2020
Morning Meditation is offered on-line, every Tuesday morning, from 8:00-8:45am.
Just click on the Zoom Link to enter the class: https://zoom.us/j/603302859
Morning Meditation is taught by Chris Crotty and a rotating schedule of visiting teachers and facilitators. See Boston Meditation Center’s website for a complete schedule.
Alone and Together: Spiritual Friendship & Resilience for Difficult Times
with Chris Crotty & Susan Shannon
When
August 15
12pm-3:0pm Eastern/9:00am-12:00pm Pacific
Program Description
With care and practice the Dharma can become a refuge, a place to find respite and spiritual nourishment during the hardest of times. In this unique program, we will gather virtually to create a refuge with each other and for each other, coming together to give and receive true spiritual friendship through listening, witnessing, meditating, and finding connection within our personal and collective narratives. These narratives–or stories–take many forms and have many expressions: some of them we might want to change, some might want to be heard for the first time, and others we may not even have words for yet.
Facilitators Chris Crotty and Susan Shannon, both active members of the Center for Spiritual Care & Pastoral Formation, will co-create with participants a Community Dharma Discussion where our connection might potentially weave or re-weave threads of resilience, personal power, spiritual direction and interconnection. This program will include periods of meditation practice.
Everyone is welcome. Pre-registration required.
Chris Crotty, MA, BCCC, BCPC is Dharma teacher in the Insight tradition, Buddhist chaplain, and pastoral counselor. He is the founder and guiding teacher of Boston Meditation Center, and an active member of the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation. Chris is interested in the role of kindness and ethics in the development of wisdom, and as a basis for creating caring communities.
Susan Shannon Susan Shannon, M. Div. is a seeker, teacher, earth and animal steward, and devotee of the heart. She has worked in the fields of Emotional Literacy and Restorative Justice for over 20 years, incorporating over 45 years of Buddhist practice and study from the Tibetan tradition. She has worked among diverse populations all her life in varying capacities including Tibetan Refugees, the homeless, the differently-abled, at-risk youth, and most recently, a Buddhist Chaplain to the men in San Quentin State Prison and Death Row. She currently resides in the San Juan Islands where she writes, provides spiritual coaching and tends her land.
Date: Thursday, Sept 10
Time: 7:15-8:45pm
Weekly drop-in class on Zoom: no registration required.
Note: This class meets every Thursday. There is a guest teacher when Chris is not scheduled to teach.
This event is offered in the tradition of dana (Pali for giving or generosity): while there is no set cost of attending, we invite you to consider making a donation to support the teacher and The Boston Meditation Center.
Living Dharma
3-Month group-mentoring & Dharma study with Chris Crotty
Wisdom arises from spiritual practice;
Without practice it decays.
Knowing this two-way path for gain and loss,
Conduct yourself so that wisdom grows.
–Dhammapada
Three months: September 26–December 12, 2020
Registration: Participation in this program is by application. Download applicationa and apply at Boston Meditation Center.
Program Overview
This innovative program borrows from the tradition of the three-month retreat, often referred to as the rains retreat. Historically the rains retreat was a time when people stayed in one location for a period of three months, gathering to meditate and reflect on the Dharma, often teaching each other and forming a closer community. Chris has created this program with two goals in mind: 1) To transform the ‘stay-at-home’ COVID related safety measure into an in-depth period of dedicated Dharma practice; 2) To establish and guide a close group of students who seek the support and nurturance of sangha (community) and who want to live the Dharma more fully in their lives.
This program provides a unique opportunity for a small group of dedicated practitioners to work closely with Chris Crotty over three months, to develop collaborative relationships with other students, and establish a more consistent routine of meditation and personal reflection. Together we will create and sustain a collaborative container for an engaged and contemplative life aimed at helping us recognize our own conditioning–what blocks the Dharma from flourishing in our own lives– and to break through it with wisdom, kindness, and compassion. We will learn how to use our meditation practice to better understand Buddhist teachings, and learn how to use Buddhist teachings to expand our practice. With this foundation in place we will ask critical questions pertaining to the integration of the Dharma in our personal lives and the wider world.
