Tag: Poetry

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

For Nothing Is Fixed: Reflecting on Racism

By viveka on Sun, 7 Jun, 2020 - 15:39

Dear Sangha friends,

I wanted to offer you a podcast to listen to in these times. Paramananda and I met on May 25 to record a conversation for The Buddhist Centre Online. At the time George Floyd had not yet died an unjust death in an encounter with police. Another black man Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting while jogging in Georgia was in the news. Our conversation began with a poem from James Baldwin and opened to reflections about the relevance and purpose of...

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

For Nothing Is Fixed - Getting Real with Viveka and Paramananda, Episode 1

By Centre Team on Tue, 2 Jun, 2020 - 02:16

For Nothing Is Fixed

For nothing is fixed,
forever, forever, forever,
it is not fixed;
the earth is always shifting,
the light is always changing,
the sea does not cease to grind down rock.
Generations do not cease to be born,
and we are responsible to them
because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails,
lovers cling to each other,
and children cling to us.
...

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

The River Under the River (The Dharma Toolkit, Episode 27)

By Centre Team on Tue, 26 May, 2020 - 22:27

“Deserving a place in a realm where miracles happen”

Let’s start with this image: there’s a river under the river. Then follow it via the works of William Stafford and the creative lives of members of the Wolf at the Door group: poets and writers exploring the interplay of modes of attention in their chosen art forms, mediated by the practice of Buddhism.

The wolf is there too. Alive and real and, sometimes, scary. But this...

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Ironic Points of Light (The Dharma Toolkit Daily, Episode 25)

By Centre Team on Sat, 9 May, 2020 - 00:21

Shimmering images, and no less shimmering experiences. Today’s episode begins a series on beauty, poetry, myth, art and symbol as a response to crisis.

Taking our cue from W.H. Auden’s poem, September 1st, 1939, and his recognition of the need to “love one another or die”, we ask how, in the midst of fear – even of death – we can exercise our agency as human beings.

Poetry leads the way in and out of the questioning. Joining Auden in the...

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

The Travellers from Orissa – Countdown to #buddhaday – 5 days to go...

By akasajoti on Mon, 4 May, 2020 - 22:01

The Travellers from Orissa – Countdown to #buddhaday – 5 days to go...

By akasajoti on Mon, 4 May, 2020 - 22:01

As a special treat for you all this week as we countdown to #buddhaday we will be releasing a series of dharma reflections each day…⠀

Here, Maitreyabandhu reads us a poem from his second collection called Yarn.

According to tradition, two travellers met the Buddha just after his enlightenment and became his first disciples, Tapussa and Bhallika. They disappear from literature after that point, and the Travellers from Orissa is a long dramatic monologue, written by Maitreyabandhu, imagining their story.

Make some space and sit comfortably...

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

Countdown to #buddhaday - 10 days to go...

By akasajoti on Wed, 29 Apr, 2020 - 11:35

Countdown to #buddhaday - 10 days to go...

By akasajoti on Wed, 29 Apr, 2020 - 11:35

Countdown to #buddhaday!

“A thousand brilliant hues arise,⠀
More lovely than the evening skies,⠀
And pictures paint before our eyes…”⠀

During this day of recollection and celebration of the many beautiful qualities of Enlightenment, Saddhanandi and Saddhaloka will offer a special Buddha Day Q&A live-streamed from Adhisthana.
⠀
🎧 “The Poetry Interviews – Saddhanandi + Sangharakshita”

thebuddhistcentre.com/buddha-day for the full programme and to connect⠀

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

The Triratna Haiku Challenge

By padmacandra on Tue, 14 Apr, 2020 - 11:24

The Triratna Haiku Challenge

By padmacandra on Tue, 14 Apr, 2020 - 11:24

What is it?
An invitation to pause, open to all the senses, and notice… write the noticing down in three short lines as a “haiku”. Write a few in turn, see what occurs to you. Then if you wish, send your favourite/s to me (details on how to submit them below) so I can post them on the triratnaarts* Instagram or facebook page where the challenge began. (Perhaps at the end we can post a selection...

The Community Toolkit for Uncertain Times

The Blue Sky at the Heart of the Body (The Dharma Toolkit Daily, Episode 7)

By Centre Team on Tue, 31 Mar, 2020 - 11:04

A crucial and rather beautiful conversation about how we relate to our bodies in relative isolation. Some down-to-earth, open-hearted sharing of experience about things physical: the signs and symptoms and weathers of our bodies; the beneficial effect on our mental health of imaginative connection with other embodied beings; and the kindly wisdom in learning to see and name our actual physical experience instead of becoming lost in speculation.

We’re joined for an all Southern Hemisphere affair by Suvarnadhi from Auckland, NZ...

Windhorse Publications

Get 15% off 'Poems and Short Stories'

By Windhorse Publi... on Tue, 25 Feb, 2020 - 16:00

Get 15% off 'Poems and Short Stories'

By Windhorse Publi... on Tue, 25 Feb, 2020 - 16:00

Here at Windhorse Publications we’re busy preparing for the release in April of the next three volumes of The Complete Works of Sangharakshita. One of these is Volume 25, Poems and Short Stories, now available for pre-order.

You may already be familiar with Sangharakshita’s Complete Poems, published in 1994. Even if you already have a copy, this new volume is worth buying, as it contains over one hundred pages of extra material: