Meditation

The meditation and Exploring Buddhism courses "Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism* and "More about Mahayana Buddhism" are being taught by Shelène Spoek.

There are two levels being taught this year: On Tuesday evenings, the classes are aimed for beginners – for those who are wishing to know a little bit more about either meditation or Tibetan Buddhism (or both!). Wednesday evenings are for those who have a bit more understanding or experience, and who want to look deeper into the subject.

About the meditations

The Buddhist meditations are guided and contain two parts: a stabilisation meditation and an analytical meditation. For the stabilisation meditation we usually focus our awareness upon the breath. The purpose of this meditation is to quiet down our rushing thoughts and to achieve a focussed and single pointed mind. When we have quietened down our busy minds we move to the next stage: the analytical meditation. For the analytical meditation every time we focus on a different subject. The analytical meditation means simply: thinking deeply about a specific subject without being distracted by thoughts other than the subject itself. This meditation will be an analysis about a specific subject like: What is the mind, this precious human life, equanimity, death and impermanence, loving kindness, transforming problems etc. We also do deity meditations in which we visualise a specific Buddha and connect ourselves in this way with the energy of the enlightened mind.

In the beginners meditation course on the Tuesday evenings and the Wednesday mornings all the facets of the meditation will be explained. Why it is important to meditate, the sitting posture, the different meditations and their purpose and gradually we will build up a complete meditation session. On the Wednesday evenings there will be a short introduction of the subject before the 35 minute meditation session starts.

Dates for the 2008 at Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling courses are as follows:

Tuesday courses: 7 to 7.45pm

11th March to 1st July

22nd July to 23rd September

 14th October to 16th December

Wednesday courses: 10 to 10.45am / 7 to 7.45pm

12th March to 2nd July

23rd July to 24th September

15th October to 17th December

Facility fee:

Meditation Course: $3 per session.

Always check the Calendar to see when special events like Buddha Days or Pujas take place instead of the meditation