Upcoming Online Programs
2021 Programming
As many of you know, this is the time of year when we usually announce and open registration for all our courses scheduled for the following year. With so much uncertainty about when BCBS will be able to safely re-open for residential programs in 2021, we are not going to do that this year. Instead, we will continue to announce our online offerings about 2-3 months before they are scheduled. Be sure to check our emails and website for the latest information. We will let you know about residential programming as soon as we can make plans for a safe re-opening. We all look forward to that day!
The Daily Sit
with
Bill and Susan Morgan
Monday-Friday, 10:30-11:15 am EDT
Saturday & Sunday, 10:30-11:00 am EDT
Inviting the Divine Feminine: Practices for Transformation and Resilience
September 24 - October 29, 2020
Thursday evenings 5:30-7:00 PM EST
In this six-week online course with Lama Liz Monson, we will take a deep dive into the energies of the Divine Feminine as they are found in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Together, we will explore why and how these innate feminine energies, present in all human beings, should and could arise in our experience today as powerful resources for support and guidance during these groundless times.
Poems of the First Buddhist Women as Vehicles for Reflection Today
October 05 - November 09, 2020
Monday evenings 7:30-8:45 pm EST
Join Georgia Kashnig and Charles Hallisey in this six-week online course devoted to reading the poems of the first Buddhist women, the Therigatha. Even across expanses of space, time and translation, these “inspired utterances,” as the sixth-century Buddhist commentator Dhammapala called them, enable us to see things that we have not seen before, to imagine things that we have not dreamed before. Ultimately, we will look to these women’s utterances as answers to the question: How do we become free?
Living Our Histories, Shaping Our Futures: Buddhist Anti-Racist Practice
Oct 07 - Nov 11, 2020
Wednesdays nights, 7:30 – 9:30 pm EDT
We have limited spots available in this contemplative workshop for white practitioners, with Brian Lesage and Jessica Locke. We will be exploring the meaning of whiteness and race in our lives. We will draw on Buddhist teachings on emotions, perception, and mind as a foundation for exploring these topics and how to work with them. The course will include interactive and experiential components supported by weekly readings and reflections. In addition, participants are expected to devote 20-30 minutes each day to meditation, and one to two hours of assigned reading each week. Participants will need a basic understanding of key Buddhist teachings and some meditation background, including at least six months of regular or semi-regular practice.
Essential Methods of Chan Buddhism
October 09 - 11, 2020
Join Guo Gu and investigate the Chinese Chan (Zen) tradition and their main approaches to awakening: the method of silent illumination (mòzhào) and investigating a critical phrase (huàtóu). The former is a settling method of serene reflection on the nature of awareness; the latter is an explosive approach that aims to concentrate and shatter all mental states so awakening manifests.
"I have sat with Guo Gu and found it very powerful; my practice really benefited. I am keenly looking forward to Guo Gu returning to BCBS to offer us the precious gift of his instructions.” Bhikkhu Analayo
Dharma and Art:
A Whole-Life Path
February 7-April 17, 2021
Applications open September 15, 2020
An online course
with
Gregory Kramer,
Sherre DeLys and Rosalyn Driscoll
A ten-week online course that explores the rich relationship between Dharma practice and creative practice through the framework of the Eightfold Path.
Application Dates: September 15-December 1, 2020
Course Dates: February 7 - April 17, 2021
Exploring Sacred Paths: Pilgrimage in Buddhist Traditions
October 20 - November 12, 2020
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 – 8:30 PM
An Online Pilgrimage
Justin Kelley leads us on a virtual Pilgrimage to the sacred sites associated with the Buddha's life. For over 2500 years practitioners from every corner of the Buddhist world have gone on pilgrimage. As a result, pilgrimage has both a rich literary history and a diverse array of practices associated with it.
This course is an inquiry into what pilgrimage means, both in its ideal form as described in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist writings, as well as how the principles of pilgrimage can infuse our lives with greater meaning and purpose.
Brahmavihāra and Emptiness: A 6-Day Online Practice Course
October 23 - 29, 2020
10:30-11:15 AM
Bhikkhu Analayo & Ann Dillon undertake a study of brahmavihāra meditation and the gradual entry into emptiness as described in the Cūḷasuññata Sutta (Shorter Discourse on Emptiness), relating both of these modes of practice to progress to awakening. The emphasis throughout the course will be on what is of practical relevance to actual meditation practice.
This course is for experienced practitioners. Please refer to the course information page for additional details.
You Are Your Body: Realizing the Oneness of Human Nature and Buddha Nature
October 30 - November 01, 2020
Barry Magid and Max Erdstein present a contemporary view of Dharma practice that attempts to undo the long-presumed dichotomy of spirit or soul as immaterial, timeless and pure; and body as material, the seat of sexuality and emotional attachment, subject to decay and death.
This is a model of Zen for householders, not home-leavers. We will look at the implications of a meditation practice that does not aim to take us to a “higher” state of consciousness or promise transcendence of this bodily existence, but rather sees the Dharma as fully realizable and expressible in this body, this moment–the only life there is.
Life Lessons From Hungry Ghosts: An Ethical Reading of Buddhist Narratives
November 6 - 8, 2020
In this course, Andy Rotman leads us through the Buddhist narratives of hungry ghosts (preta) who are like modern felons who participate in “scared straight” programs. In the past, they broke the law (dharma), and now they suffer the terrible consequences because of justice (karma). And since they don’t want others to make the same mistakes, they speak passionately and honestly, hoping to scare humanity straight. By reading these stories together, we can avoid the cause of all this misery: the cultivation of meanness (mātsarya), which makes people miserly, spiteful, and cruel, immoral and oblivious to their own self-righteousness.
Wisdom Publications Collaborations
Previously Offered Programs
A Secure Core of
Compassion and Awareness
for Insecure Times
An Online Program with
Lama John Makransky, PhD
Co-sponsored by Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and
the Foundation for Active Compassion
Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation
An online study and practice course
guided by Bhikkhu Anālayo
Applications are now closed for Fall 2020
Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation is an interactive and comprehensive online program modeled on in-person courses offered globally by Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo on the foundational mindfulness text the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta.
A Soulmaking Dharma
An online study and practice course guided by
Catherine McGee
Assisted by Yahel Avigur
Applications are now closed for Fall 2020
11 weeks of practice and focused study of Soulmaking Dharma
