Online Retreat: There is a Field
Day 7
Saturday 8am
Welcome to Day 7, led intro to meditation
Rumi Poem
40 min unled meditation with bells marking 5 stages.
Out beyond ideas
of wrong doing and right doing
there is a field
I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down
in that grass
the world is too full
to speak of.
Ideas, language even the notion
one another
makes no sense.
Rumi
Saturday 10.30am
Approx timings
Talk by Bodhilila
Just sitting (37 mins)
The Heart Sutra (1hr 8 mins)
Lying down (1hr 17 mins)
Further thoughts on mantra chanting (1hr 39 mins)
Maitri mantra (1hr 36 mins)
Appeal (1hr 45 mins)
Think of a wave in the sea. Seen in one way, it seems to have a distinct entity, an end and a beginning, a birth and a death.
Seen in another way, the wave itself doesn’t really exist but is just the behaviour of water, ‘empty’ of any separate entity but ‘full’ of water.
So when you really think about the wave you come to realise that it is something made temporarily possible by wind and water, and is dependent on a set of constantly changing conditions.
You also realise that every waves related to every other wave.
from Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rimpoche
The Heart Sutra
The Bodhisattva of Compassion,
When he meditated deeply,
Saw the emptiness
Of all five skandhas
And sundered the bonds that caused him suffering.
Here then,
Form is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than form.
Form is only emptiness,
Emptiness only form.
Feeling, thought and choice,
Consciousness itself,
Are the same as this.
All things are by nature void,
They are not born or destroyed,
Nor are they stained or pure,
Nor do they wax or wane.
So, in emptiness, no form,
No feeling, thought or choice,
Nor is there consciousness.
No eye, ear, nose,
Tongue, body mind;
No colour, sound, smell,
Taste, touch
Or what the mind takes hold of,
Nor even act of sensing
No ignorance or end of it,
Nor all that comes of ignorance;
No withering,
No death,
No end of them.
Nor is there pain, or cause of pain,
Or cease in pain,
Or noble path to lead from pain;
Not even wisdom to attain!
Attainment too is emptiness.
So know that the Bodhisattva,
Holding to nothing whatever,
But dwelling in Prajna wisdom,
Is freed of delusive hindrance,
Rid of the fear bred by it,
And reaches clearest Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past and present,
Buddhas of future time,
Using this Prajna wisdom,
Come to full and perfect vision.
Here then the great dharani,
The radiant, peerless mantra,
The Prajnaparamita
Whose words allay all pain,
Hear and believe its truth!
Gate Gate Paragate
Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha
Saturday 4pm (pt.1)
Meditation led by Paramananda
Saturday 4pm (pt.2)
Green Tara mantra in call and response
Transference of Merit
Blessings
Transference of Merit (can you sort out consistent line spacing please)
May the merit gained
In my acting thus
Go to the alleviation of the suffering of all beings.
My personality throughout my existences,
My possessions,
And my merit in all three ways,
I give up without regard to myself
For the benefit of all beings.
Just as the earth and other elements
Are serviceable in many ways
To the infinite number of beings,
Inhabiting limitless space,
So may I become
That which maintains all beings
Situated throughout space
So long as all have not attained
To peace.
Blessings
May all blessings be yours;
May all gods protect you.
By the power of all the Buddhas
May all happiness be yours.
May all blessings be yours;
May all gods protect you.
By the power of all Dharmas
May all happiness be yours.
May all blessings be yours;
May all gods protect you.
By the power of all the Sangha
May all happiness be yours.
