The Principle of Mandala

Intro

The Principle of Mandala: From Mindful Compassion to Insight and Wisdom Aarhus – Denmark d. 1-2-3 november 2018 V. Choden (aka Sean Mc Govern) University of Aberdeen, Scotland

Beskrivelse

Workshop aims: Level: Intermediate and advanced: This workshop will explore how mindfulness and compassion transform our relationship to our inner world and the lives we live. We will work with the principle of the compassionate self that lies at the heart of Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT). Through inhabiting this innate capacity within ourselves, we learn to hold our own struggles and conflicts with compassion and wisdom, and this then helps us to hold the difficulties of others too. This takes us to the centre of our personal mandala. The principle of mandala derives from Tibetan Buddhism and is a model for navigating our inner world. Mandala is an energy system that is depicted as a circle with a centre and a periphery. Normally we are caught up on the periphery where the conflicting parts of our inner world fight it out with one another. When we align ourselves to the centre we find a place of calmness and integration, and we can begin to see the value and richness of the various parts of ourselves. This opens the door to insight: realising that none of these parts define who we are. We realise too that the different elements of our experience are shaped by our family and upbringing, by culture and social conditioning, and by the evolved nature of the human brain, with its in-built drives and emotions. None of this is personal, and none of this is our fault. Seeing this deeply connects us to the truth of interbeing: how we are intimately linked to the lives of others and to the environment we live in. This opens the door to the Buddhist truth of Emptiness. We see too that when we identify ourselves with the wisdom and compassion that lies at the centre of our being, this part of us was never damaged – it was always whole and complete despite whatever wounding and trauma we experienced in our lives. This workshop will integrate principles of Evolutionary Psychology found in Compassion Focused Therapy with Buddhist psychology. We will introduce mindfulness, selfcompassion and insight practices that become the basis for learning to inhabit our compassionate self and find the centre of our personal mandala. This opens the door to genuine compassion for ourselves and for others too, and it creates the conditions for insight into the interdependent nature of life, and how at our core we are whole and complete. 

Structure The workshop will be strongly experiential. We will draw on the wisdom and insights from Neuroscience, Psychology and Buddhism. There will be short presentations, guided practice and inquiry into how the practices impact on our experience. There will also be periods of sitting practice and instruction on how to apply these practises and insights in our daily lives. 

Course Leader Choden (aka Sean McGovern) will lead the workshop. He has co-written a book with Prof. Paul Gilbert, the founder of Compassion Focused Therapy, entitled ‘Mindful Compassion, using the power of mindfulness and compassion to transform our lives’ Robinson, London 2013. Choden leads Mindful Compassion workshops with Paul Gilbert in the UK and Europe. He is originally from South Africa where he trained and worked as a lawyer. He was a Buddhist monk for 7 years and undertook a three year, three month retreat in 1993. He is now involved in developing secular mindfulness and compassion programmes drawing upon the wisdom and methods of the Buddhist tradition, as well as contemporary insights from psychology and neuroscience. He is an honorary fellow of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and teaches on their Postgraduate Programme in Mindfulness (MSc) that is the first of its kind to include compassion in its curriculum. 

Praktisk if. tilmelding og kursus: Kursusudbyder og kursusansvarlig: • Camilla Grønlund, Act house psykologerne, Huset Blachsgaard, Vesterport 8 K, 8000 Aarhus C Workshoppens målgruppe: Workshoppen forudsætter et grundlæggende kendskab til Compassion Focused Therapi (Medfølelsesfokuseret terapi v. Paul Gilbert) og mindfulness tilgang, formål og praksis. Workshoppen henvender sig til fagpersoner, der arbejder indenfor det psykologiske/psykosociale felt og har klientkontakt (f.eks psykologer, læger, sygeplejersker, pædagoger, socialerådgivere, og psykoterapeuter, mindfulness/yoga instruktører).

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