by Brigitte Huber-Jordi, Herrliberg
Sitting in the middle of Europe in pre-spring Switzerland I am happy to share some information with you about the Bodhi College.
As you may know, BC – as an educational charity – is governed by a board of trustees. The Board presently consists of Richard Fernyhough (chair, GB), Gary Born (GB), Brigitte Huber-Jordi (CH), Gerit Stoecklmair (DK) and Sean Williams (GB).
From April 2017 until April 2018 Christina Feldman from the Core Faculty will sit with us on the Board, replacing Stephen Batchelor, who accompanied us through the first year putting in all his knowledge and enthusiasm, which is greatly appreciated.
Gerit Stoecklmair, being Austrian and living in Denmark, and myself from Zürich as the two “continental” members support each other in bringing in the peculiarity of multilingual Europe into discussions of different issues. I also stand for the group of Dharma practitioners fascinated with Stephen Batchelor’s secular Dharma Study Retreats in Swiss alpine Beatenberg for the last ten years. Being an mbsr-teacher myself I further represent the group of mbsr-, mbct-, msc-teachers that base their teaching efforts towards smoother and more flourishing living in this world on the secular applications of the Dharma that is taught at Bodhi College.
The last year the board worked towards a smooth launch of our organization consisting of the faculty, two directors, staff and the board – all inspired in their combined effort to promote a contemporary approach to early Buddhist teachings for a wide range of people. Working together, getting to know each other and see our courses fill with eager students is quite inspiring!
Although the college has been established in England – and offers many courses there now and in the future – as a European charity we are providing resident classes in different countries over Europe and will do more so in the near future.
In line with our goal to get closer to our continental clients we are happy to announce that our extended programs for 2018/19 (Committed Practitioner Program CPP, the second edition of the Mindfulness Teachers Development Program MTDP and the Secular Dharma Course) will to a greater extent take place on the continent.
Furthering this development into continental Europe is one of the challenges we dare at this stage. We consider looking for continental European volunteers and partners and will inform you about this in the near future.
And we are happy that Bodhi College is expanding its courses for the global community! Booking is open now for our first online course starting in September 2017 in collaboration with Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.