Sangha Night

Sangha Nights in February and March 2024

Knowing Imagination as Imagination

During February and March Prasadachitta will explore the Buddha's teachings on cultivating a clear mind. Our focus will be on understanding cognition as emphasized in the instruction to Bahiya: "In the seen, there is only the seen, in the heard there is only the heard, in the sensed, there is only the sensed, in the cognized, there is only the cognized".  Cognition, in its broadest sense, involves the mental processes of acquiring and comprehending knowledge.
 

Sangha Nights in January 2024

WEDNESDAYS 7PM TO 9PM IN PERSON AND ON ZOOM

Our theme for 2024 is Waking up to Imagination.

Imagination can bring us closer to awakening, or distract and keep us trapped in conditional views and beliefs. How do we tell the difference? This year we will look at teachings through the ages, from the Pali Canon to the modern day, that help us distinguish between imagination that opens the heart and mind and imagination that perpetuates delusion.

Sangha Nights in October

Wednesdays 7pm to 9pm in person and on zoom

During the month of October, we will explore the meaning of lineage within the context of spiritual friendship. The Buddha said "spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life". The Buddha also said "be an island unto yourself, be your own refuge, having no other". How do we make sense of these seemingly contradictory teachings? Please join us to find out more. 

Sangha Nights in September

Continuing our 2023 theme: Pathways to Awakening, this month we will share stories of some of the archetypal, mythological, beautiful and scary beings we are likely to encounter on the path, and see what they have to teach us about staying present and waking up.

Sep 6:   Embracing our demons (and allies): the Buddha's journey, with Padmatara

Sep 13:  Milarepa's story, with Viradhamma

Sangha Nights in August

Wednesdays 7pm to 9pm

Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar. Pathmaker, there is no path, the path is made by walking. (Antonio Machado)

Continuing our 2023 theme: Pathways to Awakening, this month various Sangha Members will share what they have learned on the paths they have created by "walking" (poetically speaking). Prasadachitta will hold the space and contribute his own reflections. 

Aug 2:  Abhayamoksha has just returned from a three-month ordination retreat in Spain. Let's welcome him back and hear about his journey. 

Sangha Nights in July

Wednesdays 7pm to 9pm

Are you ready to embark on the journey of embracing the groundlessness of life?  Are you ready to consider falling in love with the ever-shifting, never-certain reality of our situation? (Pema Chodron)

Commitment is primary, lifestyle secondary. (Sangharakshita)

Sangha Nights in June

Wednesdays 7pm to 9pm

June is Buddhist Action Month. Continuing our 2023 Pathways to Awakening theme we will look at ways that Buddhist wisdom can prepare and guide us to take action on issues that are important to us, while staying true to our values and intentions. Through cultivating wise compassion towards ourselves and others, and increasing our awareness of the impact of our actions, perhaps we can participate more fully in the world, becoming more resilient, without losing sensitivity and responsiveness.