The Meditator's Toolkit: A 4-week course with Mark Ovland

Meditation sounds simple. Watch the breath. Hold a friend in kindness. Let everything come and go. Feel your toes. Whatever the instruction we're trying to follow though, the reality is often a lot more complex and challenging. What do we do when we're faced with some obstacle? When we start nodding off, or a difficult emotion takes over? When we have a head full of thoughts, or just feel a bit blank or lost? When we feel like we're hitting a wall?

Whether we're looking to deepen our practice, get out of a rut, or simply find a little more satisfaction from our meditation, there are some key skills and understandings that can help us to navigate the inner experience, and on this course we will take a short tour through some of the most useful. Amongst other tips and tricks, we'll learn how to helpfully employ the breath in different situations; we'll look at alternative modes for paying attention, in case a quick switch-up might be what's needed to reinvigorate the practice; we'll experiment with a few ways to skilfully and gently work with physical and emotional pain; and also learn what to do when we're feeling tired or restless and just want to stop. There'll be inquiries into effort levels and feeling tones, and explorations into concepts like the energy body and the push-and-pull dynamic.
Each of the sessions will include a short talk, a guided meditation, and plenty of time for questions and discussion. This is not an introductory course, though beginners are more than welcome and it might prove an interesting way to start!

Mark Ovland

Mark began practising meditation in 2008 and spent a number of years living and working in retreat centres and monasteries around the UK and Asia. Wishing to make the deeply liberating teachings he’d picked up more widely accessible to those in need, in 2013 he co-founded Freely Given Retreats, and soon afterwards pioneered taking mindfulness courses into UK prisons. In more recent years Mark has been especially engaged with environmental and social justice issues and the question of how the wisdom of the Dharma can serve society more widely. He was a close student of Rob Burbea and is a director of the Hermes Amāra Foundation, an organisation set up to preserve Rob’s teaching legacy.

Venue:

Bristol Central Quaker Meeting House, Champion Square, Bristol, BS2 9DB

Dates and times:

The sessions will run from 7pm to 8.45pm on the dates listed below. You're invited to arrive 5 minutes early if you're able, so we can start as close to 7pm as possible.

Monday 6th May

Monday 13th May

Monday 20th May

Monday 27th May

Chairs and mats will be provided, along with a limited number of cushions. You are very welcome to bring along anything else that will make you comfortable.

Room hire and dana:

The fee of £16 (or £8 for anyone on low income), will cover just the cost of the room hire.

The teachings themselves will be offered freely by Mark, in line with the 2,500-year-old Buddhist tradition of 'dana', or generosity. If you are able to support Mark in his livelihood by offering him a donation, that would be greatly appreciated. There will be an opportunity to do this during the course.

No one will be turned away due to costs, so if you are undergoing financial hardship do please select a 'Freely Given Ticket' and know that you'd be very welcome to attend.

Host or Publisher Bristol Insight Meditation