Looking Deeply is a 6-week follow on course from Be Calm Be Happy in which we will build on the learning from this foundation.
The benefits of Looking Deeply are to ground ourselves more fully in Thay’s teachings, giving deep, strong roots to our peace and contentment.
We can do this most beneficially as a Sangha, a group of people coming together to practise and support one another on the journey.
Looking Deeply develops the themes and learnings from Be Calm Be Happy and takes us deeper into Thay’s teachings, exploring topics of helping us to become more aware of our ’territory’, which is – body, feelings, mind, and consciousness. Together we will discover how to develop our mindfulness further into our experiences and life.
What to expect
The course is held online via zoom, enabling you to participate from wherever you are geographically based.
In each session we will
- meditate together
- consider a topic relating to the weekly theme
- undertake a short reflection exercise to help us look at how this is relevant to my life
- have time for feedback and discussion.
We will recommend meditations from the Plum Village App for you to use during the week. If you do not already use it, you can access it here https://plumvillage.app/
You will get most out of this course by making the time to regularly practise the meditations and reflecting on the weekly theme to deepen your mindfulness during the week between each session. The Plum Village App will be a very valuable resource to support your practices.
Themes for the sessions
- Arriving Home
- Mindfulness of the Body
- Mindfulness of Feelings
- Mindfulness of the Mind
- Impermanence
- Connectedness
Schedule for the Course
The course is held on Tuesday evenings, 7 – 9 pm 1st November concluding on 6th December.
Course Leaders
This course is led by two experienced practitioners in the Plum Village Tradition, Lauri Bower and Ian Sneath.
Lauri has been practising meditation for 30 years and met Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings in 2006, from which point she committed to putting mindfulness practice at the centre of her life. In 2008 she began researching a PhD on Thich Nhat Hanh and his teachings of mindfulness and Engaged Buddhism. With her PhD complete Lauri began teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) courses and is delighted to bring this experience to a course devoted to the Plum Village mindfulness tradition. Mindfulness has become a crucial aspect of Lauri’s life and she has experienced firsthand the healing and transformational aspects of this practice. Lauri has also been teaching mindfulness for 5 years and is continually inspired by the positive changes that it can bring. She has 15 years of experience running retreats.
Ian has recently returned from living in Plum Village for two years, this experience allowed him to immerse himself in Thay’s deep-wisdom mindfulness teachings
Ian discovered Thay 12 years ago after studying various mindfulness teachers. In 2014 he attended the 21-day retreat, “What happens when we are alive, what happens when we die?” led by Thay. This was a deeply powerful, healing, and transformative teaching that made Ian stop, look deeply, and realise that he had been on the wrong entrepreneurial path for most of his life. Mindfulness has given Ian so much benefit, helping every aspect of his life (ethics, health, relationships, compassion, insight, concentration, livelihood, peace, kindness, openness, etc) and his volition is now to dedicate his life to continuing to deepen his practice, to lead a happy and joyful life and to help bring Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings to others.
Who can attend?
Our expectation for this course is either that you have already attended a Be Calm Be Happy course or that you have considerable experience of practising in the Plum Village tradition with a Sangha, and have participated in other Plum Village UK retreats, courses, or events. It is suitable for those of all faiths and none. Our course participants come from a wide range of backgrounds.
Please note, this course is not suitable for beginners, and we recommend Be Calm Be Happy if you are looking for an introduction to the Plum Village practises, or a means of re-establishing a regular practice.
We recommend that everyone signing up for this course becomes a member of the Community of Interbeing (see our website at Join Us ).
