Bodhisara Dharma Community

09/02/2025

Join us for our Tuesday night meditation class:
Tuesday evenings, 7-8:30 pm
September 16-November 4
Online through Zoom

Relaxation, restoration, healing, presence, and wisdom come as we shift from doing, controlling, and protecting to simply being, dropping into our bodies and felt experiences. This eight-week course offers practice, teaching, and group support for that shift anytime.

Each class includes 30 minutes of guided meditation followed by teaching and dialogue. Students will gain the most who do a daily practice of meditation during the course.

Register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6H4fSmbk-5PMRfA2onT4L15LgSo78e6S1OU3oR0u0WX40Xg/viewform

03/29/2025

Tenderness

Tuesdays, March 25-May 13
7:00-8:30 pm
online through Zoom
Suggested donation: $100

What is the skill of approaching our world with kindness and letting our hearts be touched by what we encounter? In an eight-week course, we'll explore various aspects of this skill, practicing how to relax the energies that are vigilant and protective, to receive, and to allow the light of love to shine through. Each class will include 30 minutes of guided meditation, a talk, and a period of dialogue about what people are discovering.

Register here:

Thank you for joining our meditation course March 25-May 13 Please fill out our registration form.

03/29/2025

Thich Nhat Hanh reminded us, “Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?”

12/10/2024

Join us for the New Year Retreat: "Standing in Goodness." By goodness, I mean both what the Buddha called kusala kamma, skillful or wholesome action, as well as the basic purity and goodness of awareness itself as it illuminates our hearts and actions. If you are like me, you may be finding it hard these days to stay grounded in a wholesome state of mind. Come and let's support each other in finding and standing in goodness as we face the challenges of this coming year.

The venue for the retreat will again be The Hitchcock Center, a lovely, light-filled space built and operated sustainably. If a structure in the 21st Century can embody goodness, this is it. I'm grateful we can use it. We'll meet Friday evening, 7-9 pm, Saturday 9 am-5 pm, and Sunday 9 am-noon.

Regiuster here:

Thank you for joining the Winter Retreat "Goodness" January 3-5. Please fill out our registration form. Space is limited, so reserve your slot by paying online or mailing your check.

11/06/2024

Goodwill: Key to Happiness and Liberation

Tuesdays, 7 -8:30 pm
November 12 through December 17
Online through Zoom
Suggested donation: $75

The attitude of goodwill opens the possibility of trusting relationships with others, of constructive conversation, of harmony and even friendship. Ill-will and fear closes those possibilities down. Goodwill is thus key to a happy social life. Goodwill pertains to how we meet everything inside us and thus is key to a happy inner life as well. This six-week course will explain the power of goodwill, how to cultivate it, and how it undoes prior negative conditioning (karma). Each class will include 30 minutes of guided meditation followed by teaching and dialogue with participants. Those who commit to daily meditation will benefit most from this class.

Thank you for joining our meditation course November 12 through December 17, 2024 Please fill out our registration form.

09/04/2024

The Art of Softening

Tuesday evenings, 7-8:30 pm
September 17-November 5
Online through Zoom
Suggested donation: $100 (Scholarships available)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqCK45GtswmNnk7IdnjFPUpmJhNvWZsxoRhMTSW8Rnt-S8Mw/viewform

Minds and hearts harden as we armor ourselves with views and opinions, defend ourselves emotionally from life's pain, attempt to control our experience, and feel separate from others.This course explores the path of softening amid our experience and the strength and wisdom found there. It brings softening into the practice of meditation to discover ease and openness of being. Each class includes 30 minutes of guided meditation followed by teaching and dialogue. Students will gain the most who do a daily practice of meditation during the course.

Thank you for joining our meditation course September 17-November 5, 2024 Please fill out our registration form.

