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Tag: Pureland

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...
Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom, Day 2 - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna

By Centre Team on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 21:17

A wonderful second pair of talks, bringing to life Sukhavati, the great Pure Land or Happy Land of Amitabha.

Talk 3: The ​D​eathless Buddha - Possible Roots of Sukhavati in the Pali Canon
In this fascinating talk, Ratnaguna shows us remarkable resonances between the Sukhavativuyha sutras and two late Pali suttas - the Mahaparinibbana sutta and Mahasuddassana sutta, and suggests the Sukhavativuyha sutras may have arisen from the distress of the Buddha’s followers after his Parinirvana. 

We also explored...
Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 3

By jvalamalini on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 09:04

  • golden shrine

    golden shrine

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat, 2017 - day 3

By jvalamalini on Tue, 12 Sep, 2017 - 09:04

Another beautiful day in the pure land!  On my way home, I sighed - “oh it’s all so lovely!”.

Today our sutra reading was sections of the text describing the land of Sukhavati, which is the Dharma aspect of the text. (Yesterday focused more on the Buddha - including beautiful descriptions of bodhisattva activity)

I found the description of the river particularly beguiling - the sound of the river is both soothing, and conveys the Dharma. It conveys the Dharma by murmuring the only,...
Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Great Faith, Great Wisdom - Rainy Season Retreat 2017 by Ratnaguna, Day 1

By Centre Team on Mon, 11 Sep, 2017 - 20:54

Here are the two wonderful Dharma talks by Ratnaguna from the first day of the retreat this weekend, along with a led visualisation bringing the Pure Land of Sukhavati, made of all precious things, to life. As a treat to conclude, we also get the Bristol sangha chanting a beautiful, resonant version of Amitabha mantra.

OM AMIDEVA HRI

Talk 1: Why hear the Pure Land Sutras?

An introduction to the three Pure Land sutras and to understanding the practice of Mahayana sutras in general. Other...
Community Highlights
Community Highlights

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat Online!

By Centre Team on Mon, 11 Sep, 2017 - 16:37

Great Faith, Great Wisdom Retreat Online!

By Centre Team on Mon, 11 Sep, 2017 - 16:37

All this week we’ll be bringing you online resources and blogs from the Bristol Buddhist Centre’s Rainy Season Retreat on ‘Great Faith, Great Wisdom’ with Ratnaguna.

Follow the retreat online

On this retreat Ratnaguna will guide 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...
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Mahayana Buddhism, A Six-Week Course (Achala)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 21:36

Here you can download handouts for a six-week course introducing the various schools of Mahayana Buddhism. The handouts were provided by Achala from New Zealand. Please note that Achala says they all need further improvement! 

This is what Achala said about his intentions when designing this course:

I tried to construct a course such that it:

  • covers what an average human being needs to effectively practice Buddhism.
     
  • doesn’t not have a scholastic bent (so a few Pali/Sanskrit terms seemed reasonable but not so many as
...
File NameSize
Week 1 - The Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism (PDF)111.49 KB
Week 1 Replacement - The Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism by Sagaraghosa (PDF)807.07 KB
Week 2 - The Bodhisattva117.94 KB
Week 3 - The Wisdom Schools (PDF)117.94 KB
Week 4 - Yogacara and Zen (PDF)110.83 KB
Week 5 - Pure Land, Hua-yan, and Vajrayana (PDF)107.65 KB
Week 6 - The Unity of Buddhism (PDF)114.12 KB
Community Highlights
Community Highlights

Great Faith, Great Wisdom - Interview with Ratnaguna on His New Book

By sanghadhara on Thu, 10 Mar, 2016 - 19:36

Ratnaguna shares his excitement on his new book and tells us why he wrote this book on Pure Land sutras, who it’s written for, and the extras! :) Enjoy!

You can order this book soon from Windhorse Publications
European Chairs' Assembly
European Chairs' Assembly

Ratnaguna - Three Talks On The Pureland

By Centre Team on Wed, 13 Jan, 2016 - 00:09

Ratnaguna - Three Talks On The Pureland

By Centre Team on Wed, 13 Jan, 2016 - 00:09

A new three-part series from Ratnaguna introduces the Pureland texts as a practice in themselves, and discusses their relationship to Sangharakshita’s core teachings. 

In the first talk Ratnaguna takes us on an excellent exploration of imagination itself, essential for understanding the sutras on their own terms. The second talk discusses how the texts hint at what Sangharakshita calls the supra-personal force of the Bodhichitta. The third talk is on the importance of sangha in the sutras and its relevance...
European Chairs' Assembly
European Chairs' Assembly

ECA Winter 2016 - Podcast No. 2: Ratnaguna on the Pure Land Sutras

By Mokshini on Wed, 6 Jan, 2016 - 23:14

At the end of the second full day at Adhisthana on the European Chairs Assembly, Mokshini and Dassini report in on a rich, full and delightful day spent in the company of Ratnaguna - an Order member who has just written a commentary on the Pure Land Sutras.

Ratnaguna shared some of his insights during the day on common themes between the Pure Land Sutras and Sangharakshita’s teaching, which underpins Dharma practice in the Triratna Buddhist Community.

We also hear why this “meeting” shouldn’t...
Community Highlights
Community Highlights

Padmavajra on the 'Buddhafield' in Buddhist Mahayana Tradition

By Candradasa on Sun, 19 May, 2013 - 18:59
If you wonder why Buddhafield is called that, we thought you might like a little bit of the deep Dharma behind the name!

Here are some extracts from Padmavajra’s classic talk series from 2004 on the Diamond Sutra in which he looks at the Buddhist Mahayana tradition of the creation of Buddhafields as part of the Bodhisattva’s activity.

These are taken from talks 3 and 8. Listen to the whole series

...

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