This program will draw from early Buddhist sources found in the Pali Canon in order to reveal the dharma as a living response to the personal and collective suffering of our times. Central to this project is the reconsideration of the “four noble truths” as “four great tasks”: embracing life, letting go of reactivity, beholding cessation, and cultivating a path. We will focus on those aspects of Buddhism found throughout its different traditions that support a task-based ethics rather than a belief-based metaphysics as the framework for one’s practice. The time will be divided between talks, formal meditation and discussion.