North London Buddhist Centre
North London Buddhist Centre

How to Meditate at Home - Positive Tools for Life

By Ratnaprabha on Tue, 19 May, 2020 - 14:15

How to Meditate at Home - Positive Tools for Life

By Ratnaprabha on Tue, 19 May, 2020 - 14:15

New 3-week online NLBC course with Aryadhara and Anandavajra starts Saturday 23rd May.

3 Saturday mornings: 23 May, 30 May, 6 June 10:30am-12:30pm

Discover how to meditate, and how to set up a regular practice at home. We will explore two core foundation meditation practices that help us to focus and to have an open heart - key skills for life both in and out of lockdown!

Regular meditation brings positive benefits in helping us to improve our mental states and...

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The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Ironic Points of Light (The Dharma Toolkit Daily, Episode 25)

By Centre Team on Sat, 9 May, 2020 - 00:21

Shimmering images, and no less shimmering experiences. Today’s episode begins a series on beauty, poetry, myth, art and symbol as a response to crisis.

Taking our cue from W.H. Auden’s poem, September 1st, 1939, and his recognition of the need to “love one another or die”, we ask how, in the midst of fear – even of death – we can exercise our agency as human beings.

Poetry leads the way in and out of the questioning. Joining Auden in the...

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The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Reflections on Love (The Dharma Toolkit Daily, Episode 23)

By Centre Team on Sat, 2 May, 2020 - 06:00

As we come towards the end of our Being Divine Online Home Retreat it is our great pleasure today to share with you some beautiful closing reflections from Ratnavandana on the theme of the retreat: love itself.

She beautifully evokes where and how she is currently spending this time of lockdown in rural Wales, UK, and shares how the Brahma Vihara meditations on love have been helping her at this strange and difficult time. What she gives us is her deep...

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The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Closing the Being Divine Online home retreat

By kusaladevi on Fri, 1 May, 2020 - 17:01

Closing the Being Divine Online home retreat

By kusaladevi on Fri, 1 May, 2020 - 17:01

We hope you have enjoyed Being Divine Online with us this week! 

The retreat ended with this beautiful song by Ratnavandana, which retreatants sing together at the end of her Brahma Viharas retreats.

Thank you so much to Ratnavandana for supplying us with these fantastic resources around the Brahma Viharas, for sharing her practice and experience so fully and for her wonderful evocation and explanation of the Divine Abodes in the Q & A where 138 of us gathered together.

Look out too for a ...

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The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Additional Resources - Being Divine Online Day 2: Metta and Akshobhya

By kusaladevi on Sat, 25 Apr, 2020 - 09:55

Here’s a talk from Maitrisiddhi at Taraloka retreat centre - if it weren’t for the lockdown, Ratnavandana would be at Taraloka right now, leading a Brahma Viharas retreat, with Maitrisiddhi on the team.

In this talk, Maitrisiddhi helps us make the link between the Brahma Vihara of the day, Metta, and the associated Buddha (or Jina) in the Mandala, Akshobhya.

Why is Akshobhya associated with Metta, and how does clarity help us to open up to love? Maitrisiddhi also explores the active and receptive aspects...

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The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Additional Resources - Being Divine Online Day 2 - Beauties and Downfalls: Structure and the Metta Bhavana

By kusaladevi on Sat, 25 Apr, 2020 - 09:27

Additional Resources - Being Divine Online Day 2 - Beauties and Downfalls: Structure and the Metta Bhavana

By kusaladevi on Sat, 25 Apr, 2020 - 09:27

Here’s a talk from Maitridevi at Taraloka retreat centre - if it weren’t for the lockdown, Ratnavandana would be at Taraloka right now, leading a Brahma Viharas retreat.

In this talk, Maitridevi explores this fascinating area around how to stay creative with the metta bhavana practice. Do you find the structure of the metta bhavana like a great tree that supports you, or an oppression that dries up metta?

This talk is part of a series of talks given on The Heart Unbound: Metta...

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The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Metta like the Sun - Being Divine Online Home Retreat: Day 2

By kusaladevi on Sat, 25 Apr, 2020 - 09:10

Metta like the Sun - Being Divine Online Home Retreat: Day 2

By kusaladevi on Sat, 25 Apr, 2020 - 09:10

In today’s Notes on the Metta Bhavana on the Being Divine Online home retreat, Ratnavandana speaks of Metta as being both a natural state that is present when we relax and open...

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Welcome - Being Divine Online Home Retreat: Day 1

By Sadayasihi on Fri, 24 Apr, 2020 - 11:20

Welcome - Being Divine Online Home Retreat: Day 1

By Sadayasihi on Fri, 24 Apr, 2020 - 11:20

As the end of another week approaches, it’s always a good moment to take stock of things. It’s the end of yet another week of lockdown for many of us across the world - another week of re-adjusting to the new normal: of social distancing but increasing online connection. And it’s vital in making that transition that we bring all the Dharmic tools we can with us so that our online connections are rich and satisfying.

So for this home...

North London Buddhist Centre
North London Buddhist Centre

NLBC Meditation through the week -- no charge.Yoga too.

By Ratnaprabha on Thu, 2 Apr, 2020 - 12:01

NLBC Meditation through the week -- no charge.Yoga too.

By Ratnaprabha on Thu, 2 Apr, 2020 - 12:01

Lunchtime meditation classes

13:00-14:00, Monday to Friday every week.
To join please click here (meeting ID 113 425 476) at 13:00 for a 1-hour class on Zoom.  Donate here.

The usual leaders will be:
Mon Lalitaraja or Chandrasurya
Tue Suvarnajyoti 
Wed Maitripushpa
Thur Santva
Fri Karunagita or Sumana

Before the Wednesday lunchtime meditation, Maitripushpa will teach a yoga for meditation class at 12:00, and after at 15:00 a yin yoga class. There’s a charge...

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Sailing the Worldly Winds (The Dharma Toolkit Daily, Episode 8)

By Centre Team on Wed, 1 Apr, 2020 - 00:18

Gain and Loss
Praise and Blame
Fame and Infamy
Pleasure and Pain

Today we look forward to the start of our first Home Retreat of these coronavirus times in the company of Dassini and Vajragupta, sailing through our human relationship to the Worldly Winds (lokadhammas), a lesser known gem of a Buddhist teaching we think will be a useful tool for anyone living through our current shared crisis.

Vajragupta’s book will be the basis of our online course, designed...

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