Introduction to Buddhism Course.
The Buddha taught a path of self transformation culminating in Enlightenment: the complete transcendence of all unhelpful and negative states of mind and being. In this course we will be introducing the Buddha, the Path that he taught and the Spiritual Community of men and women who tread that path.
Our Introduction to Buddhism course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn more about Buddhism in general and how we practice it in our particular Western context. No experience of meditation is necessary.
Led by Vajrashura.
Starts Thursday 3rd June 2010.
Follow-On Meditation Course.
The Follow-on Meditation courses are for anyone who has completed a Foundation Meditation Course with the Centre or another FWBO centre, and are an ideal way of going deeper with your meditation practice, or as a way of reconnecting with a meditation practice that has drifted.
Starts Thursday 25th March.
Intensive Practice Nights.
This collective practice evening is a chance to come along and do a solid night’s practice with other Sangha folk. The evening usually consists of a long meditation sit and then a Puja, and is open to people who have been around the Sangha for a while and who have a regular meditation practice, as well as a desire to practice Puja.
Led by Vajrashura and Pavara. On a donation basis.
Mastering the Basics: Tuesday Night Drop-in Class.
This drop-in class is intended for all those who would like the opportunity to meditate with others or who have just completed a foundation meditation course and are wondering what to do next. In it we’ll be exploring ways of engaging with meditation and the issues that arise in our lives with help from the Buddhist tradition.
All welcome, whatever your level of practice. No need to book, just turn up.
Led by Aksobhin and Jnanadhara. On a donation basis.
Morning Meditations.
This is for people who’d like to have a communal meditation sit in the morning before they start their work day. The sit is from 7.30am - 8.25am, but we’d ask you arrive around 7.20am to set yourself up beforehand.
Led by Dayananda and Tony Keogh.
Women's Sangha Group.
This group will be meeting up on the second Saturday of every month and is a chance for women in the Sangha to get to know each other, meditate and study together. The evening starts with a meditation sit from 7.30pm - 8pm. Open to any woman who has completed the foundation meditation course and has an interest in Buddhism.
No booking required, just turn up. On a donation basis.
Yoga & Meditation Days.
Sunday 30th May - Led by Pavara & Vidyakara. 10am - 5pm.
These days are suitable for all levels of yoga, as well as for beginners to meditation. They are an opportunity to reconnect with your meditation or yoga practice if it has slipped, as well as serving as a great way to try out these practices if you haven’t done them before.
Focusing Workshop.
The Wisdom of the Body.
Focusing is a gentle yet profound practice of listening to our body, to our inner voice. It gets beneath our usual stories and self analysis to a place that knows its own way to healing and wholeness. It can be used with other practices such as meditation, bodywork and talking therapies. It can help us in resolving old patterns and making decisions or simply as a way of being more in touch with ourselves.
"Focusing is a beautiful and meditative approach to psychotherapy and personal growth. It offers a deep parallel
to the practice of mindfulness in a carefully developed and sensitive way"
- Jack Kornfield.
Led by Manjudeva, a qualified Focusing trainer. For more information about Focusing and Manjudeva, see his website.
Dharma Enquiry Days.
The purpose of these Dharma Enquiry Days is to give people a deeper grounding in Buddhism and a straightforward exploration of some of its fundamental teachings. Open to anyone who has completed a Foundation Meditation course.
The Taste of Freedom
Led by Jnanadhara.
April: Saturday 24th, 10am - 5pm.
On this Dharma Enquiry Day Jnanadhara will be exploring Sangharakshita's talk entitled The Taste of Freedom. This talk looks at how freedom is won when we make the effort to untie the knots of habit, superficiality, and vagueness that sap our energy, block our creativity, and waste our true potential. That effort, and the way we apply it, is what the Buddhist life is all about.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
Led by Vajrashura.
August: Saturday 7th, 10am - 5pm.
The Satipatthana Sutta is the Buddha's discourse on the four foundations of mindfulness, delivered some 2,500 years ago in the forests of ancient India. It is as relevant today as it was in the Buddha's time, and priceless teachings lay in its words.
In mindfulnesss, we hold the secret of our own happiness. By learning to live mindfully, we can begin to realise the truth that what each of us become depends to a very great extent on how fully, how unobstructedly, we can live this present moment.
Please bring a vegetarian lunch to share.
Yoga Day with Prabhakara.
This day of Iyengar Yoga should be just what you need if you’re looking for a solid day’s practice. It will be led by Prabhakara, who has been doing yoga for eighteen years now, and teaching for the last eight, and is the main teacher in the Birmingham Buddhist Centre. Suitable for all levels.
Cavan Retreat.
Looking at the Bodhi Tree: Gratitude and the Dharma-life
Venue: Sandville House, Cavan.
On the full moon day in May the Buddha gained Enlightenment beneath the Bodhi Tree. The story goes that after his Enlightenment he remained for a week in the vicinity of the Bodhi tree gazing at it ‘with unblinking eyes’ out of gratitude for the shelter it provided during his days and nights of striving.
On this May Bank Holiday Retreat we’ll be engaging with the theme of Gratitude as a way into a deeper emotional connection with ourselves and with others. We’ll also be looking at the particular Buddhist connotation of the idea of gratitude and its significance as a path to greater understanding and resonance with the Truth that the Buddha communicated.
This will all take place in Sandville House with the usual good company, peace and quiet and walks in the beautiful Co. Cavan countryside.
This retreat is suitable for people who have completed the foundation meditation course. Early booking advised.
Led by Jnanadhara & Vajrashura.
Mitra Morning.
