Maitreyabandhu draws out the deeper meaning and finer detail of the poem entitled A Measuring Worm, by Richard Wilbur. In the full talk entitled A New Knowledge of Reality-Buddhism and Poetry, Maitreyabandhu discusses five different poems, each around the theme of death, with the final poem focusing on spiritual rebirth.

By discussing the background of the poems and poets, the intricacies of their structure, and bringing in a Buddhist interpretation of the themes raised in...

This is a gem of a talk, with a wintery theme.

Parami starts by singing ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti. She then goes on to bring out the underlying meaning of some of the imagery in the poem.

The first metaphors are about bleakness, with the earth as hard as iron and water like a stone, times when we struggle and it seems as if no growth is possible. She talks about her early experience of doing the metta bhavana and...

How free would your life be if you gave up unreal expectations? Try to remember something too important to forget. Renunciation is where you are allowing yourself to be obedient to the call of the heart – what do you really want to say ‘yes’ to? One of her telling quotes is ” … there is no spiritual development without renunciation, and no renunciation without spiritual development …”

Saddhanandi begins this Dharmabyte with a poem by Naomi Shihab...