What does a Buddhist Order have to offer the world in times of conflict, violence and environmental destruction? How is the creation of spiritual community relevant to wider society? What would a genuine, adequate and radical response to the cries of the world look like? How do we ground a burning aspiration for liberation from suffering in a tangible path of practice? 

The Buddha’s teachings have both profound and pragmatic implications for living our life, addressing the root causes of suffering and calling for a transformation of self as a way to a corresponding transformation of world. 

Through exploring the practice of the six paramitas, or transcendental virtues, we will approach this sublime and challenging ideal of the Bodhisattva, who is dedicated to awakening for all beings, in a series of talks from a line-up of experienced practitioners within our tradition.

Explore with Nagapriya and friends the cosmic story of the Buddha Amitabha (Amida) and the creation of his Pure Land

The light of compassion that grasps us illumines and protects us always,
And the darkness of our ignorance is already broken through;
Still the clouds and mists of greed, desire, anger, and hatred
Cover as always the sky of true and real shinjin.

Shinran

The mythic story of the cosmic Buddha Amitabha (Amida) and the creation of his Pure Land is the backdrop to one of the most popular and enduring of the late Buddhist traditions. In this Home Retreat with Nagapriya we will be exploring how meditating and practising the Dharma within this rich world of images and ideas can be personally transformative, bringing Amida to life with a deep wonder, gratitude, and openness.

We’ll be practising around key themes from Nagapriya’s book ‘The Promise of a Sacred World.’ In particular, we will evoke the idea of ‘Other Power’, as understood by the Japanese master Shinran, engaging with how this relates to self-directed effort on the Buddhist path – and how it connects with the Triratna Buddhist Community’s vision of practice.

The Pure Land is life itself understood as a field of perpetual going for refuge, in which awakening is ‘given’ not ‘achieved’. And Amida can be experienced as the sacred world breaking in on our awareness or irrupting within us. Using meditation, ritual, imagery, and reflection, we will immerse ourselves in this profound myth of liberation and the opportunities it opens up to us in any moment.

Saturday August 17 – Wednesday August 21, 2024

First session (1.5 hrs): USA PST 02:00 | México 03:00 | USA EST 05:00 | IE & UK 10:00 | Europe CET 11:00 | India 14:30 | Australia AEST 19.00 | New Zealand NZST 21.00

Second session (2 hrs): USA PST 06:30 | México 07:30 | USA EST 09:30 | IE & UK 14:30 | Europe CET 15:30 | India 19:00 | Australia AEDT 23.30 | New Zealand NSZT 01:30 (next day)

Third session (2 hrs): USA PST 11:00 | México 12:00 | USA EST 14:00 | IE & UK 19:00 | Europe CET 20:00 | India 23:30 | Australia AEDT 04.00 (next day) | New Zealand NZST: 06.00 (next day)

Image by JR Korpa

A home retreat to inspire and enrich your imagination

The mind, freed from the pressure of the will, is unfolded in symbols

W.B. Yeats

Following last year’s successful Mindfulness and Imagination retreat, The Heart of Imagination offers a week of meditation and creative practice, drawing inspiration from poetry, art, nature and Buddhist symbols.

The focus of the retreat will be on cultivating awareness as a gateway into more expanded and enriched states of mind. We will reflect on what the imagination is, what it means to us individually and what it can serve in our lives. There will be an emphasis on meditation and mindfulness with periods of creative exploration – drawing and writing. You’ll receive a rich body of resources to stimulate your imagination and help you access images/themes of significance to you. We will also explore the transformative power of the imagination to enrich our lives and open our mind to new ways of seeing and being.

To deepen our understanding of the transformative power of the imagination we’ll draw on a body of teachings called the ‘System of Spiritual Practice’ that outlines a naturally unfolding process, as awareness deepens through dedicated practice. This can help us to navigate our unique way, with more confidence and freedom. We’ll explore:

• Integration, meaning embodied awareness
• Positive emotion: an open, loving and empathic heart
• Spiritual Death: releasing limiting attitudes, and finding a more authentic way of being
• Spiritual Rebirth: the realm of imagination that brings an expanded experience of ourselves and opening to a sense of mystery
• Spiritual Receptivity: resting in the freedom of open, spacious awareness and creative flow

These are doorways to a more creative experience that we can access whatever our circumstances.

