Noirin has been offering courses in Daily Life Dhamma at Satipanya for a number of years and now hopes to offer similar courses for those who attend IST meetings. We are planning a trial two-week course in April and, depending on how this goes, to have a 5-week course later in the year.

The April course courses will run on Fri 15th and 29th and will focus on the Hindrances. Noirin will prepare notes and suggested exercises for practicing with these both on and off the cushion. We’ll read and discuss the notes on 15th and on 29th we’ll discuss our practice with the hindrances over the intervening period.

People are asked to commit to coming for both weeks of the course, and to make time for daily meditation practice – even if this is only for ten minutes. Also people need to devote some time to reflect on the notes and see how the hindrances are manifesting in ordinary life and find the best ways of working with them. Making notes or keeping a diary can be very helpful here. Plan to devote an average of ten minutes a day for Dhamma reflection during the course.

Those who have taken part in these courses at Satipanya have found it helps vitalize their practice. Each moment of ordinary life can be a Dhamma teaching. Sharing experience with others is an important aspect of this – speaking about experience usually helps clarify it for ourselves. Also people learn from each other’s successes and pitfalls. Taking part in a course helps deepen the sense of Sangha – the human face of the Dhamma.

Think about whether you could commit to a course during the last two weeks of April.

If you have to miss a meeting, we can email you the notes. However, participating and sharing is an important part of the course – not only for yourself but also for the full group. It can be quite demoralising for a group if people are coming and going. So do make every effort to come.

Date and time: Friday, the 15th and 29th of April 2016, 19:30

Venue: Ranelagh, Dublin 6. See map and directions here. At the door press bell marked "Appletree Top". Please don't come too early as usually there is no one there to open the door until 19:20.

Noirin Sheahan

Noirin has been practising meditation under the guidance of Bhante Bodhidhamma for almost thirty years. Born in Dublin in 1954, she is now retired from her work in a Dublin hospital, originally as a medical physicist / engineer and more recently as meditation teacher. She has taught vipassana under the guidance of Bhante Bodhidhamma in Gaia House, Sunyata and other centres in Ireland, and is a senior teacher at Satipanya Buddhist Retreat, Wales.

In July 2013 Noirin underwent surgery for throat cancer in which she lost her voice box. She now has the distinction of being the first person to teach the Dhamma using an electro-larynx! Though this sounds mechanical, most people understand it well enough after a while. Noirin now prints her Dhamma talks and these are then read aloud by those attending evening classes / day retreats. For longer retreats, the Dhamma talks are pre-recorded by a friend. .

More info about Noirin is here: http://www.satipanya.org.uk/teacher/noirin-sheahan/