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Buddhism for Beginners Level 1 (6wk course starts 21st Jan)
January 21, 2021 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
A newly improved six-week course presented on Zoom. The perfect way to ground your understanding of basic Buddhist philosophy and ethics.
This introduction to Buddhism presents the basic world view of Buddhist and how its thinking and ethical behavior lead towards insight, caring and meaning in our lives. The course covers how Buddhist ethics works, meditation methods for developing clarity and appreciation of self and others and some of the ideas in Buddhism which, although they make sense, are not how we generally live our lives.
Programme
| WEEK 1 | An Introduction to Siddhartha Gautama’. Better known as The Buddha, our first session will explore aspects of his character before we go on to look at his teaching. After a break we will introduce the Mindfulness of Breathing meditation. Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of The Awakened One The Mindfulness of Breathing: Short Lead-through by Kamalashila |
| WEEK 2 | Exploring habits and emotions’. We will explore how these two things work together, and how we cam develop a gap between our feelings and our behaviour so we are not so reactive. Followed by a Mindfulness of Breathing meditation. |
| WEEK 3 | Helpful Habits’. This week we will explore habits that might be helpful in leading us to happiness and contentment, and how to apply these to our daily life. After the break we will introduce the ‘Metta Bhavana’ meditation – the development (Bhavana) of openhearted caring or friendliness (Metta). |
| WEEK 4 | The Five Precepts’. These are the five training principles taken on by most Buddhist to help develop a warmhearted and confident heart and mind. We will look in detail at how to let go of negative habits and develop positive habits. Followed by a Metta Bhavana meditation. |
| WEEK 5 | Difficulties in Meditation’. This week will be a workshop looking at the difficulties the mind experiences when we are trying to meditation. Five forces hinder us – greed; ill will; sloth and torpor; restlessness and anxiety; and doubt. We will look at methods to address these. Followed by a Mindfulness of Breathing meditation, where we can practice what we have learned. |
| WEEK 6 | ‘The Buddhist view of existence’. This week we will consider the three marks of conditioned existance of all beings – The Three Lakshanas: Impermanence (anicca), Unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). In particular we will explore the idea of ‘Conditioned Existence’ – That everything arises fleetingly from a miryiad of conditions and in their turn gives rise to conditions for future things to come into being. This wil be followed by a special Metta Bhavana meditation to conclude the course. |
| What Next? | There will be a continuation of Buddhism for Beginners with a Level 2 course starting soon. This will explore the teaching of the Buddha, in particular, the ‘Four Noble Truths’ the ‘Eight Fold Path’ and introduce the Triratna Buddhist ‘System of Practice’. The course will go further into working with meditation |
How to Join
Please book and pay for this course using the ‘Tickets’ links. If you can’t afford to pay even the Concessionary price please don’t be put off. Send an email to kusaladana@gmail.com and he will help.
When you have booked, you will receive an email receipt however, course details including the Zoom link are not sent out until a day or so before the course starts.
Note: You need to enter the number of places required before clicking ‘Book Now’