilemma we're given this evening, which we discuss in small groups, then come back together to share our insights.

Cecelia's dilemma

Cecelia worked as a section head in the social services department at Northshire County Council.  The impact of the government’s austerity measures meant that all local authorities were seeking ways of reducing their spending to bring it into line with the substantially lower grant expected from central government.  Cecelia had been involved in departmental discussions to review current staffing levels and was privy to a list of post holders who were to be made redundant so that the department could balance its new, lower, budget.  Like all those involved she had promised not to reveal the names of the staff involved until the County Council announced its decision for all departments. Many of the staff in Social Services had worked with Cecelia for a long time and as rumours began to circulate about the redundancies she was approached many times for information.  Not unreasonably, some people wanted to know whether they should be applying for jobs in other organisations. What is the moral dilemma facing Cecelia?

Should she reveal what she knows if she is asked directly?

Should she say she doesn’t know?

Why? Or why not?

Give your reasons and share your feelings about the case.
One day when the tension at work was really rising, Cecelia received, by accident, a copy of a confidential  e-mail from the Chief Executive to the Director of Social services stating that they were seriously thinking of out-sourcing the whole of the Social Services Department and that all staff would be made redundant. Does this latest information make any difference to what Cecelia should do?

Here are some of the observations made and questions raised in the group discussions:

• This is the kind of dilemma that our facilitator had said earlier is a staple of soap operas. Were Cecilia to divulge what she knows, it would be like tearing open a pillowcase on a mountaintop and the feathers blowing everywhere. Once let out, it would be impossible to predict where they would go - or to gather them all up again and put them back in the pillowcase.
• It's hard to disentangle politics from ethics in this case. Many people here this evening claimed personal experience of this sort of situation.
• Cecilia has made a professional commitment to confidentiality, but she's privy to information about some people that will affect their lives. What if those who are made redundant find out that Cecilia knew about their situation but didn't tell them?
• Do any of Cecilia's options allow her to act truthfully? If she says she doesn't know, then she'd be lying. Be as truthful as possible - which doesn't necessarily mean revealing everything she knows.
• Do we assume that "being truthful" equals spilling all the beans all the time?
• Can we assume that the employer would carry out this process in a human and sensitive way?
• It's only fair that everyone involved in the process is informed of the outcome at the same time and in the same way - or is it?
• What if there were some special, overriding reason why one person needed to know this information: for instance, if one of the people on Cecilia's team is able to remain in this country only if they have a job; and if they don't, they are in danger of being sent back to their country of origin, which would place them in harm's way?
• Could Cecilia consider herself beholden to a higher principle of truthfulness that that of employer/employee confidentiality?
• From a certain point of view, it could be said that losing one's job might allow one to break the cycle of dependency on material possessions.
• Is taking refuge in the Buddha the same as praying?
• Our discussion is a kind of "taking refuge".
• When we're talking about this, do we assume that Cecilia is exercised by the same moral wranglings that we are going through this evening? Are we to assume that Cecilia is a Buddhist? Are we doing that anyway?
• It's a Buddhist principle that one should take responsibility for one's actions. It's also a Buddhist principle that we must recognise that actions have consequences. Cecilia can't mimic the accidental forwarding of that email, for example. Whatever she does - even if she takes no deliberate action - Cecilia's involvement here will have repercussions.
• We recognise the place in this dilemma of the Buddhist precept of doing least harm. But if one wants to do good, then how is that measured - in the short term, medium term and/or long term.
• At the end of the day, you've got to be able to live with yourself, to be able to say that you've done your best to do good. We acknowledge the role of conscience, heart, intuition in this.

LEICESTER SPEAKS 2010: BUDDHIST / MUSLIM DIALOGUE

This afternoon we have the third of four meetings presented by the Council of Faiths for Leicester Speaks (AKA Local Democracy Week). This Buddhist / Muslim dialogue is being held in the Welcome Centre, 1400-1500. Susthama Marion Kim is speaking for the Buddhist point of view, Yasmin Surti for the Muslim. As was was the case in yesterday’s meeting, a theme of common interest emerges: this time it’s social action. The Amida trust, which is the brand of Buddhism to which Susthama belongs, has been running a drop-in project for vulnerable people on Mondays at Bishop Street Methodist Church, next door to Pilgrim House, in which the Welcome Centre is located. Yasmin has been involved in the flashmob iftar events, in which local Muslims broke the fast at the end of the day, each Thursday in Ramadan, with food that they shared with homeless people and destitute asylum seekers beside the Pavilion in Victoria Park. this has developed after the end of Ramadan into flashmob meals, sharing with the same groups, in the same place. In fact, they're having one there this evening.