Believe in Change - six week Buddhism Foundation course
Our next 6-week introductory course begins on 15th June. This course is now full. Please check back here for the announcement of the next start date.
The course is held each Thursday from 6-7.30pm. It will be an in person class. This course is by pre-booking only. Very sorry, we will not be able to admit anyone who hasn’t booked.
The course is by voluntary donation which you can make when you arrive.
The sessions will give you:
– two very effective kinds of daily meditation for calm and positivity
– an introduction to real, radical mindfulness, as originally taught by the Buddha
– ethical tools for transforming yourself and the world
– liberating reflections taught by the Buddha on life and reality
– a taste of the sense of belonging as part of a spiritual community.
Booking is for all six sessions. Capacity is limited, so please book if, as far as you know, you are able and willing to come to all six sessions.
Notes and Resources
- Week One
Week One Key Points: Three transformative ideas to work with. (1) We can change. (2) Happiness comes from inside, not from outer things. (3) We are deeply interconnected with others and the world around us.
Week One Actions: (1) Make one small change to your routine this week. (2) Try some meditation on your own. (3) Take some time to think about the three transformative ideas and whether you have experience of them in your own life.
A helpful down to earth video on meditation posture from Surata.
A 10-minute video leading through the Mindfulness of Breathing meditation from Bodhipaksa.
A ten-minute podcast on happiness from Maitreyabandhu.
- Week Two
Actions for the week: Try and make a simple change in your daily life this week that involves a positive choice of care for others or yourself.
Part Two: Karma and Liberation
20-minute led Mindfulness of Breathing video.
- Week Three
Actions for the week: Choose one of the five precepts, and one day where you focus on putting it into practice. Here is a reminder of the precepts, expressed in the form of what we move away from, and then in the form of what we’re positively moving towards:I undertake to abstain from taking life.
I undertake to abstain from taking the not-given. I undertake to abstain from sexual misconduct.
I undertake to abstain from false speech.
I undertake to abstain from taking intoxicants.
With deeds of loving kindness, I purify my body.
With open-handed generosity, I purify my body.
With stillness, simplicity, and contentment, I purify my body. With truthful communication, I purify my speech.
With mindfulness clear and radiant, I purify my mind.
Here is an introduction to the Metta Bhavana
And here is a link to a short lead-through of the metta bhavana meditation by Kamalashila
- Week Four
This week’s activity is to establish a regular meditation practice – ten to twenty minutes, three times a week or daily.
A reminder of some of the tools for meditation:
- If you experience anxiety or restlessness, cultivate calm
- If you experience ill will, cultivate appreciation and enjoyment.
- If you experience sense desire, engage the senses with the meditation object (breath).
- If you experience doubt and indecision, cultivate commitment.
- If you experience sloth and torpor, cultivate energy.
- Visualise the breath as light.
- Attend to the breath in different parts of the body. Focusing lower in the body is grounding; focusing higher in the body is energising.
- Practise balanced effort – finding just the right amount of effort of attention to sustain a deeper experience of the breath
A twenty minute led session of the Mindfulness of Breathing by Kamalashila.
- Week Five
This week’s activity is to notice any moments of ritual that you already undertake in your daily life, and what effect they have. If you wish, you could also introduce a simple element of ritual around meditation, such as lighting candle or incense, as a way of connecting more deeply to the practice.
Here are some notes about Mantra.
Some images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas by Buddhist artist Aloka