A guide to posture in meditation by our very own Dharmachari Surata, who is a lifelong practitioner of yoga, as well as meditator.
He gives tips on how to sit cross legged, astride and in a chair.
Find the full video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnVsCFbWCEY&feature=youtu.be
There are a new set of tiles which have been cut, printed and ready for painting.
The Padmaloka shrine room is completely unique, it is a room dedicated to the realisation of the Buddha's Enlightenment, and on every wall there is an image which can draw one towards that great goal of the spiritual, even human, life. This is an opportunity to be part of the Padmaloka shrine room project by paining a Buddha tile which will be put upon the wall, forming an array of Buddhas across the room.
See the following link for how to get involved with the project:
Earlier in January we hosted the Bodhisattva Ideal retreat here at Padmaloka, where Padmavajra gave a inspirational new talk on the theme titled: 'The Loveliest Bodhisattvas'.
In this talk Padmavajra explores the Altruistic dimension of Going for Refuge - The Bodhisattva Ideal - through Bhante's poem 'The Guardian Wall'.
He particularly explores the line in the poem: 'The loveliest Bodhisattvas are the anonymous' and what this means for somebody aspiring to practice the great ideal of the Bodhisattva.
In November of last year, we held our annual weekend for men under the age of 35. The theme of the weekend was 'Fearless Love'.
During that weekend, three talks were given on the theme. The main talk by our very own Satyakirti, 'Moving Through Fear Into Love', explored the story of Angulimala, a mass murderer whose life was turned around by an encounter with the Buddha. In relation to this, Satyakirti spoke about fear and how, through love, we can harness the energy it contains.
Tarapalita is an ex-Padmaloka community member who lived at Padmaloka until 2018. After living here for about five years he decided to take what he had learned and developed during his time here to Berlin, joining friends at the thriving Buddhistisches Tor Berlin.
As part of his contribution to Buddhism in Berlin and beyond, he has recently started a blog in which he shares his reflections on the Dharma and his own experience of living the Dharma life. That blog is The Berlin Buddhist Blog.
We have recently updated our bookshop with three new prints of Aloka paintings from around Padmaloka. They join the many other images in the bookshop that are often bought and used for devotional purposes.
The three paintings are:
-Fudo, a lesser known Bodhisattva very popular in Japan, from the Shrine Room.
-The Refuge Tree with the new additions of Dr Ambedkar and Anagarika Dharmapala, from inside the Main House.
-Padmasambhava, from the Community Lounge.
Last month, we held our annual 5-day Open Retreat, an opportunity for men who haven’t asked for Ordination to get a real taste of what it is to be on retreat at Padmaloka.
During this retreat, entitled ‘Changing Ourselves, Changing the World’, Dharmachari Saddharaja from the Cambridge Buddhist Centre gave a set of four talks about the Sutra of Golden Light, a very mysterious and highly revered Buddhist text which Saddharaja has been studying for the past thirty years.
Those talks are now available on Free Buddhist Audio. You can find them here:
Last month, a few of us from the Padmaloka community joined Padmavajra for one of our now regular visits to the Mid Essex Buddhist Centre . The warmth and enthusiasm of the Mid Essex Sangha members make it a real highlight to go and visit their new and thriving centre. Each time we visit Padmavajra gives a talk for their Sangha evening.
This time he spoke to a packed shrine room on the theme of 'Beauty, Love and the Dharma Life'.
That talk is now available on Free Buddhist Audio. You can listen to it here: http://bit.ly/MEBC-Beauty
Here is David, a former long-term working guest at Padmaloka. He recently stayed on for a couple of weeks after attending a retreat to do some more work and connect with old friends in the community.
Knowing that David is skilled in building work, we decided that it would be a good opportunity while he’s here to replace the disabled access ramp that leads into the dining room. The old wooden one was becoming less stable over time and the wire we put on the surface to prevent slipping often had to be replaced.
Last month, we hosted our final Great Gathering of the year. The theme of the weekend was ‘Creating the Land of the Buddha: The Buddha's Social Revolution’.
During the weekend, two talks were given. The first talk, from Vadanya of the Sheffield Buddhist Centre, was called ‘Making the Pure Land’. The second talk, from Padmavajra, was called ‘Inspirations from the Dhamma Revolution’, drawing on the example of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and his followers.
