Bodhi College Conversation Series

Price options:

1. Standard: £20

3. Supporter: £30  

Theme:

The Bodhi College Conversation Series is dedicated to the cultural translation of the Dharma into our present-day lives.

For this brand-new collection of online conversations, our teachers have turned to people who interest them personally. People whose work, experience or reflections they’d like to get to know better - people who they would like to know more from, discuss with, understand better. 

From nuns to philosophers, we will be joining together to converse with people from all walks of life and backgrounds, including art, literature, Buddhist studies, philosophy and psychotherapy.  

In these specially curated one-on-one conversations, our teachers will ask the questions that they would like to explore – as teachers, but also as ordinary people, living their own lives - discussing topics that overlap with Buddhist themes and values. 

Part lecture, part fire-side chat, our teacher will introduce the guest speaker and invite them to make a presentation, followed by questions from both the host and the audience.

We’re aiming to explore the learning and understanding that come from different fields of knowledge that often don’t reach the meditation hall. Building bridges between different fields of Buddhist practice and studies, and with other disciplines that have relevance to how we view forms of Buddhism and its practices. 

There truly will be something here to interest everyone, in these carefully selected, one-off conversations. 

Each conversation in the series will be completely self-contained, and you can join as many sessions as you would like to. 

Schedule & Topics: 

The series is ongoing. For now we have opened registrations for dates until the end of 2025. We will open registrations for 2026 once avaialable. Please note that each conversation will be held on different days at different times to suit the availability of the guest speaker. 

Please make sure to tick all the sessions you would like to attend when you register, it will not be possible to amend your booking once processed, unless you use a different email address. 

Please note that from 26th October 2025 2am European Summer Time (CEST) will change back to Winter time (CET). For time zone conversions to your local time, please feel free to use this link. 

Dates/Topics/Speakers: 

13 September 5pm CEST: Avoiding Meanness: Learning from Hungry Ghosts with Andy Rotman, hosted by Akincano Weber 

Hungry ghosts (preta) in Buddhist literature are great teachers. Having broken the law (dharma) in a previous life, they now suffer terrible consequences. And since they don’t want others to make the same mistakes, they speak passionately and honestly, hoping to convince others to follow the path of righteousness, rather than succumbing to self-righteousness. The goal is for all of us to avoid the terrible torments of the prison house that is the hungry ghost realm, where all food and drink turns into shit and piss. The cause of all this misery, according to Buddhist texts, is the cultivation of “meanness” (mātsarya), which makes people miserly, spiteful, and cruel, immoral and oblivious to their own delusions. To better understand this pathology, we will examine stories about hungry ghosts in Indian anthologies from the early centuries of the Common Era, like the Avadānaśataka (One Hundred Stories) and Divyāvadāna (Divine Stories), and their representations in art and philosophy.

9 October 7pm CEST: Mindfulness, Law, The Regulation or Right Use of Power, and/or Navigating Social Change with Rhonda McGee, hosted by Martine Batchelor

22 November 5pm CEST: Self and Other: Early Buddhist Pathways of Relational Presence with Bhikkhunī Dhammadinna, hosted by Martine Batchelor

Suitability:

Open to all - new and experienced practitioners alike.

Recordings:

No recordings will be provided for this series. 

 Cost:

• The price includes a fee for the guest speakers/teachers, no additional dana will be requested. 
• If you are unable to afford the our supported course rate, please contact us here. We will make sure that no one is turned away because of lack of funds

Teachers: 

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