by Vessantara | Mar 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
Welcome. This site reflects different aspects of my Buddhist life. You’ll find articles on meditation and Buddhism, as well as details of all my books, plus my teaching programme and various other things. Just browse the headings and see what you find. And below...
by Vessantara | Mar 28, 2024 | News, retreats
Less than a month to go now until my next retreat for Order members, called Gems from the Diamond Sutra. It will be a meditation retreat exploring some of the main themes and images from the sutra. Dates are 24th April – 3rd May, and you can attend in person at...
by Vessantara | Jun 5, 2023 | Uncategorized
This weekend my next retreat begins at Rivendell Retreat Centre in Sussex UK. It’s on Turning our Mind towards Freedom, and is open to any experienced meditator (say 2 or 3 years of meditation) who is familiar with the Triratna approach to Buddhism. It’s...
by Vessantara | Mar 31, 2023 | Books, meditation, News
A little while ago Dhammamegha from Windhorse Publications interviewed me for the latest edition of their podcast. We chatted about the new edition of my book Meeting the Buddhas, and what it means to meditate on Buddhist figures that embody qualities like love,...
by Vessantara | Mar 17, 2022 | meditation, News, retreats, Uncategorized
This is a quick note to make you aware that I’m doing a series of events for Order members as part of the Nature of Mind programme that Adhisthana is running this year. There is an introductory online evening on 1st April, an online day event on the 3rd, and a...
by Vessantara | Mar 17, 2022 | News, retreats
It has been a while since I posted here, mainly because I spent January and February leading a retreat for Order members at a venue on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event. We had an excellent team, a great bunch of retreatants, the...
by Vessantara | Nov 11, 2021 | Uncategorized
I’ve just revised the dates for the Order retreat that I’m leading at Adhisthana next April. It’s on the Six Element Practice, as the first in a short series of retreats on Unfolding Paths to Insight. I’m really looking forward to doing it, as...
by Vessantara | Oct 31, 2021 | Uncategorized
I’ve now finalised some more retreats for 2022, and if you look at my teaching programme you’ll find details of four more retreats. In April, I’ll be back at Adhisthana, to lead the first of a planned series of retreats for Order members on some of...
by Vessantara | Sep 9, 2021 | retreats
As Vijayamala doesn’t have her own website, I put details of retreats she is leading on my Teaching Programme page, so people can follow her future plans. So I’ll also announce here that she has had to cancel the retreat that she was due to lead at...
by Vessantara | Aug 15, 2021 | News, retreats
Well, after having to cancel the events I was going to do in June because of ill health, it was all the more delightful to get back in the saddle (or on the cushion) a couple of weeks ago. I was due to lead a 10-day retreat at Adhisthana at the end of July, and as the...
by Vessantara | Jun 6, 2021 | Uncategorized
Sadly, I’ve just had to cancel what I was going to do for Rivendell online this month as I’ve had some health problems. I’m sorry not to be able to run anything for Rivendell this year, and not to see all of you who were booked to attend. I should be...
by Vessantara | May 3, 2021 | Uncategorized
Sadly, I’ve just had to cancel the online Ocean of True Meaning retreat that was due to begin this Friday. I’ve had some health problems over the last few weeks, and am not currently in good enough shape to do it. I’m hoping these health issues...
by Vessantara | Mar 13, 2021 | Uncategorized
I am very much looking forward to the second of the 2 retreats I am leading for Order members at Adhisthana on 7 point mind training, which starts next Thursday, the 18th March. (Although it’s the second of two, you don’t need to have attended the first...
by Vessantara | Jan 15, 2021 | Uncategorized
(Geshe Chekawa, compiler of the Seven-Point Mind Training) I spent the days up to New Year co-leading the online Love Without Limits retreat with Advayasiddhi. It was great that over 180 of you could join us. I also really enjoyed our meditation after the retreat to...
by Vessantara | Jan 1, 2021 | Uncategorized
Kathleen Raine: “Amo Ergo Sum” Because I love The sun pours out its rays of living gold Pours out its gold and silver on the sea. Because I love The earth upon her astral spindle winds Her ecstasy-producing dance. Because I love Clouds travel on the winds through...
by Vessantara | Dec 16, 2020 | Uncategorized
For years now, I’ve spent two very happy weeks each June at Rivendell Retreat Centre in Sussex, with its beautiful garden. Next year, I shall be doing my two weeks for them as usual, but with Covid and the uncertainty about how things will be next year, even...
by Vessantara | Dec 3, 2020 | Uncategorized
A little note to remind those of you who are Order members that the 5-day online retreat on The Ocean of True Meaning, starts on Monday. It’s a classic meditation manual from the Tibetan Mahamudra tradition, and we’ll be using extracts from the shamatha...
by Vessantara | Nov 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
After thoroughly enjoying leading the online retreat on the Bodhicitta Practice last month, I’ve signed up to do 3 more online retreats. There’s one I’ve already advertised here, for Order members under the auspices of Adhisthana, starting next...
by Vessantara | Oct 21, 2020 | Uncategorized
Next month I shall be leading another online retreat for Order members, following on from the very successful one on the Bodhicitta Practice we held last month, which had 135 participants. Dates are the 7th – 12th of November, and we’ll be going deeper...
by Vessantara | Oct 12, 2020 | News, retreats
In my last post I talked about the online Order retreat that I’d just done at Adhisthana. I appreciated the retreat so much that I promptly signed up to do another one. So I’ll be back online from Adhisthana , from the 7th – 12th of November, doing...