09/04/2024

Join us:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctsu8IWpehs_TLKz2RYvIepdhN_jWnVMhwjY8LxVgadVkukw/viewform
The Mount Mansfield Retreat is still open for registration. Join us for this time in the beautiful outdoor location of Underhill State Park at the base of Mt Mansfield, with a silent climb of the mountain on Saturday. Options are available if you aren't up for climbing. The retreat goes from Friday evening through late morning on Sunday, September 13-15.
This year's theme, "Aware and Attuned," uses the natural environment and our life in a camping community as supports for awakening. We will observe noble silence to be less distracted by socializing so we can be attuned in other ways. The combination of being outdoors, on the mountain, together in silence, and receiving instructions has proven over the 10 years we have been offering this experience to be a powerful catalyst for opening our hearts.

Filling out this form is Registration, Step # 1. Please note, your spot will be officially reserved when we receive the retreat fee. Step #2: $150/person should be sent to Peter Corbett, 2 Strong Avenue, Northampton, MA 01060 . Checks should be made out to Bodhisara Community. (You may include the e...

03/11/2024

Join us: Tuesday Course: Looking Deeply
Thank you for joining our meditation course
March 19-May 14 (8 weeks--no class April 30)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdWfw_uGStK2fTcC0VscNyBBcw90pmrh0-8M8OnVKN4OuGBng/viewform

Calm and relaxation, while healthy and good in themselves, only liberate us temporarily from the stress of life. We become free as we look deeply into the nature of our experience and live in harmony with that understanding. Our hearts and minds begin to correct their perceptions and assumptions. Discernment is essential. This 8-week series explores how to examine one's moment-to-moment experience with care and the essential insights that come from that examination. Each class will include 30 minutes of guided meditation followed by a short talk, then dialogue with students about the topics at hand. Students will benefit most from the class who maintain a daily practice of meditation concurrently.

Thank you for joining our meditation course March 19-May 14 (8 weeks--no class April 30) Please fill out our registration form.

08/27/2023

Integrity

7-8:30 pm, September 12-October 31
Online through Zoom

The word "integrity" points to how we might conduct ourselves in harmony with who we are and those with whom we share this world. Integrity is the foundation of spiritual development and the awakening and liberation from suffering it promises. This 8-week course will explore not only traditional Buddhist ideas of sila, precepts that train us in not harming, but also ways to find the inner compass of our being that can discern a concrete path in life right for us individually, where we are honest with ourselves and others, where duty and enjoyment are in balance, and where we are taking responsibility for the history and conditioning within which we find ourselves embedded. Each class will include 30 minutes of guided meditation, a talk, and a period of discussion. Students will benefit most from the course who commit themselves to daily meditation.

Suggested donation: $100
Register here:

Thank you for joining our meditation course September 12-October 31 (8 weeks) Please fill out our registration form.

04/02/2023

On Thursday, April 6, we will be offering an in-person gathering for those of you who are local, 7:00-8:30 pm at the Friends Meetinghouse, 194 Long Plain Road (Route 63) in Leverett.

The theme for this April event will be "Transformation." We'll begin with a period of meditation, then open the circle to sharing on this topic. Come with your stories to inspire us of your personal transformation, the transformation of someone you've witnessed, or any other permutation of the topic you wish to share. Or come just to listen.

The event is free of charge, donations accepted. We ask that you do a rapid test before coming. It would be nice to know if you are coming, but not strictly necessary.

03/22/2023

When we feel unhappy because we feel we are not good enough:

What is the antidote to feeling insufficient?

03/20/2023

Thursday, April 6, we will be offering an in-person gathering for those of you who are local, 7:00-8:30 pm at the Friends Meetinghouse, 194 Long Plain Road (Route 63) in Leverett. Mark your calendars. I hope you can attend. The format will be similar to the circle we did at the Hadley Senior Center in November on the theme of gratitude. The theme for this April event will be "Transformation." We'll begin with a period of meditation, then open the circle to sharing on this topic. Come with your stories to inspire us of your personal transformation, the transformation of someone you've witnessed, or any other permutation of the topic you wish to share. Or come just to listen. The event is free of charge, donations accepted. We ask that you do a rapid test before coming.