Another wabi sabi scan, this time of Friday morning’s poignant meditation poem. A great choice by Varasahaya which prompted some tears as the eight young women prepare to leave Adhisthana today after their 5 month Dharma course…
Running parallel to the Writers’ Convention - and coming to an end at the same time - was a young women’s extended Dharma course, with women from around the world taking part. Here we meet Shraddhavajri and Vidyadharini from India who, along with their fellow long-term retreatants, have been using writing as another way to explore spiritual life and the meaning of the Buddha’s teaching in their own lives…
Our morning meditation poem on Thursday was Summer Farm by Norman MacCaig. I’ll definitely be buying this volume of Selected Poems. It’s wonderful!
In our sessions we’ve re-instituted ‘the listening chair’ we used to have for Manjusvara - and I snapped some occupants (interesting body language!) We were exploring themes from Ananda’s talk the other night about William Stafford, especially around the relationship with the Muse and receptivity.
There was a spirited discussion about the pros and cons...
After our weekend break, Satyalila is back with the latest installment from the Triratna Writers Conference. It’s unusual perhaps for a Buddhist community to place such an emphasis on the Arts as a route to spiritual inquiry - but it’s a real pleasure to listen to it happening ‘as live’!
This conversation with Satyadaka takes place in the brand new Sangharakshita library and we hear much about one of “Bhante’s” literary heroes, Dr. Johnson, as well as the...
Satyalila manages to get two of the most venerable writers attending onto her podcast bench (no mean feat!)… Ananda fresh from his talk and Abhaya making the transition to poetry from painting…
Well, the week is speeding up! Yesterday (Tuesday) was our ‘William Stafford’ Day. He’s the American poet who so inspired our dear friend, the late Manjusvara. Last night Ananda’s gave us a great talk - the fruit of many years of acquaintance with Stafford, and much study (more recently). We video’d (and audio-recorded) the talk so you can catch it. There’s also a really great half-hour programme which the BBC did on William Stafford in 2013 to...
Olivia Moore is a Manchester mitra and violinist specializing in jazz and Indian classical violin. Her band, Unfurl, a five-piece “Indian-style jazz band” recently received funding from Jazz North to do a set of gigs in the Midlands and northern England. (See tour dates below.)
She’s also influenced by flamenco, gypsy and folk music and some of her music is explicitly influenced by her involvement in Triratna, such as her compositions entitled ‘Amoghasiddhi’, ‘Tiratanaloka’ and...
So after our check in last night we did a dedication ceremony in the shrineroom and had this great poem of Ananda’s - ‘Be here now’. It’s a wonky/wabi-sabi scan done with my iPhone (like this whole reporting business, in fact!). I rather like it.
Of course we had to have timed writing to start with… (Wolf At The Door “Recipe” to follow!).
Pictures: Dhruvasimha (reading out), Vishvantara and vidyakaya to his left, Abhaya, Akasapriya, Padmabodhini and Varasahaya’s knee to...
The first Triratna writers convention is happening all this week during the Ledbury Poetry Festival and we’ll be hearing from some of the lyric voices taking part. Join us through the week at Adhisthana for lots of literary talk and an exploration of the connections between the Arts and spiritual life - a big part of the Triratna Buddhist path.