To get the best out of this website, please read on...
We have set your language based on your browser language settings or location. To change language use the flag above.
We'd like you to have the best possible experience of our new site, and we noticed you're using a browser that has a feature called Javascript turned off.
We've designed things so Free Buddhist Audio will continue to work for you anyway, but the site will look and work much better if you turn Javascript on. It's very easy! See how to enable JavaScript in your browser for more information.
We'd like you to have the best possible experience of our new site, and we notice you're using an older browser that isn't compatible with some of the latest developments on the internet.
We've designed things so Free Buddhist Audio will continue to work for you, but we invite you to a better experience of the web now and in future if you have a few minutes to upgrade...
Install (or update from an older version) a future-friendly browser:
Tell a friend about this talk!
Other talks from Glasgow
There are no tracks or transcript for this talk. Help us make them!
This is a gem of a talk, with a wintery theme.
Parami starts by singing 'In the Bleak Midwinter' by Christina Rossetti. She then goes on to bring out the underlying meaning of some of the imagery in the poem.
The first metaphors are about bleakness, with the earth as hard as iron and water like a stone, times when we struggle and it seems as if no growth is possible. She talks about her early experience of doing the metta bhavana and what a radical practice it is.
Then in contrast to bleakness she talks about the image of light on snow, very beautiful and magical, a symbol of newness and purity, and an antidote to bleakness.
She then talks about angels and about metta developed to its fullest extent. In the last verse the words are, 'Yet what I can give him; I give him my heart.' In this way we will give fully and appropriately.
Lastly Parami recaps the theme of transformation running through her talk. Transformation is possible because of the impermanent and insubstantial nature of everything. She ends by singing one of a Milarepa's songs about the transitory nature of all phenomena called, 'The Eight Wondrous Things.'
This talk was given in December 2010 at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre.
| In the Bleak Midwinter (1:02:09) |
Total running time: 1:02:09
