Over the years, we’ve collected materials that we hope will be useful to the joyful work of communicating the Dharma and creating Sangha.

In more recent years, the Sikkha Project has developed a number of resources in the form of course outlines with supporting material.

For school visits and children’s Dharma resources you can go here

Mitra study material is here

suggestions: info@triratnadevelopment.org

Introductory Dharma courses - English

Introduction to Buddhism - six-week course

This course has now been published by Windhorse Publications as a book:

Starting on the Buddhist Path: An Invitation

“An engaging and practical guide to transforming your life through Buddhist practice.

The Buddha said that you can’t develop wise perspective and freedom through ideas alone – you need to test the truth in your own experience. This book is aimed at people who have an interest in Buddhism and are looking for a way to improve their lives and relationships. Without jargon, and illustrated with cartoons, diagrams, and photographs, it leads readers through potentially life-changing meditations, perspectives, reflections, and practices for everyday life.”

from Windhorse Publications website

Buddhist Ethics, A Six-Week Course

Seeing the implications of our behaviour for ourselves and others.

A six-week course exploring Buddhist Ethics. Provided by Vajrapriya, Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK. This is the fourth module of Vajrapriya’s Level Two Buddhism Course in six modules.

Download this overview here

Overview

  • Ethics as individual choice
  • Love – the golden rule
  • Generosity – respecting and contributing
  • Contentment – weakening the neurotic drives
  • Honesty – being true about ourselves
  • Awareness – the working edge for any growth

Week 1: Ethics As Individual Choice

a) Attitudes when trying to communicate ethics

b) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes for module
  • Exercise: Why practise ethics?
  • Sources of ethical judgment
  • The workings of karma
  • Intention and intelligence (skilfulness)
  • Precepts as training principles
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

c) Materials/handouts:

  • Exercise: Quotes on ethics
  • Handout on main topics

Week 2: Love As The Golden Rule

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of last session
  • First precept
  • Exercise: Debate on vegetarianism
  • Love mode vs. power mode (with writing exercise and small group discussion)
  • Suggestions for home practice

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics

Week 3: Generosity

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of last session and home practice
  • Dana as the fundamental Buddhist virtue
  • Ways of taking the not-given
  • Recollecting generosity
  • Role-play: giving – taking – receiving OR generosity audit
  • Dana at the Buddhist centre
  • Suggestions for home practice

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Cards for Role-play
  • Worksheet for generosity audit
  • Handout on main topics

Week 4: Simplicity and Contentment

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Brainstorm about Buddhist attitudes to sexuality
  • How can we cultivate simplicity and contentment?
  • Exploring stillness, simplicity, contentment
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics
  • Quotes about stillness, simplicity, contentment

Week 5: Truthfulness

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Why be truthful?
  • Exercise: What are the consequences of (un)truthfulness?
  • How to practice
  • Communication exercise
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics
  • Quotes on truth

Week 6: Mindfulness

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Centrality of mindfulness in Buddhism – why?
  • Exercise: mindful passing of an object
  • Importance of body awareness
  • Losing mindfulness and intoxication
  • How to enhance mindfulness in everyday life
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Worksheet Mindfulness and Intoxication
  • Handout on main topics

Buddhist Ethics – A Six-Week Course by Vajrapriya (zip)

Basic Core Teachings (A Six-Week Course)

Here you can download the handouts for a six-week course, provided by Achala from New Zealand.

Please note that according to Achala further improvement of some of these handouts is needed! Please share your improvements in the comments.

NOTE: This is what Achala said about his intentions when designing this course:

I tried to construct a course such that it:

  • covers what an average human being needs to effectively practice Buddhism
  • doesn’t not have a scholastic bent (so a few Pali/Sanskrit terms seemed reasonable but not so many as to give the impression that the courses are oriented towards bookish types)
  • appeals to people’s imagination, as well as being intellectually clear
  • includes all of Bhante’s fundamental insights such as his stress on right understanding and the importance of Going for Refuge – although I accept that not all Order members will agree what those fundamental are
  • appeals especially to younger people – in their late teens and early twenties
  • does not involve a great deal of reading (typically max three pages of notes per week)
  • excludes material that has neither inspirational value nor practical use.

The notes for the course are almost complete. A few have yet to be written, and some could do with a bit of an edit to correct errors, and perhaps occasionally rephrase things. The material that has been prepared has been in use for about three years, and has worked really well.

