Tag: retreat

Bristol Buddhist Centre

The Mandala of the Brahma Viharas

By Centre Team on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 22:27Just as a map is a very useful thing to help know where you are, and how to get to where you want to go, so too is the mandala of the Brahma Viharas. It can do the same thing on an internal level. Firstly you need to know where you are, which means you need to be awake to your present experience to know that, and then you can see where it fits in the Mandala. So firstly, once...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Rains Retreat 2015 - Living in the Mandala - Morning 1

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 15:31

Rains Retreat 2015 - Living in the Mandala - Morning 1

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 15:31It was so gorgeous coming back into our mandala early this morning, and lighting our aspiration candles. Meditating, I could sense the immense beauty we were sitting in and creating together, and how we’re opening to the world with this, influencing the world. It was like something full of colour and light, and at the same time vast and open, white and spacious. And powerful…. I don’t usually think of beauty as powerful!

Later in the morning, we meditated...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

brahma viharas & enlightenment quote

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 14:27

Throughout the ancient scriptures of the Pali Canon it is made clear that the way to Enlightenment involves the cultivation of the emotions at every step, most often in the form of the four Brahma Viharas.
from ‘Living With Kindness’
Sangharakshita

Bristol Buddhist Centre

consciousness & metta quote

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 14:25

There is good reason to believe, intuitively at least if not on the basis of hard evidence, that the very nature of consciousness is a well-spring of loving kindness. It is said that the very quality of Buddha Nature is that of inexhaustible love, and it is already there.

from ‘Boundless Heart’
Alan Wallace

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Dedication Ritual - Rainy Season Retreat 2015: Living In The Mandala

By Centre Team on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 12:58

The opening ritual to dedicate the Rainy Season Retreat included meditation, readings (from Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche and Nyanaponika Thera) and chanting to invoke the mandala of the five archetypal Buddhas and the qualities of kindness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity.

Led by Dharmacharini Ratnavandana

Five Buddha Mandala readings included in this recording

View all posts from ‘Living In The Mandala’

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Brahma Viharas morning verses

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 10:03

Brahma Viharas morning verses

By jvalamalini on Sat, 14 Mar, 2015 - 10:03I and all else that moves, until awakening,
Take the Triple Gem as refuge.
In order to gain perfect Buddhahood for others’ sake
We practise the Four Immeasurables -
Whereby may sentient beings
Gain happiness with its causes;
Be parted from all grief with its causes;
Not become parted from the happiness wherein no grief is
And dwell in the condition of equanimity

Refuges and Precepts

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa
Namo Tassa...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

Verses invoking the Jinas to purify the poisons

By jvalamalini on Fri, 13 Mar, 2015 - 22:59

Verses invoking the Jinas to purify the poisons

By jvalamalini on Fri, 13 Mar, 2015 - 22:59OM AKSOBHYA HUM
By the power of your Samaya
Deliver us from the hells
By purifying the demons of hatred and aversion
And transforming them into the Mirrorlike Wisdom
The deep blue, imperturbable Buddha Aksobhya

OM RATNASAMBHAVA HUM
By the power of your Samaya
Deliver us from the human realm
By purifying the demons of pride and conceit
And transforming them into the Wisdom of Equality
The golden yellow, jewel born, Buddha Ratnasambhava
...

Bristol Buddhist Centre

We're under way!

By jvalamalini on Fri, 13 Mar, 2015 - 22:47

We're under way!

By jvalamalini on Fri, 13 Mar, 2015 - 22:47This afternoon the spaces in Bristol Buddhist Centre were transformed - what used to be a shop at the front of the building is now a food preparation and dining room, and the shrine room has become a wonderful five Buddha mandala. Kumuda’s wonderful paintings of the Jinas fill the walls and we have a beautiful 5 Buddha shrine in the centre of the room.

As Alyson reminded me as people arrived - this is magic!

It...

Community Highlights

Monasteries and the Rainy Season Retreat

By Candradasa on Wed, 11 Mar, 2015 - 20:24

Take part in a Rainy Season Retreat with us and Bristol Buddhist Centre from March 13th-20th!

A track from the classic 1971 Dharma talk on ‘The Individual, the Group and the Community’ by Urgyen Sangharakshita, exploring how the Buddha and his early disciples practiced together.

Listen to the rest here | Login and join the Rainy Season Retreat Online

pictures [at] ...

Buddhist Centre Features

Living In The Mandala - Rainy Season Retreat Online!

By Centre Team on Wed, 11 Mar, 2015 - 19:30

Living In The Mandala - Rainy Season Retreat Online!

By Centre Team on Wed, 11 Mar, 2015 - 19:30To mark the arrival of Spring in the northern hemisphere we enjoyed a great, unexpected opportunity to go a bit deeper with our practice together. Bristol Buddhist Centre in the UK took part in a ‘Rainy Season Retreat’ together on the subject of Living In The Mandala - looking at the Brahma Viharas. And they invited everyone to join in online!

View all posts from ‘Living In The...

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