Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen Retreat, Day 6, Being Present

By Yashobodhi on Thu, 27 Mar, 2014 - 13:27
On the last full day of the Tonglen order retreat, Saddhanandi talks about being present as a ground for deepening understanding and as an incentive to deepen our motivation.

Download the talk on Free Buddhist Audio
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen Retreat: Thursday

By saddhanandi on Wed, 26 Mar, 2014 - 18:30

Tonglen Retreat: Thursday

By saddhanandi on Wed, 26 Mar, 2014 - 18:30It’s hard to believe it’s the last full day of the retreat and that we’ll be coming out of silence very soon. It’s now a process of holding the retreat steady whilst we begin to meet the transition phase of ‘leaving’. Meanwhile, I’m trying to work out what I need to say at 11am.

I’ve been reflecting on an extract from one of Sangharakshita’s seminars: ‘A common misapprehension is to think of ‘Insight’ in abstract terms, but the ‘Truth...
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen retreat day 5: Remembering the bodhichitta in everyday life

By Yashobodhi on Wed, 26 Mar, 2014 - 14:59
This is a talk Yashobodhi gave on day five of the Order Tonglen Retreat at Taraloka. She talks about her personal connection to the tonglen practice and the seven point mind-training and about practising tonglen in the moment. She also addresses the issue of difficulties with people, tying it in with the mind-training slogan of ‘be grateful to everyone and everything’, as other people provide you with the opportunity to go beyond ego. After the talk Yashobodhi led the tonglen...
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen Retreat: Wednesday

By saddhanandi on Wed, 26 Mar, 2014 - 10:02

Tonglen Retreat: Wednesday

By saddhanandi on Wed, 26 Mar, 2014 - 10:02Bright clear blue skies, the earth covered in dew and the magnolia trees are just coming into blossom. It’s a beautiful spring morning and by 9am the solar panels are already heating up the hot water.

Many years ago, when I was manager of the Operations Team at Taraloka, I attended a small study retreat for women teachers. During those nine days we looked at the Four Foundation Yogas, or Mula Yogas, which form the basis of Tibetan spiritual...
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen retreat, day 4: Tonglen for Others

By Yashobodhi on Tue, 25 Mar, 2014 - 14:26
On day four of the Spring Tonglen Retreat at Taraloka Saddhanandi talks about tonglen for others. She describes how the breath helps us to breathe in and turn towards what we usually ignore, resist or block to defend ourselves from the suffering we see in others. When we’re breathing out we’re offering something we usually protect or isolate for our own use. So on the out-breath we’re sharing our resources in response to the suffering we encounter in our lives.
...
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen Retreat: Tuesday

By saddhanandi on Tue, 25 Mar, 2014 - 06:54

Tonglen Retreat: Tuesday

By saddhanandi on Tue, 25 Mar, 2014 - 06:54The sky is heavy and grey with cloud, which is interesting as we’re in the middle phase of the retreat and it can be a time when people can hit more resistance, so it’s as if the sky is reflecting that back to us after the bright clear skies of yesterday.

The thankha of four-armed Avalokitesvara, hanging above the shrine, is reflecting back a different perspective and Ratnavandana drew this out in the readings in last night’s puja.

...
Buddhist Centre Features
Buddhist Centre Features

Tonglen Retreat Day 3 - Self-Tonglen Led Meditation

By Centre Team on Mon, 24 Mar, 2014 - 17:17
A led meditation from Day Three of the 2014 Spring Tonglen Retreat at Taraloka.

Self-tonglen: First turning towards your own experience, then towards the unsatisfactory aspects and later to the joyful aspects. You end by simply being in a space of open awareness.

This meditation can also be downloaded at Free Buddhist Audio
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen Retreat: Monday

By saddhanandi on Mon, 24 Mar, 2014 - 08:55

Tonglen Retreat: Monday

By saddhanandi on Mon, 24 Mar, 2014 - 08:55A bright hard frost this morning, after a clear starry night. The wind has dropped and it’s absolutely still.

At 11am, I’ll be presenting Tonglen in relation to ‘self’. I’ve been remembering a period of time when I was quite new to meditation, and how I had to face certain uncomfortable truths about myself: five hard years of going on retreat acknowledging what was really happening! But the work that I did on myself during those years has become...
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Tonglen Retreat: Sunday

By saddhanandi on Sun, 23 Mar, 2014 - 13:06

Tonglen Retreat: Sunday

By saddhanandi on Sun, 23 Mar, 2014 - 13:06The day started with two meditations, held within the silence of early morning - dawn rises quietly in front of the large shrine room windows at Taraloka.

At 11am, I focused on the teaching of the Absolute Bodhicitta. In Tonglen it is sometimes called the stage of ‘Flashing Bodhicitta’. It’s taken me a few years to relate to this aspect of the practice as I’m such a practical sort-of-girl and I need things to be concrete and tangible! But...
Taraloka Retreat Centre
Taraloka Retreat Centre

Introduction to Tonglen retreat

By Yashobodhi on Sat, 22 Mar, 2014 - 14:35
Yesterday evening Saddhanandi introduced her vision for the retreat that will be held here at Taraloka over the next week. The topic is a meditation practice called tonglen, which is a Tibetan word for receiving and sending. In this practice the breath is used to connect to one’s heart wish for the happiness of all beings.

Some highlights: Saddhanandi tells us what happened after she had been reading Doris Lessing’s novel ‘The Marriages between zones three, four and five’...

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