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Seven days of meditation, lively exploration, and supportive friendship: a space to explore the Heart Sutra in our immediate experienceThe Heart Sutra is one of the most familiar of all Buddhist texts and, inevitably, there are innumerable takes on ‘what it means’. How do we square the opening statement that the skandhas (our psycho–physical constituents) are ‘empty’ with the following one that ‘in emptiness’ there are no skandhas, no senses, no conditioned–arising? Early western commentators saw the sutra as full of paradox – but what if it is not an attempt to bamboozle our minds, but a hands-on method of practice and realisation?
These are some of the questions that we’ll be exploring on this retreat. We’ll see how our belief in an intrinsic, substantial ‘me’, separate from the rest of the world, has no basis in actual experience and is the underlying cause of suffering. We’ll see how and why the wisdom of emptiness is, precisely, compassion. And we’ll approach emptiness not as a topic of ‘Buddhist philosophy’, but as a direct pointer to realising our deepest nature, from which we are never apart.
- Online in Zoom
- Multiple daily sessions from Saturday 22 February – Friday 28 February (see session times below)
- By Donation/ Suggested amounts: AU$250 / NZ$270 for the whole retreat, or AU$50 / NZ$55 per day
- Suitable for anyone with at least 3 years of regular meditation experience
Session Times
The retreat will start on Saturday 22 February with the evening session for Australasia, and will finish with the evening session on Friday 28 February Australasia time. The main input session will be the Australasia evening session.
Session One: starting 7am (AEDT) / 6am (AEST) / 6.30am (ACDT) / 9am (NZDT)
– 1.5hrs, led by Tejananda
Session Two: starting 3.30pm (AEDT) / 2.30pm (AEST) / 3pm (ACDT) / 5.30pm (NZDT)
– 1hr, meditation, ritual, and discussion groups, led by Kusalacitta and Sagaradhi
Session Three: starting 6pm (AEDT) / 5pm (AEST) / 5.30pm (ACDT) / 8pm (NZDT)
– 2hrs, main input session, led by Tejananda
About Tejananda
Tejananda has been a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order since 1980, and has been teaching, leading and supporting retreats at Vajraloka and other retreat centres in the UK and worldwide since 1995.
https://melbournebuddhistcentre.org.au/event/emptiness-and-the-heart-sutra-tejananda-feb-2025/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
23 David St, Brunswick, VIC, Australia, Victoria 3056
Tickets
