We have learned that having a common topic or theme for a period of time has helped give continuity across the various IMC-L programs.

The IMC-Lewes theme for this year will be “Supports for the Practice” and will focus on the Pārami (the ten daily perfections).

Pārami — ‘perfections,’ or transcendent virtues — are daily life practices that give the mind a firm ground in Dhamma. Comprising simple qualities like patience, generosity and truthfulness, they can be skillfully applied to the ‘flash-points’ in the day in order to steer the mind out of samsaric currents and on towards peace, clarity and nibbāna.

Our basic resource for our Dharma Study will be based on the book Pārami, Ways to Cross Life’s Floods by Ajahn Sucitto. This is a book we read five years ago and one that bears re-reading, especially in these stressful times. It is available for free download in either pdf or ebook format. You may download the pdf and have a printing service such as Staples print and bind it for easy reference during our sessions.

Ajahn Sucitto tells us “these pāramī form a set of themes that are used in the Theravada tradition to this day. They provide a template for the mind’s energies and activities that isn’t an extra to all the other things we might have to do, but encompasses our talking and working, our relationships and interactions with others, our times of private introspection, our decision-making and the forming of our life directions.

The pāramī take spiritual practice into areas of our lives where we get confused, are subject to social pressure and are often strongly influenced by stress or stress- forming assumptions. Providing alternative ways to orient the mind in the stream of daily events, the ‘perfections’ can derail obstructive inner activities, and leave the mind clear for meditation. Cultivating pāramī means you get to steer your life out of the floods.”

We will begin our study the first Monday in March and, as always, will be looking for volunteers to facilitate each discussion session. Hope you can join us!