We had a wonderful first day of our Order-Mitra 'Rainy Season Retreat' today, with Ratnaguna on fine form exploring everything from what we can learn from the language of the heptapods in the film 'Arrival', through the way the Mahayana expresses insight cosmically, suggestions on how to listen to the sutras, to why birds have to be magical apparitions in the pure land.

We listened to one of the sutras twice, and discussed our responses. 

When I walked out into the sun-blessed, rain-washed world after lunch, I felt I'd been transported to a slightly different Bristol - impure though it is.

To close our day, this evening Ratnaguna led us in a delightful visualisation of - or immersion in - Sukhavati, then we did puja "in Sukhavati".

For now I'm popping the unedited talks on our website here - we'll tidy them up later on our channel at Free Buddhist Audio.