Rounding off day 6 of Living In The Mandala we have another puja that steers to the deep when it comes to evoking the guardian Buddha of the moment, in this case Ratnasambhava - the Jewel-Born, archetypal Buddha of abundance, spiritual riches and the South…
Continuing the series of personal talks on each of the Brahma Viharas from the 2015 Rainy Season Retreat, Ratnavandana shares an intensely honest, psychologically intimate, beautifully forensic history of her personal relationship to the practice of upekkha (equanimity) throughout her spiritual life. We hear about ways to assess what’s going on in the subtler realms of our experience - and how to look to move beyond them so we too can live like a river…
It’s on account of equanimity, in its ultimate sense, that you’re balanced - even with regard to Samsara and Nirvana, even those two extremes don’t disturb you. Subject and Object are, the same - or not different, so far as you’re concerned. You are in a state of absolute equanimity or, as I have said elsewhere, you are in a state of axiality and centrality. You have reached what the Chinese mystics call ‘the unwobbling pivot of existence’. As the Mangala sutta says ‘you are one whose mind does not shake when touched by the eight Loka Dhammas.
Do you know what I mean by axiality? You feel as though you are the axis upon which everything turns though not in an egoistic sense. You are absolutely stable and unshakable, immovable, though at the same time you’re extremely mobile, even dancing all over the place. You don’t need to have your centre fixed in any particular spot. Your centre is everywhere.
Ratnavandana introduces and guides us through the practice of cultivating equanimity. Not a cool, detached state but a deep warm engagement with the practice of love, compassion and joy held in the perspective of the Buddha’s insights into the nature of reality itself…
Ratnavandana introducing Day 6 of the urban retreat on the Brahma Viharas - Living In The Mandala. Today we’re sitting with the great golden Buddha of the South, archetypal Buddha of abundance and spiritual richness. A good way to start things off…
We had our usual silent meditative morning, with more beautiful words from Ratnavandana. The shrine room felt very still as we sat with her open approach to practising with all the brahma viharas again.
After lunch - and much rejoicing in Ratnavandana, the team, and the retreat - we did a puja to Sangharakshita, ending with dismantling the central five Buddha shrine. I found it...
An infectiously delightful talk by Sanghaketu on the subject of joyful resonance with others (mudita). He really gets into his subject here! And his sense and experience of gladness comes across beautifully through laughter and reflection on the boon of good friends.
A strong, stirring puja dedicated to Amoghasiddhi, the archetypal, unstoppable green Buddha of the North. This ritual features dedicated sections and readings that call forth Amoghasiddhi’s great qualities of fearlessness as well as the magical realm he inhabits. We are also treated to words enjoining us to practise empathy and sympathetic joy (mudita) in all our relationship. This puja includes some beautiful mantra chanting and lovely verses to Green Tara, Amoghasiddhi’s consort, used to help face and overcome our fears…...
