Next month, in April, I’m going to be teaching on a course with Choden (mindfulness teacher, Buddhist monk, author and old friend) on “The Practice of Buddhism”, which I’ve been asked to write a few words about.  Where to start!  Buddhism has been around for over two and half thousand years, after all, during which time it spread through many countries, where it’s adapted and evolved into many different forms, encompassing a huge variety of cultures, philosophies, and practices.  With that as a background, perhaps I might simply say a few words about what Buddhism means to me, as a lay Western practitioner.

Firstly, I think it’s fair to say that Buddhism isn’t for people who like to be told how to live their lives, or who are looking for simple answers to life’s problems from an outside authority.  It is about learning how to make decisions for ourselves, based on our own wisdom and understanding.  This doesn’t mean that we simply “make it up” as we go along, however, and Buddhism provides practical frameworks to help us navigate our lives, such as the Noble Eightfold Path and the Six Paramitas.

Sometimes Buddhism is described as more of a philosophy than a religion, as it doesn’t believe in a creator God, who is worshipped.  While this is true, Buddhism is very multi-faceted, and contains many elements that we’d normally associate with “religion”, so for me I feel that we can lose something if we have too limited a view of it.  The core of Buddhist teaching is simply that the human condition is rooted in dukkha (often translated as suffering or dissatisfaction) but that it is possible to become released from this, and find a level of fulfilment beyond our ordinary human experience.

The key to the Buddhist path isn’t academic learning or philosophising – although these can have a role – and the idea “practice” is very important, by which is meant how we choose to live our lives, which can create the conditions which allow us to meditate and cultivate kindness and compassion, which in turn leads to insight and wisdom.  For me, Buddhism offers a very practical path, which has also helped me find a deeper meaning to my life.

Which leads me (finally) to the course that I’ll be teaching with Choden, which is fittingly called “The Practice of Buddhism”.   Our approach on this will be very experiential, based around practices such as meditation and reflection.  Through this, we’ll explore some of the basic ideas in Buddhism.  The aim of this certainly isn’t to convert people to Buddhism (which would be a very un-Buddhist thing to do!), but simply to learn a little more about ourselves, and possibly help us find deeper meaning in our lives.  I hope to meet you on the course.

Alan Hughes

The Practice of Buddhism course begins on the 17th April and can be attended in person or online. For more information about the course please follow THIS LINK

Many people who practice mindfulness become interested in the Buddhist source of their mindfulness practice and some people want to study and practice Buddhism in its own right. This course has been designed to meet both these needs. The price is £630.00 payable in six monthly instalments of £105.00.

This structured course will offer step by step teaching on the basic principles and practices of Buddhism. It will be done in the experiential style characteristic of the Mindfulness Association. There will be teachings followed by guided practice and the opportunity for sharing on how the teachings and practice land.  We will begin with looking at the Hinayana, which comprises the original teachings of the Buddha. The teaching topics will include: the Life of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, Dependent Origination, Shamatta (calm abiding) and Vipassana (insight) Meditation, and the Five Spiritual Faculties.

The course will be delivered by way of twice monthly online teaching sessions starting in April 2024 and culminating in a retreat (with an online option) at Samye Ling in March 2025.  For mindfulness teachers, the retreat will fulfil the annual retreat requirements for BAMBA.

In following years, we intend to continue the course to explore all 3 main vehicles or levels of Buddhism: Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana.

The first session each month will focus on particular topic with teachings and guided practices on that topic. The second session, two weeks later, will be a practice session revisiting the same topic with an opportunity for sharing and feedback on your practice.

The below online teaching sessions take place on a Wednesday evening from 19.00-20:30pm:

Wednesday 17th April, Wednesday 22nd May, Wednesday 19th June, Wednesday 17th July, Wednesday 14th August, Wednesday 18th September, Wednesday 16th October, Wednesday 13th November, Wednesday 18th December, Wednesday 15th January and Wednesday 19th February 2025.

The below online practice sessions take place on a Wednesday evening from 19.00-20.30pm:

Wednesday 1st May, Wednesday 5th June, Wednesday 3rd July, Wednesday 31st July, Wednesday 28th August, Wednesday 2nd October, Wednesday 30th October, Wednesday 27th November, Wednesday 29th January and Wednesday 5th March 2025.

The retreat will be taught at Samye Ling/Online from Tuesday 18th March – Sunday 23rd March 2025. The retreat will begin at 7pm on Tuesday 18th March and finish at 3pm on Sunday 23rd March 2025.

If attending in person please book your accommodation and meals for the weekend directly with Samye Ling by emailing bookings@samyeling.org. They will need to know the dates that you would like to stay, what room you would like (please click here to see the room types and prices), your name, and the name of the second person if you are booking a twin room, your address, phone number and preferred email address for the booking. No room bookings can currently be made via the Samye Ling website.

Booking: *Please note there are only limited spaced left on this course* to book please contact: info@mindfulnessassociation.net