Tuesday 10 July 2012

Training

Last week I did a week's intensive MBSR teacher training course. It was completely amazing, as well as intense and emotional and tiring. The course leader was superb and she took us through a whole series of guided meditations and mindful exercises, some of them incredibly simple, but just another way into being mindful in one's daily life. And the week away from the Ph.D did me the power of good, so that I felt really refreshed coming back to it this week, and the final bits of writing have gone really well. So from September I will be teaching MBSR courses in Yorkshire and from next year running retreats as well for people who want an extended practice of mindfulness. I can't wait!
Coming back to the course, I think the most interesting bits for me personally were mindful movements,   which were yoga type exercises and watching the reaction in the mind to what was happening in the body. There's a lovely question when you get to the point of feeling you can't continue holding a pose, is it the body or the mind that's saying no? I find that a really useful question because often it is the mind, the body can cope with more than the mind thinks. It reminds me of the analogy the Buddha used of 2 arrows. If one is hit by an arrow it hurts, but if one is hit in the same place by a second arrow the hurt is increased tenfold. The first arrow is pain, which exists as part of the human condition, but the second arrow is suffering, which is the attachments we place on top of the pain, the comments or judgements we make. As Thay says, pain exists but suffering is optional.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for your blog posts, I like them, too! As a blog-writer (very inconsistent one!) myself, I know how great it is to receive comments once in a while, just to know that someone is actually reading and benefiting. I enjoy your poems and entries, I practice in the PV tradition myself and find it wonderful that you can combine your practice and write about it, also academically. Have a great day! Maybe we meet one day, in PV or elsewhere, in another practice centre...

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    1. Thanks Barbara, great to hear from you. I hope we will meet somewhere one day! I have a great desire to visit the lay community Intersein one day, have you been? Thank you for your comments, it is good to hear the blog is appreciated. I have looked at yours as well, but my German is pretty rubbish!! A lotus for you :)

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  2. oh, btw, here is my blog, mostly in German though: www.asia-is-everywhere.de

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  3. I love the sound of yoga based mindful movements. I saw a TV programme once where they did an experiment that proved that the brain stops the body sooner than it needs to in order to prevent injury and preserve energy. They managed to block the signals from the brain and the body was able to continued for much longer, Horizon I think it was. :) Glad to hear the PhD is going well again and I look forward to attending one of your courses! :)

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