Welcome to Triratna’s 2011 International Urban Retreat ‘Sailing the Worldly Winds’! You’re joining lots of other around the world participating on-line, as well as hundreds of people at over 50 Triratna Buddhist Centres. Feel free to add your comments to the site, we look forwards to hearing from you...

These screens will guide you through suggestions for today’s practice; check back tomorrow (or anytime after 5.30pm UK time) for tomorrow’s material. There’s quite a bit on this page, so make sure you click the ‘read more’ button below!

We’re posting this material in two different ways - here, as straight text for you to read, and on a parallel post by Candradasa, as a more interactive ‘VoiceThread’ where you can add your own comments and we can all interact with one another and the material.  Maybe take a minute now to choose which alternative you’d like to stick with.  It’s exactly the same material, but in two different presentations. 

We are going to be exploring the Buddha's teaching of the "worldly winds". Life is full of ups and downs, circumstances – large or small – that can trigger craving or aversion, hope or despair, longing or fear, or that can elicit from us a more creative and noble response: generosity, kindness or understanding. The Buddha often talked about these situations in terms of the eight "worldly winds": gain and loss, fame and infamy, praise and blame, pleasure and pain.

If you haven’t done so already, I'd suggest first watching my twenty-minute video talk on the worldly winds (You can also find it under 'course materials'). I explain why the worldly winds can be such a relevant and helpful teaching, and give examples of how they can blow about our lives, day to day.  If possible, watch the talk now (it’s on my other post), and then do the following reflection…

Reflection: blown by the wind?

There are lots of ways to reflect – maybe you already have your own method for reflection. But if not, here is one suggestion:

Firstly, you need time to sit quietly, so that busy thoughts can settle, and more considered thoughts can arise. Have a pencil and paper and jot down ideas, observations and memories as they occur to you.
Do you recognise the worldly winds blowing in your life? Try to recall small or large instances of the winds that have blown you around in the last few days.
Now think about patterns or themes that tend to loom large or recur often in your life. You can write a list, or you can do one of those spidery diagrams.
Are there particular worldly winds that blow around you more frequently than others?
Are there some that tend to affect you more strongly?
Are there certain kinds of situation in which you are more susceptible to being blown around?

Try to pay attention to both directions – in other words, how you may be affected by pleasure as well as pain, gain as well as loss. Often it is easier to notice when the worldly winds are blowing in the ‘negative’ direction, and we just don't notice our response when they blow the other way.

Are there other varying circumstances of life that don't quite seem to fit into the traditional formulation? What are they? (For example, a friend of mine realised he was influenced by desire for success and fear of failure. They were "worldly winds" for him.

Suggested Daily Practice:

In the next few days, we're going to look at the worldly winds in more detail, and then look at how to respond to them more skilfully. But for the next day, as you go about your day, just bear the teaching in mind. Try to notice those situations – large or small – where the worldly winds may be blowing. You may find that – as you look more closely – you begin to see more instances of them blowing, moment by moment.

After you’re done with the reflections for today, we're suggesting you do the Metta Wave which is happening world-wide at 4pm local time.  Details also on the Metta Wave tab at the top of the page. 

See you tomorow - when we'll start looking at how to work with the Worldly Winds!