Sponsored All Night Sangha Vigil

9.45 pm – 6.15 am (GMT)

with Kirsten Kratz and Zohar Lavie

‘May all beings be free from animosity, free from oppression, free from trouble, and may they look after themselves with ease’, (Cunda Kammaraputta Sutta, AN 10.176)

These beautiful words, honouring the heart-mind’s capacity of deep care and well-wishing, have been expressed as liberating aspirations by countless Dhamma practitioners over many generations.

After a pause of several years we are very happy to invite you once again to a Sponsored All Night Sangha Vigil in Gaia House.

This will be a precious opportunity to practice together, cultivating our deepest aspirations for the wellbeing of all those experiencing oppression, violence and extreme uncertainty at this time. Participants in previous vigils have found this a very profound, meaningful and beautiful way of practising, supported and energised by a shared intention and each other’s presence.

We hope to raise funds for the inspiring and sorely needed work of Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza, West Bank and Sudan.

Making a donation

If you would like to sponsor someone participating in the All Night Vigil, approach potential sponsors or simply to contribute something, please follow this link to our fundraising page. There will be an opportunity to support MSF’s work in Sudan and/or in Palestine. If you feel moved to give to both causes, you may have to go back to the initial link.

Despite Israel’s ban on MSF and other aid organisations, MSF continues its work in Gaza until March at least. The organisers of the vigil feel that it is imperative to continue supporting MSF at this time. To read MSF’s response to the ban follow this link: https://www.msf.org/israels-threat-withhold-registration-ngos-grave-blow-humanitarian-aid-gaza-and-west-bank

Any supporting messages left on the fundraising pages may be read out during the night

Joining In-house

If you plan to join us in person please arrive from 8.45 pm onward. There will be an opportunity to meet with other participants over a cup of tea in the lounge until the start of the vigil at 9.45 pm. When arriving please register with Alix in the lounge, and please also cross out your name when leaving during the night. When parking please try to avoid blocking people in.

We will start the night with a welcoming and opening ritual that will include all joining, online or in person. There will be a camera in a corner of the hall, capturing our circle of participants in Gaia House. If you do not wish to be on camera you will be able to place yourself accordingly.

We will serve some hot chocolate, biscuits etc. at around midnight to keep us going. If you wish to have a short rest during the night, please feel free to use Room 19 in the Garden Wing.

The vigil will end around 6.00 am, when we will prepare the meditation hall for the first scheduled sit of the day. Please feel free stay for breakfast in the lounge. We will aim to leave Gaia House by 8.15am at the latest.

Please be reminded that the house will remain in silence throughout the night.

If you are attending in person it would be helpful if you could let Kirsten know via email so that we can prepare the hall (and the hot chocolate).

Joining Online

You are very welcome to join us online for all or parts of the night using the Zoom link on this page. The livestream will be open for the entire night.

We will place a camera in the hall, so that you will be able to see the circle of participants in Gaia House. You are very welcome to join us alone, or we wholly welcome you to gather in your location with others and dial in together.

We will start the night with a welcoming and opening ritual that will include all joining, online or in person. If you are joining us online you may wish to bring a candle.

Practical information about joining online

Closed captioning can be enabled by clicking on ‘Show Captions’, ‘Live transcription’ or ‘More’ (depending on your device and version of Zoom).
If you are able, it is nice to keep our videos on to create a sense of community together. If you need to have your camera off that is also fine.
The meditation hall will be spotlighted – but you can still choose ‘gallery view’ by clicking on the grid icon in the top right-hand side of your screen to get a sense of those you are practising with if you prefer.
If you are eating or moving a lot during stillness periods it is helpful if you can switch off your camera to maintain a sense of stillness.

To join online, please click here.

If you are using the Zoom app you may need the following:

Meeting ID: 810 9299 1538
Passcode: 913757

Schedule

Saturday 24 January – Sunday 25 January

The All Night Vigil will start at 9.45 pm and will end around 6.15 am.

During the night there will be periods of stillness and movement meditation, reflections, poetry and some chanting. A more detailed schedule will be shared during the night.

(times shown above in GMT)