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'.
This weekend we held our annual sub35 men's retreat. The theme of the retreat was 'Radiate Love'.
The main talk of the weekend was given on Saturday by Vidyavachin. This was then followed by two short personal talks around the theme on Sunday, one given by Prajñahridaya and the other by Arvid.
Those talks are now available on Free Buddhist Audio.
Last weekend, Vadanya and Padmavajra each gave a talk to a packed shrine room of 105 men during our third Great Gathering weekend of 2018. The theme of the weekend was 'The Heart Sutra: Emptiness and Great Compassion'.
Those talks are now available on Free Buddhist Audio.
'Pay urgent attention to impermanence,
then strongly turn your mind towards Going for Refuge.'
- Padmasambhava
All of our retreats for the rest of 2018 have some spaces left on them, this state of affairs may not last long though. The standout highlight is, of course, our Winter Retreat: The Awakening of the Bodhi Heart, led by Satyaraja, Padmavajra and team. Book here.
From the Order information service:
With great sadness we inform you of the passing away of Urgyen Sangharakshita today 30 October 2018 at approximately 10.00 a.m. in Hereford Hospital. As informed earlier today Bhante had been diagnosed with pneumonia and this morning the Consultant said that Bhante had sepsis from which recovery is not possible.
