Going Deeper in Meditation Course

Wed 24 Feb – 31 Mar 

Led by Simhanada with Sally Rawlings & Peter Andresen.

Cost £60 (£40 conc).  Booking required.

You've learned the Mindfulness of Breathing. You've started to get the 

hang of the Metta Bhavana. Maybe you've also had a shot at Just 

Sitting. You're beginning to realise the astonishing benefits that 

meditation practice can bring, and you want to take it further. You 

want to go deeper. This course is for you.

So what does it cover? Pretty much what you'd expect to find on a post-

introductory/intermediate meditation course. Knowledge which you will 

acquire includes a critical appreciation of Sangharakshita's System of 

Meditation, and its place within the broad Buddhist tradition, as well 

as links and distinctions between samatha (tranquility) and vipasyana 

(insight) practice, and how these are addressed within an integrated 

and progressive approach to meditation practice. You'll also get a 

critical guide to some key texts, ancient and modern. Skills which you 

will develop include a meditator's toolkit: a range of direct, 

practical, tried and tested methods which will enable you to recognise 

and overcome the classic mental hindrances and to cultivate and work 

with meditative absorption (dhyana) and lay a foundation for the 

development of insight. We will also consider some classical Buddhist 

teachings, such as the sila > samadhi > prajna (ethics > meditation > 

wisdom) progression, which will help you to locate and integrate your 

meditation practice within your broader life and practice. 

Inspiration, how to get inspired and stay inspired will also be 

covered. As will be recovering your inspiration when the whole thing 

goes pear-shaped. Which happens, but it's temporary.

So far, so orthodox. What is a bit different about this course, 

however, is that the approach is explicitly dialectical. Oo-er, sounds 

a bit philosophical. Sure is, but you won't let that put you off: 

you're becoming interested in Buddhism, you're tougher than you look, 

and you're not that easily deflected. Truth is, the Buddha invented 

dialectical analysis, and The Middle Way itself is one of the clearest 

expressions of dialectical method - although you might not have been 

taught or thought about it in such terms until now. Dialectics, and 

therefore The Middle Way, is about how to find and follow the tricky 

upward path which lies between opposite extremes - what the Buddha 

called the practice of "the Dharma by the middle". It applies with 

particular force to navigating the path of meditation, where we are 

constantly seeking a balance and a way forward between opposing 

forces; for example, between willed effort (without becoming too 

wilful and expectant) and open-ness (without just getting fuzzy and 

lost). A key dynamic in meditation is the creative balance between 

form and emptiness, and we will be taking a close look at exactly what 

The Heart Sutra might mean when it urges us to comprehend that "form 

is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form". The 

discourse on meditation is full of commentary on "balanced effort", 

but this course will take you beyond commentary into an insightful 

understanding of how the key dialectics in meditation work, how to 

work with them, and how to make them work for you.

All this hopefully fascinating stuff will be addressed in a seminar 

format, with plenty of opportunity for questioning and discussion. We 

will work in groups of various sizes, to maximise participation and 

learning. It is very helpful to review your meditation with others, 

especially people at a broadly similar level of experience, so we've 

built that in. And you also need some people out front who have some 

idea of what they're they're on about, so I am delighted to be sharing 

the delivery of this course with the two excellent and experienced 

friends: Sally Rawlings and Peter Andresen.

This should be enough to give you a flavour of what this course is 

about. If you have any questions, or want to know more, by all means 

email me at simhanada@simhanada.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

Simhanada