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All of the Meditations and Dharma Talks are now available as clean, edited videos (and in order) on the youtube link below, including Amaragita's wonderful contemplation of how each element can help us in our practice and poetry, art and reflections sharing from Saturday and Akshayapradipa's deep dive into our feelings and somatic presence around solidity from last week, both of which needed a little more work to do them justice.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHa3RdFh2Z4dopG5_bJ8gkhx0uJIwWysl

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Happy light shining folks ✨🌟🚀

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I loved Maitrijyoti’s words of the abbess, and the idea of letting go and falling.

I’ve realised that so much of my life is dedicated to physically accessing that feeling.

That whether bourn on chute, wing, board or bike, there is always a leap. That no matter how much I check my harness, or my bindings, or the wind…. there will always be that moment of surrender…. that moment when the perfect angle of attack or posture is meaningless in the power of the universe, that my borrowed control is handed back to the greater self and I am in the hands that always cradle me.

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There was such generous feedback at last night's dharma talk.... it'd be great to capture more thoughts and suggestions to help guide future events.... please let us know at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIWm8BCREcR18A0eODpVzh3_lw5c-EFgpUv-fOQuLwmFaDlQ/viewform

Thank you! :)

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Please Do Post Your Shares From Amaragita's Six Elements Dharma Talk in the Padlet! :)

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Please Do Post Your Shares From Amaragita's Six Elements Dharma Talk in the Padlet! :)

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One flame

that leaps from lamp to taper

that burns in our cells

and fuels the stars

eyes see the flare

the colour of our heart.

VShankar 24/2/24

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Poem for the consciousness element, The Bell and the Blackbird by David Whyte

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Poem for the consciousness element, The Bell and the Blackbird by David Whyte

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The sound of a bell
Still reverberating,
or a blackbird calling
from a corner of the field,
asking you to wake
into this life,
or inviting you deeper
into the one that waits.

Either way
takes courage,
either way wants you
to be nothing
but that self that
is no self at all,
wants you to walk
to the place
where you find
you already know
how to give
every last thing
away.

The approach
that is also
the meeting
itself,
without any
meeting
at all.

That radiance
you have always
carried with you
as you walk
both alone
and completely
accompanied
in friendship
by every corner
of the world
crying
Allelujah.

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Fresh morning, quiet snow

water has paused on its way

between being held in air

and being held in earth

to sit

and hold them both.

VShankar 22/2/24

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We'd love your feedback about the retreat this year - we really will read every word and do our best to integrate it next year. Here's the short form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIWm8BCREcR18A0eODpVzh3_lw5c-EFgpUv-fOQuLwmFaDlQ/viewform

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Prajnaparamita - from Maitridevi's Consciousness talk :)

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Prajnaparamita - from Maitridevi's Consciousness talk :)

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Prajnaparamita - from Maitridevi's Consciousness talk:)

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Today was the first day this winter that got sunrise on the balcony, and without leaving home I could pour water onto the earth through the mixing air and solar fire’s rays as an offering of space into conciousness

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- Drop in the question 'how big is the mind'? during meditation or as part of a reflection exercise

- Factor in more of the space element in everyday life, however small, by pausing and putting space around decision making, or book 'space' in your calendar like meeting an important friend, or loved one

- How much space do you occupy when next to something of magnitude, such as the great ocean, gazing at the galaxy above, a mountain or old tree.  Taking in these areas, whats the effect upon the mind, heart and your body.

- In meditation, whats the effect of sensing into the space beneath the body, above the body and all around

- In meditation lightly play with attuning to the different spaces inside the body; pelvis, trunk, chest, throat, skull.  If your up for it suffuse and spread some of these spaces into each other, broadening the sense of space over more of the energy body.  Asking yourself whats that really like.

- Reflect on your sense of other beings who do not occupy a physical form anymore, or are far away from you, whats the nature of your connection through space and time.

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2024 Body of Bliss Retreat @ Buddhafield; open for bookings

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2024 Body of Bliss Retreat @ Buddhafield; open for bookings

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Maitrijyoti first started to meditate when she came across Triratna in 2006 at the Bristol Buddhist Centre. Having connections to both Bristol and Buddhafield communities she enjoys an active role in running courses, study groups, and retreats for beginners, mitras to order members.

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2021 Body Of Bliss Retreat; talks and led meditations on FBA

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2021 Body Of Bliss Retreat; talks and led meditations on FBA

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Body of Bliss: ways into Samādhi | free buddhist audio

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This series is from an online intensive meditation retreat in March 2021 led by Nagesvara and Dayajoti. The focus was on Samādhi (meditative absorption,...

