Monday Evening Meditation
2021-11-15 19:00 - 2021-12-20 21:00 (Australia/Melbourne) | Rigpa Melbourne

Leaning into Wisdom
2022-01-27 - 2022-01-30 | Rigpa Sydney, 158 Australia St, Newtown, NSW, 2042, Australia
A Retreat with Tibetan Buddhist teacher Khenpo Tsering Tashi
On the Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Wisdom and Le’u Dünma
Thursday 27 – Sunday 30 January 2022
For all students from beginners to experienced
Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and online

Inspiring a Revolution in Your Heart and Mind
2022-02-14 19:30 - 2022-03-14 21:30 | Rigpa Melbourne
Monday nights from 14 February 2022
In person at our Melbourne Centre. 803 Nicholson St, Carlton North
For registration contact: melbourne@rigpa.org.au
This course provides an introduction to meditation, and practical ways we can each cultivate the compassion that is already within us. It is based on the Buddha’s teachings on how our mind works, with simple, profound practices that have been practiced for generations in India and Tibet. Incorporating these practices into our lives brings us calm and peace, and enables us live a more meaningful, connected and fulfilling life.

Monday nights 6.30 to 8.30pm
Full-year course with several ongoing modules of varying length through the year.
You are welcome to join any or all of the modules.
Cost for non-members is $12 or $6 (conc)/session. Pay for the full module in the centre when each new module begins.

Book Group 2022 - In Centre
2022-04-12 19:15 - 2022-07-01 20:45 | Rigpa Melbourne
In Centre Book Group –Tuesday 12th April 7:15pm – 8:45pm at 803 Nicholson Street Carlton North
We will be discussing Chapters 5-9

This new translation of the Buddha’s most important, most studied teaching offers a radical new interpretation.
In The Other Shore: A New Translation of the Heart Sutra with Commentaries, Thich Nhat Hanh provides the new translation with commentaries based on his interpretation. Revealing the Buddha’s original intention and insight makes clear what it means to transcend duality and pairs of opposites, such as birth and death, and to touch the ultimate reality and the wisdom of non-discrimination. By helping to demystify the term emptiness, the Heart Sutra is made more accessible and understandable.

This is a very simple book of just 132 pages.
The content is profound, but there is not a lot of reading to do each month.
Cost for non subscribers is $60 & $45 to complete this text, or $20 & $15 per session.
We hope you will feel inspired to join us.

Easter Retreat
2022-04-15 09:00 - 2022-04-18 17:00 | Rigpa Melbourne
Easter Retreat

Led by Dr Ian Gawler and supported by other Rigpa Teachers and Instructors
Online, and in person in Sydney and Melbourne
We invite you to spend this Easter ‘bringing your mind home’ through the practice of shamatha in the supportive company of a community of meditators.
Join us at the Melbourne centre or online
April 15th to 18th, 9.00am until 5.00pm for:

Talks about the practice and benefits of meditation
Guided shamatha meditation practices
Time for contemplation
Break periods in supportive silence
Question and answer sessions where you can clarify your practice with teachers and experienced practitioners.

Tell your friends about this retreat, all are welcome

The event will be available online for those who are unable to get to a centre. If you aren’t able to join at a centre in your city and you are a Rigpa member, we strongly encourage you to meet together with others to practice together.
Register at:
https://registration.rigpa.org.au/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=926

Naturally at Ease with Dr Ian Gawler - Melbourne
2022-07-09 10:00 - 13:00 | Rigpa Melbourne
Natural at Ease
Mindfulness and Meditation with Dr Ian Gawler

Half Day Workshop : Saturday 9th of July 2022 10:00am-1:00pm.
Suitable for: both beginners and the more experienced
In person at our Melbourne Centre
803 Nicholson St Carlton North

Ian will present an overview of the Buddhist view of how the mind works, and practical meditation techniques to help you access your mind’s vast potential for happiness and wellbeing. Drawing on 40 years of meditation practice, Ian outlines techniques that have helped many people ameliorate stress, anxiety and burnout.
Ian says, Many people confirm that when they meditate, they feel so much more at ease, content, energized, focused and at peace, but when they go back to their everyday life they quickly get caught up in the busy-ness once more and lose it. This highly experiential session will focus upon how to bring the practice of mindfulness and meditation into your daily life so this calm, clear and peaceful mind can be with you always.
Suited to both beginners and the more experienced, we will meditate together and there will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Saturday Morning Meditation
2022-10-22 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-01-28 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-02-04 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-02-11 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-02-18 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-02-25 09:30 - 10:30 | Rigpa Melbourne
9.30 am to 10.30 am every Saturday until 25th February 2023. From March, Drop in Meditation will move to the new time of 5.30 pm to 6.30 pm Sunday evening.
All welcome – simple instructions provided. Suitable for beginners and experienced meditators.
You are welcome to join for a coffee afterwards at a local cafe.
Suggest donation $10 /$5 if concession.
Any enquiries? Email melbourne@rigpa.org.au

Inspiring a Revolution in your Heart and Mind
2022-10-24 18:30 - 20:30 | Rigpa Melbourne
Each Monday
Newcomers are welcome to join anytime.

