Poetics of Awakening – Monday
Day 2
26th September
‘Nowadays I think of meditation as an act of intimacy – when we sit we can encounter ourselves more fully’.
Paramananda
Session 1 – 9am
Programme
Poem – Ditty of First Desire by Lorca
Talk by Paramananda
Awesome meditation led by Paramananda
(exploring and experiencing posture, the body the breath, energy, alignment with the world and reality).
Reflections on ‘Just Sitting’ practice by Paramananda
Just Sitting
Recordings
Ditty of First Desire
In the green morning
I wanted to be a heart.
A heart.
And in the ripe evening
I wanted to be a nightingale.
A nightingale.
(Soul,
turn orange-colored.
Soul,
turn the colour of love.)
In the vivid morning
I wanted to be myself.
A heart.
And at the evening’s end
I wanted to be my voice.
A nightingale.
Soul,
turn orange-colored.
Soul,
turn the colour of love.
Session 2 – 3.30pm
Programme
Recalling some of Paramananda’s teaching on meditation
Meditation led by Bodhilila
Q & A with Bodhilila and Paramananda
Recordings
Awake my dear
Be kind to your sleeping heart
Take it out to the vast fields of light and let it breathe
—– Rumi
Session 3 – 7.30pm
Programme
Meditation led by Bodhilila
Sevenfold Puja in call and response led by Bodhilila and Danadasa
Recordings
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.
Hear 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
