Meeting illness, loss, and death with awareness and care

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  • Jan 19

    Tuesday Jan 19, 2027 - Tuesday Feb 23, 2027

     (Start time Tue 18:00 GMT - End time Tue 20:30 GMT)
    Online
    Yuka Nakamura, Rebecca Crane
    The price includes a fee for the teachers, no additional dana will be requested. 
    Register
    Session information
    Sessions
    Session 1
    Tue 19 Jan 18:00 GMT - Tue 19 Jan 20:30 GMT
    Online
    Session 2
    Tue 26 Jan 18:00 GMT - Tue 26 Jan 20:30 GMT
    Online
    Session 3
    Tue 02 Feb 18:00 GMT - Tue 02 Feb 20:30 GMT
    Online
    Session 4
    Tue 09 Feb 18:00 GMT - Tue 09 Feb 20:30 GMT
    Online
    Session 5
    Tue 16 Feb 18:00 GMT - Tue 16 Feb 20:30 GMT
    Online
    Session 6
    Tue 23 Feb 18:00 GMT - Tue 23 Feb 20:30 GMT
    Online
Description

Price Options:

Basic rate: £139

Standard rate: £159

Supporter rate: £179

Theme:

Experiences of illness and death, and the losses connected with these, both in ourselves and in others, bring us face-to-face with the truth of dukkha - suffering and unsatisfactoriness. This universal life theme will touch us all at some point in our life span. We suddenly find our life turned upside down. We suffer from pain, grief, uncertainty, and feelings of helplessness.

In this course we aim to explore how our practice can serve and support us to meet these life challenges with mindfulness, wisdom, kindness and compassion. How can these experiences be an opportunity for growth and inner transformation? How can our practice support our preparation for illness and death? How can we skillfully step into the role of carer, if this is called for?

Buddhist teachings on death, loss and illness invite us to compassionately engage with these themes throughout our lifespan as a core aspect of our journey towards awakening. We will draw from perspectives offered by early Buddhist teachings and will explore how these inform and inspire our practice and lived experience.

The sessions will involve a mixture of talks from the teachers, guided practices, reflective space in small groups, and space for dialogue and questions in the whole group. There will be suggested readings and practices to engage with between sessions.

The course is a brief encounter with a big life theme. It is intended to offer a focused period of stimulation and inspiration on how our practice can serve us in this territory. We hope this offers encouragement and confidence in your ongoing journey with these lived realities.

We look forward to practicing with you!

Praise for our teachers: 

"The course was excellent in providing a space to hear and discuss difficult topics. The break out groups were invaluable and the teachings were very good.'" - from Meeting Illness course 2024 with Yuka Nakamura and Rebecca Crane.

"Thank you for organizing this course! This group felt/feels very special :)'"- from Meeting Illness course 2024 with Yuka Nakamura and Rebecca Crane

"This was a wonderful retreat with excellent teachers. It was a delight to be taught by teachers with such a depth of knowledge and experience and although I had been on retreats on this subject a few times previously, the way it was taught really landed with me in a deeper way." - from the Liberating the mind through the five spiritual powers in person retreat participant with Yuka Nakamura and Christina Feldman

"This course gave me both the mindfulness practice of a silent retreat in a beautiful atmosphere and the wonderful and very worthwhile and profound teachings from Yuka and other teachers." — Previous course participant

Event Details

Schedule: 

6 consecutive Tuesday evenings from 6.00-8.30pm UK time on January 19, 26 and February 2, 9, 16, 23.

Suitability:

Open to all - new and experienced practitioners alike.

Recordings:

  • Only talks and guided practices will be made available
  • Interactive elements will not be recorded
  • Recordings will be made available weekly

 Cost:

  • The price includes a fee for the teachers, no additional dana will be requested. 
  • Possibility to pay a basic, standard or supporter rate by selecting the option available on the registration form. 
  • If you are unable to afford the our basic course rate, please contact us here. We will make sure that no one is turned away because of lack of funds.

Teachers: 

YUKA NAKAMURA has practised Buddhist meditation in different traditions since 1993, has a PhD in Developmental Psychology and is a certified MBSR-teacher. Trained as a Buddhist meditation teacher by Fred von Allmen she teaches meditation at Beatenberg (Switzerland), Gaia House (UK), Insight Meditation Society (Barre, MA) and other places. Yuka offers MBSR-courses and MBI-trainings at the CFM Zentrum für Achtsamkeit (CH).

Professor REBECCA CRANE PhD is an experienced mindfulness teacher and has been personally exploring meditation for over 40 years. She is the former director of the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University and is a trustee for The Mindfulness Network. She has written Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Distinctive Features, co-authored Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy with People at Risk of Suicide, and co-edited Essential Resources for Mindfulness Teachers. She graduated from the Bodhi College Teacher Training in 2022.