Category

Early Bird
(on or before 30 April 2025)

Regular
(from 1 May 2025)

Full Registration

HK$3,800 (US$487)

HK$4,750 (US$609)

Student Registration*

HK$2,550 (US$327)

HK$3,200 (US$410)

Full Day
Time: 09:00 – 16:00
Fee: HK$1,500 per person (US$193)

Half Day
Time: 09:00 – 12:00
Fee: HK$800 per person (US$103)

Schedule of activities:

The content of the workshop is about the integration of mindfulness and Buddhist psychology for physical, mental and social wellbeing. Teachings of mindfulness based on the Discourse on Mindfulness of Breathing, Manifestation-Only Psychology (Vijñapti-mātratā of the Yogacara school) and five essential mindfulness trainings (updated by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh) are shared  in the lecture and used in examples to illustrate their applications in cultivating peace and happiness in daily life.

Date: 30 June 2025 (Monday)
Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Fee: HK$1,800 per person (US$231)

Stephen Batchelor

STEPHEN BATCHELOR is a writer, translator, teacher and artist. Born in 1953, he was ordained as a Buddhist monk at the age of twenty-one and spent ten years training in the Tibetan Geluk and Korean Sŏn orders. Since disrobing he has been engaged in a critical exploration of Buddhism’s role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer.

From 1990 to 2019, he served as a guiding teacher at Gaia House meditation centre in Devon, England. Since 1992 he has been a contributing editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. From 1985 to 1996, he was the Buddhist chaplain at HMP Channings Wood in Devon. In 2015 he co-founded Bodhi College, a European educational project dedicated to the understanding and application of early Buddhism.

He is the author of the bestselling Buddhism without Beliefs (1997). Other books include Living with the Devil (2004), Confession of a Buddhist Atheist (2010), After Buddhism (2015), Secular Buddhism (2017), and The Art of Solitude (2020). His next book Buddha, Socrates and Us: Ethical Living in Uncertain Times will be published by Yale University Press in 2025. His books have been translated into ten languages. He lives in south-west France with his wife Martine.

Dr. Ayda Duroux

Ayda has a rich experience in paediatric intensive care and palliative care as a medical doctor at the University of Munich, Germany. The experiences in end-of-life care for children and adolescents brought her to practise mindfulness. After moving away from Germany, her interest in neuroscience and mindfulness led her to pursue a Masters in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy at Oxford University (Mst in MBCT). This sparked a deepening engagement with early Buddhism, Western philosophy and the wisdom traditions and their connections to science. Ayda is also a volunteer for Mind and Life Europe, an organisation that aims to bridge the wisdom of contemplative traditions and scientific inquiry.

After attending several retreats with Stephen Batchelor she participated in his workshop “Mindfulness Based Human Flourishing” in October 2022 out of which —with Stephen’s encouragement— she co-founded the international collaboration to build the MBEL (Mindfulness Based Ethical Living) curriculum.

Dr. Carmel Shalev

Carmel received a doctoral degree from Yale Law School (1989) and led an academic and public interest career in Israel and internationally, focusing on bioethics and human rights from birth to death. She is the author of two books in this field - Birth Power: The Case for Surrogacy (Yale University Press, 1989) and Health and Human Rights in Israeli Law (Ramot, Tel Aviv University Press, 2003) [in Hebrew]. She now teaches at Tel Aviv University – a course on end-of-life care.

After sitting a mindfulness silent retreat in the mid-'90s, she has been walking a path of secular Buddhism and she co-translated Stephen Batchelor's Buddhism Without Beliefs into Hebrew (2015). Her own most recent book is In Praise of Ageing – Awakening to Old Age with Wisdom and Compassion (Watkins UK, 2020).

Throughout the years, Carmel's main interest has been in the ethics of care and responsibility from a feminist and secular Buddhist perspective, and she contributes in writing to the Secular Buddhist Network (SBN). In 2022 she started working with SBN friends to develop an online course on Mindfulness Based Ethical Living (MBEL), which applies the skill of mindfulness to our actions in the world in daily life, based on the teachings of Stephen Batchelor.

Mindfulness-Based Ethical Living: A Practical workshop 
This workshop will explore the underlying principles and practices of Mindfulness-Based Ethical Living (MBEL), framed within the context of a “Cartography of Care.” Through a four-fold, phenomenological analysis of care, we will consider how mindfulness cannot be reduced to a single activity but, depending on context, can be seen as existential, therapeutic, contemplative or ethical in nature. Our time will be divided between talks, meditation, and discussion.  

Date: 30 June 2025 (Monday)
Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Fee: HK$300 per person (US$39)

About Tsz Shan Monastery
Tsz Shan Monastery, a significant project of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, is renowned as one of Hong Kong's hidden gems. With the great support of Mr. Li Ka Shing, the Monastery was officially opened to the public in 2015 and has since welcomed over two million visitors and practitioners from around the world. In addition to regular ritual ceremonies, the Monastery also offers mindfulness experiences to visitors such as water offering, sutra copying and forest therapy, providing ways for the general public to cultivate inner tranquillity and equanimity.

About Tsz Shan Institute
Tsz Shan Institute, the research and spiritual educational division of the Monastery, was established in 2016. Over the years, the institute endeavours to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and aims to provide systematic and comprehensive Dharma education to people of all ages and backgrounds. Tsz Shan Institute is dedicated to responding to the spiritual needs of society and promoting positive psychology and compassion through various courses, experiential programmes, retreats, youth empowerment initiatives, community outreach, and research projects.

Workshop Brief Outline
During our day of workshops, we are excited to offer a diverse range of experiences including but not limited to monastery tour, museum tour, water offering, sutra copying and forest therapy experience, etc. These practices create spaces for participants to learn more about the Dharma from various perspectives, reconnect to our inner peace, and foster a transformative and enlightening journey towards greater mindfulness and well-being.

Date: 30 June 2025 (Monday)
Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Fee: HK$1,500 per person (US$193)

Zen Master Dae Kwan studied Buddhism at the Kwok Kwong Buddhist College in Hong Kong in the 1970’s and ordained at Ajahn Chaa's International Forest Monastery in Thailand in 1981. She practiced in Chiangmai for a decade including two years of intensive solo retreat in Tu Boo Cave. As a Theravada nun she went to Korea in 1991 for the first time and met Zen Master Seung Sahn during a three-month winter kyol che. Thereafter she became his student and returned to Hong Kong to help establish the Hong Kong Zen Center (now Su Bong Zen Monastery). She received inka in 1995 and Dharma transmission in April 2001 from Zen Master Seung Sahn. Zen Master Dae Kwan is the abbess and guiding teacher of Su Bong Zen Monastery. She has published a number of books such as "The Noble Eightfold Path", "Teachings from Nature" and "Mind to Mind". Zen Master Dae Kwan has also translated several of Zen Master Seung Sahn's books into Chinese, including "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha", "Only Don't Know" and "The Whole World is a Single Flower".  

Mind Revolution: the ABCs of Zen
In this day-long workshop, Zen Master Dae Kwan will guide participants in the daily mindfulness practice of a Zen temple, including sitting, walking, chanting, and bowing meditation. She will also discuss and demonstrate how Su Bong Zen Monastery and the international Kwan Um School of Zen have preserved the rare, systematic practice of kong-an interviews.

During the Dharma talk session, Zen Master Dae Kwan will explain how she has distilled more than 30 years of teaching Zen Buddhism to a memorable ABC framework of Zen. She will also share her journey from 10 years in Chiangmai as a Theravada nun to a 3-month Zen retreat in Korea that has led her to founding of Su Bong Zen Monastery in Hong Kong.