Now Online: Together Under the Bodhi Tree – A Short Course on the Buddha’s Teachings

Now Online: Together Under the Bodhi Tree – A Short Course on the Buddha’s Teachings

with Bart Van Melik

Wednesdays, May 6th – May 27th, 2020 | 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Nowadays the Buddha’s teachings are widely available in many forms – more than ever before. Yet, it can feel like quite a personal endeavor to study these ancient teachings. Often we miss the intimacy students might have felt while they were sitting together with the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree.

Dharma Contemplation is a relational meditation practice that enables us to enter into the Buddha’s teachings in a profound way by revealing many layers of meaning in these ancient texts. Participants begin by contemplating a short excerpt of the Buddha’s teachings and over the course of five distinct practice phases engage one another, speaking the truth and listening deeply. Participants move from engagements with just the words of the text, then to the emotional resonances it evokes. This leads to a cognitive investigation of the meaning and finally, setting the text aside, to an exploration of present moment experience: how has this life been touched by the Buddha’s words?

In Dharma Contemplation the wisdom we are contemplating comes directly from the Buddha via his oral teachings, which have been passed down in the Pali texts for over two thousand years. Just as we can experience intimate and elucidating contact with a good friend or teacher —mind to mind and heart to heart—, we can do so with the Buddha via his legacy in a remarkably direct way: human to human, Buddha to Buddha. Dharma Contemplation provides a structure to help us realize this capacity.

Registration:

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Registration Fees include Teacher Support

Members of our Circle of Friends are eligible to receive 20% off via a code provided in the email confirming membership, which you can enter after clicking the Full Course registration option.

If you have questions about your registration (cancellation policy, membership discount, email confirmation, etc.), please read our FAQs. If your question is not addressed in the FAQs, please email registration@nyimc.org.

If you are unable to pay, you can learn about volunteering to offer work exchange and letting us know how much you are able to pay for this program by emailing registration@nyimc.org.