Tag: Imagination

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 6 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Sat, 16 Sep, 2017 - 15:23

All this week, Ratnaguna and the Bristol Triratna sangha have turned their urban Centre into a realm for exploration of Sukhavati, the Pure Land of Amitabha. Now on the last day of our retreat, we meet the Buddha. This is what the retreat has been building up to…

With readings from the Guan Jing and from the Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava.

Recorded as part of Ratnaguna’s retreat on Great Faith, Great Wisdom at Bristol Buddhist Centre, Sept 2017.

Talk 9: The Buddha Beyond the Buddha
Ratnaguna...

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 5 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Thu, 14 Sep, 2017 - 22:04

On the 5th day of the Rainy Season Retreat, Ratnaguna takes us into the world of the the Sutra on the Visualisation of the Buddha Amitayus, or Guan Jing. Some wonderful guided meditations, conversation, and another excellent talk await…

The Guan Jing or Sutra on the Visualisation of the Buddha Amitayus - Introduction and Reading, Queen Vaidehi’s Predicament Followed by a Visualisation of the Setting Sun
Ratnaguna starts the fifth day of the retreat with a brief introduction to the Guan...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 4 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Wed, 13 Sep, 2017 - 20:20

Day 4 brings us a bumper crop of great Dharma exploration and evocation from Ratnaguna and friends in the Bristol sangha as they deepen into their retreat together.

Talk 6: The Sutra as a Practice of Annussati - Recollection of the Three Jewels
Ratnaguna introduces the practice of reading the longer Sukhavativuyha Sutra as a recollection of the Buddha, Dharma and arya-Sangha.

Reading from the Longer Sukhavativyuha Sutra - The Living Beings of the Buddhafield
Ratnaguna briefly recaps on how...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 4

By jvalamalini on Wed, 13 Sep, 2017 - 13:22

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 4

By jvalamalini on Wed, 13 Sep, 2017 - 13:22

Today we focused on the very beautiful descriptions of the beings in the happy land of Sukhavati. In many ways these are my favourite sections of the sutra; I’ve spent happy meditations in the past basking in the golden light as I imagined being amidst great beings with “minds of equality, minds of loving-kindness, gentle minds, affectionate minds, diligent minds, clear minds, stable minds, unhindered minds, unshaken minds, unagitated minds, minds which practise the perfection of wisdom” who stroll around...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 3 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 21:34

Two more recordings from Ratnaguna’s beautiful retreat, going on all week in Bristol, UK, with the Triratna community in the heart of the city. A great fifth talk, and a different approach from the first day’s visualisation to imagining Sukhavati, the great jewelled realm of Amitabha.

Talk 5: The Mystery of the Pure Land
This talk corrects some common misunderstandings about the Pure Land texts. The sutras are not to be read as philosophy but appreciated as...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 2 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 21:17

A wonderful second pair of talks, bringing to life Sukhavati, the great Pure Land or Happy Land of Amitabha.

Talk 3: The Deathless Buddha - Possible Roots of Sukhavati in the Pali Canon
In this fascinating talk, Ratnaguna shows us remarkable resonances between the Sukhavativuyha sutras and two late Pali suttas - the Mahaparinibbana sutta and Mahasuddassana sutta, and suggests the Sukhavativuyha sutras may have arisen from the distress of the Buddha’s followers after his Parinirvana.

We also explored meanings of...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 3

By jvalamalini on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 09:04

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 3

By jvalamalini on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 09:04

Another beautiful day in the pure land! On my way home, I sighed - “oh it’s all so lovely!”.

Today our sutra reading was sections of the text describing the land of Sukhavati, which is the Dharma aspect of the text. (Yesterday focused more on the Buddha - including beautiful descriptions of bodhisattva activity)

I found the description of the river particularly beguiling - the sound of the river is both soothing, and conveys the Dharma. It conveys the Dharma by murmuring the only,...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna, Day 1

By Centre Team on Mon, 11 Sep, 2017 - 20:54

Here are the two wonderful Dharma talks by Ratnaguna from the first day of the retreat this weekend, along with a led visualisation bringing the Pure Land of Sukhavati, made of all precious things, to life. As a treat to conclude, we also get the Bristol sangha chanting a beautiful, resonant version of Amitabha mantra.

OM AMIDEVA HRI

Talk 1: Why hear the Pure Land Sutras?

An introduction to the three Pure Land sutras and to understanding the practice of Mahayana sutras in general. Other...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 2

By jvalamalini on Mon, 11 Sep, 2017 - 08:27

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 2

By jvalamalini on Mon, 11 Sep, 2017 - 08:27

My day started with double meditation by our very golden shrine. I appreciated the time to just sit with some of the phrases which resonated with me from yesterday’s readings of the shorter Sukhavativuyha sutra. Sitting with “heartfelt desire”, exploring the associated sensations, and ‘objects’ of desire; and with a sense of “embraced by all the Buddhas”; and the connection between the two. It felt rich and fruitful.

Ratnaguna gave a fascinating talk, showing us resonances between the Sukhavativuyha sutras and two late Pali suttas...

Triratna News

Drumroll please for the latest edition of Urthona Buddhist Arts Magazine

By Aryanisha on Mon, 17 Apr, 2017 - 09:10

Drumroll please for the latest edition of Urthona Buddhist Arts Magazine

By Aryanisha on Mon, 17 Apr, 2017 - 09:10

Make sure you get your hands on the latest edition of Urthona Buddhist Arts Magazine, to be released in May. Issue 33, The Friendship Issue, is set to be a real delight - with treats from Sahajatara, Maitreyabandhu, Ratnagarbha, Amitajyoti and more.

Editor Ratnagarbha writes “Friendship is being talked about again. But do we really know what it is? And what really has it got to do with the arts – for haven’t artists, after all, always been eccentric loners who bordered...

Tag: Imagination

Pages