IGNITE Meditation Masterclass
Fri 20 Sep, 27 Sep & 4 Oct | 7:15 - 9:45 pm
Free (with donations welcome)
The point of consciousness is not just to understand it but to change it.
Join in our three-week Meditation Masterclass where we will be meeting with others aged 18-25 to experience meditation, and hear about the Buddhist vision from some of our most experienced teachers, Jnanavaca, Maitreyabandhu and Suryagupta.
Over the course of three consecutive Fridays we will explore different aspects of Buddhist meditation and see how it offers a complete path for transforming our minds and transforming the world, as we begin to experience more clarity and positive emotion.
Everyone's welcome – from experienced practitioners to complete newcomers, and it's free to attend (with donations welcome). Sign up and we'll send you reminders nearer the time.
Week 1: Suryagupta - Radical wholeness
In modern life we are living in increasingly fragmented times where there's increasing distrust between different groups of people. There is also increasing polarisation within each person.
What we need is a new sense of unification, a new sense of wholeness. Our emotions are often against each other. We are often thinking things that are opposite to our emotions. We often don't know what we think or feel.
So we need to unify the whole psyche and that's a mirror for trying to unify society. What we find in society is similar to what we find in the person - an increasing fragmentation, suspicion and polarity. We need to heal that.
Week 2: Jnanavaca - Emotional strength
Once we have started cultivating this radically unity in ourselves and in the world around us, the next question becomes how can you contribute more to your own life and to the lives of those around you?
You don't want to just be unified, you want to be radiantly helpful, encouraging, warm, courageous and creative.
There is an international shortage of emotional strength. So we need to actually practice emotional strength.
Week 3: Maitreyabandhu - Seeing things as they really are
The world would be a better place if we do these two things mentioned above, but Buddhism wants to go further than that.
Buddhism wants you to have an insight into how things really are, which changes the very nature of your consciousness and makes you become a force for good.
We need to break though into a new kind of consciousness, the Buddha's consciousness, which is personified by infinite love, compassion, energy and wisdom. The point of consciousness is not just to understand it but to change it.