In person at our Melbourne Centre: 803 Nicholson St, Carlton Nth

This course provides an introduction to meditation, and practical ways we can each cultivate the compassion that is already within us. It is based on the Buddha’s teachings on how our mind works, with simple, profound practices that have been practiced for generations in India and Tibet.

Incorporating these practices into our lives brings us calm and peace, and enables us live a more meaningful, connected and fulfilling life.

Full-year course with various foundation modules throughout the year.
You are welcome to join any or all of the modules.
For registration contact: melbourne@rigpa.org.au

Cultivating Compassion
2022-10-25 19:00 - 20:30 | Rigpa Melbourne
Cultivating Compassion through the Seven Points of Mind Training with Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche
A Practical Guide to Being Kind
Tuesday evenings, omitting the second Tuesday of each month
Held in-person only (not online) at the Melbourne Centre: 803 Nicholson St, Nth Carlton

A thousand years ago, a humble Tibetan monk, Geshe Chekhawa, summarised the Tibetan Buddhist guidelines for living a compassionate life into seven key points, known as the Seven Points of Mind training. For generations, his pithy slogans have laid the way for students to nurture their own compassionate nature and put it into action in everyday life.
In a world where acts of unkindness, large and small, can leave us in despair and feeling powerless these teachings offer a vital practical antidote.
Cultivating Compassion will present teachings on the Seven Points recently given by Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche
Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche is one of the outstanding meditation teachers of our time. She is known for her penetrating wisdom and humour, conveying the Buddhist teachings in a concise and lively manner, enriched with personal anecdotes, which are of particular relevance to the everyday life of the modern, fast-paced world.
This program assumes some familiarity with meditation and the Buddhist understanding of interdependence.

A cost is attached for non members, please speak to us: melbourne@rigpa.org.au

Online Bookgroup
2022-11-08 19:15 - 20:45, 2023-02-14 19:15 - 20:45
“Most of us yearn for a life free of fear, pain, insecurity, and doubt. We long for peace, for the ability to love and be loved openly and freely, and the confidence and clarity to meet the various challenges we face in our lives. Tsoknyi Rinpoche explains that such a life is not only possible: it’s our birthright.”
The Online Bookgroup, are currently reading Open Heart, Open Mind by Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Join us for lively discussion, contemplative listening and reflection.
This group meets via Zoom on the second Tuesday of each month.
If you would like to join the online bookgroup, contact melbourne@rigpa.org.au for more information.

Melbourne Film night
2022-11-26 18:00 - 21:00 | Rigpa Melbourne
This Film Night is a fundraiser for Melbourne. A regular event, our Film Night returns by popular demand.
Two movies for $16: The Lazy Lama and Pad Yatra. Two screenings: 26th November and 4th December.
At intermission, share in a supper of home-made cakes and chai.
There’s a door raffle too with first prize, a beautiful thangka.
Reserve your ticket/s by emailing gazroth@hotmail.com

The Lazy Lama
The short film shows Ringu Tulku* not only as a Buddhist master and teacher – it also offers a personal, humorous and honest insight into his family and working life. It shows Ringu Tulku preparing four students for a retreat which lasts three years, three months and three days, in Sikkim, North India. Spending time with the Lazy Lama gives the audience the opportunity to reflect on their own lives, and find ways to create more room for spirituality, meditation, empathy and the right kind of “laziness”.
*Ringu Tulku is teaching live at Rigpa’s National Retreat in January 2023.

Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey
Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey weaves ancient Buddhist spiritual traditions, global environmentalism and Tibetan and Himalayan culture into an award-winning documentary led by His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa. The movie gives unprecedented access into religious communities rarely seen on film.
An inspiring model of personal and collective responsibility for our planet. Shot by solar power by a Himalayan monk, Ngawang Sodpa.

A Spiritual Classic: A morning with Patrick Gaffney celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
2022-12-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Rigpa Melbourne
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is widely regarded as one of the most complete and authoritative presentations of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings. A manual for life and death and a source of sacred inspiration from the heart of the Tibetan tradition, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying provides a lucid and inspiring introduction to the practice of meditation, to the nature of mind, to karma and rebirth, to compassionate love and care for the dying, and to the trials and rewards of the spiritual path.
This year marks the 30th Anniversary since The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying was first published. Over three decades, it has touched and supported people from all walks of life. There were many who said it had transformed the death of a loved one or helped them at other critical moments in their lives. Some told of how they had read the book two or three times all the way through and still return to it at moments of crisis. In various places, medical and educational institutions adopted the book for their training courses and made use of its methods and practices.
Join Patrick Gaffney, co-editor of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, for a morning of reflection, discussion and meditation on the heart essence of the book and its profound long-lasting impact.

