Bodhi College is a learning institution which offers the opportunity to explore the early teachings of the Buddha before they were coded into different traditions. Their emphasis is on how these teachings are useful in our modern day lives. Courses are led by down-to-earth teachers who are highly experienced, practical and approachable.
Tricycle and Bodhi College have partnered on the following online course offerings, which are available for study anytime, at your own pace.
Demystifying Nibbana
with Christina Feldman, John Peacock, and Jake Dartington
This possibility of awakening is rarely spoken about. Do we feel that nirvana (or nibbana) is inaccessible, that we're not worthy, that this is reserved for an elite few? We would like to unpack this word, nirvana. Is it merely on some distant horizon, or is it something possible for each of us?
This was the Buddha's message: that every human heart, if infused with sincerity, with dedication, with commitment, can come to the same liberating understandings that the Buddha came to.
The Five Spiritual Powers
with Jake Dartington, Christina Feldman, and Christoph Köck
Confidence, energy, mindfulness, collectedness, and wisdom: known as indriyas in the ancient texts, the five spiritual powers are qualities that shape our meditation and our lives.
This is a six-part online course exploring the five spiritual powers one-by-one, and understanding how they work together.
The Good Life
with Akincano Weber and John Peacock
You may have heard Buddhist ethics summarized as a list of precepts or as a precondition for deep meditation. But ethics is so much richer than that. It is an inquiry into how we live and what we live for.
This is an enlivening journey that also brings happiness, purpose, and solace with it. Seen in this way, the whole of the Buddhist path becomes an ethical project.
The Spiral to Freedom
with John Peacock and Akincano Weber
Around 16 Buddhist discourses describe a pattern of wholesome qualities that build upon each other. These qualities create a path that spirals upwards toward spiritual and psychological freedom. We call these discourses the spiral texts. They are not hidden but somehow Buddhist traditions have overlooked them.
The spiral to freedom is a progression that starts amidst the struggles, joys, and disappointments of everyday life. In fact, there are different entry points into the spiral that will suit different practitioners. Guided by Akincano Weber and John Peacock, two of the founding teachers of Bodhi College, this course is suitable for beginners and experienced meditators alike.
Dependent Arising
with Stephen Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock, and Akincano Weber
Dependent arising means that everything is conditioned by other factors. A flower needs the conditions of sunlight, soil, and water to grow. Or collectedness of mind may be conditioned by relaxation, as a meditative example. All things arise dependent on conditions. They don't appear out of nowhere. This is common sense but if we follow this teaching all the way the view becomes deeply profound.
Guided by the four founding teachers of Bodhi College, this course looks beyond dogmatic interpretations of dependent arising to unearth that which is of real value for our lives in the world today—including understanding how mental states arise and evolve, and how we can shift our mental processes in the direction of peace and happiness.
Reimagining the Eightfold Path
with Martine Batchelor, Stephen Batchelor, Jake Dartington and Christoph Köck.
The eightfold path is the Buddha's prescription for ending suffering. It outlines eight aspects of a contemplative life. Each aspect reinforces the others, creating a compound effect that elevates our meditation, ethical behavior, and wise understanding of life. This is the practice of appropriate view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and mental collectedness.
Led by Bodhi College faculty members Martine, Stephen, Jake, and Christoph, whose experience encompasses the forests of Thailand, Korean Sōn monasteries, Insight Meditation centers in the US and Europe, and teaching on MBCT courses. In this course, we look beyond fixed interpretations and understand what the practice of the eightfold path really might be in our world today.
The Four Noble Truths
with Stephen Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock, and Akincano Weber
Where does suffering come from? What is it that makes us happy? How can we live ethically in a way that supports personal and collective well-being?
Join Stephen Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock and Akincano Weber in an innovative and contemporary exploration of the earliest teachings of the Buddha.
The Seven Factors of Awakening
with Christina Feldman and Jaya Rudgard
The seven factors of awakening are mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, unification, and equanimity. It is the development and enjoyment of these deeply wholesome qualities that gives our hearts the strength to let go.
Many Buddhist teachings and practices focus on difficult states of mind such as anger, craving, or jealousy. Yet it's also extremely important to acknowledge and cultivate positive mental qualities, and there is no need to wait. We can start developing the awakening factors in this very moment.
Mindfulness: Its Origins, Purpose, and Transformational Power
with Stephen Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock, and Akincano Weber
It's easy to lose sight of what mindfulness actually is amid the hype and noise. This course offers clarity about what mindfulness is from four renowned teachers, each with their own viewpoints and expertise to share.
We invite you to explore the religious, philosophical, and psychological dimensions of mindfulness within the context of early Buddhism with Stephen Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock, and Akincano Weber.
Universal Empathy
with Chris Cullen and Christina Feldman
Cultivate four transformative qualities of the heart as pathways of insight and awakening. Kindness, appreciative joy, compassion, and equanimity enrich our lives and allow us to be flourishing, creative, dynamic people. Known in the Buddha's teaching as the brahma-viharas, these qualities also imbue us with the resiliency to meet life's challenges.
Join Christina Feldman and Chris Cullen for a deeply practical online course exploring the brahma-viharas as complete paths to the awakening of the heart.
Secular Dharma
with Stephen and Martine Batchelor
The Buddha's teachings—the dharma—arose in a very different world from the one we live in today. This pragmatic online course sets out an encompassing vision for understanding and practicing dharma in the contemporary world. At its heart is an easy acronym we can all learn to apply, ELSA: Embrace, Let go, See, and Act.
Join Stephen and Martine Batchelor as they clarify the core elements of Buddhist thought and meditation practice for the way we live today.
Knowing How It Feels: Creatively Engaging with Habits
with Martine Batchelor
What's the secret to changing our habits? The Buddha taught meditators to be mindful of "feeling tones." Now, the latest neuroscience is discovering that these sensations of pleasantness, unpleasantness, and neutrality play a pivotal role in conditioning our habitual reactions.
Join Martine Batchelor for an online course in which we develop mindfulness of feeling tones and find the freedom to creatively engage with our lives.