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Classes

Heart Wisdom: A Course in Meditation and Life
Tuesday Evenings, 7:30-9:00PM
Jan 20th- March 10th
The Cadigan Center for Religious Life, Amherst College
Suggested Donation: $100

This eight-week series guides the student into the recognition of a deeper place of knowing than that offered by the conceptual mind, what in Buddhist tradition is called “heart-wisdom” or Prajna.  Basic meditation instruction will be given along with instruction of how to “drop down” from the head into the heart, dismantle egoic resistance, and rest in its vast, still, empty and mostly wordless connection.  We will also discuss and explore how action can arise from heart-wisdom rather than egoic desire. Each class includes instruction, practice and discussion. 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.

Joy and Sorrow
Tuesday Evenings, 7:30-9:00PM
March 17th--May 5th
The Cadigan Center for Religious Life, Amherst College
Suggested Donation: $100

In this eight-week class we find explore what it means to “not suffer” and yet to be open to the full range of being human, the fullness of both joy and sorrow. Each class will include 30-40 minutes of meditation as well as teaching and inquiry.

Sundays and Sittings

Dharma Inquiry Group:

2^nd and 4^th Sundays,
Feb 8th- May 24th
7:00- 9:00 p.m., Leverett
Suggested Donation: $100 
Commitment to consistent attendance is required

The inquiry group is for those who wish to explore within a group what is true and what liberates.  Each member takes responsibility for discovering his or her own real questions about the Dharma and sharing that inquiry with the group. We aim to talk about what is most alive and energizing in each person’s practice as well as what is stuck and difficult.  Member may also bring short readings and CDs to play for the group. We are currently reading Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s book, As It Is, vol. 2 for supplementary input.   Members must have an established Buddhist meditation practice for at least a year and 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. Sundays 10:00-11:30 a.m.  The group will be meeting at various venues in Shutesbury, Leverett, and Hadley this winter 2009 while the usual host of the sitting group in Shutesbury is away.  Email Mark at harts@crocker.com or call 259-2145 to be added to the email list for this group if you are planning to come in order to receive information about locations and to receive directions
 

Adyashanti Gathering
First Friday of each month, 7PM

  This group is for all who are interested in the teaching of Adyashanti.  Each gathering includes meditation, a tape or DVD teaching by Adyashanti, and a discussion.  It is held on the first Friday of each month at 7 PM at Woolman Hill in Deerfield. Contact Jensey at jenboyg@hotmail.com or at 413-687-1355 for information and directions.

Satsang and Retreat with Loch Kelly
Talk(Satsang): Friday, March 27, 7:30 PM
Yoga Center Amherst, 17 Kellog Ave. (above Rao’s),
$15 at door

One-Day Retreat: Saturday, March 28, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Mt. Toby Friends Meetinghouse, 194 Long Plain Road (Route 63) in Leverett
$50-80 Registration at www.lochkelly.org

This retreat is an invitation to recognize, realize and return to that which we have always been, this vast, empty awakeness.  Loch draws upon practices from Zen, Advaita, Dzogchen and Mahamudra.  

Community Gatherings


Non-Bodhisara Teachings by Mark Hart

At IMCPV, Eastworks, 116 Pleasant St. Ste. 2310, Easthampton (no pre-registration):

Buddhists have for millennia traditionally “taken refuge” in the Buddha as a way of dedicating themselves to their practice.  This class will explore how to recognize, come to rest in, trust, and live from the awake presence we are—buddho--prior to thought or any separate self-identity.

This retreat will explore the “territory” of awareness and its embodiment in the back of the heart, where its universal and impersonal qualities may be recognized—its vastness, stillness, emptiness, and wordless connection.  Student will learn how this space allows us to drop down out of our thought-constructed perceptions and abide in the non-conceptual without necessarily “concentrating” on an object the way it is usually done in meditation.

About the teacher
Mark Hart has practiced insight meditation for 20 years, primarily studying with teachers from Insight Mediation Society in Barre, MA. He has taught meditation for 14 years and is the founder and guiding teacher of the Bodhisara Dharma Community. He holds a Masters degree in counseling and a PhD. in theology, has a small private practice in psychotherapy in Amherst, and is a lecturer in religious studies at Smith College. His work reflects his experience as a parent, therapist, scholar and one who has lived with chronic illness.

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