What is a Buddhist atti­tude to nature? Does our rela­tion­ship with nature mat­ter for the spir­itual life?

We live in a time of threat to the eco-system. How can human beings live with more love and appre­ci­ation of the nat­ural world? What does Buddhism have to offer?

This is a personal and inspir­ing talk in a series address­ing the rel­ev­ance of the Buddha’s teach­ings to con­tempor­ary issues. Talk given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 25th June 2011

Vajragupta has been a Buddhist since the early nineties. Nearly every year since that time, he has spent a month on his own on retreat in some beau­ti­ful, isol­ated part of the UK. He is the author of Buddhism: Tools for Liv­ing your Life.

He has taught Buddh­sim and med­it­a­tion for many years and was pre­vi­ously the chair of the Birm­ing­ham Buddhist centre.

He lives in Worcester and works full time for the Tri­r­atna Buddhist Com­munity devel­op­ment team

The post We live in a Beautiful World: Buddhism and Nature appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

Vidyamala explores two oppos­ite pos­i­tions that can be taken in response to this ques­tion

One can be ‘lib­eral’ and try to change Buddhism to align with pop­u­lar val­ues in soci­ety, or ‘con­ser­vat­ive’ and try to change soci­ety to align with tra­di­tional Buddhist values.

Is there a middle way between these two extremes, where Buddhism is dynamic, access­ible and attract­ive and yet remains true to the uncom­prom­ising and rad­ical teach­ings of the Buddha?

Vidyamala draws on her exper­i­ence of teach­ing both ‘hard core’ Buddhism on the one hand and sec­u­lar mind­ful­ness on the other, in vari­ous coun­tries and cul­tural con­texts,

Talk given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 28th May 2011, as part of a series of free public talks: Buddhism and the Big Questions

The post Can Buddhism sur­vive and thrive in a consumerist, materialist world? appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

What is the nature of Reality? And can the answer give mean­ing to human exist­ence?

The sci­ences have made spec­tac­u­lar advances in our under­stand­ing of the uni­verse and the phe­nom­ena within it, but is there a broader real­ity that can sat­isfy the deep­est long­ings of the human heart for mean­ing and purpose?

In this talk Mahasraddha con­siders the cur­rent sci­entific views of real­ity but warns of the dangers of adapt­ing a purely sci­entific view.

He also con­siders the rela­tion­ship between the Buddhist and sci­entific views of real­ity and how align­ing ourselves with the former can provide answers to the fun­da­mental ques­tions of mean­ing and pur­pose to human existence.

Talk given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 30th April 2011 as part of a series of free public talks on Buddhism and contemporary issues

The post Searching for Truth: Accel­er­at­ors, Tele­scopes and Buddhism appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

Cur­riculums, exams and degrees – how do we really learn about life? The Buddhist case for truth and experience

With society’s emphasis on formal edu­ca­tion, are we miss­ing the point of how we really learn in life? And what does Buddhism have to say about the value of our own experience?

Talk given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 26th March 2011 as part of a monthly series of free public talks on Buddhism and contem­porary issues

Mahabodhi has been a mem­ber of the Tri­r­atna Buddhist Order for twelve years. He teaches Buddhism and med­it­a­tion at the Manchester Buddhist Centre.

The post How do we really learn about life? appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

The talk was given by Dayanandi at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 18th April 2011 as the last in a series

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Giving ourselves to the world – in this talk Day­anandi covers the last of the five stages of the spiritual path

These five stages or dimensions have recently been brought to prominence in the Triratna Buddhist Community as the five main principles or facets of the spiritual life, important to develop and keep in balance:

The post The Five Great Stages of Spiritual Awakening – Spon­tan­eous Compassionate Activ­ity appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

The talk was given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 11th April 2011

Transforming in the Light of our Vision – in this 2011 talk Dayanandi covers the fourth of the five stages of the spiritual path

These five stages or dimensions have recently been brought to prominence in the Triratna Buddhist Community as the five main principles or facets of the spiritual life, important to develop and keep in balance:

The post The Five Great Stages of Spiritual Awakening – Radical Transformation appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

The talk was given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 4th April 2011, fourth in a series of six

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In a talk called Approaching reality: finding gateways to the truth, Dayanandi covers the third of the five stages of the spiritual path

These five stages or dimensions have recently been brought to prominence in the Triratna Buddhist Community as the five main principles or facets of the spiritual life, important to develop and keep in balance:

The post The Five Great Stages of the Spiritual Path – The Insight of Selflessness appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

This talk is about the second stage, opening the heart and the importance of making an engagement with our emotions in order to learn to be more emotionally positive.

It includes readings of poetry and prose by Munisha.

Talk given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 14th March 2011.

Third in a series of talks by Dayanandi on the five great stages of the spiritual path

These five stages or dimensions have recently been brought to prominence in the Triratna Buddhist Community as the five main principles or facets of the spiritual life, important to develop and keep in balance:

The post The Five Great Stages of the Spiritual Path – Opening the Heart appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.

In this talk Day­anandi cov­ers the first of the five stages — integ­ra­tion and whole­ness. Integration takes place in both horizontal and vertical directions.

This and sub­sequent talks explore the par­tic­u­lar char­ac­ter and qual­ities of each stage, show­ing how each evolves out of the pre­vi­ous one and is the found­a­tion for later stages of the Path.

Talk given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 7th March 2011

Second in a series of talks on the five great stages of spiritual experience that develop and unfold as we progress on the Path to Enlightenment

These five dimensions have recently been brought to prominence in the Triratna Buddhist Community as the five main principles or facets of the spiritual life, important to develop and keep in balance:

The post The Five Great Stages of the Spiritual Path – Mindfulness and the Mandala of Integration appeared first on Manchester Buddhist Centre.