We are delighted to welcome back Venerable Juewei to guide us through an 8 week series on "Wisdom" based on her recent research and encyclopedia entry.  Tomorrow she will ask us to consider "What If the Four Noble Truths are not problems to solve, but patterns to witness?" Suffering. Craving. Cessation. Path. But what if these aren't tasks to complete, but cycles to observe with care? What happens when we stop treating the First Noble Truth like a glitch—and start honouring it like a teacher? 

In preparation for our discussion, we warmly invite you to reflect on the following questions:
1. How do you get a goose out of a glass bottle without breaking the bottle or harming the goose? 
2. What may be trapping you in a “glass bottle” today? 

If you are new to our check-in session, please register via: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/upIpf-CtqTouE9ALQFonVkvJhjSkYrlgrqgj
If you have previously registered and saved the Zoom link, you may use it to enter the meeting.

What if the Four Noble Truths are not problems to solve, but patterns to witness?

We are delighted to have Venerable Juewei to guide us through an 8 week series on "Wisdom" based on her recent research and encyclopedia entry.  She will ask us to consider "“Are we really suffering or unwilling to listen to the messenger?” In a world trained to run from discomfort, Buddhist wisdom offers a radical invitation: don’t shoot the messenger. Suffering is a visitor with vital messages, shaped by personal wounds and systemic entanglements. Our experiences may invite us into a deeper, more relational way of meeting suffering. What if we could listen with curiosity instead of reacting with control?

In preparation for our discussion, we warmly invite you to reflect on the following questions:

1. What might my suffering be trying to teach me about myself, and about the systems I’m entangled in? Note that this question is not about how to get rid of suffering but what it wants me to hear. 

2. Can I trace the thread of a recent discomfort, such as fear, anxiety, shame, back to its systemic roots? Again, it is not about what may be wrong with me, but the wider conditions that this dis-ease carries. 

Are we really suffering or unwilling to listen to the messenger?

We are coming to the close of Venerable Juewei's first month in the Wisdom series. To round out the month, we are delighted to have Venerable guide us in a meditation together which will be at least a 30 minute session. The session will ask us to contemplate:

 "Is the Noble Eightfold Path a map or a mirror?"

Most people approach the Eightfold Path as a list of “right” things to strive for. But in this meditation session, we flip that. We slow down. We inhabit the path as subtle reflections of how we are already moving, choosing, relating. 

Due to some technical issues, Zoom will require a one-off re-registration for attendees after 18th July.  You can do so here and will receive a new link in your email to click to join the meeting. (If you have registered after 18th July, you can use the link you have received already rather than re-registering). 

Is the Noble Eightfold Path a map or a mirror?

Venerable Juewei will be commencing the second month in the Wisdom series. Venerable will guide us in exploring:

 “What If the Arhat Isn’t perfect but fully human?” 

We imagine awakening as transcendence, escape, flawlessness. But what if it’s the radical act of being this human, with nothing left to fix or flee? Could liberation be the full embrace of the ordinary? 

The questions she would like us to contemplate are:

1. What part of you hesitates at the idea of perfection? What part longs for it? Can we stay with that tension? 

2. Is the goal of practice more about personal liberation, or collective harmony? Or can those two be separated? 

Due to some technical issues, Zoom will require a one-off re-registration for attendees after 18th July.  You can do so here and will receive a new link in your email to click to join the meeting. (If you have registered after 18th July, you can use the link you have received already rather than re-registering). 

What if the Arhat isn't perfect but fully human?

Prajñāpāramitā is often translated as “perfection of wisdom” or “perfected wisdom.” But it does not behave like perfection. It breaks language. It dissolves the knower. It laughs at certainty. This is not the wisdom of mastery, but of surrender. What is the highest form of supreme wisdom? 

The questions she would like us to contemplate are:
1. What kinds of unseen assumptions, emotional currents, inherited urgencies, institutional culture etc. shape how you move, act, or try to help? 

2. Have you ever experienced a moment when slowing down—pausing, not knowing, letting go—opened up a deeper kind of clarity or care? 

What Kind of Wisdom Refuses to be Held?

When everything we cling to reveals its fluid nature, we panic. What if śūnyatā isn’t the void of despair, but the womb of possibility? What can we learn from what refuses to stay still?

The questions she would like us to contemplate and perhaps practise today are:
1. Take something that you believe is right and try to adopt its opposite for half a day. How did your perception shift? 

2. What could emerge in your life if you loosen the grip on your most cherished truths? 

Is Emptiness the end of meaning or the beginning of boundless creativity?

Freedom is not the end of the story. The bodhisattva turns back: not out of obligation, but from love. What happens when compassion calls us to remain in a world unravelling, rather than to escape it? What kind of strength says, “I will stay with you”?

1. A bodhisattva, in Buddhism, is someone who awakens to wisdom and compassion but chooses not to “leave the world.” Instead, they stay present with others, walking alongside them through suffering and joy. When you hear the word “bodhisattva,” what qualities or actions come to mind? Do you imagine heroic sacrifice, tireless service, or something else? 

2. In your current work or relationships, where might ‘staying present with others,’ be more softening our need to be right rather than trying to change the situation? What might that look like for you without adding to your exhaustion? 

What Moves a Bodhisattva?

Continuing in the vein of Venerable Juewei's wonderful wisdom series over the past 2 months, we are delighted to invite NTI alumni and our community friend Ben Campbell to facilitate the month of September. 

Ben has prepared a short activity for us and shared the following pre-session musings.

Last month, Venerable Juewei shared the story of the fish in water, which was a powerful story about how sometimes, the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. 

This week, we'll be invited to explore one of these areas -- our social class -- and the ways we relate to money and other resources. As an entry into this session, consider pondering the following questions: 
1. What is your relationship to money? 
2. How has your access to resources, financial or otherwise, impacted your journey? 

The Water we Swim in - Social Class

We are delighted to have Ben Campbell continue a thought provoking month of September Sunday Check-Ins.

Ben has prepared a short activity for us and shared the following pre-session musings.

Last month, Venerable Juewei shared the story of the fish in water, which was a powerful story about how sometimes, the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. 

This week, we'll be invited to explore one of these areas -- gender -- and how it shapes our experience in profound and sometimes subtle ways. As an entry into this session, consider pondering the following questions:
1. What is your relationship to your gender? 
2. How has your gender impacted your journey? 

The Water We Swim In - Gender

We are delighted to have Ben Campbell continue a thought provoking month of September Sunday Check-Ins.
Ben has prepared a short activity for us and shared the following pre-session musings.

Last month, Venerable Juewei shared the story of the fish in water, which was a powerful story about how sometimes, the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. 

This week, we'll be invited to explore one of these areas -- race and ethnicity -- and how it shapes our experience in profound and sometimes subtle ways. As an entry into this session, consider pondering the following questions:
1. How do you experience your racial or ethnic identity?
2. In what ways has race or ethnicity influenced your journey? 

The Water We Swim In - Race and Ethnicity

The Humanistic Buddhism Centre (HBC) is committed to the research and development of Humanistic Buddhism as well as community engagement.  The Centre identifies and undertakes innovative projects that contribute to the scholarly and teaching communities.  Besides facilitating inter-disciplinary research and course-ware development that contributes to the Nan Tien Institute’s teaching programs, the Centre also participates in outreach programmes such as podcasts, workshops, and exhibitions.  This podcast collection houses resources on Humanistic Buddhism that will be useful to students, educators and informed Buddhists.

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