Beginning
Meditation Class
James Baraz teaches a beginning meditation class for
those interested in learning or becoming re-familiar with the practice of mindfulness.
The next class begins on Monday, January 21,
2008. Classes are held on Monday evenings, for six successive weeks, from
7:30 to 9:30 PM at the Northbrae Community Church, 941
The Alameda (between Solano and Marin avenues), Berkeley, CA.
The class is provided on a donation basis, with no pre-registration
necessary.
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Topics for the six classes
are:
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What is Mindfulness?
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The Four Noble Truths
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The Eightfold Path
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The Five Hindrances
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Qualities of the Heart
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Bringing Practice into Daily
Life
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"Awakening
Joy" with James Baraz
The next Awakening Joy Course begins January
29, 2008.
The Buddha said, "Whatever a person frequently thinks and
ponders upon will become the inclination of their mind." In this
course we will cultivate Joy by developing what the Buddha called
"gladness connected with wholesome states." The ten-month
course focuses on two of components of Right Effort: 1) developing
wholesome states and 2) increasing wholesome states when they've arisen.
The course is ten months in length. Each month participants receive a
5-7 page letter pertaining to themes
with user-friendly practices to incline the mind towards wholesome
states, developing these states so they, and that gladness, become our
natural default setting, awakening joy that is an aspect of our true
nature. People who do it by email are connected
with a cyberspace buddy.
"I'm very grateful that you did the joy group. It changed my
life. I’m remembering to notice when I do
things that I enjoy. I got that I have a lot more to do with experiencing
joy than I thought. It had always seemed like luck, or some sort of
accident even, and that I was a victim of life’s
circumstances. I feel that I have more “control” of how often I
experience joy. I can choose to be happy, and choose to be unhappy, even
miserable. And joy seems to occur more often as a result." ME
You can attend the course live in Berkeley or by email. For more information or to sign up to be notified when registration is open, visit the
Awakening Joy web site.
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