Courses and Events
 

Classes with Mark Hart   |  Dharma Inquiry Group
   Weekly Sittings  |  Non-Bodhisara Mark Hart Events

  Special EventsMovie Night

Classes with Mark Hart

The Still Place of Knowing
Tuesday Evenings, 7:30-9:00PM

January 24- March 13
The Cadigan Center, Amherst College (Directions)
Suggested Donation: $100

Human life seems to be endlessly busy.  The constant rush rarely allows us to know who we are and experience the true value of things.  In this 8-week course, you will learn to discover and access the stillness that awareness can offer in the midst of ceaseless change.  Only as one learns to rest in awareness can one truly know oneself, rather than conceptual constructions of one’s self-image, and see one’s situation with clarity.  Each class includes an informal mix of instruction and discussion tailored to the current questions, difficulties, and interests of the class members that some up in their practice as well as 30 minutes of guided meditation practice. “Awareness homework” during the week is sometimes given.  Students who will gain the most benefit from the class are those who attend all classes and commit themselves to practicing meditation for at least 20 minutes daily.

 

Awakening from the Trance of "Me"
Tuesday Evenings, 7:30-9:00PM

March 20-May 8
The Cadigan Center, Amherst College (Directions)
Suggested Donation: $100

There is an intelligence in each us that is not separate from others or the world around us, where we feel at home, at peace, and connected.  However, most of the time we live in a narrow circle of thought that is preoccupied with this character “me”: what’s wrong with me, what’s right with me, how I’m right, what I need that I lack, who/what is not giving to me, and what everything that happens means about me.  This class will explore how the step out of that narrow circle and live in that greater intelligence.  Each class will include 30 minutes of meditation.

 

Sundays and Sittings

Dharma Inquiry Group:
2nd and 4th Sundays,
February 12- June 24
7:00- 9:00 p.m., Leverett
Suggested Donation: $150


The inquiry group is for those who have had an ongoing Buddhist or other awareness practice for at least 2 years and who wish to explore within a teacher-facilitated group what is true and what liberates.  The group presumes members already know the basics of meditation. Prior to membership in the group it may be helpful to take a Tuesday class from the teacher to be familiar with his approach. This fall’s theme was “Receiving What is Given: Exploring Resistance and Non-Resistance to Whatever is Happening.” The theme for the next series has not yet been selected. Each member takes responsibility for discovering his or her own real edge of resistance or opening to non-resistance and sharing that inquiry with the group.  Registration is limited to 12.  Priority is given to prior members.



Sunday Morning Sitting Group
Sundays 10-11:30AM

Each group includes 45 minutes of sitting and 45 minutes of conversation in which we share, in a context of spiritual friendship, our own exploration of truth and freedom in our lives. Not a teacher-led group.  We meet on Sundays 10:00-11:30 a.m. at Laurene Grenier’s condo, 26 Greenleaves Drive #609 in Amherst.  If you are interested in coming, please email Mark at harts@crocker.com or call 259-2145 to be added to the specific email list we have for this group. You will be notified of sitting group news, including an occasional change of venue. 


 Adyashanti Gathering
First Friday of each month, 7PM
Hadley

This group, for all who are interested in the teaching of Adyashanti, includes meditation, a CD or DVD teaching by Adyashanti, and a discussion.  It is held on the first Friday of each month at 7 PM in Hadley. Contact Mark Lange at lange.mark@charter.net or at 413-549-1002 for information.


Movie Night and Potluck Dinner

Bodhisara sponsors a movie night about 4 times per year of some movie of relevance to Buddhism or the Dharma.  The evening includes a potluck supper at 6:30 and the movie begins at 8 PM.  These are normally held at the home of Olivia Bernard in Leverett, and the date and title of the next movie has not yet been selected (probably January).    Check the web site, www.bodhisara.org for dates, titles, and directions, or stay tuned for further email announcements” 

 

Non-Bodhisara Teachings by Mark Hart

At Northampton Insight Meditation Community (in the Karuna Center):

    • Dharma Talks on various Sunday evenings 7-9 PM, at the Karuna Center, Northampton, dana; for an up-to-date schedule, go to http://buddhabrarian.org/nimc/

    Call (413) 259-2145 for information

     

    Special Events

    Lama John Makransky

    Cultivating Love and Wisdom as Expressions of Our Innate Wholeness
    Saturday, February 4,  10 AM-4 PM
    Friedman room in the Campus Center of Amherst College
    Sponsored by the Meditation and Mindfulness Student Club of Amherst College

    This day-long retreat is for both new and experienced meditators.  Participants learn powerful meditations from Tibetan Buddhism that help bring out latent powers of loving compassion and wisdom from the ground of our being.  Such meditations, adapted for people of all faiths and backgrounds, can make us more fully present to self and others by awakening an unconditional attitude from within that nourishes all, while challenging us to see more potential in all.  When this unity of compassion and wisdom is embodied in relationships and action, it can become a great force to heal our lives and our world.  The ancient bodhisattva way of awakening can be rediscovered here and now in the particulars of family, work and service.  Guided meditations, questions and discussion.  email Mark Hart harts@crocker.com to register.  The event is free and open to the public.

    John Makransky is Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, senior advisor to Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s Centre of Buddhist Studies in Nepal, and co-founder of the Foundation for Active Compassion.  In 2000, John was ordained a Tibetan Buddhist lama in the lineage of Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche.  He is the guiding meditation teacher of the Foundation for Active Compassion, a socially engaged Buddhist organization that trains social servants of all faiths (social workers, therapists, healthcare givers, teachers, social activists, etc.) in meditations of innate compassion and wisdom adapted from Tibet.  He is on the board of directors of the Buddhist-Christian Studies Society, founding co-chair of the Buddhist Critical Reflection Group in the American Academy of Religion, and author of Awakening through Love. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    About the teacher
    Mark Hart has practiced Insight Meditation since 1981, studying primarily at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA.  Since 2000 has also studied with teachers of non-dual awareness, including Adyashanti, and has incorporated that into his teaching.  He is guiding teacher of the Bodhisara Dharma Community  in Amherst, Massachusetts, on the teacher’s council at Insight Pioneer Valley in Easthampton, and adjunct religious advisor to Buddhist students at Amherst College. He holds a Ph.D in theology from Boston College, an MA in Counseling from Seattle University, and has a private practice of psychotherapy in Amherst.

     

     

     

     

    Directions to the Cadigan Center for Religious Studies, Amherst College

    For those of you who'd like to mapquest, the address is 38 Woodside Avenue, Amherst.  The Cadigan Center is not on the main part of the campus but west of Route 116/South Pleasant Street by one block.  Starting from the traffic light at the intersection of Route 9 and South Pleasant street by the Amherst Common, go west on Route 9 (toward Hadley and Northampton) and take the first left.  Go down to the end of the block and the Cadigan Center is on your left just before you come to the intersection with Walnut Street.  Coming from Hadley on Route 9 go past the Amherst College fields coming up the hill toward the common.  Woodside is the right turn after Orchard St. and the last right before the traffic light.

    There is no parking on Woodside until you drive past the intersection with Walnut street.  So don't park on the street in front of Cadigan. Keep going to park on the street. You may park at the Cadigan Center off the street, either in the circular driveway or on the side. Parking will take a little getting used to but there is plenty.  It is also a brief walk from downtown.

     

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