These mornings are a special opportunity for the Mitra Sangha to come together and engage in communal Dharma practice. They will mainly involve meditation and puja, but also with a chance to talk about practice more generally. On a donation basis.
Growing into Who You Are.
Type, Temperament, and Spiritual Practice.
Everyone has particular ways of facing the world. To see and be comfortable with your ‘typical’ patterns, may enable you to:
- live from a basis of genuine strengths (and successfully cope with the weak spots)
- welcome and enjoy difference in others and learn from their particular approaches to life
- discover the potential for health and wholeness in your encounters with stress, conflict and strain
- listen and respond to the inner calls for growth
Our explorations will be based on the work of C.G. Jung and C. Myers-Briggs. You will receive a comprehensive and detailed report on your psychological preferences and there will be an opportunity to meet Dhammaloka for a private consultation.
To secure the best possible outcome for you, there are some preparatory tasks that we’d like you to complete well before the seminar. This is to help us avoid unnecessary theory and provide maximum practical value for you.
Led by With Dhammaloka (certified MBTI trainer). Open to all Dharma practitioners or those with an interest in spiritual development.
Films: The History of the FWBO / Triratna Buddhist Community.
Part 2 - Friday 11th June, starting 7pm.
These series of films explore the history of the FWBO / Triratna Buddhist Community. The first film explores our founder Sangharakshita's life in India with his Chinese and Tibetan teachers before he returned to the West. From there they trace the history of our Community from its origins in the mid-sixties to the late seventies. They're being shown as an introduction to the special Buddha Day festival, where we will ritually mark our Community becoming the Triratna Buddhist Community.
Buddha Day Festival.
Buddha Day is the most important Buddhist festival because the Buddha's Enlightenment is revered as the highest human achievement. Buddhists celebrate not only his accomplishment but also the fact that the Buddha made possible a way to Enlightenment so that any man or woman who makes the effort can gain Enlightenment themselves, thereby putting an end to suffering.
On this day we'll be celebrating all this through meditation, puja, talks and more. As part of the day we'll be having an important ritual to mark the name change of our community to the Triratna Buddhist Community. Led by Jnanadhara.
A Day for Yourself.
Yoga & Relaxation Day
Invest in your health & wellbeing with a day of balancing energies and reducing stress. Includes deep relaxation, yoga postures to eliminate energy blockages, stress management tips, simple acupressure points, life coaching, meditation and simple routines to positively enhance your mind, body and spirit. Led by Mairead Keane, Stress Management Consultant.
Sesshin.
A day spent simply meditating and reflecting, all in silence. Nothing else to do, nowhere else to be, nothing else to worry about... Open to anyone who has completed a Foundation Meditation course. No booking required. On a donation basis.
Death and the Only Beauty that Lasts
'The only beauty that lasts is the beauty of the human heart' - Rumi
To be human is to face change, loss, and grief. To turn towards that can seem a grim task, yet the truth is also very beautiful. This week-end follows that journey through workshops, short talks, reflection, and meditation. We will explore our experience of loss, begin to make a relationship with death - our own and others, prepare for death, and - as an inevitable result of all this - deepen our engagement with life.
From Siddhisambhava, the event leader:
You do not need to have had a 'brush' with death to 'qualify' for coming. We are all going to die, one day, and will all benefit from taking some time to sit with this great, unavoidable yet unpredictable mystery.
Some of us seem to have our noses rubbed in loss and death, others appear to escape it - for now, anyway. Most of us try to avoid it. Yet facing this experience (or the fear of it) can be a great opportunity. Almost by definition, loss is transformative. A broken heart is a beautiful thing if we can let it help us accept reality, become more aware and sensitive, and mature spiritually.
I don't do these events because I enjoy putting other people - or myself, for that matter - through a gruelling process! I've been running workshops and retreats on this theme since 2002 and, without exception, the experience is clarifying, regenerating, even uplifting, like a dose of vigour mortis!
And he replied, 'It's a real illusion'.
'Pay attention to the mystery.'
Barry Lopez, naturalist
'May I be alive when I die.'
Winnicot's prayer
About Siddhisambhava:
During my 30's (in the 1990's) I experienced six years of multiple bereavement . My brother died, my father died, several friends died, most of whom were my peers in age, and shortly afterwards I 'lost' my health for two years. In 2000 I trained with Cruse as a bereavement counsellor. This will be my second visit to Dublin with this week-end and I look forward to hopping on the boat and returning.
Summer Retreat.
Venue: Sandville House, Cavan.
This week long retreat is a fantastic chance to experience a longer period of time spent meditating, reflecting and enjoying the Cavan countryside. It's a beautiful time of year to be in Sandville House, and this retreat is always a rewarding experience for participants.
The theme for the retreat will be The Life of the Buddha. The Buddha's life is the paradigm of Buddhist spiritual practice; he combines the human and the transcendental. He was a man grounded in his society, while embodying a sense of the mystery of Awakening at the heart of his identity. His life-story abounds with intelligence, kindness and good humour, as well as with wisdom and compassion. To look at and study the Buddha's life is to go straight to the heart of what it means to be a Buddhist, and on the retreat we’ll be doing just that.
This retreat is suitable for people who have completed the foundation meditation course and have an interest in Buddhism.
Led by Jnanadhara & Vajrashura.
Dharma Day Festival.
This festival is to celebrate the Buddha's Teaching, the Dharma, which Buddhists follow as a path to liberation. More details of this festival available closer to the time.
Meditation Day.
On this introductory day both the ‘Mindfulness of Breathing’ and the ‘Development of Loving Kindness’ meditations will be taught, as well as walking meditation. It is ideal as an introduction for those new to meditation, or as a refreshing day retreat for those who’d like a boost to their practice.