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Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy The Conference on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy
2007 Conference on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy
“Embodying Nonduality”
Pre-conference workshops
Thursday, October 25th by Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
Time: 9 am - 5 pm
Six CE hours
Description
Luminous, all-pervasive spaciousness is the description of nondual awareness found in some Asian wisdom teachings, such as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmiri Shaivism and the Mahamudra and Dzog-chen teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. This workshop teaches a series of attunement exercises, called Realization Process, for directly experiencing this subtle dimension of consciousness. We will also explore the relationship between nondual realization, psychological and relational healing, and somatic transformation. In Realization Process, the openness of nondual realization is based on deep contact with the internal space of one's body. We therefore uncover a qualitative, authentic experience of ourselves as individuals at the same time as we transcend our individuality. When two people attune to nondual awareness together, they experience mutual transparency: a single expanse of awareness pervading them both as a unity. A pilot study at New York University Medical School showed that the Realization Process exercises reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
Bio
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D., has
developed and taught Realization Process throughout the United States and Europe, and at Esalen Institute since 1987. She has been a clinical
psychotherapist for twenty-five years, and is on the faculty of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and the State University of New York. She is the
author of The Subtle Self, The Enlightenment Process, Living
Intimately, The Empathic Ground: Intersubjectivity and
Nonduality in the Psychotherapeutic Process (SUNY Press, 2007) and
“Intersubjectivity and Nonduality in the Psychotherapeutic
Relationship” in Listening from the Heart of Silence (Paragon
House, 2007) and the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (2006).
by Rick Hanson, Ph.D. & Rick Mendius, M.D.
Six CE hours
Description
This workshop will use the latest brain science, informed by millennia of contemplative wisdom, to explore the nondual nature of subjective consciousness and objective brain activity. Participants will learn about and experience neurologically-informed methods for deepening their own contemplative practice. Major topics include: how the brain constructs suffering, the natural resting state of well-being, and the neuropsychology of one classic road map for meditative depth and samadhi (“steady the mind, quiet it, bring it to singleness, and concentrate it”). While we’ll draw upon the fertile common ground of neuroscience and contemplative practice, no background in either is necessary.
Bios Rick Hanson, Ph.D., a psychologist and teacher in the emerging field of contemplative neuroscience. A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA, Rick has taught inner skills to thousands of people since 1974. Founder of the Heartwood Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, he is also first author of Mother Nurture (Penguin, 2002), and first author (with Rick Mendius, M.D. and Christina Feldman) of a book in progress titled, Buddha’s Brain: The New Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. Rick sits on the Board of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, co-leads a regular meditation group, and with his wife, is raising a teenage daughter and son. Richard Mendius, M.D., is a neurologist practicing in the North Bay. His academic training was at UCLA in neurology, epilepsy, and neurobehavior. He has practiced in Los Angeles , Portland (Oregon), and the San Francisco Bay area, and has held academic appointments at UCLA, Stanford, and Oregon Health Sciences University. Raised Methodist, he passed through Quaker and Unitarian periods, and finally found his spiritual home in Theravadan Buddhism. He is raising three adopted children fellow travelers. Presently, he is trying to live in the interface of secular humanism, western neuroscience, and the dharma.
IV. Special Thursday and Friday
evening events
Thursday evening, October 25th 7:30 – 9:00 p.m. (Open to the public. No fee.)
“Book Event: Listening from the Heart of Silence: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, Volume 2”
with John J. Prendergast, Ph.D., G. Kenneth Bradford, Ph.D., Kaisa Puhakka, Ph.D., Dorothy Hunt, LCSW, Timothy Conway, Ph.D., Sheila Krystal, Ph.D., and Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
Description
Many of the contributing authors to Listening from the Heart of Silence will take a few minutes to discuss their chapters during the first hour and then take questions and sign books for the remainder of the evening. A great chance to meet the authors!
Special Event #2
Friday, October 26th, 7:30 – 9:00 p.m. (Open to the public. No fee.)
“The Path that self-destructs”
by Joel Morwood
Description
In one form or another, mystics of all traditions agree
that, as the Buddhists say, "Enlightenment is nothing that can be
attained by practicing." What then is the purpose of walking a spiritual
path with all its often arduous disciplines and practices? Based on his own
Gnostic Awakening, and twenty years subsequent experience as a spiritual
teacher, Joel will share his insights into the path's paradoxical
dynamics–how it first transforms and then destroys the one who travels
it.
