This Thought for the Day reflects on the worldly winds as the news shows them blowing through the lives of those caught up in a maelstrom they never expected
Step back from the details of several stories that have dominated the headlines recently and they seem to retell one of the oldest of all narratives. A man has risen to fame, riches and power, but things turn against him and he is facing disgrace. We must wait till...
In the first two days we’ve tried to become more aware of when the worldly winds blow in our lives, and also look for ways we can respond more creatively and skilfully to them. Yesterday we made use of the “resolve” section of the urban retreat practice diary to help us with this. Today we are going to look at the “remind” section of that diary.
“resolve” and “remind” are the first two parts of a simple, really practical, nuts-and-bolts toolbox which...
In this 13-minute video Vidyabhadri interviews me on the Buddha’s teaching of pleasure and pain (two of the worldly winds) and ways we can respond more skilfully to them. I’m in Manchester UK, a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order and co-founder of Breathworks (breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk), which offers people living with chronic pain the potential to improve and transform their quality of life.
Just coming to the end of a long and fruitful day on retreat here in Glastonbury, UK. 15 of us for the main part of the day, and a lot of interest/enthusiasm/energy/ engagement with the theme. We ended with a magical bonfire under the night sky on the slopes of Glastonbury Tor…
An interesting (and lively) discussion emerged around the theme of ‘going with the flow’ - is that a good thing to do? I argued that it’s...
Just a quick reminder that on or before tomorrow, Sunday, you’ll want to print out six copies of the urban retreat practice diary to use for keeping track of your process through the week. A great way to mark your resolutions and reminders while you steer your own little ship…
For any Facebookers out there, I just wanted to fill you in on ways to take part in that space, and tell you about one special event that’s happening there and there only!
If you join our Facebook Group you’ll be able to follow and take part in the daily reflection discussions that we’ll be having there. Much the same as the course materials in this space but with a different crowd (though altogether less follow-up and supporting material).
In case you didn’t know, not only is thebuddhistcentre.com on Twitter, we’re busy retweeting all Urban Retreat related missives and have compiled a list for you to subscribe to should you so wish. The list is Urban Retreat, which you can get to by clicking through here (or by visiting our Twitter page @buddhistcentre and choosing the list from the ‘lists menu’).
In the meantime, we encourage you to include with any Urban Retreat tweets our #hashtag of choice...