Course structure

  1. Conditionality (pratitya samutpada) [[needs polishing]]: Parable of the poisonous arrow; example of conditionality in the Buddhist scriptures; five niyamas; cyclic nidanas and spiral path
  2. General introduction to ethics [[needs polishing]]: A context for ethical practice; criteria (skilful-unskilful); karma; guilt; ethical guidelines; playfulness
  3. The five precepts [needs polishing]
  4. The three laksanas (1): Introduction; the three marks and how they are interrelated
  5. The three laksanas (2): Exploring impermanence and unsatisfactoriness; some poems
  6. The three laksanas (3): Insubstantiality; the 6-element practice; selected poem

Basic Buddhist Teachings – A Six-Week Course By Achala (zip)

Approaching the Buddha, A Six-Week Course

Here you can download notes for six talks/guided discussions introducing the Buddha, provided by Achala from Wellington, New Zealand.

  1. Approaching the Buddha: His youth; the ‘Four Sights’ and the Going Forth; Enlightenment and the Nature of the Buddha; faith in the Buddha.
  2. The Buddha’s Victories: Leaving the family/group; overcoming complacency and ambition; facing existential fear; being alone; Mara.
  3. Stories from the Buddha’s Life: The first teaching; a case of dysentery; Kisagotami; Devadatta; meeting with Bharadvaja; mediating between the Koliyans and the Shakyans; Ajatasatru and the silent assembly; Ananda’s grief; Subhadra, the last disciple.
  4. Vignette: The Pabbajja Sutta from the Sutta Nipata
  5. The mythical Buddha: The Buddha as a symbol for one’s spiritual goal; myths around the Buddha; the diamond throne; calling the earth goddess to witness; Brahma’s request; Mucalinda; Angulimala; the Buddha in the Lalitavistara Sutra.
  6. Symbols of Enlightenment: Enlightened beings as symbols; Yab-yum symbolism; the archetypal realm; visualization practices; the symbolism of the three kayas.

Week 1 – Approaching the Buddha

Week 2 – The Buddha’s Victories

Week 3 – Stories from the Buddha’s Life

Week 4 – The Pabbajja Sutta

Week 5 – The Mythical Buddha

Week 6 – Symbols of Enlightenment

What Makes You A Buddhist? (A Six-Week Course)

This is Module 1 of the Level 2 Buddhism Course by Vajrapriya used at Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK (November 2007).

The resources include: notes for the course leader (including learning objectives, guide lines for input and exercises, background information, suggestions for home practice), and handouts

Week 1: Sraddha – Faith within a Buddhist context
Topics: Grounds of faith; developing faith; faith and doubt; faith and inspiration; experiences of faith.

  • Notes for the course leader
  • Handout 1 (2 pages): Faith within a Buddhist Context
  • Handout 2 (1 page): Quotes on Faith

Week 2: Going for Refuge
Topics: Historical expressions of refuge; GfR as commitment; what are we taking refuge from?; where do we usually take refuge?; true and false refuges; Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels.

  • Notes for the course leader
  • Handout 1 (2 pages): Going for Refuge
  • Handout 2 (6 pages): Background Reading on Going for Refuge

Week 3: The Buddha and Enlightenment
Topics: What is Enlightenment? Epitaphs & metaphors from the Pali Canon; qualities in terms of the 5 skandhas; the psychology of goal-setting (advantages and disadvantages).

  • Notes for the course leader
  • Handout (2 pages): The Buddha and Enlightenment

Week 4: Dharma as Truth Teaching
Topics: Buddha Vacana; Dharma as Truth Teaching; attitude to doctrine; importance of views; Going for Refuge to the Dharma

  • Notes for the course leader
  • Handout 1 (2 pages): Dharma as Truth Teaching
  • Handout 2 (5 pages): Edited talk by Sangharakshita “The New Man Speaks” (background reading)

Week 5: Dharma as Path and Method
Topics: a toolkit of practices; the ‘three trainings’; progressive nature of the path; attitude to practice

  • Notes for the course leader
  • Handout 1 (2 pages): Dharma as Path and Method
  • Handout 2 (1 page): One-week practice diary on threefold training

Week 6: The Sangha
Topics: What is the Sangha and why is it important?; how to Go for Refuge to the Sangha; Review of the 6-week course.

  • Notes for the course leader
  • Handout (2 pages): The Sangha

What Makes You A Buddhist? A Six-Week Course By Vajrapriya (zip)

Imagination, Beauty, and Ritual in the Spiritual Life - 8-week course

This course over eight weeks on The Place of Imagination, Beauty, and Ritual in the Spiritual Life was provided by Padmavajri from the Brighton Buddhist Centre.

Padmavajri says: “I led two groups on this. The course was aimed at any Mitras and it turned out I had a group of experienced Mitras, and a group of newer Mitras (one or two years old). … The two groups here loved it, enjoyed it, were challenged by it, and also were helped to understand ritual and the arts much more.”

