Bodhisara Dharma Community

08/24/2026

Join us via Zoom on Tuesday evening for our meditation gathering on "What is Spiritual Growth?"

Tuesday evenings, 7-8:30 pm
September 15-October 27
Online through Zoom

Spiritual Growth is multidimensional, including experiential, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral elements as well as a component of realization or awakening. This course explores these various aspects and how they interact in the course of someone's spiritual practice. It will provide an opportunity to assess where one may be weak and then to put attention in one's practice. Each class will include 30 minutes of guided meditation followed by an hour of some combination of teaching and discussion. Those who commit to practicing meditation daily will benefit most from the course.

Suggested donation: $105 (Scholarships available)
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRHAMsZH28eB05Af0i2rEclC9hMogs5kuCwCAIVelU3qO-bw/viewform

03/25/2026

Join us for "Entering the Temple of Surrender."

We live in a culture that values doing, achievement, and effort. What about the other half of life--relaxing, enjoying, not doing, and yielding to what we can't do or change? Moments of surrender can be profoundly transformative, places where the ego bows and reality sometimes brings us to our knees. In this course, we will explore surrender in many forms, distinguish it from collapse and passivity, and examine how genuine doing arises from surrender. Each class includes 30 minutes of guided meditation and an hour of teaching and dialogue. Those who practice meditation daily as a part of the course will benefit the most.

Tuesday evenings, 7:00-8:30 pm
April 7-June 2 (8 sessions with no class May 5)
Online via Zoom
Cost: $120
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkQnemNfTPFGu1VpCNGMsRVbrFiO-pn3i2DTTCe0AX4o2ZjQ/viewform

10/27/2025

Save the date:
The Bodhisara Dharma Community will be sponsoring a Circle of Gratitude, an in-person community event on Monday evening, November 24, 5-7 pm, at the Hadley Public Library. Could you mark it on your calendar? Please bring a guest if you know someone interested.

We'll meet informally for a time for tea, snacks, and conversation from 5:00 to 5:30 pm, so you will have time to connect with people you may haven't seen for a while in person. Then at 5:30 we'll gather to meditate together for 15 minutes, followed by sharing in the circle on the theme of gratitude until shortly before 7 when the library closes.

Come with stories, poems, reflections, or just yourself. The event is free and there is no need to register. Just come.

10/27/2025

Join us:
Compassion: The Skill of Being with Suffering
on Tuesday evenings, 7:00-8:30 pm via Zoom

Being with suffering--one's own or others--can be challenging. A middle path of skillful and heart-centered presence lies between, on the one hand, blending, identifying, and being dragged down in the process, and, on the other hand, staying aloof and denying it. We'll explore that middle path and flex our compassion muscles in the concrete situations of our lives where we are touched by suffering. Each class includes 30 minutes of guided meditation and an hour of teaching and dialogue. Those who practice meditation daily as a part of the course will benefit the most.

November 11-December 16
Online via Zoom
Cost: $90

Register here:

Thank you for joining our meditation course November 11-December 16 Please fill out our registration form.

03/29/2025

Tenderness

Tuesdays, March 25-May 13
7:00-8:30 pm
online through Zoom
Suggested donation: $100

What is the skill of approaching our world with kindness and letting our hearts be touched by what we encounter? In an eight-week course, we'll explore various aspects of this skill, practicing how to relax the energies that are vigilant and protective, to receive, and to allow the light of love to shine through. Each class will include 30 minutes of guided meditation, a talk, and a period of dialogue about what people are discovering.

Register here:

Thank you for joining our meditation course March 25-May 13 Please fill out our registration form.

03/29/2025

Thich Nhat Hanh reminded us, “Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?”

12/10/2024

Join us for the New Year Retreat: "Standing in Goodness." By goodness, I mean both what the Buddha called kusala kamma, skillful or wholesome action, as well as the basic purity and goodness of awareness itself as it illuminates our hearts and actions. If you are like me, you may be finding it hard these days to stay grounded in a wholesome state of mind. Come and let's support each other in finding and standing in goodness as we face the challenges of this coming year.

The venue for the retreat will again be The Hitchcock Center, a lovely, light-filled space built and operated sustainably. If a structure in the 21st Century can embody goodness, this is it. I'm grateful we can use it. We'll meet Friday evening, 7-9 pm, Saturday 9 am-5 pm, and Sunday 9 am-noon.

Regiuster here:

Thank you for joining the Winter Retreat "Goodness" January 3-5. Please fill out our registration form. Space is limited, so reserve your slot by paying online or mailing your check.

11/06/2024

Goodwill: Key to Happiness and Liberation

Tuesdays, 7 -8:30 pm
November 12 through December 17
Online through Zoom
Suggested donation: $75

The attitude of goodwill opens the possibility of trusting relationships with others, of constructive conversation, of harmony and even friendship. Ill-will and fear closes those possibilities down. Goodwill is thus key to a happy social life. Goodwill pertains to how we meet everything inside us and thus is key to a happy inner life as well. This six-week course will explain the power of goodwill, how to cultivate it, and how it undoes prior negative conditioning (karma). Each class will include 30 minutes of guided meditation followed by teaching and dialogue with participants. Those who commit to daily meditation will benefit most from this class.

Thank you for joining our meditation course November 12 through December 17, 2024 Please fill out our registration form.