Updates

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!

The December Dhamma Talk from Venerable Khemako on the topic of “Understanding Anicca by Observing the Four Elements” is now available as a YouTube video from our Resources page or directly from YouTube.

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.

Ajahn Viradhammo’s talks recorded during his May, 2017 visit to TBC and SIMT are now available on our Resources page.

Now available: “Stillness Flowing – The Life and Teachings of Ajahn Chah” by Ajahn Jayasaro, the long-awaited biography of Ajahn Chah with an introduction by Luong Por Sumedho.

From Ajahn Jayasaro’s preface:

Although it has been my intention that this book should be, as far as possible, a biography as opposed to a hagiography, I am not sure that I have been completely successful. My love for Luang Por and my belief in his enlightenment inevitably colour the text. What I have not done is suppress any scandalous or embarrassing information out of concern for his good name. Hard as it may be to accept nowadays when there is so much – and often well-founded – cynicism about the integrity of religious figures, Luang Por Chah had absolutely nothing to hide. The only skeleton in a cupboard at Wat Pah Pong was the one hanging on public display in the Dhamma Hall. In fact, that is one of the strongest reasons for my belief that the life of Luang Por Chah is so worthy of study.

Electronic versions are available for download on the Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery website, where you can also request a print copy.