Report on past, present and future of Littlebang:
“Littlebang” started about two years ago as a temporary site to provide further information on a set of talks at Baan Aree Library. I had the intention to do some dhamma talks once a year as my contribution to society and the international community, during the Pansa (July-Sept) period when other monks are not travelling. But many of us made friends and wanted to keep on getting together for events, so the project continued uniterrupted since. We’ve invited speakers and teachers, and arranged social gatherings both large and small. We have had a lot of support especially from the Thai community which has provided venues and air conditioning free of charge so that Westerners can gain access to dhamma. In fact so many people have contributed in so many ways, it is better not to start mentioning names as it is a long list.
Donations
For many events we put out donation boxes – there is no charity, or buildings to finance etc. so donations are not so vital. What is collected is simply a kitty for our group so that we can pay whatever small expenses crop up. There are not a lot of expenses but we try to pay taxi fares for any Monks and Nuns who might come along. Last year we had to buy a speaker/amp system, and sometiems we contribute group funds to visiting speakers. Depending on the situation we often simply pass on all donations to the speaker or their organisation. The kitty is held by Dr Holly, and anyone who would like to know more or see the record is welcome to ask her. Right now we have about 17 000 baht, mostly from last year’s talks at Wat Yannawa. Most of this will be used on buying leaflets and leaflet holders to advertise this year’s series of talks, and some meditation mats and cushions for our group.
Activity
Some months are busier than others of course, and certain activities are more popular and large scale. Statistics from the WordPress blog reports show a steady build up in activity. The general stats are shown below, mentioning the key events for each period (click for larger view):
Ideas for activities are always welcome. Sometime this year we’ll be having our first Little Bangkok Sangha official Picnic near Bangkok at a park chosen by Terry (who knows all the places).
This year’s Pansa talks are being kindly hosted by Planet Yoga and announcments/details will be posted up over the next week. This will be Thursday evenings from Aug 6 to Sept 24 (8 weeks). In September we’ll also be doing some one day workshops with Mike and Helge who are the senior assistant teachers at Wat Kow Tahm. For the very keen, we will also do an “Aditthana’ month … but more on that later.