Design company uses Buddhism to create happy place to work

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Newport, Wales (UK) -- You Buddha believe it!

This group of Welsh workers are meditating away the stresses of office life with Buddhism – and they hope their practices will make their company reach a state of Nirvana.

The Newport web and development agency Mettaengine was established in June last year by three kindred spirits, who met at a Buddhist centre.

Creative director Graham Shimell said: “We usually try to meditate together every morning – it’s a good way to start the day.”

The staff meditate three times a day in a specially-adapted shrine room, which contains a statue of Buddha, along with candles, incense and a singing bowl.

“We strike the bowl before we start meditating. The vibrations are calming and fade into silence, which helps us to get into the right mindset,” added Graham.

“I try to focus on my breathing and become present in the moment, then I find I can be calm and let go of my worries.

“Meditation has made a huge difference to my state of mind. It has helped me to let go and not cling to certain wants and desires.”

Managing director William Elworthy said: “Sometimes, if things get a bit stressful, I go and meditate for a few minutes and when I come back into the office, I have a completely different perspective on things.”

The staff aim to bring Buddhist practice to the workplace by following a code of ethics based on Buddha’s five precepts, which include helping others, truthfulness and generosity.

William said: “We want to take meditation off the cushion and spread it into the workplace.”

Graham explained the principles translated simply into everyday life. “It all comes down to acting with kindness and working as a team,” he said.

The staff hope the company will counter negative perceptions of businesses.

“Hopefully we can be an inspiration for certain companies out there, especially following the recent problems created by the credit crunch,” said Graham.

The founders were inspired by a Cambridge-based all-Buddhist business called Windhorse Evolution, which grew from a market stall in the 1980s into a leading UK gift business with a multimillion pound turnover.

The web developers came to Buddhism from a variety of backgrounds – Graham by American Beat writers of the 1960s, while William developed an interest through martial arts.

Both started reading Buddhist texts and meditating, before joining the Cardiff Buddhist Centre about four years ago, where they met operations director John James.

William said: “We went on a retreat together and it became clear that we all shared the same vision. We have a good business dynamic.”

He became increasingly disillusioned with his previous working environment.

“I ran a business for six years, but it was taking over my life. It was too cut throat and the balance weren’t there. The vision of just making money wasn’t enough,” he said.

The staff have observed a growing demand for Buddhist teachings in Wales and believe the Welsh Buddhist community is growing.

Graham said: “There is a very materialistic culture in the western world, but some people have realised there is more to life than just desiring new items.

“Buddhism is about the internal rather than the external. It’s about realising there are more important things than just desiring the latest BMW to make you happy.”

The business is currently run by three members of staff, who are hoping to expand by offering training courses and apprenticeships.

“We would like to work with other Buddhists, but we would not want to be seen as excluding other people. The most important thing is that they are prepared to follow the ethical precepts,” said Graham.

Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2013/03/22/design-company-uses-buddhism-to-create-happy-place-to-work-91466-33039867/#ixzz2OSkH7Lcf

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The Castor Bay Presbyterian Church and hall will become a place of Buddhist worship and meditation

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Castor Bay, New Zealand -- A Buddhist organisation has bought the Castor Bay Presbyterian Church.

<< SOLD: the Castor Bay Presbyterian Church and hall will become a place of Buddhist worship and meditation.A Buddhist organisation has bought the Castor Bay Presbyterian Church.

The church and adjoining hall have been bought by the Auckland branch of a well-established Buddhist religious education society with other existing premises throughout the city.

Mairangi and Castor Bays Presbyterian Church property and finance convenor George Wyman said the church had been sold as the size of its congregations no longer warranted its own premises.

Congregation members will now integrate into the Mairangi Bay Presbyterian Church some two kilometres away or to the Anglican Church in neighbouring Milford.

The church will hold its final religious worship sessions over Easter in April next year. The sale of the Castor Bay Presbyterian Church was brokered by Bayleys Takapuna.

The two buildings have a combined floor space of 250 square metres with off-street car parking for eight vehicles, and sit on 1133 square metres of land with vast views over Milford Beach and the Waitemata Harbour.

The Castor Bay land and buildings have a capital valuation of $1.125milllion.

Bayleys Takapuna sales person Peter Christoffersen said that seven tenders were received for the Castor Bay premises after an extensive marketing campaign which embraced both the commercial and residential development potential for the land and buildings.

"Some of those tenders were for the commercial development of the site, while most were for development of a residential nature in line with its zoning of Residential 4 under the Auckland Council plan," Mr Christoffersen said.

