A Luminous Emptiness - Meditating and Loving in Reality with Tejananda

·43 min·4 clips

Tejananda, a pioneer of online meditation, returns to discuss emptiness and compassion after moving from a retreat centre.

Chandradasa introduces Tejananda, a meditation teacher with decades of experience in the Triratna community, who recently moved from Vajraloka Retreat Centre in Wales. They discuss Tejananda's series of online home retreats, starting with one in 2021 during lockdowns. Tejananda outlines the five principles of Triratna practice: integration, positive emotion, spiritual death, spiritual rebirth, and spiritual receptivity. He defines emptiness as experience being empty of self-entity, permanence, and ultimate satisfactoriness, relating it to early Buddhist teachings like the three marks. The upcoming retreat, 'Emptiness and Compassion: The Divine Abodes,' focuses on the Brahma Viharas (love, compassion, joy, equanimity) as preliminaries to emptiness practice. Tejananda explains that these practices lead to a liberation of the heart, from which emptiness can be explored through texts like the Shorter Discourse on Emptiness. He contrasts this experiential approach with later monastic traditions that over-intellectualize emptiness. Tejananda emphasizes embodiment, noting that wisdom lies in direct bodily experience rather than conceptual thought, influenced by teachers like Paramahanda and Reggie Ray. He discusses the role of imagination in practices like sadhana, using metaphors to access deeper realities. The conversation touches on modern technology like Apple Vision Pro as a metaphor for constructed experience. Tejananda concludes by encouraging listeners to join the retreat, highlighting its accessibility and supportive online community.

As heard by us

Tejananda brings emptiness back to the body, present experience, and the ordinary places where meditation takes shape.

This episode works best when a big Buddhist idea is kept close to ordinary experience: walking, sitting at a desk, or noticing a single thought.

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Why you'd press play

You can follow the Heart Sutra's emptiness from immediate experience to a walk, a desk, and the body you are already inhabiting.

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