Wonder and the Meaning of Being: Buddhist and Existential Approaches

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Description

Both Buddhism and Existentialism ask important questions about what it means for us 'to be' in a world with others. Is our time spent on this earth, with all that we engage in, meaningful or meaningless, when so much of what we do is eroded by change, fear and insecurity? How do we manage to feel at home in a world that appears to be oblivious to our presence and does not offer us meaning readily?
Thinkers and practitioners in both Buddhist and existential traditions have offered responses to such questions based on a sense of 'wonder' at being in a world, with all that we encounter on a day-to-day basis, at all.

In this course we will examine Buddhist and existential approaches to life and the problem of finding meaning, through early Buddhist texts and the works of a number of existential thinkers (Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Camus, Sartre, Beauvoir and Merleau Ponty). The aim of the course is not to reduce Buddhism to a form of existentialism or vice versa, but to see how the thinking of both illuminates key approaches to living.

The course will consist of talks, periods of discussion and questions and answers sessions.

This weekend seminar, although standalone, is connected to the evening workshop which London Insight organises with John Peacock on 14 June 2024. For more information about this evening, please go here.

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Event Details

Additional Information:

  • Non-residential course - Accommodation must be booked independently by participants.
  • Lunch not included, daytime tea and coffee are.

Suitability:

Open to all - new and experienced practitioners alike.

Cost: 

  • The price includes a fee for the teacher, no additional dana will be requested. 
  • Full Payment required on booking (Deposits cannot be taken for weekend courses)
  • A limited number of Bursary places are available for this course.

Teacher: 


JOHN PEACOCK is both an academic and a Buddhist practitioner of nearly fifty years. Trained initially in the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition in India, he subsequently spent time in Sri Lanka studying Theravada. After doing a doctorate in philosophy, he taught Buddhist and Western philosophy and then Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol. He went on to be Associate Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, co-direct the Master of Studies programme in MBCT(Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy) at Oxford University, and teach Buddhist psychology on the same course.  John is now retired from academia and continues to teach meditation, as he has done for more than thirty-five years.

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