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Vimalasara

Avalokitesvara the Bodhisattva of Compassion

From Eight Step Recovery - Using the Buddha's Teachings To Overcome Addiction on Sat, 23 Nov, 2013 - 06:52

Day 7 is the Avalokitesvara mantra. Avalokitesvara is an archetypal bodhisattva, who is particularly associated with compassion. One translations of his name is ‘He who looks upon the cries of the world’. When we chant the mantra of Avalokitesvara we can imagine Avalokitesvara compassionately helping all beings, ourselves included. If you wish, you could imagine rays of compassion streaming towards you from him and feel compassion arising in your heart. May you all be free from the root and the...

Vimalasara

Four basic needs of the heart

From Eight Step Recovery - Using the Buddha's Teachings To Overcome Addiction on Fri, 22 Nov, 2013 - 06:27

Day 6 is a day filled with loving kindness. When we learn to cultivate the four basic needs of the heart; attention, affection, appreciation and acceptance towards ourselves, our whole world will begin to change. In the words of the Buddha: ” Don’t go by hearsay, or by your teachers. Just try for yourself.” Today’s music has been composed by Laurie Lesk Aka Yeshe Chodrom

viriyalila

Sangha: Not Mere Socialising

From Free Buddhist Audio on Thu, 21 Nov, 2013 - 22:56

Today’s FBA Dharmabyte is titled “Not Mere Socialising” by Sangharakshita from the talk “Intellect, Emotion, and Will” given at opening of the Manchester Buddhist Centre in 1996. In this excerpt Sangharakshita talks about kalyana mitrata and people coming to Centres forming sangha as being much deeper than mere socialising.

lokabandhu

Urban Retreat celebrates worldwide participation

From Triratna News on Thu, 21 Nov, 2013 - 06:21

Urban Retreat celebrates worldwide participation

From Triratna News on Thu, 21 Nov, 2013 - 06:21Triratna’s third International Urban Retreat, ‘Blazing like the Sun’, ended on Sunday, and feedback has been coming in from around the world: here’s a brief summary of what we’ve learned so far. First off, it was popular: some 570 people + 12 team took part via The Buddhist Centre Online, with many more at local Buddhist Centres and another 375 on a parallel Urban retreat over on Wildmind. Since the material was posted in multiple spaces, total participation is hard...

Vimalasara

Breath

From Eight Step Recovery - Using the Buddha's Teachings To Overcome Addiction on Thu, 21 Nov, 2013 - 04:53

One of my favourite Buddhist teacher’s Thich Nhat Hanh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thich_Nhat_Hanh) has generously given us permission to use one of his poetic verses on the breath. Day 5 is a meditation to help connect to the breath. The breath can help us to pause and slow down, bringing more choice in how we respond to life. We come back to the breath several times during these three weeks, because breath is one of our best teachers. The music...

lokabandhu

Buddhafield Festival 2013 Dharma talks and videos now online

From Buddhafield on Wed, 20 Nov, 2013 - 20:29

Buddhafield Festival 2013 Dharma talks and videos now online

From Buddhafield on Wed, 20 Nov, 2013 - 20:29Here’s some all the videos from the 2013 Buddhafield Festival’s Dharma Parlour: a rich and multi-facetted feast of Dharma exploring the overall Festival theme of ‘Fire in the Heart’. You’ll find more details on the Dharma Parlour group elsewhere on this site; please ‘+Follow’ it for regular updates.

Advayasiddhi: A workshop-style Introduction to Buddhism.

Dhivan: The Buddha Broke my Heart… The Buddha taught love as freedom of heart. But what if we...

lokabandhu

The Empathic Buddha... Buddhafield Festival video talk

From Dharma Parlour on Wed, 20 Nov, 2013 - 20:25

The Empathic Buddha... Buddhafield Festival video talk

From Dharma Parlour on Wed, 20 Nov, 2013 - 20:25here’s the second in a series of video talks from the 2013 Buddhafield Festival - a thoughtful talk by Shantigarbha exploring the notion of ‘The Empathic Buddha’. He asks “How did the Buddha embody empathy? How did he make it the basis of compassion?”. Shantigarbha is a leading teacher of NVC and recounts a number of incidents from the life of the Buddha, shares his understanding of empathy in a Buddhist context, and - crucially - explores how empathy...

Vimalasara

The Serenity Prayer

From Eight Step Recovery - Using the Buddha's Teachings To Overcome Addiction on Wed, 20 Nov, 2013 - 06:52

Hi if you have just joined us - then a warm welcome. And you can begin with day one - or begin with us on our fourth day. Day 4 is a reflection on how to relate wisely to our experience, through bringing to mind the words of the serenity prayer. The serenity prayer is the common name for an originally untitled prayer by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. It has been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs,...

lokabandhu

Metta Wave souvenir photo-montage

From Loving Kindness - Blazing Like The Sun on Tue, 19 Nov, 2013 - 19:11

Metta Wave souvenir photo-montage

From Loving Kindness - Blazing Like The Sun on Tue, 19 Nov, 2013 - 19:11

Here’s a souvenir photo-montage for the Urban Retreat’s Metta Wave. It should fit nicely onto an A4 sheet if you want to print it out.

An amazing 570 people registered on the retreat from around the world, and we’ve loved reading all the messages of appreciation that have come in - thank you! We’ll be sending out a survey soon asking for any feedback...

Dhammalata

How Does Meditation Stack up in the Daily Rub?

From Coogee Buddhist Group on Tue, 19 Nov, 2013 - 08:38

How Does Meditation Stack up in the Daily Rub?

From Coogee Buddhist Group on Tue, 19 Nov, 2013 - 08:38Dear Coogee Meditators

How does meditation stack up when challenged by the daily rub of mundane life? Sometimes when I observe my own behaviour in daily interactions with my partner Gina, with colleagues, students at the school where I teach and so on I feel disappointed with myself.

I think two things go on as you meditate regularly; you become more sensitive to selfish, rude and harmful behaviour whilst you gradually get your act together ethically and compassionately...

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