photo of two young people with hands in anjali
BMC group photo 12/2018
BMC summer retreat at IMCN
Chris, Sayadaw, Mimmi
Chris and Rod
Latest News
BMC is now meeting on Tuesday mornings for a virtual group meditation from 8:00am to 8:45am ET. More information can be found here.
About
Boston Meditation Center (BMC) is a Buddhist sangha in the Insight tradition serving greater Boston and the East Coast. Emphasizing the development of wisdom and kindness through traditional practices made accessible and relevant to modern-day lives, BMC welcomes everyone who seeks greater freedom and happiness in their lives. Central to our vision is the belief that the path of awakening is attainable by all and should be available to all. Our guiding teacher is Chris Crotty.
We offer weekly meditation classes and dharma talks, as well as daylong and residential retreats.
Weekly Meditations
BMC currently meets every Thursday from 7:15pm to 8:45pm ET. Meetings typically begin with 20 to 30 minutes of guided meditation, followed by a dharma talk and discussion with our guiding teacher, Chris Crotty, or another teacher or facilitator.
Donations are gratefully accepted.
Though grounded in the Theravada tradition, we strive to expose our members to diverse approaches to the dharma by occasionally hosting teachers from other traditions, such as Tibetan or Zen Buddhism.
Next Day Program:
October - Deepening Our Practice: Teachings from the Lam Rim
A Four-Class Series with Wendy Garling
Description
October 6: Precious Human Life – We have attained the rare circumstances where we have met the teachings of the Dharma and have the opportunity to practice. In this session we’ll explore how to recognize and realize our human potential for spiritual growth, inspiring us to deeper practice.
October 13: Impermanence and Death – Caught up in worldly pleasures and distractions, we rarely reflect that our life is impermanent and inevitably will end. Mindfulness of death naturally lessens our attachments, helping us focus on Dharma as the ultimate benefit.
October 20: The Three Jewels of Refuge – Buddhists of all schools take refuge in the Three Jewels or Triple Gem of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. What does this mean? Texts provide some answers, but through discussion we’ll also share personal experiences and reflections.
October 27: Karma – All our actions create a result, whether good or bad, happiness or suffering. In Buddhist terms this is karma, the law of cause and effect. The Buddha taught that abandoning the negative actions of body, speech and mind, described as the ten non-virtues, is essential if not foundational to our spiritual growth.
When
Tuesdays, October 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2020
7:00pm to 8:15pm
Where
A Zoom link will be emailed before the program.
Cost
You may register for a single class or for the entire series.
Single class: (please email info@bostonmeditationcenter.org and let us know which date you would like to attend)
$15 Base
$20 Sustaining
$25 Contributing
All four classes:
$60 Base
$75 Sustaining
$90 Contributing
Paying at the highest level you can afford helps us make our programs available to as many people as possible. There is also an opportunity to offer additional dana (generosity) for the teacher at the end of the program.
Please let us know if finances are an obstacle. Scholarships are available for anyone experiencing financial hardships.
Teachers
Wendy Garling is a writer, mother, gardener, independent scholar, and authorized dharma teacher with a BA from Wellesley College and MA in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life (2016, Shambhala Publications), a groundbreaking new biography of the Buddha that relates his journey to awakening through the stories of Buddhism’s first women. Recently she has completed a biography of the Buddha’s adoptive mother, Mahaprajapati Gautami titled, The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: the Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati (2021, Shambhala), now available for pre-order. A Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, Wendy has studied with teachers of different schools and lineages, foremost her refuge lama His Holiness the 16th Karmapa (who gave her the name Karma Dhonden Lhamo), her kind root lama, the late Sera Je Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama whom she first met in India in 1979. Her dream is to bring back the stories of Buddhism’s first women, reawaken their voices, and ensure that they are not just remembered, but valorized as integral to the roots of Buddhism. Wendy lives in Concord, Massachusetts and can be reached at wendy.garling@yahoo.com.
Next Residential Retreat:
June 1-6, 2021: Spring Mettā Retreat
5-Night Residential Retreat with Sayadaw U Indaka, Chris Crotty, and May Myint Oo
Description
The practice of loving-kindness (mettā-bhāvana) includes sitting and walking meditation to cultivate a loving, friendly, and benevolent attitude towards all living beings. For over 2600 years, loving-kindness meditation has been practiced to ensure that good-will surpasses all forms of enmity and ill-will. The well-being of mettā is a natural support for the development of insight and wisdom.
In this unique retreat, participants will have the opportunity to be guided by
Burmese meditation master, the Venerable Sayadaw U Indaka, who is renowned in Burma as both a mettā and vipassanā teacher. He will be joined by Western teacher Chris Crotty and Burmese translator May Myint Oo.
This fifth annual retreat will take place at the beautiful and spacious Won Dharma Center in Claverack, NY, where nature will play an important and supportive role in our meditation practice. Beginners and experienced students welcomed and encouraged.
Teachers
Sayadaw U Indaka was born in 1952 in Upper Burma and ordained in 1972 at the famous Mahagandhayon Monastery in Amarapura, Burma. Starting in 1976 he practiced vipassana meditation in the Mahasi Meditation Center in Mandalay; some years later he went to the Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Center in Yangon, where he was commissioned to teach meditation. In 1996 he became the abbot of the newly established Chanmyay Myaing Meditation Center on the outskirts of Yangon. In 2009 he established a second center in the northern town of Pyin Oo Lwin, not far from Mandalay. Sayadaw U Indaka’s books on the practice of metta meditation and the factors of enlightenment have been translated into English and German.
Chris Crotty is a Buddhist teacher, pastoral counselor, and adjunct professor in alternative medicine. Practicing meditation since 1998, he has taken retreat with Burmese monastics Sayadaw U Inndaka and Sayadaw U Tejaniya, scholar-practitioner Bhikkhu Analayo, western monastics of the Zen and Thai Forest tradition, and senior western Vipassana teachers. Chris was authorized to teach Buddhadharma in 2015, and in 2016 was encouraged to teach vipassana and metta by Sayadaw U Inndaka.