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Candradasa

Sarvanananda - Communicating the Dharma Through the Arts: Show Don't Tell

From Buddhist Centre Features on Sun, 23 Aug, 2015 - 11:38

Be prepared for the unexpected in Sarvananda’s very funny - and by turns wrongfooting - personal exploration of why the Arts are vital to the development of a genuine Buddhist community. Sarvananda discusses as background his attempts to find a synthesis between the Arts and spiritual life, leading to his current work as a successful playwright.

But it’s in the three departures from a traditional Dharma talk that we glimpse something else - the crucial show-don’t-tell aspect...

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Bodhidasa

Week 7 - Transference of Merit and Self Surrender

From Breaking the chains - buddhist rituals to set you free on Sun, 23 Aug, 2015 - 06:38

Week 7 - Transference of Merit and Self Surrender

From Breaking the chains - buddhist rituals to set you free on Sun, 23 Aug, 2015 - 06:38

We come to the end of the course and the end of the devotional sequence - Transference of Merit and Self Surrender. Here, in this last stage of the puja, we uncover the secret behind the whole practice.

This short video (7 minutes) is a rough summary of the stages of the puja using a different metaphor - that of climbing a mountain.

Remember - this week you have been requesting to bring a device with which you can access the internet. We will...

Candradasa

Sangharakshita's Complete Works Appeal Celebration and Book Launch

From Buddhist Centre Features on Sun, 23 Aug, 2015 - 00:06

At the start of this recording Parami refers to the assembled Order taking part in a Mahayana Sutra. Never was a comment more prescient as the thunder rolls in, the skies pour forth torrents of rain and the shrine marquee is played on like a great drum! Afterwards, rainbows - a fitting way to greet Sangharakshita who joins the throng to celebrate the success of an appeal to fund his Complete Works and to hear Kalyanaprabha...

Munisha

Happy Birthday, Bhante!

From Buddhist Centre Features on Sat, 22 Aug, 2015 - 20:46

Happy Birthday, Bhante!

From Buddhist Centre Features on Sat, 22 Aug, 2015 - 20:46

This morning saw Sarvananda giving a talk entitled “Communicating the Dharma through the arts: show, don’t tell”. As with Maitreyabandhu yesterday, we were by turns laughing hysterically and delving deep. Declaring a suspicion of standup comedy he tried demonstrating standup tragedy - in a Greek mask - and later ventriloquism with a shaggy-haired glove puppet character claiming to be a 15 year-old newly ordained anagarika Direct Pointing guide.

Grey weather turned very hot and humid this afternoon. Mahasukha’s Soulful singing group gave...

Munisha

Sangharakshita receives £110,000 for his 90th birthday

From Triratna News on Sat, 22 Aug, 2015 - 18:15

Sangharakshita receives £110,000 for his 90th birthday

From Triratna News on Sat, 22 Aug, 2015 - 18:15

This afternoon at Adhisthana, during sudden and dramatic thunderous rain, Sangharakshita attended the UK and Ireland Order Weekend to mark his 90th birthday. Here he was presented with £110,000 given by over a thousand people from around the world of Triratna. Sadhu, everyone!

The money is for the publication of his Complete Works, and for translations into many languages.

Four hundred members of the Order are at Adhisthana this weekend, including some from mainland Europe, Mexico, India and Australia. In today’s...

Rijupatha

FBA Podcast: The Nature of Transformation

From Free Buddhist Audio on Sat, 22 Aug, 2015 - 11:00

This week’s FBA Podcast is a tender and moving talk by Paramananda entitled “The Nature of Transformation”. Transformation is basically allowing the protective shell of self to dissipate. This shell only falls away if you come into relationship with your real, impermanent, fragile, vulnerable nature and soften into that or open up to that.

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Munisha

Music, haiku and gratitude

From Buddhist Centre Features on Fri, 21 Aug, 2015 - 23:51

Music, haiku and gratitude

From Buddhist Centre Features on Fri, 21 Aug, 2015 - 23:51

Yesterday’s grey morning here at Adhisthana was greatly brightened by Maitreyabandhu’s talk, “What good are the arts?”, combining his usual mixture of depth and self-deprecating hilarity and including a particularly moving description of being “lifted up” by music, and grief at separation from the beautiful. The talk ended with the launch of his new book, The Journey and the Guide.

The many arts events today, planned and impromptu, included a haiku workshop and a performance by a small...

Candradasa

Conscious Surrender To The Beautiful - Choral Performance

From Buddhist Centre Features on Fri, 21 Aug, 2015 - 18:01

A beautiful performance (on only 2 rehearsals!) from the on-site choir as part of the weekend celebrating both the Arts in spiritual life and the 90th birthday of Urgyen Sangharakshita.

Featuring:
01 Vipulakirti’s setting of words from The Dhammapada
02 The Deathless Dharma (in Praise of Avalokiteshvara) by Bodhivajra
03 Meditation - a poem by Sangharakshita set by Manidhara (Graham Patterson)
04 Milarepa’s Eight Wonderful Examples by Viplulakirti Followed by Avalokiteshvara Mantra
...

Free Buddhist Audio

Maitreyabandhu - What Good Are the Arts? (with Book Launch)

From Buddhist Centre Features on Fri, 21 Aug, 2015 - 17:11

Maitreyabandhu has long been a champion of the Arts as a viable path of spiritual practice in the Buddhist context. And here is an unapologetic but nuanced - in many ways delightfully good humoured and cultured - look at why the Arts must be part of a wider perspective on life if they are to be any good to us.

Drawing on sources as diverse as John Carey and Wagner via Elizabeth Bishop and Hello Kitty, Maitreyabandhu illustrates why the Arts detached...

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Candradasa

The Sangharakshita@90 Exhibition: Nine Decades

From Buddhist Centre Features on Fri, 21 Aug, 2015 - 11:26

Sanghamani and Abhayanara in the Sangharakshita Library at Adhisthana in England, discussing the beautiful new exhibition to mark Sangharakshita’s life via objects from each of his nine decades.

See all posts from the Conscious Surrender to the Beautiful weekend

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