Enlightenment is the state of irreversible creativity

Urgyen Sangharakshita

Friday September 13 – Thursday September 19, 2024

First daily session (2 hrs): USA PDT 2:00 am | México CST 3:00 am | USA EDT 5:00 am | IE & UK BST 10:00 am | Europe CEST 11:00 am | India IST 2:30 pm | Australia AEST 7:00 pm | New Zealand NZST 9:00 pm

Second daily session (1.5 hrs): USA PDT 7:30 am | México CST 8:30 am | USA EDT 10:30 am | IE & UK BST 3:30 pm | Europe CEST 4:30 pm | India IST 8:00 pm | Australia AEST 12:30 am (next day) | New Zealand NZST 2:30 am (next day)

Third daily session (1.5 hrs): USA PDT 11:30 am | México CST 12:30 pm | USA EDT 2:30 pm | IE & UK BST 7:30 pm | Europe CEST 8:30 pm | India IST 12:00 midnight | Australia AEST 4:30 am (next day) | New Zealand NZST 6:30 am (next day)

Event images by Amitajyoti

An embodied opportunity to explore meditation in community

Following on from last year’s successful Home Retreat ‘Forces for Good: Challenging Emotions as Portals to Liberation’, our friends Balajit, Singhashri and Viveka are back and joining forces again to offer another wonderful embodied opportunity to explore our system of meditation in depth and in community.

This year we’re all invited to draw inspiration from the Mahayana Trikaya (“three body”) teaching that points to who we actually are via three simultaneous dimensions of reality:

• Nirmanakaya: coming home to presence within this body, this world

• Sambhogakaya: befriending the dynamic flow of feeling and energy, and the relational dimension of being

• Dharmakaya: opening to the luminous, boundless dimension of awakened being

We will delve into poetic themes of “coming home” and “belonging” as an emotionally engaging and relational approach to insight that allows:

• Respect and appreciation of core human needs – belonging, safety and dignity

• Holding of the tension between our ideals and our current (often messy) experience

• Healing the illusion of separation and the habits of dualism

• Learning to feel sensations of belonging at the levels of self, community, place, world
  and to express compassionately responsive activity

• Deepening of mindfulness and metta as practices capable of helping us see the true nature of reality

This retreat will include meditation, movement (somatics), music, chanting and ritual, exercises and discussions, teacher input and practice reviews.

If friendship in community is the whole of the spiritual life, here’s your chance to go deeper in your own practice in the supportive company of others.  

“The Dharmakaya is… the embodiment, or the perfection of mind. Mind meaning here the deepest part of oneself, because it is with that deepest part of oneself…that one realises the ultimate. So Dharmakaya corresponds to mind, what in us is mind, in a Buddha is Dharmakaya.

In the same way Sambhogakaya corresponds to speech, what, in us is speech or communication, or communication principle, in a Buddha is Sambhogakaya. So in his Sambhogakaya form, in his ideal form, his archetypal form, he communicates with others on the same spiritual level, communicates with other Buddhas and with highly advanced Bodhisattvas.

And then Nirmanakaya corresponds with – it literally means ‘body of transformation’ – …what is Nirmanakaya in a Buddha in us is physical body. Our physical body determines where we are. The fact that we have a physical body means that we exist at a certain point in space and a certain point in time…”

Sangharakshita, Seminar on the Songs of Milarepa

Friday October 25 – Thursday October 31, 2024

The retreat will start at the time of the second session on October 25. This is to allow the full team to begin the retreat together. All other days will feature three sessions at the times shown on the booking page.

N.B. This retreat is for peole with at least six months’ meditation experience. Please get in touch if you have any questioins about attending: support@thebuddhistcentre.com