Join Noel Coakley (he/him) of the Boston Center for Contemplative Practice in the new year through a meditation sangha (community).

Designed for those who are new to meditation and for experienced practitioners alike, the “Spring Meditation Community” is a comprehensive course and practice group, including:

weekly sessions of community based learning over 15 weeks
2 special practice days
a full retreat weekend

Spring Meditation Community offers a practical, holistic, and down-to-earth approach to mindfulness and to a variety of key meditation practices within the context of a safe and supportive community. Designed for new meditators and experienced practitioners, each session will include a mix of instruction, direct practice experience, and group discussion. Throughout, Western psychology will mix in with traditional Buddhist philosophy.

INVESTMENT

STANDARD RATE: $750 - $100 discount for fall course returning students - Register here!

REGISTER FOR THE FULL COURSE

Register for the full series (includes everything below) or sign up for the sections that interest you most:

New Year Meditation Morning — $25 Drop-In Standard Rate, available to Unlimited Members and 10 Class Card holders!
Sunday January 7th, 9:00 - 11:00 AM
The course kicks off on January 7th with a 2-hour morning of practice dedicated to establish intentions, cultivate mindfulness, and develop compassion. The emphasis will be on direct practice and supporting one another as a sangha (practice community).
Introduction to Mindfulness: Cultivate Presence and Awareness — $150
Mondays 1/8, 1/22, 1/29, and 2/5 from 7:00-8:30 PM
The first 4 of the Monday evening class series will serve as both a solid introduction to the foundational practice of mindfulness meditation for beginners as well as a refresher course for experienced meditators on root aspects of all practices.
Loving Kindness Gathering — $60
Saturday 2/10 from 1:00-3:30 PM
An afternoon of meditation focused on practices that familiarize ourselves with cultivating and sharing love and compassion for ourselves and others. You will gain further understanding and experiential knowledge of bodhicitta (love & compassion as natural qualities of the heart/mind).
Deep Dive Sessions — included in full course only
Mondays 2/26 - 5/20 from 7:00-8:30 PM
This series of Monday classes is only open to those signed up for the full course. These sessions survey a number of meditation topics and styles. We will first reinforce the core elements of practice that we revisit at all levels of experience: Love & Compassion (Bodhicitta), Concentration (Samatha or Zhi Gna), and Insight/Awareness (Vipassana).
From there we will build on additional visualization practices as well as learn the ‘the preliminaries’, all of which support the cultivation of the core three elements. The preliminaries help create supportive conditions, positive habits of mind, and antidotes to unhelpful habits. Through the preliminaries, we’ll look at how we can lean into the felt sense of support from all of those who have loved us into being (refuge), how to let go of the past (confession), and how to reduce attachments (mandala offering and paramitas).
Spring Practice Retreat Weekend — $200
Saturday 6/1 and Sunday 6/2 from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM (break for lunch)
The course will culminate in a weekend long Spring Practice Retreat Weekend. In this retreat, we’ll see how all of the practices interweave experientially. This longer immersion will give us a chance to increase our familiarity with practice as we settle into longer practice sessions.