Body, Heart, Mind, Awake – Online Retreat with Tejananda
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An online, weekend retreat for Oceania timezones, exploring awareness and meditation. Led by experienced Buddhist practitioner, Tejananda.
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Mind is usually taken to mean all kinds of mental activity, but what we’re interested in here is ‘mind itself’ – the awake, aware quality of mind.
Awakeness is here even when we feel sleepy and dull. How do we know that we’re sleepy and dull? We are awake to it. We’re even awake to our dreams, despite the body being asleep.
This quality of wakefulness, knowingness or clarity is intrinsic to all of our experience and yet it is mysteriously ungraspable and unfindable. To know it, we need to 'learn', experientially, what Zen Master Dogen was pointing to when he spoke of ‘taking the backward step’.
This is essentially a step ‘back’, from identification with our everyday mind of thoughts and imaginings, initially into the immediacy and presence of our body senses, just as they are.
Our body is not what we think it is – not at all! When we discover the backward step, 'body' is not the rather solid, rather weighty object we imagine it is. It’s more an unbounded, living, vibrating cloud of sensate energy.
This also opens the heart to rest in its own nature – limitless and boundless. Here, the stream of love and compassion which is already implicitly active becomes boundless and all-inclusive. Body, heart and mind are naturally and undividedly awake.
~~~
Online in Zoom
Suitable for those with at least 3 years of regular meditation experience
Booking Essential: $180 Waged / $100 Concession
Please note: This event will be recorded and may be published online for others to access. Only the leader’s video will be used except where users consent to appear spotlighted in a public conversation. Private conversations in breakout rooms will not be recorded.
~~~
Session Times
First daily session (1.5hrs): Australia AEDT 07:00 | New Zealand NZDT 09:00 | UK BST 21:00
Second daily session: TBC
Third daily session (2hr): Australia AEDT 19:30 | New Zealand NZDT 21:30 | UK BST 09:30
Attend any or all sessions in Zoom.
The retreat will start on Friday 16 October with the evening session for Australasia, and will finish with the evening session on Sunday 18 October Australasia time.
~~~
About Tejananda
Tejananda has been practising meditation and dharma since the mid-70s. He was ordained by Sangharakshita in 1980 after which he participated in the setting-up of the FWBO Bristol centre and was centre chair for six years. After several years working for the Karuna Trust in Oxford, he joined the team at Vajraloka in 1995. His book, ’The Buddhist Path to Awakening’ was published by Windhorse around that time.
Since then he has been leading and supporting retreats at Vajraloka and at other retreat centres in the UK and worldwide. Tejananda’s website www.tejananda.net lists all of his forthcoming retreats, including online retreats for the Buddhist Centre Online and ones that he is running himself.
~~~
Event page on MBC Website:
https://melbournebuddhistcentre.org.au/retreats/body-heart-mind-awake--online-retreat-with-tejananda
[Photo by Ana Paula Grimaldi on Unsplash]
~~~
Mind is usually taken to mean all kinds of mental activity, but what we’re interested in here is ‘mind itself’ – the awake, aware quality of mind.
Awakeness is here even when we feel sleepy and dull. How do we know that we’re sleepy and dull? We are awake to it. We’re even awake to our dreams, despite the body being asleep.
This quality of wakefulness, knowingness or clarity is intrinsic to all of our experience and yet it is mysteriously ungraspable and unfindable. To know it, we need to 'learn', experientially, what Zen Master Dogen was pointing to when he spoke of ‘taking the backward step’.
This is essentially a step ‘back’, from identification with our everyday mind of thoughts and imaginings, initially into the immediacy and presence of our body senses, just as they are.
Our body is not what we think it is – not at all! When we discover the backward step, 'body' is not the rather solid, rather weighty object we imagine it is. It’s more an unbounded, living, vibrating cloud of sensate energy.
This also opens the heart to rest in its own nature – limitless and boundless. Here, the stream of love and compassion which is already implicitly active becomes boundless and all-inclusive. Body, heart and mind are naturally and undividedly awake.
~~~
Online in Zoom
Suitable for those with at least 3 years of regular meditation experience
Booking Essential: $180 Waged / $100 Concession
Please note: This event will be recorded and may be published online for others to access. Only the leader’s video will be used except where users consent to appear spotlighted in a public conversation. Private conversations in breakout rooms will not be recorded.
~~~
Session Times
First daily session (1.5hrs): Australia AEDT 07:00 | New Zealand NZDT 09:00 | UK BST 21:00
Second daily session: TBC
Third daily session (2hr): Australia AEDT 19:30 | New Zealand NZDT 21:30 | UK BST 09:30
Attend any or all sessions in Zoom.
The retreat will start on Friday 16 October with the evening session for Australasia, and will finish with the evening session on Sunday 18 October Australasia time.
~~~
About Tejananda
Tejananda has been practising meditation and dharma since the mid-70s. He was ordained by Sangharakshita in 1980 after which he participated in the setting-up of the FWBO Bristol centre and was centre chair for six years. After several years working for the Karuna Trust in Oxford, he joined the team at Vajraloka in 1995. His book, ’The Buddhist Path to Awakening’ was published by Windhorse around that time.
Since then he has been leading and supporting retreats at Vajraloka and at other retreat centres in the UK and worldwide. Tejananda’s website www.tejananda.net lists all of his forthcoming retreats, including online retreats for the Buddhist Centre Online and ones that he is running himself.
~~~
Event page on MBC Website:
https://melbournebuddhistcentre.org.au/retreats/body-heart-mind-awake--online-retreat-with-tejananda
[Photo by Ana Paula Grimaldi on Unsplash]
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Where is it happening?
23 David St, Brunswick, VIC, Australia, Victoria 3056
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherMelbourne Buddhist Centre
