EBMC Community Bulletin Board

Free Meditations and Classes March 1, 2013

Free Meditations and Classes (March 18-21, 7-8:30 PM)

In order to bring more people the benefits of meditation and Tibetan Yoga, the Institute will be offering a series of free classes or meditation sessions. These sessions are free and are open to all.

Spring: Meditation and Healing March 18-21, 7-8:30 PM

Many health benefits come from regular meditation practice. This series of free classes focuses on meditations that balance the emotions and stimulate natural healing. Classes will be primarily experiential and are open to all.

Monday, March 18, 7-8:30 PM:Healing the Heart: Meditations on Love with Olivia Hurd

Tuesday, March 19, 7-8:30 PM: Healing Pain with Santosh Philip

Wednesday, March 20, 7-8:30 PM: Movement as Meditation with Jack van der Meulen

Thursday, March 21, 7-8:30 PM: Meditation and Healing with Hugh Joswick

Free March Talks: The Human Condition, March 3 – 31

When we look at our lives and the lives of others, we may not know whether to laugh or cry. There is so much beauty, goodness, and potential. But, suffering, harm, and greed are also there, like weeds threatening to overtake a delightful garden.

March talks explore the human condition through the lens of Nyingma Institute teachings. In the first two Sundays of March, we examine how pain and knowledge arise with the goal of penetrating needless patterns of suffering. Then, on the eve of spring, Donna Morton describes how our nutritional needs change with the seasons and what vegetarian foods are good spring choices. Sylvia Gretchen then reflects on rebirth, death, and the process of dreaming, gently drawing attention to Buddhist teachings on consciousness as a fearless path of liberation. On the final Sunday in March, Mark Henderson discusses causality and karma in a talk on the Buddhist “Wheel of Life.”

Sunday, March 3, 6-7 PM
Tom Morse on “Penetrating the Dynamic of Pain.” 6-7 PM

The feeling of pain or suffering does not arise in isolation, but is part of a larger dynamic and rhythm within our experience. In this talk, Nyingma Institute instructor Tom Morse leads participants in an experiential analysis of pain utilizing exercises from the Time, Space, and Knowledge vision. With insight into the flowing rhythms that give rise to pain, we can take steps to interrupt the process, easing the resultant suffering.

Sunday, March 10, 6-7 PM
Ken McKeon on “Unexpected Knowledge.”

“Before concepts and ideas, projections and reactions, knowledge is available in the sound of sound, the voice of the voice, the inquiry of the inquiry, the mind of mind.” Tarthang Tulku, Visions of Knowledge.

The premise that knowledge is ‘already’ there, within senses and mind changes the nature of how and where we look for knowledge. Time, Space, and Knowledge instructor Ken McKeon will point out how to discover knowledge in unexpected ways and places. And show how this kind of knowledge can bring creativity and kindness more fully into our lives.

Sunday, March 17, 6-7 PM
Donna Morton on “‘The Healthy Vegetarian: Nourishing Foods of the Season: Spring.”

As the seasons change, nutritional needs shift. In this talk, nutritional consultant and Nyingma Institute instructor Donna Morton will give tips on healthy vegetarian foods that the body needs to thrive this spring.

Sunday, March 24, 6-7 PM
Sylvia Gretchen on “Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Dreaming.”

“The ability of mind to sustain both waking reality and the very different reality of dreams only hints at its remarkable power. From a Buddhist perspective, mind is the foundation for both samsara and nirvana, the soil in which karma and the positive qualities of the human spirit can take root.” Tarthang Tulku, Mind Over Matter.

This talk is about consciousness, the deeper levels of mind that weave throughout waking and dreaming and all states of being. We chart teachings on how consciousness changes from moment to moment and life to life. Reflecting on death (what ends?) and rebirth (what endures?) and dream (what happens?), can inspire compassion and a fearless, open-minded curiosity.

Sunday, March 31, 6-7 PM
Mark Henderson on “The Wheel of Life.”

The Buddha taught that our destiny is not determined by fate, but by causality. To illustrate this teaching he described existence as an ever-turning wheel. Propelled by positive or negative actions living beings move to more or less favorable states of existence. Nyingma Institute instructor Mark Henderson will introduce the wheel of life as depicted in Tibetan art and will discuss this key teaching on causality, its inner and outer architecture, and how deeper inquiry and understanding lead to freedom

Learn more at nyingmainstitute.org