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A selection of beautiful lead-ins to meditation from Day 7 of the Rainy Season Retreat on 'Living In the Mandala - the Brahma Viharas' from Spring 2015, which took place in Bristol and around the world online!

Catch up on all posts from this retreat:
https://thebuddhistcentre.com/tags/rainy-season-retreat-2015

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Poem; By Martha Postlewaite:

'Do not try to save the whole world

or do anything grandiose.

Instead

create a clearing in the dense forest of your life

and wait there patiently.

Until the song that is your life

falls into your own cupped hands

and you recognise

and greet it.

Only then will you know

how to give yourself to this world

so worthy of rescue'

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Sorry I’m still an element behind but wanted to share this beautiful song rendered just using the body and breath by the wondrous Bobby Mc Ferrin:

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Generate a
Just and Life Affirming World

Our collective longing for change is palpable. We want to transform the suffering in our world. Rectify the injustices. Get right with the planet. Leave a place of safety, equity, and belonging for future generations.

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A leader in the field of Somatics, Staci Haines has been experimenting at the intersections of personal and social transformation for the last 30 years through the work of somatics, trauma healing, embodied leadership, and transformative justice.

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The Symbolism of Colours and Mantric Sound by Sangharakshita | free buddhist audio

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In this lecture Sangharakshita explores the rich symbolic significance of colour and sound, highlighting their role as crucial agents of transformation....

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Fire - readings from Subhadassi's Fire talk

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Fire - readings from Subhadassi's Fire talk

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As promised, here are the quotes/poems/etc from my Fire talk.

Metta

Subhadassi

From WH Auden's poem "September 1, 1939"

“Defenceless under the night

Our world in stupor lies;

Yet, dotted everywhere,

Ironic points of light

Flash out wherever the Just

Exchange their messages:

May I, composed like them

Of Eros and of dust,

Beleaguered by the same

Negation and despair,

Show an affirming flame.”

*

Meditation haiku

a tethered horse,

snow

in both stirrups

Buson

*

It’s not like anything

they compare it to -

the summer moon

Basho

*

“swirling petals and falling leaves”

That last phrase shows up in Japan for hundreds of years in limitless variations. You can take it as shorthand for impermanence (Japanese, mujo), the cornerstone of Buddhist insight. Nothing in the world is eternal, permanent, safe from dissolution or death. A leaf falls in October, and you turn up your collar. Blossoms and leaves whirl in the wind like small poems, wistfully recalling the transient existence of everything in the known world.

To delight in their beauty is inseparable from feeling a touch of sadness. Centuries before Basho, the linked-verse poet Nijo Yoshimoto (1320-1388) had written -

As we consider it today, it has become tomorrow. As we consider it spring, it has become autumn. As we consider the flowers, they have faded to yellow leaves. Is it not all summed up in “whirling petals and falling leaves”? ...These shifting phases of plants, wind, birds, animals are our teachers.

Andrew Schelling

*

At death you break up: the bits that were you

Start speeding away from each other for ever

With no one to see. It's only oblivion, true:

We had it before, but then it was going to end,

And was all the time merging with a unique endeavour

To bring to bloom the million-petalled flower

Of being here.

From Philip Larkin's Poem "The Old Fools"

*

Solar

Suspended lion face

Spilling at the centre

Of an unfurnished sky

How still you stand,

And how unaided

Single stalkless flower

You pour unrecompensed.

The eye sees you

Simplified by distance

Into an origin,

Your petalled head of flames

Continuously exploding.

Heat is the echo of your

Gold.

Coined there among

Lonely horizontals

You exist openly.

Our needs hourly

Climb and return like angels.

Unclosing like a hand,

You give for ever.

Philip Larkin

*

“Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

Walt Whitman

*

“When I was practicing metta intensively in Burma, at times when I repeated the phrases, I would picture myself in wide open fields planting seeds.

Doing metta, we plant the seeds of love, knowing nature will take its course and in time those seeds will bear fruit.

Some seeds will come to fruition quickly, some slowly, but our work is simply to plant the seeds.

Every time we form the intention in our mind for our own happiness and for the happiness of others, we are doing our work; we are channelling the powerful energies of our own minds.

Beyond that we can trust the laws of nature to continually support the flowering of our love.

As Pablo Neruda says:

Perhaps earth can teach us

as when everything seems dead

and later proves to be alive.”

Sharon Salzburg

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I want to thank and appreciate Alexi Navalny for your example of courage and integrity. I feel humbled and touched by your example. May you stay in our hearts and may your love of truth and justice keep a flame burning in the hearts of everyone that knew you. With a deep bow.

Amaragita

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meditation on a rock in my garden.  Water element.  