by Vessantara | Oct 7, 2020 | meditation, News, retreats
Last week I led a 6-day online retreat for members of the Triratna Order, exploring a practice we use for developing bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is the heart of Buddhism, the combination of profound wisdom and great love and compassion that motivates someone to follow the...
by Vessantara | Aug 19, 2020 | retreats
Over the months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bodhicitta Practice has been a powerful cohesive factor for the Triratna Order. Every Sunday, at 7.30 and 2.30 UK time, Order members from around the world have been meeting online, meditating together to contact the deep...
by Vessantara | Jul 3, 2020 | News, retreats, Uncategorized
I’ve spent nearly the whole of 2020 doing personal retreat at home. I had a personal retreat scheduled anyway for January to March, which went well. Then I emerged just in time for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce the beginning of the Covid 19 lockdown....
by Vessantara | Apr 7, 2020 | Books, News
My good friends at Windhorse Publications are responding to the current pandemic by giving you the chance to download a free book every week, in an initiative they’re calling Free the Dharma. This week’s offering is my book Tales of Freedom. You can take...
by Vessantara | Feb 5, 2020 | News, retreats
It’s been a while since I’ve posted any news here, so I’ll give a short overview of last year, which saw some big changes on the material level. It started with getting married on the 2nd of January, mainly for financial reasons, although it was good...
by Vessantara | Jan 31, 2020 | Uncategorized
Vijayamala and I will be leading a 2-month retreat, open to all Order members, at Dharmagiri, Triratna’s Swedish retreat centre, from the 15th May to 13th July this year. Some people have recently dropped out and there are now 2 places available. If you’re interested...
by Vessantara | Nov 1, 2019 | retreats
This year Vijayamala and I held a 3-month Order retreat in a rented hotel on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales. The retreat and venue worked very well, so we are now planning to hold another one, this time for 2 months, in Jan. and Feb. 2021. However, we are still...
by Vessantara | Jul 14, 2019 | meditation
Earlier this year I had the chance to record my book about Loving-Kindness meditation, The Heart, which I wrote as part of Windhorse Publications’ series on The Art of Meditation. Now you can listen to it here on Audible. The book gives an introduction to ways...
by Vessantara | Jul 14, 2019 | meditation
Over the years I’ve taught a lot about tonglen – the practice of love and compassion combined with awareness of the breath. Usually I’ve taken the teaching deeper with guided meditations. Now Nagesvara has kindly gone through many of the recordings...
by Vessantara | Apr 7, 2019 | meditation, Talks
I’m just back from leading a 3-month retreat in South Wales. (I’ll aim to post something about that very soon!) For now I want to recommend 2 talks that Taranita gave recently at the Bristol Buddhist Centre. They’re based on my article about ways to...
by Vessantara | Dec 22, 2018 | Talks
Last year I visited the Dublin Buddhist Centre and gave a talk called Padmasambhava Practice – a Personal Unfolding. As the title suggests, it was quite a personal take on the experience of practising visualization and mantra...
by Vessantara | Dec 1, 2018 | Uncategorized
I recently spent a very enjoyable day with my friend Jinamitra (Nicolas Soames). He runs Dharma Audiobooks, which has some very good recordings of Dharma material. We were making an audio recording of my book The Breath, which is an in-depth introduction to the...
by Vessantara | Nov 15, 2018 | retreats
There is a lot of audio material that you can listen to online from retreats that I’ve led over the last few years. That includes a set of 5 retreats I did at Adhisthana, exploring the different aspects of the mandala of practice that was outlined in his...
by Vessantara | Nov 3, 2018 | Uncategorized
31st October 2018. My teacher and friend since 1973, Sangharakshita died yesterday at the age of 93. After hearing the news, last night I dreamt that I was in a large garden with several people. I looked around and there was Sangharakshita, walking down a flight of...
by Vessantara | Sep 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
As we all know, modern life can be overwhelming, especially as we move into very troubled times. It’s an issue that comes up often when I’m teaching, and I’ve found myself responding by coming up with a number of ways of working with it from a...
by Vessantara | Aug 14, 2018 | Uncategorized
A central principle of mindfulness and meditation is staying in the present and not letting mind speed off into the future. However, being a meditation teacher involves quite a bit of future planning, in my case up to two years ahead. So for those of you who also...
by Vessantara | Nov 28, 2017 | Uncategorized
I’ve recently added a couple of weekend events at Buddhist centres to my teaching programme for next year. Most of my teaching is done within the Triratna Order, so I try to highlight opportunities for mitras and others within Triratna to come along and...
by Vessantara | Nov 1, 2017 | Uncategorized
Back in the summer I led another retreat for Order members on Spiritual Receptivity. The retreat focused on formless meditation/just sitting, exploring it from different angles. The recordings are now all available here. Many thanks to Padmakumara, Akasajoti and the...
by Vessantara | Sep 1, 2017 | retreats
I’ve now updated my teaching schedule with all the retreats of more than a weekend that I have planned for 2018. As usual, most of what I do is for Order members. I feel sad that I’m not offering more for other people, but at the moment the Order is where...
by Vessantara | Dec 26, 2016 | Uncategorized
At the end of September, I led a retreat about insight practice, for 90 Order members, at Adhisthana. Most of the sessions were recorded, and they have now been made available on Free Buddhist Audio. (You don’t have to be an Order member to listen to them.) So...
by Vessantara | Aug 23, 2016 | retreats
My plans for 2017 are now shaping up. I’ve been commissioned by Windhorse Publications to write a book about some aspects of meditation. Writing requires quite a bit of focus, so I’m reducing the number of retreats that I shall be leading next year....