Greetings from Bodhi College
A warm welcome to 2022 to all our Sangha.
After another turbulent few months, with the pandemic in full flow, we wish you peace, safety and health for the new year that is upon us.
The past two years have shown, more than ever, how essential human companionship is for us, and this is true also of our practice & study of the dharma. This year, we are pleased to release new group mentoring programmes and bi-monthly online gatherings to fulfil this need for support and companionship and provide sangha for you wherever you are in the world.
We also have a full programme of in-person retreats and courses, hosted at hand-picked meditation centres around Europe so we can sit alongside each other, eat meals together and feel the deep sense of settling together in peaceful surroundings.
This month, College Director, Signe will host a live chat on Facebook to describe some of our new, and popular course offerings for the year. You'll have the chance to ask any questions about our courses or the college, and hear about the intentions behind our offerings. The link to the Facebook event is here, so do put it in your diary.
Below, our teachers share some of their intentions for the coming year. Whatever yours are, we would love to practice alongside you.
With warmest wishes from all of us,
Bodhi College
Upcoming courses
The Big Picture
With Yuka Nakamura & Jaya Rudgard
24 - 30 March 2022
Residential retreat at the Kairos Centre, London, UK
Six-day retreat drawing on key Buddhist teachings to explore how our present-moment experience is constructed.
These teachings include the Buddha’s outline of the ‘five aggregates’ (khandhas) which are often used as his answer to the question ‘what is a person’? This is the sum of our own unique experiences and characteristics – which are usefully broken down into five different nominal categories, or khandhas.
We’ll also explore the framework of ‘dependent arising’ (paṭicca samuppāda), where the Buddha describes the process of becoming and how we are born with certain drives. As well as look at the ways the Buddha suggests we can learn to notice, challenge and change our own ingrained patterns of thinking and reacting - freeing ourselves from their limiting grasp.
Cost: £660 + teacher dana.
Includes accommodation and all meals.
Open to people teaching mindfulness based approaches or in training to do so, as well as those with previous experience of silent meditation retreats.
* This retreat satisfies the BAMBA criteria for Mindfulness Teachers' annual retreat *
All Covid-19 safety protocols followed. To see our cancellation policy go here
Samsara - or How to Stop Going Round in Circles
With Stephen Batchelor, Yuka Nakamura, Andy Rotman & Akincano Weber
Online study programme, 3 - 24 March
Taking place on four consecutive Thursday evenings at 7pm - 9pm CET
'Samsara’ is a key concept in Indian and Buddhist thought, which broadly means ‘going round in circles’. This rich and evocative idea can be understood cosmologically — as a beginningless cycle of birth, death and rebirth over aeons; psychologically — as repetitive patterns of neurotic thought and behaviour that prevent one from flourishing; and spiritually — as the opposite pole to the liberation, peace and enlightenment of nirvana.
Over four weeks we will explore the meaning and implications of Samsara from these and other perspectives, through talks, dialogues, breakout groups, open discussions and periods of silent reflection.
How does this concept still speak to us today?
How can we skillfully apply it to understand our own situation in life?
Cost: £99
Open to all - new & experienced practitioners alike
Facebook live with Signe Glahn, the College Director
25 January at 7pm GMT
Like the look of the 2022 courses but not sure which to choose?
Have questions about the content, teachers or cancellation policy?
Signe will go through Bodhi College's new offerings for 2022 via live link on our Facebook page on 25 January.
We'd love to have your questions or queries so she can make the chat as useful as possible. Please do let us know by replying to this email if there's anything you'd like to ask (can be anonymous if you'd like).
Uposatha Sangha bi-monthly community sessions - join at any time
A reminder that our Uposatha Sangha online gathering is open to people throughout the year to join. It's a bi-monthly opportunity to come together and support each other in our practice and path, at the new and full moon every month.
☪ Online, twice a month at 7 - 7.30pm GMT
☪ Led by Jaya Rudgard, Yuka Nakamura & Chris Cullen
Feedback from our courses
It's all Practice: How it felt to return to the meditation hall
"Time is passing - so we had better keep on our practice journey" — Lisa Welchman
In December 2021, we opened up the doors to our Committed Practitioners Programme. Back in person, after being delayed for a year, 32 people came together at the serene ICT Naarden retreat centre in the Netherlands. Here, Lisa shares her experience of returning to the meditation hall.
"In ordinary times, if ordinary times actually exist, being together with other like-minded people to sit and warm your hands over the dharma comes with challenges and joys."
"The first meeting of the 2021-2023 Bodhi College Committed Practitioner's cohort was no different..."
Praise for 'Seven Factors of Awakening'
(Distance learning course in collaboration with Tricycle: The Buddhist Review)
"This is the best course on Buddhism I have done. Excellent content but above all Christina and Jaya were inspirational. The way they explained ideas and related them to everyday life was wonderful. I am going through the course again. Thank you to you both."
— Course participant, 2021
"The material was presented in a very practical, easily comprehensible and friendly way highlighting the most important points. The guided meditations, discussion questions, inquiries and Q&A supported the content and made it come alive on a personal level."
— Course participant, 2021
This course is still open for enrollment and you can go at your own pace and keep all the resources - take a look here
Looking ahead - intentions for 2022
Our teachers' words and intentions for the coming year
Share your intention for 2022 on our Facebook page
