Friday Night Conversations
Class details
📆 When: One Friday each month, 7:30pm - 9pm
- CLASS RESUMES FRIDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER -
📍 Where: Jangchub Ling Centre
👨🏫 Teacher: Gen Kelsang Khechog
🎟️ £7.50 Book your place below
Exploring Buddhism Together
Our Friday Night Conversations offer a unique opportunity to hear about and discuss Buddhist perspectives on life and spirituality. The teacher reads from the books of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and together we explore their meaning. You can join in the conversation or just listen, it’s up to you. These evenings provide many enriching ‘penny drop’ insights which are hard to find on our own. We hope you can join us.
Questions?
Upcoming class topics
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The Buddhist teaching being explored is ‘Renunciation’
We spend much of our life trying to arrange the right circumstances and remove one problem after another. Yet even when one difficulty ends, another soon takes its place. Buddha taught that lasting freedom begins when we look beyond our immediate problems and understand their deeper causes. Join us to explore renunciation—not as rejecting life, but as the positive and peaceful determination to become genuinely free. -
The Buddhist teaching being explored is, ‘how to recognise and abandon self-grasping ignorance, the root of all suffering’.
When things go wrong, we naturally blame people, circumstances or the world around us. Buddha’s teachings invite us to look more deeply and identify an inner source of suffering: the mistaken way we grasp at ourself and everything around us. This self-grasping gives rise to attachment, anger and countless other problems. By learning to recognise and reduce it, we can begin to experience a freedom that changing our external circumstances alone can never provide. -
The Buddhist teaching being explored is, ‘How to enter into the path to liberation’
Wanting freedom is not enough—we also need a practical path that leads us there. Buddha condensed the path to liberation into three essential trainings: moral discipline, concentration and wisdom. Together they enable us to live more purely, overcome distraction and see beyond the mistaken appearances that keep us trapped in suffering. Join us to explore how these three trainings support one another and provide a complete, practical method for inner transformation. -
The Buddhist teaching being explored is, ‘How to meditate on the ultimate truth of cessation’
Most of the peace we experience is temporary: one problem subsides, circumstances improve, and for a while we can relax. But before long something else disturbs us. Buddha taught that we do not have to settle for temporary relief. By removing the inner causes of suffering, we can attain a permanent cessation of suffering known as nirvana. In this lecture we will explore what permanent peace really means—and why it is a realistic possibility for everyone.
SEPTEMBER BOOKING COMING SOON
Up no later than Sunday 16th August
Questions?
FIND ANSWERS HERE
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Our classes have three parts:
Guided meditation
Every class (except for ‘Friday Night Lectures’) includes a chance to practise meditation. No prior experience is necessary and all the meditations are guided.
Teaching
From Buddha’s teachings, these practical talks help us to solve our daily problems and find peace, happiness and, if we wish, a deeper purpose in our busy lives.
Discussion
A chance to discuss the topic of the talk and meditation with others during the break over refreshments. No one is ever ‘put on the spot’ and asked to talk in a class. The teacher will normally make time for questions, and will be happy to clarify any points during the class too.
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Yes. Courses cover a wide variety of topics from simple stress reduction to profound wisdom teachings, but are always taught in an accessible way such that everyone leaves with some practical insight they can use in daily life.
One exception to this is our monthly ‘Tantra’ class. Please see the Tantra class page for details.
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No. People from all backgrounds attend JLC to find peace according to their own individual needs and wishes. Everybody is welcome.
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No special clothing is needed. Our courses do not include any physical exercise and most people choose to sit on chairs, though cushions are also set out for those who prefer to sit on the floor.
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Other than removing shoes before going in to the meditation room (they can be worn as normal elsewhere) and turning phones off during session, there are no special rules to follow. People are always very pleasantly surprised with just how informal, welcoming and down to earth Jangchub Ling is; you’ll feel right at home in no time.
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Walk-ins are very welcome. You can pay on arrival (cash/card) or book online in advance. Block booking discounts are available.
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Centre members can access several of our classes online and we hope to offer online courses in the future too. Please see our ‘membership’ page for a list of online classes.