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After a Church of England upbringing, from which she turned away in her early teens, Glittermouse (Annabeth Orton) spent many years as a proud atheist, spurning any notion of God, religion or spirituality and adamant that the clinical certainty of western science would eventually come to explain all apparent mysteries in both the physical world and the human psyche. After accidentally stumbling onto a path of unexpected personal discovery following a drop-in meditation class at the Manchester Buddhist Centre in February 2015, she eventually conceded that dismissing spirituality was rather a case throwing the baby out with the bath water and that there was, in fact, value to be found in engaging with religion in a way that didn’t require her to accept the existence of a creator deity. In July 2016, she became a mitra of the Triratna Buddhist Order, and formally requested ordination soon after.
Part of this process of personal evolution involved leaving a 12 year teaching career and beginning to explore other ways to make a meaningful contribution to the world around her. She is recently back in the UK after spending time at Aryaloka Computer Education Centre, a Buddhist social project in Nagpur, offering subsidised education to some of India’s poorest and most excluded young people.
She is now spending time on the Essex coast before undertaking a five month residential course on Dharma practice at Adhisthana in Hereford from July 2017. You can read more about her visual arts background, on the ‘About’ page.
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Glittermouse felt very privileged to be asked to work on the team for an introductory weekend in September 2016 at the London Buddhist Centre’s brand new purpose built Vajrasana Retreat Centre. She was further honoured when she was invited to deliver a talk alongside other team members titled ‘Why I am a Buddhist’. You can listen to that talk (about 19 minutes) in your browser, or you’re welcome to download and read the PDF version.
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The first of the 5 Buddhist Precepts is the undertaking to abstain from taking life. This is a key principle, which also includes a commitment to minimise any suffering caused to other beings as a result of your actions. As such, many Buddhists are vegetarian and it is often encouraged to make the transition to a vegan diet wherever possible. Removing animal products from her meals was actually a decision Glittermouse made in childhood and far preceded her involvement in Buddhism, however. In 2012 she began a vegan recipe site, hoping to help make such dietary choices more accessible to those people she frequently encountered who seemed quite baffled by where to start. If you are one of those who would like to ask ‘So what do you eat then?’ or are simply interested in a few new recipes, you can find these at www.sowhatdoyoueatthen.co.uk.
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As well as the ethics of our actions, another important Buddhist teaching on that of the Threefold Way (before the third of wisdom) is meditation. As a keen runner (a good way of balancing the physical needs of the body with the mental needs addressed when meditating!) Glittermouse was interested to apply some of the principles of meditation and mindfulness to this activity. Using this to help deliver running workshops to various groups, she then summarised it in this article.
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