A six-week exploration of Buddhist psychology
Starts Thursday 12th September 2024, 7.30pm – 9.30pm
Led by Vajrashura
Long before the discoveries of contemporary neuroscience and psychology, the Buddha gained insight into the nature of mind. In early Buddhism this profound insight informed the Abhidharma – a ‘training manual’ to help us understand and transform our own minds.
The Abhidharma helps us come to a deeper appreciation of how mental states arise, and how to distinguish between skillful mental states and their opposites. In this way, we are given the means to live a happier and more fruitful life, and ultimately a pathway to liberation from all suffering.
And most importantly, we are given a language with which to talk about, notice and analyse the mental states we get into during our day. We are also offered a glimpse of how the Enlightened mind of a Buddha works – the mind in its ultimate harmony.
Over the six weeks we will cover:
- Introductions and the Art of Mind-Watching
- What is the mind?
- How do we watch it?
- The Constants of Experience
- What does the mind do in any moment?
- Contentment, Goodwill, and Compassion
- And their negative counterparts
- Confidence and faith in possibilities
- What we do when we fall short of our ideals
- Energy, Serenity, and Equanimity
- And their negative counterparts
- Mindfulness and the Psychology of Awakening
- How does the Enlightened mind work?
This course is for anyone who already has an existing meditation practice but wants to engage with a deeper understanding of Buddhist psychology.
Ideal for anyone who has done a Meditation Essentials or Foundation of Buddhist Practice course with us.
Vajrashura started practicing yoga and learnt to meditate while in university doing a Masters in High Performance Computing. He firstly did these through university societies, and then in the Dublin Buddhist Centre. He has worked as part of the Centre Team since 2002 and in 2007 he joined the Triratna Buddhist Order.
Since ordination, he’s been one of the DBC’s main teachers, leading many courses, retreats, and events each year, and is concerned with helping people go more deeply into meditation and Buddhism. He also is helping coordinate the new retreat centre project and looks after the DBC finances.
When
Six-weeks starting Thursday 12th September 2024 from 7.30pm – 9.30pm.
Where
Dublin Buddhist Centre
Unit 5, Liberty Corner
James Joyce Street
Dublin, D01 N5H6
Cost
We do tiered pricing, depending on the circumstances.
€150 waged
€120 low waged
€90 unwaged
€75 for under-25s