About Patrick Gaffney
Patrick Gaffney is a Buddhist teacher, writer and translator who has studied and worked with some of the most renowned masters of Tibet. Patrick met Sogyal Rinpoche at Cambridge University in the 1970s and spent the next 40 years studying closely with him and helping in the development of Rigpa. He is the co-editor of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and has edited a number of other books and translations, including two books by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Patrick now concentrates on sharing the Dharma in retreats and online courses. He has a particular interest in the teachings of Dzogchen and lojong, training the mind.

When: 3 December 2022
Time: 10.00am – 12.00 noon Australian Eastern Daylight Time

Where:
Melbourne: 803 Nicholson St Carlton North
Sydney: Rigpa Sydney 158 Australia St Newtown
Newcastle: Multifencing, Unit 18/26 Oakdale Rd, Gateshead
Brisbane: Unit 2, 19 Enoggera Terrace, Red Hill
… and online

https://registration.rigpa.org.au/SpiritualClassic

Book Group, in centre: 'Open Heart, Open Mind'
2022-12-13 19:15 - 20:45 | Rigpa Melbourne
Book Group
Open Heart, Open Mind is our new text starting 13 September 2022
In person at our Centre: 803 Nicholson St, Carlton Nth
7.15 – 8:45pm, every second Tuesday of the month (excluding November). Come along for a lively discussion.

Rinpoche is a powerful and eloquent link between the great yogi practitioners of old Tibet and our bewildering 21st century’
– from the foreword by Richard Gere
Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s story is an unusual one- as a rebellious young man, he fled a monastery to marry and raise a family, then returned to Nepal and has since become a preeminent Tibetan Buddhist teacher. As a married man raising two daughters, Tsoknyi Rinpoche has interesting views on how to balance a life dedicated to Buddhist practice with the demands of a husband and father. In addition, he has a keen interest in the ongoing dialogue between Eastern philosophy and Western research, especially in neuroscience. His writing reflects this awareness of the Western psyche while also imparting the earliest tenets of Buddhism.
Open Heart, Open Mind offers Rinpoche’s extraordinary history as an example of how to lead a compassionate life, regardless of status, tradition or circumstances. Accessible and relevant to every variety of reader, this is an illuminating guide from a man who truly is a bridge between ancient wisdom and the modern mind.
The Bookgroup fee for friends who want to join is $10/$15 per session.

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Daring Steps Retreat 14-21 January
2023-01-14 08:00 - 2023-01-21 17:00 | Rigpa Australia
Daring Steps: Walking the Path of the Buddha
A Retreat with Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
Ringu Tulku Rinpoche is renowned for his warm and humorous teaching style, and for his ability to transmit the most complicated teachings in a remarkably accessible way.
On this week-long retreat, Rinpoche will take us through the whole Buddhist path, from the simplest meditation practice to the vast view of our potential for complete enlightenment, touching on a dazzling range of teachings and techniques along the way.
Teaching directly in English and drawing on classic sacred texts, Rinpoche will share his personal understanding of each of the three yanas, the three traditional Buddhist paths, which can be encapsulated as peace, compassion and wisdom. He will reveal the vital role of each yana in the attainment of genuine realization, and show how the three yanas combined offer a complete, coherent, integral path. Rinpoche will show how, wherever we are on that path, whether we are just beginning or very experienced, we can use the wisdom embodied in the three yanas to meet the challenges we face in our lives.
Everyone is welcome to attend this retreat regardless of your faith background or experience.
When: Saturday 14 January 2023 – Saturday 21 January 2023
Where: Tuncurry Memorial Hall, 7 Point Rd, Tuncurry NSW

Early Bird Pricing (ends 5 December 2022):
Benefactor $795
Standard: $695
Concession: $485
Under 25: $108

Forster and Tuncurry has numerous accommodation options, including camping grounds, caravan parks, hotels, motels, holiday rentals and Airbnb rentals. Click here for some pointers to help you when looking for accommodation.

Peace, Compassion and the Natural World
2023-02-03 19:00 - 21:00
Peace, Compassion and the Natural World
What Buddhist thinking can offer in the face of ecological crisis
A Public Talk with Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
More than 2500 years ago, the Buddha pointed to the delicate balance between humankind and nature. Now, it is clear that ecological crisis cannot be solved by science alone. The challenges of climate change and environmental degradation demand personal, emotional, social, ethical and spiritual responses. In this public talk, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche will offer insights into how the Tibetan Buddhist teachings can inspire and support us to make the personal and wider changes needed to counter the threats to our precious planet.

