Sangha Night is our regular get-together for members of the Bristol sangha. Each evening includes a mixture of meditation, teaching and discussion suitable for anyone who has completed an introductory course.

On Sangha Night, we cover various topics in the form of short courses or series.

Tuesday March 11th, Maitrijyoti and Taranita will be sharing some of the their experiences from the International Order Convention at Bodh Gaya in India.  How did it feel to meet up with 800 fellow Order members from all over the world in the most celebrated of Buddhist sites? They will recount their impressions of the sights, sounds and smells of India, what it was like to practice at the place of the Buddhas enlightenment, their dharma reflections and how the experience impacted them. There will also be mention of spiritual sightseeing to such places as the magnificent Twenty-One Taras Temple, and pilgrimage to the very places where the tales from Buddhist texts actually occurred such as the Vultures’ Peak and the Venu Vana Bamboo Park. Join us to relive the week in January when the Order gathered together.  The evening will include Chai and meditation. 

Tuesday March 18th.  ‘How to be a ‘Living Bridge’ of connection and transformation

This experiential workshop draws on the Buddha’s teaching of conditionality, awareness, and insight. We will look into how conflict and polarisation is showing up in our lives and communities; and draw out how our unique lineage of value can play a part in building the conditions for creative action in area’s of conflict that are important to us.

Purpose 

1. To be able collectively identify how conflict/polarisation is showing up in our lives and communities. To choose one of these that you would like to make a difference to.
2. To  have the space to identify and share the lineage/ roots of what is currently important to you.
3. To find the wisdom in these roots that can inform skilful means to take action and make a difference’

Tuesday April 1st: The Dharma is Like an Avocado! – The Buddhist Poetry of Gary Snyder

WITH DHIVAN
What's the point of poetry? What's it got to do with Buddhism? These questions get us thinking about the important of the arts for the spiritual life, one of the distinctive emphases of Triratna Buddhism.  Gary Snyder is a good way in, because his poetry is very Buddhist and very down to earth.

Gary Snyder, born in 1934 in California, came to fame among the Beats back in the 1950s – he was great friends with the poet Alan Ginsberg, whom Sangharakshita met in Kalimpong. But Snyder's poetry developed into something unique – an engagement with Zen Buddhism, with the environment, and with America. The language is straightforward, the thinking deep. There's a lot to enjoy.

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Currently we have a practical follow on meditation course with Prajnamati running 11th Feb for 4 weeks. He writes

“Assuming some familiarity with the form of the mindfulness of breathing and metta bhavana, these follow-on meditation sessions will explore a range of ways of working in meditation: working on the mind with the mind to develop states of samatha (calm abiding) which include the qualities of metta and mindfulness. The aim is to enable you to develop a meditation practice of your own, within which you are able to respond creatively to your current experience, and which you are able to explore in dialogue with others. There will be four sangha night sessions with an interactive approach, making the connection between the suggested ways of working in meditation and our own individual experience.”

Handouts on the approaches covered can be downloaded below:

Listen to an introductory exercise on balanced effort:

Listen to a talk and exercise on balanced effort:

Listen to a talk and exercise on the polarity map of Concentration and Relaxation:

Previous Talks:

Listen to the talk by Taranita given 7th January where he introduces the theme and skillfully offers some helpful suggestions https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details.php?num=LOC6367

Listen to talk given by Maitrijyoti 14th January

Listen to the third talk in the series by Kayamoksini 21st January

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The year will also be peppered through with individual evenings on the theme of Living the Dharma Life. In our movement we live our Dharma lives in a wide variety of ways – in families, communities, work, study, the creative arts, activism, in solitude, in our Centres and organisations – to name only some.  Through the year we will be inviting people to come and share with us these rich and varied experiences.

All our classes are run on donations which means everyone, regardless of income, can learn about Buddhism and meditation. To keep this revolutionary approach going, please do give what you can!

If you’d like to catch up with what’s been happening at Sangha Night, subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest recordings, or our Listen Again pages for material from 2020 and before.