Modgala Duguid's Page

Easter monday I went to a party. A very special party for a very special woman. I met Joan eight years ago when some of went to a very unusual demonstration. Outside Huntingdon Life Sciences a group of animal activists met to protest against the terrible experiments being performed on animals in the concrete"nissen style"huts that lay behind the wire and the police who faced us. this however was a different protest, much of the time we were in silence, interspersed with prayers for the animals s… Continue

Saturday I was running a day retreat on Karma and on arrival, as we chatted over tea, we found we were all very affected by what is happening in Gaza. During the retreat we flowed between looking outwards at the world around us and our reactions to the events, then inwards to see through our own histories(karma) how we can all be caught to act or not act in certain ways according to those histories. At the end of the day we looked back out again to see our own histories and current actions in a… Continue

Last monday a new group assembled in Peckham. At last Eileen Conn, an activist, Amida rep on southwark interfaith and long term Amida meember had found friends and fellow community activists in her own locality. Fortuitously Modgala had met Anna on the climate camp March as they walked back from Kingsnorth alongside other members of the Network of Engaged Buddhists. Another friend Andy and his beautiful dog hosted us - .three North London members crossed the river to join them along with another… Continue

Kaspalita came down to offer us a weekend on Pandramatics. We were a very little group as several people had to cancel. However on saturday this gave us an oportunity and share about the amida Order and the path we had taken. then we looked at several stories of the Buddha and decided to look more deeply and act out the story of Angulimala. It was almost frightening how easily some of us could get into that role. And how difficult it was to "be buddha"! With just one simple prop and a lot of wal… Continue

The Sakyadita AGM at the Jamyanfg buddhist Centre in London was a small and moving event. Sakyadita was formed especially to encourage women around the world to work for gender equality and establish an international alliance of buddhist women. I was speaking alongside nuns from the Therava and Tibetan traditions. Sister sunanda was talking about her struggles with sexism over 30 years as a nun in the UK. What an amazing woman, great courage in taking a very lonely path and a great sense of humo… Continue