The material for each week includes:

  • a short list of learning objectives for the teacher;
  • a handout with questions for reflection (it may be best to give these to the participants in advance, and encourage them to prepare for the week);
  • a handout with suggestions for practice during the following week and references for further reading.

Overview Course

Week 1 – Emotional Energy and Spiritual Aspiration

Week 2 – Faith and Non-faith

Week 3 – The Psychology of the Spiritual Life

Week 4 – The Life and Death of the Imagination

Week 5 – Beauty and the Hierarchy of Art

Week 6 – The Dharma in Poetry

Week 7 – The Psychology of Ritual

Week 8 – Approaching the Sevenfold Puja

The Noble Eightfold Path, An Eight-Week Course

Here are Suriyavamsa’s notes/handouts for his 8-week course on the Noble Eightfold Path at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre.

1. Introduction to the course and the 4 Noble Truths

2. Perfect Vision

3. Perfect Emotion

4. The path of ethics – Perfect Speech, Action and Livelihood

5. Meditation 1 – Perfect Effort

6. Meditation 2 – Perfect Mindfulness

7. Meditation 3 – Perfect Samadhi

8. Summing up and checking out

9. Day retreat

The Noble Eightfold Path – An Eight-Week Course by Suriyavamsa 

Buddhism: Buddhist Wisdom, A Six-Week Course On Doctrinal Dharma

Some core ideas to gain a new perspective on our lives.

  • Views – wrong view, right view, perfect view; qualities of Dharma
  • Conditionality – conditioned co-production as the middle way
  • Facets of conditionality – impermanence, compoundedness, interconnectedness
  • Four Noble Truths
  • Orders of conditionality – reactive and creative; karmic and non-karmic conditionality
  • Wisdom and compassion – altruistic dimension of Buddhism, Bodhisattva ideal
  • Exploring the Wheel of Life, the Spiral Path, and the Mandala of the Five Buddhas.

Week 1: Four Noble Truths
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous and introduction to this module
  • Our own questions and/vs. the Buddha’s big question
  • The four truths
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Reading Text from (old) Foundation Course, The Dharma 1, week 7
  • Handout on main topics

Week 2: Views – Wrong View, Right View, Perfect View – and Qualities of Dharma
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of last session and home practice
  • Views – perfect vision and right view
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

c) Materials/handouts:

  • Text from (old) Foundation Course, Part 4: Exploring Buddhist Practice – Ways of thinking, Week 1: The way to wisdom
  • Exercise on views (in different situations)
  • Handout on main topics

Week 3: Conditionality, Conditioned Co-production as the Middle Way
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of last session and home practice
  • Conditioned co-production: the theory; middle way (between hopelessness and wilfulness, determinism and randomness, existence and non-existence)
  • Interconnectedness and Indra’s Net
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics

Week 4: Facets of Conditionality – Impermanence, Compoundedness, Interconnectedness
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous class and home practice – the three laksanas (with exercises)
  • Insight meditation
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics

Week 5: Orders of Conditionality – Reactive and Creative; Karmic and Non-karmic Conditionality
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Orders of conditionality (5 niyamas)
  • What is karma?
  • Mind reactive & creative
  • How to maintain resourceful, positive mental states
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics

Week 6: Wisdom and Compassion – the Altruistic Dimension of Buddhism and the Bodhisattva Ideal
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Wisdom & Compassion, introductory exercise
  • The Bodhisattva Ideal and the Bodhicitta
  • Bringing it down to earth
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics

Buddhist Wisdom – A Six-Week Course On Doctrinal Dharma by Vajrapriya (zip)

Buddhism: Buddhist Wisdom, A Six-Week Course On Symbolic Dharma

The resources include:

  • Notes for the course leader (including learning objectives, guide lines for input and exercises, background information, suggestions for home practice)
  • Exercises, and handouts
  • Overview of the course
  • An overview of the whole of life’s dynamics in symbolic form.
  • The wheel of life – knowing our realm
  • The wheel of life – karma and rebirth
  • The wheel of life – the chain of conditioning, “staying in the gap”
  • The spiral path – to Insight and beyond
  • The mandala of the five Buddhas – Akshobya and Amitabha
  • The mandala of the five Buddhas – Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhi and Vairocana

Week 1: Karma & Rebirth

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Why symbols?
  • Overview of the Wheel of Life
  • Sources of suffering (the hub) and their opposites
  • Skilfulness/unskilfulness (the ring of karma)
  • Rebirth (in every moment)

b) Handout summarizing the main points as mentioned above.