V. Main Conference
“Awakening, Creativity, Compassion and Koans: Stepping through a Gate into a New Life.”
by John Tarrant, Ph.D.
Description
Is it really possible to step out of your old life and attitudes as if they were a suit of clothes and become someone new? Koans are used as can openers for the mind but they are not just technology for awakening, they also connect with the creative possibilities in the imagination and integrate spiritual awakening with work and love. Koans work by throwing beliefs overboard. One revelation is that the deepest capacity inside the human mind is compassion and empathy. There will be an experience with koans (Not your father’s way of using them) and a conversation as well as teachings.
Bio
John Tarrant, Roshi, is Director and Senior Faculty for Pacific Zen Institute and Senior Teacher for Desert Lotus Zen Sangha in Phoenix, AZ. He is the author of Bring Me the Rhinoceros & Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy, (Harmony Books) and The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul & the Spiritual Life (HarperCollins). He has a PhD in psychology and for many years practiced Jungian psychotherapy. He helped design and develop the consciousness component of the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. He teaches physicians at Duke Integrative Medicine and works with executives in health care systems and innovative organizations. John’s life work is centered on the transformation of consciousness and he is one of the foremost koan teachers in the United States. pacificzen.org
11:40 - 1:00 Lunch: Catered Vegetarian ($15. Pre-registration necessary) 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
“Wholeness Seeing Wholeness: Psychotherapy without problems or a problem-solver”
by Dorothy Hunt, LCSW
Description
From the perspective of Wholeness deeply awake to itself, both “problems” and the “problem-solver” are seen to be thoughts which dissolve in the Seeing; neither actually exists in the moment-to-moment flow of Life as it is. When there is no longer an argument with Reality, or separation from it, peace is inevitable. Anything and everything is seen to be both an expression of and an invitation to our true nature. Compassion and wisdom begin to flow spontaneously. What happens when Awakeness meets itself without division in the consulting room? When “symptoms” are no longer seen as problems but as ways Love is trying to return to wholeness whatever has been unloved, unmet, rejected, or asleep? What is the effect when Wholeness sees itself whole and unbroken in the functioning called psychotherapy? This presentation will include meditative inquiry and demonstrations with volunteers as well as verbal presentation and discussion.
Bio
Dorothy Hunt, LCSW, is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy and has practiced psychotherapy since 1967. She is also a spiritual teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti and serves as President and Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha. Dorothy is the author of Only This! and a contributing author to both The Sacred Mirror and Listening from the Heart of Silence.
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“Therapeutic Applications of Nondual Wisdom from the Perspective of Advaita Vedanta”
by Carol Whitfield, Ph.D.
Description
Advaita Vedanta is traditionally viewed as a teaching methodology for revealing the non-dual nature of reality and therefore the underlying oneness of the individual, God, and creation. Its vision is healing on many different levels, including one’s relationship with one’s mind, one’s relationship with others, and one’s understanding and relationship with God. Though the therapeutic container is not a forum for teaching, there are several Vedantic understandings that can be used in a therapy session to help the client. Therapeutic applications will include methods for 1) recognizing the Self, 2) experiencing the mind’s relationship to the Self , and 3) discovering the Self as the locus of the experience of happiness. We will also explore the issue of avoiding possible dual relationships, i.e. your client is not your student.
Bio
Carol Whitfield, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a Jungian orientation and a faculty member of the East-West Psychology department at CIIS where she teaches Advaita Vedanta and East-West Spiritual Counseling. During the 1970s, she studied Advaita Vedanta and Sanskrit with Swami Dayananda Saraswati. For the last 30 years, she has taught Vedanta extensively on both coasts and was one of the founders and the administrative manager of Sandeepany West, Institute for the Study of Vedanta and Sanskrit, located in Piercy, California, and later, of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Institute for the Study of Advaita Vedanta and Sanskrit, in Pennsylvania.
3:45 – 5:45 p.m.
“Rolling Back the Stone: Thomas Merton on Reawakening the Real Self through Contemplative Practice”
by Arthur Giacalone, Ph.D.
