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Kavyasiddhi gave this talk on the Christmas Oasis Retreat at Taraloka. She says: "It's an accessible talk, given on a retreat open to people of all levels of meditation experience, which shares a personal account of mistaking the Metta Bhavana for a 'manufacture and distribution' process and coming to see it as a key to stop 'fighting' my experience; and how I see the practice as an act of faith in the connected, potential filled Reality, described by the Buddha.

And I look at what metta is and the implications for doing the practice - on one's own mind and, in potential, for the world."

Given at Taraloka, December 2009

Please note, the original sound recording of this talk was of low quality and this comes through on the online version.

The Dhatuvibhanga Sutta - the Exposition of the Elements - tells the story of a meeting between the Buddha and a young monk called Pukkusati. The young monk doesn't at first realise who he is sharing his lodgings with. He is just very grateful the next morning for the offer of some help with his meditation practice. And the Buddha teaches him the Six Element Practice - that was after sitting all night meditating together!

Kulaprabha has often referred to this sutta while introducing people to the Six Element practice on ordination retreats. And the month before giving the talk she had been at Akashavana Retreat Centre in Spain co-leading a retreat for members of the Western Buddhist Order on that theme. This version of the talk was given in a very different context - at Windhorse Trading's main wholesale warehouse in Cambridge, UK. She had been asked to talk about Insight and Work. As you'll hear in the talk, Kulaprabha was a bit stumped as to how to do that but in the end thought that it was worth taking the ideas and reflections from her experience of the Six Element practice and suggesting to the Windhorse workers that they might find their own ways to apply them in the very busy context of running a business.

Given at Windhorse Trading, Cambridge, 2007

Three short talks on the theme of inspiring young people with the Dharma

Lindsay offers a frank account of what it can be like being a young person at an FWBO Centre these days - and offers some very practical suggestions to the FWBO Chairs for inspiring more young people to practice the Dharma with us.

Vairocana starts by questioning whether there is evil in the world, and if so, is it rooted in greed, hatred and delusion as stated in the Buddhist tradition? He ponders on Siddhartha's experience of dissatisfaction which led him to give up his life of privilege and luxury.

He then goes on to explore how the ego-identity is reinforced by fear. He looks at how the Buddha overcame fear and gained Enlightenment and particularly how he conquered fear in the stories of the attack of Mara, the entreaty of Brahma Sahampati and the encounter with Mucalinda the Serpent King. He also brings in Chapter 4 of the Majjhima Nikaya, Fear and Dread or the Bhayabherava Sutta.

He then goes into craving, aversion and delusion and reads from Sangharakshita's Human Enlightenment, giving definitions of these three terms. To compliment his reflections on fear he enumerates some positive motivations for practice, namely devotion to the Three Jewels, appreciation of artistic culture and fear of evil as a positive force, sometimes experienced as vigilance or apramada. He also mentions tranquillity, metta and creativity or openmindedness as the opposites of craving, aversion and delusion.

In the section on Patience in the Bodhicaryavatara, verse 21, Shantidevi reflects that compassion arises upon seeing the suffering of the world and that this manifests in one loosening ones pride. This leads to a fear of the consequences of evil and a delight in Enlightenment itself, or as Shantideva puts it, delight in the Conquerors.