Springhill Buddha Grove & Angulimala...

The Annual Springhill Buddha Grove Celebration on Sunday September 9th was another great success.
And the day before we held Angulimala's AGM followed by an afternoon with Phil Wheatley, the Director General of the Prison Service.

On a balmy late summer’s evening at Springhill Open Prison in Buckinghamshire on September 9th we held our annual celebration at the Springhill Buddha Grove. It was grand to be there again in that very special place, although there were fewer guests this year and for the first time we were without Lord Avebury who was enjoying a well deserved break somewhere in France. Tim Newell, the former Governor conned by Sam Cutler into agreeing to the building of the Buddha Grove all those years ago, was there with his wife, and so was the present Governor, Peter Bennett, and Khun Bancha, the First Secretary from the Royal Thai Embassy. Dominic, an S.O. at Brixton Prison brought Venerable Sangthong Dhammacaro from Wat Buddhapadipa who teaches meditation at Brixton and two Thai monks came from the Oxford Buddhist Vihara. As usual we began at the Buddha Grove with some speeches and the chanting of the Parittas, which brought tears to the eyes of one of the prison officers on duty. Later a surprised inmate who had observed this phenomenon said to the officer that he thought they (officers) had no feelings. Well, just as I have to remind people sometimes that prisoners aren’t only prisoners, so prison officers are people too and we’re all in the same boat, spoilt with greed, aversion and delusion and having to struggle with our suffering one way or another. It’s that very omnipresent problem of suffering that Buddhism addresses head on. Once again I told the story of the building of the Buddha Grove way back in 1992 when Sam Cutler and his partner in time conceived and built it, Sam doing the organising, conning the Governor and getting other inmates with their numerous skills involved, while Ian shifted the concrete and managed the site. While we were enjoying our little ceremony at the Buddha Grove an army of Thai cooks and helpers were down at the kitchens perfecting the banquet they’d spent the afternoon preparing. So as soon as I’d shut up, down everyone trooped to the dining hall where the Thais were ready to feed the entire prison and guests. Everyone who spoke to me afterwards said how delicious the food was, and I’m sure it was with some of the best Thai restaurants in the country represented in that kitchen. Afterwards we returned to the Buddha Grove for the candlelit circumambulation, pictured above.My thanks and appreciation to everyone who made the evening such a brilliant success. Anumodana!



The day before, at the Forest Hermitage, we’d had one of our quarterly Angulimala workshops for Buddhist Prison Chaplains. In the morning was Angulimala’s AGM, when we broke with tradition and successfully accepted the accounts. Then in the afternoon Phil Wheatley, the Director General of the Prison Service, (with me in the picture) kindly spent a couple of hours with us talking to about the current state of the prisons and answering questions and responding to what our Buddhist chaplains had to say. It was very kind of him indeed to give up a Saturday afternoon for us. It was much appreciated and we were deeply grateful.