Manchester Buddhist Centre

Sunday 9th May 10.00am to 5.00pm and Sunday 16th May 10.00am to 5.00pm

Dona­tions welcome

Mahas­raddha and Sharon Glasby

Two con­sec­ut­ive Sundays of Dharma study and explor­a­tion with Mahas­raddha and Sharon Glasby

Facing our difficulties

Sangharak­shita once said that the spir­itual life was the most dif­fi­cult thing you can do with your life. If the spir­itual life means mak­ing the effort to develop ever more pos­it­ive, eth­ical states of mind on the basis of a grow­ing wis­dom and through per­sist­ent and con­sist­ent prac­tice, then inev­it­ably dif­fi­culties will be encountered

Our response to such dif­fi­culties will determ­ine the out­come of our spir­itual lives. No mat­ter how sin­cere our desire to prac­tice the Dharma, res­ist­ances can over­whelm us. Neg­at­ive emo­tions are more power­ful than pos­it­ive; habits are strong and deeply rooted, as are cher­ished views, all of which can eas­ily smother our efforts – at least tem­por­ar­ily — to practise.

We need to pro­tect the pur­ity of the Dharma as a teach­ing and as a liv­ing prac­tice in our every­day lives.

We will explore how we can pro­tect the Dharma and its prac­tice in our own every­day minds by high­light­ing the com­mon threats that can under­mine our inten­tions. Par­ti­cipants will leave the days with a greater clar­ity of Dharma prac­tice in gen­eral and more effect­ive Dharma prac­tice in their every­day lives

Pro­gramme

• Day 1 - a talk by Mahas­raddha on the theme of Pro­tect­ing the Dharma fol­lowed by guided med­it­a­tions explor­ing the theme in prac­tice. There will also be an oppor­tun­ity to explore spe­cific themes of your own prac­tice in groups. A prac­tice diary dis­trib­uted on the day will help par­ti­cipants focus on spe­cific aspects of their prac­tice through the week, and to mon­itor progress.

  The day will con­clude with a puja ded­ic­ated to Vajrasat­tva, the Bod­hisat­tva asso­ci­ated with puri­fic­a­tion of the mind, and who we will call upon to pro­tect us in our efforts to prac­tise the Dharma in the com­ing week.

• Day 2 — par­ti­cipants will review their prac­tice through the pre­vi­ous week using entries in their prac­tice diary. There will also be talk from Mahas­raddha on how our views influ­ence our atti­tude to prac­tice, and the import­ance of devel­op­ing the altru­istic dimen­sion within our lives. There will be a ses­sion on the next steps, provid­ing guid­ance on how to main­tain prac­tice after the event.

Sangharak­shita says:

“In these days of indi­vidu­al­ism and mater­i­al­ism the Dharma really is in need of pro­tec­tion and your event is there­fore to be wel­comed. The event cer­tainly has my blessing”

This is a dana (dona­tion) event

Please give what you can to sup­port the Centre with the cost of this event

Any­one who has atten­ded Buddhism intro­duct­ory course

Book­ing required

20

Lotus hall

Tak­ing it fur­ther, Sangha, Week­end Event