If you wish to practice in the supportive environment of a retreat have a look at our events page.

If you would like to join a drop-in group on dependent origination or emptiness visit the drop-in group page.

If you've been on one of our retreats and would like a reminder of the practices we shared on the noticeboard head to our resources page.

To get right to a practice session read a guided meditation or listen to one right now.

Theory needs Practice and Practice reveals Theory

Theory and practice are dependent on each other. One of the wonderful aspects of Buddhism is that it does not hide its hand. There isn't a secret algorithm at work behind the scenes that nobody is going to share, or not until you're devout enough; it is a series of open secrets that open secrets. The theory is meant to be put into practice, and the practice is our way to try the theory and access the freedom within it.

Theory and practice also support each other. Understanding the theory behind a practice allows one to see that practice from more sides, and enter one’s experiences more effectively, allowing for deeper experiences, and further explorations. Putting a theory into practice enlivens the theory, shows it’s weaknesses and strengths, and both refines and attunes one’s understandings to a verifiable reality.

Exceptional

Some theorists and practitioners may feel that the dependency between theory and practice is questionable. Although one can have a practice that, to the practitioner, appears to lack any theory, or a theory that one does not, or even cannot, put into practice, these are only apparent exceptions.

A musician might say they "just play by ear"—no theory. But their playing follows patterns of harmony and rhythm that are theory in action, even if unspoken. Conversely, someone studying music theory without ever playing an instrument is still imagining practice through examples—their mind enacts theoretical "practice."

Any nonrandom activity is a practice, and every practice presupposes some underlying understanding of how the world works and how it can be acted upon; this underlying understanding is already a form of theory. A practice must have an intention or aim, and a way of proceeding toward that aim. Even if this is hidden from the consciousness of the practitioner, the way of proceeding is inseparable from, and revelatory of, the theory at work. Two common reasons it can appear hidden are: (1) it was never articulated by the teacher, and (2) the practitioner does not habitually reflect in those terms.

Conversely, a theory that has no conceivable form of practice is not only uninteresting as a point on a path, it is also incoherent. A theory must, at the very least, involve a possible mode of action or application; otherwise it cannot be meaningfully grasped or communicated by embodied beings.

Premise of Practice; to Train in a Theory

The best way of testing a theory, or of getting a better understanding of something is to put it into practice. Also the best way of having an alive and adaptable practice is to understand the theory behind it. The following pages are here to support a deep intentional practice rooted in dependent origination.

• Mindfulness of body depends on an embodied mind
• Vedana - going beyond reactivity