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| Date: January 23 & 24, 2010 Instructor: Andrew Olendzki Price: $299.00 + (5% GST) = $313.95 Overview: The Buddhist tradition offers a profound and sophisticated model of the mind and body, one that is of increasing interest to modern health care and human services professionals. This weekend offers a systematic introduction to the key elements of this classical model, highlighting the many ways it can inform contemporary approaches to the cessation of suffering. The weekend is intended to serve as a foundation upon which the clinical and advanced modules of the Mindfulness Meditation and Psychotherapy program are to be built. The first day focuses on theory, introducing the complex way experience is constructed each moment by the interdependent arising of sense spheres, aggregates, and elements into an on-flowing stream of consciousness. Detailed attention is also given to the unique Buddhist perspective on the creation of a sense of self, and on the dynamics of the underlying emotional tendencies contributing to suffering in its many manifestations. A coherent understanding of human well-being emerges from this model, along with specific guidelines of what transformations are required to experience a sustainable state of health and happiness. The second day deals entirely with the practical means of working with difficulties and guiding the mind away from affliction and toward more optimal ways of functioning. Topics covered include the fundamental role of ethics in manifesting health, the importance of intention as a tool for change, the practical methods of abandoning what is unhealthy and cultivating what is healthy, and a number of specific practices for effecting such transformation. Also included is a comprehensive review of the contribution mindfulness and other forms of meditation make to the process of healing, and an exploration of some of the more recent strategies for bringing these classical practices into the contemporary field of mental health. While primarily a series of lectures and discussions, both days also include short periods of meditation practice. No prior experience is necessary. Time: 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Location: Silver Circle: West Toronto Support Services - 80 Ward St., 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON M6H 4A6 |