Description
In his work—The Inner Experience— Thomas Merton reminds us that contemplative life seeks to re-establish the heart as the center of our spiritual reality. Contemplative practices such as abiding wakefully in silence, stillness, and thoughtlessness, reveal the heart as a silent lamp, a vast and unimpeded openness of pristine awareness and compassion. To dwell consciously in the heart begins the seemingly interminable journey of self-discovery, traversing the layers of human conditioning and identification acquired over the arc of action and time. In his capacity as spiritual director, Merton elucidates the signs and experiences associated with the contemplative’s disidentification with the false self—a process that is integral to the mystic's path. The contemplative must come to wholly embrace a life of remembrance, purification and surrender before the stone that obstructs the entrance into the heart's deeper realities can be thrown open and our fully divinized human existence can be realized.
Bio
Arthur Giacalone, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice and the Director of the Institute of Contemplative Studies in Walnut Creek,CA. He is the former Chair of the Transpersonal Psychology program at JFK University and has been actively practicing and teaching contemplation, meditation, and the psychology of mysticism for over 19 years. The International Thomas Merton Society elected Dr. Giacalone a 2004-05 William Shannon Fellow for a documentary he is producing on Thomas Merton and contemplation entitled, Silent Lamp. Sunday, June 11th
Description
Integrative Restoration (iRest) is an adaptation of the tantric meditation practice of Yoga Nidra (yoga: awake as nondual presence; nidra; across all states) that leads to psychological, physical and spiritual healing. The aim of iRest is the release of self-destructive conditioning, and the embodiment of nondual Presence in daily life. Richard’s presentation guides you through the iRest protocol using lecture and experiential practice. You will learn iRest as an effective psychotherapeutic view that is integral to both professional and personal practice. Expect to be challenged and inspired to approach yourself, your clients and psychotherapy as a portal for embodying the healing nature of unconditioned awareness. iRest is currently being studied with such diverse populations as active duty soldiers suffering PTSD, the homeless, people with addictions, veterans, people with chronic pain, college students, and people with asthma.
Bio
Richard Miller, Ph.D. is a psychologist and teacher of nondualism. He is director of the Center of Timeless Being (www.nondual.com), co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapy and co-president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology. Richard authored Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga and “Welcoming All That Is,” in The Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy.
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“How does Stillness dance in the therapy office? Hakomi therapy and Nondual Wisdom”
by Marlies Cocheret, M.A., CHT
Description
Hakomi is a body centered psychotherapy method that invites the client into self-discovery. It is based upon the idea that much of our everyday suffering is unnecessary and is produced by beliefs that no longer serve us. Precise experiments are conducted with a client in a mindful state to evoke responses that may reveal or help access those inherent beliefs influencing the client’s unconscious habitual behavior. What the client is experiencing in each moment is the truest expression of who they are. We help bring the client into their direct experience and not into describing themselves. It is the invitation for therapists to trust and dance, instead of gathering information by trying to question, analyze or enter into conversation. To be with the client’s and one’s own vulnerability, one just doesn’t know how it will be. Like falling in love, there is this promise for fulfillment and yet one doesn’t know how it will unfold. We are stepping into Life as it really is, not as we conditioned it to be. Melting into the dance with our client and also allowing clear boundaries. No separation and being in the field of Stillness with the client is what brings Wholeness. This two hour presentation will include a talk, a demonstration of a therapy session and an in-depth experiential component for the audience.
Bio
Marlies Cocheret de la Morinière MA, CHT, is a certified Hakomi therapist, a spiritual teacher, and a counselor in private practice in Santa Cruz, CA. She works with individuals, couples and groups in USA, Canada and the Netherlands.
11:30 - 1:00 Lunch (Catered Vegetarian. $15. Pre-registration necessary)
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
“Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, Integral Psychology, and the Other Half of Nondualism”
by Brant Cortright, Ph.D.
Description
Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga and integral philosophy (purna advaita Vedanta) provide an evolutionary perspective on nondual systems that integrates the many streams of nonduality in Indian thought, including kevala advaita, vististadvaita, suddhadvaita, dvaitadvaita schools of nondualism. It also supplies an integrating framework for western psychology that has important implications for psychotherapy. This workshop/presentation is an overview of this and of the integral psychology that emerges from this perspective. Integral psychology is a transpersonal approach that integrates the major schools of depth therapy within the nondual context of integral yoga. It is an experiential therapy that emphasizes the evolutionary element within the human psyche.
