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Symbols of Life and Growth

by Sangharakshita

The Parables of the Rain Cloud, and the Parable of the Sun and Moon both tell us that spiritual development is an organic process of growth, and that the Dharma nourishes all impartially, though people follow different patterns of development.

Talk given in 1971.

This talk is part of the series Parables, Myths and Symbols of Mahayana Buddhism in the White Lotus Sutra.

Tracks (click play to listen)

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	1.	The Rainy Season (8:34)
	2.	The Parable of the Rain Cloud (7:20)
	3.	Symbols of life and growth (5:51)
	4.	A vision of humanity as a bed of lotuses (3:10)
	5.	Tibetan psychic centres (chandali) and lotus symbolism (4:14)
	6.	White Tara's emblem of the lotus flower (2:32)
	7.	A corrective to literalism (7:51)
	8.	The Parable of the Sun and Moon (2:19)
	9.	Solar symbolisms of Vairochana and Amitabha (3:45)
	10.	Understanding the Noble Eightfold Path (4:24)
	11.	Ekarasa: the Dharma in essence and form (7:34)
	12.	Spiritual growth: difference and sameness (8:24)
	13.	Higher Evolution in religious and secular contexts (6:02)
	14.	”From above and below”: reason and emotion (4:01)
	15.	The importance of feeling the Dharma (3:54)