“Meditation(s)” is a series of virtual talks and conversations with invited contemplative practitioners. Our hope is to explore the depth and diversity of meditation practices beyond what appears in popular culture. While we celebrate the “utilitarian” focus on meditation techniques resulting in effects from wellbeing to performance enhancement, our hope for this series is to illuminate the audience on the original intent of such practices, aiming for alleviation of suffering, bliss, and freedom.
Events will be held over Zoom. You are encouraged to register for each event in advance. This is a tentative schedule. More events may be added to the series and registration links for Zoom will be updated.
All our Dharma activities are supported through the generosity of individuals such as you. Please consider making an online donation.
February 17th at 2PM ET
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Dream Yoga
February 23rd at 1PM ET
Venerable Walpola Piyananda Nayaka Thera
Ten Armies of Mara
February 25th at 7PM ET
Sharon Salzberg
Insights into Metta
March 2nd at 12noon ET
Robert Thurman
Emptiness Meditation in Sutra and Tantra
March 30th at 11AM ET
Don Morrison
Oscillations: Between Worlds
April 8th at 7PM ET
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Contemplation of the Four Elements
April 21st at 11AM ET
Pir Zia Inayat Khan
The Elemental Purification Breaths Taught by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Click here to register
Speakers:
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City. He obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College (1966) and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School (1972).
After completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973. For many years he was the president and editor of the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka.
He has been living at Chuang Yen Monastery since 2006. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit either as author, translator, or editor, most recently a translation of the entire Anguttara Nikaya, The numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications 2012).
In 2008, together with several of his students, Ven. Bodhi founded Buddhist Global Relief, a non profit supporting hunger relief, sustainable agriculture, and education in countries suffering from chronic poverty and malnutrition. In May 2013 was elected president of BAUS.
PIR ZIA INAYAT KHAN carries the Sufi lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. He received his Ph.D. in Religion from Duke University. His books include Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity, and the Mystical Quest and Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions. Pir Zia is president of the Inayatiyya and founder of Suluk Academy.
Don Morrison is Chairperson of the Merton Forum and Thomas Merton Centre in Canada. He is Executive Chairman of BAI. Don was the Chief Operating Officer at BlackBerry with Research In Motion (RIM – now BlackBerry) from 2000 to 2011.
Venerable Walpola Piyananda Nayaka Thera is the President of Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara in Los Angeles. He is the author of Saffron Days in LA.
Sharon Salzberg is a world-renowned teacher and New York Times bestselling author. As one of the first to bring meditation and mindfulness into mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, her relatable, demystifying approach has inspired generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers.
Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, her seminal work, Lovingkindness and her newest book, Real Change: Mindfulness To Heal Ourselves and the World, coming in September of 2020 from Flatiron Books. Sharon’s secular, modern approach to Buddhist teachings is sought after at schools, conferences and retreat centers around the world. Sharon is the host of her own podcast, The Metta Hour, featuring 100+ interviews with the top leaders and voices in the meditation and mindfulness movement, and her writing can be found on Medium, On Being, the Maria Shriver blog, and Huffington Post.
Professor Robert A.F. Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, is a talented popularizer of the Buddha’s teachings and the first Westerner Tibetan Buddhist monk ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
A charismatic speaker and author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics and culture, Bob was named by The New York Times the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism, and was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri Award in 2020, for his help in recovering India’s ancient Buddhist heritage. Time Magazine chose him as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997, describing him as a “larger than life scholar-activist destined to convey the Dharma, the precious teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, from Asia to America.”
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International, is one of only a few masters of the Bön Dzogchen tradition presently living in the West. An accomplished scholar in the Bön Buddhist textual traditions of philosophy, exegesis, and debate, Tenzin Rinpoche completed a rigorous 11-year course of traditional studies at the Bönpo Monastic Center (Menri Monastery) in India, where he received his Geshe, degree. In 1992 Tenzin Rinpoche founded Ligmincha International in order to preserve and introduce to the West the religious teachings and arts of the ancient Tibetan Bön Buddhist tradition.
The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi is an innovative thinker, philosopher and a polymath monk. He is President and CEO of The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also President of Prajnopaya Institute and Foundation.