Introduction to Buddhism

● The orientation is practical, yet grounded within the context of the Buddhist path. The learning in this course will be closely connected to practice and to everyday life, rather than remaining a purely intellectual reflection. Study in the Buddhist tradition is aimed at developing a deep understanding of ourselves and of how we can move through the world from a place of greater freedom. The Buddha was a great philosopher, but also a pragmatist and a healer—he came to teach how freedom can be found within human existence, which inevitably includes receiving what we do not want, not receiving what we do want, and living with aging, loss, illness, and death. ● What will happen in the course? We will practice seated meditation (for periods that gradually lengthen), and explore the following themes throughout the sessions: ● What is meditation? What is mindfulness? How do we practice and cultivate the capacity for mindful awareness? Becoming familiar with bodily sensations and the breath. Pausing and resting in the here and now. ● Mindfulness of breathing: How to befriend the breath, soften patterns of control, and learn through attentive awareness of breathing. ● Mindfulness of bodily sensations: How to listen to the body and its various sensations. How to recognize and allow sensations to be as they are, without trying to change them. Acceptance as a condition for awareness and a possible ground for transformation. Along the way, we will become familiar with the power of our mental and emotional habits, and discover how mindfulness can be beneficial and rewarding—even when it is difficult to sustain over time. ● Non-interfering awareness: Through attending to bodily sensations, we will learn to identify pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral experiences, and notice the conditioned tendencies to react and try to change every experience according to how it is perceived by our senses. Through the body, we will learn to pause our reactions and cultivate a new relations