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The Buddhist Centre

By: Dharmachakra
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  • Summary

  • News, event coverage, mantras and rituals, Dharma conversations among diverse voices from the Triratna Buddhist Community around the world, keeping you up-to-date with the latest in our sangha. Check out our other podcasts! Buddhist Voices (https://audioboom.com/channel/buddhistvoices) | Free Buddhist Audio (http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/free-buddhist-audio-community/id75081757)  (iTunes) | Dharmabytes (http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist/id416832097) (iTunes)
    dharmachakra
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Episodes
  • 447: A Luminous Emptiness - Meditating and Loving in Reality with Tejananda

    447: A Luminous Emptiness - Meditating and Loving in Reality with Tejananda
    Feb 16 2024
    In this latest episode of the Buddhist Centre podcast, we are delighted to welcome back Tejananda, one of the most experienced meditation teachers within the Triratna Buddhist Community. Tejananda will be bringing insights from decades of practice to his upcoming Home Retreat on The Buddhist Centre Live, ‘Emptiness and Compassion: The Divine Abodes’, starting March 29th. The retreat is part of a trilogy (so far!) exploring the Buddhist concept and experience of ‘emptiness’ (shunyata - pointing to the lack of an “objectively” fixed essence or selfhood in anything). This time around we are approaching the great field of contemplation and reflection from the meditative perspective of the 'divine abodes' (brahma viharas)—unconditional love, compassion, joy, and equanimity–all seen as pathways to liberating the mind. By cultivating these beautiful qualities, Tejananda says, we can find a larger context for our afflictive emotions—craving, hatred, and ignorance—and in the process gradually find unveiled the uncultivated, unlimited, and unconditional nature of them as ways to engage with ourselves, with other beings and with reality itself. Tejananda is interested in a non-abstract, earthed, experiential relationship to ‘emptiness', and in the transformative power of compassion for our consciousness. The ensuing conversation opens a seam of truly rich material: from constructed realities (yes, we talk about the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest) to how we can work with difficult emotions, to the relief of resting in a developing experience that we are fundamentally okay. Even as we are all subject to impermanence in the luminous emptiness of this reality, “Let there be unconditional love” is Tejananda’s quietly encouraging rallying call. This is a fascinating glimpse into the work waiting for us when we close our eyes in meditation, experience more fully sensed and in potentially higher resolution than any fancy-pants headset can render! 🧘 Reserve your place on ‘Emptiness and Compassion: The Divine Abodes' with Tejananda and friends Show Notes Like all our Home Retreats Tejananda’s week-long meditation event is designed to support you in exploring in-depth Buddhist practices and teachings in your own time - during the live retreat or at any time after in the archive. Visit our Home Retreat spaces Listen to ‘Meditating in the Mandala’, a previous episode with Tejananda about Triratna’s System of Practice ‘Being Divine Online’ - a Home Retreat space with Ratnavandana on the Brahma Viharas Home Retreat spaces with Paramananda and Bodhilila focussed on the body in meditation: ‘The Alchemical Heart’ ‘The Myth of Meditation’ ‘The Poetics of Awakening' 'Following the White Deer: Answering the Mythic call in Meditation’ Paramananda’s books on Buddhism and meditation from Windhorse Publications ‘Forces for Good – Challenging Emotions as Portals to Liberation’ with Balajit, Singhashri and Viveka ‘Entering the Mandala: Mindfulness and Imagination’ with Vidyamala and Vishvapani Follow us on YouTube and Instagram *** Visit The Buddhist Centre Live (events year-round on Buddhism, mindfulness, meditation, and culture) Come meditate with us online six days a week! Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.
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    43 mins
  • 446: The Tale of Tipu's Tiger

    446: The Tale of Tipu's Tiger
    Nov 18 2023
    Join us for a ‘90s story of inspired Buddhist practice in Missoula, Montana - of great friendship, fierce love, burnout and life lessons learned in the fire of idealism and spiritual adventure. There’s nothing quite like going through a big experience together - and Tipu’s was a very big one for so many people as a new Buddhist community took root in the United States.