Week 2: Knowing your realm
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous class and home practice (dharmavijaya)
  • The six realms as karma vipaka
  • The realms as objective vs. subjective
  • Exercise: Imagining a realm from within

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Exercise on the six realms
  • Handout on the various realms

Week 3: Cyclic conditionality

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous class and home practice (experience of the six realms)
  • Nidana chain exercise (in unfolding and reverse order) – three-lives interpretation
  • Feeling (vedana) and craving (tanha)

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Exercise on the Nidana chain
  • Handout on cyclic conditionality and vedana
  • Reading material: Extract from Foundation Year of the old Mitra Course

Week 4: Progressive conditionality

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Vedana exercise
  • Review of previous class (cyclic conditionality) and home practice (exploring vedana)
  • Exercise to work out the order of progressive conditionality
  • The crucial link; “In dependence of unsatisfactoriness arises faith.”
  • Concentration, insight, and the transcendental path

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Exercise to work out the order of progressive conditionality
  • Exercise to review cyclic conditionality
  • Handout on progressive conditionality

Week 5: Akshobhya and Amitabha

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous class (progressive nidanas and point of intersection with wheel) and home practice
  • Imagination and the archetypal dimension
  • Exercise around archetypes and superheroes
  • Introducing Akshobhya and Amitabha
  • Principles of correlations/correspondences

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Exercise on progressive nidanas
  • Exercise on correspondences between Akshobhya and Amitabha
  • Handout on Akshobhya and Amitabha

Week 6: Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhi, and Vairocana

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Review of previous class (correspondences Akshobhya and Amitabha) and home practice (visualizing colour in meditation)
  • Mudras
  • Qualities of Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddhi, Vairocana
  • The Buddha families and our personal affinities
  • Symbolism of the Mandala
  • Personal mandalas

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Exercise on correspondences between Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi
  • Handout on the Five Buddha Mandala

Buddhist Wisdom, A Six-Week Course On Symbolic Dharma by Vajrapriya (zip)

Beginners Buddhism: Reading Lists

Windhorse Publications have prepared a series of recommended books for people at different levels of involvement with Triratna. We also include a reading list prepared by Vajramati in New York.

Windhorse Publications – Introductory

Windhorse Publications – Going Deeper

Windhorse Publications – Meditation

Windhorse Publications – Mitra Study 

An Introductory Reading List By Vajramati

Simple Dharma Handout

A one-page Buddhism handout (by Lokabandhu, as used for the Buddhafield)

Buddhism – One Page Handouts by Lokabandhu

Dharma Teaching - Introduction (2008)

Mokshini has prepared a great summary of how Triratna’s System of Practice (Integration-Positive Emotion-Spiritual Death-Spiritual Rebirth-Spiritual Receptivity) links with the above levels. It’s attached here.

Please don’t hesitate to make suggestions for improvements and ask questions: add comments below.

If you are interested in an overview about what is taught at urban Triratna centres, you can also download a survey prepared by the Dharma Teaching Coordinator for the Chairs Assembly in July 2008.

Ideas For Communicating Our System Of Practice – Mokshini And Others

What Is Taught At Triratna Centres? (2008)

Mahayana Buddhism, A Six-Week Course

Here you can download handouts for a six-week course introducing the various schools of Mahayana Buddhism. The handouts were provided by Achala from New Zealand. Please note that Achala says they all need further improvement!

This is what Achala said about his intentions when designing this course:

“I tried to construct a course such that it:

  • covers what an average human being needs to effectively practice Buddhism.
  • doesn’t not have a scholastic bent (so a few Pali/Sanskrit terms seemed reasonable but not so many as to give the impression that the courses are oriented towards bookish types).
  • appeals to people’s imagination, as well as being intellectually clear.
  • includes all of Bhante’s fundamental insights such as his stress on right understanding and the importance of Going for Refuge – although I accept that not all Order members will agree what those fundamental are.
  • appeals especially to younger people – in their late teens and early twenties.
  • does not involve a great deal of reading (typically max three pages of notes per week).
  • excludes material that has neither inspirational value nor practical use.

The notes for the course are almost complete. A few have yet to be written, and some could do with a bit of an edit to correct errors, and perhaps occasionally rephrase things. The material that has been prepared has been in use for about three years, and has worked really well.

