Men’s National Order Gathering

*This retreat is open only to Order members*

National Order Gathering for all Order Members. Please book directly on this link: October NOG Registration

“One should live alone like a rhinoceros horn”
- The Khaggavisana Sutta

Using this Sutta as a focus for our practice, we will take up the Buddha's invocation in The Mahaparinibanna Sutta (his last sutta) to gather regularly and engage around the dharma in order to 'prosper and not decline'.

In this sutta, we get the sense the Buddha is talking to monks. To truly live separately from family and friends, to live apart from the herd, to not take on the complexity and challenges of a partner ..... This is traditionally the domain of monastic life, but in our Triratna order context we are a wonderful hybrid Buddhist species as defined by Sangharakshita: neither lay nor monastic. There is much rich fodder in this sutta for us to 'talk dharma' around.

Here are a few of the verses (Bikkhu Bodhi's translation):

"As a deer unbound in the forest goes off to graze wherever it wants,
so a wise person, looking out for freedom
should live alone like a rhinoceros horn.

At home in the four directions, unrepelled,
contented with anything whatsoever, enduring obstacles, fearless,
one should live alone like a rhinoceros horn.

If one should find a judicious companion,
a fellow wanderer, of good behaviour, resolute,
having overcome all obstacles,
one should live with him, satisfied and mindful.

But if one does not find a judicious companion,
a fellow wanderer, of good behaviour, resolute,
like a king who has abandoned a conquered realm,
one should live alone like a rhinoceros horn.

Without greed, without scheming,
without thirst, not denigrating,
with stains and delusion blown away,
without wishes for anything in all the world,
one should live alone like a rhinoceros horn

With downcast gaze, not footloose,
with guarded faculties, with protected mind,
unpolluted, not feverish with passion,
one should live alone like a rhinoceros horn

With energy aroused to attain the supreme goal,
with unsluggish mind and robust practice,
firmly persistent, equipped with strength and power,
one should live alone like a rhinoceros horn

At the right time pursuing liberation by loving-kindness,
equanimity, compassion, and altruistic joy,
not antagonised by the whole world,
one should live alone like a rhinoceros horn

Having abandoned lust, hatred, and delusion,
having sundered the fetters [that keep one bound],
not terrified at the extinction of life,
one should live alone like a rhinoceros horn."
 

As part of our gathering we will read the sutta aloud and collectively respond to it; here are a few provocateurs to kick off reflection:

1. Do you consider yourself  ' ..... a deer unbound in the forest able to go off to graze wherever you want'?  

2. Often our life feels restricted by things, finances, family, fear, doing the right thing ...... How do you work with this?

3. Have you had times in your life when you have 'gone it alone' because you were aware that to continue companionship with a person or people was not conducive to your freedom, happiness and deeper sense of well being?

4. The idea that we sometimes need to guard our senses, protect our mind in order not to be polluted and arouse 'feverish passions' ....... do we have our own sense of that? Social media, advertising, engaging in appetites that are seductive yet not in our best interests?

5. What's your 'supreme goal' and how do you create 'an unsluggish mind and robust practice' in order to achieve it?

6. What do you make of the concluding exhortation to 'pursue liberation by loving-kindness, equanimity, compassion and altruistic joy' : The Brahma Viharas - the various expressions of metta)