Last year at my ordination I was given the sadhana practice of Kshitigharbha…
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As some of you may know, I work for the ambulance service on the front line attending patients needing 999 help for a variety of reasons but obviously, of late, there have been other pressing concerns. So, I thought I would share with you my reflections on how my practice and the dharma and the sangha are sustaining me during the current times…
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The Maitri mantra is very evocative for me at the moment, it helps me to contact with an energy that is much greater than myself, the energy of Metta, universal loving-kindness…
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Since the pandemic and lockdown have unfolded, a robin has been visiting us every day - a flash of red flickers at the window and I see its bold chest bobbing up and down, as it peers directly into the window, inquisitive and beautiful to behold…
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Kshantika writes - ‘This is a yoga nidra practice (a meditative relaxation practice) that is fused with Buddhist meditative teaching from the Satipatthana - mindfulness - teachings.
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Like many of you I imagine, I have taken to leaning out of the window on a Thursday evening at 8.00 p.m.. Several of those I live with are doing the same from different windows and as we look out, clapping away, we see others across the Lace Market Square doing the same…
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This Ratana Sutta (Jewel Discourse) was given to the people of Vesali by the Buddha when they were suffering from pestilence and famine causing many deaths…
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A video blog from Jyotida
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This morning I was sitting in meditation. I’d been softening to my experience again and again, opening up, allowing what was there. Near the end of my sitting time, I was feeling pretty good, open and relaxed. Then I heard my 13-year-old son get up in the room next door to me.
Boom!..
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I’ve been amazed in the last few weeks by the adaptability of human beings. Of course, it’s kind of obvious - it’s why we evolved as a species - but seeing it in such plain sight at a time of such disruption has been really interesting. Social distancing became the new normal. Thinking about people shaking hands or hugging produces a shock response in me…
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It feels like the ‘phoney war’ just now, that strange period when you know something is coming but actually life has not been that disrupted as yet. At least not as much as is likely over the coming weeks…
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Now look at us bonding through fear
spraying bannisters
and talking to neighbours
touching the raw and common ground
of this body, its suffering
the whims of life coursing through it …
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Fear. Just the word has a certain resonance, evoking the corresponding feeling in our body and mind. And with the Coronavirus pandemic upon us, no doubt we are all having our moments of fear as we come to terms with what is happening in the world around.
But let’s take a moment or two to pause and consider what fear actually is…
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If you are anything like me, you may have noticed over the last few days a certain visceral response going on in your body - shoulders hunching, back tensing, thighs tightening and jaw setting in a certain position, not to mention those stomach muscles! This level of response to what is happening may not be under our conscious control and wouldn’t be thought of as volitional in the Buddhist sense but it does indicate an underlying view about how we see such an unprecedented event as the Coronavirus pandemic…
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