"When the final round of tenders was assessed, the best deal put forward at the end of the process was that of the Buddhists. This sits well with the church's philosophy of encouraging spiritual worship, peace, and harmony and ensures the legacy created over almost 100 years in Castor Bay is maintained."

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Seeking new Buddhist monk to fill the place of another still mourned

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GRAND BAY, ALABAMA (USA) -- When Visanou Khamphouy opened his Asian market on U.S. 90 in south Mobile County a few years ago, he invited the Rev. Chaiwat Moleechate, head monk at the Grand Bay Buddhist temple, to offer blessings.

<< Buddhist monks from throughout the Southeast gathered to mourn after the May 11 murder of the Rev. Chaiwat Moleechate, head monk of Wat Buddharaksa Temple, the Buddhist temple in Grand Bay. Four months later, the community is seeking a head monk to take over leadership at the Buddhist temple. The people "feel lost," says Visanou Khamphouy, head of the congregation, who's in charge of seeking a new spiritual master for the temple. Roy Hoffman/Press-Register

At his store this week, Khamphouy, 63, remembered with enduring admiration — and continuing sadness — how his spiritual master, whose death last spring has been blamed on a fellow monk, had said prayers, sprinkled holy water, and brought gold foil for good fortune.

"He was very smart, a great teacher," said Khamphouy, at the store counter near pieces of the foil pinned to the wall above a small Buddhist shrine.

"When you went to the monk you got answers for your problems," he said.

As president of the Buddhist temple, Khamphouy is in charge of finding a new head monk.

Given Moleechate’s enormous role in the community — and the violent circumstances of his death — that task is a daunting. It is pressing, too.

Without their monk, Khamphouy said, "the people feel lost."

Moleechate, 45, was bludgeoned to death inside the temple on May 11, according to news reports. Vern Phdsamay, 32, a monk who lived at the temple, was arrested and charged with murder in the slaying.

During a bail hearing on May 20, Mobile Assistant District Attorney Jo Beth Murphree said Phdsamay had struck Moleechate several times in the head with a large wooden pestle. An argument about food, Murphree said, had apparently set off the incident.

At the time, Phdsamay’s attorney, Neil Hanley, said the accusations against the defendant were out of character.

At his store, Khamphouy described Moleechate as a deeply philosophical man with a big heart.

"He helped many people," Khamphouy said of the late monk.

Moleechate assisted the 300 families of his community, helping them translate from Thai and Laotion to English, with family concerns, with questions about immigration.

In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Ivan, Moleechate opened the temple as a shelter. And after the Gulf oil spill, Moleechate helped bring the community together, he said.

He took care of his assistant monks, too.

Once, when Phdsamay had suffered an ear ailment and had to go to Birmingham for treatment, Moleechate accompanied him, Khamphouy recalled.

A native of Thailand, Moleechate studied Buddhism in India and became head monk at the Grand Bay worship center, Wat Buddharaksa Temple, 16 years ago.

In an interview at the temple with the Press-Register in May 2010, Moleechate said that he had grown up in a poor family near the border with Laos and began his religious studies at age 12.

He became a monk at age 21.

He spoke of the Buddha as a model of perfection, a way of life and thought.

"We try to lead the Buddhist people to meditate," he said. "To cool down, to slow down. The clear mind. The pure mind."

Khamphouy described the monk accused of killing Moleechate as quite the opposite — having a troubled mind.

Moleechate had been aware of it, he said, even arranging for Phdsamay to see a psychologist.

Khamphouy has already located two monks who he thinks might work well in the south Mobile County community — one in California, another in Florida.

They must be of a high station in terms of experience and knowledge.

"We listen to what he says when he preaches," he said.

"We see if the people like him or do not like him."

Once a monk is nominated as leader, a vote by the board is held.

Whoever is chosen will take up residence at the temple on Boe Road in Grand Bay, opened in 2010 after a fire gutted an earlier structure in Irvington.

A golden Buddha stands before the temple. Inside, figures of the Buddha fill an altar.

Khamphouy said that half of Moleechate’s ashes are at the temple; the other half were sent to Thailand.

On a recent day at the complex, one of Moleechate’s assistant monks, the Rev. Sisavath, walked across the grounds from the monk’s house to the temple.

Barefoot, in saffron robes, he stepped inside.

Sisavath has been with Wat Buddaraksa Temple for five years, and still speaks little English.

When asked about his lost monk, he nodded on hearing the name Chaiwat Moleechate.

He touched his chest.

"Sad," he said. "Sad."

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