Tag: Ratnavandana

Dharmabytes: Two Wings of the Bird

By Centre Team on Thu, 13 Jul, 2023 - 11:00

Ratnavandana continues her exploration of the Brahma Viharas, describing how they work together as a mandala, as well as giving many useful and inspiring practice tips.

Excerpted from the talk The Brahma Viharas: Approaches to Practice, the second talk in the series Living in the Mandala, given on a retreat held at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2019.

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Reflections from Ratnavandana - Being Divine Online Home Retreat: Day 7

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 30 Apr, 2020 - 09:05

As we come towards the end of our Being Divine Online home retreat it is my great pleasure today to share with you some further reflections from Ratnavandana on this theme.

She beautifully evokes where and how she is currently spending this time of lockdown in rural Wales, UK, and shares how the Brahma Viharas have been helping her at this strange and difficult time. What she gives us is her deep confidence in these practices and a...

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Additional Resources - Being Divine Online Day 4: Mudita and Amoghasiddhi's All-Accomplishing Wisdom

By Sadayasihi on Mon, 27 Apr, 2020 - 09:46

Mudita is often translated as “sympathetic joy” but here Maitrisiddhi uses “gladness”, and sets out the benefits of cultivating this state, particularly needed if we tend towards the negative. She explains how Amoghasiddhi - the green Buddha known as “unobstructed success” - can help us transform the poison of envy (the enemy of gladness) and release our energy into vibrant life.

A talk brimming full of delight and laughter, Maitrisiddhi demonstrates the importance of Mudita in the...

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Additional Resources - Being Divine Online Day 2: Metta and Akshobhya

By kusaladevi on Sat, 25 Apr, 2020 - 09:55

Here’s a talk from Maitrisiddhi at Taraloka retreat centre - if it weren’t for the lockdown, Ratnavandana would be at Taraloka right now, leading a Brahma Viharas retreat, with Maitrisiddhi on the team.

In this talk, Maitrisiddhi helps us make the link between the Brahma Vihara of the day, Metta, and the associated Buddha (or Jina) in the Mandala, Akshobhya.

Why is Akshobhya associated with Metta, and how does clarity help us to open up to love? Maitrisiddhi also explores the active and receptive aspects...

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Dharmabytes Podcast: Live Like a River Flows

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 2 Apr, 2020 - 14:00

Ratnavandana offers a personal sharing of her reflections on a six month solitary retreat where she was focussing on the Heart Sutra.

With Avalokitesvara as her guide, she was hoping to deepen her understanding of the emptiness of the five skandhas as well as exploring how to bring all the ordinary everyday activities of life into the realm of the sacred.

This excerpt includes a reading evocation on the Five Buddha Mandala.

From the talk Glimpses of...

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Dharmabyte: Living Like a River

By Sadayasihi on Mon, 25 Nov, 2019 - 14:00

Ratnavandana shares an intensely honest, psychologically intimate, beautifully forensic history of her personal relationship to the practice of upekkha (equanimity) throughout her spiritual life. We hear about ways to assess what is going on in the subtler realms of our experience - and how to look to move beyond them so we too can live like a river…

Excerpted from the talk A Personal Take On Upekkha given as part of the series Brahma Viharas - Bristol Rainy Season Retreat...