The Buddhist Society

Coming Home in Daily Life - online Sunday Morning Meditation
2025-07-06 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-07-13 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-07-20 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-08-03 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-08-10 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-08-17 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-08-24 10:00 - 11:30, 2025-09-07 10:00 - 11:30 (Europe/London) | Online
Meditation: Coming Home in Daily Life
Online Sunday Morning Meditation
Sundays at 10am (unless when there is a Zen Sunday which is usually the last Sunday of the month in term time)
10am on Zoom for 50 minutes
Join Zoom Meeting
https://thebuddhistsociety.zoom.us/j/86293056161
Meeting ID: 862 9305 6161
Dial by your location
0203 901 7895 United Kingdom
Introduction to the principles of meditation both in sitting practice and daily life. The session will consist of a 15 minute talk on a relevant aspect of Buddhist practice and 30 minutes of sitting meditation with an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the session.
Led by Debbie Sherlock, a Zen practitioner who has experience in both the monastic setting and lay life.

Introducing Buddhism
2025-07-07 18:30, 2025-07-14 18:30, 2025-07-21 18:30, 2025-07-28 18:30, 2025-08-04 18:30, 2025-08-11 18:30, 2025-08-18 18:30, 2025-08-25 18:30 and 2 more dates
Free 7 week course starting Monday 19th January 2026 at 6.30pm
Held at The Buddhist Society in person only
Next term’s Introducing Buddhism Course will be led by Roy Sutherwood and will be held in person only
Monday 19th January to 2nd March
Monday Evenings at 6.30pm
Each class runs for around 1 hour
This Course is Open to the Public, Free of Charge and there is No Need to Book
You can register to gain access to any extra course notes or ‘homework’ while the course is running
A Seven Week Course – IN PERSON ONLY
This course would be appropriate for anyone new to Buddhist meditation, or interested in giving a bit more context to their practise, or to anyone keen to refamiliarise themselves with the basic principles and practices of Buddhism.
The Buddhist Society’s ‘Introducing Buddhism’ course consists of seven consecutive talks designed to acquaint the newcomer with the basic fundamentals of Buddhism. Each talk is designed to give an introduction to the theory and practice of Buddhist teachings and how they relate to our everyday life and problems, in the modern world. Many experienced Buddhists have found these classes valuable in refreshing their understanding of the Dharma.
The Buddhist Society considers the Introducing Buddhism course to be of special importance as it forms the foundation for its structured programme. In this context, those who have attended this course are encouraged to continue their studies by attending the First Turning of the Wheel Course, The Great Way Course and the Gateway to the Vajrayana Course.
Those wishing to attend are asked to do so from the opening talk.
These classes are free and open to non-members but students are encouraged to join The Society as members to support our wonderful free classes and courses and donations are very welcome.
Subjects include:
Lesson 1. What is Buddhism? The Buddha’s life story – 19th January
Lesson 2. Three Signs of Being, Three Fires – 26th January
Lesson 3. Four Noble Truths – 2nd February
Lesson 4. Noble Eightfold Path – 9th February
Lesson 5. Wheel of Life, Karma & Re-birth – 16th February
Lesson 6. The Paramitas – 23rd February
Lesson 7. Meditation, Where to from here? – 2nd March
This course will be led by Roy Sutherwood, a former Director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London and a recognised foundation level teacher for the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Roy is a senior student of Geshe Tashi Tsering, currently Abbot of Sera Mey Monastic University, Karnataka, India and has studied under masters of Buddhist philosophy and meditation for many years. He also teaches on the Society’s Introduction to Buddhism course and on Mahayana Buddhist topics at the Society’s annual Summer School.
Frequently asked questions about Buddhism

Mahāyāna and the twofold plane structure of thought by Professor Frédéric Girard
2025-07-10 18:30 - 20:00 | The Buddhist Society, 58 Eccleston Square, London, SW1V 1PH, United Kingdom
Image credit

Tibetan Buddhism Class
2025-07-10 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-07-17 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-07-24 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-07-31 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-08-07 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-08-14 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-08-21 18:30 - 20:00, 2025-08-28 18:30 - 20:00 and 2 more dates | The Buddhist Society, 58 Eccleston Square, London, SW1V 1PH, United Kingdom
Students are asked to join The Buddhist Society as members if they wish to attend this class
Join here

Thursdays in term time at The Buddhist Society and online at 6.30pm UK
Join Zoom Meeting
https://thebuddhistsociety.zoom.us/j/268852436
Meeting ID: 268 852 436
This class is usually on a Thursday evening at 6.30pm.
This class is for members of The Buddhist Society
The class begins with a meditation, followed by the presentation and discussion of instructions and philosophical topics from a text. For this term, the text we will be following is: Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s ‘Luminous Clarity: A Commentary on Karma Chagme’s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.’

For Buddhists, Enlightenment is not some vague esoteric idea but a precise and attainable goal and success in the achievement of it, like success in any venture, depends upon following the steps laid out by those who have already attained it. These teachings will be presented, discussed and meditated upon in the traditional sequence, as methods for investigating and transforming one’s attitudes, developing positive qualities and striving to realise Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The meditation is on the nature of the mind. This is practised in all Buddhist traditions, including Theravada, Zen and particularly in Tibetan Mahamudra and Dzogchen.
The nature of mind has certain unique properties as an object of meditation. The mind is doing the meditation, and it meditates on its own nature, to the point of experiencing that nature like water poured into water. In other words, this is a special practice for achieving non-duality of subject and object.
In the meditation on the nature of mind in the Tibetan tradition presented in these classes, one first practices calm abiding meditation on the conventional nature of the mind. This means concentrating single-pointedly on clarity and awareness. It’s a bit like a mirror becoming self-conscious.
Based on that, one uses the stable mind thus developed, to develop insight into the ultimate nature of the mind, its lack of inherent existence, and thereby come to a much deeper experience of the groundlessness of one’s being. The mirror recognises its own emptiness.
There are methods taught for unifying these two stages of the meditation. This union of calm abiding and penetrative insight is the goal of the practices to be learned and engaged in during these classes. It finally leads to nirvana – the cessation of suffering and its causes.
This course will be led by Roy Sutherwood, a former Director of Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London and a recognised foundation level teacher for the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). Roy is a senior student of Geshe Tashi Tsering, currently Abbot of Sera Mey Monastic University, Karnataka, India and has studied under masters of Buddhist philosophy and meditation for many years. He also teaches on the Society’s Introduction to Buddhism course and on Mahayana Buddhist topics at the Society’s annual Summer School.

The exegesis of Dasheng qixinlun (Awakening of Faith in Mahayana) and apparented texts in China, (Korea) and Japan byPreofessor Frédéric Girard
2025-07-16 18:30 - 20:00 | The Buddhist Society, 58 Eccleston Square, London, SW1V 1PH, United Kingdom
