Tag: summoningtheworldtobuddhahood

Day 5: Summoning the World to Buddhahood

Today we moved on to Chapter 8 – The Perfection of Meditative Absorption. This is the longest chapter in the Bodhicaryavatara and has two main themes:

• The importance of renunciation of craving and attachment if one is to achieve any sense of calm and stability in meditation
• The exchange of self and other as a profound meditation to overcome self-clinging and cultivate the Awakening Mind

After hearing the verses (where Santideva doesn’t disappoint in his direct, challenging, even shocking language), we heard a wonderful talk from...

Day 3: Summoning the World to Buddhahood

Day 3

Day three brings us to chapter 6: The Perfection of Forbearance.

After introducing the perfections of Generosity (Dana) and Ethics (Sila) yesterday in chapter 5, today we moved onto the Perfection of Forbearance (Ksanti).

Following our daily format, we listened to the text at 10.30 before Saddhanandi gave an excellent and clear commentary drawing on Shantideva’s words, Bhante’s teaching and her own experience of this aspect of practice.

She unpacked how Shantideva looks at forbearance in three main ways: forbearance towards suffering (verses 11-21), forbearance as...

Day 1: Summoning the World to Buddhahood

It is beautiful to have the privilege to practice with this wonderful group on the ‘Summoning the World to Buddhahood’ retreat at Adhisthana. We gathered for the first session last night in the shrine room with others joining us online. We went around and introduced ourselves and it was powerful to hear everyone’s connection with the Bodhicaryavatara – for many a much loved and seminal text.

I recalled my first encounter with the text in 1987 when Nagabodhi led a weekend on...