  1. The Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism. [This part of the course most urgently needs re-consideration. While it contains some useful notes and seminar extracts on the notions of the arhat and the bodhisattva, in its historical description of early Buddhism it is very much outdated. for the time being teachers are advised to replace (or integrate) this handout with handout 2.1 from Sagaraghosa’s introductory Buddhism course which you can also download here.
  2. The Bodhisattva: Bodhisattvas as historical and archetypal figures; an ideal to be practised; the Bodhisattva ideal in Buddhist literature; quotations from Sangharakshita and questions to think about.
  3. The Wisdom Schools: sunyata; about the Diamond Sutra; how much ‘reality’ can we bear?; quotations and questions.
  4. Yogacara and Zen: Yogacara; Cittamatra; Chan/Zen; some examples of Zen-poetry.
  5. Pure Land, Hua-yan, and Vajrayana: introductions and text extracts to each of these branches of Buddhism.
  6. The Unity of Buddhism: Buddhahood and Enlightenment; Going for Refuge; conditionality and the three laksanas.”

Week 1 – The Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism

Week 1 Replacement – The Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism by Sagaraghosa

Week 2 – The Bodhisattva

Week 3 – The Wisdom Schools

Week 4 – Yogacara and Zen

Week 5 – Pure Land, Hua-yan, and Vajrayana

Week 6 – The Unity of Buddhism

 

Ritual and Devotion, A Course In Six-Weeks

Exploring the psychology and meaning of Buddhist ritual through the ‘Sevenfold Puja’

A six-week course exploring Buddhist ritual. Provided by Vajrapriya, Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK. Module 5 of Vajrapriya’s Buddhism Two Course in six modules.

Download this overview here

Overview

  1. Who/what do Buddhists worship? Commitment to a path of personal development.
  2. The practice of openness, disclosure and confession.
  3. The importance of developing positive emotion.
  4. Receptivity: turning towards what is deepest in ourselves and the universe.
  5. The ‘Awakening Heart’ (Bodhicitta).
  6. The Heart Sutra: the essence of emptiness. Chanting, and the use of mantras.

Week 1: Ritual: what, why, and how
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Importance of an explorative attitude
  • Rituals we know
  • Ritual – what and why?
  • Triratna dedication ceremony
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Triratna dedication ceremony
  • Handout on main topics

Week 2: Who or what do Buddhists Worship?
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of last session
  • “Heroes”
  • Worship and egalitarianism
  • Relating to ‘archetypal figures’
  • Personal exploration by the course leader
  • Symbolisms of offerings and shrine room etiquette
  • Threefold Puja
  • Suggestions for home practice

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics
  • Triratna Threefold Puja

Week 3: Introducing the Sevenfold Puja
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of last session and home practice
  • Introduction to 7-fold Puja
  • Discussion of sections 1 to 3 in small groups
  • Going for Refuge
  • How do we develop sraddha / confidence?
  • Short introduction of Mantra
  • Suggestions for home practice

b) Materials/handouts:

  • The Sevenfold Puja
  • Refuges & Faith worksheet
  • Translations of Pali refuges & precepts
  • Handout on main topics

Week 4: Confession and Rejoicing
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Why confess?
  • Reflecting on faults
  • Why rejoice in merits?
  • What holds us back from rejoicing / appreciating others
  • Exercise for group or pairs
  • Puja
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Diary of regrets/apologies and rejoicings/appreciation
  • Handout on main topics

Week 5: Receptivity to the Truth

a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Led meditation around nama-rupa
  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Entreaty and Supplication
  • What’s your question?
  • What closes us off to receptivity?
  • Introducing the Heart Sutra
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Handout on main topics

Week 6: Bodhicitta – the Awakening Heart
a) Notes for the teacher, including suggestions for:

  • Learning outcomes
  • Review of previous class and home practice
  • Transference of merits and self-surrender
  • Being of service
  • The Bodhicitta
  • Puja
  • Suggestions for home practice
  • Recommended further reading

b) Materials/handouts:

  • Bodhicitta Meditation by Kamalashila
  • Handout on main topics

Ritual and Devotion – A Course In Six-Weeks by Vajrapriya (zip)

Gurus of the Past from the Triratna Refuge Tree - A Six-Week Course

Here you can download Achala’s notes for a six-week course on exemplary practitioners and teachers of the Dharma-selected teachers from the Triratna Refuge Tree.

This is what Achala said about his intentions when designing this course:

I tried to construct a course such that it:

  • covers what an average human being needs to effectively practice Buddhism.
  • doesn’t not have a scholastic bent (so a few Pali/Sanskrit terms seemed reasonable but not so many as to give the impression that the courses are oriented towards bookish types).
  • appeals to people’s imagination, as well as being intellectually clear.
  • includes all of Bhante’s fundamental insights such as his stress on right understanding and the importance of Going for Refuge – although I accept that not all Order members will agree what those fundamental are.
  • appeals especially to younger people – in their late teens and early twenties.
  • does not involve a great deal of reading (typically max three pages of notes per week).
  • excludes material that has neither inspirational value nor practical use.

