Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 1: Integration - Bristol Rains Retreat 2020: 'The Dynamic Mandala'
On Mon, 30 March, 2020 - 10:26- 1
About 50 of us gathered (online) for the start of the 2020 Bristol Sangha Rains Retreat for Order Members and Mitras this morning. Tejananda had been due to be at the Centre this week to lead the Rains, but as that wasn’t possible, due to Covid-19, he’s generously offered to run 5 x 2 hour sessions over five mornings covering the same material - ‘The Dynamic Mandala’.
After a general introduction we did a short exercise to explore the distinction between mind and body, or the difference between mental projection onto experience, and actual experience. He ran through the aspects of the Triratna System of Practice from the perspective of the ‘dynamic mandala’ - an approach which focuses on somatic (or bodily/energetic) experience.
After a led meditation to help us ‘arrive’, he outlined an intuitive, ‘awareness and energy’ approach to working with the five hindrances. We concluded with a short meditation and further questions.
Although this material is open to all, please note it is intended for those with a regular meditation practice.
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Just to note that there were a couple of false starts due to technical issues (working out how to use zoom for this on the hoof!) and if you start listening at 9.55 minutes in, you’ll avoid all that and get into where I start going into the material.
Tejananda