Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Ways We Limit Ourselves

By Zac on Mon, 29 Aug, 2022 - 06:00

Abandoning Our Wrong Ideas About the Path

More poetry, more Rumi, more listening joy from Vajradarshini. And what a title! In fact, this is another splendid journey around the idea of Enlightenment, using the languages of surrender and discipline from the Sufi context. It’s as heady as a sumptuous wine, but also sobering and down to earth, whether we’re “following a railing in the dark” or “wandering inside the red world”. Drink up! From the talk entitled ...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Love is Everywhere

By Sadayasihi on Mon, 15 Feb, 2021 - 06:00

Dharmashalin offers his reflections in the first in a three talk series exploring the Rumi quote: ‘Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.’

Excerpted from the talk entitled Love Past the Barriers 1: Rumi and Our Stories About What Love Should Look Like given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2021

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West London Buddhist Centre
West London Buddhist Centre

There is a Field...

By Ratnadeva on Tue, 21 Jul, 2020 - 14:17

There is a Field...

By Ratnadeva on Tue, 21 Jul, 2020 - 14:17

Bodhilila recites Rumi on the first night of our ‘There is a Field…Online Retreat’ after talking about building community, building Sangha, maintaining connections and how we might integrate retreat conditions in the day to day. 

Extracted from the longer poem ‘The Great Wagon’.

West London Buddhist Centre
West London Buddhist Centre

Online Retreat: There's a Field...

By Ratnadeva on Thu, 9 Jul, 2020 - 19:22

Online Retreat: There's a Field...

By Ratnadeva on Thu, 9 Jul, 2020 - 19:22

Please register in advance for this retreat. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event. 

“Out beyond ideas
of wrong doing and right doing
there is a field
I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down
in that grass
the world is too full
to speak of
ideas, language even the notion
one another
makes no sense.”

​Following the success of our...

Bump elbows, say hello!
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Ironic Points of Light (The Dharma Toolkit Daily, Episode 25)

By Centre Team on Sat, 9 May, 2020 - 00:21

Shimmering images, and no less shimmering experiences. Today’s episode begins a series on beauty, poetry, myth, art and symbol as a response to crisis.

Taking our cue from W.H. Auden’s poem, September 1st, 1939, and his recognition of the need to “love one another or die”, we ask how, in the midst of fear – even of death – we can exercise our agency as human beings.

Poetry leads the way in and out of the questioning. Joining Auden in the...

Bump elbows, say hello!
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Only Possibilities - Sailing the Worldly Winds Home Retreat Day 5

By Sadayasihi on Tue, 7 Apr, 2020 - 12:37

Only Possibilities - Sailing the Worldly Winds Home Retreat Day 5

By Sadayasihi on Tue, 7 Apr, 2020 - 12:37

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. 


- Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

This beautiful poem by Rumi popped into my head when I was reflecting on today’s home retreat material, which is about...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Reality and Intuition

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 7 Jun, 2018 - 14:54

This FBA Dharmabyte is entitled ‘Reality and Intuition’ from the talk ‘All One Gorgeous Mistake’ by Vajradarshini.

A jewelled casket of a talk by Vajradarshini, with poetic accompaniment. Rumi meets Tsongkhapa in the Tavern of Ruin, and Dogen, Milarepa and Nagarjuna join them to talk about ‘self’ and ‘world’. Joanna Macy turns up too — then many voices, mixed and mingled, explore the experience of being part of an Order and following the Buddha’s way. Quite splendid...

Bristol Buddhist Centre
Bristol Buddhist Centre

Day 7: Introductions, Inspirations and Mantra

By Centre Team on Sat, 11 Apr, 2015 - 20:12

A selection of beautiful lead-ins to meditation from Day 7 of the Rainy Season Retreat from Spring 2015 which took place in Bristol and around the world online!

View all posts from ‘Living In The Mandala’

Community Highlights
Community Highlights

Poems on Metta - Loving Kindness

By Candradasa on Sat, 9 Nov, 2013 - 17:11

Poems on Metta - Loving Kindness

By Candradasa on Sat, 9 Nov, 2013 - 17:11If you didn’t already catch this during the week, here’s a great video from Manidha and Alice in Seattle, USA using poems from different spiritual traditions to explore what metta (loving kindness) is!

Watch out for the outtakes at the end… :)

This piece was originally posted on the Urban Retreat 2013 space on the site.
Loving Kindness - Blazing Like The Sun
Loving Kindness - Blazing Like The Sun

Manidha and Alice - Poems on Metta

By Manidha on Wed, 6 Nov, 2013 - 19:21

Manidha and Alice - Poems on Metta

By Manidha on Wed, 6 Nov, 2013 - 19:21Manidha and Alice here from Seattle in the U.S. sharing a collection of poems we feel inspired by when we think about metta and its central importance for the life of the heart. Drawing on different religious and spiritual traditions the poems bring out some of the qualities of metta and of a person turning their effort towards cultivating loving kindness in their life.

This video was produced and read with the help of our friends...