Join us as we experiment with meditation techniques and learn to apply ancient Buddhist wisdom to our daily lives. Appropriate for those just starting a meditation practice or those who wish to strengthen an existing practice.

Led By: Billy Blackstone
Date/Time: Sundays 3:33-4:44pm, Starting March 4
Cost: $4 suggested donation, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
If you cannot make the minimum donation, please talk to us about trade services and other things you can do to contribute.

The genesis of Dharma Salon was a conversation about the varieties of Buddhisms; the vastly different understandings practitioners have formed over time and across cultures. This month, Poep Sa Frank Jude will introduce a series of talks and discussions directed toward a deeper exploration of "Buddhist Spirituality." Within the larger Buddhist tradition, "spirituality" is perhaps best understood as bhavana, or "cultivation."

In this first talk, the doctrinal context in which "cultivation" acquires its meaning and purpose will be surveyed. The question addressed will be: "What is the message of Gotama Buddha and what were some of its earliest interpretations."

Dharma Salon is an on-going exploration of the many varied streams of the Buddhist traditions with Poep Sa Frank Jude Boccio and others…

Each month, join us for a relaxed talk and discussion about some aspect of the various Buddhist traditions. Bring your questions and curiosity, we’ll supply the tea!

_In many Eastern traditions, when you ask someone to point to their mind, they point to their heart. To them, there is no separation. When you close your heart, you close your mind and when you free your mind...you can transform your world.

Join us for this twice monthly exploration into freeing the mind and opening the heart. These practice-based classes include meditation instruction and discussion on real-life topics.  All in all, they are designed to help you move through the world with more grace and ease and find incredible amounts of joy from the inside out.

Everyone is welcome.

Modern life places many demands on us and many people end up feeling tired, stressed and over-worked. As a result we may become unhappy, irritable and impatient. Meditation can help us understand the nature of our own mind and how to transform our world into a more positive one, one full of possibilities. People from every walk of life have learned to meditate and have experienced its benefits- inner peace, health, and spiritual awakening. Join us to begin a meditation practice, or to learn new techniques that will bring you back to the cushion again and again

Class Format: talk & instruction for 20 minutes, sit for 15-20 minutes, last 20 minutes discussion.

Meditation has always been a central aspect of Buddhist liberation practice and teaching. In this talk and discussion, Poep Sa Frank Jude will identify and describe the varieties, methods and stages of early Indian Buddhist meditation practice, all designed to self-consciously alter, in a systematic and comprehensive way, the yogi's perceptual cognitive and affective experience.

Time permitting, we will practice short forms of some of the most important practices.

Dharma Salon is an on-going exploration of the many varied streams of the Buddhist traditions with Poep Sa Frank Jude Boccio and others…

Each month, join us for a relaxed talk and discussion about some aspect of the various Buddhist traditions. Bring your questions and curiosity, we’ll supply the tea!

This Course is a must for anyone who wishes to practice meditation effectively. It is based upon The Stages of Meditation (Bhavana Krama) by Master Kamalashila (750 AD), and presentations by Je Tsongkapa and Pabongka Rinpoche.

Topics include: a description of all of the different types of meditation, conditions of the environment conducive to meditation, the parts of a meditation practice, the preliminaries to undertake prior to meditating, the eight-point meditation posture, the best objects to focus the mind upon during meditation, the five problems which occur within meditation, the eight corrections to those problems, and the nine resulting meditative states which lead to the attainment of deep meditative concentration, or quietude.