Beauty, Truth, Fire: Discovering the World of Enlightenment Life may be fantastic right now, pretty tough or just plain dull. But ultimately, we’re always left with a lingering sense of dissatisfaction – we can’t quite hold on to things, they never really go our way in the end. Buddhism shows us how to free ourselves from that cycle. By changing our mind we change the world we live in. Explore this path of transformation which leads from mundane consciousness
5th-13th September Led by Subhadramati, Vidyadaka, Singhamanas and Shraddhasiddhi On the Urban Retreat you carry on living your normal day-to-day life whilst finding ways to intensify your practice of meditation and Buddhism. We will support you with three day-long retreats, morning meditations, special classes, yoga, daily text messages and emails, and a Buddhist Festival. The retreat is suitable for all levels of experience including complete newcomers. On the initial day retreat we will split into two groups:...
The lotus is the image that the Buddha uses to describe the growth of human beings: the unfolding of life from unfavourable conditions. In this issue of the LBC’s excellent magazine and program some moving and culturally rich examples of this are brought to light - from Shraddhapuspa’s generous life after escape from the Nazis at the start of WWII, to Jayaka’s experience in prison as a young man via an examination of Fellini’s 8 And A...
We are now a third of the way through the building of our new retreat centre. The elegant steel framework for the shrine room and simple precast concrete portal frames for the communal areas have been installed. The accommodation block, which runs parallel to the rear of the site, is taking shape - the concrete block walls are up to roof height - the position of bedrooms, bathrooms and toilets clearly defined. The foot print of each of the...
This is a time when humanity has to grow up, cease its endless conflicts and set aside its foolish indulgences to deal with a changing world, to deal with the new world, to deal with a world their ancestors rarely ever had to content with, to face a new and arising set of circumstances that will challenge the intention, the integrity and the will to live.
I went to watch ‘Planetary’ at the LBC on Saturday night. It was made by...
Vaddhaka joined us last week to kick off Buddhist Action Month for us by launching his new book in duscussion with Manjusiha. The conversation was wide ranging and relavent, covering the problems of political views both left & right, Slavoj Žižek’s criticisms of Western Buddhism and Ayan Rand’s influence on neoliberalism. And, most importantly, what we can and are doing to improve things!
