‘Our compassion is inconsistent and limited’: Shinran, metta and bodhicitta Seeing our limitations clearly, without judgement - yet opening to metta that is limitless - metta that can never be “ours”. And what is blind belief, and how can we tell the difference between that and faith? Talks suitable for experienced practitioners only, as a sound base of experience and Dharma knowledge is taken for granted. Given on the 2022 Taraloka retreat ‘True Entrusting: Shinran, the Buddha and Bhante’, which explored Shinran’s classic text ‘Tannisho’. Talks begin with a section of this text. *Maitrisiddhi gave talks on the same themes in 2021. While there is overlap, there is also new material in each talk.*

‘Alice through the Looking-Glass’: a summary of Shinran’s approach to the Dharma life, outlines of how we might live it, and tentative suggestions about how to communicate about it within Triratna! Talks suitable for experienced practitioners only, as a sound base of experience and Dharma knowledge is taken for granted. Given on the 2022 Taraloka retreat ‘True Entrusting: Shinran, the Buddha and Bhante’, which explored Shinran’s classic text ‘Tannisho’. Talks begin with a section of this text.

‘Since I am absolutely incapable of any religious practice…’: Shinran and Going for Refuge. The existential situation and the self as false refuge. True entrusting and Going for Refuge – same or different? Talks suitable for experienced practitioners only, as a sound base of experience and Dharma knowledge is taken for granted. Given on the 2022 Taraloka retreat ‘True Entrusting: Shinran, the Buddha and Bhante’, which explored Shinran’s classic text ‘Tannisho’. Talks begin with a section of this text. *Maitrisiddhi gave talks on the same themes in 2021. While there is overlap, there is also new material in each talk.*

‘Just say the nembutsu…’ Introductory talk. Where did Shinran and the Japanese Shin tradition spring from? An overview of ‘recollection of the Buddha’ through the centuries until its flowering as Japanese Shin in medieval Japan. Talks suitable for experienced practitioners only as a sound base of experience and Dharma knowledge is taken for granted. Given on the 2022 Taraloka retreat ‘True Entrusting: Shinran, the Buddha and Bhante’, which explored Shinran’s classic text ‘Tannisho’. Talks begin with a section of this text. *Maitrisiddhi gave talks on the same themes in 2021. While there is overlap, there is also new material in each talk.*