You are warmly invited to come to an eight week (ie 8 Tuesday evenings) course for anyone wanting to learn how to meditate and live their lives more mindfully and positively.
All are welcome including total beginners, people who know nothing about meditation, as well as seasoned meditators.
The course is totally free. There is no charge.
The course is held on zoom. Just join us at https://hertfordbuddhistgroup.co.uk/zoom
The class will start promptly at 7.30pm – so best to get there at least 5 or 10 minutes earlier Each class will finish at 9.30pm. We normally have a 5 minute break halfway through.
The first half of each evening will be meditation with full instruction – both mindfulness of breathing and also loving kindness (metta bhavana) meditation.
The second half of each evening will be based around the amazing book “The Journey and the Guide: A Practical Course in Enlightenment” by our friend Maitreyabandhu. The “Guide” refers to the Buddha.
The blurb of the book says “How can you make the most of your life? Maitreyabandhu, a prize-winning poet who has been sharing his experience of practising Buddhism for over 20 years, sets out to answer this most basic question. With humour and profundity, mixing poetry and myth with down-to-earth instruction, he describes what it means to set out on the Buddha’s journey and how you can follow it day by day and week by week. ‘The natural mode of consciousness is to expand. In every moment we can either allow consciousness to unfold or we can make it me and mine and feel it shrink back to the level of egocentricity. It’s as if we’ve identified with a tiny ripple on the surface of the ocean. Once we let go of that identification there’s the whole ocean: centre-less, edgeless, completely free.'”
It is recommended (but not compulsory) that you buy the book, and read it while doing our course.
You do not have to “be a Buddhist”, or know anything about Buddhism. There is no God in Buddhism, and it is not about having to believe in anything. It is a very practical spiritual path.
Many people have found these courses extremely useful and have made massive shifts in their life from them (if they carry on practising and attending after the course).
People report these shifts especially in areas such as more happiness, less anxiety and less negative emotions. The general goal is to be more content, more mindful, have more loving kindness, joy, connection and ultimately more freedom from our reactive mind.
Repetition is important because there are different levels of depth, experience and understanding. If you have been before you will build on what you have learned and be able to go a bit deeper this time, so it is also suitable for experienced meditators.
If you want more information about the styles of meditation we teach you can go to http://hertfordbuddhistgroup.co.uk/meditation/ where there are also links to downloadable mp3s that can guide you while you meditate, as well as youtube videos etc.
It’s fine if you can’t manage to come to every week, each one can be enjoyed independently so just come along and drop into any that you can make. Although like anything, the more you put into it, and the more you attend, the more you will get out of it.
The classes will be very friendly, welcoming and a lot of fun.
There is no need to bring anything apart from an open mind and willingness to explore your experience.
If you cannot come to this course, you can also come any Tuesday throughout the year as we always warmly welcome any newcomers and beginners, and give full instruction. Every Tuesday evening is run as a drop in class.
If you have any questions, please leave a message below, or alternatively direct message me on Facebook .
Hope to see you at the course 🙂
Keith