Dharmashalin works at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, his role there is to find ways of communicating Buddhist values and meditation in the wider community.
On day three of the tonglen retreat here at Taraloka, self-tonglen takes centre stage.
At the start of her talk Saddhanandi refers to one of the seven point mind training slogans: ‘begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself’. We start by turning towards what’s going on in our experience right now.
From Triratna News on Mon, 24 Mar, 2014 - 12:58Karmavajra writes from India, saying -
“Dhammachari Suvachin passed away around 10 am Tuesday 18 March 2014 (Indian time) at his residence in Nanded Maharashtra, India. He was 81 years of age. His son Dhammachari Padmasen was with him in his last time. He had been hospitalised for the last month.”
Suvachin was ordained in 1999 at Bhaja in India, with Subhuti as his private and public preceptor.
From Taraloka Retreat Centre on Mon, 24 Mar, 2014 - 08:55A bright hard frost this morning, after a clear starry night. The wind has dropped and it’s absolutely still.
At 11am, I’ll be presenting Tonglen in relation to ‘self’. I’ve been remembering a period of time when I was quite new to meditation, and how I had to face certain uncomfortable truths about myself: five hard years of going on retreat acknowledging what was really happening! But the work that I did on myself during those years has become...
On the third day of the Tonglen retreat, Saddhanandi talks about turning towards whatever is unsatisfactory in our experience and holding that in the wider framework of spacious awareness.
Self-tonglen: First turning towards your own experience, then towards the unsatisfactory aspects and later to the joyful aspects. You end by simply being in a space of open awareness.
Earlier today Saddhanandi talked about creating a bigger container to engage with the suffering in the world. She mentioned the support of spacious, open awareness, connecting with your heart-wish and your relationship with the Buddha. Saddhanandi speaks about how to create a broader perspective, to give us the capacity to turn towards whatever is happening.
From Taraloka Retreat Centre on Sun, 23 Mar, 2014 - 13:06The day started with two meditations, held within the silence of early morning - dawn rises quietly in front of the large shrine room windows at Taraloka.
At 11am, I focused on the teaching of the Absolute Bodhicitta. In Tonglen it is sometimes called the stage of ‘Flashing Bodhicitta’. It’s taken me a few years to relate to this aspect of the practice as I’m such a practical sort-of-girl and I need things to be concrete and tangible! But...