The notes for the course are almost complete. A few have yet to be written, and some could do with a bit of an edit to correct errors, and perhaps occasionally rephrase things. The material that has been prepared has been in use for about three years, and has worked really well.”

  • The Arya Sangha: Spiritual hierarchy; irreversibility; the three fetters; Arya Sangha; 10 signs of a superior man.
  • Kukai: Fact and legend; early life; visit to China; Kukai and Saicho; Mount Kukai and To-ji; later years and entry into Samadhi.
  • Shantideva: Reasons for his fame; his life; legends; example of a legendary text; his supposed indolence.
  • Hsuan-Tsang (Xuanzang): Introduction; his travels; back in China; epilogue. With a map of Hsuan-Tsang’s journey.
  • Padmasambhava: Introduction; a legend/myth; historical account of his life; the ‘second Buddha’; Padmasambhava’s teachings.
  • Hakuin: Quote from his ‘Song of Meditation’; background; his life; Hakuin’s teachings and methods; ‘his’ baby child – “is that so?”

​​Week 1 – The Arya Sangha

Week 2 – Kukai

Week 3 – Shantideva

Week 4 – Hsuan-Tsang, Xuanzang

Week 4 – A Map of Hsuan-Tsang’s Journey

Week 5 – Padmasambhava

Week 6 – Hakuin

Introductory meditation courses - English

Six-Week Beginners’ Level 1 Course

This is a fully-worked-out six-week course introducing Triratna’s main meditation practices, by Sagaraghosha from the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK. We’ve included a file with the complete course combined into one document.

Week 1:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Practical Points‘
  • Handout ‘Four Types of Meditation‘ (concentrative, generative, reflective, receptive)
  • Handout about meditation diary and meditation CDs

Week 2:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Meditation Posture‘
  • Handout ‘Mindfulness of Breathing‘
  • Handout ‘Diary‘ 2

Week 3:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Diary‘ 3

Week 4:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Metta Bhavana‘
  • Handout ‘Diary‘ 4

Week 5:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Diary‘ 5

Week 6:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Diary‘ 6
  • Handout ‘Feedback sheet‘
  • Programme for Meditation 1 Practice Day

SIx-Week Beginners’ Meditation Course by Sagaraghosha (zip)

SIx-Week Beginners’ Meditation Course (Sagaraghosha) – Complete Files (PDF)

Six-Week Beginners’ Level 2 Course

This six-week course was provided by Sagaraghosha from the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK.

Week 1:

  • Guide line for the teacher (Outlook over the course; setting up and preparing; ‘useful emotions’; exploring values; general and specific intentions
  • Handout 1 on preparing for meditation
  • Handout 2 (main points from class + meditation diary 1)

Week 2:

  • Guide line for the teacher (review; reviewing metta bhavana; balancing effort; trying this out with mindfulness of breathing)
  • Diary 2: Balancing active and receptive effort

Week 3:

  • Guide line for the teacher (review; focus and broadness)
  • Diary 3: Focus and broadness

Week 4:

  • Guide line for the teacher
  • Handout ‘Exploring experience’ (positive and negative aspects [hindrances and factors of absorption])
  • Diary 4: Exploring experience

Week 5:

  • Guide line for the teacher (review from last class; guided meditation; using the four ‘types’ of meditation from first course; levels of meditation)
  • Handout ‘Hindrances and Antidotes’
  • Handout ‘Experimenting in Meditation’ (with difficulties)
  • Diary 5: Making choices

Week 6:

  • Guide line for the teacher (review of course; making the transition from inner to outer experience)
  • Handout ‘Working in Meditation’ (changing mental states; developing more positive mental states)
  • Diary 6: Exploring positive mental states

SIx-Week Beginners’ Level 2 Meditation Course by Sagaraghosa (separate weeks as zip)

SIx-Week Beginners’ Level 2 Meditation Course – Complete Files by Sagaraghosa (PDF)

Four-Week Meditation Course

This four-week course was developed by Vajramati for use with the New York City Sangha.

