The implementation of mindfulness-based training programs for school administrators and school leaders, classroom teachers and staff, and Pre-K to grade 12 students has grown rapidly during the past decade and a half. This lecture will present a brief history of the work in education, a summary of the state of the science, and thoughts about …
Continue reading “Master Lectures: School Systems, Educational Reform and Mindfulness Training”
This talk will describe attentional, emotional and physiological processes modified over the course of three months of full-time training in, and practice of, meditative quiescence (Shamatha) and beneficial aspirations for self and others (loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity). This multidisciplinary longitudinal, randomized wait-list controlled study is known as The Shamatha Project. Scientific measures …
This workshop will involve two methods of engaged contemplation in Islamic Sufism, consisting of silent and vocal forms of “remembrance” (dhikr). The ultimate purpose of these methods is to retrain the individual’s consciousness to respond — at each moment in one’s daily life — toward one’s consciousness and whatever appears in it, responding with an …
Continue reading “Engaged Contemplative Practice in Islamic Sufism: Silent Emphasis”
I was introduced to the dharma when I was already a rabbi and a student of Jewish prayer and sacred text. From the beginning, when I received instructions or wisdom teachings from the Buddha dharma, I found myself doing a simulcast into the language that I knew so well, Jewish prayer and Torah. Over the …
Continue reading “Practicing Meditation Through Sacred Texts and Prayers”
Although hospital chaplains play a critical role in delivering emotional and spiritual care to a broad range of both religious and non-religious patients, there is remarkably little research on the best-practices of chaplaincy training or “active ingredients” of chaplain spiritual consults. CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) is a secularized compassion meditation program that improves empathic accuracy …
Continue reading “CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) at the hospital bedside”
Mind and currents of sensation in the body are intimately linked. These morning classes will be an exploration of the interweaving threads of form, breathing, and gazing upon which yoga postures are strung together to produce a smooth, rhythmic flow of movement. Learning to release the palate and to follow the patterns of the breath …
Continue reading “Yoga with Mary Taylor and Richard Freeman”
The Jewish springtime festival of Passover is known as the time of liberation. It is incumbent upon every person to retell the Passover story as if they were actually present and experiencing their own liberation. We are invited to have a visceral and somatic recreation of the experience of moving from bondage to freedom. Families …
Continue reading “Liberation Through Memory and Storytelling”
A new industry is emerging before our eyes, as contemplative research grows and companies, consumers, insurers, and healthcare systems are integrating mindfulness and other meditation-related products and services at an expanding rate. Hear from leaders how the industry is emerging and how to build bridges between contemplative science, entrepreneurs, large companies, investors, and healthcare systems …
This workshop will involve two methods of engaged contemplation in Islamic Sufism, consisting of silent and vocal forms of “remembrance” (dhikr). The ultimate purpose of these methods is to retrain the individual’s consciousness to respond — at each moment in one’s daily life — toward one’s consciousness and whatever appears in it, responding with an …
Continue reading “Engaged Contemplative Practice in Islamic Sufism: Vocal Emphasis”
The Tibetan Sound Meditation is based on ancient texts and teachings from the Tibetan Bon Buddhist tradition as taught by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (Tibetan Sounds Healing, SoundsTrue, 2006). Parts of this practice have been used at MD Anderson dating back to 1999. In 2008, a small randomized clinical trial using the Tibetan Sound Meditation program …
