You asked, ‘What is this transient pattern?’
If we tell the truth of it, it will be a long story;
It is a pattern that came out of the ocean
And in a moment returned to the ocean depth.

– Omar Khayyam
the epigraph in The Rainbow Road

A series of personal reminiscences from some Public Preceptors, on the theme of Sangharakshita + the Gestalt. These were shared during a couple of sessions of the March 2021 College Weekend, choreographed by Maitreyabandhu, as a ritual and personal setting for College Members to connect with one another.

We opened with a short talk from Padmavajra on the theme of the Gestalt, and then a number of College members shared personally about significant threads in their lives, ending with a short ritual led by Maitreyi.

We decided to share these recordings more widely for those of you interested in hearing more personally from members of the College about their life and practice.

01 | Introduction – Padmavajra
02 | Kulanandi
03 | Adityabodhi
04 | Punyamala
05 | Surata
06 | The Parting Glass – Parami
07 | Vajrashura
08 | Subhadramati
09 | Offering, a Poem – Jnanavaca
10 | Parami
11 | Nagabodhi
12 | Transference of Merits – Maitreyi

The emphasis here is on the word pattern. There is a pattern there in the ocean depths, but the pattern doesn’t fully emerge from the ocean’s depths, you see only a part of the pattern, you have to infer the rest. In a way, Browning says the same sort of thing: “On the earth the broken arcs, in the heaven a perfect round.” So on earth you only see the broken arc, and the ordinary autobiography, or the autobiography I am writing gives only the broken arc, not the perfect round. I think (the latter) is quite beyond that sort of structure.

– Sangharakshita, Forest Monks of Sri Lanka Seminar, 1985