Due to me getting Covid, and getting over it, this event has been RESCHEDULED for the coming weekend, 3-5 November.
Register here for...
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAucemvrTMoG9SRamqfExXfi5TngP7L7KYv
The Qualities of Karuņā and Anukampā
An online Weekend Meditation Retreat with Kamalashila
3 - 5 November
For all with three years’ experience of meditation - Order members very welcome.
No charge. Dana Requested
Starts 8pm Friday 27th October, continues with meditation / teaching sessions through Saturday & Sunday 10-1pm, 4-6pm, 8-9pm. Ends 9pm Sunday 29th October
This retreat is in the Brahmaviharas Series geared towards practitioners on the Weekly Classes, but all are welcome. This weekend the plan is to look more deeply into the nature of Karuna, the second of the four Brahmaviharas.
Both Karuna and Anukampa can be translated as compassion, which means the desire to remove suffering. Anukampa means 'vibrating with’ and shows how compassion can feel.
Karuna is a highly positive, dharma based, response to suffering. Dealing with suffering is a tricky area that presents all kinds of pitfalls. For example, how much can we commiserate with another person’s suffering without being drawn into it? If we pity someone, that’s to be expected. Is it compassion? No. For Buddhism, compassion is actually wanting to remove the suffering. And what exactly is meant by suffering? There are the sufferings of fortune, and the sufferings of our habitual reactive mind states. These are two quite different things. We can’t do much about the first; the second is one of the main things we work on as practitioners. We might feel sorry for someone whose life has taken a difficult turn, but how do we feel about the way they react emotionally to that?
There’s a lot to clarify here, so my idea is to have a study component on this retreat as well as meditation.
We will be studying the Introduction to Bhikkhu Analayo’s Compassion and Emptiness, Windhorse Publications. Do support them, but time is short if you want to read in advance, so here is a free (and legal) pdf version you can read on a computer (Analayo’s works are often also available in the public domain): https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/compassionemptiness.pdf
see you there!
x
Kamalashila
programme
First evening 8pm Friday: Talk from Kamalashila, compassion meditation and dedication ritual
Saturday and Sunday:
Morning
10am study to 11:00.
11:15am Meditation to 12:00pm
12:15pm Meditation to 1pm
Afternoon
4:00pm study to 5pm
5:15 Meditation
Evening
8:00pm Discussion, Meditation, Ritual