Bio
Brant Cortright, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology, and Program Director, Integral Counseling Psychology program at CIIS. He is the author of Integral psychology: Yoga, growth, and opening the heart. Albany: SUNY Press (2007) and Psychotherapy and spirit: theory and practice in transpersonal psychotherapy. Albany: SUNY Press (revised 2001).
2:15 – 3:15 p.m.
“Nondual Awareness: Clearing Emotions, Language, and Relationships”
by Timothy Conway, Ph.D.
Description
After a preamble on being no-thing-like Awareness, therapists and clients discover in this presentation potent ways to nondually: 1) clear and release emotional energy in its three main modalities--bodily, visually, subvocally (thereby healing contraction and fragmentation); 2) clear up spiritually dysfunctional language (e.g., “it-that-there-then” language, allowing for empowering “truth language” about our Here-Now spiritual reality—“THIS”); 3) clear any dualistic projecting and reifying of the “other” in relationship (owning the Self HERE as the true Identity of the Friend/Beloved and melting relational alienation); 4) clear the expression of “personal self” within the transpersonal Self that I Am--Open, Boundless, Timeless, Changeless, Partless, Empty-Full Being-Awareness-Love (healing any tendencies toward either self-inflation or depersonalization). Attention is given to the role of the therapist in facilitating psycho-spiritual awakening.
Bio
Timothy Conway, Ph.D. in East-West Psychology, is an academic and spiritual teacher and author of Women of Power & Grace: Nine Astonishing, Inspiring Luminaries of Our Time, a forthcoming 2-volume India's Sages on nondual devotion/wisdom, a trilogy on Spirituality in the New Millennium, and a book of satsang talks. His website www.enlightened-spirituality.org is one of the Internet's richest sites on spirituality.
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"The Search for Authenticity: A Nondual and Existential Dialogue".
panel with
Ken Bradford, Ph.D., Kirk Schneider, Ph.D. and Kaisa Puhakka, Ph.D.
Description
Panel and contemplative conversation. Panel members will invoke, explicate and contrast the search for authenticity in its (dualistic) humanistic and (nondual) existential-contemplative senses. In this latter sense, the "work" of psychotherapy will be reconfigured as a "play" of unconditioned exchanges. Distinctions will be made between the therapeutic practices of mindfulness, including the intention to search for and discover congruent, bodily felt, ie. "authentic" meaning, and the more saturated, unconditional presence that allows for such "depth" meaningful discoveries. Authenticity is thus the capacity for knowing this or that about oneself (or others), the empty-open nature of human being which allows for understandings and misunderstandings to come and go, an unintentional presencing that is settled in unsettledness, the capability for awe. The bulk of the time will be spent in discussion between panelists and a contemplative Q&A with the audience, allowing for the play of unconditioned presence in the speech and silence of the exchanges.
Bios G. Kenneth Bradford, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in
private practice in Lafayette, CA, specializing in Existential-Contemplative
psychotherapy. An Adjunct Professor at John F. Kennedy University and CIIS,
Ken has been a practitioner in Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions for
over 30 years, and is professionally engaged in applying meditative
sensibilities to psychotherapy. His recent publications include, Listening
from the Heart of Silence: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, Vol. 2 (with
John J. Prendergast), and articles on. "Unconditioned Presence",
“Therapeutic Courage” and “Natural Resilience”.
Kaisa Puhakka, Ph.D., is professor of psychology and core faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Formerly Editor of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, she has taught at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and State University of West Georgia. Kaisa has an M.A. degree in comparative philosophy (with specialization in Hinduism and Buddhism) and she has been a practitioner of Buddhist meditation for 35 years. She is also a psychotherapist with 24 years of experience and currently has a small private practice in psychotherapy and supervision.
3:45 – 5:45 p.m.
“Vulnerability and Indestructibility: The Human Paradox”
by Jennifer Welwood, M.A., MFT
Description
As human beings, we have an ultimate nature that is
intrinsically vast, luminous, and indestructible, and a relative nature that
is intrinsically vulnerable. A true understanding of nonduality, in
which ultimate and relative reality are seen as distinct yet inseparable, can
allow us to recognize, include, and consciously inhabit both. Yet
nondual teachings can
Bio
5:45 - 6:00 Summary, Feedback and Networking Announcements (John Prendergast)
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