A special episode of the podcast to invite you to Alive In Nature! - a series of live meditations and Dharma adventures from the Scottish Highlands!

Find our more and reserve your space on Alive In Nature!

For three Saturdays in spring or autumn - whichever hemisphere you are in, whatever state of lockdown you're living through - you're invited to sit with us and the amazing team from the Dhanakosa community in the birch woods of the Scottish Highlands. And to find your own "micro-adventure" in nature - in your own way, at your own pace (even if it's looking out your window!). 

By way of introduction to this experience, in this episode we go on a walk over the hillside at Balquhidder in the beautiful Trossachs region. The burn (brook) runs down the mountain through cataracts and waterfalls to the loch (lake) below; the snow in the pine forest crunches underfoot as we climb with Nayaka to a place of owls and foxes and roe deer...

As he walks, Nayaka reflects on his own experience of a reciprocated relationship with nature, where our own being is invited in. A relationship in which our aliveness and the aliveness of the world around us are not two separate things; where letting go can happen, where emergence can arise.
The sense of love and sheer delight is so strong here - and you are invited in!

Come to Alive in Nature!

***

Subscribe to The Buddhist Centre podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On other podcast networks

News, event coverage, mantras and rituals, Dharma conversations among diverse voices from the Triratna Buddhist Community around the world, keeping you up-to-date with the latest in our sangha.

Subscribe to our Buddhist Voices Podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On others podcast networks  

Our longer form podcast, featuring great in-depth conversations with Buddhists from around the world. Inspiring stories that illuminate for modern times the Buddha's example of how to live and find true freedom.

April 16-18

Exploring the Buddha’s relationship with nature: a study practice weekend with Dhivan

The teaching of the Buddha is practical and concerned with the ending of dukkha or suffering. But the life-story of the Buddha shows him becoming Awakened at the foot of the Bodhi tree, encouraged and sheltered by the nāgas or mythical snakes, and having defeated Māra with the help of the Earth Goddess. These symbols of tree, snake and goddess tell us something on the level of myth and story about the animistic context of Awakening.

This weekend will offer an opportunity to study Buddhism with Dhivan, an Order member and Buddhist scholar who works in the area of early Buddhism as well as Buddhism and ecology. We will be looking at discourses from the Pāli canon and extracts from the traditional life-stories of the Buddha that show the Buddha in an intimate relationship with nature. By entering into this story we start to understand how an imaginative relationship with nature as a living whole is an important condition for our own Dharma lives.

Session content to be confirmed but times as below:

Friday
7.30–9pm: Introductions, talk, meditation

Saturday
7.30–8.30am: Meditation
10.30am –12pm: Talk and discussion in groups
4.30–6pm: Talk and discussion in groups
7.30–8.30pm: Meditation and ritual

Sunday
7.30–8.30am: Meditation
10.30am: Talk and discussion in groups
4.30–5.30pm: Concluding session

Find out more about this event - including link to book

Nature is for many of us an important source of spiritual nourishment in an increasingly busy world. On this retreat we combined traditional Buddhist teachings with the simple practice of spending time walking in the rich and beautiful landscapes that surround Dhanakosa.

Come on retreat at Dhanakosa: https://www.dhanakosa.com/retreats

Dhanakosa shares a great compilation of highlights here from their 2017 celebration of Triratna Day, with scenes from the landscape, preparations, talks, and a wonderful view of a beautiful shrine beneath the tent.