----- Reflective Meditation Retreat: A Refuge for Independence and Dependence with Linda Modaro and Bavara Dates: Friday Nov 8 – Wed Nov 13 Location: Byron Bay, NSW Australia – Gondwana Sanctuary
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. For more information: click here.
----- Spring Reflective Meditation Retreat with Linda Modaro and Mary McIntyre Dates: 21-24th November Location: Brahma Kumaris, Wilton NSW
In this secular retreat, we will be emphasising being present to what arises in your meditation practice, without trying to focus on anything in particular. What arises then, is an intimate experience of seeing into how your mind operates moment to moment. We will support this exploration by encouraging you to recollect your sittings through journalling and to explore this with a teacher individually or in small groups.
----- Rainbodhi: LGBTQIA+ Buddhists Inaugural Event Date: Nov 29th Location: Erskineville Town Hall: 104 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville, NSW
Rainbodhi has been formed as a positive response to the damaging religious privilege debate currently happening in Australian politics. We want to let people in our community know that it's ok to be LGBTQIA+ and also a person of faith. They don't have to choose between these parts of themselves. Sometimes in spiritual communities, queer and trans* people are a little invisible and often don't have their particular needs acknowledged or understood. Rainbodhi aims to bring our community together to celebrate our diversity and share our experiences of the spiritual path.
Fore more info clickhere. Or Website:http://rainbodhi.org/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/rainbodhi ----- Insight Dialogue Residential Retreat: Living the Six Tenets of a Whole Life Path with Gregory Kramer Dates: 5 - 9 Dec, 2019 Location: St. Joseph's Spirituality and Education Centre, Kincumber NSW
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. For More Information: click here. -----
Public Talk: Christ as Guru: Understanding the Christian path from a Buddhist perspectivewith Dr. Eva Natanya Dates: 8 Dec, 2019 Location: Buddhist Library
The Contemplary is pleased to announce a public talk in Sydney by Dr. Eva Natanya. Eva Natanya is a scholar and contemplative who has studied and practiced in both the Christian and Buddhist traditions. She earned an MA in Christian Systematic Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia with a dissertation exploring the soteriological worldview of Je Tsongkhapa Lobsang Drakpa, one of the renowned religious thinkers of Tibetan Buddhism. Her deep investigation of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and contemplative practices has provided a new and enriching perspective with regard to her Christian faith – which in turn further enriches a contemplative path shaped by Buddhist teachings. Eva will be traveling to Sydney in December this year to assist Dr. B. Alan Wallace in the leadership of a 7 day Shamatha/samatha retreat.This public talk takes place at the Buddhist Library on December 8th, the day before the commencement of that retreat. Full details about the public talk are available through the link provided at the end of this email. Eva has titled her talk:Christ as Guru: Understanding the Christian path from a Buddhist perspective and will explore questions such as:
What might the theological interpretation of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection have been like if he had been born in India?
How, today, might we understand the central declarations of Christian faith from the perspective of a Buddhist worldview — especially the Middle Way view of emptiness?
What would it mean to follow a genuine path of devotion to Christ, while immersing oneself in the precise demands of meditation practices taught within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition?
How might we understand the meaning and imperative of the sacramental life of the Christian Church according to the logic of Tibetan Buddhist Vajrayāna?
Eva will draw upon decades of her own experience as a person of faith in both the Christian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, seeking to explore new ways of thinking about the conundrums that arise when one tries to practice a contemplative path while steeped in two very different religious traditions simultaneously. This talk may be of interest to Christians and Buddhists alike.It may also be of interest to any contemplative – with or without any religious alliance – interested in how one’s journey might benefit from a synthesis of teachings from two of the great wisdom traditions.I hope you will join Eva in this exploration of both the challenges and rewards of integrating Buddhist contemplative perspectives and practices into a devotional path – in this case a path of devotion to Christ.