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meditation on a rock in my garden.  Water element.  

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During meditation I was crying today. I felt I was returning water to earth..I felt the continuity of flow from a clenching, holding pain in my body to flow of tears..

Later I pictured icicles melting from a block of ice ..behind my heart ..only the edges..there is a visible thaw on surfaces of block..with gratitude to my breath gently with me on this journey..

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I really liked Akshayapradipa’s reflection prompts this evening. Becoming less solidly tied to my familiar rhythms and habits designed to supposedly keep me safe and secure would free me up to be more freely available to whatever needs to be done in any given situation - I’d like to become more like that perfect sphere on a piece of level ground, ready to move into any direction without resistance…thank you for the inspiration.

Love, Akashadevi

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By Joanna Spence

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here is a poem that manifested in my retreat last year at Ecodharma.

Big Love,

Paul

If I plant a tree

If I plant a tree I help me
And I help the tree
If we plant tres
We become community
If we become community
We help ourselves and help the trees

As more and more communities plant trees
Together we breathe in the breath of trees

We work, we breathe out and the trees
Breathe in    and forests flourish and grow
As forests come into being
We become the forest , we are Interbeing
We breathe together , we are inter breathing

We are the trees planting ourselves
And the and only then and together
We can respond to the question

“What do we most need to do to save the world?

And if we stop.      we pause ,    we deeply listen

We will hear the answer rustling in our leaves

Together we will hear the sound of Mother Earth crying
We he hear in our  deep deep in our hearts
The sound of  our Mother Earth crying

And then and only then we will truly care

Care enough to act in community to help to heal her

But first of all I need to plant a tree

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Love,

Subhavandana ✨🧡✨

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Ayla Schafer "Grandmother (I am the Earth)" Official Video

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Not strictly on theme, and in terms of elemental links maybe should wait til tomorrow, but Happy New Naga Year

Jñānagarbha 🐉

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Blessing for the meal

Earth who gives to us our food

Sun that makes it ripe and good

Dear Earth dear Sun

By you we live

Our loving thanks to you we give

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The song from the opening ceremony :)

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Verses for Voices of the Rain

Touching the earth and opening to form
As a pilgrim I walk and with reverence I bow
May the gifts of the earth be the gifts of my hands
And offerings a blessing for all

Tasting the water and opening to flow
Drinking in wisdom, with reverence I bow
Like a clear pool that reflects only truth
Understanding a blessing for all

Scenting the fire and opening to warmth
Transforming my anger, with reverence I bow
Hate burning up in the beacons of change
Loving-kindness a blessing for allHearing the wind and opening to air
Learning from fear, with reverence I bow
Uniting all energies, freeing my mind
With courage a blessing for all

Watching the night sky and opening to space
Seeing no ending, with reverence I bow
Not knowing, not craving, with humble awareness
Releasing a blessing for all

Mindful of consciousness, opening to all
Letting go of my selfhood, with reverence I bow
The pulse of the world is the pulse of my heart
Becoming a blessing for all

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We welcome the spirit of generosity and abundance to this event and appreciate all offerings of dana (and none, if you can't afford it) 💕

CLICK HERE to make a one off donation or to set up a monthly payment. All donations go directly to supporting Buddhafield activities and helping us to share the Dharma as widely as possible and build our sangha.

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These links will be activated as each email is sent at 20:00 so you can always come here to find them.

Welcome Email - Thurs 8th Feb (20:00)

Opening and Earth – Sun 11th Feb (10:00)

Water – Tue 13th Feb (20:00)

Fire – Thurs 15th Feb (20:00)

Air – Sat 17th Feb (20:00)

Space - Mon 19th Feb (20:00)

Consciousness – Wed 21st Feb (20:00)

Overview – Fri 23rd Feb (20:00)

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You can find this year's programme here - https://www.flipsnack.com/6ED8D766AED/ahwe-2024-voices-of-the-rain/full-view.html

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Welcome to At Home with the Elements 2024

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Welcome to At Home with the Elements 2024

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You will see information appear here all week.

To join sessions click here.

You can also join by logging into Zoom and using the meeting ID: 849 2091 5842 and the passcode: 953429

CATCH UP WITH SESSIONS ON YOUTUBE here.

Opening ceremony is at 7.30pm on Sun 11th Feb.

Morning meditations are every day at 7.30am from Mon 12th Feb.

Evening Dharma talked begin at 7.30pm on Mon 12th, Wed 14th, Fri 16th, Sun 18th, Tue 20th, Thurs 22nd and Sat 24th

Closing ceremony is at 7.30pm on Sun 25th Feb.

❤️