Tag: Poetry

It is possible to move our sense of who we are, our stories are changeable. Vidyamala invites us into the world of myth, symbol and poetry to challenge our fixed sense of self.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a fluid sense of oneself? Responding to whatever arises with kindness, with love, with compassion, with infinite creative potential.

She finishes emphasising kindness with a wonderful quote from Patrul Rimpoche: “Have a good heart and act with kindness. There is no higher teaching.”

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Maitreyabandhu draws out the deeper meaning and finer detail of the poem entitled A Measuring Worm, by Richard Wilbur. In the full talk entitled A New Knowledge of Reality-Buddhism and Poetry, Maitreyabandhu discusses five different poems, each around the theme of death, with the final poem focusing on spiritual rebirth.

By discussing the background of the poems and poets, the intricacies of their structure, and bringing in a Buddhist interpretation of the themes raised in...

This is a gem of a talk, with a wintery theme.

Parami starts by singing ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti. She then goes on to bring out the underlying meaning of some of the imagery in the poem.

The first metaphors are about bleakness, with the earth as hard as iron and water like a stone, times when we struggle and it seems as if no growth is possible. She talks about her early experience of doing the metta bhavana and...

In this interview, Prakasha shares the remarkable story of the unfolding of his Dharma Life from a fascination with the English poet, painter and visionary William Blake in the late 1970s and early 80s and how this led him to a deep immersion in the Vajrayana approach to Buddhism. Following on from Bhante, in ‘Buddhism and William Blake’ he elucidates the common basis between the symbolic worlds of Blake and the Vajrayana.

Recorded at a retreat on William Blake, Adhisthana 2017.

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