Week 1 – Mindfulness

Week 2 – Metta

Week 3 – Hindrances

Week 4 – PIPER

Aspects of Mindfulness, Approaching Life as Learning

Aspects of Mindfulness: Approaching Life as Learning (by Dhammaloka)

  • A one-page outline of the three majors aspects of mindfulness: present-moment awareness, clear comprehension, and diligent choice
  • More on the four dimensions of clear comprehension
  • Chinese-English version of the two handouts

Three Major Aspects Of Mindfulness

The Four Dimensions Of Clear Comprehension

正念的方面 – 走近人生就如同学 (Aspects of Mindfulness – Approaching Life as Learning by Dhammaloka)

Introductions to the Metta Bhavana

Introducing Metta Bhavana is a highly-polished 32-page guide to the Metta Bhavana developed by Ruchiraketu in 2004. He introduces it thus:

Introduction
The ideas given in Introducing Metta Bhavana are to give practical tips for designing experiential exercises while introducing Metta Bhavana to newcomers. I hope they will stimulate more experimentation with an experiential approach to learning.

They are not a complete course in themselves but are provided to supplement whatever teaching you might normally do. Adapt them to suit your own style and purposes. They are not procedures to follow but just examples of an experiential approach for you to modify and adapt for yourself.

Introducing Metta Bhavana is divided into the following sections:

  • Introduction
  • What meditation is and isn’t
  • What meditation is
  • What meditation isn’t
  • The Four types of meditation
  • Short meditation
  • The four types of meditation
  • Option for experiencing the four types
  • The four types of meditation
  • Short experiment – the value in being systematic
  • Becoming aware of the body (body scan)
  • Short experiment – the effect of ‘kind awareness’
  • Preparing for bhavana – what do you not want to change?
  • Preparing for bhavana – ‘maintaining’ before ‘developing’
  • Avoiding the pitfalls in the first stage of the Metta Bhavana
  • Exploring how to develop positive emotions and metta
  • Introduce the idea of intentionally developing positive emotions
  • Introduce the idea of metta
  • Explore (in small groups) how to develop metta
  • Designing a 25 minute loving-kindness meditation in 5 stages
  • Short exploration – scaling questions for positive emotions
  • Other options
  • Exploration – how would you prepare for Metta Bhavana?
  • Life ‘off the cushion’, and a few homework ideas
  • Expressing metta in daily life
  • Some homework ideas
  • Handouts
  • The Four types of meditation
  • Developing loving-kindness (Metta Bhavana)
  • Maintaining then developing (3 steps diagram)

Although the sections are arranged roughly in the order in which they might be used on a meditation course, many of them can be used independently for a single class. Some of them overlap and repeat similar points so it’s worth scanning through them all to choose or adapt the ones you want.

They have all been successfully tried out in meditation courses at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre over the last couple of years. However be aware that whenever you introduce an experiential element, people may not respond in the way that you expect! If you can demonstrate an open and exploratory attitude at such times then they won’t be setbacks but opportunities for learning….

Do let me have your feedback and suggestions for improvements in the comments.

Ruchiraketu August 2004

***

The Handouts on the Metta Bhavana by Dhammaloka were developed for a retreat at Vajraloka.

Introduction to the Metta Bhavana by Ruchiraketu

Metta – The First Stage by Dhammaloka

Metta – Stages 2-4 by Dhammaloka

Metta – The Last Stage by Dhammaloka

Meditation: Posture Guides
  1. A 13-page ‘Posture Workshop’ developed by Bodhipaksa from Wildmind.
  2. A 2-page guide by Vajramati

Posture Guide by Bodhipaksa

Posture Guide – Vajramati

Introductory Dharma Courses - other languages

Einführung in den Praktischen Buddhismus Kurs Überblick - [German]

Buddhistisches Tor Berlin. Überblick Über einen 6-Wochen-Kurs, basierend auf den Büchern Buddhismus auf einen Blick von Kulananda und Wegweiser Buddhismus von Sangharakshita.

Einführung in den Praktischen Buddhismus Kurs Überblick

Buddhismus Quiz Deutsch

Leergang Boeddhisme - 2-jarige cursus - [Dutch]

LEERGANG BOEDDHISME – overzicht en cursusmateriaal voor cursisten (syllabus)  en studieleiders – Gunabhadri e.a. (Boeddhistisch Centrum Amsterdam)

jaar 1 – syllabus

  • module 1 – Boeddha
  • module 2 – Dharma , Achtvoudige Pad
  • module 3 – Dharma, Levenswiel
  • module 4 – Boeddhisme in de samenleving (geen materiaal)
  • module 5 – Ethiek, het zuiveren van het hart
  • module 6 – Wijsheid

jaar 1 – materiaal voor cursusleiders

  • module 1 – de Boeddha
  • module 2 – Dharma , Achtvoudige Pad
  • module 3 – Dharma, Levenswiel
  • module 4 – Boeddhisme in de samenleving (geen aantekeningen)
  • module 5 – ethiek, het zuiveren van het hart (geen aantekeningen)
  • module 6 – meditatie en wijsheid

