We are announcing three retreats scheduled this Spring:
April 13 – Meditation Retreat conducted by Bhante Atulo at the Toronto Mahavihara
May 12 – A Day of Mindfulness with Venerable Khemako at the Centre on Dupont Ave.
May 22 – Buddhist Meditation and Reflections with Ajahn Candasiri at the Multi-Faith Centre on Spadina Ave.
Ajahn Viradhammo will be joining us for a Day of Mindfulness on May 26. For more information and registration, click here.
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.
Venerable Khemako will be joining us via Skype on Sunday, December 16. For more information, click this link:
https://www.theravadabuddhistcommunity.org/event/venerable-khemako-dhamma-talk-and-qa-9/
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.
Venerable Khemako will be leading a non-residential retreat in Toronto November 9-10. For more information click here
Venerable Khemako will be joining us via Skype on Sunday, October 21. For more information, click this link:
https://www.theravadabuddhistcommunity.org/event/venerable-khemako-dhamma-talk-and-qa-8/
One of the bhikkhunis from Sati Saranaya Hermitage will give a dhamma talk for the group on Sunday, September 23. For more information click here