At last! Another opportunity to take part in the practice of the Crucible of Communication. This ‘in person’ event in the Centre can be seen as a facilitated meditation practice attending to both internal and external experience. Just like meditation, it is an opportunity to gain some insight into the shape and texture of our thoughts and habits as they appear, especially how they affect how we relate to ourselves and others.
We start by laying out some reference points or Dharma maps with which to orientate ourselves. Then, after some warm-up exercises, helping us come into relationship with each, we sit in the facilitated circle and become sensitive to what arises within and amongst us, choosing for ourselves what to share and what to simply hold in awareness; a simple and sometimes profound communication practice that allows us all to work at our own pace.
With Bhadra and Dharmamrta.
You need to have completed the introductory course and be able to attend both days to book onto this event.
“A remarkable space – to explore absolutely live the intricacies and conditioning we bring to communication, in the moment of that communication. The sessions are held in a Dharmic context and with Sangha, both of which feel important to me. Bhadra brings a depth of commitment, experience and a raw honesty to this model of group process that is very inspiring.” A.B.
Restarting on 9th October | NEW TIME! 2-5 pm | in person only event
Suitable for those with 3+ years of practice experience within Triratna.
Walking Wisdom
Another immersion in the spiritual faculty of Prajna (wisdom or insight), this time explored particularly through walking meditation. The freedom of Shunyata, or Ungraspability, can be touched in any moment of experience. We’ll be looking deeply at the experience of walking, to see its open, ungraspable nature.
Dates for 2021: 9 Oct, 13 Nov, 11 Dec
Material from 2021 classes:
9 Jan: Towards Embodied Faith in the Buddha’s and our own Awakening
A free online course from our partner organisation based in Manchester who developed the secular Mindfulness for Stress and Mindfulness for Health courses we run at the Centre.
Now that the centre bookshop is closed you can get books on the Dharma, meditation and working with your heart-mind directly from the Windhorse Publications website.
There’s never been a better time to read!
“We read to know that we are not alone.” – William Nicholson, Shadowlands
These sessions are for those who are familiar with Triratna’s meditation practices and have been meditating with them for at least 3 years. If you’d like to come along to a session then check out our events page.
Missed a talk or want to listen again? Most of our talks done on Zoom are available on our YouTube channel – please subscribe!
If you missed the Life with Full attention course in Autumn 2020, helf on Sangha Night, you can catch up with it on our youtube channel though due to a hitch, week 6 is only available on audio (below)
And here’s Satyalila’s intro to the mandala of Buddha qualities, the Five Buddha Mandala:
18 August:Taranita on Pilgrimage and the Spiritual Journey. What is the purpose of pilgrimage? A valuable Buddhist practice, or an excuse for exotic tourism? An important means of connecting with our spiritual ideals, or self indulgent virtue signalling? Taranita gives a short talk, followed by a guided meditation of a pilgrimage to a place of the Buddha.
2 June: Ratnavandana on Living Sacredly. Ratnavandana (interviewed by Satyalila) talks about ‘living sacredly’, an aspiration she has put into practice to many years. The video for this talk is on our YouTube channel. There is also an audio of the meditation from that evening and a PDF of Hakuin’s Song of Meditation.
31 Mar: The first Puja of our online Sangha Nights via Zoom. We don’t have an audio recording, but we do have the text of the Amitabha Puja, that was led by Taranita, plus the readings of Rumi’s ‘Be Clear Like a Mirror’ and Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche’s ‘Self and Others’.
17 Mar: The first of our online Sangha Nights via Zoom meeting. Naravira talks on Envisioning the Dharma.
15 Jan: Bhadra introduces our theme for the year An edited overview of the theme with particular emphasis on what we mean when we talk of awakening in relation to the heart.
22 Jan: Bhadra on the heart An edited version of the talk opening up the idea of heart in Buddhist practice and its relation to the precepts
29 Jan: Taranita looks at Vessantara’s 20 suggestions for dealing with overwhelm (part 1)
5th March. ‘A Case of Dysentry’. An example of the awakened heart in action from the Life of the Buddha. Bhadra focuses in this talk on the risk of an attitude of utilitatrianism that might undermine Spiritual community.
11th June. The dialectic of Wisdom and Compassion. Simhanada explores the dynamic relation between these apparently separate aspects of the enlightened Mind.
18th June. ‘The Mystery of Bodhicitta’. Bodhicitta as the meeting of the universal and the individual. Bhadra explores this mystery as a path from group, to individual, to the higher third and culminating in the Greater mandala of purposelessness
25 June An introduction to the Heart Sutra. Taranita gives the first talk in our mini-season of six on the Heart Sutra. Listen here
July: Three talks Satyalila gave at our Women’s Mitra Nights in July on responding to our suffering, burning world. Listen here
9 July: Week 3 of the series on the Heart Sutra. Kulajalini continues her exploration of the emptiness of the six sense consciousnesses and the five skandhas.
16 July: Week 4 of the series on the Heart Sutra. Kulajalini completes her exploration of the emptiness of the six sense consciousnesses and the five skandhas.
23 July: Week 5 of the series on the Heart Sutra. Taranita and Prajnaparamita introduce three of the main protagonists from the heart Sutra: Avalokiteśvara, Śariputra and Prajñāpāramitā.
3 Sept: Launching a new term of Sangha nights, Bhadra, Naravira and Satyalila talk about ‘What Sangha means to me’ in three short, personal talks. Encompassing a wide range of themes including authenticity and individuality, the elements and the Bodhicitta the talks are distinctly different yet they resonate significantly with each other.
10 Sept: MItras Cath Dixon, Jay Williams and Tim Mason add their perspectives to the question ‘What Sangha means to me’. Three diverse talks share the wide range of their collective Sangha experience – from first encounters, to deep strong friendships, from Buddhist Centre to Buddhafield and beyond and how one’s relationship with Sangha can evolve and deepen over the years and decades.
Cath JayTim
1st October: Bhadra talks about “Weaving Sangha through Dana”, looking at the giving of truth, the giving of turning up and the giving of money to weave a dynamic and thriving Sangha. Dana creates the foundations of confidence in the power of the Dharma to transform the world.
22nd October: Bhadra introduces some of the Dharmic principles that are the basis for the “Crucible of communication” weekends and their relation to the deepening of Sangha
26th November: Continuing our theme of Sangha, Merry Clarke, Jen Harvey and Eli Cullum each give a short talk on the topic.
MerryJenEli
10th December: The second evening on the Brahma Viharas. Taranita gives a short introduction and leads a meditation on the Mudita Bhavana and the Upekkha Bhavana.
