We are happy to have Ayyā Medhānandī from the Sati Saraniya Hermitage joining TBC on May 24, 2020 for our Sunday morning Zoom meditation session and providing us with a dhamma talk. Our Sunday meetings start at 10:00 but please join a few minutes earlier.
More information about joining our Sunday Zoom sessions can be found here.
Dear Friends,
Due to the on going Covid-19 pandemic, we have decided to temporarily cancel our in-person Sunday meditation meetings until further notice.
We hope that you will join us in our online sessions in the meantime, and continue to meditate on your own. More information about our online sessions is available here.
To support your practice, there are various Dhamma talks on our Resources page.
Metta,
TBC Board
We’ve added two new writings by Buddhist teachers on Climate Change on our Resources page:
Buddha-Nature, Human Nature: A book by Ajahn Sucitto about our environment and the effects that Buddhism has had and can have upon it.
A Task for Mindfulness: Facing Climate Change: A paper by Bhikkhu Anālayo presenting a Buddhist perspective on Climate Change
Ajahn Sucitto’s book is available in other formats on the Forest Sangha website.
The Theravada Buddhist Community has found a new meeting place in the Peregrine Room at the St. George Hotel, located at 280 Bloor St. West in downtown Toronto.
Our first meditation session at our new location will be on Sunday, August 25, 2019, at 10:15 a.m.
The Peregrine Room is located on the main floor. From the main doors, go past the Front Desk and follow the corridor past the restaurant. At the end of the corridor the Peregrine Room is on the left and the washrooms are on the right. The room is wheelchair accessible.
We feel very fortunate to have secured a wonderful new location so close to the St. George Subway station. There also is plenty of parking in the area including on Huron St.
We look forward to seeing you at our new location!
Beginning this Sunday, January 13, our Sunday morning sessions will start at 10:15 and run until 12:00 noon.
Venerable Khemako’s talks recorded during his November, 2018 visit to TBC are now available on our Resources page. These include:
Friday evening talk
Title: The Buddha’s alternative
Venerable Khemako discusses Dukkha in everyday life and how the typical worldy way of responding to it is inherently unsatisfactory. He then explains how the mind gets entangled in the 5 Khandas in its desire for happiness, but that the result is a kind of mirage. There is a description of the Buddha’s alternative to this grasping – a path that allows one to see how the mind creates its own suffering.
Saturday morning
Title: Questions and Answers
Venerable Khemako answers questions on the following topics: how to develop peace through receptivity and curiosity; How to combine the peacefulness of meditation practice with the busyness of life; How to face recurrent fears; Explaining anatta / not self; the usefulness of the 8-fold path to train the mind
Saturday afternoon
Title: How to best use our precious life
Venerable Khemako reflects on the rarity of being born human and being able to practice and reflect on the dhamma. He also discusses how to prioritize practice in everyday life. He then explains the way meditation can help in the development of insight.
Sunday morning
Title: Samsara and politics
Venerable Khemako discusses how desire for becoming leads to forming an identity, which leads to opinions, including political opinions. The metaphor he provides regarding political opinions in the human realm are that they are like sunspots. Sunspots necessarily have both positive and negative ions – you cannot have one without the other. In the same way, polarization of political opinions and movements are by their nature unsettled, incomplete, and dynamic. He also makes the point that our opinions are due to causes and conditions, and therefore not a fixed part of one’s identity. The solution to the mind’s tendency to reify political opinions is to cultivate wise reflection through the 8-fold path.
Our current meeting place, The Centre on Dupont Street, has been sold and we’ve had to look for a new location for our Sunday morning sessions. We’re very fortunate to have found a wonderful new spot close by on Prince Arthur Avenue near Bloor and St. George.
Starting in December, we’ll be meeting at the Xiaolan Health Centre at 88 Prince Arthur Avenue.
Ajahn Viradhammo’s talks recorded during his April, 2018 visit to TBC and SIMT are now available on our Resources page.