    Founders Buddhapalita and Varada witness to the joys, trials, sacrifices and lasting consequences of starting the first (east) Indian restaurant and explicitly ethical Buddhist ‘Right Livelihood’ business in a small midwestern city. Old friends and colleagues, Aryadrishti and Viriiylila, bring their own accounts of fortitude, loss, abandonment and resolution to the reunion. Grief and cherishing, naivety and wisdom go hand in hand as we hear the tale of Tipu’s Tiger and how much it still means all these years later.

    Listen to this beautifully, sometimes achingly, resonant conversation about the good that survives long after a shared project has fallen away. Listen closely, hang onto the tail of the tiger, and you can still almost taste the best chai and channa this side of Mumbai…

    Recorded in Ahuatepec, Mexico, October 2023.

    Show notes
    Tipu's Chai (the legacy business, no longer owned by Buddhapalita and Varada)

    Wolf Water Resources (Aryadrishti's subsequent ethical engineering business)

    This week’s guests
    Aryadrishti
    Buddhapalita
    Varada
    Viriyalila

    ***

    Visit The Buddhist Centre Live (events year-round on Buddhism, mindfulness, meditation, and culture)

    Come meditate with us online six days a week!

    Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.
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    50 mins
  • 445: Buddhism and Politics

    445: Buddhism and Politics
    Sep 3 2023
    Our guests this week come together for a thoughtful, provocative conversation occasioned by Vishvapani‘s recent article for Tricycle Buddhist review looking at the arresting, perhaps astonishing, fact that one of the most powerful people in the UK – Home Secretary Suella Braverman - is also faithfully involved as a Buddhist practitioner within the context of the Triratna Buddhist Community. Candradasa is joined by Lokabandhu, deputy mayor of Glastonbury, UK, Vajratara from Tiratanaloka Buddhist Retreat Centre for Women, and Vishvapani, writer and broadcaster, to explore the perspectives and frameworks within which we see and experience the world and discuss how Buddhism and politics relate.  Buddhism offers a deeply transformative path of ethical practice that does not engage at the level of specific politics. Instead it calls for the radical re-orientation of our being in light of a recognition of the roles impermanence, deeply complex conditionality, and interdependence play in our sense of personal and societal happiness. So how does such a broadly environmental approach to the mind and reality itself sit in relation to political views that often tend to individual and collective rigidity, polarization, and the fragmentation of community?  The panel evokes what we as Buddhists have to contribute in the face of diverse dangers that threaten society as we know it: challenges to liberal democracy, consequences of current responses to climate change, and a growing mental health crisis afflicting millions around the world. We open up the idea of Buddhists as a potential force for good, an active body within the wider community made up of people who live and act as examples of compassion and sanity in the world. Members of a ‘new society’ who might take leading roles without being compromised by division and the application of personal or group-based power. Is it all a pipe dream, or is this a tantalising, achievable possibility? At the very least, how can Buddhist approaches to life that actively envision the wellbeing of people and communities influence our personal engagement with political culture in ways that are of broad benefit? Join us for a podcast of ideas, values, and considered reflection on the most tricky of areas. This is how we can harmoniously talk about politics with each other - as full members of society spanning different cultures, perspectives and views. Show notes Suella Braverman Is the UK’s Buddhist Home Secretary and a Right-Wing Culture Warrior by Vishvapani (Tricycle Buddhist Review) Vishvapani’s episodes of the BBC’s ‘Thought for the Day’  Mindful Cities Initiative Buddhism, World Peace, and Nuclear War by Sangharakshita (Free Buddhist Audio) The Nucleus of a New Society by Sangharakshita (Free Buddhist Audio) What Is Buddhist Activism? (The Buddhist Centre Podcast) Sangharakshita, Dr. Rewatta Dhamma, Sogyal Rimpoche, and Thich Nhat Hanh in conversation (Clear Vision Archive)  Doctor Bhimrao Ambedkar as a Buddhist social activist (The Buddhist Centre Online) The Rest Is Politics podcast episodes with Yuval Noah Harari:  Crisis and Tragedy in IsraelThe Dangers  of AI and the Future of Humanity This week’s guests  Lokabandhu as Deputy Mayor of Glastonbury Vajratara at Tiratanaloka Buddhist Retreat Centre for Women Wise Attention by Vishvapani (website) Mindfulness In Action (website) *** Visit The Buddhist Centre Live (events year-round on Buddhism, mindfulness, meditation, and culture) Come meditate with us online six days a week! Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.
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    52 mins
Philosophy Social Sciences Spirituality
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