| The Buddhist Centre

Zac

Dharmabyte: The Finger Pointing to the Moon

From Free Buddhist Audio on Thu, 22 Dec, 2022 - 06:00

Clinging to religious observances is a fetter, a hindrance to Enlightenment. Amidst the complexity of Buddhist teachings, we can discern a distinctive essence lying behind the various historical forms which developed to convey the Buddha’s oral message.

Excerpted from the talk The Nature and Development of Buddhism, Sangharakshita, 1968.

***

Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts

Bite-sized inspiration three times every week.

Subscribe...

Centre Team

Preorder the New Issue of Urthona 'Unknown Landscapes'

From Community Highlights on Tue, 20 Dec, 2022 - 14:44

Preorder the New Issue of Urthona 'Unknown Landscapes'

From Community Highlights on Tue, 20 Dec, 2022 - 14:44

Urthona Issue 36 ‘Unknown Landscapes’ will be out just after Xmas.

Landscapes move and uplift us in ways that are hard to pin down. Artists explore such emotional responses and bring clarity, awareness and transformational depth to the process. They help us to make the appreciation of landscape more conscious and meaningful.

As Christopher Neve in his wonderful book ‘Unquiet Landscape’ says of the work of Paul Nash: ‘pictures, like the landscape itself, enunciate with the greatest clarity a language that is beyond words.’

Join us soon to discover...

Ratnagarbha

Urthona new issue out soon - Issue 36 Unknown Landscapes

From Urthona - A Journal of Buddhism and the Arts on Tue, 20 Dec, 2022 - 11:06

Urthona new issue out soon - Issue 36 Unknown Landscapes

From Urthona - A Journal of Buddhism and the Arts on Tue, 20 Dec, 2022 - 11:06

Urthona Issue 36 ‘Unknown Landscapes’ will be out just after Xmas.

Join us...

Zac

Dharmabyte: Clinging to Aspects of Practice Separates Us

From Free Buddhist Audio on Mon, 19 Dec, 2022 - 06:00

Whatever we’re doing, whether we’re meditating, working, communicating, or singing, becomes a vehicle to ‘grow’ awareness. Mindfulness becomes panoramic and we live with immediacy and creativity. How do we relate to different aspects of our practice? How do we relate to the practice of others? Vajradevi encourages us to be on the lookout for attachment to views regarding our Dharma practice and the tendency to compare ourselves, furthering the divide between self and other.

Excerpted...

Zac

FBA Podcast: The Buddha’s Conversations with Kings

From Free Buddhist Audio on Sat, 17 Dec, 2022 - 06:00

The Buddha spoke to everybody, from homeless wanderers to kings. So when King Ajatassattu wants to go to war against the Vajjian people, he asks the Buddha’s advice! In this engaging talk, Vajratara unpacks the Buddha’s reply, as he explains the ‘seven things’ which should be in place in order for a society to prosper and not decline. How might this teaching be interpreted in modern day terms, and what can it tell us about how we can...

Amaradaya

Appointment of an International Movement Coordinator

From Order Connection on Fri, 16 Dec, 2022 - 18:52

Appointment of an International Movement Coordinator

From Order Connection on Fri, 16 Dec, 2022 - 18:52

In August this year a new role of International Movement Coordinator was announced and expressions of interest were called for.

We are pleased to inform the Order that after a full application and interview process, Jnanadhara - from Dublin, Ireland - has been appointed.

The work of the International Council has highlighted how little international coordination the Movement strand has in comparison with the more developed international structures of the Order and the College. This lack of coordination hampers the Movement’s capacity to share experience and agree common approaches to teaching and practice...

Read more about Appointment of an International Movement Coordinator

Centre Team

The Beauty of Mantra and Harmony

From Buddhist Centre Features on Fri, 16 Dec, 2022 - 16:23

The Beauty of Mantra and Harmony

From Buddhist Centre Features on Fri, 16 Dec, 2022 - 16:23

Back in 2016, Vipulakirti led a few volenteers from the Birmingham Buddhist Centre Sangha in recording several beautiful mantras that he has composed over the years.

Inspired by the expansive qualities of Ancient Gregorian Chant these recordings are designed to help the listener learn both the mantra and the associated harmonies. In each recording you’ll hear the first and second parts sung separately, followed by both of them together. Here you’ll find a downloadable PDF featuring the musical scores.

The recordings...

Amaradaya

Weekly Bodhicitta Practice over Christmas

From Order Connection on Thu, 15 Dec, 2022 - 13:53

Weekly Bodhicitta Practice over Christmas

From Order Connection on Thu, 15 Dec, 2022 - 13:53

This year both Christmas Day and New Years Day fall on Sundays.
You can still join a Bodhicitta session on these days, at 7:30am UK time.

There will however be no second session (2:30pm UK time).

Normal service of two sessions will resume on Sunday 8th January 2023.

Read more about Weekly Bodhicitta Practice over Christmas

Zac

Dharmabytes: A Deeper Imaginative Experience

From Free Buddhist Audio on Thu, 15 Dec, 2022 - 11:53

Samantabhadri explores our deeper imaginative experience of the physical world, of beauty and of the transcendental. This arises in ritual and devotion through more subtle experience of the body, speech and mind and thus within gesture and movement, words and mantra, atmosphere and transcendental presence.

Excerpted from the Being with the Transcendental through Imagination and Ritual as part of the series Ritual and Imagination Retreat 2022, recorded at Taraloka Retreat Centre...

Centre Team

Triratna Valderrobres Appeal

From Triratna News on Thu, 15 Dec, 2022 - 09:56

Triratna Valderrobres Appeal

From Triratna News on Thu, 15 Dec, 2022 - 09:56

After many years of local people being curious; “who are these women dressed in blue going up the mountain to Akashavana Retreat Centre?”, Mumukshu and Karunavapi are now delighted to offer them the opportunity to find out. When around 100 local people attended the opening of Centro Mandala, where Triratna Valderrobres will have it’s home, it confirmed this interest.

Valderrobres is a small medieval town in rural Aragon, close to the border with Catalonia and Valencia regions, and the arrival...

Pages