A personal talk on the theme of 'Daughters of the Buddha'. What does Mara say to Jvalamalini? And is it true? Talk given at Tiratanaloka on the 'Daughters of the Buddha' weekend.

A personal talk on the theme of 'Daughters of the Buddha'. Annette Schlaudraff has spent her working life engaged in the field of sexual health, and is in the Triratna ordination process. Given on Tiratanaloka weekend 'Daughters of the Buddha'

Let's hear it for the early Buddhist women! Mahajapapati was the first Buddhist nun and leader of the women's ordained sangha, and her two chief disciples were Khema and Uppalavanna. Maitrisiddhi explores some challenging material - and also very inspiring texts around the beginning of the bhikkhuni sangha. Talk also features Mara - the embodiment of everything that holds us back. How do we free ourselves from his insidious whispers? Talk given at Tiratanaloka 'Daughters of the Buddha' weekend. Unfortunately Maitrisiddhi's introductory talk was not recorded. Let's hear it for the early Buddhist women! Mahajapapati was the first Buddhist nun and leader of the women's ordained sangha, and her two chief disciples were Khema and Uppalavanna. Maitrisiddhi explores some challenging material - and also very inspiring texts around the beginning of the bhikkhuni sangha. Talk also features Mara - the embodiment of everything that holds us back. How do we free ourselves from his insidious whispers? Unfortunately Maitrisiddhi's introductory talk was not recorded. As well as Bhikkhu Analayo's 'Daughters of the Buddha', MAitrisiddhi refers to Alice Collett's 'I Hear Her Words'

Talk 2 of 8. Shinran’s life, the Three Myths of the Spiritual Life, and how to break out of the green Clarks shoebox of our habitual mind. What happens when we fail to turn ourselves into the person we wish we were? Reactive and creative responses!

Talk 5 of 8. Unethical action only occurs because of the delusion of self. How can we bring clarity to the process of selfing, and step out of the ego-drama of ‘me as good’ and ‘me as bad’? As Sabhiya says of the Buddha in the Sutta Nipata: “Good and evil run off you, like water off a petal.” What if we engaged with ethics from a deeper place – in fact, from a wisdom perspective. For experienced Dharma practitioners.

Talk 8 of 8. A summary of living the Shin Buddhist perspective, and 'taking it home'. The Shin Buddhist path arises out of failure… but what fails? It’s the failure of delusion to get what it wants. When we see this rightly, what happens? We move our trust to what is reliable – our connection with ‘the golden light’, ‘Buddhaness’. And we remove our trust from what isn’t worthy of it – our ‘calculating mind’ that wants to get what it wants. Emerging from the failure of the ego to produce the desired self comes spiritual death and spiritual rebirth. For experienced Dharma practitioners.

Breathing with the Buddha. Very simple – we are breathing, we have already brought ourselves, and since we’re in a shrine room, we are seated in relation to the Buddha. It’s the golden light of the Buddha which really transforms. From ‘True Entrusting 2024: Shinran, the Buddha and Bhante’.

Noticing what is already there – us, deluded as we are – and the limitless Illuminator, Buddha Vairocana. Trusting our relation to the limitless, whether we feel it at that moment or not. From ‘True Entrusting 2024: Shinran, the Buddha and Bhante’.

Sitting ‘for its own sake’, for the sake of coming into relation - not to produce a result. Allowing ourselves to be the foolish conditioned being that we are – and yet here we are, seated in relation to the shrine. From ‘True Entrusting 2024: Shinran, the Buddha and Bhante’.

Talk 7 of 8. What do we trust? What do we mistrust? Our ‘right’ views? Our blind belief in self? Insight involves breaking out of a fixed reductive world-view just as much as a fixed self. What if we did trust to ‘Other Power’, ‘the golden light’, ‘the limitless’ in our Dharma lives? Maitrisiddhi unpacks views, Stream Entry, nihilism and eternalism.

Talk 6 of 8. How do we understand the awakening process? A ‘me’ in here making isolated choices? Or a relational world of ‘the mutuality of being’ - as Nagarjuna describes it. Compassion, metta and awakening from a Shin perspective. For experienced Dharma practitioners.

Talk 4 of 8. ‘Like the cherry blossom, the heart planning on tomorrow is ephemeral indeed. What sudden storm may not arise in the middle of the night?’ Like Shakyamuni Buddha, Shinran’s deep sense of the uncertainty and unreliability of the existential situation drives his going forth. Yet ‘going forth’ isn’t ultimately from a place or a context: it’s going forth from the mind that grasps, including within the Dharma life. For experienced Dharma practitioners.

Talk 3 of 8. The Buddha as presence and absence. What happens when the conditioned mind lets up for a bit? Experiences of beauty, openness, love, desire to go for refuge and devotion naturally arise; we experience contact with ‘amida’, the quality of limitlessness. Are those experiences ‘ours’ – or something else? For experienced Dharma practitioners.

Talk 1 of 8. The life of Shakyamuni as relationality, and the growth of the Pure Land mythic world. How do we see the life of the Buddha? As the myth of the solitary hero, or as a story of conditionality: awakening arising through our relations with others? How do processes of transformation arise? They arise within relatedness, because that’s the nature of reality itself. For experienced Dharma practitioners.

'A talk about climate change that left me uplifted and inspired!' How to stay out of guilt, and the importance of applying a wisdom perspective to the ecological situation. Talk given at Shrewsbury Buddhist Centre.

Could everything in your life - wanted or unwanted - help you towards Awakening? How can we find that transformative attitude in ourselves? Maitrisiddhi and Subhadramati explore answers to these questions drawing on Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara passionate guide to Enlightenment for the sake of all that lives. In the first talk Maitrisiddhi explores Kshanti, while in the second talk Subhadramati explores Exchanging Self and Other Talks from the Great Gathering held at Taraloka in 2024.

Parami closes a retreat on the Bodhicaryavatara with an exploration of chapter 9: Perfection of Wisdom

This talk was given at the June 2024 Women's Area Order Weekend themed "I am because we are". In it, Singhashri reminds us of Bhante's emphasis on the development of the true individual, positive group and spiritual community. She then links an embodied and relational approach to our individual and collective going for refuge, encouraging us to explore how a direct experience of safety, dignity and belonging in the sangha might support collective awakening. She ends by sharing specific ways we may practice "somatic going for refuge" which she describes as not a new level of going for refuge, but rather a way of practicing that we can "needle through" our lives from provisional to cosmic going forth.

This talk was given at the June 2024 Women's Area Order Weekend. In it, Singhashri reminds us of Bhante's emphasis on the development of the true individual, positive group and spiritual community. She then links an embodied and relational approach to our individual and collective going for refuge, encouraging us to explore how a direct experience of safety, dignity and belonging in the sangha might support collective awakening. She ends by sharing specific ways we may practice "somatic going for refuge" which she describes as not a new level of going for refuge, but rather a way of practicing that we can "needle through" our lives from provisional to cosmic going forth.