Tag: mandala

Day 1: Introduction to the Brahma Viharas (With Guided Meditation)

By Centre Team on Mon, 16 Mar, 2015 - 10:44

A beautiful introduction by Ratnavandana to the Brahma Viharas as an integrated set of practices flowing from metta - loving kindness. Her central image is that of a tree, deep rooted and spreading its canopy wide as she evokes a profound, personal connection to the cultivation of the ‘sublime abodes’: loving kindness, compassion, joy with others, and equanimity.

Ratnavandana also leads a guided meditation on cultivating a connection to the Brahma Viharas.

View all posts from...

play

download and donate

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Mandala Shrine Photos

By jvalamalini on Sun, 15 Mar, 2015 - 22:04

Mandala Shrine Photos

By jvalamalini on Sun, 15 Mar, 2015 - 22:04

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 1: Guided Meditation - Just Sitting In the Mandala (With Akshobhya Mantra)

By Centre Team on Sun, 15 Mar, 2015 - 15:44

Ratnavandana lead us through a meditation where we just try to be present with our experience in the context of the mandala of the Five archetypal Buddhas. With an introduction and the mantra of Akshobhya, the blue Buddha of the east…

View all posts from ‘Living In The Mandala’

Bristol Buddhist Centre

quote about will

By jvalamalini on Sun, 15 Mar, 2015 - 13:25

we should never underestimate the role of will in the spiritual life. It is not enough to have feeling for the Buddha. We have to will to be like the Buddha. One might even say there is no spiritual life without will. Indeed, the spiritual life could be defined as the constant willing of the good in all circumstances.
Sangharakshita

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Urban Retreat Tips – The Power of Intention

By jvalamalini on Sun, 15 Mar, 2015 - 09:59

Urban Retreat Tips – The Power of Intention

By jvalamalini on Sun, 15 Mar, 2015 - 09:59What is your wish for this retreat?

Spend time forming a clear, simple wish – eg “I’d like to be more friendly”, “I’d like to stay more soft and open”, “I’d like to be emotionally honest with myself”
The essence of practice is to remember this wish, and to ‘stop and real-ise’ – connect – with your body, with what’s going round your head, with your heart. Where are you in relation to your wish? Where are you in relation to

Bristol Buddhist Centre

The Mandala of the Brahma Viharas

By Centre Team on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 22:27Just as a map is a very useful thing to help know where you are, and how to get to where you want to go, so too is the mandala of the Brahma Viharas. It can do the same thing on an internal level. Firstly you need to know where you are, which means you need to be awake to your present experience to know that, and then you can see where it fits in the Mandala. So firstly, once...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Rains Retreat 2015 - Living in the Mandala - Morning 1

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 15:31

Rains Retreat 2015 - Living in the Mandala - Morning 1

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 15:31It was so gorgeous coming back into our mandala early this morning, and lighting our aspiration candles. Meditating, I could sense the immense beauty we were sitting in and creating together, and how we’re opening to the world with this, influencing the world. It was like something full of colour and light, and at the same time vast and open, white and spacious. And powerful…. I don’t usually think of beauty as powerful!

Later in the morning, we meditated...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

brahma viharas & enlightenment quote

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 14:27

Throughout the ancient scriptures of the Pali Canon it is made clear that the way to Enlightenment involves the cultivation of the emotions at every step, most often in the form of the four Brahma Viharas.
from ‘Living With Kindness’
Sangharakshita

Bristol Buddhist Centre

consciousness & metta quote

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 14:25

There is good reason to believe, intuitively at least if not on the basis of hard evidence, that the very nature of consciousness is a well-spring of loving kindness. It is said that the very quality of Buddha Nature is that of inexhaustible love, and it is already there.

from ‘Boundless Heart’
Alan Wallace

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Dedication Ritual - Rainy Season Retreat 2015: Living In The Mandala

By Centre Team on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 12:58

The opening ritual to dedicate the Rainy Season Retreat included meditation, readings (from Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche and Nyanaponika Thera) and chanting to invoke the mandala of the five archetypal Buddhas and the qualities of kindness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity.

Led by Dharmacharini Ratnavandana

Five Buddha Mandala readings included in this recording

View all posts from ‘Living In The Mandala’

Tag: mandala

Pages