Meditation for Beginners

Meditation is a skill anyone can learn. This 9-week introductory course is designed to give you clear, practical tools to begin meditating with confidence, even if you’ve never tried it before. Learn the basics, build confidence, and take your first steps into meditation.

A 9-week meditation course designed for complete beginners and those who wish to revitalize or deepen their meditation practice. Starting with the very basics of how and where to sit, progressing through non-analytical, stabilising meditations, and to a variety of analytical meditations. The course will look at both the benefits and practicalities of building our own practice at home and explore some of the problems we might encounter.

The analytical meditations will cover a variety of Lam Rim topics, Mindfulness of Death, Loving Kindness, Impermanence, Emptiness and meditations on the Clarity and Continuity of mind. The course will also look at several non-analytical stabilising meditations, including walking meditations, and introduce visualisation meditation techniques.

The course is designed to build week by week, though every attempt has been made to make each week as self-contained as possible. All are very welcome to attend either on a regular or on an ad hoc basis. Each week, handouts of some of the main points and practices will be distributed.

When: Wednesdays, 6:30 - 8:00 pm

Dates: March 4th – April 29th

Format: In-person

Suggested donation: £15 per class

David was initially trained as an accountant and computer programmer and later as a professional gardener. He has practised meditation from an early age but was first taught specifically Buddhist Mahayana meditations during the residential 10-day introduction course at the FPMT’s Tushita Meditation Centre in 1996. Since then, he has studied the FPMT’s Discovering Buddhism course and is a graduate of Geshe Tashi’s Foundations of Buddhist Thought. He regularly co-led the Monday night Meditation and Relaxation at Jamyang from 2002 to 2007 and has helped lead several modules of other courses offered at Jamyang through 2019. Ex-Trustee and Treasurer of Jamyang and sometime Jamyang gardener, David’s relaxed style aims to encourage everybody to share his fascination and enthusiasm for the gentle practice of meditation.

All levels welcome! Whether you consider yourself a meditator, a practising Buddhist or somebody who is just interested, this course will convey essentially practical advice on how to gently understand your own mind and, in doing so, claim your own small piece of calm.

Register below or simply turn up on the day! We recommend registering if you can, as this helps the organiser plan effectively. Your donation supports the centre and helps us stay open and affordable for all. If you need a concession on the price shown below, please come along on the day; no one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

Jamyang is a non-profit charitable organisation that relies on the kindness of our donors, including students and community members. The donations, or Dana, given when registering for events and teachings support the Centre’s operations, allowing us to deliver our activities.

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