With Bliss Bestowing Hands – Wednesday
Online Retreat:
Wednesday 29 September
‘When we are really aware of our breath, we’re always in the world.’
Paramananda
Recordings
Wednesday 8am
Salute to the 3 Jewels
Refuges from the Avatamsaka Sutra
Reading
Unled 45 min meditation with bells to mark 5 stages
‘Disposing yourself to be physically calm, as in an empty house the raindrops slowly gather, relax – do not force your mind or body.’
from Padmasambhava’s Advice to the Three Fortunate Women
Wednesday 10.30am
Musings by Paramananda
Poem
Meditation led by Paramananda
Poem
Just Sitting
Keeping Quiet
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
Pablo Neruda
Wednesday 4pm
Some thoughts on mantra from Bodhilila
Green Tara mantra in call and response led by Bodhilila and Paramananda
Meditation led by Bodhilila