Program Format
Participants will be supported by:
• Individual, structured daily meditation practice based on experience level
• Reading assignments and reflection questions
• Kalayanmita (spiritual friend) dyads
• Monthly small group sessions
• Two full-day & two half-day retreats with Chris Crotty (4 total scheduled on Saturdays: Sept 26; Oct 24; Nov 21; Dec 12)
• Monthly group mentoring with Chris Crotty (3 total scheduled on Monday nights–dates TBD)
This program will help participants to:
1) Deepen their meditation practice by addressing common challenges that meditators face, and through gaining insight into personal habit patterns. Students will be encouraged to gradually increase the time allotted for daily meditation practice, and to keep a meditation journal for the duration of the program.
2) Expand their understanding of core Buddhist teachings through both self-directed and teacher-led reading and reflection. This ‘study’ component of the program will emphasize focused reflection based on short readings rather than consuming a lot of material–in this way we can turn our full attention to the true meaning and spirit of Buddhist wisdom, exploring how it relates to our personal lives and the world we live in today.
3) Establish and sustain a spirited and cheerful sangha aimed at mutual support. Together we will explore new ways to experience the Dharma by working closely with peers to co-create a learning community grounded in spiritual friendship, encouragement, and accountability.
Who this program is for:
This program is for students who have been meditating for at least one year and who identify with any of the below:
1) You feel that it is time to further develop a personal daily meditation practice–you want to be both challenged and supported in this goal.
2) You want to embark more wholeheartedly on a spiritual path within the insight tradition of practice, using early Buddhist teachings to support an inquiry into what it means to live life more fully and authentically
3) You are interested in having structure for Dharma practice and Study.
Texts will include (others may be added)
Therigatha: Verses of the Elder Nuns
Udana: Exclamations of the Buddha
Dhammapada: The Buddhas Path of Wisdom
2021
Attached and Unattached: The Dharma of Relationship
with Chris Crotty & Julia Barry, LMFT
Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Course Description
One of the basic tenets of Buddhist practice is that attachment causes suffering. Western psychology, on the other hand, promotes secure attachment in relationship as central to physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.
This program explores the ways we can integrate our need for deep connection in relationship alongside our wish for the liberating happiness espoused by Buddhist teachings. How do we resolve this paradox? How can meditation help us achieve greater ease, skill, and satisfaction in our relationships? How can relationship challenges deepen our understanding of the Dharma?
In this program, we will explore Buddhist teachings on impermanence and not-self, as well as attachment theory, which addresses how our early childhood relationships inform our adult views and behaviors. We will practice insight meditation and heart practices to observe and skillfully respond to attachment conditioning in all types of relationships (intimate, professional, familial, friendships), and learn to use mindfulness to transform the difficult somatic and mental states associated with attachment habit patterns.
The format will include meditation instruction, Buddhist and Western teachings on attachment, and relational mindfulness practices. We are all in relationship, whether it be intimate partnership, family, friendship, or community – all are welcome and encouraged to attend this program!
Loving-kindness Retreat 2021
with The Venerable Sayadaw U Indaka, Chris Crotty, May Myint Oo
Dates: June 1-6 (5 nights)
Location: Won Dharma Center, Claverack NY
Registration: Boston Meditation Center
Program:
The practice of loving-kindness (mettā-bhāvana) includes sitting and walking meditation to cultivate a loving, friendly, and benevolent attitude towards all living beings. For over 2600 years, loving-kindness meditation has been practiced to ensure that good-will surpasses all forms of enmity and ill-will. The well-being of mettā is a natural support for the development of insight and wisdom.
In this unique retreat, participants will have the opportunity to be guided by
Burmese meditation master, The Venerable Sayadaw U Indaka, who is renowned in Burma as both a mettā and vipassanā teacher. He will be joined by Western teacher Chris Crotty and Burmese translator May Myint Oo.
This fifth annual retreat will take place at the beautiful and spacious Won Dharma Center in Claverack, NY, where nature will play an important and supportive role in our meditation practice. Beginners and experienced students welcomed and encouraged.
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