jaar 2 – syllabus

  • module 1 – mandala van de 5 Boeddha’s
  • module 2 – het spiraalvormige pad
  • module 3 – de wijsheidsoetra’s
  • module 4 – spirituele vriendschap, horizontaal en verticaal
  • module 5 – ethiek, meditatie, wijsheid
  • module 6 – bodhisattva ideaal

jaar 2 – materiaal voor cursusleiders

  • module 1 – mandala van de 5 Boeddha’s
  • module 2 – het spiraalvormige pad
  • module 3 – de wijsheidsoetra’s
  • module 4 – spirituele vriendschap, horizontaal en verticaal
  • module 5 – ethiek, meditatie, wijsheid
  • module 6 – bodhisattva ideaal

folder jaar 1 en folder jaar 2 cursusjaar augustus 2009-december 2010

Leergang Boeddhisme – 2-jarige cursus

De syllabus voor jaar 1 is ook in boekvorm beschikbaar via Lulu:
Leergang Boeddhisme 1

Aspects of Mindfulness, Approaching Life as Learning - [Chinese-English version]

Aspects of Mindfulness: Approaching Life as Learning (by Dhammaloka)

Chinese-English version of the following two handouts

  • A one-page outline of the three majors aspects of mindfulness: present-moment awareness, clear comprehension, and diligent choice
  • More on the four dimensions of clear comprehension

正念的方面 – 走近人生就如同学 (Aspects of Mindfulness – Approaching Life as Learning by Dhammaloka)

Photo of Bodhisattva at ease statue

Pujas (in English and Other Languages)

Bhante 108 Year Puja (in English)

On August 26th 2003 on Sangharakshita’s birthday Centres around the world were invited to start an on-going festival and puja to celebrate the life and work of Bhante. This could be seen as a 108 year event or it could simply be an annual festival.
Here is a document outlining the history and context as well as giving instructions for the Bhante 108 year puja with history

And here is a simplified version of the same Bhante 108 year Puja

Pujas & Main Ritual Resources Within Triratna (in English)

the main rituals used in the Triratna Buddhist Community, in English.

 

For texts of rituals in other languages, see Triratna Translations 

Dedication ceremony

Threefold puja

Tiratanavandana

The Heart Sutra in English and Sanskrit

Sevenfold Puja

Other ceremonies

Buddhist Funerals

There seem to be more and more funerals happening at Triratna Buddhist Centres. This trend, sadly, is likely to continue indefinitely. The London Buddhist Centre have produced a very useful guide  – some of the names and businesses referred to may have changed since this was produced.

A Guide to Funerals at the LBC (PDF)

Faith, Health Care, and Dying – a Buddhist Perspective

Weddings

In the UK the law has recently changed to allow marriages to be celebrated in a much greater range of places. Click here for a general introduction. The change in the law has prompted some debate within UK Triratna centres. While each Centre is free to decide its own approach, the following are some notes from Vajratara who discussed this issue with Sangharakshita. At the end is a fuller discussion of the current state of (UK) law and how it might apply to Triratna Buddhist Centres, by Munisha.

– Weddings: Bhante made the point that there is no such thing as a Buddhist wedding.

– In a Buddhist country, the couple usually visit the Temple after their wedding ceremony and reception in order to ask for a blessing from a monk. They do not bring the whole wedding party with them. Bhante suggested that we follow that example.

– If an Order Member or Mitra wanted to get married, the legal part of the ceremony and the reception could take place elsewhere, and the couple, with perhaps a few close friends and relatives, could visit the Buddhist Centre for a blessing.

– The blessing ceremony could be a puja with the three traditional offerings, blessings and a short talk by an Order Member exhorting the couple to live as Buddhists.

– Bhante emphasised that there should be no full scale wedding and reception at a Buddhist Centre, nor should an Order Member go to the wedding ceremony or reception to give a blessing as part of their celebrations (though they could go as a guest).

– The principle is that the reception and wedding itself should be kept entirely separate from the blessings so that in no way could the wedding be interpreted as a Buddhist wedding.

– Bhante was also keen that the couple should be reminded to keep the wedding as simple as possible and not spend a lot of money on the ceremony. Any anniversaries could be similarly marked with a party elsewhere and a blessing at the Buddhist Centre.

A fuller discussion (pdf) of the current state of UK law and how it might apply to Triratna Buddhist Centres.

Baby Naming Ceremony
Mitra (and kalyana mitra) ceremonies
Mantras

A little explanation about the mantras listed below:

Wildmind has more recordings of the mantras of the main Buddha and Bodhisattva figures.