From the 31st May to the 2nd June, the second Great Gathering weekend of 2019 will take place at Padmaloka. It will be led by Dharmashalin and Bodhinaga.
You can find a video inviting you to the weekend here:
https://youtu.be/MVOnCosETeQ
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Image:
Painting by Aloka ©
Having enjoyed a couple of meditation-focused Area Order Weekends (November and February), this weekend will focus on Dharma Study. Ratnaguna will introduce the weekend with a talk on the Friday evening — he needs no introduction as one of our leading lights on the subject of Dharma study.
In February, Padmasagara gave a series of talks on the Cosmic Refuge Tree retreat.
The talks are practical, in that they help us to more readily access and deepen our relationship with the Refuge Tree. At the same time, they highlight the profundity of the Refuge Tree as an image and a vision of existence.
You can now listen to the talks on Free Buddhist Audio.
In April 2018, Subhuti gave a series of talks at Padmaloka on the theme of the Bodhisattva Ideal.
The intention behind this series of talks was to produce new material that those training for Ordination could study when they attend the Bodhisattva Ideal retreat, a retreat devoted to a crucial part of Bhante Sangharakshita’s teaching.
These booklets have been transcribed and turned into a booklet which is now available from the Padmaloka bookshop and via our website.
Later this month we are hosting our short Ordination training retreat, which this year is entitled A Living Bodhisattva and is dedicated to Bhante's teacher Dhardo Rimpoche.
Both weekends have around 90 men booked on and bed spaces are taken.
If you would still like to attend the Great Gathering 1 weekend (15th-17th February) or the Spring Ordination Training weekend (1st-3rd March), there is still room if you are happy to camp.
If you would like to attend and camp or if you'd like to join the waiting list for either weekend, email info@padmaloka.org.uk.
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Image:
Line drawing by Aloka ©
From the 1st to the 3rd March, the Spring Ordination Training Weekend will take place at Padmaloka. It will be led by Dh Maitreyabandhu and the Ordination Team.
You can find a video inviting you to the weekend by Maitreyabandhu here:
https://youtu.be/O9RG6abkGTk
70 men have booked onto the weekend.
Places are limited so if you would like to attend, make sure you book soon, you can book here: http://bit.ly/SpringOrdinationTrainingWeekend
During the Winter Retreat recently held at Padmaloka, Padmavajra and Satyaraja both spoke on the theme of the retreat 'The Awakening of the Bodhi Heart'.
They explored the mysterious, elusive and beautiful Bodhicitta and how we can allow it to manifest more and more into our lives.
Padmavajra gave three short talks on the Bodhicitta while Satyaraja gave a highly useful and practical introduction to the Karuna Bhavana practice.
All of those talks are now available on Free Buddhist Audio.
During the System of Dharma Training retreat in December, Dh Maitreyabandhu treated us to a poetry evening.
During the evening, he drew out the deeper meaning and finer detail of five different poems, each around the theme of death with the final poem focusing on spiritual rebirth.
The depth and profundity of the poems was eloquently revealed by Maitreyabandhu.
During November's Great Gathering weekend, Padmavajra dedicated the Saturday evening ritual to Urgyen Sangharakshita, the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community who died on the 30th October this year.
In this moving talk before the ritual, Padmavajra tells us about his relationship with Bhante and Bhante's close relationship to Padmaloka. Bhante founded Padmaloka retreat centre in 1976, spent many years of his life living and writing here and even wrote a poem entitled 'Padmaloka'.
