Fall down seven times, get up eight.

- JUDO SAYING

Courses

projections, masks and archetypes - tuesdays starting July
meditation foundations & deepening the practice - thursdays, ongoing
coming soon

Registrations and info for all courses: email or phone Mana on 9284 4882

tuesday courses

the buddha: life & teachings - this course is now closed

This course follows the life of the buddha with a view to exploring his teachings, known as buddha dharma. The teachings of the buddha include everything we need for awakening - including how to develop genuine regard and compassion for ourselves and others, how to pursue life questions in ways which result in insight rather than opinion and speculation, how to work with the potentials and the problem areas of our human psychology and individual conditioning.

Like buddha dharma itself, the course is practical, based on meditation practice and the development of mindfulness in daily life. There will be some reading each week - mainly from Thich Nhat Hanh's wonderful work Old path white clouds: walking in the footsteps of Buddha. There will also be group discussion and time for questions relating to your practice.

This course can be taken as a stand-alone course, or in conjunction with the four foundations of mindfulness course.

Level: All levels welcome
When: Tuesday evenings 7.30 15 April to 1 July
Where: 45a Harvey St Mosman Park
Cost: suggested donation $240

Course materials: here

projections, masks & archetypes - starts 22 July

‘The inner figures of the unconscious all want to live, and they can do this only through our lives.’ Invisible partners p78

Hands-on, interactive exploration of traditional Tibetan and Jung's mandala work. We will be using meditation, imagination, making and improvisation techniques.

In this course we will deepen our understanding of how we relate to ourselves and others through the masks and personas we adopt as we move through life, and how we can make more enabling choices. We will explore how different archetypes are active in our lives. We will deepen awareness of the ways in which we each use projections and how these manifest in our relationships and in our path journeys.

We will be using John Sanford's Invisible partners as a main text. This book is a useful background and resource for the course. It is a very accessible discussion of many of Jung's insights, including the non-monolithic individual (an individual comprised of many 'partial selves' which need to come into dialogue), relating to the unconscious, recognising and working with projection, relating to partners and other significant people in our lives, and the method of active imagination. If you are interested in this course you may wish to get hold of a copy.

In order to deepen the levels of awareness available to us, and to help us integrate new material as it comes up in the course, participants are asked to establish a daily meditation practice for the duration of the course. Guidance will be provided on this. There will be some practical homework, eg mandala drawing and mask design / making, which participants mostly find stimulating and enjoyable.

Level: All levels welcome.
When: Tuesday evenings 7.30 10 weeks 22 July - 23 September
Where: 45a Harvey St Mosman Park
Cost: suggested donation $200

upcoming courses

Final dates dependent on Mana's travel and teaching dates.

mandala of the elements and the 5 wisdoms

we will use meditation and mandala techniques to explore spontaneous and traditional expressions of the elements and the 5 wisdoms of Tibetan buddhist practice. We will also be exploring our own individual healing journeys as we go. Methods will include north and south american shamanic meditations in addition to theravadin and vajrayana approaches.

Part 1 - 6 weeks beginning November details TBA
Part 2 - 6 weeks beginning January 2009

thursday open class - ongoing

meditation foundations & deepening the practice

Come and meditate with us as part of a group. Most people find the support of a group is very effective especially when beginning meditation or looking to renew connection or commitment. These are open classes - you can come to as many or as few as you like.

We will be exploring and establishing familiarity with practices such as breath meditation, metta (loving-kindness, including 'self-care'). Depending on the interests and needs of those present, we sometimes also include other meditations such as medicine buddha, Tara, Chenrezig, and also occasionally some gentle body work.

In these classes we take meditation well beyond a 'relaxation' approach, which has many benefits in itself. We use mindfulness work to further explorations of our potential - both as individuals and as humans, and we explore healing approaches to the challenges we meet in our practice and in our lives.

If after the first couple of classes you feel there is something there for you, it is recommended that you plan to come for blocks of 2-3 months. This will help your meditation develop much more confidently than occasional classes alone can do.

There will be plenty of time for your questions and comments. This course is open to both new and more experienced meditators.

Level: all levels welcome
When: Thursday evenings 7.30 pm
Where: WA School of Yoga, upstairs 159 Onslow Rd, Shenton Park
Cost: suggested donation $10 – $30

additional courses and class times

Additional retreats, courses and class times can be organised in response to student interest. It is traditional to ask the teacher for teaching in aspects of the path which interest you.