Buddhist Centre Features
Buddhist Centre Features

Great Faith, Great Wisdom - Complete Retreat Recordings By Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Fri, 22 Sep, 2017 - 15:05

On this retreat, recorded during the recent Rainy Season Retreat at Bristol Buddhist Centre in the UK, Ratnaguna guides us on a journey into Amitābha’s Pure Land, Sukhāvati – a mythical realm where the ground is golden, trees are made of jewels, heavenly musical instruments play ravishing music, and magical birds sing the Dharma. It is a vast ‘illumined image’ – a symbol of the beauty and joy of the spiritual life. The three Pure Land sutras invite...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 6 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Sat, 16 Sep, 2017 - 15:23

All this week, Ratnaguna and the Bristol Triratna sangha have turned their urban Centre into a realm for exploration of Sukhavati, the Pure Land of Amitabha. Now on the last day of our retreat, we meet the Buddha. This is what the retreat has been building up to…

With readings from the Guan Jing and from the Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava.

Recorded as part of Ratnaguna’s retreat on Great Faith, Great Wisdom at Bristol Buddhist Centre, Sept 2017.

Talk 9: The Buddha Beyond the Buddha
Ratnaguna...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 6

By jvalamalini on Fri, 15 Sep, 2017 - 17:14

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 6

By jvalamalini on Fri, 15 Sep, 2017 - 17:14

The last morning of the retreat found me with a mind full of reflections in the early morning double meditation, and a fair bit of energy released – I was dancing in my living room when I popped home for a few things after breakfast.

This was the day we’d been building up to – the day we met the Buddha! Ratnaguna introduced the Buddha Amitayus of the Guan Jing, the ‘Buddha beyond the Buddha’, the principle of Buddhahood which the Mahayana...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 5 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Thu, 14 Sep, 2017 - 22:04

On the 5th day of the Rainy Season Retreat, Ratnaguna takes us into the world of the the Sutra on the Visualisation of the Buddha Amitayus, or Guan Jing. Some wonderful guided meditations, conversation, and another excellent talk await…

The Guan Jing or Sutra on the Visualisation of the Buddha Amitayus - Introduction and Reading, Queen Vaidehi’s Predicament Followed by a Visualisation of the Setting Sun
Ratnaguna starts the fifth day of the retreat with a brief introduction to the Guan...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 5

By jvalamalini on Thu, 14 Sep, 2017 - 14:07

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 5

By jvalamalini on Thu, 14 Sep, 2017 - 14:07

As Ratnaguna pointed out, dwelling in such an uncompromisingly bright land tends to invite one’s shadow. Every retreat brings a process for each of us, and today I knew the retreat was reaching something more in me when I found myself weeping in morning meditation. After last night’s talk, I was touching a deep grief for all the imperfection in me-and-my-sangha: the views I bring that make things hard for me; the ways interpersonal dynamics sometimes obscure our shared faith; the ways...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 4 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Wed, 13 Sep, 2017 - 20:20

Day 4 brings us a bumper crop of great Dharma exploration and evocation from Ratnaguna and friends in the Bristol sangha as they deepen into their retreat together.

Talk 6: The Sutra as a Practice of Annussati - Recollection of the Three Jewels
Ratnaguna introduces the practice of reading the longer Sukhavativuyha Sutra as a recollection of the Buddha, Dharma and arya-Sangha.

Reading from the Longer Sukhavativyuha Sutra - The Living Beings of the Buddhafield
Ratnaguna briefly recaps on how...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 4

By jvalamalini on Wed, 13 Sep, 2017 - 13:22

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 4

By jvalamalini on Wed, 13 Sep, 2017 - 13:22

Today we focused on the very beautiful descriptions of the beings in the happy land of Sukhavati. In many ways these are my favourite sections of the sutra; I’ve spent happy meditations in the past basking in the golden light as I imagined being amidst great beings with “minds of equality, minds of loving-kindness, gentle minds, affectionate minds, diligent minds, clear minds, stable minds, unhindered minds, unshaken minds, unagitated minds, minds which practise the perfection of wisdom” who stroll around...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 3 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 21:34

Two more recordings from Ratnaguna’s beautiful retreat, going on all week in Bristol, UK, with the Triratna community in the heart of the city. A great fifth talk, and a different approach from the first day’s visualisation to imagining Sukhavati, the great jewelled realm of Amitabha.

Talk 5: The Mystery of the Pure Land
This talk corrects some common misunderstandings about the Pure Land texts. The sutras are not to be read as philosophy but appreciated as...

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