A Call to Engaged Social Action to Address the Climate Crisis - A series of four talks and presentations Dates: 2 – 23 May, 2019 on Thursdays 6:30PM – 9:00PM Location: The Sydney Zen Centre
The Sydney Zen Centre will facilitate a series of 4 evening talks and presentations on Thursday nights from 6.30 - 9pm from 2nd - 23rd May, focusing on an engaged Buddhist response to Climate Change. The aim of these 4 evenings is to; hear an update on the latest scientific information about climate change, discus and focus on solutions and draw together and share the sangha’s active involvement in addressing climate change. We will explore how our Zen practice offers inner transformation and healing as well as providing resilience, clarity and strength in the face of change and difficult times. Zen teachers Subhana Barzaghi and Gillian Coote will facilitate a series of 4 evenings. The program will cover; video presentations, discussion forums, guest speakers and experts in the field, as well as an opportunity to share the diversity of local responses that our sangha is already actively involved in.
To register your interest email: stewarts34@bigpond.com or click here for more info.
---- Insight Meditation: Ways of Taking in the World with Victor von der Heyde and Neli Martin Dates:22 - 29 May, 2019 Location: Theosophical Society Retreat Centre, Springbrook, Gold Coast Hinterland. For More Information: click here.
---- Transforming Fear into Fearlessness - June 2019 Six-week class series - Sydney and Blue Mountainswith Jill Shepherd The Four Noble Truths that form the heart of the Buddha’s teaching invite us to examine our relationship to dukkha: stress, distress, unsatisfactoriness, suffering. Most of us though, have an instinctive resistance to suffering, so we need to practice working skilfully with the different levels of fear that often show up along the path to freedom. As we learn how to release ourselves from the confines of these fears, we’re able to live with greater ease, happiness, and peace, and to connect with the wisdom and compassion that are our true nature. Each two-hour class will include a short dharma talk, some silent meditation practice, dyad (pairs) practice, and small group discussion. During the six weeks of the course, you will be invited to maintain a regular sitting practice and keep a practice journal, to help inform the discussion during each meeting. The course is best suited to people who have an established meditation practice, have sat at least one seven-day silent insight/vipassana retreat, and have some familiarity with the core Buddhist teachings (eg the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness). Feel free to contact Jill if you have any questions about this. Time and dates – Sydney: Saturdays 2:00-4:00 p.m. Saturday 22 June – Saturday 27 July 2019 Location: Benledi House, 186 Glebe Point Road Glebe NSW 2037 Cost: $120 + dana* To register:https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/six-week-dharma-study-class-series-sydney-registration-52030321091
---- Open Awareness Meditation RetreatWith Linda Modaro and Mary McIntyre Dates: Thursday, Nov 21, 2019 at 4.30pm – Sunday, Nov 24, 2019 at 2 pm Location: Wilton, New South Wales (1.5 hours south of Sydney) – Brahma Kumaris Retreat Centre
During this residential retreat, we will explore an open awareness meditation practice that is followed by reflection. The roots of this practice are to be found in the Buddha’s early teachings and are based on learning to trust the ways of knowing that develop in meditation. This enables you to be more trusting, responsive, and present in your life.
----- Laudato’ Si: Care of our common home with Winton Higgins with Michael Whelan Dates: 4 Thursday mornings: 10am – 12 noon, August 1, 8, 15 & 22 Location: Level 5, Aquinas Academy, 141 Harrington St, The Rocks, 2000 Cost: $150
The Pope’s 2015 ground-breaking encyclical about the current ecological crisis, Laudato Si’, sought a wide readership both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Not only has it succeeded in this endeavour, it has received strong praise from influential commentators from many diverse backgrounds. For instance, Robert Manne – one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals and a secular Jew – calls it ‘one of the most important documents of our era’.
----- The Earth is our Great Body with Subhana Barzaghi and Lizzie Turnbull Dates: 9-15th August Location: Sangsurya, Byron Bay
In this retreat we will follow the ancient wisdom within our own personal bodies and attune to the extraordinary interconnectedness with the Earth, our Great Body, our precious source of everything. Through meditative inquiry, creative writing, art making and mosaic tiling we can explore a wise relationship between our lived bodies and the earth’s abundant wild intricate beauty? The retreats rhythm of silence and creative expression allows the body of feeling, movement and imagination to become a creative act of joy, love and healing. In this time of environmental crisis it is so very important to nourish our souls, strengthen our capacity to bear witness and respond with compassion and courage.
----- Insight Dialogue Residential Retreat: Living the Six Tenets of a Whole Life Path with Gregory Kramer Dates: 5 - 9 Dec, 2019 During this retreat, with the support of Insight Dialogue and silent meditation, we will explore six tenets that will help us to craft a whole life path rooted in early Buddhist teachings, and one that suits our character and circumstances. The Buddha provided extensive and specific guidance for monastics as to how to live a life inclined towards awakening, but guidance for westerners wanting a life fully rested in the Noble Eightfold Path, needs to be fleshed out. This retreat will empower us to touch the suttas as living teachings, and to participate in a community dedicated to the development of meditative qualities and wisdom. We will come together to practice Insight Dialogue, an interpersonal process that brings together meditative awareness, the wisdom teachings of the Buddha, and the power of relationship to support insight into the nature, causes, and release of human suffering. In solo silent meditation, and meditating in dialogue with one another, we will cultivate inquiry into this shared human experience and touch the possibility of awakening alone and together. This retreat welcomes Insight Dialogue practitioners and people with insight/vipassana and mindfulness meditation experience. Location: St. Joseph's Spirituality and Education Centre, Kincumber NSW For More Information: click here.