Meditation-Based Clinical Interventions: Science, Practice, and Implementation Part I

Dialogue 13|Session 2

Meditation-Based Clinical Interventions: Science, Practice, and Implementation Part I

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Overview

How Buddhist meditative practices can inform our understanding of pain and suffering, the potential for healing, the relief of suffering, and the underlying nature of the human mind – and body.

Distinctions between pain and suffering are critical and relevant within the context of Buddhist thought and practice. This talk will map out a Buddhist perspective on suffering, its ultimate causes, the possibility of liberation from suffering, and a systematic path for its realization. It will touch on what Buddhists refer to as universal qual­ities of the human mind that are directly accessible through the cul­tivation of awareness through meditation.

Speakers

Ajahn Amaro

Ajahn Amaro is co-abbot of Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in northern California. He received a B.Sc. with Honours from London University in psychology & physiology. In 1977 he took up residence in a forest meditation monastery in the lineage of Ven. Ajahn Chah in Northeast Thailand. He returned to England to join Ven. Ajahn Sumedho at a newly founded forest monastery in Sussex. In 1983, he journeyed 830 miles on foot to a branch monastery in Northumberland. In 1985 he came to Amaravati Buddhist Centre and helped with teaching and administration for ten years, serving as vice-abbot for the last two years. He started coming to the USA in 1990, spending a few months each year teaching here. In 1996 Abhayagiri Monastery was opened. The main focus of his life is practicing as a forest monk, and teaching and training others in that same tradition. Since 1988 he has taken part in numerous conferences and seminars, including two in Dharamsala and one in California with the Dalai Lama and a group of Western Buddhist teachers. In 1994 in London he was also involved in a seminar, "The Good Heart", that the Dalai Lama led where he was giving commentaries on the Christian gospels.

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