a huge barrel of wine but no cups
residential weekend 'up north'
for dharmacharinis and women that have asked for ordination in the northern region
12-14 feburary (yes valentines day!)
nottingham buddhist centre
27-28 feburary
a weekend retreat on the koan of love and death
We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups.
That's fine with us. Every morning
we glow and in the evening we glow again.
They say there's no future for us. They're right.
Which is fine with us.
This weekend we'll be exploring the great koan of our Buddhist lives, in fact of all life, the koan of love and death.
At the centre of our Refuge Tree is the Buddha Shakyamuni and at his centre, held in his lap, is the image of the lotus blooming within the begging bowl, compassion arising in emptiness. A more tantric version of this image is the skull cup held by Padmasambhava, a skull cup of blood, the nectar of immortality, or of bliss. Both these images relate to the great koan of love and death.
The same koan is at the root of Rumi's mysterious poem above.
Over the weekend we'll be exploring this mysterious koan through meditation, symbol, reflection, poetry and ritual.