Individual mentoring

In 2012 I was asked if I would consider offering my teaching over the internet. So here it is, you can receive teaching in the comfort of your own home.

The format that I now can offer to existing students or to new ones is as follows:

Through our initial contact by e-mail, I find out what you want or need to focus on, we then establish a contract covering the teaching period and costs.

I choose the relevant study material and write up a practice for you and give you some suggestions on how to explore.

During our contract period, you can contact me anytime via email and we will have a conversation over the phone once a month to discuss anything that came up as a result of your exploration.

If you are interested in receiving teaching on a one to one basis where you take on a certain amount of responsibility then contact me for further details.

On-line Dharma study course

The non-doing of any evil,
the performance of what's skillful,
the cleansing of one's own mind:
this is the teaching of the Awakened.

 

Skilful Living, a meditation course that gives you the opportunity to contemplate, to study and to put into practice the teachings of the Buddha at your own pace and in your own environment.

buddha head picThe course is strongly based on Mindfulness Meditation – Satipatthana and will cover all the main themes found in the teachings of the Buddha, like the cultivation of an appreciation of our human existence, the impermanence of all that we know, not-self, the attitude of loving kindness in our body, speech and mind, the four noble truths, to name a few.

There will be a special module dealing with the emotions.

This course is not an academic one, rather a Way or Skilful Means to living a life with less hurt and suffering for ourselves and others and to cultivating the good qualities that lead us to a fulfilling life.

The emphasis of the Skilful Living course will be on its application in your everyday life, in your relationships, in the activities and the environment you live in.

You are recommended to spend 30 mins per day for five days a week on the contemplation and study or meditation and to see and note how during the rest of the time it influences your everyday interactions.

The distant learning course is online and you will receive at one-month intervals some new material and plenty of suggestions on how to practise within your life as it is now. This is where we start.

The course can be completed within 14 months but allowing for the ups and downs of life you could take up to 1½ - 2 years.

During that time you will have unlimited access to Ad via email and a monthly conversation over the phone.

We divided the year into seven modules, spending about two months on each module.

 

The first module.
Laying the foundations: the Four Contemplations on the Precious Human Life, Death and Impermanence, Causes and Effects and Samsara.

Introduction of sitting and walking practice.

 

The second module.
The four Brahmas Viharas : Loving Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity

 

The third module.
The Four Noble Truths

"The Four Noble Truths" was the very first teaching of the Buddha and all his years of teaching were aimed at making us fully and deeply understand dukkha or suffering and  and how that leads to the practice and its final outcome of ease and peace in body and  in mind.
Over the first month we investigate the first and second truths, i.e. the Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha) and its causes.

For the second month we will cover: the 3rd and 4th truths, i.e. the cessation of dukkha and the Eightfold Path that leads to that cessation.

 

The fourth module.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness – Satipatthana.

Mindfulness of the body and of the feelings.

 

The fifth module.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness – Satipatthana.

Mindfulness of the mind and of the mind contents.

 

The sixth module.
Dealing with emotions. Applications to your life conditions.

 

The seventh module.
Returning to some specific aspect of the course as you wish to deepen your understanding.

Integration.

What students said about the course.

 

It has been very helpful and it resonates so well with where I wish to be in life at the moment.
Thank you so much for your guidance so far and the material is here with me as a great companion and guide. I start seeing all those words as a "homecoming" ...

The thank you so much for all the material and guidance you have provided over this past year. It has been a most inspiring and helpful.
I finally went back to the Buddhist teachings and practicing mindfulness, realising their importance that I would rather go without breakfast than go without meditation!

The attachment you sent recently in Working with Emotions was particularly reassuring to me, especially when saying it takes years of practice and 'the important thing is not to give up'.

I have had great benefit from the material you have sent over the year, some of which I am still catching up with. I have enjoyed your suggested reading, particularly Khandro Rinpoche and Thich Nhat Hanh. I hope I can visit the Orchard next year and take further steps towards enlightenment.

.... The course is beautiful, Ad - and so is your support. - Thank you for all your recent support and throughout the course. Your encouragement & suggestions have enriched the experience. 

To start with I want to say that the materials, the efforts of practicing meditation with some intermittence but a basic consistency, and of course the dialogues with you, have been very helpful and offered a sound structure and a transformative input! This course has brought me a sense of creativity to explore mindfulness more.

It has been very sustaining to be encouraged to focus more on the practice