North London Buddhist Centre
North London Buddhist Centre

Tuesday evening meditation toolkit

By Ratnaprabha on Sat, 9 May, 2020 - 20:44

Tuesday evening meditation toolkit

By Ratnaprabha on Sat, 9 May, 2020 - 20:44

The next four week block starts next week.
Dates: 12, 19, 26 May, 2 June 
Time: 7pm - 9pm

The Magic and Mystery of Kindly Awareness
Zoom link here.
Visuddhimati continues the current Tuesday class theme, offering a meditation toolkit for challenging times.
The classes will be exploring  how to further develop kindly awareness in meditation in order to meet life’s challenges with resilience and kindness. 
Awareness coupled with kindness...

Community Highlights
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...

Bump elbows, say hello!
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

A Sustaining Community of Meditators: Reflections from Cambridge on Being Divine Online

By Vidyasakhi on Fri, 1 May, 2020 - 11:04

A Sustaining Community of Meditators: Reflections from Cambridge on Being Divine Online

By Vidyasakhi on Fri, 1 May, 2020 - 11:04

Arthasiddhi, myself and around 40 friends, mitras and Order members from Cambridge sangha have been following the Being Divine Online Home Retreat as a community within the wider community, adding to the mix some of our own meditation sessions (every day at 8 am), three zoom plenaries (or check-ins) and WhatsApp home groups, as well as attending evening events at Cambridge Buddhist Centre online. It has been such a joy: and we’ve deeply appreciated the richness of Ratnavandana’s experience and teachings...

Bump elbows, say hello!
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Song of the Brahma Viharas - Being Divine Online home retreat

By Sadayasihi on Fri, 1 May, 2020 - 09:06

Song of the Brahma Viharas - Being Divine Online home retreat

By Sadayasihi on Fri, 1 May, 2020 - 09:06

It’s always good to finish things with a song - and happily, today, here’s one! It’s Ratnavandana chanting the Brahma Viharas song that is usually learned on each ‘Living in the Mandala’ retreat that she leads.

As Ratnavandana kindly sent on some lovely nature photos she has taken, we have made this into a short video which you can enjoy, and hopefully get a feeling for the Brahma Viharas “pervading all quarters”.

The text from this song...

Community Highlights
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Reflections from Ratnavandana - Being Divine Online Home Retreat: Day 7

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 30 Apr, 2020 - 09:05

As we come towards the end of our Being Divine Online home retreat it is my great pleasure today to share with you some further reflections from Ratnavandana on this theme.

She beautifully evokes where and how she is currently spending this time of lockdown in rural Wales, UK, and shares how the Brahma Viharas have been helping her at this strange and difficult time. What she gives us is her deep confidence in these practices and a...

Community Highlights
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Being Divine Online: Q & A with Ratnavandana on the Brahma Viharas (The Dharma Toolkit Daily, Episode 20)

By Centre Team on Tue, 28 Apr, 2020 - 01:58

Loving Kindness (Metta)
Compassion (Karuna)
Joyful Resonance (Mudita)
Equanimity (Upekkha)

This week on the podcast we’re in full-on love mode with our Home Retreat: Being Divine Online

Our guide to the series of meditations in focus - the Brahma Viharas - is Ratnavandana, and in this special episode recorded live online she’s in discussion about a practice that has been one of the touchstones of her life. 

The sense of someone choosing to dwell inside a mythic vision of...

Community Highlights
Community Highlights

Reflections on Metta - Being Divine Online home retreat

By Maitrisiddhi on Sun, 26 Apr, 2020 - 09:52

Reflections on Metta - Being Divine Online home retreat

By Maitrisiddhi on Sun, 26 Apr, 2020 - 09:52

‘Living in the Mandala: The Brahma Viharas’ retreat would have been happening at Taraloka retreat centre now - April 2020 - but then there was lockdown! So I thought I’d share some personal reflections around my own current practice of the Brahma Viharas to complement Ratnavandana’s online retreat.   

There’ll be a few more coming! 

love Maitrisiddhi 

Bump elbows, say hello!
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...

Bump elbows, say hello!
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...

Bump elbows, say hello!
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...

Pages