Buddhist Book Club

Online Buddhist Book Club - currently open for our Spring/Summer Season (starts in April 2025)

This is an online gathering that meets twice a month for anyone interested in reading books about Buddhism, Buddhist philosophy and how to live a better life. You do not need to identify as a Buddhist or belong to any particular organisation to join.

We gather twice monthly on the second and fourth Mondays of the month on Zoom from 7.30 - 9pm UK time.

We generally read a couple of chapters per session.

Each session starts with around 10 min of guided meditation, followed by facilitated discussion. The group is run a little like a sharing circle, so there are no interruptions when someone is talking, and we do not give advice, we just share from our own experience. There is no obligation to speak or share, if you do not feel comfortable. I will pepper our discussion with questions about your own experience, to help us dive deeper into the issues. I will also send out some notes from my own reading ahead of each session.

We are now OPEN for our Spring/Summer season which begins in April 2025. Fill in the contact form at the bottom of this page to join…

Dates for the Spring/Summer season:

We will gather twice monthly on the second and fourth Mondays of the month for 4 and a half months. We meet on Zoom from 7.30 - 9pm UK time. Sessions are never recorded, so attendance live is required.

The dates for this next round are:

Apr 14th & 28th

May 12th & 26th

Jun 9th & 23rd

July 7th & 21st

Aug 11th.

We generally read a couple of chapters for discussion in each meeting. This allows us to dive deep into the issues and how we might bring them into our practice.

Our Spring/Summer Book:

In our Spring/Summer Season (April - August 2025), we will read World as Lover, World as Self: 30th Anniversary Edition: Courage for Global Justice and Planetary Renewal by Joanna Macy.

This overview of Joanna Macy's innovative work combines deep ecology, general systems theory, and the Buddha's teachings on interdependent co-arising. A blueprint for social change, World as Lover, World as Self shows how we can reverse the destructive attitudes that threaten our world, with concrete suggestions on how to address "An Inconvenient Truth".

The essays are based on the Buddha's teachings of "Paticca samuppada" (interdependent co-arising). Reduced to deceptively simple terms this says that everything in the world- every object, feeling, emotion, and action is influenced by a huge, all-inclusive web of factors. Any change in the condition of any one thing in this web affects everything else by virtue of interconnectedness. It makes World as Lover World as Self a quintessential guide for those readers who want to integrate their Buddhist practice with concerns for social issues like global warming. It also breaches the dualities that have haunted much of both Eastern and Western thought, namely the dichotomies between mind/body, humanity/nature, reason/emotion, self/world, science/spirituality.

The premise is that self-centeredness, and modern individualisms are ultimately destructive for the environment. We are not individuals separate from the world. Instead we are always "co-arising" or co-creating the world, and we cannot escape the consequence of what we do to the environment. Joanna Macy presents a re-focusing on the beauty of the natural world as personally nourishing and replenishment as one way to move away from our self-centeredness. For this revised edition the author will be adding some chapters as well as removing others. The new ones will deal largely with her new work around the "Great Turning" that will add a somewhat more visionary, future-oriented, and strategic dimension to the book. World as Lover, World as Self shows us how to realize that the earth is an extension of ourselves and how to discover the knowledge, authority and courage to respond creatively to the crises of our time.

Practicalities

Cost

Buddhist Book Club is run on the Buddhist principle of dana which means generosity or mutual support.

Voluntary contributions are gratefully accepted by PayPal.

Suggested: a sign-up donation of £65 for the Spring/Summer season (covering all nine sessions).

If you are able, please make a donation that feels good to you. You are welcome to attend whether or not you are able to donate, and if you are in a secure financial position right now, please consider supplementing others in the community who cannot afford to donate.

I am open to donations up front or in installments, whatever works better for you.

Group Size

The group will be capped at 15 members. Please share if you know someone who might like to join.

Who This Group is For and General Group Culture

This group actively welcomes members with different spiritual / religious backgrounds (and none), sexualities, gender identities, races/ethnicities, and socioeconomic realities. The expectation is that we come together to share our experiences with the themes raised by each book in a supportive container, respecting and holding each other’s diverse experiences and opinions with mutual respect and kindness. I request that we do not offer unsolicited advice, we simply witness the individual expression of our experiences.

Commitment

To journey through each book together as a supportive cohort, please understand that you are signing up for all of the sessions in the current season, even if you are unable to attend all of them. The current season is 9 sessions.

Optional WhatsApp group

There will be an optional WhatsApp group for more sharing and community between sessions.

About Michelle

  • Michelle Teasdale (Yeshe Lhatso) (she/her)

    I have been on the Buddhist path for 15yrs, having experience in Zen, Western Buddhism and Tibetan lineages. I took my refuge vows (lay ordination) with Lama Tsultrim Allione. I also have a Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies.

    I am an avid reader, and experienced circle holder. It is my intention that my sound baths are a safer space for queers, trans folks, people of colour and those with neurodivergences. If there is anything you would like to know, or need from me to help you feel safe and better meet your needs in the session, as much as is possible, please get in touch.

How to join the Spring/Summer season

If you’d like to join our upcoming cohort, fill out the form below and I’ll aim to get back to you within a couple of working days. Please note that sign-ups will close on Friday 11th April, so be sure to get in touch before then if you’d like to join!