Tag: retreat

A Note For Online Rainy Season Retreatants!

By Centre Team on Fri, 20 Mar, 2015 - 21:56

A Note For Online Rainy Season Retreatants!

By Centre Team on Fri, 20 Mar, 2015 - 21:56

Hi all,

Two reasons for this post. First, a chance to post some rather lovely spring photographs from Bristol now the retreat has come to a close. Secondly, there’s been so much good material from it that we have fallen behind on remastering all the audio for internet use. Over the weekend and through the week we’ll get the remaining days’ worth of material up - plus a few extra treats! So, in a way, the retreat...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 7: All Brahma Viharas & Vairocana

By jvalamalini on Fri, 20 Mar, 2015 - 14:55

Day 7: All Brahma Viharas & Vairocana

By jvalamalini on Fri, 20 Mar, 2015 - 14:55

Today is the Spring Equinox, and this morning brought the mysterious dim-bright light of a partial solar eclipse, before turning into a glorious sunny day. We’re at that stage of the retreat when the end is in sight and my mind starts turning to other things, yet we still have this special chance to drop deeply into the divine abodes.

This morning Ratnavandana talked about “bhavana” as tending the conditions for growth. Just as with plants in...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 5: Guided Mudita Bhavana Meditation (Cultivation of Sympathetic Joy)

By Centre Team on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 23:11

Ratnavandana again with an inspiring take on the third Brahma Vihara - mudita (sympathetic joy), which she renders as a “joyful resonance”. Her central image is of the lark ascending, the music of its song, and the possibilities for joy within us if we choose them…

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Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 5: Guided Meditation - Sitting In The Mandala (With Amoghasiddhi Mantra)

By Centre Team on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 19:20

On Day 5 of the Rainy Season Retreat, Ratnavandana again encourages us to begin by orientating ourselves in the mandala. Today we’re bearing in mind Amoghasiddhi, the fearless Buddha of the North!

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Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 4: A Puja To Amitabha

By Centre Team on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 18:23

Karunavapi leads a rather beautiful puja to Amitabha, the archetypal Buddha of the west, red with the love and light of compassion. Featuring some excellent readings!

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Bristol Buddhist Centre

Connections between the Brahma Viharas and Jinas

By jvalamalini on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 15:34

Connections between the Brahma Viharas and Jinas

By jvalamalini on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 15:34We can restore our innate mirror-like wisdom, transform our hatred, by developing Love-Metta. In this way we become like the blue Buddha Akshobhya.

We can restore our innate all-distinguishing wisdom, transform our greed and attachment, by developing Compassion-Karuna. In this way we become like the red Buddha Amitabha.

We can restore our innate all-performing wisdom, transform our envy and jealousy, by developing Sympathetic Joy-Mudita. In this way we become like the green Buddha Amoghasiddhi.

We can restore...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

neither a thought nor an emotion

By jvalamalini on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 15:23

Neither a thought nor an emotion, it is rather the steady conscious realization of reality’s transience. It is the ground for wisdom and freedom and the protector of compassion and love. While some may think of equanimity as dry neutrality or cool aloofness, mature equanimity produces a radiance and warmth of being. The Buddha described a mind filled with equanimity as “abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill-will.
Gil Fronsdal

Bristol Buddhist Centre

trying to control the uncontrollable

By jvalamalini on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 15:20

Equanimity’s strength derives from a combination of understanding and trust. It is based on understanding that the conflict and frustration we feel when we cannot control the world doesn’t come from our inability to do so, but rather from the fact that we are trying to control the uncontrollable. We know better than to try and prevent the seasons from changing or the tide from coming in. Following autumn, winter comes. We may not prefer it, but we trust it because we can understand and accept its rightful place in the larger cycle, a bigger picture. Can we apply the same wise balance to the cycles and tides of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral experiences in our lives?
Sharon Salzburg

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 6: Upekkha & Ratnasambhava

By jvalamalini on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 15:17

Day 6: Upekkha & Ratnasambhava

By jvalamalini on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 15:17A cold bright day in Bristol, and a deep quiet atmosphere in the Buddhist Centre, as we move into cultivating upekkha (equanimity).

As a brahma vihara, equanimity is more than the dictionary definition of ‘calm and composed especially in adversity’. It is a composite of metta, karuna and mudita pervaded by Dharmic understanding, like metta with a wisdom eye. It sees joy and suffering, their conditionedness and the constant flux of everything.

After just sitting in the mandala,...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 4: Guided Karuna Bhavana Meditation (Cultivation of Compassion)

By Centre Team on Thu, 19 Mar, 2015 - 00:10

Ratnavandana leads a full practice of the second of the Brahma Viharas, the Cultivation of Compassion (Karuna Bhavana) in the face of suffering. Strong, necessary medicine for the heart and mind…

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