About Ringu Tulku Rinpoche
Ringu Tulku Rinpoche was born in Kham Lingtsang, in Eastern Tibet, and was recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa as the incarnation of one of the tulkus of the Kagyüpa Ringu monastery. He studied with some of the most distinguished scholars of the Tibetan Nyingma and Kagyu traditions and received teachings from many outstanding masters, including Thrangu Rinpoche, Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and the Gyalwang Karmapa. In India, he is involved in environmental projects such as the Sowa Rigpa Institute whose aim is to preserve traditional medicinal herbs from Tibet. Rinpoche has participated in many international conferences on the links between Buddhism and science.

Date: Friday 3 February 2023
Time: 7.00-9.00pm
Where: Richmond Theatrette, 415 Church St, Richmond

Inspiring a Revolution in Your Heart and Mind, 2023
2023-02-06 18:30 - 20:30, 2023-02-13 18:30 - 20:30, 2023-02-20 18:30 - 20:30, 2023-02-27 18:30 - 20:30, 2023-03-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Rigpa Melbourne
This course takes participants on an experiential journey through The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, giving you a taste of its major themes and their practical implications. Suitable for people of any religion or of none, the course encourages you to reflect on the Buddhist teachings, to see what makes sense to you and to experiment with applying these teachings in your daily life.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is widely regarded as one of the most complete and authoritative presentations of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings. A manual for life and death and a source of sacred inspiration from the heart of the Tibetan tradition, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying provides a lucid and inspiring introduction to the practice of meditation, to the nature of mind, to karma and rebirth, and to the trials and rewards of the spiritual path.
The teachings, meditation and contemplations from this authentic tradition reveal how each of us can live a more meaningful, connected and fulfilling life.
Participants in this course will learn:

How to meditate, or deepen their understanding if already meditating
How an acceptance of impermanence can help us understand death and change our attitude towards life
How meditation can transform our perception, increase our confidence and fully connect us to the world around us
That mind is much more than just thoughts and emotions
How understanding the interdependency of all things and the principle of karma (that every action has an effect) gives us a logical basis for ethics and personal responsibility.

Each session consists of:

Video teachings from Tibetan and Western Buddhist masters, including Sogyal Rinpoche, Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Pema Chödrön and Sharon Salzberg.
Meditation practice
Time for contemplation
Group discussions and Q&A, offering each student the opportunity to explore the teachings and practices in an open supportive environment and to connect with a community of practitioners.

Dharma Discussion group
2023-02-08 19:00 - 20:15 | Rigpa Melbourne
This monthly group meets in person at the Rigpa Melbourne Centre on the second Wednesday of each month, 7.00 pm–8.15 pm and replaces the face-to-face book group.
Drawing on dharma readings and life experiences, the group comes together for a friendly and informal discussion about how the wisdom of the Buddhist teachings relate to everyday life. They are currently discussing the text Open Heart, Open Mind by Tsoknyi Rinpoche.
All welcome – no need to register ($15/$10 per session).
Contact melbourne@rigpa.org.au if you would like to get some reading ideas or if you have any questions.

Mind Training: Parting from the Four Attachments
2023-02-28 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-03-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Rigpa Melbourne
A study of teachings given by Sakya Trizin.
This is a profound introduction to Buddhist View and Wisdom, suitable for newcomers and seasoned practitioners alike.
8 weekly sessions, commencing 7 pm Tuesday 28th February and finishing Tuesday 18th April 2023.
Parting from the Four Attachments is a short teaching spoken by Manjushri to the Sakya patriarch Sachen Kunga Nyingpo:
If you are attached to this life, you are not a true spiritual practitioner.
If you are attached to samsara, you do not have renunciation.
If you are attached to your own self-interest, you have no bodhichitta.
If there is grasping, you do not have the View.
When he examined the truth of these words, Kunga Nyingpo understood that the entire practice of the path of the paramitas was condensed into training the mind in parting from these four attachments, and he attained a special conviction and insight into all the teachings of the Dharma.
Cost: $143 full/$95 concession Cost includes the text, $15 Sangha (for the text only)
Contact: melbourne@rigpa.org.au for more information.

Drop in Meditation, Sunday evening
2023-03-05 17:30 - 18:30 | Rigpa Melbourne
5.30 pm to 6.30 pm every Sunday evening. This meditation time slot replaces the Saturday morning practice.
All welcome – simple instructions provided. Suitable for beginners and experienced meditators.
Suggest donation $10 /$5 if concession.
Any enquiries? Email melbourne@rigpa.org.au
