Buddhist Centre Features
Buddhist Centre Features

(More) Reflections: Writing and Meditation

By Centre Team on Tue, 15 Aug, 2023 - 14:46

(More) Reflections: Writing and Meditation

By Centre Team on Tue, 15 Aug, 2023 - 14:46

Sunday October 15th 2023 with Yashobodi
Following an engaging and thought-provoking event held last Spring, we invite you once more to take part in a day of exploration and practice through meditation and reflective writing with Yashobodhi and others. We will gently delve into our experience following writing prompts and working with images and metaphors. No previous experience required!

Book now for (More) Reflections with Yashobodhi

The kind of writing we will be doing is unplanned. We...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Satyadaka & Sarvananda (Highlights)

By Zac on Thu, 27 Oct, 2022 - 11:26

“I think it’s about 18 years we’ve lived together, in one form or another.”
 

Satyadaka’s Annals:

In 1968 I was eight years old. I was into swimming, had just realised I didn’t like mathematics and loved the Narnia books by C.S.Lewis even more than the Alice books by Lewis Carroll.

In 1978 I was taking my A-Levels but was more interested in the life that seemed to be passing me by. I associated life with the Arts in general and with...

West London Buddhist Centre
West London Buddhist Centre

Wolf at the Door: Online Writing Retreat

By Sophie_WLBCPublicity on Thu, 15 Jul, 2021 - 13:40

Wolf at the Door: Online Writing Retreat

By Sophie_WLBCPublicity on Thu, 15 Jul, 2021 - 13:40

Saturday 4 & Sunday 5 September 2021

We welcome you to September’s Wolf at the Door theme:  A Visitor to the Wolf Hotel: An Exploration of the Wildness of the Senses with Varasahaya and Padmacandra who ask, 

“What if instead of the Wolf visiting us, we find ourselves at the door of the Wolf Hotel? At each of the six windows blows a different kind of wind. What if we found ourselves looking out of one of these windows, the wild wolf senses, to see the...

Buddhist Centre Features
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Looking into the Well Again: Using Writing to Explore the Mind

By Centre Team on Tue, 18 May, 2021 - 17:08

Looking into the Well Again: Using Writing to Explore the Mind

By Centre Team on Tue, 18 May, 2021 - 17:08

Looking into the Well Again: Using Writing to Explore the Mind
A four-week course with Yashobodhi

Sundays: June 27th, July 4th, 11th, 18th
Each session will be done twice every week to accommodate time zones - come to whichever session suits best with your ticket.

First session (2 hrs): IE & UK 09:00 | Europe CET 10:00 | India 13:30 | Australia AEST 18:00 | New Zealand 20:00

Second session (2 hrs)USA PST 11:00 | México 13:00 | USA EST...

Community Highlights
The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Looking into the Well: Using Writing to Explore the Mind

By Centre Team on Mon, 8 Feb, 2021 - 23:00

Looking into the Well: Using Writing to Explore the Mind

By Centre Team on Mon, 8 Feb, 2021 - 23:00

A four-week course with Yashobodhi: Sundays: March 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
Each session will be done twice every week to accommodate time zones (see below for times and springtime changes mid-course!). 

Come to any session you want with your ticket.

Reserve your space (Suggested donation for the whole course: $80  £80  €80)

About the course
In this course we will use writing as a tool to tap into the abundance and wisdom that usually lie dormant under our habitual ways of viewing ourselves and the world. 

The prompts we will be using...

Buddhist Action
Buddhist Action

For the Earth, From the Sangha: Poetry Readings and Other Voices

By rodashruti on Thu, 2 Jul, 2020 - 00:08

This is a companion recording to the series of podcasts I produced for Earth Week 2020: Hair On Fire - Buddhist Responses Turning Toward Climate Change

  1. Eva Soncin introduced Vimalasara.
     
  2. Vimalasara read “I am Africa” from her recently published book of poems, I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin, published by University of Alberta Press. It’s available at your favorite online book sellers, and on order from local independent bookstores.
     
  3. Paul Greenberg read excerpts
  4. ...
Western Buddhist Review
Western Buddhist Review

Harold Bloom: the Embattled Canon and the Experiential Critic

By Vishvapani on Sat, 19 Oct, 2019 - 20:26

Harold Bloom: the Embattled Canon and the Experiential Critic

By Vishvapani on Sat, 19 Oct, 2019 - 20:26

This is a guest post by Vishvapani, re-published here from an early issue of The Western Buddhist Review


***


The Western Canon
By Harold Bloom
Macmillan, London 1994, pp. 567


1. Introduction: contemporary criticism’s questions and answers
What should be our central question in approaching literature? The celebrated American literary critic Harold Bloom proposes one: What is literature for? This question may sound obvious, but it is not one with...

Buddhist Centre Features
Buddhist Centre Features

Culture's Peak: An Interview with Harold Bloom by Vishvapani

By Vishvapani on Wed, 16 Oct, 2019 - 23:23

Culture's Peak: An Interview with Harold Bloom by Vishvapani

By Vishvapani on Wed, 16 Oct, 2019 - 23:23

This interview with the literary critic Harold Bloom was first published in Dharma Life, 5, Summer 1997. Harold Bloom died on October 14th 2019.

Vishvapani is a writer, broadcaster and Buddhist mindfulness teacher. His writing can be found at Wise Attention.

***

When I first encountered Harold Bloom’s work, I discovered a remarkable mixture. Bloom is Professor of Humanities at Yale University, and is widely considered America’s leading literary critic. His many books combine an enormous breadth of reading...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Trusting the Process

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 18 Apr, 2019 - 14:00

Our FBA Dharmabyte today is by Varasahaya called Trusting the Process.

Drawing on her experience as a poet, Varasahaya discusses creativity, imagination, and the writing process as a spiritual practice. She reads some of her poems, and explains the process by which they came to birth, and what she learnt about letting go of self as she grappled with writing.

An excellent and very accessible talk given to Sangha night at the West London Buddhist Centre. Taken...

Triratna News
Triratna News

Sangharakshita's Diary

By Sadayasihi on Wed, 17 Oct, 2018 - 17:43

Sangharakshita's Diary

By Sadayasihi on Wed, 17 Oct, 2018 - 17:43

Sthanashraddha is Bhante’s secretary. He writes from AdhisthanaUK:

“August:
August continued to blaze with sunshine and heat, though eventually it did break and the rains fell with a downpour here or there and rainy days mixed between sunny ones. Wonderful for slowly rejuvenating the very dry and crispy gardens, less attractive for Bhante’s morning walk and sit by the pond.

The wet weather was very noticeable during the Order weekend at the end of the month...

Pages