Beacon Yoga Centre

Loving Kindness, Compassion, Empathetic Joy, Equanimity and Feeding our Demons

 

A practical ‘how to’ course focussed on developing the Four Immeasurable meditations and an introduction to the insight meditation Feeding our Demons with Michael Bobrowicz

 

“We need a strong foundation of emotional resilience and the Four Immeasurable’s are a tried-and-true way of developing kindness, compassion, equanimity and empathy drawn from the Theravada Buddhist tradition that have been practiced for over 2,500 years. Feeding our Demons drawn from the Vajrayana is an exploration of our deep defences and is an introduction to the insightful work of Lama Tsultrim Allione as heard by the Venerable Ceciie Kwiat. From that base we can go on to explore insight.”

 

Eleven Tuesday evenings: 7.00 pm - 8.15 pm

1 October - 10 December 2023

in the Satsang Room at Sivananda Ashram

151 South St, Beaconsfield WA on Zoom

and recorded for students attending in other time zones.

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Bookings: As this is a series, please plan to be present for every class. Bookings are required: please register your interest in attending by emailing  Denise Davies: calmabidingmed@hotmail.com

 

 

Cost: There is no charge for the course. We put out a bowl and we use all donations to assist in the cost of running the Ashram. We ask you to be as generous as your personal circumstances allow .

 

 

I have never found that it helped me to listen to those endless voices (most of which were in my own mind) that told me that I ‘ought to’ or ‘should’ have more compassion or loving kindness. In fact, this just made me feel miserable, and dejected by what I saw as my failings.

 

What has helped me, was learning that there is a series of very practical meditations which teach how to systematically develop loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, and empathetic joy and that gave me the skill and courage to also look at the more hidden and protected parts of consciousness.

 

This set of meditations dates to the Buddha’s lifetime.

They were not designed for ‘special’ people, but for ordinary people like you and me.

The Buddha said that the reality is that we all have and have always had all the qualities; the meditations enable us to recognize them and set aside the obstacles to having them present.

Each of the meditations uses a series of small steps to enable us to understand what the words might mean, and to demonstrate these qualities first towards ourselves, and then towards others.

 

Each of us is confronted at least some time by circumstances where our ability to access Loving Kindness, Compassion, Empathetic Joy and Equanimity is called upon and we are beset at times by poor mind states.. This series of meditations is designed to open the door within us so we might access those states more readily.

 

There are now more than eight billion of us on the planet. Each day we meet people: in the supermarket, at work and so on. Each of these encounters is an opportunity in which to practise these meditations. These opportunities are Immeasurable, Boundless, Limitless.

 

The course runs over 11 weeks. The meditations are broken down into small steps which are practical, easy to learn and practise. The emphasis is largely experiential including regular practice at home and opportunities for feedback. The course is suitable both for beginners and for experienced meditators with an interest in a systematic approach.

 

It does require a commitment both to attend the classes and, for the period of the course, to try out the meditations at home between classes. However, the time commitment is not designed to be arduous and considers that most people who will be enrolling for the course have busy lives. On average the practices take about 30 minutes.

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Michael Bobrowicz has been studying Buddhist meditation and philosophy for more than 40 years. He studied for over 20 years with the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche and the Venerable Cecilie Kwiat. Having worked in private enterprise, owning companies, and in the public sector, Michael has a good understanding of how to integrate meditation with a busy career. Stepping out of the workforce in 2007, he studied and did long retreats with the Venerable Cecilie Kwiat. Michael loves meditation and is keen to share that love with other people, “I work from experience, which in my case is very ‘nuts and bolts’ based on what I learned from long silent retreats; how to meditate and why, has been very important to me. I was lucky enough to have teachers who not only loved meditation but had the skill to explain why they loved meditation. My aim is to try to show people what a joy meditation can be.”

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