Meditation Study Series
Meditation Study Series
Our next online series is on Tuesday evenings starting February 4th, 2025 at 7pm.
Join our seasonal meditation study series for intermediate and experienced meditators in a supportive community. Facilited by (Rev.) Andrew Blake of Sarana Institute.
Join (Rev.) Andrew Blake and Sarana Institute for our online meditation study series designed to strengthen your meditation practice and help you integrate the impacts of mindfulness and meditation into your daily life.
Practicing Dharma is a path of discovering wisdom and compassion or transformative actions. To get there, we sit and meditate weekly together.
Meditation practice is built on a foundation of skillful methods of insight and feeds the development of compassion to meet suffering and transform our life into meaning and joy.
What to Expect
Class begins at 7 pm ET on Tuesdays with a dharma talk, followed by a sitting practice, a walking meditation, and then a contemplation based on each week’s theme. Class ends with a discussion and council practice, where we share from the heart and our experiences. We end at 9 pm. This class is suitable for any practice level and best suited for those wishing to deepen their Buddhist-informed practices and understanding.
Description of our Upcoming Series
Integrating Dharma: How do the teachings lead us to becoming a whole person?
What does it mean to live with awareness and experience well-being in mind, body, and spirit? The Buddha was interested in teaching us how to gain true insight into our lived experiences, and how mindful awareness could lead us to flourishing, rather than suffering and confusion. His was a practical philosophy filled with insights to guide us toward awakening our true potential.
Where are you right now? How is your practice supporting you? The Dharma path, in this sense, is about uncovering truths about how we are each living, and about being more honest with ourselves about what is working and what isn't. What obscures your joy, ease, and fulfillment? What are you covering up or viewing incorrectly? How are you misperceiving things as real and true that aren't? What are your tendencies that turn illusions into perceived realities?
In the first skill of mindfulness meditation, we learn concentration that directs the mind toward our breath by letting thoughts go. However, many may think: "I'll meditate, I'll get rid of those thoughts of anxiety and anger, and I'll be done with them because I dislike them." But that is not meditating. We may have misperceptions that make our progress difficult or at least shallower. Buddha's teachings offer a more holistic approach. He taught concentration as an essential first step for good reasons, but he went on to espouse the Three Yanas, including the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Middle Road teachings of the Mahayana, and the transformative practices of Vajrayana—each designed to suit our different needs, natures, and abilities.
In his book "Integral Buddhism: Developing All Aspects of One's Personhood," Traleg Kyabgon explores specific instructions and advice from the Buddha for achieving a deeper awareness of things as they are and strengthening our commitment to awareness practices. Buddhist teachings remind us that the path requires developing various transformative qualities, like discerning awareness in understanding our own minds. In this series, we will ask ourselves questions about how our minds work, with the intention of building skills in seeing things more clearly as they are.
Please join Rev. Andrew and our Tuesday Night Sangha, where together we can spark our inner curiosity about mindful living and support our mutual awakening.
This course is open to all levels of meditation practice and those interested in integrating Buddhist approaches and teachings into their lives and healing. If you are new to meditation, please don't hesitate to contact us before registration.
Other Details
Tuesday Evenings from 7 - 9 pm ET on Zoom
Starts February 4th for 10 Weeks until April 8th
Registration Fee
There are a few options for registering:
Base Fee: $250
Supportive Fee: $300 for those who can contribute more
PWYC Fee: Any amount that you can contribute
*as a spiritual gift, the dharma is not a commodity bought and sold. Our registration fees go to support Rev. Andrew and the work at Sarana Institute. If the suggested fee is challenging, pay an amount that works within your finances. Everyone is welcome in our sangha, and finances must never be a reason not to join us.
About (Rev.) Andrew Blake
(Rev.) Andrew Blake, Buddhist Chaplain, Psychotherapist and Co-Founder of Sarana Institute
Andrew is the Director of Program Development at Sarana Institute, and his wife, Angie, is a co-founder. In 2010, Andrew was ordained as a Buddhist Chaplain by Roshi Joan Halifax, a leader in compassion, caregiving and end-of-life. His thesis, Mindful Listening at End-of-Life, was recently published and explores the roles of mindfulness, empathy and compassion, from both neuroscience and Buddhist psychology perspectives, as skills to prevent caregiver “empathy fatigue.”
A teacher and educator of mindfulness meditation, Buddhism, End-of-Life caregiving, and his Mindful Listening work, Andrew has created training and curriculums at the University of Toronto through the Applied Mindfulness Mediation Program, at Sick Kids Hospital through The Mindfulness Project, at Hincks Dellcrest Centre, as well as numerous conferences, hospitals, hospices and organizations involved in service, healthcare, end-of-life care, volunteer caregiving. In addition to his teaching, he guides individuals and families at end of life and serves as an officiant at memorials and funerals. www.andrewblake.ca
