This month in Base – February 2024

Hello all,

This quote has been in my mind a lot this month:

You have to confront the brutal facts of the reality that you might not pull it off, but at the same time, have unwavering faith, a completely unwavering faith, and you have to do both at the same time. 

– Jon Batiste

This is a great characterisation of the feel of a project like Buddhafield Base. Putting realism and shoot-for-the-moon hopefulness next to each other while trying to balance on the line in between has been an ongoing practice for the team.

We’ve recently started work on a complex bid for a promising new property. We’re not getting our hopes up, but we’re leaning towards it with everything we have. Watch this space for news.

Behind the Scenes

In the last few months, we’ve refined our conversation about Buddhafield Base. We want to be relevant, impactful, responsive and compassionate while holding Buddhism at the heart of what we do. As we widen our search for funding in 2024 and seek to connect with even more people, it seems time to take stock of our message.

You can see some of the work we’ve been doing on our website and you’ll start to see our new tag line popping up online, on publicity and on badges if you’re joining us at Buddhafield in the City.

Resource

Consumption is rapidly outstripping our resources in the modern world. If the focus stays on material resources, then eventually, there will be an endpoint – and it’s unlikely that, even by that point, everyone will have enough. Our internal resources are precious in these times – kindness, patience, generosity, and wisdom can potentially be boundless as well as an antidote to the constant cravings and seeking that underpin our material dependence. As Buddhafield Base, we aim to cultivate internal resources and skills for meeting the challenge of living simply and harmoniously in balance with the world.

Connect

Connection and dependent arising are at the heart of Buddhism, and when we know this to be true, we start to act from a sense of the whole ecosystem rather than feeling the anxiety of our isolation. We foster deeper relationships through this understanding – to ourselves, others, and the natural world. One way to hold, face and integrate the difficult parts of ourselves and the world is to dissolve our sense of separation. At Buddhafield Base, we want to encourage the cultivation of a sense of connection which is practical and supportive. This will help incubate the innovations that will make a difference to all beings on the planet and our environment.

Regenerate

Regeneration is a continuous process which can be impaired or supported through our actions. So many people yearn for supportive practices to help them regenerate a sense of meaning, creativity and hope. With skilful, imaginative practice comes the possibility of seeing ourselves as influential, effective and ethical – and able to positively influence the future in a way that supports regeneration for generations to come. Buddhafield Base is the next evolution of Buddhafield, but also part of a legacy that will impact the future 25 years from now, 100 years from now or even more.

Setting intention

Exploring and naming these concepts in our tagline offers another container for our intentions for Buddhafield Base alongside our values of care for land and ecology, meaningful work, celebration of creativity and imagination and authentic community.

And finally… 

Also, this month, Buddhafield Base in the City, a new branch of our share offer opens up, our ambassador’s programme is growing and, of course, the potential property is also keeping the sparkle alive.

 

Thanks for your involvement and support. Wishing you a beautiful early spring.

 

With kindness,

Lotus

Project Lead, Buddhafield Base