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.
I'm Tom and I'm the Guest Master here at Padmaloka.
I'm looking happy because we recently upgraded our audio recording software and hardware. This means that the top quality Dharma talks given at Padmaloka will now sound great when you listen to them online. It feels right that these important talks will now be audibly of a standard that does justice to their content.
Lokamdhara died on the 10th of September, he had a long-standing and strong connection with Padmaloka both before and after his Ordination, for a time he lived here whilst helping convert an old ramshackle barn into the Padmaloka shrineroom.
Sona will be conducting a memorial ceremony for Lokamdhara here on Thursday 25th October 2018.
All Order members, mitras and friends and family are warmly welcomed to celebrate Lokamdhara's life.
Programme:
Our next Men's Great Gathering Weekend is now full, but you can email info@padmaloka.org.uk to go on the waiting list.
To ensure that you don't miss out on our events in the future, we advise booking early.
The next Men's Great Gathering Weekend is:
The Buddha's Liberating Vision: Essential Teaching of the Buddha
February 2019
All of the retreats from our 2019 programme are now available on the website so you can now go ahead and book your retreats for next year!
The 2019 programme should arrive at your home today if you are on our mailing list. Otherwise, keep an eye out at your local centre, they will arrive there in the next couple of weeks.
