Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Ritual and Devotion, A Course In Six-Weeks (Vajrapriya)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 22:12

Exploring the psychology and meaning of Buddhist ritual through the ‘Sevenfold Puja’

A six-week course exploring Buddhist ritual. Provided by Vajrapriya, Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK. Module 5 of Vajrapriya’s Buddhism Two Course in six modules.

Download this overview here

Overview

  1. Who/what do Buddhists worship? Commitment to a path of personal development.
     
  2. The practice of openness, disclosure and confession.
     
  3. The importance of developing positive emotion.
     
  4. Receptivity: turning towards what is deepest in ourselves and the universe.
     
  5. The ‘Awakening Heart’
  6. ...
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Mahayana Buddhism, A Six-Week Course (Achala)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 21:36

Here you can download handouts for a six-week course introducing the various schools of Mahayana Buddhism. The handouts were provided by Achala from New Zealand. Please note that Achala says they all need further improvement! 

This is what Achala said about his intentions when designing this course:

I tried to construct a course such that it:

  • covers what an average human being needs to effectively practice Buddhism.
     
  • doesn’t not have a scholastic bent (so a few Pali/Sanskrit terms seemed reasonable but not so many as
...
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Gurus of the Past from the Triratna Refuge Tree - A Six-Week Course (Achala)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 21:14

Here you can download Achala’s notes for a six-week course on exemplary practitioners and teachers of the Dharma-selected teachers from the Triratna Refuge Tree.

This is what Achala said about his intentions when designing this course:

I tried to construct a course such that it:

  • covers what an average human being needs to effectively practice Buddhism.
     
  • doesn’t not have a scholastic bent (so a few Pali/Sanskrit terms seemed reasonable but not so many as to give the impression that the courses are oriented towards bookish
...
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Buddhist Ethics, A Six-Week Course (Vajrapriya)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 20:50

Seeing the implications of our behaviour for ourselves and others. 

A six-week course exploring Buddhist Ethics. Provided by Vajrapriya, Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK. This is the fourth module of Vajrapriya’s Level Two Buddhism Course in six modules.

Download this overview here

Overview

  • Ethics as individual choice
  • Love – the golden rule
  • Generosity – respecting and contributing
  • Contentment – weakening the neurotic drives
  • Honesty – being true about ourselves
  • Awareness – the working edge for any growth

Week 1: Ethics As Individual Choice

a) Attitudes when trying to communicate ethics

b) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes for module
  • Exercise: Why practise ethics?
  • Sources of ethical judgment
  • The workings of karma
  • Intention
  • ...
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: The Noble Eightfold Path, An Eight-Week Course (Suriyavamsa)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 20:19

Here are Suriyavamsa’s notes/handouts for his 8-week course on the Noble Eightfold Path at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre.

1. Introduction to the course and the 4 Noble Truths

2. Perfect Vision

3. Perfect Emotion

4. The path of ethics – Perfect Speech, Action and Livelihood

5. Meditation 1 – Perfect Effort

6. Meditation 2 – Perfect Mindfulness

7. Meditation 3 – Perfect Samadhi

8. Summing up and checking out

9. Day retreat

Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Buddhist Wisdom, A Six-Week Course On Symbolic Dharma (Vajrapriya)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 11:29

Download this overview of the course

The resources include:

  • Notes for the course leader (including learning objectives, guide lines for input and exercises, background information, suggestions for home practice)
  • Exercises, and handouts
  • Overview of the course
  • An overview of the whole of life’s dynamics in symbolic form.
  • The wheel of life – knowing our realm
  • The wheel of life – karma and rebirth
  • The wheel of life – the chain of conditioning, “staying in the gap”
  • The spiral path – to Insight and beyond
  • The mandala of the five Buddhas – Akshobya and Amitabha
  • The mandala of
  • ...
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Buddhist Wisdom, A Six-Week Course On Doctrinal Dharma (Vajrapriya)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 01:54

Download this overview of the course

Some core ideas to gain a new perspective on our lives.

  • Views – wrong view, right view, perfect view; qualities of Dharma
  • Conditionality – conditioned co-production as the middle way
  • Facets of conditionality – impermanence, compoundedness, interconnectedness
  • Four Noble Truths
  • Orders of conditionality – reactive and creative; karmic and non-karmic conditionality
  • Wisdom and compassion – altruistic dimension of Buddhism, Bodhisattva ideal
  • Exploring the Wheel of Life, the Spiral Path, and the Mandala of the Five Buddhas.

Week 1: Four Noble Truths
a) Notes for the teacher, including...

Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Approaching the Buddha, A Six-Week Course (Achala)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 01:19

Here you can download notes for six talks/guided discussions introducing the Buddha, provided by Achala from Wellington, New Zealand.

  1. Approaching the Buddha: His youth; the ‘Four Sights’ and the Going Forth; Enlightenment and the Nature of the Buddha; faith in the Buddha.
     
  2. The Buddha’s Victories: Leaving the family/group; overcoming complacency and ambition; facing existential fear; being alone; Mara.
     
  3. Stories from the Buddha’s Life: The first teaching; a case of dysentery; Kisagotami; Devadatta; meeting with Bharadvaja; mediating between the Koliyans and
  4. ...
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Buddhism: Aspects of Mindfulness, Approaching Life as Learning (Dhammaloka)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 01:06

Aspects of Mindfulness: Approaching Life as Learning

  • A one-page outline of the three majors aspects of mindfulness: present-moment awareness, clear comprehension, and diligent choice
  • More on the four dimensions of clear comprehension
  • Chinese-English version of the two handouts
Triratna Resources
Triratna Resources

Dharma Teaching - Beginners Meditation: SIx-Week Beginners’ Level 2 Meditation Course (Sagaraghosha)

By Centre Team on Sun, 17 Jul, 2016 - 00:19

This six-week course was provided by Sagaraghosha from the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK.

Week 1:

  • Guide line for the teacher (Outlook over the course; setting up and preparing; ‘useful emotions’; exploring values; general and specific intentions
  • Handout 1 on preparing for meditation
  • Handout 2 (main points from class + meditation diary 1)

Week 2:

  • Guide line for the teacher (review; reviewing metta bhavana; balancing effort; trying this out with mindfulness of breathing)
  • Diary 2: Balancing active and receptive effort

Week 3:

  • Guide line for the teacher (review; focus and broadness)
  • Diary 3: Focus and broadness

Week 4:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Exploring experience’ (positive and negative aspects [hindrances
  • ...

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