NVC is the Legwork, Buddhism is the Heavy Lifting
NEW SERIES OF CLASSES – STARTING MAY 23, 2023
A new series of classes will combine Buddhist practice & study with nonviolent communication (NVC). Learn a more compassionate way to talk to people. The class will meet every other Tuesday, 4-5:30 pm MT, for five sessions, starting May 23, 2023. I would like to share traditional wisdom teachings, from both the Tibetan and Japanese Zen Buddhist world views, that I have studied and practiced for decades. These wisdom teachings are applicable to our daily modern lives, and will address your personal interests in spiritual development. They are based on the teachings in America of Zen Master Suzuki Roshi and Meditation Master Chogyam Trungpa.
One aspect of these classes is to track where NVC and Buddhist psychology fit together and can enhance each other in North American society. It has been said that to enjoy a sane and peaceful culture we need religion/spirituality, psychology and social science. We will explore how the strengths and relative weaknesses of both NVC and American Buddhism can be identified and used to support each other to meet healthy spiritual and social/relationship needs.
REGISTER FOR THE CLASS – CLICK HERE
FURTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT BUDDHISM AND NVC
Buddhism is a spiritual friend for our time. But what is Buddhism, what is spirituality, and who was Buddha? How can Buddhist spirituality help us beyond our learning and practice of NVC? And how can NVC help the traditional Buddhist practices of meditation and philosophical world view integrate into our American psychological world view and relationship problems.
The question What Is Spirituality? is an important one. Why do we want it? What is our motivation?
Maybe we are thinking we’d like to escape to some imagined higher realms by joining ourselves with meditation or yoga? Or perhaps a wise person can save us from our pain and suffering? All this thinking is good and normal. All beings seek happiness. We do feel oppressed and we do want and need relief. It’s a natural situation. But there’s more.
Actually, spirituality should not be viewed as something special. It is seemingly a natural thing and can be seen as our birthright. We are on this earth for a lifetime and we’d like to make that time meaningful. Many agree that our job in life is to understand why we suffer.
We can ask ourselves: What kind of life do you want to live…and what do you expect from “spirituality?”
BASIC STRUCTURE
A basic structure for the classes might be: meditation practice, dharma teachings, and personal reflection.
REGISTER FOR THE CLASS – CLICK HERE
The books I recommend for your general study are:
- Mindfulness In Action by Chogyam Trungpa
- Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
- Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa
- Nonviolent Communication – A Language of Life, by Marshall Rosenberg
FYI, you can read parts of each book on the Amazon sales page before purchasing. I especially recommend reading Chapter 2 “Discovering Our Capacity to Love” from the Mindfulness book before our first class. We will go an hour or 1-1/2 hr depending on how it goes.
BUDDHIST TOPICS
The Buddhist topics to be covered in the classes are:
- What is spirituality?
- Who was Buddha and what did he teach?
- What is a spiritual friend?
- How to meditate
- Why do we suffer?
- Shamatha/Vipashyana breath meditation and posture
- The Four Immeasurables
- Three marks of existence
- The Four Noble Truths
- Working with emotions in Buddhism
- Spiritual materialism and spiritual bypassing
- Spirituality, ego, and the sense of self
- Who gets enlightened?