This Term

Welcome to the Spring Programme at Jamyang!

This Spring the Tuesday and Wednesday classes with Geshe Tashi re-start at the beginning of February. In his general class on Wednesdays he will teach on How Meditation Helps Our Mind. In his more in depth class on Tuesdays he will teach on a key Mahayana Buddhist scripture, the Heart (or essence of wisdom) Sutra, which captures the meditative core of the understanding of selflessness and emptiness; the understanding that sets us free.

On the weekends Geshe Tashi will also be teaching an Introduction to Buddhism, which should not be missed, and will teach on the Four Noble Truths at the end of April, beginning of May.

This Spring Geshe Tashi will continue his popular Easter retreats, this year with a retreat on Kindness, Compassion and Understanding. In addition he will also lead two short weekend retreats focusing on Shamata, clarity and stability in meditation, and on Chenrezig, the meditation deity embodying vast impartial compassion.

At the end of January we are hosting a five day retreat on the highest yoga tantra deity practice of Guhyasamaja. This is for initiates only. Before that we are hosting a four week retreat on Vajrayogini.

New to this programme is the venerable nun Konchog Khandro (Ani Barbara). This may be the last opportunity to listen to the unique style of this sincere practitioner for quite a while. The venerable nun will enter a three year closed practice retreat in 2010. Before she does that she has kindly agreed to share her experiences of what she has found to be essential in her over twenty five years of Buddhist practice.

We also have the major Tibetan Buddhist festival of the Great Prayer Day, which falls on the first full moon in February after the Tibetan New Year. Please come along and join with us in pujas (ceremonies) focusing on the qualities of the Shakyamuni Buddha and celebrating his energy.

We continue to host Lama Chopa and Tsok ceremonies and the practice mornings or afternoons for those with Kalachakra or Guhyasamaja initiations. New this term we are introducing regular pujas on Tuesday mornings and early evenings for the goddess Tara, the embodiment of the liberating energy of enlightenment.

For people new to Buddhism we are running two short FPMT courses, Buddhism in a Nutshell and Meditation 101. So that people who can’t come in the evenings can still participate in these courses we are running them on Thursday mornings as well as Thursday evenings. This is an experiment so please give us feedback. Don’t worry if you can’t make weekday mornings or evenings as we will offer these courses at the weekend in the summer programme. We also continue to offer the popular one night Introduction to Meditation.

The popular course Core Practices of Buddhist Meditation continues on Mondays, focusing this programme on the four wholesome emotions of love, compassion, joy and equanimity. There is also a mediation practice day associated with this on one Saturday. Though this comprehensive structured course is now about a third of the way through, students can start at any time in the cycle or can attend on a drop in basis. This course is suitable for people new to Buddhism and new in Buddhism.

Another event suitable for people new to and new in Buddhism is Three Uses for Meditation on Wednesdays in April. This looks at three broad uses of meditation: to restore, to give direction and to know ourselves better.

This spring we are introducing the first two weekend events in new series looking at how Buddhism can help us deal with difficult emotions. Dealing with Disappointment comes at the end of January and Dealing with Fear at the end of April. These are suitable for anyone -of no faith or of faith, people new to and new in Buddhism. Again this is an experiment, so please let us know how it works for you.

As an experiment we are introducing an occasional series of discussion forums, "Heresy Fridays", looking at ‘difficult’ issues that arise as Buddhism moves from its traditional hierarchical Asian heartland into modern democratic liberal western societies.

The first of these will be held in March and will look at Buddhism and sexuality taking as the starting point for discussion Jose Cabezon’s recent on-line article for Buddhadharma The practitioners Quarterly entitled “Rethinking Buddhism and Sex”. Future discussion topics in 2010 will be Buddhism and Women, and Buddhism and the Environment. We will evaluate the success of the series at the end of the calendar year so please give us your feedback. Though this is open to everyone, of no faith or any faith, space is limited so we ask you to register before the event.

Again continuing with innovation we are very pleased to announce that the accomplished workshop presenter and trained Essential Education facilitator, Anna Colao, has agreed to lead two workshops. These will tease out the practical implications of two of the articles written for Essential Education’s Knowledge Base. Mind Over Matter explores how we can recognise and transform our mental states. Being Reasonable explores how we can sharpen our intellect and improve our reasoning. These weekend seminars are open to everyone, of no faith and any faith, and aim to explore universal themes underlying systems developed to produce happier, braver more compassionate human beings.

NEW THIS TERM:
*Essential Practice with Konchog Khandro
*Buddhist Meditation 101 and Buddhism in a Nutshell on Thursday mornings.

*Tara Practice in the morning and afternoon of Tuesdays
*Dealing with emotions weekend workshops
*Heresy Fridays - "Buddhism and Sexuality"